Technology vs. Freedom - Round V

“A human being is primarily a bag for putting food into; the other functions and faculties may be more godlike, but in point of time they come afterwards. A man dies and is buried, and all his words and actions are forgotten, but the food he has eaten lives after him in the sound or rotten bones of his children. I think it could be plausibly argued that changes of diet are more important than changes of dynasty or even of religion....Yet it is curious how seldom the all-importance of food is recognized. You see statues everywhere to politicians, poets, bishops, but none to cooks or bacon-curers or market gardeners.”

--George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier

"If the machines are permitted to make all their own decisions, we can't make any conjectures as to the results, because it is impossible to guess how such machines might behave. We only point out that the fate of the human race would be at the mercy of the machines. It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all the power to the machines. But we are suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines' decisions. As society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and machines become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more of their decisions for them, simply because machine-made decisions will bring better results than man-made ones. Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide."
--Bily Joy, quoting Kaczynski

[link to www.wired.com]


Achieving Elevator Efficiency in High-Rises
[link to highrisefacilities.com]

From Article:

Expenses associated with creating a more energy-efficient elevator system range from minor upgrades such as lighting improvements to a complete energy efficient system design and installation. Simple elevator upgrades, like LED lighting, closed-loop door operators or automatic fan and light shut-off, help a building’s energy consumption to decrease. This ensures building owners save money each year. Energy-efficient lighting, controls and improved ride and air quality (IAQ) will also benefit building owners through improved tenant attraction and retention.

The use of destination control software can create up to 35 percent more efficient passenger transportation compared to standard elevator control, and increases handling capacity (e.g., the number of people an elevator can transport efficiently in a set time). Grouping elevators by destination improves routing and enables fewer cars to take fewer trips. In the long run, destination control systems can even increase overall property value.

I was referring to life itself. To me that is the ultimate technology.

Understood, just didn't want be be presumptuous.



In my lifetime, I, very selfishly, want to see all life flourish and return to equilibrium with nature

pacifists can wait for mother nature to do it herself
I'm fighting on her side now, now, now

"As this enormous computing power
is combined with the manipulative advances
of the physical sciences
and the new, deep understandings in genetics,
enormous transformative power is being unleashed.

These combinations open up the opportunity
to completely redesign the world,
for better or worse:

The replicating and evolving processes
that have been confined to the natural world
are about to become realms of human endeavor."

--Bill Joy, 2000 Why the future doesn't need us

[link to www.wired.com]

I am not speaking of future evils.

Let's talk about what's present now.

:arrgh:

fe fi fo fum

:peter:

Calling all willing to proceed by discovery trial & error.

:Comeongang:

How much of your welfare will you gamble today?

Lol...I think the average is like 1.5 Million annually withdrawn from casino atms by welfare recipients...per states that allow gambling...

who will reign the world without order?

"As long as these people comply with conventional morality, they have a sense of righteousness that enables them to disregard the principles of fairness without discomfort."

Morality merely provides the excuse.

Of this virtual insanity, we're livin in.
Has got to change, yeah
Things, will never be the same.
And I can't go on
While we're livin' in oh, oh virtual insanity
Oh, this world, has got to change
Cos I just, I just can't keep going on, it was virtual.
Virtual insanity that we're livin' in, that we're livin' in
That virtual insanity is what it is

"A revolution is not a dinner party..."

--Mao Zedong

I want to live in a world where nothing is imposed.

How do you feel about "technological pessimist"?
- it's the glass half empty look...
but would you ever call yourself one?

Are you one of these people that wants to slow the growth of technology? I'm sorry but I despise these people very much, more than anyone else on the planet. Now that we're so close to the singularity, an event that will bring us post-scarcity, Abundance, Peace and Prosperity, Environmental sustainability, The End of Capitalism and the Alienation of Labour, Space and Time Travel, preservation of History, Computronium and Matrioshka Brains but most importantly, the thing the singularity will bring us is the one thing your indicating technology will destory. And that is FREEDOM.
Imagine a world of absolute freedom where everything is possible. A world where all limits and boundaries are arbitrary. Where what we can accomplish is limited only by our imagination. Where we can choose not only our sex, race, color, age and physical attributes but also whether to be physically embodied or disembodied, digitally uploaded minds.

I'm sorry but please change your view on technology. It's the only thing that will save us in the end. Don't help us wait even more longer for the singularity.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughtful post.....

I will share with you...

I cannot change my views on technology, as these views are my beliefs, my principals on technology.

My views may change, but only if my beliefs change.

I have based these beliefs on my principals of what love, freedom, honor, honesty, courage and integrity are. So, if I wanted to change my beliefs on technology, I would have to go to the heart of the matter, the principals that I have founded love on would need to change...

Technology will not “save us” and is not “the only thing that will save us in the end”– By my beliefs technology is what is enslaving us...


“Imagine a world of absolute freedom where everything is possible.” - If "freedom" is alongside technology, then I don't believe it is freedom at all, or by any means "absolute freedom"....this absolute freedom has been created within the bounds and implications that technology has supplied and can only be absolute to the degree that these boundaries allow.

Imagine freedom, a world where anything is possible, now imagine this world, with this freedom, but it did not get there with technology.

What does it look like?
how would it differ from the free world created alongside technology?

better?
worse?
you decide?

I know which one I'm picking.

With more technology, I do not believe we are being served more freedom.

Each progress in technology strips us of a freedom, but is nevertheless designated progress.

Progress for you?
Progress for technology?
or progress for freedom?

Who gets their cake, and then gets to eat it, too!?!?

Technology is the principal force determining the way in which modern people live, and is the decisive force in modern history.

Through the 19th and most of the 20th centuries, the principal problem to which technology was applied was that of production.

Production is no longer the decisive factor.

Today, we are applying technology to new problems....

What principal problems are we applying technology towards now, in the 21st century?

-Processing of information and the regulation of human behavior (ie thru propaganda).

Therefore, technology I believe, determines the way we live.

:robots:

Wait....

Processing of information and the regulation of human behavior

Isn't that supposed to be your job?

Oh, someone else did it better?