Steve
Hero Protagonist
Posts: 3,633
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Post by Steve on Jul 18, 2024 21:48:02 GMT
Good dystopian story
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Post by Zany on Jul 19, 2024 8:19:38 GMT
I like the way technology might give solutions people wouldn't expect. |
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Steve
Hero Protagonist
Posts: 3,633
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Post by Steve on Jul 19, 2024 10:57:12 GMT
I like the way technology might give solutions people wouldn't expect. Yes but more often it fails to deliver solutions to problems people expect to be solved. The 'technology gave us the internet so it will surely give us free energy' mindset so many dim people believe and so many callous people project. |
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Post by Zany on Jul 20, 2024 8:24:39 GMT
I like the way technology might give solutions people wouldn't expect. Yes but more often it fails to deliver solutions to problems people expect to be solved. The 'technology gave us the internet so it will surely give us free energy' mindset so many dim people believe and so many callous people project. Yes, its amazing how many projected futures include things that would never happen without limitless and almost free energy. the better SciFi books don't. I remember one where the predominant means of transport was steam because the new planet they occupied had shed load of coal and Global warming and pollution were not an issue. |
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Post by Orac on Jul 22, 2024 16:42:17 GMT
I like the way technology might give solutions people wouldn't expect. Yes but more often it fails to deliver solutions to problems people expect to be solved. The 'technology gave us the internet so it will surely give us free energy' mindset so many dim people believe and so many callous people project. I think this is quite insightful Let me try to rephrase it with more focus. I feel the technological revolution precipitated by the transistor has been so dramatic, that it could leave the uninformed with the impression that all technical progress will / should follow a similar pattern. We went from vinyl embedded recordings to billions of people having a magic box from which they can access nearly every recording ever made from anywhere - in a brief 30 years. The improvement produced a technology tens of thousands of times more powerful than where it started At the end of that same thirty year period, we are more or less using the same methods to generate electricity we did that the beginning and motor technologies have only improved incrementally - by some percentage - lets say 15% Electronics is just about the entire technological revolution of the late 20th and early 21st century |
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Post by Zany on Jul 22, 2024 17:48:52 GMT
Yes but more often it fails to deliver solutions to problems people expect to be solved. The 'technology gave us the internet so it will surely give us free energy' mindset so many dim people believe and so many callous people project. I think this is quite insightful Let me try to rephrase it with more focus. I feel the technological revolution precipitated by the transistor has been so dramatic, that it could leave the uninformed with the impression that all technical progress will / should follow a similar pattern. We went from vinyl embedded recordings to billions of people having a magic box from which they can access nearly every recording ever made from anywhere - in a brief 30 years. The improvement produced a technology tens of thousands of times more powerful than where it started At the end of that same thirty year period, we are more or less using the same methods to generate electricity we did that the beginning and motor technologies have only improved incrementally - by some percentage - lets say 15% Electronics is just about the entire technological revolution of the late 20th and early 21st century Well said |
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Steve
Hero Protagonist
Posts: 3,633
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Post by Steve on Jul 22, 2024 17:56:25 GMT
Yes but more often it fails to deliver solutions to problems people expect to be solved. The 'technology gave us the internet so it will surely give us free energy' mindset so many dim people believe and so many callous people project. I think this is quite insightful Let me try to rephrase it with more focus. I feel the technological revolution precipitated by the transistor has been so dramatic, that it could leave the uninformed with the impression that all technical progress will / should follow a similar pattern. We went from vinyl embedded recordings to billions of people having a magic box from which they can access nearly every recording ever made from anywhere - in a brief 30 years. The improvement produced a technology tens of thousands of times more powerful than where it started At the end of that same thirty year period, we are more or less using the same methods to generate electricity we did that the beginning and motor technologies have only improved incrementally - by some percentage - lets say 15% Electronics is just about the entire technological revolution of the late 20th and early 21st century Well it was certainly massive (especially if software and information technology is included in that) and served me very well but there have been staggering advances too in materials and medicines in that time |
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Post by Orac on Jul 22, 2024 18:09:32 GMT
I think this is quite insightful Let me try to rephrase it with more focus. I feel the technological revolution precipitated by the transistor has been so dramatic, that it could leave the uninformed with the impression that all technical progress will / should follow a similar pattern. We went from vinyl embedded recordings to billions of people having a magic box from which they can access nearly every recording ever made from anywhere - in a brief 30 years. The improvement produced a technology tens of thousands of times more powerful than where it started At the end of that same thirty year period, we are more or less using the same methods to generate electricity we did that the beginning and motor technologies have only improved incrementally - by some percentage - lets say 15% Electronics is just about the entire technological revolution of the late 20th and early 21st century Well it was certainly massive (especially if software and information technology is included in that) and served me very well but there have been staggering advances too in materials and medicines in that time There is nothing elsewhere like the same percentage increase in the power of the tech. When i said tens of thousand of times more powerful, it was an off-the cuff number pulled out for drama. If you take the reality of today's internet and compare it functionally to what was available in (say) 1985, that number looks like a serious underestimate. The functional increase factor is likely to be closer to billions, not tens of thousands. However, electronics only solves certain kinds of problems. |
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Post by Zany on Jul 22, 2024 18:12:57 GMT
Well it was certainly massive (especially if software and information technology is included in that) and served me very well but there have been staggering advances too in materials and medicines in that time There is nothing elsewhere like the same percentage increase in the power of the tech. When i said tens of thousand of times more powerful, it was an off-the cuff number pulled out for drama. If you take the reality of today's internet and compare it functionally to what was available in (say) 1985, that number looks like a serious underestimate. The functional increase factor is likely to be closer to billions, not tens of thousands. However, electronics only solves certain kinds of problems. Yeah, but transistors will never catch on.  |
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Steve
Hero Protagonist
Posts: 3,633
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Post by Steve on Jul 22, 2024 19:56:27 GMT
One of my first tasks in paid work was designing an upgrade to use the then leading edge 256 bit mil spec SRAM chips. You can buy Gbit RAM chips now. That's 4 million times.
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Post by Orac on Jul 22, 2024 20:18:11 GMT
One of my first tasks in paid work was designing an upgrade to use the then leading edge 256 bit mil spec SRAM chips. You can buy Gbit RAM chips now. That's 4 million times. that's only one dimension of performance |
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Steve
Hero Protagonist
Posts: 3,633
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Post by Steve on Jul 22, 2024 20:36:27 GMT
Indeed
And don't forget the staggering advance in materials purity that underpins it
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Post by Saint on Jul 25, 2024 18:12:05 GMT
In my view, the most drastic social changes will occur when we have reliable lie detectors on our phones. What will a society that is forced to be 100% honest all the time look like?
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Steve
Hero Protagonist
Posts: 3,633
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Post by Steve on Jul 25, 2024 18:19:10 GMT
In my view, the most drastic social changes will occur when we have reliable lie detectors on our phones. What will a society that is forced to be 100% honest all the time look like? It's one of those huge ironies that anyone that tells you they have a reliable lie detector is themself lying |
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Post by Saint on Jul 25, 2024 18:20:20 GMT
In my view, the most drastic social changes will occur when we have reliable lie detectors on our phones. What will a society that is forced to be 100% honest all the time look like? It's one of those huge ironies that anyone that tells you they have a reliable lie detector is themself lying Possibly so with current technology. We're talking about the future, though. |
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