[extropy-chat] technological equilibrium

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, Jul 14, 2004 at 11:07:21PM -0700, Spike wrote:

> Are you still reading down here?  Are we getting

Yeah. Though my email and web reading habit does make it more difficult to
read longer articles (and write papers, instead of a couple of pithy morsels). 
I usually tend to skim them.

Otoh, it's due to me interlacing being online with work.

> conditioned for hit-and-run information gathering
> from the internet?  How many of you read tomes such
> as Asimov's Foundation novels in your missspent youth?
> Could you do it today?  Do you read long books today?

No. I presume it's work, not age artifact.

> When did you stop?  About the time you took up the

About two years ago.

> internet?  Or video games?

I stopped playing these rogue-type games a whole while back.
Was never into FPS, think their world view sucks. Blowing shit away as
primary mode of interaction is a major turn-off. A pity, Quake 3 would be
such a nice VR engine. 
 
> Perhaps society's change rate will saturate or reach
> some kind of equilibrium because we will overstimulate
> our minds beyond our ability to maintain focus.

Let machines maintain focus, they're good at that. Once we're at autonomous
vehicles and cheap enough mobile robotic platforms (Segway can't climb
stairs, but Kamen's wheelchair can, is a lot more expensive, though).

Put a lot of crunch on wheels with video and manipulators, and we're talking
some shop. Will put a lot of people out of work.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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