My random thoughts

Anything that doesn't quite fit in elsewhere...
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

Here's a clip from the movie A.I. where obsolete androids scavenge a dumpsite for replacement parts to fix themselves.


Those androids are captured by humans and grotesquely destroyed at a nearby "flesh fair," for the amusement of other humans.


This sequence makes little sense to me, and I doubt it will ever be a routine occurrence. First, notice that even the obsolete androids are more skilled and physically able than the average human. If an android became hopelessly disabled, I could see it being thrown in a dumpster, but if it's still capable of doing work, it would make no sense to destroy it. Unless the humans are paying $1,000 per ticket to see the androids destroyed, the manager of the flesh fair would make more money reselling his captured androids to poorer people (including overseas) and small companies that couldn't afford the newest machines.

Second, notice that the androids are able to fix themselves. This means it makes even less economic sense to destroy them since the cost of fixing one of them is very low, and possibly zero dollars. Today, a car goes to the junkyard once it is "totaled," meaning the cost of fixing it exceeds its market value. A large part of that repair cost is the labor fee paid to the human mechanic who does the work. Subtract the latter from the equation, and it becomes more rare for a car to reach such a bad state that it is totaled.

So labor would be zero, but the costs of replacement parts would also drop. This is because androids would be able to identify the specific subcomponents within themselves that had broken, and to fix or replace just them. Unless a human is a master mechanic, he probably wouldn't have the same level of skill diagnosing the problem, and would stop at a more gross level of diagnosis by determining that a whole component was broken and needed replacement, even if only one subcomponent inside of it was in fact broken and all the other subcomponents were fine. The material cost of replacing the whole component is obviously higher. Analogously, imagine that a car engine stops working because one of its pistons cracks. An amateur mechanic would remove the whole engine and drop in a new one, whereas an experienced mechanic would know how to remove and replace just the one piston. A master mechanic might even know of some way to fix the cracked piston, so it wouldn't even need replacement.

Third, humans instinctively form emotional connections to things that resemble and behave like other humans, even if only coarsely. There are of course many sadists and psychopaths who are different, and so there will be many future instances where such people abuse and destroy androids, but you'll never be able to pack a stadium with people who want to see human-looking robots tortured and dismembered. In fact, I predict that more liberal countries will have laws against android cruelty from practically the first day androids are introduced into the real world.

In countries that don't have such laws, hurting and killing androids will still be socially frowned upon, and refuges and "underground railroads" for unwanted androids would arise.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

Once androids exist, celebrities will make side cash by authorizing the manufacture of android copies of themselves, which could be used so long as the people using them paid royalties. This will lead to interesting scenarios like going to a bar where Elvis served the drinks.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

If everyone ends up living in Matrix FIVR pods, then real world standards of living will equalize across the world. A guy in a pod in an African hut will have the same quality of life as a guy living in a mansion in Los Angeles. Neither will leave their pods so it won't make a difference to them.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

funkervogt wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 2:22 am If everyone ends up living in Matrix FIVR pods, then real world standards of living will equalize across the world. A guy in a pod in an African hut will have the same quality of life as a guy living in a mansion in Los Angeles. Neither will leave their pods so it won't make a difference to them.
And, as I'm sure I've said here before, once intelligent robots become widespread, they'll raise the standards of physical infrastructure in every part of the world to equal levels, so a poor part of Africa will end up with the same quality buildings and roads as Germany.

More broadly, once machines are calling the shots instead of humans, the level of development across the world will start to equalize.
Vakanai
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by Vakanai »

funkervogt wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 2:22 am If everyone ends up living in Matrix FIVR pods, then real world standards of living will equalize across the world. A guy in a pod in an African hut will have the same quality of life as a guy living in a mansion in Los Angeles. Neither will leave their pods so it won't make a difference to them.
Not quite. There's a lot of quality of live stuff FIVR can't fix. For example, even if you can somehow add the sensation of taste to VR so both guys in this scenario can taste and feel like they're being served a five course dinner expertly cooked by a famous celebrity British chef (you know the one), the FIVR can't actually provide either of them nutrition. Even if they literally never leave their pods even to eat (and I pray this future scenario where people live entire decades without ever once stepping foot outside their pods never comes to pass) and have all their nutritional needs met through an IV, there's still a good chance the one living in the poorer nation will receive less nutrition through his IV and might therefore experience more health problems or a shorter life span. There's also the quality of life factors of energy - the African living in a hut might experience more power outages where the FIVR suddenly stops because his nation's power grid isn't so great - then he'd have to live outside his pod for periods while the guy in LA is still living it up in his personalized VR heaven. And there's climate change as well - if things get real bad, cities in developed nations might have to build domes to protect from the climate disasters we'll have caused, while the guy in the hut will remain susceptible to getting washed away in a flood.

Even FIVR can't solve all inequalities. And that's not even counting the possibility not everyone may have access to FIVR.
Vakanai
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by Vakanai »

funkervogt wrote: Fri May 19, 2023 1:13 am
funkervogt wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 2:22 am If everyone ends up living in Matrix FIVR pods, then real world standards of living will equalize across the world. A guy in a pod in an African hut will have the same quality of life as a guy living in a mansion in Los Angeles. Neither will leave their pods so it won't make a difference to them.
And, as I'm sure I've said here before, once intelligent robots become widespread, they'll raise the standards of physical infrastructure in every part of the world to equal levels, so a poor part of Africa will end up with the same quality buildings and roads as Germany.

More broadly, once machines are calling the shots instead of humans, the level of development across the world will start to equalize.
Except you're assuming that machines will be calling the shots, and not some government. Capitalism may continue on because people in power demand it remain so, allowing infrastructure inequalities to remain despite robots existing. Nevermind the possibility of state controlled FIVR pods, where if you live in a Russian or Chinese pod and speak against your government you might be forced to experience some truly horrifying tortures only survivable in VR.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

Androids would be supernaturally calm in chaotic situations (plane crash, shooting, brawl). The average one of them would be like a human with extreme fortitude. It would be kind of a joke.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

A common type of sex bot will be a replica of a character from a movie, video game, or TV series that a human developed a crush on. It would be weird and interesting to see android copies of characters, complete with their personality profiles and outfits, walking around.
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by wjfox »

funkervogt wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2023 12:33 am Androids would be supernaturally calm in chaotic situations (plane crash, shooting, brawl). The average one of them would be like a human with extreme fortitude. It would be kind of a joke.

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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

The fact that her rifle rapidly goes CLICK multiple times after running out of bullets was a nice touch that showed it contained more advanced technology than we have now.
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