My views on Mashable's Nov 2011 "Next 40 years of Technology" comment/essay winner.

I realize it is a bit late, but this popped up on my twitter feed the other day, so I had to read it.  I was dumbfounded, which is not really that hard since I am of mean intelligence at best.  However, the winner's(and I cannot fathom how this was chosen as winner) comment was all tech-kittens and rainbows.  I hate kittens and rainbows.  It's true, I hated my cat for the first 14 months of its life, and I live in New Mexico, where it never rains, so the possibility of a rainbow is dismally, and thankfully, low.


http://mashable.com/2011/11/15/next-40-years-in-tech-winner/


My reply to the whole Mashable thing, and his comment, is as below, just in case they decide not to allow it:

 While Kyle's vision of the future is filled with hope and good will, one cannot deny the unfortunate fact his comment is somewhat... Rose colored.  Yes, to remain on par with what will inevitably become known as the "top line" of humanity, one will need to upgrade one's self both mentally and physically, taking evolution by the hand and gently guiding it.  However, where does he get the idea that this advancement will in any way, shape, or form "enable us to overcome worldwide problems"?  We must first define worldwide problem, and  in order to even begin addressing any definition of the term worldwide problem, one must consider the perspective from which the term is viewed: common human, or the wealthy power-base.  Worldwide problems: (a-common man) hunger, poverty, inequality, violence based on color, creed or ethnicity, abuses at the hands of the powerful; (b-powerful) common man, disturbance of the balance of power, uncontrolled change.

From the perspective of the common human, technology will not help in any way to alleviate worldwide problems.  It may well serve to exacerbate a large number of current issues, ending in even worse living conditions for many.  Unless, of course, the people who control the flow of technology to and among the populace display some previously hidden reservoir of kindness.  How likely do you, the reader of this comment, think that will be?

So, when considering the solving of worldwide problems, in order for emerging technologies to overcome those problems, one is forced to consider the term from the perspective of the powerful.  Let's not mince words or continue under proven false pretenses: the majority of powerful people in the world have shown, in the past decade, the tendency to view the common human as a herd of cattle at worst, chattel property at best.  The advancing technologies will be previewed by those in power first, then more modest versions will be fed to the populace as though these were the creme' de la creme'.  The world will continue much the way it has, with a shrinking middle class, and growing poverty covered in the patina of human advancement.  Those whom wish to remain in the increasingly privileged middle-class will be forced to concede to the regulations of  whichever powerful figure they are working for, be that figure CEO, Imam, Pastor, or Politician, while maintaining proscribed enhancement levels and acquiescing to what I can only imagine will be mandatory monitoring of those who can afford enhancements.  

Solar energy, or any more efficient energy source, will be no less expensive for the common man.  Period.  It will, however, be significantly less expensive for the powerful, leading to increased profit margin per watt produced, making it easier for utilities to control what they charge for their product.  Our ability to pay will only come into consideration when considering the maximum amount they can charge while maintaining the largest number of customers in order to maintain the highest level of income.  Pretty much how they do it now, Wall St. speculators aside.  This same formula will be applied to food production, fresh-water supply, home-building materials, anything considered essential for survival.  Since monetary value is inevitably pegged to these things, and the prices for these needs rise every year, average inflation will remain near the same levels it has seen for the last hundred years or so, not counting wartime or recessions, which tend to create anomalous changes in inflation rates.  Technology will change none of that.

To deny that this is the most probable outcome for the future forty years from now is to deny the last ten, no, two hundred... Let's be realistic, the entirety of human history.  Cynicism aside, human nature will lead the powerful to do anything to remain in power, and the oppressed to suffer under that power until a boiling point is reached, and the newly minted "rebels" achieve a momentary equality that is essentially the foundation for the next ruling class that will inevitably repeat the actions of past powerful people.  From the ashes, beside the newer powers, the powerful families of the past will rise to pretend the climb to their former lofty position, and the cycle will once again repeat.  Technology or not.

Now, to say what I was too polite to say in Mashable's comments:

Where do we, as a society, get our friggin opinions of the future? 

 I can understand the Conservative Right's "The world is flat and a magical white guy with a beard created everything so the left can go suck it.  Oh, the Easter bunny... Well the Easter bunny is fake..." point of view.  What it boils down to is the years of inbreeding and hatred of the written word have led to an irrational fear of even the smallest changes in human understanding.  

Now, those who have an understanding of science, and use, or claim to use, logic and responsibility in living their daily lives, where do we get the gall to "believe" that the future will be beautiful and clean, where people are ageless and our brains are soooooo powerful?  That is almost as irresponsible as being religious.

The best that humanity at large can hope for should technology advance as fast and powerfully as people like Ray Kurzweill, Aubrey DeGrey, and even the people responsible for the gritty Deus Ex video game series, would like is an Adam Jensen who will throw a wrench into the gears of the powerful.  But, sorry, it'll never happen.

SO, I guess I am just miffed that people are so blind to their current reality that they think the future is just as blind to that reality.  Just because someone who actually knows what they are talking about says we will be able to do something does not mean that we will be allowed to do that thing.  Do you honestly think the powers that be will allow us to be as strong, beautiful, and long-lived as we wish unless there is something substantial to be gained?  Forty years aside, it will be at least a century before technologies dealing with the foundations of humanity will be allowed to circulate freely in society, be they centered on age, our intellectual power, or exo-terrestrial colonization.  But that's if the CEO's and religious leaders of the world have their way.  So, let's compromise and say that within seventy years, we will be able to advance ourselves in great ways, because wrenches tend to jam the best protected gears.  Until then, no matter how many future-tech-rainbows some leftist hippy-dreamer feeds you, and despite how many eternities in a swimming pool filled with bullets and burning coals some child-molesting, right-wing, preacher threatens you with, invest in some asstroglyde and get ready for what's coming.  The CEO of your favorite food company is going to sell you more unbelievable bullshit then that hippy can imagine and then fuck you harder than every-single super-natural being dreamed up by some old man with psychological problems who ate some middle-eastern peyote, even if every single "god" is actually standing in line with a number for the universe's most forgiving gang-bang.

Fly Smart.

I Loved Prometheus and am amused by all the poeple who hate it but can't stop talking about it.

Prometheus.

Great Movie, in my opinion.  Prometheus is an exciting romp in the minds of Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof that leaves the casual and well-read audience member both looking forward to a sequel.  Even the skeptics are waiting, rubbing their sweaty palms together in anticipation, to enjoy the next installment then spend the following week railing about how much it sucked and why.  Awesome film which, in usual Ridley Scott fashion, did way too much-goo mutating the geologist and it attacking the ship's crew-, had way too many unimportant characters given speaking roles-Cherlize Theron’s character, the biologist, the geologist-  but had one thing his imagination needed; the technology to make what he saw come to life.

 Script could have used a bit more attention, along with people in the bit parts who know how to act.  With Theron’s character running the show, can Scott rationalize having a weenie tree-hugger biologist on the trip instead of the cold and calculating biologist who is there to take samples and… study the flora and fauna?  Something tells me she would have known if this guy was there to do his job or was missing his room full of reptile-filled terrariums just a bit too much.

I do, however, agree with a growing number of people that Scott and Lindelof overreached a bit by appearing to incorporate so many themes, many controversial, into the film.  Now, most people aren’t intelligent enough to even question or realize what they are looking at in this film, and a WHOLE lot more of us have such a high opinion of our own intelligence that we read way too much into the film, me included.  For those in the latter group, we are spending so much time and energy and emotion talking about the film that, no matter what our words are saying, we loved the film and will undoubtedly go see a sequel.

There is only one true theme, “Where did we come from and now that where is trying to kill us.“  I think the whole “Space Jesus” thing is too obtuse and too insignificant a reason for them to kill us.   I think something more along the lines of the fact that we poison and kill everything we touch, and will eventually attempt the same with them is more reasonable and likely to be the truth.  Instead of creating the Intergalactic Best Friends they always wanted, they made soul-sucking leaches that will devour everything in their path so long as it allows them to keep up on the Jersey Shore.  They created a race that will, no matter what, attempt to kill them in the future due to a huge fraction of that creation’s population being so self-centered and bigoted that they will literally kill anyone and anything that can destroy their personal belief system. <<< It can’t be anything as tawdry and simple as that.  C’mon, it’s from Ridley Scott’s Imagination, right?  Some may argue that the Space Jesus thing is simply an indicator of what I said, as far as the scope of the film is concerned, but, meh, who cares?

But, that is a point.  This film can be ruined by only one thing; asking too many questions.  Most of those questions are only questions to people who find themselves questioning any- and everything.  Life is too short for that.  

Ooh, we killed Jesus and they want to kill us for that… I don’t buy it.  Too simple a reason, put out there by Ridley Scott for the sole purpose of distracting the simple.  “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”  I can play the scripture thing along with the fanatic followers and detractors of the film.  People are looking past the most simple fact of the matter- we keep trying to put the God of this world into the world where only Ridley Scott can ever be God. 

PS: Holy Crap, it's a new POST!

The Modern Era of Transhumanism: How Close Are We?

Politics and corporations

Blade Runner

Aliens

Repo Men

Neuromancer

Snow Crash

In the United States, we are entering what I am aching to call the "Corporate Carte Blanche" period. The last holdout to overwhelming corporate influence in the political arena, the Democratic Party, has given up all pretense of following through with their push for regulation, and are now holding out their hands like the Republican party. The only outcome I see is increased corporate control of the government until the government in the USA is rendered impotent, and is forced to become a corporation in it's own right in order to survive.

Corporations tend to be controlled by one thing: profits. Governments, at least the U.S. Government, are the largest impediment to the free flow of profits to the shareholders through taxes and other regulations, environmental impact regulations for example. However, with the middle-man's share and control decreased, the walls to corporate greed are gone.

In all reality, at least as far as transhumanism is concerned, this isn't a bad thing. As long as we can get by S.I.A.C.(shit in a can) and S.O.A.W.(Shit on a wire) we'll be ok. How to do that...

Ponderings, and, Maybe, Something about Transhumanism

I've been out of the way for a while. My little sister was killed, so I got a little depressed, and didn't give a crap about anything for a while. Also, the economic meltdown finally hit my town, so my only source of solace, working like a dog, was taken from me. Also, I'm an asshole, I guess, and got fired by my Faux-liberal boss(he's a Republican who thinks he is a Democrat). I actually expect people to do what they were hired for, and get fired for it. Go Figure. Last time I actually stay in management after second thoughts.

Man. Had those "Also"s goin for a sec. OOOH!!! forgot one. Also, I finally found a place to lose myself: EVE Online. Great game, and not one for the weak minded. That's why they don't have the massive fan-base that games like WOW and... Well, that's the only huge game I have played extensively, and while it can be fun, it's not challenging in the slightest, and any troglodyte or 5-year-old that can tie his name or spell their shoe-laces should be able to solo-hack-and-slash their way through it's many missions. Also, unlike Blizzard, CCP(the game developers) don't make a habit of screwing long-time players by taking something they have worked for and making it trivial. CCP at least tries to make the in-game effort and time pay off.

The game itself is sort of a smash up of Star Wars,The Sixth Day, Wall Street(stock market, not film), the Somali coast(pirates included), and unabashed true-to-name free market capitalism. Trans-humanists and Anarchists alike should love this game.

Your character, or Pilot, spends most of their life in the capsule, an egg-shaped space craft that keeps the pilot safe from all the rigors of space, save other pilots. Also, your body has been specifically re-engineered to survive in space for extended periods of time. Your pilot is effectively immortal, since if one is killed, they are immediately cloned at a station of their choosing, while the clone quality is determined by the amount of Isk(intergalactic standard kredits= cash) spent on your future new self. One can also, if one has the skills and cash, jump from one body to another across great distances in game.

The only rules in the game that are set in stone refer only to areas known as Hi-Security space. Do not attack other players, civilians, or members of the game establishment. In Low-security and Null-Security areas, you tend to have carte-blanche. The establishment does not extend very far into Low-sec, and not at all in null-sec. Even in hi-sec space, though, the rules can be bent, or, if you're fast enough, broken.

All-in-all, this is a game where one has to be very careful: in one fell swoop, all your hard work can be lost, and there you are, sitting in a space station, floating in a green football, angry at so-and-so because they just taught you a hard lesson. The learning curve in the game is so steep, many people aren't mentally tough enough to make it past the free-trial.(If you would like an extended free trial-21days- hook me up with your e-mail, the extra week is worth it for a broader view. I don't spam.)

If we, as a species, were smart, we would take a look at this "game"(I prefer simulation) and plan on making it a reality. Over-population, pollution, even in a small part war, could all be solved if we took the next step into space. If we, as a species, turned our creativity away from Ipads and towards human expansion into space, I don't think it would be two or three decades before we at least settled Mars, the Moon, or Space stations.

Transhumanism itself could solve the physical problems associated with travel in less than twenty years. Even EVE's capsuleer notion isn't that far-fetched. The human body is incredibly modular. The core components for individuality and survival can easily be separated from the rest, put into an artificial body, and connected to everything needed for control of that body as well as a craft and remote vehicles for exploration. This isn't exactly the capsuleer notion, but it is realistically achievable for us at the moment. 

Even with the spectre of death hanging over me, I managed to find a small connection to one of my passions. The only way to see the future is to create it.