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You Ain't SEEN Nuthin' yet...

The progress of technology could or could not be in the best interest of human evolution unless you want to call the emergence of technology the next evolutionary frontier.

Riigghhhtt:

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Dragon Soldier

One of the Regulars
Messages
288
Location
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Facial recognition almost pales into insignificance when set aside gait recognition.

This simply looks at the way an individual moves, apparently it's easily as "true" as a fingerprint, if not recognised as such in court.

Look at it like this. The second world war, '39-45, examine the technical advances.
Do you think we've been fighting bushfires and minor conflicts since 1990 without a similar degree of progress?
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,279
Location
New Forest
This sort of stuff actually really worries me (the Google goggles not the x-ray specs).

I watched Elysium the other day and you have to wonder where technology is taking us. I'm not a technophobe by any means but the way emerging technology is intruding more and more on the individual's privacy does give me a nasty feeling.

Maybe I am being perverse, or just plain silly, because I agree with you, global world will intrude on all our lives, yet I see it as a challenge, hence perverse & silly. The first census that I appear on is 1951. In the UK we hold a referendum in the decade ending in "1."
By the time 1961 came around, my mother had died, my siblings were in the care of relatives, I was still with my father.
In January of that year, I was involved in a hit & run collision that put me in hospital for a year. My father, suffering from the stress of his wife's death, the subsequent fallout and my hospitalisation, suffered, well, it's too painful to go into, but he too was hospitalised.

As a result of that we didn't appear on the 1961 census. When I spoke of this to my father, he told me that a census always has a very small percentage that evades "capture" and not to worry about it.

I didn't worry about it, by 1971, I was married but had yet to commit to a mortgage. We found a house within our price range and I contrived the move to coincide with the census. For a second time, I had escaped the capture.

If I tell you of the contriving & collusion that I did to escape capture on the 1981/1991/2001/2011 census' you would probably fall asleep with boredom, but dodge them I did.

And to date, I pay cash for every single purchase, whatever the size of cost, I refuse all credit card incentives, such as discounts and the like. I have no store cards or anything similar, nothing that can leave a footprint. Those so called loyalty cards........yeah, right.

I do have a bank account, I do have a credit card, but I do not have a credit status. Do I need it? Well you be the judge, no debt, no mortgage, no hassle. And enough money in the bank to be able to tell the bank what I will do, and not be dictated to.

I relish your comments.
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,160
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
In Alvin Tofflers book Power Shift (one of his futurism series which were excellent) he discusses a coming world like this with two classes of people, the ones who live for 150 years in perfect surroundings with technology and the ones who live in the 'other' world who live for 60 years in poverty and squalor. His view is that there will be constant warfare between the two classes over resources and viability.

See Elysium (2013) with Matt Damon. Not a great movie, but the plot is consistent.
 

Foxer55

A-List Customer
Messages
413
Location
Washington, DC
hatguy,

Me either. This is one of those examples of things my engineer friends say are designed not because it's needed, but rather just because engineers can design it.

That is because people have lost the challenge of moving forward to the remarkable capabilities that exist. Example: the U.S. space program and the amazing things we were on the brink of doing but the space program is now on life support. We have lost the desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves because in the new world everyone is sitting around, staring at their navel, feeling sorry for themselves over someone not giving them their cookie today.
 
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hatguy1

One Too Many
Messages
1,145
Location
Da Pairee of da prairee
True, Foxer. I remember Lyndon Johnson in the '60s commenting at the Huntsville, AL rocket stage plant saying that here we'd amassed all this great Technology and ability and "we'd probably just end up p'ing it all away." Guess he was right.


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J.W.

A-List Customer
Messages
312
Location
Southern tip of northern Germany
hatguy,



That is because people have lost the challenge of moving forward to the remarkable capabilities that exist. Example: the U.S. space program and the amazing things we were on the brink of doing but the space program is now on life support. We have lost the desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves because in the new world everyone is sitting around, staring at their navel, feeling sorry for themselves over someone not giving them their cookie today.

Just imagine what NASA could do with the money poured into the NSA...
 

herringbonekid

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,016
Location
East Sussex, England
We have lost the desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves because in the new world everyone is sitting around, staring at their navel, feeling sorry for themselves over someone not giving them their cookie today.

not at all.

transhumanism, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, etc. etc. IS the modern equivalent of the space race.

the transhumanist dream is basically that one day we will be able to download our consciousness into a 'perfect' synthetic body that will never age or die, or if it did break down, you'd simply download into another. before we get there Ray Kurzweil believes that there will be 'nanobots' (microscopic robots) about the size of a blood cell that will live in our bodies to fight viruses etc. to increase the life span of our human bodies. it's all driven by fear of death and desire for immortality. you can't get any more 'part of something bigger than ourselves' than the desire to create the technology to transcend death itself.

personally though (as i mentioned on page 1) i think it's folly to start playing God with technology.
 

Gregg Axley

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,125
Location
Tennessee
not at all.

transhumanism, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, etc. etc. IS the modern equivalent of the space race.

the transhumanist dream is basically that one day we will be able to download our consciousness into a 'perfect' synthetic body that will never age or die, or if it did break down, you'd simply download into another. before we get there Ray Kurzweil believes that there will be 'nanobots' (microscopic robots) about the size of a blood cell that will live in our bodies to fight viruses etc. to increase the life span of our human bodies. it's all driven by fear of death and desire for immortality. you can't get any more 'part of something bigger than ourselves' than the desire to create the technology to transcend death itself.

personally though (as i mentioned on page 1) i think it's folly to start playing God with technology.
If nanobots can be programed to do something, it would appear to me they could be hacked as well, to do something else.
Bad idea...
 

Dragon Soldier

One of the Regulars
Messages
288
Location
Belfast, Northern Ireland
I absolutely love the idea of properly developed google glass.

Despite never actually having laid eyes on the kit, I've been toying with the notion of an application for sports fans which would provide a real-time overlay of player names and relevant statistics while watching team sports inside a stadium. Ideally input from TV systems could also be integrated to "picture in vision" access to distant action or in corners of the field that are hidden from view.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
not at all.

transhumanism, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, etc. etc. IS the modern equivalent of the space race.

the transhumanist dream is basically that one day we will be able to download our consciousness into a 'perfect' synthetic body that will never age or die, or if it did break down, you'd simply download into another. before we get there Ray Kurzweil believes that there will be 'nanobots' (microscopic robots) about the size of a blood cell that will live in our bodies to fight viruses etc. to increase the life span of our human bodies. it's all driven by fear of death and desire for immortality. you can't get any more 'part of something bigger than ourselves' than the desire to create the technology to transcend death itself.

personally though (as i mentioned on page 1) i think it's folly to start playing God with technology.

cybermen_on_bbc.jpg


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Stormy

A-List Customer
Messages
403
Location
460 Laverne Terrace
Wearer beware should be stamped on such an item. I know some folks who would probably attack at first sight if they saw someone looking at them with those things. Come-ta-think-of-it, I just might be such a folk myself.
 

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