Topic: The Dawning of a New Era

[ThePerm]

Maw compooter just had an era. A fatal exception era. THANKS TECHNOLOGY

damnit shyguy i had that joke in there, but i edited and forgot about it!

[Stogi]

Now days there is an overabundance of information. Sure you could look up pretty much anything on the internet these days. Knowledge is easy to acquire. However a lot of people don't THINK anymore. People mindlessly regurgitate ideas without understanding them. Everything is taken at face value.

Intelligence still isn't as well regarded as physical pursuits. I admit, it's hard to make intelligence a sexy thing, however it doesn't excuse the anti-intellectualism. People bathing in ignorance like fat people in butter.

This is something that technology isn't going to fix. It is a social problem. We may know more, but we aren't any smarter for it.

Isn't intelligence just really the ability to solve problems? The more sophisticated the problem, the more intelligence is needed. Well if that's the case, then we are way more intelligent than we ever were.

[oohhboy]

No, we have fewer people doing more of the thinking now days. It's just that with all the infrastructure the benefits of any given good idea spreads out a lot faster. However I admit due to the ever increasing complex of new ideas, you now need teams of people to develop a lot of them and one man band ideas are becoming a more distance possibility.

Just look at how people handle their finances these days. Haven't got cash? I have credit! Credit card bill coming up? Use another credit card. Oh I just have to have it just because it is on sale. The fact that Bush was voted in for 2 terms based on fear mongering and base emotions is damning enough.

However, this is a all a product of how the world works. Stupid people are easier to control. Whether you want to get elected or sell steak knifes. Make enough stupid people, you control everybody else.

[Stogi]

So what you are saying is that we have less people thinking? Where is your proof? We've hit Moore's law every step of the way? Why the sudden lack of faith?

[DAaaMan64]

Hey ooohboy, forget about the politics ban?

[oohhboy]

Yeah, I am cutting it a bit close. 

I don't believe that people are inherently Good or Bad, but as a whole are inherently stupid. Having worked retail, I have seen how stupid people can be. Sure there are smart ones out there, but they are far out numbered. As a former pizza delivery, I have seen things that can't be unseen, some of the worse that humanity has to offer, at least in a civilized setting. The increasing number of people that find blowing themselves up as part of the solution, not part of a problem.

I have done my part in exploiting stupid people as well. It was small time stuff back in school loan sharking and all. But to see it operate and work on such are scale. They come at you through the TV, internet, on trucks. The systematic de-powerment is amazing. I know how easy it is to become like that. When a person becomes a number or dollar sign it's just easy to stripe away their resources.

However as bad as that sounds, humans will and has always found a way to keep going, make progress, good or bad. Throw enough monkeys at a typewriter you very well may get Shakespeare.

[EasyCure]

Yeah, I am cutting it a bit close. 

I don't believe that people are inherently Good or Bad, but as a whole are inherently stupid. Having worked retail, I have seen how stupid people can be.

Oh, i agree

[Stogi]

Yeah, I am cutting it a bit close. 

I don't believe that people are inherently Good or Bad, but as a whole are inherently stupid. Having worked retail, I have seen how stupid people can be. Sure there are smart ones out there, but they are far out numbered. As a former pizza delivery, I have seen things that can't be unseen, some of the worse that humanity has to offer, at least in a civilized setting. The increasing number of people that find blowing themselves up as part of the solution, not part of a problem.

I have done my part in exploiting stupid people as well. It was small time stuff back in school loan sharking and all. But to see it operate and work on such are scale. They come at you through the TV, internet, on trucks. The systematic de-powerment is amazing. I know how easy it is to become like that. When a person becomes a number or dollar sign it's just easy to stripe away their resources.

However as bad as that sounds, humans will and has always found a way to keep going, make progress, good or bad. Throw enough monkeys at a typewriter you very well may get Shakespeare.

Wow. As much as I hate stupid people, it doesn't compare with your loathing. Monkeys, typewriters?! LOL

You need to learn to deal with it. There will always be more stupid people than smart people, but it's the smart ones that rule the world. What's so bad about that? This is getting a little off topic. Still, I do believe that technology may make an even greater rift between the smart and the stupid.

[ShyGuy]

Let's talk about politics in New Zealand. I have a right to say how that country should run itself.

mods lock this thread and temp ban all posters.

[Stogi]

Don't Hate.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

One could argue technology is creating more "stupid people" (as opposed to simple or unintroduced).  A negative impact of today's "conveniences" can be the de-emphasis of critical thinking (not the same as intelligence).  Less critical thinking there is to do on a basic level for living life and participating in society, less practice you get.

See game reviews.

[King of Twitch]

WW temples

[Stogi]

One could argue technology is creating more "stupid people" (as opposed to simple or unintroduced).  A negative impact of today's "conveniences" can be the de-emphasis of critical thinking (not the same as intelligence).  Less critical thinking there is to do on a basic level for living life and participating in society, less practice you get.

See game reviews.

I disagree. If technology can form the basis for people to never work hard labor jobs such as farming, mining, and factory working, then people can focus on creative fields including everything from science to art and music.

[vudu]

Oooboy's right.  People are getting stupider.  Intelligence isn't being able to spew random facts.  It's problem-solving and the ability to create new solutions to existing (and future) problems.  Technology is a large part of this.  (They don't call it the idiot box for nothing.)

I can't remember the last time I read a book for enjoyment.  (Damn you, Faulkner.)

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

One could argue technology is creating more "stupid people" (as opposed to simple or unintroduced).  A negative impact of today's "conveniences" can be the de-emphasis of critical thinking (not the same as intelligence).  Less critical thinking there is to do on a basic level for living life and participating in society, less practice you get.

See game reviews.

I disagree. If technology can form the basis for people to never work hard labor jobs such as farming, mining, and factory working, then people can focus on creative fields including everything from science to art and music.

I disagree.  You'd have to assume there's some amazing economic climate that would support such a utopia.  And to shift away from production-labor would imply first shifting to service-labor, as the U.S. has been experiencing since the transition out of the Industrial Revolution.  But if service labor was also eliminated, then we'll just have a society of brainy people and consumers?  And with technology so good, it sounds like there's much less down-to-earth day-to-day problems to solve, so how are people getting those practical learning experiences (but why bother "learning" when you can Google things or download WiFi data into the memory card in your left buttock)?  These conditions sound very inviting for... lazy people.

Maybe you imagine clean-cut living like on Star Trek.

I imagine the usual lasting cycles of economic inequality that leads to piloting a flying taxi cab in The Fifth Element.

[UltimatePartyBear]

And with technology so good, it sounds like there's much less down-to-earth day-to-day problems to solve, so how are people getting those practical learning experiences?

Video games?

[Stogi]

Hmmm....good point.

I'm just arguing for the sake of arguing. Both sides should be brought to the forefront.  I'm honestly less interested in how our economy will work and more interested in how technology will shape our future; our health, our skills, our lives.

It's hard to debate against the times. Things have always worked in a "gods and clods" manner. Still, as we become more intelligent, is it at the very least possible for us to change the way the world works? If not, then why are we trying so hard?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

And with technology so good, it sounds like there's much less down-to-earth day-to-day problems to solve, so how are people getting those practical learning experiences?

Video games?

Hearing about kids running away when their dad confiscates their xbox, kids pulling GTA car theft and assault stunts, people playing online games and dying in 'net cafes, game reviews, WoW, HD Street Fighter... tough to say

EDIT: In light of current events, add Bank Robbering wearing a Triforce Hat to the list.

[EasyCure]

Wow i thought unclebob was kidding when he sent me a text message about just that!

IT WAS HIM HE DID IT!

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

EDIT: add Boys Strangle Kitten with Game Controller after playing GTA to the list.

[Stogi]

Bump

I wish just pondering to myself, while sitting at work watching this video export, about how technology learns from nature. I just read an article about how the light-scattering structures that make butterfly wings so striking could be used to make cheaper, more efficient solar cells. I remember reading earlier last year about how a beatle's shell could divert water using little crevasses and when replicated by nanotubes, water could be transported on the tiniest of scales. It's interesting what we might learn next from seemingly uninteresting sources. Nature always seems to be a step ahead.

Which brings me to my next point. Could technology one day be completely organic in its manufacturing, structure, and ability?

Could we grow computers?

[ThePerm]

with new robots like Asimo how can we improve space travel? I propose a Pikmin strategy a man with control of 50 robots. Also, is asimo's brains internal or external. I think if they had a larger computer remotely controlling a little robot you could have a more intelligent seeming robot. That remote computer cannot be Hal though