arstechnica.com — In the year 2020, Luddite terrorists attack technology infrastructure and artificial intelligences dominate earth. Or at least that's what 700 experts predict in the latest Pew poll. Is the future really going to be like a science fiction movie? Ars Technica examines the scenarios presented in the poll and makes humorous Star Trek comparisons.
Sep 25, 2006 View in Crawl 4
legendxSep 25, 2006
lol great reference of gundam:P
dhalgrenSep 25, 2006
"Jules Vern wrote a book about going to the moon in giant rockets in the 1800's, and look how that came true."He also wrote a book about journeying to the center of the earth and of creatures living down there...
dhalgrenSep 25, 2006
Dune was good...
apeatlingSep 25, 2006
"It's simple, one just needs a DeLorean, a Flux Capacitor and some plutonium."Or a bunch of garbage if you stopped off in 2015.
johnboiwaltuneSep 25, 2006
20th century humans stuck in the violent/irrational/xenophobic mindset have *literally* wired the Earth to explode due to idiotic arguments over imaginary beings and half-baked economic systems, and in the 21st century there will be increasingly more fingers on the button. Someone's gonna press it eventually.We can try to genetically engineer people who are less prone to violence, irrational beliefs, and xenophobia. Humanity carries the seeds of destruction in its own genome, which is optimized for short and brutal lives of tribal warfare. Natural selection isn't working quickly enough to keep pace with our changing sociological circumstances. We need to take the responsibility to re-engineer ourselves, and found self-sufficient offworld colonies, leaving our genetic and cultural baggage on Earth.
stevethegreatSep 25, 2006
I think that most of the predictions made for the future was ultimately wrong, just because they were very pessimistic. I don't think we now live in a world less complicated than the one some people envisioned in '60s, I think our present is a lot more advanced than any 60's visionary's future could be. Worldwide web is sth most of you look upon, but www was a lot greater invention than the flying cars or any other cheesy fantasy of the 60s. Advancement goes the way were information can become more easily manipulated, so that's why the flying cars paradigm so false, obviously the web was a lot better on that respect.The problem starts where people think of technology as sth of itself instead of thinking it as the continuation of a greater evolution scheme. It's nothing otherworldly happening here buddies, it's just the manifestation of evolution (I'm not talking about Darwinian only here). In other words all these "predictions" are cheesy only because greater thing going to happen, not in a way most of the people envision but in an entirely new and original way. It's how entropy works.Most of the remarks in that digg thread are extremely short-sighted. Remarks like we're leaving like our grandparents did, only with some more gadgets thrown in ..... NO, f*ck. I mean if you believe that your way of think and living has more than few things to do with the ones of your grandparents at their times, then you're stupid beyond redemption. We're leaving in an entirely new thing never imagined before. For example I never imagined to learn how to cook in my teen years, even more I would never do so back into 70s but now things are a lot different. Through the web I became -through the course of 2-3 years- an exceptional cook that most people have things to say about. Now in the previous example would require a whole life of cooking to achieve such a status in the earlier decades and I only did so in 20 times less time, you may say I'm the exception but I'm not there is a whole trend of such thing happening today. You can also say that "oh well not much of a difference of a yesterday's society, just some people with 1 or 2 more abilities than previously imagined", but that's exactly what I talk about. These one or two more abilities manifest themselves in the real world in a magnificent way, things-people are a lot more complicated today. So to all those believing that nothing changed, except the expression of things, read your history better the next time and learn to compare.
slybriSep 25, 2006
A Third World War is necessary for us to reset the socio-economic, political, and religious divisions of Humanity that inhibit out technological progress and unite humanity. If we survive this inevitable World War 3 with a decent percentage of the population and with our scientific knowledge preserved, we can make technological progress without worrying about politics, religion, terrorisim, or corporate greed. (How can we have flying cars if we can't even get on a plane without a strip search?) Science and Industry will be devoted to the progress and betterment of all mankind (the golden rule), rather than corporate domination or financial gain. It will be a Golden Age of Humanity as long as we can survive the inevitable 3rd World War. A Star Trek world, I hope. Of course it probably will turn out a Mad Max world of Nuclear holocaust and savagery, or a Blade Runner world of feudalistic corporate run mini-states and greed.
evgenSep 25, 2006
> The problem with most future predictions is that they are relying on > a society that's acceptable of new ideas and concepts. You are currently living the a society that is more acceptable to new ideas and concepts than any other in history, you are just don't notice it.> The concept of the electric car has been around since the early 20th > century but we're just now implementing hybrid cars. It took a > company in Silicon Valley to actually put an electric car out. That is because until just recently this vehicle was completely impractical. The strange thing is that it was the internet that made this vehicle a reality. How? Until the internet enjoyed widespread availability no one had any reason to carry around a computer, there were few tasks a laptop could perform that a pen and paper could not do just as easily. Until people started carrying around laptops there was no impetus to push investment into new battery technology with high energy density, most portable energy needs were well-served by standard lead-acid and alkaline batteries. Until high-density batteries were developed the electric car was an impractical toy most frequently used to tote fat-assed white guys around golf courses. The electric car was a dumb idea until quite recently, but for completely practical reasons and not because society was somehow unable to adapt to the concept.> Most people in our world are deathly afraid of change and will fight it every > step of the way, because it means they have to learn something new and > step out of their comfort zone. Which is why all successful technology adapts itself to the prevailing "comfort zone" and slowly pulls the rest of society in a particular direction. Once societies start to adapt and assimilate the new technology it is possible for new technologies to be introduced that pull things a little further in another direction. Sometimes you can't get from A to C without going through B.>Sure we'll have some advances in random areas in the next 20 years, but > I don't think anything to drastically change the way we live our lives today > will come for quite some time, and we won't even notice since it will be > so gradual.The change is _always_ gradual, which is why you don't even notice the changes that are happening right now that you will look back on in 20 years and say "wow, things really changed a lot since then." The advances that will radically alter your life within the next 20 years have already been invented, they just have not been refined, polished, or packaged yet.
stevethegreatSep 25, 2006
Yeah, like now -circa 2006- we're merely an updated version of the 1000s. World changed a little bit in the last 1000 years and I except -alongside Jammerdelray- to happen the same in the next 1000 years. Oh yeah, my friends, change never occurs (only a little little little bit of it)
videoctSep 26, 2006
people should not confuse technology with human progress. Most technologies, yes even medicines, make human life easier and perhaps makes people live longer. But basic human characteristics of guilt, greed, selfishness and stubbornness lead to most human to human conflicts. Technology makes such conflicts either better or worse. Only a change in the human characteristics, which does not happen in decades mind you, can avoid future conflicts.
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