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The future was explained to me today. by JohnnyG on 2003-10-15 21:58:45
A professor at the University here in Austin gave a talk at company HQ today. I was quite impressed. His Phd from MIT in solid state physics was impressive but he had acquired one more from UT in philosophy. The one from Austin was specific. It regarded technological advancement in it's thesis to add to the body of worldly philosophical knowledge. Most inspiring was his talk. I observe so many speakers in a years time at mandated gatherings inside our temple to power point fuckhead yuk yuks that this one actually caused me to stop and contemplate. I continue to think about the future and what this brilliant man said and am doing so at this very moment. What did he say that got me typing? ( typing is a fundamental skill that I learned in high school and even though my secretarial helper has stated that voice activated typing is improving I still believe that my fingers will always move quicker than my dendritic connections will ever relay the message conveyed to my voice box and then to the screen (can anybody else relate?) that I chuckle and now continue to type with nimble fingers) Professor Anderson said this "The advancement of the microprocessor will not cease as long as man is free to choose efficient paths to his world of lesiure unbounded by an outdated paradigm of the division of labor". "Robotics will be such an integral part of human activity in 2020 that the service sector of all advanced societies will represent a 75% contributor to GNP/GDP". "The human condition will improve significantly when accuracy in diagnosois of all societal ills is redundantly solved for in all facets of life by computerized logicians". I asked at this point and really just for a laugh "What about a "Terminator" scenario in which the "machines" find human beings to be rdundant and an obstacle to perfection?" He Said "Where do machines, as we might define them currently, receive their power?" I said "An outlet in the wall" Quite a bit of laughter was heard and then Anderson says, "Yes, absolutely but also consider the programmer and his ability to influence the 'fuzzy logic' moral choices of the 'machine' and you will realize that the machine will be the most obedient 'slave' a human civilization has ever known!!". I inferred from this that we are all still slaves to the corporation/government/firm/household and that the future will bring a lightening of the load of all these influencing factors to some degree and that will be a good thing. Will there be problems? Of course. We will work them out as we humans do in our self-interest. Please discuss this topic if you like. I'm excited about the future but you must understand that I'm a natural born optimist.
Comments:
| Re: The future was explained to me today. by tommie on 2003-10-16 08:06:35 | Reply to this | |
| I dunno, Johnny; I surely hope that the optimist in you is right. That statement "The human condition will improve significantly when accuracy in diagnosois of all societal ills is redundantly solved for all facets of life by computerized logicians." is pretty interesting. There are a lot of medical ills which have become increasingly easier to diagnose but for which we have made little progress in curing. Sometimes it seems as though Moore's Law also applies to "societal ills". | |
| Re: The future was explained to me today. by JohnnyG on 2003-10-16 22:10:02 | Reply to this | |
| tommie, brilliant reply. My optimism is quite pathologic and I'm proud of the fact. I love gadgets. That's a big part of my occupation. Technology is a blessing to human kind from human beings. In my study of history I reflect on the general resistance of the human being to change. Change, to those who think themselves progressive, is of course a constant in life and embraced for what it is; betterment in the category of progressing. Love is an emotion. I have a love for technological advancement. Yes, I do make a living from what my occupation requires of me but it would be absolute cynicism to think that the monetary returns are what motivate me in my pursuits. Engineering better circuits to move information more quickly and in paths which allow solutions to be reached more accurately is what I live for in my work. A man came to my place of employment who is quite obviously more educated than me with a "vision" of the future which signifiacntly relates to the "micro" part of my work in the "macro" scheme of things and severely altered my perception of how I contribute to society. I find now that I'm much more satisfied in what I'm doing. So many cultures and societies are represented at work (India/Britain/Germany/China/France......) but one thing remains a constant within our company culture: the betterment of the human condition. Rest assured the next generation will benefit from our activity. Please don't contemplate the use of nuclear weapons, that part of our shared future is a sickening wild card with no predictable outcome. | |
| Re: The future was explained to me today. by tommie on 2003-10-17 04:38:51 | Reply to this | |
| Good for you, JohnnyG! One of my favorite quotes is from Charles Darwin: "It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most receptive to change." | |
| Re: The future was explained to me today. by JohnnyG on 2003-10-20 22:10:30 | Reply to this | |
| Yes tommie, change is resisted by fuckheaded fools. I know many of them by name but there are millions and perhaps billions more. If potatoe remains at this hilarious web address for 10 or more years I can simply refer those of luddite faith to this entry and say "I told you so". | |
| Re: The future was explained to me today. by tommie on 2003-10-23 08:16:03 | Reply to this | |
| Speaking of which, I regret the changes to PotatoeLand. I miss the links (eg, to the DeadPool, and the Sissybar link doesn't go anywhere anymore), the music and Today, with Tater's naps and Polish trysts. | |
| Re: The future was explained to me today. by Alices Restaurant on 2004-03-09 17:23:44 | Reply to this | |||||
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First, a joke: Why did God make the Irish enjoy whiskey? So that they wouldn't take over the world. That said, I believe that mankind (by which I mean "developerkind") will in fact build fantastic robots and other animated autonoma to do our bidding. Unfortunately some programmer early on will invent the first really good sexual robot that will serve to replace women for all practical purposes and all bonafide programmers will be so busy "enjoying themselves" and taking time off work that 1) productivity will plummet, 2) all other technological advances will come to an abrubt halt and 3) the human race will be doomed. Or perhaps it will just dwindle down to a small subset of a technically-ignorant few. They might as well be caveman because they won't know how to make their own electricity so nothing will work and evolution for humans will have to start all over again. No, seriously. This is what happens. I kid you not.
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