Eh oh!

Technology changes to fast, just when you think your adjusted to something......something new comes out.

Think about this:

Humanity has become the hostage of technology, because only fast technological progress is able to transport millions of tons of goods, grow millions of tons of food, for the billions of starving mouths. If humanity is to grow and expand, technology will grow exponentially.

Going primitive isn't the answer. Getting education is. Too many fucktards that have NO FUCKING idea how a radio or battery works cause too many problems. Shitfuck, I could make loads of cash if I invested some into diagnostic equipment and like two PC's, because todays average Joe know shit about computers, not to mention electronics, mechnical things etc. Too bad he was busy fucking a sock when he had chem and physics classes.

Eh oh!

Technology changes to fast, just when you think your adjusted to something......something new comes out.

Think about this:

...only fast technological progress is able to transport millions of tons of goods, grow millions of tons of food, for the billions of starving mouths. If humanity is to grow and expand, technology will grow exponentially.

Going primitive isn't the answer. Getting education is. Too many fucktards that have NO FUCKING idea how a radio or battery works cause too many problems.

An interesting and worthwhile subject. Education is part of the answer but it also means recognizing when the technology has not really changed in a way resulting in improvements but has only been altered to look and behave differently.

Consider the SR-71 Blackbird. Engineers at Lockheed started working on that in 1959 and it started flying in 1964. What kind of computers did thay have in 1964? But what sense does it make to watch a television commercial about a car in a wind tunnel in 2008 when engineers could design a machine capable of over 2000 mph 40+ years ago? The changes in the bodies of the cars are not really technological they are just stupid marketing bullshit.

But how much of that is happening in software now? The new version has some features that you may not even want to learn but they change something that you used in the old version so you have to relearn what you already knew how to do. A lot of the changes are useless and stupid.

I read last year that Intel was supposed to come out with an 8-core processor some time this year. I thought, "That IS really impressive but I really don't give a damn." I may buy a used one in two or three years. LOL

The true changes that are improvements with real benefits would not be hard to cope with if we didn't have to spend 90% of our time readjusting to useless variations that nitwits keep telling us are improvements.

DT

that.
Plus, a lot of recent technology makes the struggle to learn useful information easier but the desire is somehow lessened. People are less willing to be held accountable for their actions, so there are more ways to escape punishment, and there are more ways to catch them. It's not just knowledge that is power, because there's too much useless information out there. Still, I guess you could say we really are following our natural path, we're evolving.

I will agree to the bullshit campaign with bullshit improvements. People sometimes just want new-looking stuff, it's the marker of your social position. I'm still guessing that most of these people just don't know shit about what they're buying, I'm still using my 6 year old PC and am only considering a new one because I need to use photoshop alot and this one barely manages.

But like my father once said (complete idiot): "Hey, Vista i newer, so it has to be better". Yep, they just trust that if someone puts something new on the market, then it HAS to be improved in some way. He knows shit about computers, but he's not justified since it's all easy to learn if he moved his ass from the TV chair.

Also reminds me of the lady who baked her cat in the microwave, 'cause she was probably sucking jock dick when she had physics at school. Hell, if I don't know how something works, I either leave it alone or try to figure it out, not put my beloved feline companion inside.

technological advancements has obvious accelerated in the past.

1.5 million BCE- stone age
3500BCE-wheel
3000BCE - bronze age
1200BCE - iron age
800CE - gunpowder
1436 - printing press
1595 - microscope
1693 - calculus
1698 - steam engine
1796 - smallpox vaccine
1800 - volta's pile
1867 - dynamite
1895 - wireless
1928 - antibiotics
1934 - nuclear power
1940's - computers
1960's - internet


though i reckon it would slow down as there fewer and fewer important discoveries made

, I'm still using my 6 year old PC and am only considering a new one because I need to use photoshop alot and this one barely manages.

Buy a used 2 year old computer and install a new hard drive. Maybe keep the old one as the D: drive. A two year old computer should be a dual-core 2.5 GHz at least. You could try GIMP for Linux. There may be a Windows version.

DT

Buy a used 2 year old computer and install a new hard drive. Maybe keep the old one as the D: drive. A two year old computer should be a dual-core 2.5 GHz at least. You could try GIMP for Linux. There may be a Windows version.

DT

GIMP works on Windows...

It's not just knowledge that is power, because there's too much useless information out there.

can't say what is "useless" and "not". I mean there's peoples hobbies that are 'useless' too...

Better get used to increasing speed of technological advancement, 'cause it's only getting faster:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1

I think artificial intelligence is mostly BS and it it has a chance it is a considerable way off, like 40+ years.

Computers are von Neumann machines. They are high speed symbol manipulating machines. The problem is they do not understand what the symbols mean. They manipulate the symbols according to a program created by people that understand the symbols so it gives the impression of intelligence and it performs the manipulation faster than humanly possible. Complex software with multiple decision points becomes difficult to predict because the permutations occur faster than human thought processes.

But though you can store a movie on you hard drive and play it on your computer try finding a program that can watch a movie and explain what it is about.

DT

Actually, it seems that the most important technology that we've known today developed in the last 3 maybe 4 centuries.

I think what you mean is electronic technology (and everything assosciated with it, which doesn't neccessarly have to be electronic), right?

Are you kidding? There's hardly anything out now that we couldn't do in 2000. The technological capacity for "videophones" has existed for decades, but they are still not commonplace. voice quality is absolute shit on telephones and streaming feeds, despite the fact that technology DOES exist to make them crystal clear. My stereo is hooked up to speakers that my DAD used in college (and they sound great!). It seems like technology grows, then spreads. Cyclically. Ex: Cars were invented,then used by an elite few, then spread, with few real improvements. The Ford Model T got 13-21 mpg, and was a flex-fuel vehicle! 100 years later and we haven't been able to manage much better.

How can a human, who is not a chess master, write a program that could beat a chess master? It is possible in a virtual world, where a computer can cheat (ie. fps games where the computer can be programmed to score headshots) but not in the real world, where there are strict laws. Yup, I think that we can expect AI in the near future (20-50 years).

Sentinel, it's hard to use just one analogy like the model T. Today's vehicles not only boast of the much the same mileage, but of much sturdier, safer construction, also allowing for better speed and acceleration.

And besides that, technology is self-reliant. Alot of major physics breakthroughs happened in the first part of the XX century, but we couldn't use them because there weren't the needed materials. Read about LCD stuff, it was "invented" in the XIX century, but the first working one was built in the 60's.

How can a human, who is not a chess master, write a program that could beat a chess master?

Computers have a speed advantage over human beings.

It takes about 1/100th of a second for a for a nerve impulse to travel from the tip of your finger to your brain.

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/DavidParizh.shtml

Electricity travels at nearly the speed of light. So compare 300 ft/sec to 170,000 miles/sec. Transistors switch faster than brain cells also. So a chess program can operate by doing exhaustive testing of possible moves and would test branches that a master would not even consider. So what looks like intelligence in computers to most people is extremely fast stupidity. We just see the result of the computer winning. Try asking the computer if it enjoyed the game and see what happens.

DT

Even given that, the best computer chess programs are, at best, marginally better than a chess master.

On the other hand, we must consider that chess is a very specific subset of parameters. Change the rules a little bit, and a computer is nearly worthless. Take, for example, the Chinese game of Go. Even the best computer programs are pretty terrible at it. True, some of the reason for this may simply be that it hasn't gotten the attention of chess, but it also is not as vulnerable to a "brute force attack" like chess. There's billions of possibilities, and considering them all isn't going to help; you need a strategy. You need to think. Quite possibly the biggest roadblock to AI development is that we can't bridge the gap between executing commands and becoming self-aware.

Future Shock. Alvin Toffler. If you're interested in things changing too fast, read it.

Future Shock. Alvin Toffler. If you're interested in things changing too fast, read it.

That is funny. A blast from the past for Future Shock protection?

Copyright 1970. LOL

DT

PS - Read it long ago. No home computers than. Inter-WHAT?

That is funny. A blast from the past for Future Shock protection?

Copyright 1970. LOL

DT

PS - Read it long ago. No home computers than. Inter-WHAT?

Heh. Right. But, the main reason I'd recommend it is because of the concept of future shock and increasing change in it. Some of his ideas are outdated for sure, but the concept of sensory overload and some other stuff he mentions is still relevant I think. Way to call me on my shit, though.

Way to call me on my shit, though.

I wasn't objecting to the recommendation. It's a good book.

I still remember the part about his saying that if people have too much change in their lives the statistical probability of dying goes up. It is probably more than 30 years since I read it.

DT

I finished watching Speed Racer; and the world portrayed there is interesting. I wonder how far it is from reality in many places? The closest thing I could think of was in some of the larger cities with how everything was so fucking shiny, colorey, bright and sparkling, LED displays everywhere and shit, etc. (like say, Tokyo).

Assumign no ww3, Oil Peak, etc. I see it happeningi n the next 5-10 years. Newer buildings would have more of this stuff...

...then again if I say go downtown later on in octobber/november I might see more given the earlier dark, etc and more people/stores/etc open during the night...

EDIT: Honestly, I don't experience much of a 'future shock' then I'm a huge fucking nerd who likes technology :F

Doesnt change fast enough.

nanotech bionic implants.

Thats what im talking about.

We could be seeing all that cool nano and bio shit in the next 50 years or so, technology is changing ever faster and what we though we could expect in a hundred years might be just round the corner.

Nanoshit amazes me, I mean after getting info on viruses and cancer, how it operates, it just gave me the creeps, like omgwtfbbw, and I think that some day we'll have our own viruses (either biological or nanomechanic).

But this also poses the threat of getting old. Look at older people or people 'not in the know'. You can sell them any PC with a pentium celeron, and they'll be happy they didn't waste cash on a nice quadcore or something like that. Just because they have no idea what the fuck fsb means or that cache isn't some french word for buttsex. And they cannot, for the love of god almighty odin zeus, repair their shit.

That leaves the world open to engineers, programmers and what not, they'll be the people in charge in a world where everything depends on machines and programs. And hackers. Sweet, sweet cyberpunk :) .

That leaves the world open to engineers, programmers and what not, they'll be the people in charge in a world where everything depends on machines and programs. And hackers. Sweet, sweet cyberpunk :) .

Yay The Nerds win!

well the quote "Be Nice to nerds-you'll be working for one" is true XD

well the quote "Be Nice to nerds-you'll be working for one" is true XD

Sorta. Business majors don't have to work very hard in college but they often have control over the engineers.

Look at older people or people 'not in the know'. You can sell them any PC with a pentium celeron, and they'll be happy they didn't waste cash on a nice quadcore or something like that. Just because they have no idea what the fuck fsb means or that cache isn't some french word for buttsex. And they cannot, for the love of god almighty odin zeus, repair their shit.

Oh, please.

I was installing static RAM cache chips for 486/66s in '93 or so.

The fact is we need BS bloated inefficient software to waste the processing power we have.

We need Aero in Vista to drain people's laptop batteries. ROFL

It is no longer the power of the computer but what you do with the computer that matters unless you are a gamer. How much processing power does accounting need but you don't hear educators saying accounting should be mandatory in the schools. How smart are computer programmers if they can't figure out planned obsolescence is going on in cars 39 years after the moon landing? What is the NET WORTH of the average programmer? How many don't know what it is? What about the DEPRECIATION on that Quad-Core? I tell people to get used computers and replace the hard drives. Buy a new computer and lose 50+% in depreciation the first year. I would rather buy oriental rugs. They don't become technologically obsolete.

http://www.bsu.edu/news/article/0,1370,-1019-11714,00.html

Believing the sci-fi about nanotech is entertaining but don't forget the REAL ENGINEERING. These devices would require power sources. What would that be? Power sources produce waste heat. How would a body get rid of the heat produced by these devices inside it?

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of The Future", 1961 (Clarke's third law)

If you don't understand the physics it's magic. How many programmers don't understand electricity?

http://www.torrentreactor.net/torrents/901263/Teach-Yourself-Electricity-and-Electronics-(Gibilisco-McGraw-Hi

Is knowing about the Front Side Bus more important than benchmarks? My OLPC beats an IBM mainframe from 1978 that cost $3,000,000. It is just a question of what you use the computer for.

DT

Sorta. Business majors don't have to work very hard in college but they often have control over the engineers.

do they tend to be the nerds or more social people? I see both possible

The fact is we need BS bloated inefficient software to waste the processing power we have.

as nice as some of the Vista features are, yah. Basic vista functions and atuff that comes with factory on my new laptop takes up ~1/3 of my RAM.

It is no longer the power of the computer but what you do with the computer that matters unless you are a gamer.

I am a gamer; therefore I need that power and want moar :D

http://www.workersoftheworldrelax.org/