The future is gonna be much different...

[-Ariel-]

Look how much we have changed in last 10 years all connected by thought patterns through 17 inch screens... online culture has become culture.

Here are the predictions according to Kurzweill, who's #1 book Singularity is Near is being made into a movie due next year.

2010

• Supercomputers will have the same raw power as human brains (although not yet the equivalently flexible software).
• Computers will disappear as distinct physical objects, meaning many will have nontraditional shapes and/or will be embedded in clothing and everyday objects.
• Full-immersion audio-visual virtual reality will exist.

[2010s

• Computers become smaller and increasingly integrated into everyday life.
• More and more computer devices will be used as miniature web servers, and more will have their resources pooled for computation.
• High-quality broadband Internet access will become available almost everywhere.
• Glasses that beam images onto the users' retinas to produce virtual reality will be developed. They will also come with speakers or headphone attachments that will complete the experience with sounds.
• The VR glasses will also have built-in computers featuring "virtual assistant" programs that can help the user with various daily tasks.
• Virtual assistants would be capable of multiple functions. One useful function would be real-time language translation in which words spoken in a foreign language would be translated into text that would appear as subtitles to a user wearing the glasses.
• Cell phones will be built into clothing and will be able to project sounds directly into the ears of their users.
• Advertisements will utilize a new technology whereby two ultrasonic beams can be targeted to intersect at a specific point, delivering a localized sound message that only a single person can hear.
  

2014

• Automatic house cleaning robots will have become common.

2018

• 1013 bits of computer memory--roughly the equivalent of the memory space in a single human brain--will cost $1000.

2020

• Personal computers will have the same processing power as human brains.

2020s

• Computers less than 100 nm in size will be possible.
• As one of their first practical applications, nanomachines will be used for medical purposes.
• Highly advanced medical nanobotswill perform detailed brainscans on live patients.
• Accurate computer simulations of the entire human brain will exist due to these hyperaccurate brainscans, and the workings of the brain will be understood.
• Nanobots capable of entering the bloodstream to "feed" cells and extract waste will exist (though not necessarily be in wide use) by the end of this decade. They will make the normal mode of human food consumption obsolete.
• By the late 2020s, nanotech-based manufacturing will be in widespread use, radically altering the economy as all sorts of products can suddenly be produced for a fraction of their traditional-manufacture costs. The true cost of any product is now the amount it takes to download the design schematics.
• Also by the later part of this decade, virtual reality will be so high-quality that it will be indistinguishable from real reality.
• The threat posed by genetically engineered pathogens permanently dissipates by the end of this decade as medical nanobots--infinitely more durable, intelligent and capable than any microorganism--become sufficiently advanced.
• A computer will pass the Turing Test by the last year of the decade (2029), meaning that it is a Strong AI and can think like a human (though the first A.I. is likely to be the equivalent of a kindergartner). This first A.I. is built around a computer simulation of a human brain, which was made possible by previous, nanotech-guided brainscanning.

2025

• The most likely year for the debut of advanced nanotechnology.
• Some military UAVs and land vehicles will be 100% computer-controlled.

2030s

• Mind Uploading becomes possible.
• Nanomachines could be directly inserted into the brain and could interact with brain cells to totally control incoming and outgoing signals. As a result, truly full-immersion virtual reality could be generated without the need for any external equipment. Afferent nerve pathways could be blocked, totally canceling out the "real" world and leaving the user with only the desired virtual experience.
• Brain nanobots could also elicit emotional responses from users.
• Using brain nanobots, recorded or real-time brain transmissions of a person's daily life known as "experience beamers" will be available for other people to remotely experience. This is very similar to how the characters in Being John Malkovichwere able to enter the mind of Malkovich and see the world through his eyes.
• Recreational uses aside, nanomachines in peoples' brains will allow them to greatly expand their cognitive, memory and sensory capabilities, to directly interface with computers, and to "telepathically" communicate with other, similarly augmented humans via wireless networks.
• The same nanotechnology should also allow people to alter the neural connections within their brains, changing the underlying basis for the person's intelligence, memories and personality.

2040s

• Human body 3.0 (as Kurzweil calls it) comes into existence. It lacks a fixed, corporeal form and can alter its shape and external appearance at will via foglet-like nanotechnology. Organs are also replaced by superior cybernetic implants.
• People spend most of their time in full-immersion virtual reality (Kurzweil has cited The Matrix as a good example of what the advanced virtual worlds will be like, without the dystopian twist)

After this through technology we will be able to become immortal through downloading human personality into web and live in virtual reality...
Anyway, technology is changing culture so fast and we barely notice as we take it for granted, my question is do you think this is a gonna make our realities better or worse?

 

[*The_West*]

skynet's getting ready to take over...

 

[blueta2]

2014

• Automatic house cleaning robots will have become common.

HR already has one though ;-)

 

[heatherrae]

I figure I'll live another 30 years or so, but I will be an OLLDDD woman when all this comes about.

 

[heatherrae]

HR already has one though ;-)

LOL...

He is so going to be mad at me for that comment.

 

[EnderJE]

Neat. Given that people use their present and their past as reference points to imagine their future, I don't see how some of the above is possible in the short time period that you're stating. That said, I've heard similiar things from other sources.

However, I stand by my statement "The holodeck will be man's last invention".

I mean, really. Party with Blueta, QT, and a few others and have them do anything that I ask OR type on EF? I'd be so outta here.

 

[Arabian]

Interesting

 

[-Ariel-]

HR already has one though ;-)

I know, this is really why I joined, not to disperse folderol thought patterns that no one in my immediate vicinity wants to put up with, but to find someone to clean my pad...
lol, actually I'm going on my first date in 5 years this week and I think I will just talk about the wonders of technology and this thread the entire date and then have questions and answers session, lol....
I was writing an abstract on a paper due next month over economics and technology and where it is headed and yeah, got carried away with this thread, funny date convo though...
well not really.

 

[heatherrae]

I know, this is really why I joined, not to disperse folderol thought patterns that no one in my immediate vicinity wants to put up with, but to find someone to clean my pad...
lol, actually I'm going on my first date in 5 years this week and I think I will just talk about the wonders of technology and this thread the entire date and then have questions and answers session, lol....
I was writing an abstract on a paper due next month over economics and technology and where it is headed and yeah, got carried away with this thread, funny date convo though...
well not really.

You need an esoteric chick, for sure...lol.

 

[-Ariel-]

I figure I'll live another 30 years or so, but I will be an OLLDDD woman when all this comes about.

Not exactly, if his projections are right... and he has not missed a beat yet, as he is the world's expert, he predicted internet capacity, and Time, Newsweek, ABC, even Wired magazine in 1995 thought he was nuts that we would be connected like this, he was right on the money... anyway Bill Gates holds this dude in the utmost highest regard, but you are what 38 now, and right now the current mortality rate here I believe is 78, for Japanese women it is 85, well, lets say you make it to 2030, by then projections on aging are gonna be like 90-100 for most, if I understand the trends correctly, but not only that, using nanotech in bodies, or computers the size of atoms, you will prevent aging, reverse aging process, expand on emotional capacities, feeling spiritual I guess? Moreover, you could immerse yourself in a virtual reality in which you were young heather again...
However, as I read this book, something bothers me alot, like what happens to the spirit with technology increasing... I mean doesn't getting old and dying give life meaning? I dunno, some problematic issues here, cause I just think technology is great in that we can all express our thought patterns and not bound by geograpchical location, but its not really helping peeps get along better or providing more depth to our lives... but yeah, U could be still a hawtie IRL at 68 in future like sophia loren style and if you weren't satisfied just go into virtual reality...

 

[-Ariel-]

You need an esoteric chick, for sure...lol.

I do, esoteric chics rock... my first date was gonna be with a chic who worked at nordstroms, which btw, doesn't have good clothes for dudes anymore, but gotta a new date with chic in art school... so yeah, can't date any chics on campus now, cause well X is in same department different field and yeah.. that would be weird. but thanx...
Your dude seems like a good bro... so I'm happy for ya.

 

[-Ariel-]

Neat. Given that people use their present and their past as reference points to imagine their future, I don't see how some of the above is possible in the short time period that you're stating. That said, I've heard similiar things from other sources.

However, I stand by my statement "The holodeck will be man's last invention".

I mean, really. Party with Blueta, QT, and a few others and have them do anything that I ask OR type on EF? I'd be so outta here.

thats the thing technology increases exponentially every 10 years it increases like 1000 years,
we think linearly, and this is not right... for example we should be using nanocomputer chips - the size of atoms- look how different things are than 1998, so much different, it is flying by, I'm not for or against this thing... alot of buddhists... and I'm not one of them are against this sort of escalating rate of technology and how it stimulates thought... but that said, I love online culture and it fills a void, -hate to admit it- I mean I can't bombard small talk with weird ideas, so here I am, but yeah... technology grows like a computer virus.

 

[heatherrae]

I do, esoteric chics rock... my first date was gonna be with a chic who worked at nordstroms, which btw, doesn't have good clothes for dudes anymore, but gotta a new date with chic in art school... so yeah, can't date any chics on campus now, cause well X is in same department different field and yeah.. that would be weird. but thanx...
Your dude seems like a good bro... so I'm happy for ya.

tell the nordstroms chick that I want her employee discount. ;-)

 

[-Ariel-]

Interesting

Yeah instead of that viper u are eyeing, u would instead be looking in 2030 for something more inward I'm thinking, like something that would help your imagination, thinking, emotional capacity... -not you Arabian- but all of us, hell especially me, I just think that imagination and creativity become alot more important and physical looks less as we technology increases, well I don't think this, the experts do, cause well, by 2030ish, physical beauty will be totally augmented by nanotech, biotech, and virtual reality will make sex almost obsolete... weird when we secchuals do not become primary motivations... anyway this may not happen this way, but it makes sense... basic point here is symbolic power will shift somehow, possessions still being the defining factor of status, but what those possessions are will be different.

 

[cuthroat]

Well you know if anybody comes up with this stuff its going to be china. I am skeptical though. Virtual reality? Sure, the memory thing? Sure, house cleaning robots? we already have simple versions like the Vacuum Cleaner and lawn mower (iRobot Corporation: About Roomba 500) I see there being complications and such when implementing nano technology into the human body though. But an asteroid could obliterate us or we could get into a nuclear war or something because we are cool like that.

 

[-Ariel-]

tell the nordstroms chick that I want her employee discount. ;-)

Actually I may reconsider, you have a point, 30% off of some facconable shit would be nice.

 

[drsketch]

gay

 

[shogun7]

I think technology is a double edged sword. On one hand there are many possibilities that can aid us in communication, entertainment and convenience, etc. However, it can bite us in the ass as well. These nanomachines and supercomputers are a good example of this. This technology could lead to controlling and manipulating humans.

Anyone ever see those movies that deal with super computers with advanced or human like AI's that suddenly decides to go apeshit and wipe out humanity? It's a movie, but it's also a legitimate perspective.

 

[-Ariel-]

Well you know if anybody comes up with this stuff its going to be china. I am skeptical though. Virtual reality? Sure, the memory thing? Sure, house cleaning robots? we already have simple versions like the Vacuum Cleaner and lawn mower (iRobot Corporation: About Roomba 500) I see there being complications and such when implementing nano technology into the human body though. But an asteroid could obliterate us or we could get into a nuclear war or something because we are cool like that.

The funny thing bout you mentioning china is Kurzweill predicts by 2020 that china and india will be just as strong as we are, if not more, thats only 12 years bro? Thing is he backs it up with exponential trends and graphs... not just wild assumptions, yeah, I have to stress is premise is that technology grows exponentially, and moores law which states that every year computers double in capacity... will be finished by 2020, and thats when nanotechnology begins, moreover, the virtual reality thing will probably happen, as far as swallowing nanobots and having them augment our ways of processing info, I think its very possible, if not probable to happen by 2030, we are already experiment with nanotech in medical field, but, yeah if we don't blow ourselves up first, is the main question. Actually the main question is technology really the answer to solve a flawed way of understanding ourselves... not preaching here, its just that civilizations have come and gone and we are still just as barbaric if not more than the mayans, romans, conquistadors, whatever... so good question, Kurzweill believes technology is just intelligence acting through evolution since it is human made... he makes arguments on spirituality, man and machine merger, that are logically hard to find holes in, atleast for my limited IQ, knowledge capacity, intelligence, whatever, but look we are already communicating thought patterns and connecting in ways that were not possible 12 years ago and no one except a very few saw this coming... things are changing so fast and due to stimulus, not being aware of cultural changing right in front of us, our own realities are much different than 12 years ago... basic point is next 12 change is move exponentially faster, how we understand ourselves and others will change with this as well, and how we understand ourselves and what it means to be human will be slightly different too... can u imagine what it will be like in 2030.... I got started on this for a paper in grad school, but it took me over and now here I am with this silly post, but I have to agree with you, we are in the infancy of something very uncertain.

 

[*The_West*]

ariel is so clever i think he is a robot

 

[-Ariel-]

I think technology is a double edged sword. On one hand there are many possibilities that can aid us in communication, entertainment and convenience, etc. However, it can bite us in the ass as well. These nanomachines and supercomputers are a good example of this. This technology could lead to controlling and manipulating humans.

Anyone ever see those movies that deal with super computers with advanced or human like AI's that suddenly decides to go apeshit and wipe out humanity? It's a movie, but it's also a legitimate perspective.

I agree totally, and thats the thing... that I was prejudiced against in reading his arguments, however, he basically wraps it up like this... our own line of thinking is so self based, for example subject/object us/them self/other, so when it comes to machines... it is human/vs machine... insstead we can understand it as intelligence as the center piece, specifically intelligence is the driving force behind evolution and as our biological bodies -which he argues are more or less machines- merge with human created nonbiological technology.... we are developing our destiny through technology... its no longer man vs machine... but more like intelligence driving evolution through us.... the only differences were based on prejudices based on past thinking that defines humans, and humanity as strictly biological beings... the outward wrappings... I'm not sure if I"m communicating his argument correctly, Shogun, but I find it very persuasive and you know me -antediluvian- -outdated- esoteric text lover that I am, was not really a futuristic technology kind of bro, however, his shit makes sense...
However, I also find it hard to digest because, it also makes us a little to God like, so I have my own problems on discerning whether this is really the evolutionary path that he claims it is.

 

[-Ariel-]

ariel is so clever i think he is a robot

LOL at me being clever, trust me you got the upper track on me when it comes to where I was at your stage of the game, but yeah your k message is interesting cause like some A I experts think the internet will be the very first technological thing that sort of becomes conscious of itself, through connections becoming nodes and billions of thoughts coarsing through it, it learns to label things and give names to objects... again this is way out there and way over my head... technology is so not my field, hell this thread originated from a paper over technology and economic trends, but it is scary, however, that said, I'm new to online culture, this was my first board, came here to do research on tren for a third cycle, now find myself hooked on communicating thoughts with other peeps, basically saying what started out as a random small thing now has totally changed my own culture and habits and such, moreover, next week gonna go out on first internet started date, so this is all new to me... point is yeah, I agree with your K take, what starts out small has huge exponential effects that can be awesome yet dangerous if we are unaware.
So hard to be aware too with so much shit going on...

 

[shogun7]

I agree totally, and thats the thing... that I was prejudiced against in reading his arguments, however, he basically wraps it up like this... our own line of thinking is so self based, for example subject/object us/them self/other, so when it comes to machines... it is human/vs machine... insstead we can understand it as intelligence as the center piece, specifically intelligence is the driving force behind evolution and as our biological bodies -which he argues are more or less machines- merge with human created nonbiological technology.... we are developing our destiny through technology... its no longer man vs machine... but more like intelligence driving evolution through us.... the only differences were based on prejudices based on past thinking that defines humans, and humanity as strictly biological beings... the outward wrappings... I'm not sure if I"m communicating his argument correctly, Shogun, but I find it very persuasive and you know me -antediluvian- -outdated- esoteric text lover that I am, was not really a futuristic technology kind of bro, however, his shit makes sense...
However, I also find it hard to digest because, it also makes us a little to God like, so I have my own problems on discerning whether this is really the evolutionary path that he claims it is.

That is very intriguing Ariel, that intelligence driving evolution where man merges with machine could be scoped as a step towards our inevitable destiny. Since we created or adapted to technology, it is part of our way of advancement does make sense. Although at the same time, I believe that anything can be rationalized. Time will tell, eh brotha?

 

[ponyfitness]

I think as well you're going to see internet addiction become a legitimate disease, especially as virtual reality becomes more detailed and better controlled.

People already lose jobs and families over World of Warcraft and Everquest. Second Life also creates problems for wives and husbands that want to check out of the real world. Imagine if you could link into the net and have full on sex with physical stimulation. Some people would never leave their houses.

 

[-Ariel-]

I think as well you're going to see internet addiction become a legitimate disease, especially as virtual reality becomes more detailed and better controlled.

People already lose jobs and families over World of Warcraft and Everquest. Second Life also creates problems for wives and husbands that want to check out of the real world. Imagine if you could link into the net and have full on sex with physical stimulation. Some people would never leave their houses.

great fucking post... identity and internet are becoming more intertwined everyday...
so true...
okay, funny thing is this constant stimulus is what feeds our cultural adhd, I mean who can really sit stil and now wait more than 15 minutes here without being antsy... just sayin...
postsynaptic dopamine due to electomagnetic stimulation is powerful stuff if you wanna look at i through biological mechanism
plain termininology though, what is not gonna be addictive in future... gonna be a weird thing in generating original creativity when peeps are trapped in habitual patterns...
I know I am...

 

[nimbus]

interesting that the end result is complete immersion into virtual reality. i guess as a species we have concluded that getting whatever you want = happiness. doubtful, though i suppose people will still find a system with which to evaluate their lives so they can at least mantain their sanity.