I don't mean to be smug in saying this but I really and truly and honestly feel lucky to be old enough to have grown up in a way that has been more natural and less run by electronics. When I was a kid, we sneaked off and played in the creek near my house or broke into the greenhouses at the end of the block to look for frogs and maybe pick a sunflower or two. When I was old enough to get out on my own I had a key for my apartment and one for my car (which only ran about half the time anyway), my billfold that had a social security card and a driver's license and what ever few dollars and change I had. No cell phone, no credit card (what was a credit card?) maybe a checkbook (whcih hardly had any money in it anyway). If I ran out of smokes, I bummed one. If I ran out of change for the bus I either hitched a ride, hung on to the back of the street car until I got booted off, jumped on through the rear door or walked. When I became a bit more mature, I still had no cell phone and didn't need one because pay phones were everywhere. Those were good times.
Now we have all this shit to keep track of, more expenses for communications than ever, more "need" to know every fucking thing going on all the time (yes, I'm here on the internet too so I'm guilty of that), all this surveillance, all these gadgets, all these microwaves doing god knows what to life on planet earth, and a new gadget every other month.
When this all breaks down (and it will) we will suffer for a time but eventually will be better off, happier (depression is rampant in the age of electronics) and stronger and more skilled again. It will be good times again!
It's not smug. We Straddle that line for sure. But so did people between the horse/carriage and car. Electricity and no electricity.
Soon it will be Taipei to London via space in 2 hours.
Things change and things we can't yet imagine.
Or the apocalypse...
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,732
I don't mean to be smug in saying this but I really and truly and honestly feel lucky to be old enough to have grown up in a way that has been more natural and less run by electronics. When I was a kid, we sneaked off and played in the creek near my house or broke into the greenhouses at the end of the block to look for frogs and maybe pick a sunflower or two. When I was old enough to get out on my own I had a key for my apartment and one for my car (which only ran about half the time anyway), my billfold that had a social security card and a driver's license and what ever few dollars and change I had. No cell phone, no credit card (what was a credit card?) maybe a checkbook (whcih hardly had any money in it anyway). If I ran out of smokes, I bummed one. If I ran out of change for the bus I either hitched a ride, hung on to the back of the street car until I got booted off, jumped on through the rear door or walked. When I became a bit more mature, I still had no cell phone and didn't need one because pay phones were everywhere. Those were good times.
Now we have all this shit to keep track of, more expenses for communications than ever, more "need" to know every fucking thing going on all the time (yes, I'm here on the internet too so I'm guilty of that), all this surveillance, all these gadgets, all these microwaves doing god knows what to life on planet earth, and a new gadget every other month.
When this all breaks down (and it will) we will suffer for a time but eventually will be better off, happier (depression is rampant in the age of electronics) and stronger and more skilled again. It will be good times again!
I am glad I won't be around (or will be really old) when technological truly takes over. The world sucks more and more every day.
I wonder about that- technology taking over. Much as it sounds like science fiction, artificial intelligence is something a lot of people desire with the assumption that it would be a great thing to have. But would it be great, and how so? Would it really benefit humans and other life on the planet? How can we know these things for certain?
Just yesterday, NY Times published this article...
...in which the author seems to yearn for AI without even addressing these questions. His approach is even mildly desperate as seen in this quote:
"I fear, however, that neither of our two current approaches to funding
A.I. research — small research labs in the academy and significantly
larger labs in private industry — is poised to succeed."
Blind acceptance and desire for technological change, in my view anyway, is sheer foolishness.
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
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Soon it will be Taipei to London via space in 2 hours.
Things change and things we can't yet imagine.
Or the apocalypse...
Just yesterday, NY Times published this article...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/29/opinion/sunday/artificial-intelligence-is-stuck-heres-how-to-move-it-forward.html
...in which the author seems to yearn for AI without even addressing these questions. His approach is even mildly desperate as seen in this quote:
"I fear, however, that neither of our two current approaches to funding A.I. research — small research labs in the academy and significantly larger labs in private industry — is poised to succeed."
Blind acceptance and desire for technological change, in my view anyway, is sheer foolishness.