Technology

[leader of mortals]

How far do you think technology will go. I think we are pretty much at the peak of technology except for medicine. I think before we get flying cars and artificial intelligence, we will have all the technology on the world destroyed by a bomb or something.

What do you think?

[Aerith's Knight]

Thats not true.. we can go way further with technology.. and believe me, cause thats what ill be doing when i graduate. We havent even understood everything in Quantum physics, so how can you say that we are at a peak. First you understand, then you recreate, then you invent. we havent even understood everything.. so there will be lotsa more technology to come

[Rye]

Oh god, I can't wait until Mr. MILFY sees this. xD

No, technology is definitely NOT at its peak.

[Chimp]

The only technology we need is advanced dreaming technology. If we can be suspended in a lucid dream state, then any desire can be fulfilled and advances in "real" life technology will be unnecessary. :D

[LunarWeaver]

I'm going to highly doubt we're at our peak. Our super top peak will probably never be reached because we'll kill ourselves before we can. Mmm, morbid.

[Madame Adequate]

... I don't even know quite how to respond to this. I mean sure, not so many people find the tech singularity plausable, and a fair number think we're going to wipe ourselves out soon, but I don't know many people who think we're reaching technology's actual peak.

Technology is only just starting to take off. The last century saw more technological advance than the entire previous sum of Human technological growth. Current trends suggest that, barring incredible catastrophe, we're just about reaching the point where growth becomes obviously non-linear. In normal Human lifetimes, those of us here now are going to be witness to the single greatest period of change in Human history by a far wider margin than you can imagine. But let's try:

Imagine that the radio, telephone (regular and cell), television, computer, internet, airplane, firearm, radar, iPod, DVD, radar, microscope, penicillin, MRI scanner, polio vaccine, smallpox vaccine, internal combustion engine, and plastics were all invented/discovered tomorrow. Literally in the space of 24 hours.

Now expand that a thousand fold. That's what we're looking at over the next forty years. After the midpoint of the century I don't even want to make bets, but we won't even be able to understand it without being augmented in some way ourselves.

Where are we going? Hopefully, towards the Culture, which is a futuristic society in a series of novels by Iain M. Banks. I intend to get us there. In reality, we're in a reasonably okay state now, and that is utopian, but GETTING from here to there is a larger challenge than I'd like to face.

But we do face it, and we can't stop it. Technology brings too much that's good, and is too uncontrollable. The only way to stop it would be a worldwide totalitarian state. The worst anyone could feasibly do is slow it down, but because it's exponential, even if you literally make things TEN TIMES more difficult, it'll only actually slow things by a few years.

[XxSephirothxX]

I don't think the Matrix is coming to get us. We'll be inventing and improving for awhile. :p

[Tavrobel]

Technology is like interest growth. The more you invest, the quicker it becomes to get something out of it. In a year, we do more than what was once considered a miracle breakthrough that spanned 1000 years. Soon it'll become a week, soon a day. There's so much that we haven't done yet, like live on the moon, or to create a feasible super-conduction system. There's no way that we are at our peak, because human ingenuity will keep on adapting and evolving.

[Momiji]

... I don't even know quite how to respond to this. I mean sure, not so many people find the tech singularity plausable, and a fair number think we're going to wipe ourselves out soon, but I don't know many people who think we're reaching technology's actual peak.

Technology is only just starting to take off. The last century saw more technological advance than the entire previous sum of Human technological growth. Current trends suggest that, barring incredible catastrophe, we're just about reaching the point where growth becomes obviously non-linear. In normal Human lifetimes, those of us here now are going to be witness to the single greatest period of change in Human history by a far wider margin than you can imagine. But let's try:

Imagine that the radio, telephone (regular and cell), television, computer, internet, airplane, firearm, radar, iPod, DVD, radar, microscope, penicillin, MRI scanner, polio vaccine, smallpox vaccine, internal combustion engine, and plastics were all invented/discovered tomorrow. Literally in the space of 24 hours.

Now expand that a thousand fold. That's what we're looking at over the next forty years. After the midpoint of the century I don't even want to make bets, but we won't even be able to understand it without being augmented in some way ourselves.

Where are we going? Hopefully, towards the Culture, which is a futuristic society in a series of novels by Iain M. Banks. I intend to get us there. In reality, we're in a reasonably okay state now, and that is utopian, but GETTING from here to there is a larger challenge than I'd like to face.

But we do face it, and we can't stop it. Technology brings too much that's good, and is too uncontrollable. The only way to stop it would be a worldwide totalitarian state. The worst anyone could feasibly do is slow it down, but because it's exponential, even if you literally make things TEN TIMES more difficult, it'll only actually slow things by a few years.


Oww....my brain. x_x

Yes. Technology is always advancing and will continue to advance.

[blackmage_nuke]

If back to the future II is anything to go by we should have flying cars, hoverboards, holograms, auto drying/ auto fitting jackets and family sized pizzas that can fit in your pocket in about 8-7 years

Our printers and fax machines will however have an extremely bland font

[Araciel]

Yeah don't cite BTTF ... I'm pretty sure the original Lost In Space was supposed to occur in the year 1998.

[starboyK]

In the near future, say 40 years, the technology that will truly shape the planet as well as the path that humanity will take will most likely be in the micro-world of nanotechnology. That will ultimately lead to advances in the macro-world that we see and experience, however, I believe humanity will experience a period in time soon after that will resemble the Dark Ages- only in the sense that technology cannot continue to increase as exponentially as it may seem today. The technology spike that in a short amount of time may seem to indicate a smooth parabolic curve will most probably be seen in subsequent ages as more of an explosion of ideas resulting from the discovery and fine tuning of glassworks (or so it seems to me i.e. telescopes, microscopes, reading glasses, et alia). Not to turn this into some sort of essay or argument though, I just believe that a certain plateau will be reached where advances will emerge, but not on the daily basis that most seem to see in the future. It may take a few hundred years to reach that plateau and the universe by that time may be much less of an enigma, but for technology to continue exponentially forever would be saying that the more we find out about the universe in which we live, the faster we will learn that there is always more to learn even faster. (Yes, I know that terminology is confusing but that is what a parabolic curve would indicate) While mathematical geniuses will continue to expound on the work of their predecessors, and technology will continue to be fine-tuned, I do not believe that "the sky is the limit" meaning only that one day, humans could reach the sky where climbing more, while possible would be irrelevant and would occur more on a ideological desire to know rather than a "need to know" basis. On the other hand, I could just be full of crap. Either way, my head hurts so I think I'll stop typing now.

p.s. I've read many posts, blogs, etc., but this is the first time I have ever posted myself.

[Aerith's Knight]

i have never said it would continue exponentially.. that would be a bit crazy.. but certainly linear.. i myself am doing an internship in nanoscale technology and i will tell you now that there is lots more research and technology that will come from that engine.. think of tv screens that are only as thick as the glass they are put on.. and this is how it is today.. they already have that.. and of course its fine tuning now.. because almost everything has been done.. space travel.. done.. but perfected.. of course not!.. but technological advancement will continiue as long as there is something left in this universe that isnt understood yet.

[Mirage]

I think the technology we know today isn't even the tip of the iceberg of what we can achieve :p. I think saying that all we have left now is perfecting what we already have done is a bit, well, naive? :p. There are tons of things we haven't done yet. We haven't even been outside of our solar system. Personally, I'm looking forwards to space colonies, but I'm not sure if that will be done during my lifetime. Unless my dream of eternal life becomes true. It could be!

[Aerith's Knight]

isnt spcae colonies and going outside our solarsystem not perfecting space travel?

we even have fusion.. something really new.. would be.. like cold fusion

[The Ceej]

If back to the future II is anything to go by we should have flying cars, hoverboards, holograms, auto drying/ auto fitting jackets and family sized pizzas that can fit in your pocket in about 8-7 years

Our printers and fax machines will however have an extremely bland font

The future in Back To The Future Part II was supposed to be a jocular exaggeration. Of course, so was Demolition Man, but I'm sitting here watching those events unfold in real life.

[Aerith's Knight]

If back to the future II is anything to go by we should have flying cars, hoverboards, holograms, auto drying/ auto fitting jackets and family sized pizzas that can fit in your pocket in about 8-7 years

Our printers and fax machines will however have an extremely bland font

The future in Back To The Future Part II was supposed to be a jocular exaggeration. Of course, so was Demolition Man, but I'm sitting here watching those events unfold in real life.

and we already have holograms..

[Mirage]

isnt spcae colonies and going outside our solarsystem not perfecting space travel?

we even have fusion.. something really new.. would be.. like cold fusion
I wouldn't say so. Space travel is just a means for achieving those things. Also, those things I mentioned aren't all the things we've yet to do. I just can't be bothered to list everything I can think of right now :p.

[Madame Adequate]

If back to the future II is anything to go by we should have flying cars, hoverboards, holograms, auto drying/ auto fitting jackets and family sized pizzas that can fit in your pocket in about 8-7 years

Our printers and fax machines will however have an extremely bland font

The future in Back To The Future Part II was supposed to be a jocular exaggeration. Of course, so was Demolition Man, but I'm sitting here watching those events unfold in real life.

Yeah those three seashells are a big improvement over old toilet paper.

[snacks]

Yeah, we're all going to be replaced with robots soon.

It actually amazes me how far things have come. Hell, I didn't even know computers came with videocards any greater then 64mb's until a few years ago. And now I saw a computer advertised by Dell with 760 some mb's. So it makes me wonder if at some point things are just gonna be bigger by default (like operating systems) or in order to run os's we're gonna need some computer capable of doing everything, and the kitchen sink.

[Aerith's Knight]

there gonna use blue light wavelengths in computer machinery, so its gonna get a lot smaller

[snacks]

But I can barely catch up now! ; ;

[The Ceej]

If back to the future II is anything to go by we should have flying cars, hoverboards, holograms, auto drying/ auto fitting jackets and family sized pizzas that can fit in your pocket in about 8-7 years

Our printers and fax machines will however have an extremely bland font

The future in Back To The Future Part II was supposed to be a jocular exaggeration. Of course, so was Demolition Man, but I'm sitting here watching those events unfold in real life.

Yeah those three seashells are a big improvement over old toilet paper.

You know exactly what I mean. Don't make me get into the horrifying details that are Demoliton Man becoming reality.

[Heath]

I think that if you were to look at the technology we have now in 100 years time it would be even more vast a comparison than looking at the technology we had in 1907. With all the discoveries in the 20th century and all the vast technological improvements and scientific progress, we're in a brilliant position to build on such achievements and go on to bigger and greater things. I really don't think that 2107 will involve people laughing at how primitive our current technology is, but I think it'll be quite a startling comparison.

[Mirage]

If back to the future II is anything to go by we should have flying cars, hoverboards, holograms, auto drying/ auto fitting jackets and family sized pizzas that can fit in your pocket in about 8-7 years

Our printers and fax machines will however have an extremely bland font

The future in Back To The Future Part II was supposed to be a jocular exaggeration. Of course, so was Demolition Man, but I'm sitting here watching those events unfold in real life.

Yeah those three seashells are a big improvement over old toilet paper.
So, how did they actually use the seashells anyway?

[fire_of_avalon]

I don't think it matters. We're just going to blow it all up eventually.

[blackmage_nuke]

I don't think it matters. We're just going to blow it all up eventually.

I personally think it'll be more like an implosion

[Shlup]

We won't go much farther. We could, but before we do it will destroy us all.

Wouldn't that be awesome?

[Madame Adequate]

I still don't understand this "We're going to blow ourseves up!" thing. If it didn't happen during the Cold War, imo it shows it's bloody unlikely to happen, full stop.

Edit: Also, once we get self-sustaining space colonies, we'll kinda win at survival.

[Aerith's Knight]

I still don't understand this "We're going to blow ourseves up!" thing. If it didn't happen during the Cold War, imo it shows it's bloody unlikely to happen, full stop.

Edit: Also, once we get self-sustaining space colonies, we'll kinda win at survival.

once we perfect fusion.. its a real possibility..

i think a nuke will explode somewhere in the future.. but not a thousend of them.. maybe 5.. but thatll prob be it though

[Madame Adequate]

I still don't understand this "We're going to blow ourseves up!" thing. If it didn't happen during the Cold War, imo it shows it's bloody unlikely to happen, full stop.

Edit: Also, once we get self-sustaining space colonies, we'll kinda win at survival.

once we perfect fusion.. its a real possibility..

i think a nuke will explode somewhere in the future.. but not a thousend of them.. maybe 5.. but thatll prob be it though

Yeah well we've already detonated over two thousand of the things and we're still here just fine.

And we already have fusion bombs. It's the fusion power that we're trying to get.

[blackmage_nuke]

I still don't understand this "We're going to blow ourseves up!" thing. If it didn't happen during the Cold War, imo it shows it's bloody unlikely to happen, full stop.

Edit: Also, once we get self-sustaining space colonies, we'll kinda win at survival.

once we perfect fusion.. its a real possibility..

i think a nuke will explode somewhere in the future.. but not a thousend of them.. maybe 5.. but thatll prob be it though

Yeah well we've already detonated over two thousand of the things and we're still here just fine.

And we already have fusion bombs. It's the fusion power that we're trying to get.
Yep at the moment there really isnt any way that improving nuclear fusion can make it any more destructive

[Aerith's Knight]

no i didnt mean that.. psh idiots..

i meant fusion as power source.. then space stations and such can be a possibility.. at least we would have enough power to do so.

[Tavrobel]

So, how did they actually use the seashells anyway?

Maybe they used it like real toilet paper, except to scrape things off.


no i didnt mean that.. psh idiots..

I hardly think that calling someone an idiot is a good way to cover up your own unqualified statement. Plus, MILF has already preempted you, in case you were indeed talking about fusion power.


once we perfect fusion.. its a real possibility..

Notice here, there is no indication of what type of fusion you meant. Fusion power? Fusion bombs? Blood transfusion? Furion Stormrage? Cenarion Circle?


i think a nuke will explode somewhere in the future.. but not a thousend of them.. maybe 5.. but thatll prob be it though

This text here, serves to back up the previous point, it would make sense that the unqualified "fusion" you were speaking about referred to weaponry, as you started talking about nuclear weaponry.

[drotato]

As far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter either way. The world is going to hell sooner or later. ^^

[Rengori]

Edit: Also, once we get self-sustaining space colonies, we'll kinda win at survival.

Do we go to building Gundams from there?

[Loony BoB]

I'd say there are a lot of things we'll have to find our way through yet - technology wise and culture wise, too.

1) Energy. That whole cold fusion power type thing will be immense.

2) Jobs. There will come a time that doesn't look too far off where jobs will begin to fall away. There are more and more people in the world and companies are constantly finding new ways for one person to do the same job as two did beforehand. Once computers do start taking over more people's jobs - and they certainly will - I do wonder how long it will take before currency comes into question. Who will provide income for families? Will food be free? etc. etc. etc. There's just so much to go into here. x_x

3) Space travel. I sadly don't imagine it will happen in my lifetime, but I long for the day that manned space travel to other planets finally happens, and people begin to colonise other planets. This is probably the one thing that I feel will change everything, forever. If people ever get to the stage that they can fly from planet to planet in what feels like months, then we are certainly well beyond what I could ever hope to see. It almost makes me sad that I won't get to see such a thing happen.

All this flying car business? Yeah, that's not technology that is out of reach. That's already here, guys. It's just not a sensible or efficient mechanism in today's world as of yet. I think people will still be travelling in cars despite being able to fly for quite some time.

As for Artificial Intelligence, it's there already, too. I assume what you mean is just an advanced version of this - a 'thinking' robot, which makes it's own rules and it's own decisions. If we ever get to this, well, we're certainly getting to the point where one must consider the "I, Robot" and "Terminator" deals - but eh, I won't bother considering putting much thought into that until we're a lot closer to the time.

[Aerith's Knight]

i agree with all those points, except the AI one, a thinking, rulemaking robot can still only make those rules by the parameter the programmer gave him, again, he isnt making the decision, but the programmer is, because he gave him the algoritms and such to randomly choose something. its not AI, its clever programming.. and that can improve.

[BardTard]

I had a dream that I saw a flying car and I thought it was Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. I don't think technology will ever surprise us because it gradually gets better and better... With the technology we have we can always expect something else, you know? It's not like all of a sudden we've got something we've never expected. Like we're cavemen and all of a sudden we've got internet access and MP3 players.

There's still alot more technology-related stuff that needs to be... to be. Like a simple way to destroy your reproductive orgnas using lasers. Just zap 'em. You know, without damaging your skin or other organs... Why is that not a form of birth control? (is that safe?) Bah who cares. Safer than having kids. What's the worst that could happen? :lol:

Hmm now that I think about it, I can see that happening. I'd like to have my reproductive organs laser-zapped when they figure out that's an effective method.

Also, there will be more ways to deal with unruly hair. Also beneficial to me.

[Lynx]

im waiting for Nintendo to improve on there motion sensors so that i can have a real sword fight with the controller useing all the sword techniques and them actually being done on screen. also dot hack type of simulation would be cool except for the coma parts of it. so yeah we still got some distance to go with technology. just have to sit and wait or go out and invent. but inventing isnt for me damn solar powered flashlights that never sold.

[Madame Adequate]

2) Jobs. There will come a time that doesn't look too far off where jobs will begin to fall away. There are more and more people in the world and companies are constantly finding new ways for one person to do the same job as two did beforehand. Once computers do start taking over more people's jobs - and they certainly will - I do wonder how long it will take before currency comes into question. Who will provide income for families? Will food be free? etc. etc. etc. There's just so much to go into here. x_x

BoB's highlighted my greatest concern about the next decades. In fact, we're already at the early point of this stage - the 90s saw the longest period of jobless economic growth since the depression. Increased efficiency is rendering tens to hundreds of thousands of people jobless, and there simply are not enough jobs to take their place. We're still at a stage far from complete automation, so there are still enough new jobs being made for us to remain essentially as we were, but how we react to things over the coming decades will define our future societies. It could be utopian, or it could be dystopian.

BoB's also right on the flying car and AI stuff. We do technically have AI everywhere - it's surprisingly integral to our day-to-day live. But it's not the kind of AI we tend to think of when we hear the words, so it gets neglected. The only thing I'd disagree with is regards to space travel. In fact, it's reasonably likely that we will live to see it. It seems fairly probable that life extension technologies will start to arrive in a big way over the next couple of decades, so even if high-tech space travel is far off, we've at least some chance of making it there.