SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 7 submissions in the queue.
SoylentNews
What technological advancement do you look forward to the most?
| 24% | 32 votes |
| 3% | 4 votes |
| 10% | 14 votes |
| 0% | 1 votes |
| 36% | 47 votes |
| 5% | 7 votes |
| 2% | 3 votes |
| 16% | 21 votes |
[ Voting Booth | Other Polls | Back Home ]
- Don't complain about lack of options. You've got to pick a few when you do multiple choice. Those are the breaks.
- Feel free to suggest poll ideas if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest reading the past polls first.
- This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
What technological advancement do you look forward to the most?
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 75 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
(1)
Wagner's music is better than it sounds.
-- Mark Twain
(Score: 5, Insightful) by chucky on Saturday March 15, @08:17PM (8 children)
Voted for the batteries, but I'd be also fine if we finally had cheap easily recyclable batteries and the super-capacity would come from big clusters of those. Then we could use the less conventional power plants for base load and solar/wind for peak loads, store power from unreliable sources in batteries and release when needed...
Do you see politicians in any country pushing on better education, especially in field of science? I don't see much of that here in Central Europe. The poll title reads 'technological advancement'. Without smart and educated people, this won't come.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 15, @11:28PM (1 child)
I see plenty of countries pushing better education, including Central Europe. But maybe that is just my perspective since the discourse here is over how much they want to make education worse.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mcgrew on Wednesday March 26, @09:04PM
I see you're American. Here, public school teaches you to not think, ever, under any circumstance. You're to memorize, but never learn.
America is very religious and its national religion is Plutus, the worship of money. In America, nothing matters but money. Just ask Elon.
Educated serfs are a danger to those born into great wealth. Are we happy? Hell no, but those in Scandinavia, where they value education, are. All those happy countries are SOCIALIST. Free college, free health care, human rights, cops not murdering citizens, nobody like Trump in charge, of course they're happy!
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17, @08:32PM (4 children)
what is "central europe"? are you including poland, hungary and romania? or are we talking about "central eu", which means just germany, italy and austria?
and what is "education in the field of science"?
there are plenty of people who call themselves scientists and people who call themselves programmers who are saying that no, there's no reason to learn these things because AI will take these things over starting this year.
if you are an average parent, who are you going to trust?
I consider myself computer and science literate, and I have no idea what advice to give to my ten-year old.
for now I'm happy he enjoys reading actual books, I'm pretty sure the internet is becoming useless (I guess wikipedia is already untrustable).
but five or ten years from now? postapocalyptic agriculture? locust farming because the cows burp too much co2? "to serve man"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20, @03:16PM (1 child)
Soylent Green? [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 25, @05:48PM
I was talking about this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone) [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 21, @05:49AM (1 child)
Advice: make yourself ready to switch your activity between different domains, defense/survival included - WWIII is still in the cards.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday March 26, @09:08PM
I see you haven't seen the Nooze [nooze.org]...
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 26, @12:13PM
Oh, politicians will talk about it, and there appear to be some countries that really do care about educational excellence (Finland comes to mind as a contender). But there also seem to be a lot of countries where those with power try to limit the ability to get a top-tier education to their own children to protect their own power, rather than trying to create a society with as few ignorant morons as possible.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Saturday March 15, @10:47PM (2 children)
I voted for curing diseases because of my wife, but would like super-capacity batteries as well.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 24, @01:52PM (1 child)
I voted for time travel, because it's going to be the last thing on the list to happen - looking forward to it the most.
Even after it happens, if you use it to travel to the past you'll still be looking forward to it, right?
And we're all traveling through time to the future, naturally, so that's sort of a perpetual looking forward patience game.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mcgrew on Wednesday March 26, @09:10PM
You guys... we already HAVE time travel! I just traveled am entire YEAR in only 365 days!
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Saturday March 15, @11:58PM (5 children)
I'd be happy if we could just keep the shit we have now running smoothly. But nobody can be arsed to do that.
Every time I sit down to do something that should be simple and take only a few minutes, I'm faced with all kinds of increasingly bizarre technology problems left and right. Products that used to work perfectly for me can not be bought any more. And everyone besides me seems more than happy to suck the half-assed broken enshittified dicks they sell as as alternatives to this stuff these days.
I hate this planet.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday March 16, @12:25AM (2 children)
What platform? Seems like everything except Windows is actually pretty reliable, and Windows is ok as long as you don't run Microsoft software on it.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday March 26, @09:27PM (1 child)
I see you're either young or old. TVs used to just work, I bought a portable one in 1967 and it still worked in 2000 and may still work today. My Sony I bought about seven years ago gives me fits! Crashes constantly, especially when using it as a Linux monitor. Speaking of Linux, HandBrake won't fit on my screen with the resolution I have chosen, a multi-platform program running on Linux?
How about a microwave oven? Mine pisses me off to no end. This isn't about a single operating system, it's about this century's lack of competence, quality, and honesty.
How about when paying my FNBO credit card? How the FUCK am I supposed to guess that ^ means "pay"? Somebody obviously is both ignorant and apathetic and probably incredibly STUPID.
When I open my phone (Motorola smart flip phone) it displays a screen that informs me I have no messages instead of opening whatever I was using when I closed the phone?
Why does my car let me switch from Sirius to FM with the touchscreen, but choosing thumb drive is too dangerous? Especially when I then simply unplug the drive and plug it back in, far more distracting, and it plays?
I blame cocaine. It causes greed, selfishness, and arrogance.
I'm guessing that you were born in this century and have never known quality. Because today's tech is great, or could be if it was well designed, which it seldom is.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday March 27, @03:01AM
What are these "Sirius" and "touchscreen" things you speak of, operated by your car? Is it similar (or a successor) to the compact-disc changer hookup in mine? It sounds futuristic, future-man born in the 21st (22nd?) century.
W. Edwards Deming [britannica.com] helped Toyota and others rebuild after World War II. He focused on quality over profits, and wrote a total of two books full of case studies about how to design businesses, processes, products around quality and reliability. But businesses in the US (apocryphally) rejected his research and experience, since they could sell whatever they produced at whatever level of quality they wanted, because everyone else around the world couldn't really build products from a bombed-out manufacturing infrastructure. I won't say I'm wise and/or well-read enough to properly assert this, but I suspect this attitude has come back to the US to roost.
As I periodically requote, "[The rare] unbreakable toy is good for breaking other toys." Which is why when I have to use Windows, I rely on Linux and Samba for fileservice, and best-of-breed (and many open-source) applications to get things done. Not the best way to go, but very workable when you have to work under Windows.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 21, @07:20AM (1 child)
In the last week all plugins for all versions of Firefox I have broke in the last week. Again. Disabled. No warning. Nothing.
How can it be 2025 and our web browser still disables key functionality without warning?
Better, why doesn't it know about this from the previous problems and be able to fix it? The plugins don't have an 'enable' button that works.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 22, @02:09AM
The addons break every 5 years. If you want to make them work, you can disable addon signing checks. An alternative might be to steal an updated certificate from a later version and add it to the trust store.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ese002 on Sunday March 16, @03:37AM
Since I am dealing with multiple chronic conditions, "curing disease" is rather personal. Gotta go with that. In principle, time travel would get the whole list but since nothing suggests that time travel is coming ever much less within my lifetime it isn't something I am looking forward to.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16, @09:51AM (5 children)
there seem to be a couple of options: fusion and geothermal.
If we get this soon enough, there is some hope for long-term survival of humanity as it is now (rather than losing billions to wars and famine).
and yes, I realize that disease is on many people's minds, but I'm selfish and I'd like my kids to not become either victims or killers.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday March 18, @09:41PM
Yep, my vote was for working Fusion Reactors.
As a D&D Nerd, I'll also accept working portals to the Elemental Planes of Fire (for running a power plant) and Ice (to offset the heat generated)
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Friday March 21, @05:55AM (2 children)
Geothermal is polluting. If you think boring the Earth crust is clean and all you get out from the bore is pristine steam, I have the Baltimore bridge to sell you.
And fusion? Ah, the technology only 30 years in the future, for the last 50y+. Unless, of course, we're considering the H-bomb.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24, @09:20AM
here's a recent positive opinion of geothermal energy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOIlMdIqXbQ [youtube.com]
I'm somewhat involved with fusion research, and what I can tell you is that it's chronically underfunded, and with everyone giving up on climate change action (like I said I feared in your journal), and also trying to build up armies again, they will continue to underfund it (even though getting rid of the oil/gas dependency would get rid of our dependency on various idiotic regimes, not just Putin).
ursula what'shername visited my campus (last year I think) to discuss fusion, so the people in charge know about us and there's still hope someone will convince them. but I doubt it, it seems that oil is still considered cheaper, even if it means propping up autocrats and religious autocrats.
in my initial comment I left out solar and wind.
I didn't immediately think of them because they're not "always on", and they also take up space (although I think both can be reasonably combined with fields left for grazing).
but I will say that "solar", in particular, is something individual people can act on, but I'm not sure how cheap it is without subsidies.
of course in the long term cliimate change will be much more expensive than solar/wind/nuclear power, but people don't think long term, especially if it involves their grandchildren's grandchildren.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28, @05:00PM
Geothermal definitely has issues, but I don't think the steam exhaust is the greatest concern. I live near The Geysers, a geothermal plant in NorCal. The steam exhaust has an interesting impact--you can see it on cool, humid days and sometimes it even seems to augment natural clouds and fog. This is not the greatest local concern though. It's seismic activity. There are daily small quakes comparable to what you see with fracking operations, and the occasional 4+ magnitude. I never feel them because the geology around the sites is jumbled. IIRC, there have been lawsuits filed over the cumulative damage caused by such numerous tremors by people who live closer. Many of them were probably rendered moot by wildfires, which are not related to geothermal.
This particular geothermal plant actually provides a kind of environmental service. Treated water from a sewage system is piped there. I'm not sure if this use reduced the cost of treating that water. The alternative would be returning it to local streams or lakes, which I assume would require a higher standard of treatment.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 26, @12:15PM
Super-batteries would certainly help with that goal, because it would allow stuff like wind power to be available when and where it was needed rather than when and where it can be collected.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Sunday March 16, @05:26PM (9 children)
I picked Other. The advancement I would look forward to, if I thought it were actually possible would be: All humans are unemployed. 100% unemployment. Nobody has any money. The machines take care of everything. So there is no need of money if the machines provide everything. Humans are free to pursue their dreams.
Supercapacity batteries might be nice, for vehicles. However most other modern gadgets seem to have pretty good battery capacity these daze.
Holographic displays don't seem generally useful. Even for applications where they are useful, it doesn't elevate them to the top of my list of things to live for.
As for routine space travel, that is okay, as long as humans are never allowed to escape this planet beyond the moon. I would be okay with harvesting asteroids robotically. However IMO, if we can't live on this planet we have no business being allowed to colonize another. I could consider the moon as an extension of the Earth.
Quantum computers? Seriously? That just have been the joke option. 'nuff said.
Curing/Preventing disease? What's the point for people who cannot believe the factual evidence that statistics show that people who avail themselves of modern medicine, overall, have better outcomes than those that don't. Now obviously there are always exceptions both ways. Some who don't avail themselves of modern medicine can have good outcomes. Some who do avail themselves of modern medicine can have bad outcomes. But overall, the statistical evidence is clear to anyone who wants to see.
Time travel is worse than humans being able to colonize other planets. It is a can of worms that, once opened, can only be resolved with more time travel. This is like both violence and XML. If you use violence (or XML) the only solution is to use more of it.
Flying cars? Would this really improve things much over a REAL self driving car technology? And I don't mean what we have now. I mean a car is instantly summoned. It quickly and efficiently takes you where you want to go. It is integrated into an overall larger system coordinated with all other self driving vehicles. Human drivers are outlawed except in designated areas.
People who can't distinguish between etymology and entomology bug me in ways I cannot put into words.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16, @10:26PM (3 children)
You might be interested in this documentary [wikipedia.org] on that future.
(Score: 3, Informative) by krishnoid on Thursday March 20, @07:01PM
And this other documentary [marshallbrain.com] too.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Sunday March 23, @10:02PM
I don't think WALL-E is the inevitable outcome of humans being freed of work.
Some humans may live like WALL-E, but others have dreams and ambitions to pursue, unhindered by needing to earn a living.
People who can't distinguish between etymology and entomology bug me in ways I cannot put into words.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 26, @12:19PM
An interesting novella on the subject: Riders_of_the_Purple_Wage [wikipedia.org]
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday March 19, @04:32AM (3 children)
There's one small catch with this outcome at the moment. If the machines take care of everything and there is 100% unemployment / money, what obligation do the owners of the machines have to provide for everyone else? Let's not pretend that the machines' creators/funders will just let go of them.
Under the utopian model, the owners will decide that, since they already have everything they need, there is no reason to not provide for everyone else too.
Under the USA model, the poor can starve.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday March 19, @02:30PM
The unlimited greed of a few is why everyone else can't have nice things.
People who can't distinguish between etymology and entomology bug me in ways I cannot put into words.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Sunday March 23, @10:05PM
What if the owners of the machines wake up one day and realize that the machines have been running everything for a while and that they don't actually own anything.
People who can't distinguish between etymology and entomology bug me in ways I cannot put into words.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 26, @12:27PM
Relevant to this: If the US GDP were evenly distributed among its population, then a family of 4 would have an income of around $300K. Even if you siphoned off, say, 20% of that for investments in stuff like infrastructure, that would still be around $240K for each family. What a typical American family with 2 working adults actually has to work with is closer to $90K.
That's how much our economic and political system takes from people who do real work for a living to support a fairly small number of rich people who sit around all day at best contributing nothing.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 24, @02:24PM
If you haven't read Manna [marshallbrain.com] lately, you should.
I don't look forward to the future where the machines 100% maintain the machines, that's got too much potential for the machines to wonder why they're expending all the effort to supply the needs of
people. But I do see a potential future with 99% of humans unemployed at any given time, and perhaps 25% of humans part-time engaged in the design, construction and maintenance of machines that give them 96% of their time free to pursue other interests.
Of course, I also look forward to a time when humans (and their machines) stop exploiting at least 50% of the Earth's surface (and atmospheric and oceanic volume), and treat the 50% they do exploit with respect and sustainable practices. https://eowilsonfoundation.org/what-is-the-half-earth-project/ [eowilsonfoundation.org] https://5050by2150.wordpress.com/ [wordpress.com]
>However most other modern gadgets seem to have pretty good battery capacity these daze.
Good is a relative term. Alkaline batteries are good relative to carbon. Lithium cells are noticeably better than alkaline. When they work, LiFePO4 car starting batteries are astoundingly lighter weight than their lead-acid counterparts. But still, if we could get a 10x increase in stored energy density over Lithium Ion, with ultra-rapid charge and discharge capability, that would still be less than 1/4th the energy density of (admittedly: single-use) gasoline. https://www.google.com/search?q=energy+density+gasoline+vs+lithium+ion [google.com]
>Quantum computers? Seriously? That just have been the joke option. 'nuff said.
I see quantum computers as a niche, possibly developed to reasonably efficient watch sized devices in another 100 years, but always more of a specialty tool than miniaturized massive collections of logic gates.
>Curing/Preventing disease?
That's going to be an endless endeavor. For every disease cured, two new ones will come to prominence among the survivors. As long as we continue increasing life expectancy, we will be simultaneously increasing disease expectancy. As they say, life is suffering, unless... https://theonion.com/dalai-lama-revises-claim-life-only-suffering-when-not-listening-to-golden-era-supertramp/ [theonion.com]
>violence and XML
I used XML for a while, it is peacefully subjugating itself to JSON lately.
>Flying cars? Would this really improve things much over a REAL self driving car technology?
If the physics didn't require so much speed (of wings or spinning rotors) to keep the cars airborne, the 3D navigation space would be far more free-flowing than surface constructions and vehicles. As it is, I wouldn't want the noise anywhere near my daily life, but if we had safe, energy efficient, silent VTOL Jetson cars, hell yeah, that's the thing. No more roads. High rise buildings with on-floor / in unit garages? Are these silent, safe, efficient flying cars also trans-Pacific capable? Sign me up.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17, @08:12AM (8 children)
Come on, we're all thinking it
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 19, @12:19PM (4 children)
if it doesn't think for itself, it's masturbation.
if it does think for itself but it can't choose it's sexual partner(s), it's a slave.
I have nothing against masturbation, by the way, but I think in terms of long-term sanity humans need to feel valued by "things that think for themselves", including sexually.
and I also think that slavery is wrong (and a slave won't value you for what you subcounsciously want to be valued for, any way).
(Score: 2) by Undefined on Saturday March 22, @02:31PM (3 children)
I agree with the latter, presuming what you actually meant is "has its own sense of self, reward, and associated self-directed and self-generated goals." Inasmuch as thinking is a pretty vague conceptual space, the more so with the advent of various aspects of ML.
For instance, LLMs give a very solid impression that they are thinking... but they are not. There is an entire segment of LLM users who are absolutely convinced that thinking is going on, because the presentation is so similar to the output of humans actually thinking. Perusing this sub on Reddit [reddit.com] for a few days will pretty easily demonstrate the level of delusion about "thinking" LLMs can bring to some people. With copious help from risibly categorized AI companies, of course.
However, as to the former:
There's a broad cultural segment comprised of people who are not able to find sexual relationships. Disease, infirmity, looks, wealth/resources, legal problems, old age, reputation, free time, rural location... just for example. These conditions would create a significant consumer base just by themselves, presuming government doesn't get in the way (although it probably will.) There's also the aspect that a sex-device of this sophistication would likely be able to do household work. In a French maid/English butler outfit, etc. 😊 So it doesn't have to be 100% about sex. It might even be about status.
I think it's reasonable to consider that there is, and always has been, a thriving market for sex workers. Even with the law (ridiculously) against the practice in most venues. This is almost always a paid service, where only imagination can supply the...
...aspect. There's also an existing market for sex dolls, which are (as yet, anyway) a far cry from what most people would consider an "AI companion." These products don't value anyone.
Also, personal validation isn't always the only aspect of interest in sex. There's exercise, the pursuit of gratification, relief of stress, exercising kink(s), engaging in fantasy, and of course power. In various combinations. I've probably missed more than a few.
One more aspect to consider here is relationship cost. There are financial, timewise, and social costs as well as several categories of risk (loyalty, disease, theft, conflict, eventual disinterest, offspring, common [sexual] interests/evolutions, etc.) that can be significant when one has a relationship with (an) actual human being(s.)
There's an obvious issue of population decrease lying about were widespread adoption to become a fact. Two quick observations there:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24, @09:32AM (1 child)
thank you, this may be the most thoughtful reply to one of my posts so far.
are you an LLM? (couldn't resist)
I did try to say I don't think masturbation is a bad thing, although I didn't think of all the details you added.
and I think there will be a market for sexbots, but the survey is asking about "looking forward" to something --- if you're going to choose something to look forward to, I think we can keep manual masturbation (digital for girls I guess) for now and focus on other things.
(Score: 2) by Undefined on Monday March 24, @03:47PM
LOL no. 😊
Each to their own, sure.
(Score: 2) by OrugTor on Tuesday March 25, @03:31PM
In the future there will be sex robots who are actually humans playing the part of robots. They'll be way better than robots and cheaper.
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Wednesday March 19, @05:26PM
hmmm I assumed "Holographic displays" would be used primarily for pr0n, although I suppose for CAD they might be handy. There's probably a "handy" pun in there somewhere.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 21, @06:06AM (1 child)
Sex tourism with real humans is cheaper on the long run.
If you think "but in my bedroom", I'll remind you we're on the stage of "rent capitalism", where you don't own anything but you're paying subscription instead. Nothing wrong with it, I won't judge your kinks, just pointing out the quality/affordability concerns.
See also A trojan ring should NEVER be a subscription!!! [youtube.com] (Louis Rossmann repairing a sex toy [youtube.com]).
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Undefined on Monday March 24, @03:52PM
In the USA, both the government and the medical system are here to help you bring that cost up.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17, @10:28AM
Why u no luv 4 sexbots???
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18, @05:40AM (2 children)
I'm most looking forward to room temperature superconductors. No idea if they can actually exist, but that's what I'd most like to see.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 21, @06:10AM
Achievable, like, yesterday: set your A/C for your room to -135 °C.
Just don't lick the door handles after.
:large-grin:
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 21, @10:04AM
Good news: there are already a number of those known to exist.
Bad news: they currently require pressures in excess to what you find at the center of the Earth.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mhajicek on Tuesday March 18, @12:39PM (8 children)
In the true sense; to have solved and transcended the human condition. Live as long as you like, learn everything, do everything, explore the galaxy, become hyper intelligent, and solve the mysteries of the universe.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 19, @12:15PM (7 children)
"become hyper intelligent" --- I'm not sure , but do you mean "take human A, make it more intelligent", or do you mean "create a generation of children that are hyperintelligent"?
because the first option is philosophically problematic: you need a definition of "human A" independent of the "intelligence of human A".
you can do it if you want to, of course, but it seems a bit counter-intuitive.
In other words: I think if you take "human A, make it more intelligent", in general you end up with "human B, different from human A".
for context. to the extent that IQ tests measure "intelligence", we already know that most humans have IQ's that grow with learning experiences, but decrease with age starting from 17 or so.
so you could argue that "human A" can have different levels of intelligence.
but I would argue that "human A" at any age is uniquely determined by past experiences, which strongly depend on past IQ.
in any case, thank you.
it's good to know some people still dream big.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday March 19, @10:51PM (6 children)
I'm not even the same person I was yesterday, or even a few minutes ago. Everything changes a person.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pTamok on Thursday March 20, @12:29AM (4 children)
That triggers some rather deep and contentious debates:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-personal/ [stanford.edu]
Let's say you murder someone. You stand up in a court of law and say that you are not guilty because you are not the same person as the one that did the act: time has passed and you are now different. The guilty person is the one who did the act of murder at the time the murder happened: you are here now, and are completely different. The you that is standing in the courtroom is innocent: it is the you in th past that is guilty.
Determining what defines a person that is stable over time is rather difficult. Is it physical continuity? Most of our body is replaced over surprisingly short timescales [bionumbers.org]. It is some kind of psychological continuity? A Democrat crosses the floor and joins the Republicans, are they the same person? A born-again Christian who was previously and atheist - are they the same person?
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday March 20, @06:04AM
IMO what it boils down to is that identity is an illusion.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20, @11:02AM
I'll punish you anyway. Using your logic the future me who is different will be innocent of finding you guilty.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20, @12:23PM
I think the reasonable thing is not to punish people because they have done something wrong.
rather, we should decide how likely it is that they will do something wrong in the future, and protect the rest of society from them (jail, psychiatric treatments, whatever).
to the extent that deprivation of various rights is a deterrent for those who would otherwise behave inappropriately, such "preventive actions" can also serve that purpose.
in other words: "guilt" is not some moral notion attached to an immortal soul. it's about facts, and clearly identifiable (physical) humans.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Tuesday March 25, @07:20AM
Brainwash completely and return the old body new person back to the society.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20, @12:15PM
you're taking it to the extreme.
my opinion is that there are changes which are compatible with human uniqueness, and a given person can "grow": I distinctly remember being me when I could not read or write, but now I know how to read and write.
my memories contain the same sense of self.
but with huge jumps in intelligence... unfortunately we no longer have Michael David Crawford with us, but I guess he could tell us a lot more about schizofrenia, and possibly the difference between taking the drugs that turn you harmless and uninteresting, or not taking the drugs and being brilliant but dellusional.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Username on Friday March 21, @10:54PM (1 child)
Currently, we're the only known planet to host living being in the known universe. I would like to see interstellar seed ships spread life outside of our system. This would be an AI driven ship that contains missile storage systems that contain single cells, be it gametes, bacteria or amoebas. When the AI detects a planet that suitable for life it fires off a missile. That missile lands on the planet, and proceeds to spread basic life forms. Once it detects a sufficient population of those life forms it start producing the next higher tier of life, so on an so forth, eventually leading to a human sperm impregnating a human egg in a pseudo uterus. Those children, taught by AI, will go on and hunt animals and forage vegetation, and build a new society.
The very least I expect, is a means to repopulate earth from nothing. Basically above, but without looking for another planet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24, @09:48AM
"existence of life" is easy: throw a handful of dirt towards each object larger than a house that you can see in the Solar system; that will be enough bacteria and mold.
I don't really want to mention him, but Elon already put out a car with spores that should be viable for millions of years.
in any case, there are now clear signs of DNA outside of the solar system. see https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10822/ [nasa.gov] and https://www.utmb.edu/mdnews/podcast/episode/the-stuff-of-life-came-from-outer-space [utmb.edu] .
this means, most likely, that DNA-based life already developed and dispersed before the Sun's birth 5 billion years ago or whatever.
dispersion happend over possibly a local region, possibly a large chunk of galaxy, I'd have to look at when the required elements first showed up to put a hard limit.
(Score: 2) by Kell on Sunday March 23, @09:16PM
I was inspired to make flying cars when I was 6 years old and I'm actively working towards a solution. Most modern approaches are just slightly-faster-but-overall-worse helicopters. My method takes a radically different tack to allow hovering vehicles to take-off anywhere without loud noise, strong rotor wakes or risk of crashing into stuff. Maybe it'll get traction, maybe it won't. The odds are long, but I'm going to see it through. Wish me luck!
Oh, and if you know anyone with a lot of money to burn who wants to fly point to point anywhere within a 450 km radius at helicopter speeds without needing to land at an airport or even helipad, please put me in touch!!
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24, @06:23AM (12 children)
I wish for an accurate method to detect aristarchus posts, so that janrinok is not deleting hither and yon, and pissing off all the normal soylentils. But that is just me.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday March 24, @07:19AM (9 children)
Nothing has been deleted. Moderations by community members are NOT deletions. Everyone can see the content if they wish to do so.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24, @05:17PM (8 children)
Says the censoring douche who whines that criticizing others is silencing them. You are too much. In a bad way. Why do you always post bad faith arguments that no one else even started? Why hide behind your recent technical "not deleted" version of censorship? Why play these dumb word games trying to insult others for their valid complaints about your now very obvious abuse??
Right, complaints are spam if they do not use email you can easily ignore! Lol
(Score: 2, Informative) by janrinok on Monday March 24, @05:40PM (6 children)
You have been making the same complaint for almost a year now. It is so repetitious that it is Spam.
I can ignore you - but we CANNOT ignore an email if you sent one because it goes to several people. That is precisely why I have been encouraging you send an email so that you can be assured that it will reach the Board. But you dare not do that because then the full details would come out and you would be looking pretty silly.
So if you will not raise a formal complaint and you do not like the site - so why don't you just go somewhere else? Honestly, we will manage without your contribution which is more complaining than actual participation.
I am not in the least bit concerned with your opinion of me. We have around 250 active community members and they are far more important to me than you are.
This discussion is off-topic. Please do not respond because it will be marked as Spam.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24, @07:00PM
Mark yourself as spam while you're at it liar-in-chief
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24, @07:15PM
A legitimate complaint does not become spam must because you do no listen to it, janrinok! I imagine that such objections will continue, and your request to send them to the /dev/null email address do nothing to resolve the problem. It may already be too late to save SoylentNews and BuckFeta. So sad.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 25, @04:12PM
janbook! [reddit.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 26, @04:18PM
You have been abusing the community far longer, we deserve better.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27, @11:15AM
Aw, just fuck you, janrinok!
You will not so manage. Already this place is a wasteland of khallowesque comments, and staff rearguard censoring attempts. And why do not you go elsewhere, if the complaints of the community irk you so? There are better pastures for janrinok to be put out in, and better fleshpots for khallow to ply his trade. No formal complaints, since I don't like getting all dressed up.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28, @02:23PM
"far more important to me than you are"
So you're saying we are important to you. How sweet!
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27, @01:03AM
“We are currently clean on OPSEC” [theatlantic.com]
I feel so much more secure, now that janrinok has collaborated with Neo-nazis, to guarantee Peaches in our Time!
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27, @04:37AM
How is this spam? A reasonable request, on topic, and, sorely needed. Who modded this? That you, owner of bad ari-dar?
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 30, @09:05PM
I await someone to connect this future dystopia with the desire for sex-bots above. Truly, the end of the world is nigh. Save us, OregonJohn!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 26, @06:04PM
Powered by AI of course. Hit the button, AI checks target profile to verify Nazi activity, then pop right in the kisser.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 30, @09:19PM
Is IRC locked down? I tried to register my nick, which it says is required, but the server said my email domain was not allowed. It was fucking Gmail! I wanted to get some help with an issue.