Do you ever worry that technology is going to make us all obsolete?

[Wonk]

:shrug:

[Don_G]

1. Never

Just that Dimbo and his friends will poison or starve us first.

[JackSwift]

2. Species come and go

and there is no reason to believe that homo sapiens is going to be any different. We are not genetically diverse: the average troop of 50 chimps has more genetic diversity between any two members than you have compared to every other human being on the planet. We were down to only a few at one point scientists have speculated, maybe even only one member of one sex. So we aren't really going to evolve anytime soon. It's hard to imagine that sooner or later that some nut won't spend the $40,000 necessary to create a virus to wipe us all out after getting his/her PhD in micro-biology.

But we might leave behind our inventions. Our thinking machines are today relatively primative. But if we can make it another 100 years, we may be able to develop some software that can think that will use up all the power of future processors. Maybe those machines will have ethics, morals and consideration for other types of beings. Religous types (of which I am one) don't necessarily think that humans will always be around. But the universe will go on.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. That's been a worry...

throughout history.

Usually, though, technology tends to make us more interesting and even more important. We tend to invent technologies that make life easier and give us more time to dream, and invent even newer ones.

(Windows is an obvious exception to that, of course. A step back for every step forward.)

Eventually, we might end up inventing something that could put us out of the loop. Science fiction is full of fun stories about that.

[izzie]

4. It is a mind set. Will you control or the machine control.

I once did a whole art term thing on it as I had a teacher that said machines controled and I said only if you let them. We ended up with this, I was not going to let it happen to me but some people were. A stand off I would say.

[Squeech]

5. Not a problem

They'll never automate sarcasm :evilgrin:

[Nlighten1]

6. It is inevitable Wonk.

I am working on a post for my blog about this very subject. Think analog(humans) vs. digital(machines)it isn't going to happen soon but I think it is already too late to stop it.

[Ilsa]

7. I used to think that there was no way

machines could replace most of my job skills as a nurse, but I have some doubts about that now. I suspect that over time, robotic machines and computers will be able to take over many functions of nurses in some jobs. After all, we have robots performing surgery from remote locations, yes, guided by surgeons, but still performing surgery.

[paradisiac]

8. only if someone invents

consumer robots that buy buy buy.

[Robb]

9. We're sorry

Robb's reply to this post was deleted by this system
due to bad grammar, poor style, and a conent not
approved by this system. All future posts by Robb
will be deleted and replaced with more amusing posts
designed to entertain and educate.

Please make a note of it. Bush in 2004.

[kodi]

10. going to? i found that out when my wife named her shower massager Bob

.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

11. I work in a Juvenile Detention Center...

And with the way it works, we don't let the kids talk to each other, there has to be a few bodies on the floor at all times...I never worry.
Duckie

[Deja Q]

12. I'm more worried about genetic manipulation making us inhuman/inhumane

Pursuing genetic technologies will pervert humankind itself at its very core.

Instead of cherishing life, we can alter it while it's still "baking in the oven" inside of mommy. It will be spun by the fascists as being a good thing.

Parents have a knack of being selfish. Such genetic manipulation is the ultimate of this. They want a girl instead of a boy? Get out the needles and switch the DNA dip switches. Oh, Junior's gonna have green eyes? Can't have that, we want brown eyes. Uh-oh, looks like little Martha is going to be a lesbian, let's just fix that up too. Oh, and best of all, Timmy there is going to have an IQ of 50? Better abort him, he's not worth it in our compassionate society we republicans have generously created for everybody.

People should be tolerating people, not modifying them to fit someone else's desire or societal manifestation.

Genetic manipulation could also bring us to a fascist state, though corporate america is already doing that as much as they can.

I'm also worried that corporate pursuit of $$$ will make us obselete too - that's also happening.

Sorry to threadjack, but it's the only thing I'm jacking right now. :evilgrin:

[GAspnes]

13. Nope.

I think technology will be the platform for the next phase of human development.

[amazona]

14. yes, it will make most of us obsolete

My partner works with programming factories, so that less workers are needed. But we see it everywhere -- even the grocery stores are trying to implement "self" check-out. In the future, a job will be a rare thing, which most people could never expect to hold without connections to secure them a place. I am working for a world where we will have a safety net and some sort of basic dole for everyone but what I believe will actually happen is that most of us will be "accidentally" or even actively killed. It worries me that the GOP sees no need to plan to preserve Social Security at all, that they don't worry that the boomer or the Gen Xers are capable of violent resistance if the only alternative is starvation. It suggests to me that the elite in the GOP are working on the assumption that we won't be alive that long.

[Vitruvius]

15. It all depends on who controls the technology.

If the Rethug/big business types control the technology, they will have no qualms about starving or killing us all, just as soon as the technology is advanced enough that they can do without us -- as "Amazona" just said. But it will be the Rethugs that did us in, NOT "technology" -- machines have no free will.

The problem is not technology -- it's Rethugs in control of the economy and technology.

And now you know why many scientists of my vintage have shifted from applied to theoretical work -- all our applied innovations have benefited only the Rethug rich, while the average person's standard of living has gone down. We HOPE that our theoretical work will help future generations -- and it may do so, but ONLY if the people have the gumption to get the Rethugnican rich out-of-power.

Science and technology help those who help themselves. And the best thing you can do to help yourselves is to get the Rethugs out of power and into prison where they belong.

[EV1Ltimm]

16. not ALL of us.

i'd like to see a robot replace a fur-trapper.

HA, not in a million years.

[Swede]

17. Ray Kurzweil predicted a singularity where changes increase at an ever

expanding velocity. Already technology is obsolete as soon as it is made availible. Here's a link http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?m=1

The Singularity
"The Singularity" is a phrase borrowed from the astrophysics of black holes. The phrase has varied meanings; as used by Vernor Vinge and Raymond Kurzweil, it refers to the idea that accelerating technology will lead to superhuman machine intelligence that will soon exceed human intelligence, probably by the year 2030. The results on the other side of the "event horizon," they say, are unpredictable. We'll try anyway.

[ALago1]

18. Maybe

My first thoughts after reading this subject line were Marx's predictions that the capitalist's increased drive for exploiting the worker will introduce more and more labor saving technology over time and thus create a huge "reserve army of the unemployed". Is it possible? Sure I guess. But only time will tell.