Rise of the Machines.
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CaptainBeowulf
- Posts: 498
- Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:35 am
Cell phones = star trek communicators is one that's often cited.
Heck, I would say smart phones, with their video camera/photo camera/email/text/phone/other apps all built into one are on the way to resembling tricorders.
Rockets since the 1960s have in many ways resembled the rocket-ships of science fiction from the 1940s and earlier. It's just that people became more generally aware that the spaces between star systems are very, very large.
Submarines = Jules Verne's 19th century sci-fi (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea)
Flat panel TV monitors are like the Starship Enterprise's big bridge viewscreen, especially the new 42+ inch wall mountable units
The list goes on... sometimes you just have to be patient. Eventually we'll have fusion too.
Heck, I would say smart phones, with their video camera/photo camera/email/text/phone/other apps all built into one are on the way to resembling tricorders.
Rockets since the 1960s have in many ways resembled the rocket-ships of science fiction from the 1940s and earlier. It's just that people became more generally aware that the spaces between star systems are very, very large.
Submarines = Jules Verne's 19th century sci-fi (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea)
Flat panel TV monitors are like the Starship Enterprise's big bridge viewscreen, especially the new 42+ inch wall mountable units
The list goes on... sometimes you just have to be patient. Eventually we'll have fusion too.
Translucent metal. "Invisibility" materials. Nanobots (e.g. Freitas). Bioregenerative techs. Cyborg prosthetics.
Nanofabbers, although that wasn't hard to see coming.
Indefinite lifespan probably.
The way things are going with miniaturization and brain/machine interface, telepathy probably won't be much longer a far fetched prospect. And preceding that'll probably be "telepathic" teleoperation; see how the name has already been revised to its actual technical implementation.
Suborbital point to point.
...
One of the few things that by far intrigue me the most is the idea that at some point we could make machine control second nature, like it's second nature nowadays to type something on a keyboard without thinking of moving fingers and striking each key.. Where the intent is for a character to be added on a screen, and for everything between that intent and the execution to be a bit like an extension of one's body. Of course the keyboard isn't such a good example because functionally it's not like our body, compared to e.g. a robot arm or a R/C car.
But even if those things are more intuitively relatable, things like keyboards are no different in that they are just as much tools for our intentions. What I think will be very interesting is seeing our brains have such accessibility to potentially so many things, and watching them grapple with command and control of these things, and consequently (imo probably) "grow" the wetware for it.
Whereas "simple" things like legs and grasping tools will be pretty familiar, more abstract things like keyboards should mean whole new "thoughts" in realizing proper command and control. And once keyboards are done away with, the interface will reach the real breadth and depth of this command "vocabulary": e.g. direct command of the complete toolbox for something like CAD software, and so on.
The same way it takes a rich growth for someone to have world class motorcontrol of their natural body, it ought to mean at least as rich a brain to interface and make second nature something as deep and wide as instructing a CAD package to sculpt e.g. something like a set of Baroque statues.
Nanofabbers, although that wasn't hard to see coming.
Indefinite lifespan probably.
The way things are going with miniaturization and brain/machine interface, telepathy probably won't be much longer a far fetched prospect. And preceding that'll probably be "telepathic" teleoperation; see how the name has already been revised to its actual technical implementation.
Suborbital point to point.
...
One of the few things that by far intrigue me the most is the idea that at some point we could make machine control second nature, like it's second nature nowadays to type something on a keyboard without thinking of moving fingers and striking each key.. Where the intent is for a character to be added on a screen, and for everything between that intent and the execution to be a bit like an extension of one's body. Of course the keyboard isn't such a good example because functionally it's not like our body, compared to e.g. a robot arm or a R/C car.
But even if those things are more intuitively relatable, things like keyboards are no different in that they are just as much tools for our intentions. What I think will be very interesting is seeing our brains have such accessibility to potentially so many things, and watching them grapple with command and control of these things, and consequently (imo probably) "grow" the wetware for it.
Whereas "simple" things like legs and grasping tools will be pretty familiar, more abstract things like keyboards should mean whole new "thoughts" in realizing proper command and control. And once keyboards are done away with, the interface will reach the real breadth and depth of this command "vocabulary": e.g. direct command of the complete toolbox for something like CAD software, and so on.
The same way it takes a rich growth for someone to have world class motorcontrol of their natural body, it ought to mean at least as rich a brain to interface and make second nature something as deep and wide as instructing a CAD package to sculpt e.g. something like a set of Baroque statues.
I think it is just a matter of the technological level of the object in respect to the actual level of the existing technology.Skipjack wrote:My sad experience with SciFi is that whenever something is depicted in a scifi story, it does not become true.
The more the distance between the two, the more difficult for us to see those ideas realized in our lifetime.
Than of course there are the one that will probably be never realized because impossible.
What I like of SciFi thought is the fact that it actually gives young people (and possible future researchers) an interest in scientific arguments and some ideas to think over and get excited with.
In this, I find SciFi very educational.
Not only science as some special method, but as just one set of ways (that's particularly effective) that Man can shape existence as he sees fit.
In technology that science enables, is the means to do things, to build and change and make things happen. In technology is the way out of mankind's endless fumble with society and politics. Anything kids like can be made better and more plentiful with science.
In technology that science enables, is the means to do things, to build and change and make things happen. In technology is the way out of mankind's endless fumble with society and politics. Anything kids like can be made better and more plentiful with science.
Of course Giorgio, smart people are hard to control. Stupid people are like cattle, they are easy to control and it is easy to make them do what you want. This is of course beneficial for those that hold the power.
That is why most dictatoric regimes will try to undermine the intellectual elite.
Hell, Hitler had no control over the jewish people and their schools and education and I am very sure that this was part why he wanted to get rid of them.
A friend of mine wrote an article about the "Verhausschweinlichung des Menschen", how modern day politics and public culture try to shape people into housepigs. Dont go outside, consume, watch TV, believe what the media says, up to the extremes that never leave their house, shit their diapers, have food on wheels and a nurse come take care of them, the real human pigs. Ready to be sloughtered by the politicians...
Unfortunately, these people are allowed to vote.
That is why most dictatoric regimes will try to undermine the intellectual elite.
Hell, Hitler had no control over the jewish people and their schools and education and I am very sure that this was part why he wanted to get rid of them.
A friend of mine wrote an article about the "Verhausschweinlichung des Menschen", how modern day politics and public culture try to shape people into housepigs. Dont go outside, consume, watch TV, believe what the media says, up to the extremes that never leave their house, shit their diapers, have food on wheels and a nurse come take care of them, the real human pigs. Ready to be sloughtered by the politicians...
Unfortunately, these people are allowed to vote.
Here in Austria, our socialists and greens had the voting age lowered to 16. For anybody with a little bit of an IQ, it was easy to see through why they believed that this would improve their results.
Younger people are more gullible by promises of supposedly well meaning ideals such as these two are putting on ther flags. BUT... so far it has not worked out for them at all. Though I am still a little worried.
Younger people are more gullible by promises of supposedly well meaning ideals such as these two are putting on ther flags. BUT... so far it has not worked out for them at all. Though I am still a little worried.
I wasn't aware of this law. Indeed is scary when politicians start to twist rules just for the aim of getting a political benefit. Very scary.....Skipjack wrote:Here in Austria, our socialists and greens had the voting age lowered to 16. For anybody with a little bit of an IQ, it was easy to see through why they believed that this would improve their results.
Younger people are more gullible by promises of supposedly well meaning ideals such as these two are putting on ther flags. BUT... so far it has not worked out for them at all. Though I am still a little worried.
True, this is why I hope that sooner or later we can reach energetic independence at personal level. I see that as one of the very few factors that can oblige governments to actually change and evolve.Betruger wrote:Few things as "scary" as self-sufficiency. It means that person can hardly be taken advantage of.Giorgio wrote:I guess that smart people do scare society and politics.
Just imagine the changes that might happen if in a short time-frame a good chunk of the population suddenly becomes energy and food independent from the main government.
I hope to live enough to see that come true!
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I wasn't aware of this law. Indeed is scary when politicians start to twist rules just for the aim of getting a political benefit. Very scary.....They tried that trick here too.Skipjack wrote:They are also pushing for foreigners having the right to vote out of the same reasons. They would vote for these two parties mostly, or so they believe.
If you were a foreigner and living in Italy from at least 5 years you could have had the right to vote. No citizenship was required.
Public opinion got nervous and it was rejected in the end.
Looks like stupid politicians are an universal disease.