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 »

Androids will be so strong, fast and agile that they won't need guns to disable or kill humans. Under a machine dictatorship, the police might only have batons, stun guns or swords. I'm weirdly reminded of feudal Japan, where the samurai used swords to enforce the law.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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Full-immersion virtual reality (FIVR) will be a great equalizer of humans since rich and poor people will have access to the same experiences. A poor person could "own" a virtual mansion that was as nice as a rich person's. The more addictive FIVR is and the more time people spend in it, the less the wealth differences in the real world will matter (e.g. - it won't matter if your FIVR pod is located inside a chateau in southern France or in a rented storage shed in middle America). And presumably, the less time you are in the real world, the less time you have for a job and hence money making, which will bring the rich down over time.

Also, if FIVR ever gives way to direct stimulation of the brain to generate pure pleasure sensations, then the experience will truly equalize between rich and poor. I can't imagine something better than pure, blinding pleasure.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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People say that jobs involving human connection, compassion, and empathy (like being a social worker or therapist) will be humankind's salvation from total technological obsolescence since machines will never be able to have emotions or warmth.

At the same time, those same people say that humans are becoming more narcissistic, shouty, and socially/emotionally obtuse with time, which makes humankind less equipped to do jobs involving human connection, compassion, and empathy.

I think the killer app will be machines that understand human psychology and can convincingly fake their own emotions.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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Autonomous probes that we send into deep space could scan any alien life forms they find and transmit the genetic and chemical data back to Earth, allowing us to synthesize it here in cloning labs. I admit borrowing part of this idea from the movie Species.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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Personal assistant AIs in your smart glasses, and/or android servants that follow you around will negate differences in intelligence, strength, and other skills between humans. Put simply, your machines will argue on your behalf, pick up heavy things for you, and beat up people who attack you.
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

They could also level the playing field in terms of personal judgement and morality by giving you real-time advice on all sorts of things.
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caltrek
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Re: My random thoughts

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^^^I am not that sure the paying field would be all that leveled. What I mean is that a premium would be placed on the ability to act upon the advice given. Those who could best take advantage of said advice would do better than those lacking in that ability. Contributing factors would include personal aptitude and socio-economic position.

After all, look at access to the internet. There are those that prosper form the information at their finger tips, and their are those that are waiting for JFK Junior to resurrect himself at Dealey Plaza.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

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caltrek wrote: Tue Nov 16, 2021 4:10 pm ^^^I am not that sure the paying field would be all that leveled. What I mean is that a premium would be placed on the ability to act upon the advice given. Those who could best take advantage of said advice would do better than those lacking in that ability. Contributing factors would include personal aptitude and socio-economic position.

After all, look at access to the internet. There are those that prosper form the information at their finger tips, and their are those that are waiting for JFK Junior to resurrect himself at Dealey Plaza.
An intelligent machine could at least warn people of their own biases and of the presence of misinformation.
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caltrek
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by caltrek »

^^^True, but some would be more willing to act upon that warning in an intelligent manner, while some...well...I think you get the picture, even before this post.

Edit: Although, this does remind me of something I noticed as a mid-level government bureaucrat. People tended to follow my direction the less passionate I was about advocating for any particular outcome. The more passionate I visibly became, the greater the chance that they would reject my advice.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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funkervogt
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Re: My random thoughts

Post by funkervogt »

Walking around my neighborhood, I found a good-condition electric scooter in a dumpster. A quick Google search revealed it costs over $400 new, meaning I can resell it for at least half that, assuming nothing is horribly wrong with the internal components. Also, I went to a scrap metal yard today for the first time and sold some leaky copper water pipes I had cut out of my house several weeks ago, and got a surprisingly amount of money for them.

This opens my eyes to how much quality stuff Americans throw away. Imagine how things would be different if you wore AR glasses that could tell you the resale values of objects within your field of view. Markets would be so much more efficient.
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