The WEB 2.0 As Religion.

[Procrustes Stretched]

Zócalo Public Square :: Full Video
zocalopublicsquare.org

[youtube]l6eG3hwbMY8[/youtube]

 

[Nate]

I can imagine there are constant ethical issues surrounding scientists as they create/improve ways to make life easier, especially in the fields of robotics or nanotechnology... With that said do I believe we should fear the future and take on a more Luddite view of it? I have to say no.
Maybe I'm a little overly optimistic about what the future holds for us(too many sci-fi novels growing up) but I see these two specific technologies, robotics and nanotech, helping us achieve what would be impossible. With robotics, we would finally be able to map the deepest parts of the oceans, use them on the battlefield, or do the dishes. With Nanotech, many diseases would be a thing of the past.
Don't get me wrong though, I can see the flip side of the coin. With robots, if they were to become self-aware then why wouldn't it replecate itself and do the whole "Terminator" thing. I mean we are more destructive to ourselves than anything out there. As for Nanotechnology, I can see it becoming the next form of WMD.
With all that said I guess the best way to put it is don't fear the future, embrace it and if you don't like the way it's heading, change it.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

I can imagine there are constant ethical issues surrounding scientists as they create/improve ways to make life easier, especially in the fields of robotics or nanotechnology... With that said do I believe we should fear the future and take on a more Luddite view of it? I have to say no.

Maybe I'm a little overly optimistic about what the future holds for us(too many sci-fi novels growing up) but I see these two specific technologies, robotics and nanotech, helping us achieve what would be impossible. With robotics, we would finally be able to map the deepest parts of the oceans, use them on the battlefield, or do the dishes. With Nanotech, many diseases would be a thing of the past.

Don't get me wrong though, I can see the flip side of the coin. With robots, if they were to become self-aware then why wouldn't it replecate itself and do the whole "Terminator" thing. I mean we are more destructive to ourselves than anything out there. As for Nanotechnology, I can see it becoming the next form of WMD.

With all that said I guess the best way to put it is don't fear the future, embrace it and if you don't like the way it's heading, change it.

One of my favorite sayings is "we are all Luddites at heart" and I use it in conversations where I am trying to make the point that, progress often sucks and there are losers to progress lying scattered all over the road.

Robotics and Nanotech will be part of the afterbirth of the science...the application of the theoretical. There will be wonderful things and there will be disappointments stemming from our desires. We will create individual life, but will we be able to, or ever want to, extend individual lives into eternity? Isn't part of life, death? Does not humanity live through offspring? We are a collection of genes we all share---that is who 'we' are.

I don't know about the "Terminator" scenario, but there is a conversation going on that Jarod mentions often and it concerns Technological singularity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One cannot embrace the future as the future does not actually exist. We only have the ever fleeting present.

[youtube]y9bVd3BspIQ[/youtube]​

one thing, I disagree strongly with an idea stated in the above video--- that human beings are biological computers.

note: the author reserves the right to backtrack and to also rethink the meanings of the words written.