What a wonderful world.

[Professor Smooth]

As I get older, the sheer amazingness of the reality we inhabit tends to overwhelm the area of my brain once reserved for youthful cynicism.

I went to see a movie at the mall with my wife. That movie was the FIFTH appearance of Tony Stark in a major motion picture, and was presented in IMAX and in 3-D. The producers of that movie spent more money on Iron Man than any collector in history. Which I just thought was kind of a cool tidbit.

Anyway, I don't go to this mall very often. It's this massive place in Fukuoka, designed by some important architect. Near the movie theater, I was surprised to see a robot wandering around.

Not a guy in a robot suit. Not "something that looks like a robot." A robot. Just wandering around the area.

"HOLY ****!" I said to my wife. "A robot! An actual goddamn robot! Look! Look!"

"Oh, that?" she said, not even bothering to look. "It's just the information robot. You've never seen it before? It's been here for awhile. It wanders around and, you know, provides information about the mall. It's really annoying. Stupid information robot."

"Stupid...information...robot..." I thought. Wow.

We walked back to the train station, where I noticed that all of the "posters" in the station were actually poster sized HD video monitors. Displaying different images...some which moved...in a synchronized pattern.

"Video screens... Video screens...everywhere..." I kind of mumbled. That what the future was supposed to be like, right? Instead of something simple like paper, just big, expensive video screens. They'd been there for awhile, but I never really thought much about it.

I took out my phone, because I wanted to see if I could get more information about how long these things had been in Hakata station. That's when I realized that my phone, my primary means of both spoken and text-based communication, not only fit in my pocket, had precisely no external wires/cables, and also had access (text input and voice) to *every single bit of human knowledge ever recorded*...and was completely free (with a $60 per month contract, which, again, seems a pretty small price to pay to be in communication with anybody in the world, in real time and/or after the fact)...plus a library of books, movies, and music.

Once I'd forgotten all about the reason I'd pulled out my phone, the wife and I started talking about our upcoming trip to the US. It's going to cost about 4,000 dollars. Which, yeah, not terribly *cheap* but considering it'll pay for the two of us to travel 12,000 miles in the span of 24 hours...is goddamn mind blowing! That's a distance that, for the first few thousand years of human existence, few people traveled in their ENTIRE lives. I do it nearly every year, sometimes more than once.

Kind of like how I can go to a toy store, buy something, find a buyer on some other continent, get paid, and have whatever they wanted in their hands...in a week. For about $30. ****!

And now, I'm sitting in front of the computer, reading about how a new reality show is going to help pay to select and train people to attempt to settle on MARS!

How freaking cool is the world right now? How freaking cool will OTHER worlds be years later? VERY! VERY COOL!

[Yaya]

That's one way of looking at the world.

I don't measure progression by technical achievement. In fact, I believe that happiness may actually be inversely proportional to technical achievement.

The reason being the more people have their nose up to some sort of screen, the more they miss the natural and simple wonders of life. Granted, technology has simplified many things and made certain aspects of our lives better. But I also think that , in an effort to make us more connected, technology has disconnected us more from our surroundings. Not to mention made us fatter and less healthy.

I still believe that, lookiing at both sides of the equation, at least from my own personal vantage point, I was happier with my Atari 2600, climbing trees, and just getting more connected with nature.

Perhaps the technology is not to blame. Perhaps it's the way people use it?

[Kaylee]

I understand where you come from, Yaya, but I'm with Kevin on this. The modern world is, at least in comparison to the past, pretty freakin' sweet IMO.

Absolutely, in times of yore, we would have climbed trees; feasted on apple pie; danced around maypoles and so on. We would also have suffered from poor dentistry, bigotry on a scale unimaginable today (and it's a long way from perfect today!) and many manual jobs.

Today I have friends all over the world. I can communicate with people thousands of miles away in the blink of an eye- and by communicate, I mean share video, sound, thoughts, pictures. Anything.

Normal human contact is still there, it hasn't gone anywhere. It's just not the beginning and end of human interaction anymore.

Furthermore I don't have to work down a mine or in a field. I work in a well-lit, safe, comfortable office using my noodly-brain to solve problems. I can go into work wearing makeup and heels and that is basically okay with everyone. I drive a beautiful hybrid car that costs naff all to run.

Things aren't perfect, but I don't think we've gone backwards. Genuinely I think one can only say that the world have moved forwards, objectively. I'm actually looking forward to Google Glass, much as I find Google generally creepy as hell, because in the last twenty years technology has made so many things better and brought so many different people in contact!

Without the net, how many people 'like' me would you know? Thanks to it, I'm in your head and not leaving :3

[Yaya]

Sweet in some ways, destructive in others.

How many Ma and Pa shops have gone under because they no longer compete with local businesses, but the Amazon and Ebay giants of the world? Some sweatshop in China might very well be the reason Hillbilly Bob in Podunk, Kentucky can't make a living. Sometimes, being connected is detrimental to the little guy. And most people are very, very little.

You have friends all over the world, but the opposite is also true. You can make enemies the world over. Somebody does or says something on one side of the world and it's heard on the other. Again, that can be awesome and terrifying at the same time.

Both true and false information can be spread in the matter of seconds. One's community has become the world itself. The people in 'our neighborhood' are no longer people at all, but posters we converse with that we've never met.

I remember not having cellphones. I was happy. Now, if I leave home and forget my cellphone, I feel naked and vulnerable. We've all sensed that short moment of dread when we realize it isn't with us. We've become dependent on technology to the point that when we are without it we feel exposed and vulnerable. Technology has become a crutch as much as a luxury.

Of course, you're right about the positives. It has transformed our world. For the better overall? Not so sure.

[Computron]

It is a fascinating era to live in and I won't belabor the point by restating what Karl, Yaya and Smooth have already stated. There are great positives and horrible negatives that come with this new technology.

Overall though I really look forward to ever bigger steps forward into augmented reality, achieving singularity and causing the future we see in utopian-esque sci fi (Star Trek etc) to become reality. It really is neat when you think about the conversations we can carry on despite thousands of miles between us.

That being said I always hope we preserve, protect and allow nature to thrive. I may enjoy Transformers but I dont want Earth turned into Cybertron.

[Shanti418]

I had a similar moment the other day when an iRobot commerical was showing me how if doesn't matter if you're a housewife, a kid, a soldier, or a construction worker, they ALL use robots and really, shouldn't I?

So I was thinking about the approaching normalcy of having robots/drones, holograms of dead people, and guns you can print out at home and I was like, "Holy f***, it's the future."

Don't get me wrong, I feel like it's problematic and crazy, but that's only because I'm old. For example, while

I remember not having cellphones. I was happy. Now, if I leave home and forget my cellphone, I feel naked and vulnerable. We've all sensed that short moment of dread when we realize it isn't with us. We've become dependent on technology to the point that when we are without it we feel exposed and vulnerable. Technology has become a crutch as much as a luxury.

might be true, smartphones are just the latest version of the process. What's all this Internet? That's crazy, give me my TV!
What's all this TV? That's crazy, give me my radio!
What's all this telephone? That's crazy, give me my postal service!
What's all this car? That's crazy, give me my horses and trains!
What's all this printing press? That's crazy, let the Church tell me what the Bible says, I don't need to read it for myself Luthor, you blasphemer!

The point is, we have a very myopic view of history as viewed from our vulnerable bodies with a >100 year expiration date. Every new technological innovation - especially when concerning transportation or communication - has its pluses and minuses, or it's "This is the best thing ever!" and "This is the end of proper civilization!"

Yaya, old people have likely been bemoaning the death of "simple, natural wonders" in life since we decided to stop being nomadic. "These kids today, with their agriculture and permanent dwellings. They have no idea that what makes them feel alive is following the herd and moving south for the winter!" I mean, what are you saying, that the Atari 2600 was the perfect balance of fun, but not too fun, such that we could still stand to get more detached from our natural environment when we had the Magnavox Odyssey but the Atari 5200 was the beginning of the end?

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Soon we won't have our faces pushed up to screens but looking through Google glass...
Everything changes etc...

[Yaya]

might be true, smartphones are just the latest version of the process. What's all this Internet? That's crazy, give me my TV!
What's all this TV? That's crazy, give me my radio!
What's all this telephone? That's crazy, give me my postal service!
What's all this car? That's crazy, give me my horses and trains!
What's all this printing press? That's crazy, let the Church tell me what the Bible says, I don't need to read it for myself Luthor, you blasphemer!

The point is, we have a very myopic view of history as viewed from our vulnerable bodies with a >100 year expiration date. Every new technological innovation - especially when concerning transportation or communication - has its pluses and minuses, or it's "This is the best thing ever!" and "This is the end of proper civilization!"

I agree, perspective does play a role in shaping one's 'reality', nevertheless, thinking about is as objectively as possible, several things scare me and have me yearning for "the simpler days."

For one, with the inexorable march of technological progress, we can expect greater power and misinformation in the hands of individuals. Many of them, irresponsible individuals. Can this be considered a good thing?

Moreover, the more mankind relies on machines, the less significant manpower itself becomes. The more insignificant manpower becomes, the more desperate man becomes. The more desperate man becomes, the more dangerous man becomes. Not everyone is a braniac. In fact, the most common skill-set humanity possesses is that of manual labor, even today, the world over. If we reach a point which such labor becomes unnecessary, what will happen? Will it ever reach that point?

There is a sort of evolution occurring where man himself has become less socially dependent than ever before because the technology that he himself creates renders interaction with a huge percentage of the population unnecessary. The glue that binds a community together is often the idea of inter-dependency, that we need each other to survive. With the advance of technology, does that risk going by the wayside? Will we reach a point where we no longer need each other because we have our machines? Not sure.

I suppose, as you say, it's all part of the evolution of our world, a natural progression that will right itself, as it always has. Maybe so.

But I'm still not convinced it will lead to a happier world. More efficient? Probably. But happier, I doubt it.

[Best First]

You can't stop progress - the only determiner about whether it makes us happier or not is how we respond to it and ultimately, especially as technology becomes more "democratised" how we build a culture of personal responsibility about how we use it.

If you aint happy look to yourself, not your iphone.

I mean come in - within the next, say, 10 years you will be able to download a fansproject file for Ultimate Impactor and print it on your local 3d printer. Yes this technology is prone to abuse, but it is also prone to brilliance.

This has been true since we started whittling things.

And if you don't like it i have bad news for you in terms of the adoption rates of "disruptive" tech:



Time for technologies to reach 150 million users is exponentially decreasing

It's up to us to dictate whether that is for good or ill.

Or to put it another way:

Cheer up grandad we got you a robot leg.

[bumblemusprime]

I mean come in - within the next, say, 10 years you will be able to download a fansproject file for Ultimate Impactor and print it on your local 3d printer.

ZOMGORS

[Impactor returns 2.0]

10 years, my new company is doing it this year!
Your saw it here first...