Posts by CBN 12 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jul 2013
I'm sorry, but I don't know which timeline you tried, but I've just come back from the future and, by Q2 2014 there was/will be no loss. BB goes/went bankrupt in Q1 2014. There was/will be rumours that they tried to save the company through some dodgy software demanding 2 Bitcoins...
Perhaps the reversable connector will also stop idiot companies like Canon from subverting USB and adding proprietry extra pins to the mix (why does the Canon G12 require so many pins on its non-standard mini-USB connector just for AV?! Anything to screw the consumer who wants to make their own longer cables...)
At least they got rid of the ludicrous slippery glass back by the looks of things. However, non-recessed buttons kill this for me. Isn't it about time LG made a phone that has function over form? I liked the Nexus 4 but I eventually got an HTC One X+ because it's just a nicer phone to hold and use (power button on top - where it should be).
Am I allowed to say:
So the decider is always a woman?
Or is that sexist nowadays?
Enquiring minds need to know...
(But seriously, if you haven't got the balls (sheesh - sexist again!) to say "he" then why not just keep using "decider" instead of "she". "she" is just sexist positive-discrimination nonsense. And before you start - my boss is a woman and one of the best managers I've ever had. Then again, perhaps it's sexist to admit that...)
There are so many problems that I don't know where to begin. Here are a few:
1) Not everyone wants to sit around and have leisure when they can sit around and control other people. You assume everyone has the same motivations, desires, aspirations, and goals. (only your robots are identical - humans aren't).
2) Even if you achieve this "utopia", I predict the suicide rate will increase, as will early deaths through natural causes. Remove the will to live (which is forced upon us currently) and there is no reason to live. Again, some individuals will just give up, while others will find it inspires them. I predict most people are in the former group.
3) Who is going to design better "things" we will consume? The robots? You either end up with stagnation or you end up with robots ruling the world and having no use for their former masters.
4) Research will be needed on human diseases - both current and future ones. Who will do this? Your robots won't be much good in drugs companies doing this research unless they have AI... but why would they bother if they have AI and don't need us?
5) Related to 4: antibiotics will fail before we reach your Utopian dream, I'm afraid.
6) Without oil the world won't run (think of all the plastics needed for your shiny new "things", for a start). It's debatable when it will run out, but it's a given that it will.
7) For your Utopia to work it would require a world government and for this event to happen everywhere to everyone at the same instant. It won't. Wars will be fought on the back of it.
8) Crime, hackers, and "getting one over" on your neighbour will still happen. It's human nature. See point (1). Who will police this? What will happen to the justice system when careers don't matter any more because we're all too lazy to care?
I'll stop now. You get my point (even if you don't agree with some points): it's horrendously complicated and I doubt very very much there will ever be the Utopia that this article describes. It's human nature to always shoot ourselves in the foot and never remember lessons until the mistakes have been made countless times. Robots won't alter that.
"Has anyone asked Mr. Glass why "one or many viewers" would want to "experience [your] life AT THIS VERY MOMENT" [emphasis mine - TFMR] rather than living their own?"
Oh dear. Most of you are so blind - and as others have said before, for a nerd, techie readership it really is sad.
I'm no great fan of Glass, but this is the future. As for why would anyone want to experience someone elses life rather than living their own, just take a look at any of those celeb mags - OK!, Hello! etc!, etc! Countless people with pointless little lives want to live other peoples lives. Can you imagine any of those talentless people like Gaga, or Paris Hilton, or Simon Cowell wearing Glass (or whatever it develops into)? Sure, you'll only get their edited version of "their" life - but I'd bet you everything I own that this WILL become a reality and people WILL flock to this. Just look at Twitter and the hundreds of thousands who hang on the every word of pointless "famous for being famous" people.
Coming to a face near you very very soon.
I am willing to bet that a) those complaining about Glass will be in minority when the public gets the chance to buy them. b) It will be popular.
I cite two examples of why (b) will be true and therefore why (a) will also, as a result, become true:
- When mobiles looked like bricks people still bought them. Now they are ubiquitous. I'm sure if we did a Usenet News search we'd find a "Why would anyone want to be seen talking into a brick".
- The public don't care about privacy. They think they do, but they don't. Look at Facebook. Look at Twitter. There may be the occasional concern about data privacy, but Joe Public, at the end of the day, wants convenience. That trumps privacy. Glass is convenience.
As the posting at the top said: "Good luck avoiding this tech". The Reg ("glassholes" - chiildish and doesn't move the debate forward) and some of you can diss this as much as you like, but it's inevitable. I'm not saying I'm a supporter - I'm just being a realist. Sitting in your armchair shouting at the screen won't change the course of things. And if Google stopped this tech, someone else will take over. If you want to stop it then perhaps you should be arguing against ubiquitous wifi - and maybe even the Internet itself.
Fond memories of these:
Doom, because I wrote the first level with intelligent traps and puzzles (Barrel.wad) and
Quake because I wrote the first intelligent bots in "Quake C" that knew the levels. Yes - I beat Steve Polge to that one as I released Eliminator Bot in August '96, several weeks before his Reaper bot. Mine was technically superior as it used waypoints for the maps and he didn't use that idea until he started working for Epic. Sadly (?) I got a new high paying job and quit work on games, thus he got the job at Epic and I didn't. Such is life - wouldn't change it if I could, although I bet he made millions.
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