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I have seen the future, and it's pretty damn cool.
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Administrator
Posted 2009-03-11 8:44 AM (#1592)
Subject: I have seen the future, and it's pretty damn cool.



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This is from TED: "Sixth Sense" wearable tech.  You've got to see it all the way to the end.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

This is the kind of thing that my children will take for granted in a few years.

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jynnantonnyx
Posted 2009-03-16 9:44 AM (#1594 - in reply to #1592)
Subject: RE: I have seen the future, and it's pretty damn cool.



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I don't think I'm the only person creeped out by this sort of technology, even while admitting that it is incredibly cool. There's something disturbing about tech that proposes to do our thinking for us. For instance, there was a time when I memorized phone numbers, even if I had them written down in a phone book, because I never knew when or where I might need to call somebody. As soon as I got my first mobile phone, I slowly dropped the habit of memorizing numbers and let my phone do the thinking for me. Every so often I realize how easily I could lose every phone number I have if I only lose my phone.

As Neil Postman once wrote, all technological progress is a faustian bargain. Every technological benefit arrives with an accompanying deficit, without exception; even if the benefit outweighs the deficit, some damage is going to be done by each technological change. It's a "three steps forward, two steps back" sort of thing much of time, but sometimes it's two steps forward and three steps back. The latter regression is the stuff of which dystopian-future fiction is made.

It especially disturbs me in this video that the tech exists to create a sort of "profile" for any person you come across, either in the form of a tag cloud or (I suppose) a summary pulled from a database. Our information fetish is already creating massive privacy problems, and this will only exacerbate the problems. It's getting to the point where we begin to distrust people who don't have online profiles on Blogger or Facebook. (I even feel put out if someone I know doesn't have an Amazon wish list attached to his email address.) Information technology is developing at such a rate that we are unable to prevent the damage caused every time a disgruntled employee runs off with a company laptop. Personal information is precious and volatile, and we're tossing it around like napalm-filled balloons.

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Administrator
Posted 2009-03-16 10:31 AM (#1595 - in reply to #1594)
Subject: RE: I have seen the future, and it's pretty damn cool.



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jynnantonnyx - 2009-03-16 9:44 AM

It especially disturbs me in this video that the tech exists to create a sort of "profile" for any person you come across, either in the form of a tag cloud or (I suppose) a summary pulled from a database.

I'll have to agree with you here.  I love all the bits of this device save for the profiling part.  It reminds me of Cory Doctorrow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom .  In it, everyone is permanently wired from an early age.  They can see your "Woofie" frofile, which is a kind of prestige level a person achieves in a society that does not use currency etc.  It's an instant class identification system that I found disturbing when I read it.

Perhaps there's a limited use for that kind of technology for law enforcement or medical services.  It would be a huge benefit if a policeman could see what he's up against when he approaches a suspect.  For an EMT or doctor they could instantly see prior medical conditions that in an emergency could save a life.  Of course, if the technology exists somebody will use it for nefarious purposes.  Bit of a Pandora's Box.

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jynnantonnyx
Posted 2009-03-17 10:23 AM (#1597 - in reply to #1595)
Subject: Re: I have seen the future, and it's pretty damn cool.



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Yes, if the profiling tech were limited to government & medical uses only, that would truly place a great deal of power in a very few hands. Better that it be outlawed entirely than it be monopolized by Big Brother.
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jynnantonnyx
Posted 2009-03-27 3:40 PM (#1604 - in reply to #1592)
Subject: RE: I have seen the future, and it's pretty damn cool.



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From the BBC:

Social sites dent privacy efforts

By analysing links between users of social sites, researchers were able to identify many people in supposedly anonymous data sets.

The anonymised data is produced by social sites who sell it to marketing firms to generate cash.

The results suggest web firms should do more to protect users' privacy, said the researchers.

Computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Dr Vitaly Shmatikov, from the University of Texas at Austin, developed the algorithm which turned the anonymous data back into names and addresses.

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Pierre
Posted 2010-04-03 7:10 PM (#1833 - in reply to #1592)
Subject: RE: I have seen the future, and it's pretty damn cool.



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I just read the April 2, 2010 article on Techland, interview with Ray Kurzweil. I thought of writing my comments here to get some opinions from fellow SF connoisseurs. The article is located here:

http://techland.com/2010/04/02/an-interview-with-ray-kurzweil/

While I agree the first half of this century will bring a convergence of medical, electronics and other technologies, I cannot adhere to the dystopian view of Kurzweil in his related predictions (implants and other enhancing apps). The mere ethical and moral issues brought up will surely negate any (un)intended misuse of some of the technology and applications described. Kurzweil in fact describes forms of control that society is unlikely to sanction, with perhaps the exclusion of military applications that will abound (who said war is moral?). If I grasp further correctly the ramifications, this would form the base of a creation of an elite society. To be able to instantly "download" all information into your brain would certainly redefine competitiveness.

At best, some of the predictions are speculative and pure conjecture. At worst: Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.
.
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htaccess
Posted 2010-04-22 3:57 AM (#1894 - in reply to #1833)
Subject: Re: I have seen the future, and it's pretty damn cool.



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Reminds me of Bill Joys "Why the future doesn't need us" ( http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html ). Not sure I agree with him or Kurzweil, but I owe him a debt since I use vi(m) every day ( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/11/bill_joys_greatest_gift/ ).
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