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Author Topic: Will the old people of the future be as technophobic as the old people now?  (Read 43466 times)

MaximumZero

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Holy crap, why did I not start watching One Punch Man earlier? This is the best thing.
probably figured an autobiography wouldn't be interesting

miauw62

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Would you be comfortable having a mechanical hand that enhances your punches?
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Quote from: NW_Kohaku
they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.

MaximumZero

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Yes, but I would miss the feeling of feeling a dude's nose crack in twain.

Maybe. That sentence horrifies me.
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Holy crap, why did I not start watching One Punch Man earlier? This is the best thing.
probably figured an autobiography wouldn't be interesting

Grakelin

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I'd be okay with everything except letting my kids marry robots. Unless it was a transhuman robot with a real person consciousness in it. Robot marriage just sounds like desperation, and I will not be known as the guy whose kids had to marry artificially.
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I am have extensive knowledge of philosophy and a strong morality
Okay, so, today this girl I know-Lauren, just took a sudden dis-interest in talking to me. Is she just on her period or something?

Leafsnail

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I don't see telepathy eliminating the need for technical skill when creating stuff.  You can clearly have a horribly disorganised mess of thoughts that doesn't convey the effect you were hoping for to the same degree as you can have a poorly made novel.  A well organised telepathic work would require different skills, but I don't see why it would require no technical skill at all unless it is literally magic.

As for the questions, there are serious consent issues with "opposite gender of a different species".  Them being in a human body doesn't change that (and if they somehow get a human brain that would make them no longer the individual from another species).
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LordBucket

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I don't see telepathy eliminating the need for technical skill when creating stuff.

Clear visualization would likely be "skill" involved. But presumably like painting, you'd be able to apply mental brush strokes, see the result, and modify accordingly. I see no reason for it be necessary to visualize an entire environment all at once.

End result would be that creating mental environments and experiences will be an acquirable skill just like painting or 3d design. But one that will probably be far more accessible and easier to learn because the interface would be designed to take information directly from your mind and experience rather than being encumbered by any kind of intermediary tool.

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there are serious consent issues with "opposite gender of a different species".  Them being in a human body doesn't change that (and if they somehow get a human brain that would make them no longer the individual from another species)

I think you're limiting the scenario in a way that creates the problem you're describing. You appear to be thinking, for example, girl has a pet dog, and then gives that dog a human body. That would result in all sorts of problems, consent of the dog being merely one of them. However, try it the other way: girl has a pet dog, crafts a dog body for herself, has sex with her dog, gives birth to puppies, then has her body altered back to human and then meets you and wants to be your girlfriend. Some people would be majorly squicked by a scenario like this, but it may be technically feasible in a number of years.

Note that it's already possible to go to bars and buy drinks for people without being completely certain whether their visible gender is the same gender they were born with. Imagine that same scenario but with better and faster body modification technology.

Sure, not everyone is going to want to give birth to puppies, but I can easily see a lot of people wanting to be a dolphin for a few hours, for example. Or engineering their pets to be able to speak. Or making humanoid hybrids. And once you open the doors to that kind of thing, a lot of things become possible that might not be immediately obvious. Body modification is already a common phenomenon, and as technology improves it's likely to become more so. Imagine that the girl in the above scenario is your girlfriend. You have a pet dog. You want puppies. So she offers to give birth to them. After all, it will only take a a few months and it will be an interesting experience, just like swimming as a dolphin. Or maybe she'll propose that you become the female dog and you can be the one to give birth to puppies.

Technology can make things like this possible. And just like "old people" who have to put up with the young'uns using it, even if you and I personally don't engage in this kind of thing, the younger generation that grows up with it is as a possibility is unlikely to have the same inhibitions. Today, people might easily accept gender reassignment. Later generations might easily accept temporary species reassignment. Even if you personally can't or won't accept these things for yourself, it's very likely that the people around you will, and you'll be exposed to it. It doesn't have to be you giving birth to puppies. It could be your neighbor. Or your preacher. Or your daughter. Or your son.

And that's the point of this thread: Will old people of the future be as technophobic as the old people now? Will they be uncomfortable with the technology around them? Will you?

Think very carefully about it.

kaijyuu

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The only thing about future tech I don't think I'll be very open to would be anything that allows people to bug me more often (I still don't have a cell phone), and the new "user friendly" interfaces being anything but.
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Quote from: Chesterton
For, in order that men should resist injustice, something more is necessary than that they should think injustice unpleasant. They must think injustice absurd; above all, they must think it startling. They must retain the violence of a virgin astonishment. When the pessimist looks at any infamy, it is to him, after all, only a repetition of the infamy of existence. But the optimist sees injustice as something discordant and unexpected, and it stings him into action.

Leafsnail

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I think you're limiting the scenario in a way that creates the problem you're describing. You appear to be thinking, for example, girl has a pet dog, and then gives that dog a human body. That would result in all sorts of problems, consent of the dog being merely one of them. However, try it the other way: girl has a pet dog, crafts a dog body for herself, has sex with her dog, gives birth to puppies, then has her body altered back to human and then meets you and wants to be your girlfriend. Some people would be majorly squicked by a scenario like this, but it may be technically feasible in a number of years.
I don't see any evidence to suggest this would be remotely feasible ever - no element of the technology required for something like that has been developed.  But in that scenario the consent issues with the dog remain for the girl.  It's wrong to drag the dog into this strange mess it can't possibly understand.

Note that it's already possible to go to bars and buy drinks for people without being completely certain whether their visible gender is the same gender they were born with. Imagine that same scenario but with better and faster body modification technology.
This is a ridiculous stretch.  Men and women are not remotely as different from each other as we are from other species.  We have the same basic body plan and are differentiated primarily by hormones and initial body plan development - so generally you can bridge the gap with surgery and hormone treatment.  I don't see how you could use remotely the same methods to make someone a dog - apart from anything else a dog's brain is fundamentally different from a human's, and modifying that would likely destroy your identity as a person.  If you did use the same kind of technology to surgically make your body like that of a dog it definitely wouldn't be an easy to reverse thing.

The other difference is that it is genuinely possible to identify as a member of the opposite gender to your natural sex, and it makes sense to seek to address this, while there is nothing to suggest it is possible to identify as a member of another species.

And that's the point of this thread: Will old people of the future be as technophobic as the old people now? Will they be uncomfortable with the technology around them? Will you?

Think very carefully about it.
I think it would be more interesting with stuff that is vaguely plausible.  Not liking new technology tends to be more about a natural resistance to change and reduced ability to learn than bizarre ethical issues.
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LordBucket

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I don't see any evidence to suggest this would be remotely feasible ever

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
-- Lord Kelvin, 1895.

"A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere."
-- New York Times, 1936.

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Not liking new technology tends to be more about a natural resistance to
change and reduced ability to learn than bizarre ethical issues.

...or, about being suddenly compelled to cope with realities that one previously believed were not possible.

Leafsnail

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Right, so that means that any ridiculously implausible thing you care to mention must happen at some point within my lifetime.
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LordBucket

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100 years ago, those things were ridiculously implausible. Why are today's ridiculously implausible possibilities different?

Armok

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The only thing about future tech I don't think I'll be very open to would be anything that allows people to bug me more often (I still don't have a cell phone), and the new "user friendly" interfaces being anything but.
Have two brains, one a complete hermit and one doing all interactions with the outside world, and just sync the memories.

The other difference is that it is genuinely possible to identify as a member of the opposite gender to your natural sex, and it makes sense to seek to address this, while there is nothing to suggest it is possible to identify as a member of another species.
Furries/Otherkin.
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So says Armok, God of blood.
Sszsszssoo...
Sszsszssaaayysss...
III...

MetalSlimeHunt

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100 years ago, those things were ridiculously implausible. Why are today's ridiculously implausible possibilities different?
Flying wasn't ridiculously implausible. Just because you can find a few examples of people denying plausible technological development doesn't mean you can throw out things with no basis in reality and call them the future. Kelvin was a master of his field, but that field wasn't aeronautics. The New York Times is a newspaper, someone writing for it can say whatever they want about something and disseminate it to the public.
The other difference is that it is genuinely possible to identify as a member of the opposite gender to your natural sex, and it makes sense to seek to address this, while there is nothing to suggest it is possible to identify as a member of another species.
Furries/Otherkin.
I can accept that transgendered people are legitimate because the brain is extremely complex and human sexual dismorphism is a lot less specialized than most people think, but Furries who actually think they're animals on the inside are crazy.
« Last Edit: August 21, 2012, 10:21:35 am by MetalSlimeHunt »
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Quote from: Thomas Paine
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
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Darvi

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"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
-- Lord Kelvin, 1895.
You could tell that he wasn't an ornithologist.
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Scoops Novel

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Will, you have officially squicked me Lord Bucket. At least we're rather far off from becoming Dark Eldar  at the moment.
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Reading a thinner book

Arcjolt (useful) Chilly The Endoplasm Jiggles

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