The Furry Forums
Furry Chat => Rants and Advice => Topic started by: x on September 13, 2010, 05:55:29 PM
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If you stop and take a look at our world, you'll notice that technology is advancing to a point that should be impossible in such a short time. So are the medical feilds and scientific feilds. I won't go into a lot of detail about specific things that scare me about how fast our world is becoming techno-centric (thin pads that allow you to do anything a computer can do and more) or biologically (such as deciding upon your child's hair and eye color or gender before getting it implanted in you...yes we CAN do that and we have been) or even get into government (with so many oppertunities out there for them to take advantage of...it obvious they are watching every one of us) because doing so would become controversial.....but what I want to ask is three things:
1) If we keep going at this rate, can you imagine how advanced we will be 5, 10, 20, 50 years from now? Going logicallly we would be pretty far!
2) Am I the only one SCARED by how fast we are advancing? Because the thought of so many new things spiralling out of tabs, and the thought of any number of freaky new biological advents (from vaccines people may be required to get to altering fetuses) are enough to make me want to hide under the bed.
3) If we do get to a very advanced stage of being, do you think we will be able to keep it under control? Or will it begin to control us?
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Hello! ^^
1) I can't say we'd be advanced in terms of hover cars or anything, but i agree that we'd be advanced in terms of biological weaponry and advancements, which leads me onto number two:
2) What scares me is the threat of biological warfare. Like, some sort of super virus or even, god forbid, an accidental release of the plague or something... that terrifies me more than anything else, even weaponry advances :)
3) Oh, it'd begin to control us no doubt... look at the Y2K threat and the advice the media gave out... Move underground? WTF? Thats more worrying than the Y2K itself, the fact we're so dependant on it xD
Thanks!
RabidMaggot93
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Thanks RabidMaggot93!
I totally agree. It is very likely that we could set something loose on ourselves like a virus. And I am a bit of a conspiracy freak, so mind you I may get a bit into fantasy now and then, but if the government ever wanted to kill off a bunch of people in genocide, all they'd have to do would be to create a deadly virus, label it a flu vaccine, and start suggesting everyone get it. :( That's why I never get any of these new vaccines unless I'm practically forced into it...because I'm a conspiracy nut like that. -.-
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We've been on this earth for maybe 100-150 thousand years. That's a drop in the ocean and yet humans have seen some terrible things happen, by our own doing. We already have the technology to literally blow up the earth. But the thing is... I enjoy the new technologies coming out, because with everything bad comes everything good. People will suffer and people will prosper. Yeah there's a military satellite in the sky called SkyNet, yeah there are robots fighting and killing people, but that's what it means to be human. We have people getting robotic limbs. We have wheelchairs that can be controlled by thought. We have cures for a million different diseases and we have an understanding of the world that enriches our lives. We have the internet, we have the written word that has signed executions and birth certificates.
We're humans, it's what we do, and whatever comes from that will be... interesting to say the least.
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1) There will always be someone like Hitler plotting to kill innocent people... And with the technology now it will be nukes.
2) Todays kids have gotten more driven to violence, so they will probably grow up to be murderers.
3) 2012.. Don't beleive in it, but what if something bad (that does not end the world) happens?
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2) Todays kids have gotten more driven to biolence, so they will probably grow up to be murderers.
I seriously dont believe that the personality of humans themselves have changed much if at all for a loooong time.
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Well lately I've been reading this book, its called the American plague, it makes me so happy that we live in an advance age.
I've noticed what you noticed, about technology, we can clone anything if we put our mind to it, we can destroy anything we want (except pollution :P). And I don't know if you know this, but there is a legal world agreement about bio war fare, Bio warfare was around during WWI.
You need to look at the postie, before the negative. Its always easy to say that the glass is half empty, but its not always easy to notice that its also half full.
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And I don't know if you know this, but there is a legal world agreement about bio war fare, Bio warfare was around during WWI.
Gas warfare :P Very deadly
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Yea, people went blind, and suffocated, and all the other horrible crap... not to funny..
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I think I indeed am the only one nervous about the intentions of our higher ups...and Im probably the only one who feels a need to be careful hearing what the government blabs. Still, I found what Asia said about human nature to be true and I agree with him highly. But how far can you push mankind before we loose our humanity? Are we going to get to the point where our human nature is gone, replaced by another form of nature?
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In a way I think technological advancement is scary... But my fear is for computers and robotics, we've already got CPU's that are smarter than us!
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Well, we are going far in a good way and a bad way.
A long long time ago, a Common Cold was probably enough to kill you, because nothing was sanitary and we didn't much about health. The life expectancy was probably around 30 years old. Now a lot of people are even beating cancer and the life expectancy is around 80, and will probably continue to rise for a long time until we reach immortality.
But then again, before a fight was two small groups hitting each other with rocks and sticks, now we have enough power to wipe the Earth of life and there is a chance we can all kill each other off.
Science is seriously making invincible super suits for soldiers who will then be able to run at amazing speeds, have insane strength, and can turn invisible.
Although hopefully we will reach peace eventually and stop worrying.
You know what would be awesome, if we did what the Native Americans did and whenever a war is settled we get rid of all weaponry :D
That will probably never happen though.
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I think I indeed am the only one nervous about the intentions of our higher ups...and Im probably the only one who feels a need to be careful hearing what the government blabs. Still, I found what Asia said about human nature to be true and I agree with him highly. But how far can you push mankind before we loose our humanity? Are we going to get to the point where our human nature is gone, replaced by another form of nature?
That's actually a very interesting point, but I don't think will affect us for a very very long time. I mean, the things that could possibly affect human nature in today's world is possibly eugenics but even then, you're still functioning within the boundaries of humanity. I think perhaps an alteration of brain function would be the best bet for changing humanity, but we currently know so little about the brain that the barriers towards doing that are really quite high. We can activate certain emotions, we can read thoughts we can stick a brain in a robot and make it work properly, but that is basic stuff because the brain is so complex. Signals are being sent out all the time and we don't really know what those signals are saying. I mean, only recently did scientists find that daydreaming works the brain as hard as focused work, and is very important. Scientists still don't know why more signals come out of the heart than there are going in. We know where memories are kept, but we don't know what memories are being accessed and how to isolate them. It's like looking at a cluster of ant-hills, with each section having a different species of ant, and you can see the ants coming out. You know which species is part of which ant hill, but you don't know who each specific ant is, and what each ant is thinking, and why they go on these specific paths...
I'm probably wrong on a lot of points, but if human nature (something that is hardwired into our subconscious) were to be altered, it would have to be done on the brain, and to be done effectively, we'd need more information than we have.
You could take a kid and get it raised by animals but you'd still have the human hardwiring put into. The same way you could take a chimp from day one and raise it as a human. You can't keep it as a human, because it's not one. The hardwiring is there.
In a way I think technological advancement is scary... But my fear is for computers and robotics, we've already got CPU's that are smarter than us!
Not necessarily. They can make more calculations per second, but there are things humans are far better at, such as visual acuity and lateral thinking.
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Hey Sasha~
1) I imagine how we've made the iPad, the high-tech desktop computers, the medical tech equipment, and more, and I realize now what you mean. Technology will always progress, and we know that, but you are correct. It's going fast. However, what I'm more terrified about is that the technology will consume us...mentally. lol We get so involved into technology I'm afraid that most people will become lazy bums and not care about the world anymore because of these new technologies. And I hope to GOD no one tries to replace people with robots. haha
2) Science and the medical fields are becoming pretty intense, as you might agree. Sometimes I'm scared to just go to the doctor for a check up because of all the stuff they have presently. What I'm more scared of is how they still experiment on other people. Some may think "Oh they volunteer" but no one realizes what they're getting into. I remember when my mother thought I was ADD when I was young, and made me take this "new" pill of the day, and it changed my life completely. Never was I the same after I even quit. Now they don't even sell this pill anymore. I'm hoping the medical field will become more safer.
3) Honestly with the way the world is shaped now? No. Have you noticed all of the corruption with almost everyone? Not just politics, but everyone. If the world keeps up with its selfish ways, we'll become brain smart, but moral dumb.
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Raphial
There is one fatal flaw in what you said, humans have always been greedy, and they always will be.
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i think this is relevent...
in the next 10-20 years a technological singularity is going to occur, and basically a robot will be smarter than a human, but what if this robot; in all it's knowledge made a better robot?
think about it, and endless cycle of almost endless technological advances daily... and in the crossfire humans would become obsolete.
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They already made "ADAM". A robot that did scientific experiments and then used those results to do more experiments.
And there are the evolutionary programs. They create CG characters and are told to do something, like walk. There are several generated skeletons, each with different AI. The two AI best at trying to walk then get brought together with some random variation to creat 4 more AI who are a little bit better at walking. Then the best of that group get put together and so on and so on, until the AI can strut, and the coding is indecipherable for humans.
The thing is though, "humans would become obselete," isn't necessarily true. With new technology comes new opportunities. With new opportunities come new jobs. We've gained so much technological advancement, yet we haven't gained much free time.
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What if HAL 9000 comes back down to earth... *Shiver*
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What if HAL 9000 comes back down to earth... *Shiver*
Then we'll be sent hurtling through space/time and achieve ascension
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Call me "old fashioned" but am I the only one with a second generation Ipod Video and an old cell phone? Wtf is an "app" and why is everyone going crazy for them on their hand helds? Why are Blackberrys so special? I don't like smart phones, touch pads, or things that are complicated. I like the old way of doing things. How does GPS work? Do they teach that in school?...Sorry, but I can only read maps. :/ Imma stick wit mah typewriter and No. 2 pencil wit the pink eraser.
...I must live in a cave or something...or being extemely poor might have something to do with it. xD
LOL
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Whilst I don't deny that these are important things to be considering and I have thought of such things in the past I'd say that the general reactions here are a bit much in some regards, especially seeing as people have essentially been saying the same things about technology since the turn of the 20th century. Human nature is such that there will always be corrupt people and there shall always be such people in positions of power, that people shall exploit the resources available to their own benefit: in the past it was the church and religion (still true to some extent today) and today it's with the corruption of technology for the purposes of war. There shall always be risks. There shall always be flaws in the government, always be those who desire power and conflict. It doesn't matter if it's a bomb, a machine or something far more crude: technology or not they'll find a way.
So whilst we should be concerned certainly, I'd say some of the fears here are a tad out of proportion, normally blown up by the media and creating self-fulfilling prophecies. Pretty much every worry about computers and robots so far I'd say are along the same lines people held decades ago and you'll notice that for all our progress, there isn't a single machine on this planet that even comes close to true artificial intelligence. There have been leaps and jumps yes, but the form of technology people have been afraid of (mostly due to movies and TV) for the past few decades are still pretty far away. The Y2K bug was a lot less of an issue then most seemed to think, considering that some people seemed to think a bug regarding the way computers store time would cause them to go berserk? Please, pull the other one.
The world hasn't become any more evil or corrupt since the past, nor have the base human values and instincts really changed that much: in most areas there are groups that hold most of the power and that perform shady deals behind everyone's backs, each generation complains about the next being disrespectful and rebellious and man still finds new ways to kill his fellow man. The problem lies not in technology or anything else on this Earth but us. The fact that most of us are hard-wired to follow authority even if it clashes with our morals and that so many average people can put others through pain for the most pathetic of reasons doesn't help.
*shrugs* Being terrified does little good. Reflect on it, try to stop corruption wherever you can, ensure that power/freedom is given to individuals rather than political or religious groups, do all that we can to keep the peace and when everything finally breaks out of control...be ready.