Are we on the verge of a rebellion against technology? Yesterday I was taken aback when I noticed an elderly Wal-mart greeter amusing herself with a fidget spinner.
What the hell is a fidget spinner? It’s a toy you just spin with your fingers. It’s the hottest selling summer entertainment item that retails between $2.99-$8.99 depending on wether it lights up or makes noise.
To compare, last summer the over-hyped fad was Pokemon Go which was a ho-hum attempt at the first virtual reality game which turned out to have multiple technology problems such as being underdeveloped for rural areas and worldwide server crashes.
Why does the fidget spinner trend matter? Because it doesn’t involve any technology at all. It’s as low-grade technology wise as playing with a hula-hoop or yo-yo.
The trend peaked my interest as I believe we’ve reached the end game of the social media and app crazes of the past 10 years. Social Media IPO’s have slowed down to nil. Why would we need another iTech item when we’ve got too many flooding the market already?
At a time when companies are replacing low-skilled workers with robots and kiosk machines, it’s not promising for their business models for customers to turn their backs on technology. Which is exactly why I’m predicting it’s going to happen.
We are no longer living in an era where people are adopting technological advancements; rather it’s being imposed on us. When pushed too far towards the direction of technology the equal and opposite reaction would be to turn a generation into neo-luddites.
Maybe, or we’re bored with the offerings of today and hungry for the next step. Ever read the book, Ready Player One?
I agree with you, been working with your generational cohort this Summer and their lack of dependence on technics is noticeable. They prefer to spend their spare time doing physical things, are moving towards a self-reliant lifestyle and seem to be upbeat and positive about their own future.
They are also aware of the falsehoods being promulgated by their University and professors.
All I encounter around here are positive examples of the Millennial generation moving towards a saner future, but then maybe it’s just me.
You offer only lessons in blood, sweat and tears on your farm: hard choices, responsibility, input/output, the limits of physics and thermodynamics and an early alarm clock.
Technology offers escapism, false sense of community, fantasy, violation of pesky physical limitations and the ability to indulge in 4/7 Deadly Sins without leaving your room.
So sadly, my money is on the technology for now. Most of these kids will learn to recognize false Gods the hard way, just the same way we did and our ancestors of yore did.
Farmer,
I hope you are correct but I believe you are wrong.Those kids that you are working were selected by your son,who seems to be a reflection of you.
But I hope time proves me wrong.
But maybe it’s not.
I practice yoga and spend time hiking Michigan, the west, the north east, and photographing as I go.
I meet all kinds of new age hippies who don’t shave, have flipped a finger to the American dream of a big mortgage, college, marriage, kids, etc.
They choose to live in a van or converted bus, travel and work on communal farms or odd jobs as they move about the country.
My awesome 23 year old office manager announce she met a boy on a yoga retreat in Costa Rica.
In September she will leave with Josh in a converted van, travel and see stuff.
She has been working hard on creating a way to work remotely and promised to be back for next summer, then repeat next winter.
I marvel at their freedom, travels and adventures.
One thing they have not abandoned are phones, camera gear, laptops, or their social networking. I’m friends with all of them on Instagram and FB to share photos and adventures.
I’m going on 58, these kids were born into the technology world and might be seeking a balance before they are consumed by a virtual life, but I bet they are a minority.
“…depending on *whether* it lights up…”
“The trend *piqued* my interest…”
Rdawg – should have seen her stuff a couple years ago. She has improved greatly. Probably at a sixth grade level now.
Exactly….author is a “luddite”
Stephanie, I liked the little vignette, in spite of your typo on withering lights. Of COURSE, the spinner lifted your interest to highest peaks, unlike gizmo games that light up and excite the moribund minds of children these days.
A daughter of an old friend has a little tot I “gift” with trinkets when I visit in Oklahoma City. Her daughter was born in 1976 so I’m not sure “what” that makes her… a Gen Xer? However, she was always stuck to the MTV screen at their home or accompanied by the handheld Nintendo games when I attended gatherings at her parents home.
I gave her boy a tube of pick-up sticks a couple of years ago and he loved it so very much, I have continued with little games of “yore” I pick up at junk stores when I’m out “antique” hunting for bargains. His grandmother and mother have been delighted at the enthusiasm he has developed for tiddly winks, dominoes (both playing and stacking) and other little puzzle games I’ve found for him amongst the junk on “everything’s a dollar” tables where most things are worth a dime but a few things are more than worth the effort of searching through the mess.
I don’t know if the little guy will continue to like the silly games Aunt Mags brings him, but I hope he does. I know, as we all do, that learning to use his mind and hands to complete a task or puzzle will serve him much better than learning to use his thumbs to trigger an electronic response will do.
And don’t worry about the critics. I’ve got your back. Not that you need it… I know you are the true queen of this platform and my interest always peaks when I see you’ve contributed an article.
My son enters his (hopefully) final year in computer engineering and is still single.
The fidget spinner might be a craze because it costs less than $10 bucks. OTOH I see Facebook is having to drop the price of its Occulus VR device because people aren’t willing to pay $700 or whatever it was for a toy.
Unless and until tech comes up with something as compelling as another iPhone it is going to be stuck as far as consumer demand goes. What it will be I have no idea but someone does.
Maybe it’s time for Pet Rocks to return.
It’s hard to get lower tech than that.
Steph I hope you are right.
What I notice is that we are losing the skill sets needed to live without tech. It has entwined us into a way of life that offers instant communication and vast social networks, the history of the world carried on a small device in our pocket, and every manner of entertainment one could desire, virtually if not actually. A kind and patient lady talks us to our destinations while warning us of debris on the road a mile ahead. Any question can be answered immediately.
How did we ever manage to meet someone someplace without being able to text a problem, diversion, or change in time or place? How did we get along with just pay phones when we were away from home? How limited we were by our CD collections. It all seems like ancient history.
The high school kids I observe are absolutely tethered to their phones, and younger kids are dying to be. If the electricity ever goes out, mass hysteria will ensue.
Offer a nine year old boy the choice of a fidget spinner or a smartphone and see which one he chooses.
I have personally believed that we peaked with tech a little bit ago. Why? Because the technology revolution has exceeded our human capacity to control it. It has become so complicated and we are being forced to depend on it so much, that the benefits vs. the costs (like most everything else right now) are way out of whack.
Credit Reporting for example has morphed from a way that a legitimate lender could snapshot the profile of a borrower, to a noose around a persons neck (or blessing to make bad decisions) that tracks their every move and is used by marketers, insurance companies, and lenders as a way to exclude people or raise your rates. It also has replaced common sense. Remember that old movie with Sandra Bullock from the 90’s – The Net? That is reality now. If someone steels your identity, the drones in many government / private industry would believe that you were dead, a felon, from another planet etc. if their little computer screen said so, no common sense required, even if you were standing in front of them, very much alive, they would still claim you were dead because the computer says so.
Probably just as much a case of lazy, stupid humans, as unruly tech, but the point is that we as a whole can no longer handle these “advancements” and they are literally causing us to regress instead of progress as a species.
@Ghost
Haha, I’m not worried about the critics. I wrote this up in 5 minutes at 1 o’clock in the morning. It’s hardly an article. I’ve noticed more kids interested in the no-tech options in life. Maybe it’s because their early Millennial/late Xer parents were absorbed into their phones. My 9-year old nephew plays video games, but he’d rather play baseball and ride his bike outside.
@Gayle
Fidget Spinner vs. Phone?
I’ve just seen a lot of kids with spinners this summer and they looked entertained. If it were me, I’d take the spinner. But, I’d also be the leader of my own so called neo-luddite movement.
“But, I’d also be the leader of my own so-called neo-luddite movement.”
Which is why I daydream about your meeting my son and deciding my oddball would make a good husband some day. Soon.
Oh, you flatter me…
I am feeling like a luddite more and more being one of the few people I know who does not own a smart phone, and will not allow my wife or 10-yr old daughter to have one either. I’m even regretting allowing her and her younger sister to use the Fire tablet I got them for Christmas last year as it seems they spend every waking moment staring at it or the TV.
I am constantly amazed when in public to see hardly anyone looking up from a screen when sitting, standing or even walking city streets. I took a trip into NYC a month ago and I seemed to be the only one avoiding collisions on the sidewalks because I didn’t have my face plastered to a little screen. They all just assume that anyone in front of them will move out of their way.
I was sitting out on the porch of a local business this past Saturday and there were two girls… teens/early twenties and doing the normal phone thing.
I *almost* asked them “Do you like challenges/dares?” and if they didn’t immediately scream in horror I was going to challenge them to put the phones down and talk to each other until my order arrived. It would be anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.
Ultimately I didn’t because I just didn’t want to risk the potential for complaint… which is unfortunate because they struck me as a couple of people who actually would have enjoyed the experience but are simply operating on auto-pilot.
Perhaps next time.
Correction: Technology as entertainment (social media, games, etc.) may well have peaked, as it should. However, real technology (materials science, bio-engineering, automation, etc.) will continue to advance, of course. My field (control systems, automation, robotics) continues to grow as always.
Your field continues to grow as always does it? Sounds ominous to us Luddites…as in…How many Meat Puppets did your field’s growth throw under the employment bus last month?
Suggestion to everyone in here hoping for a return to a less technology dependent culture…
…Get rid of your smart phone if you haven’t already.
From there it’s pretty easy coasting back to a decent balance with tech devices as useful tools.
I assure you you will be happier… after you go through the pain of realizing just how much you’ve forgotten about navigating your own neighborhood without a crutch.
and there’s also the $1200 to $2,000 you’ll still have in your pocket each year…
“We are no longer living in an era where people are adopting technological advancements; rather it’s being imposed on us. When pushed too far towards the direction of technology the equal and opposite reaction would be to turn a generation into neo-luddites.” Absolutely! I still have a flip phone, and I even cringe when it rings. I hate kindle and other computer books. Nothing like a real book! I can remember when there were no computers and mobile phones and when there was only about 3 channels on the TV. Man it was a sweet time!
CBS, PBS, and CBC in the UP for me…
That, and you could shoot a .22 all day for $5…. Who needed tech when you could drop a rabbit at 75 yards?
I order books to my front door with a click of a button while frowning at my wifes kindle.
This time frame, the now, is but a brief consolidation period, before the next great tech leap forward. In the tech entertainment field, virtual reality is poised to launch, transform and dominate. Piggybacking on this trend in the wider fields of productivity and communication will be biotech, the merging of our biology with tech.
The spinner thingy is cute but I would like to point an equally “cool” thingy I see everywhere, Fitbit.
This thing is attached to you, monitoring your biometrics, this thing knows how often you fuck your wife, how long it takes, and probably knows if she came or not. The Holy Grail of serf monitoring is rapidly approaching, integrated biotechnology, they will mount the IPhone at the base of you skull, and motherfuckers will love it.
These cyborg freaks will have serious power that hillbilly neo-luddites will cringe in the face of.
The power to surf the net with your mind.
The power to control machines via wifi with your mind.
The power to communicate with anyone over vast distances with your mind.
It is not far off, Fitbit, Iwatch, others, are just humble beginnings training us to incorporate the tech INTO our persons. Couple this with dramatic advancements in Neurotechnology and it is lights out for the Luddites.
Further the shopping list of available upgrayddes for designer babies is increasing exponentially, with lines forming.
What will you chose for your child?
But yeah, I hope, this is a turning point, returning us to a more romantic vision of natural existence.
I have been hearing about Kurzweil’s singularity for a long time now, but I just don’t see technological civilization as lasting long enough to see it through.
I think Kunstler’s “World Made by Hand” is more likely, with civilization living off the technological detritus of our current society.
Ottomatik,
Somebody sent this to me today.
It’s all about being wired into the system,or the system being wired into us.
TO BE OR NOT TO BE ?… Inevitable?
Ordering A Pizza Tomorrow –
Hello! Is this Gordon’s Pizza?
No sir, it’s Google’s Pizza.
Did I dial the wrong number?
No sir, Google bought the pizza store.
Oh, alright – then I’d like to place an order please.
Do you want the usual?
The usual? You know what my usual is?
According to your caller ID, the last 15 times
you’ve ordered a 12-slice with double-cheese, sausage, and thick crust.
Okay – that’s what I want this time too.
May I suggest that this time you order an 8-slice with ricotta,
arugula, and tomato instead?
No, I hate vegetables.
But your cholesterol is not good.
How do you know?
Through the subscribers’ guide.
We have the results of your blood tests for the last 7 years.
Maybe so, but I don’t want the pizza you suggest –
I already take medicine for high cholesterol.
But you haven’t taken the medicine regularly—
4 months ago you purchased a box of only 30 tablets from Drugsale Network.
I bought more from another drugstore.
It’s not showing on your credit card sir.
I paid in cash.
But according to your bank statement you, did not withdraw that much cash.
I have another source of cash.
That isn’t showing on your last tax form,
unless you got it from an undeclared income source.
WHAT THE HELL? That’s ENOUGH!
I’m sick of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.
I’m going to an island without Internet,
where there’s no cellphone line, and no one to spy on me …
I understand Sir, but
you’ll need to renew your passport … it expired 5 weeks ago.
no prob — NO MORE USE FOR A PASSPORT EITHER
.”.If the Trump administration gets its way, U.S. citizens boarding international flights will have to submit to a face scan, a plan privacy advocates call a step toward a surveillance state.
The Department of Homeland Security says it’s the only way to successfully expand a program that tracks nonimmigrant foreigners….
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20170712/flying-abroad-you-may-soon-have-to-pause-for-a-face-scan
Appears as if Stephanie has developed a thicker skin to supplement growing maturity. You have grit. You have taken a lot of crap around here and keep coming back. You are ok kid.
Probably we would hear more from her if Maggie would quit trying to set her son up with her every time she shows up.
It was creepy three years ago, and still is.
Rdawg… when we meet up I hope you think my daughter* is wife material.
*I don’t have a daughter.
Oh good Razums…..hope it’s soon and you bring the lube. Rdawg
Projection at its finest.
If you’re going to spoof, at least get the screen name correct. Moran.
Checkout kiosks at the grocery stores are here to stay. Both my wife and I prefer them when buying a small number of items. Not only are they more convenient, my wife has pointed out that they are more accurate (less mistakes) as well. Social media is likely a fad, and as with all fads, will likely fade away. However, technology in commercial and industrial environments is here to stay. To suggest that all technology will go away because people use social media less is like suggesting that all radio communication went away because the CB radio craze ended by the early 80’s.
I don’t think we’ll see it go away entirely. Going forward most technology will have to serve a purpose other than being shiny and new. There’s a “been there, done that” attitude towards tech companies.
Steph, please tell the Rmutt I do not frighten you off with my matchmaking suggestion. Especially since we both know it’s bullshit.
Haha, that’s not it. I just haven’t had much to say recently.
I think many of us are speechless at the strangeness of the world around us.
Get a room you pervs!
Don’t worry Mags, junior will bring home a girl you will absolutely hate soon enough.
Most likely the the first one that lets him get to 3rd base.
I work in the manufacturing world. To me, technology means stuff like automation and robotics, material science such as semiconductor materials and process or new allows and composites for new generations of aircraft and car, bio-engineering (CRISPR gene therapy, stem cell regeneration, etc.). This kind of hard science technology will naturally continue to progress. Social media and what most people call “technology” is not really technology in my book. It is simply software apps (it is debatable whether computer programming itself is technology – its certainly not hard engineering).
I guess it depends on ones’ definition. I can tell you that I am usually the late-adopter when it comes to consumer electronics. I bought my first smart phone about two years ago. I’m not much of a fan of social media. I’d rather go hiking or kayaking.
However, there is other technology I am very keen on, particularly bio-engineering. Someone develops a gene therapy to repair the mitochondrial DNA in all of my cells (aging is caused primarily by mitochondrial dysfunction – probably due to deletion mutations in the mitochondrial DNA) and I’m on the first plane to the offshore clinic that makes it available. I want the bio-engineering to live indefinitely long in a youthful condition. I’m a big fan of DIY biology and medicine as well as medical tourism.
Well, I hate kiosks in stores — the face to face interaction with a live clerk is still better than the super efficient kiosk. I would rather put up with a few mistakes — it human. I would rather crack a joke or ask how your day is going ( to a real clerk). That is also human. I cant say “Thank you and have a nice day” to a kiosk.” All I get is efficiency and time saving. Both are not worth giving up my human clerk, complete with her/his bad days, coffee breaks, and cash register mistakes.
Some technology is useful.
We still have a land line; mainly for guaranteed contact from family. We have an answering machine on it for when we’re off shopping & such.
About three months ago my wife got tired (finally, after years) of all the spam calls from “Windows Technical Support” (Let Us Put a Virus on Your Machine by Enabling Remote Desktop to Us), rooftop solar panel pushers, Don’t You Need a ___?, and others. She dialed down the answering machine response to 2 rings, and quit answering. Now every call rolls down to the machine, while she listens; if it’s someone she wants to talk to (doctor, family, etc.) she will pick up in the middle and talk to them. If it’s a sales / fraud call, she doesn’t pick up.
Her stress levels are down a bit; wonder why?
Get on the “do not call” list, but you’ll need to update it every year.
We get very few calls, and don’t answer the phone and let the calls go to the answering machine. If it’s important, we’ll pick up.
Eight years ago I took my son’s cell phone (old LG Shine) when he got a Google phone.
I am an Information Technology professional and don’t care to own a “smart” phone.
I do very little texting and abhor social media. And I don’t take my phone to the bedroom when I go to sleep.
Card802 ,I know the kind of young people you’re talking about. Traveling around seeing the world.They sure look like they said fuck you to the American dream.
I don’t envy those hippie want to be little maggots.This is one of the groups that ask Guys like me for money. They especially like truck drivers who work for FedEx.I guess they know they can usually get a few bucks.
Tampa,
Yes, fine examples of the commodification of data, fast becoming The Commodity. Your tale of complete data awareness for Google or Alphabet or whoever the fuck they are is the now, the future will be much more futuristic.
Peaknic,
As far as Kunstlers A World Made by Hand, pipedream, 100%, those days are gone. Please point to a time period of any note where similar proposed technological devolution occurred, globally.
Unfortunately, the opposite usually happens, war begets innovation. A serious dust up will only ensure more tech advancements and concurrently the dependence on them. As in massive toxicity and the tech cure to survive it. Kuntsler will just end up on a Trail of Tears, processed by those whom embrace cybernetics.
One can retreat and hide from it, or adapt and integrate, massive tech advancements are coming either way, it matters not what any of us choose.
I am disappointed nobody caught my Idiocracy pimp reference. This crew is due for some refinement in cultural arts and entertainment, lest you get buried in the upcoming Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505.
“As far as Kunstlers A World Made by Hand, pipedream, 100%, those days are gone.”
The whole idea in WMBH is that a virus wastes most of the population, and those days RETURN.
” Please point to a time period of any note where similar proposed technological devolution occurred, globally.”
(A) The concept of “globally” is quite recent; did the 1880 Germans think in terms of Global anything? The 1900 French?
(B) The Dark Ages; lots of Roman tricks were lost, until archaeologists and others figured them out again. The Romans had concrete that set under seawater; that trick was lost for quite a while. They had roads, sewers and aqueducts that weren’t copied again for a few centuries. Trick of the question: technological devolution, if the Romans had a technique that no one else had developed and Rome falls such that the technique is not used, is it “devolution”?
A global pandemic will actually accelerate technological innovation, particularly robotics and automation. With all of the surplus labor gone, the only way to get all of the factories producing again would be total “lights out” automation. Social mobility would increase as well. After all, this was what happened with the European black death, which killed off the guild system of Europe as its most positive benefit. Kunstler is wrong. Technology will only increase into the future.
To a point. Technology requires energy, and is completely dependent on hydrocarbons for harvesting the raw materials to make technology. You also have to have the hydrocarbons to make the alternative energy sources, so that ain’t going to work. I sense peak technology around the time hydrocarbons become too expensive to make it.
We’ll have small scale Gen IV MSR reactors that will allow us to ride out any plague scenario and to continue advancing in real technology (manufacturing, bio-engineering). One benefit of such a plague – real estate in desirable places will be cheap again.
Historically plagues have been good for society. They clear out parasitical bureaucracy and make it easier for people to do things on their own, thus accelerating technological advance and material standard of living.
We all agree we want to create a open, expansive future of abundance.
“We’ll have small scale Gen IV MSR reactors…”
Uh huh. One mention of the word “nuclear” will have your community wielding pitchforks and torches to prevent such a thing.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a proponent of nuclear energy; the problem is that the radical environmentalists have done a fantastic job of scaring the shit out of everyone. Fukushima Daiichi didn’t help the cause much either.
— “We all agree we want to create a open, expansive future of abundance”
In order for your future to survive, you’re going to have to come up with a way of controlling this sort of behavior. People who have so much abundance and ease their entire purpose is to *accelerate* the spread of disease vectors.
Which is why it will be even more authoritarian, not less.
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I was once part of a group that sort of followed the Chris Martenson Peak Oil Crisis Theory (is a series of videos he offers on his web site: they used to be downloadable for “free” but I have no idea about now. Well, I’ll just go look-lucky you, it is in accelerated form below. The group I was in watched all 20 hours of the videos over a few months of meetings.)
I bring it up because your point is extremely valid about the inter-relationship of so many global issues that will impact the survival and continuing existence of society when and if the “big” crisis comes about.
The group I was in broke into two sectors: One which built an underground complex out of giant storage containers. The other sector purchased several hundred acres in rural Oklahoma and have a community farm there cared for by various members.
Nick and I decided to evacuate Oklahoma completely and moved here to our little piece of heaven. Nick is pretty anti-social anyway and he decided half of the group was nuts. He did find the Martenson videos interesting, though he refused to attend any meetings with “those weirdos.”
I particularly found his explanation of Exponential Growth helpful to understand the lack of a sense of urgency that dominates human perception. I looked at the video I’ve linked and discovered it is a nice little summary at the 9 minute point… enjoy.
James,
Yes, the Romans experienced tech devolution on the micro scale, my point acknowledges you might find regression or devolution in pockets, here and there, but as a species the progression to now has been one directional, when viewed in the macro.
If you are banking on the total global apocalypse to fortify your argument of technological devolution to A World Made by Hand, you are banking on an event that has to my knowledge never happened before in human history.
Further it must be a total global apocalypse with all of humanity wiped out, otherwise, the reboot is baked in the cake.
Even if the total global apocalypse happens, it will not be enough to reverse the trajectory of our J shaped curve, soon, our technology will be self replicating and expanding independent of human life on earth.
Yep, and bio-engineering will give us radical life extension as well. The primary social benefit of radical life extension is that it will make people more resilient, both physically as well as psychologically, and less dependent on any kind of authoritarian social institutions. “Coerced” association between individuals will become obsolete in such a society comprised of near “immortals”. Freedom and prosperity will be immeasurably improved.
Abelard, I think you are in Ray Kurzweil’s camp.
Personally I think he is crazy given the realities that stare us in the face.
Actually, I’m not. I think the singularity concept is a load of hot air. However, I do think we are headed for was some call the “mundane” singularity, which is based on stuff like Gen IV fission power, maybe fusion (not ITER but the more than 8 privately-funded start-ups), 3-D printing (additive manufacturing – which there are many start-ups) and bio-engineering (which has many, many start-ups). I think Aubrey de grey’s SENS concept is 100% spot on and will lead to a cure for aging. The cool thing about bio-engineering is that it is inherently cheap. A state of the art biotech lab can be set up for around $200K (most of that goes into the over head) and one can develop their own CRISPR gene therapies in their own home. Yes! There is a lady in the Seattle area who did just that a couple of years ago. She developed a gene therapy to cure herself of telomere shortening and plans to have it available in an offshore clinic in the next few years.
Trust me, the mundane and bio singularities are real, unlike Kurzweil’s AI singularity.
Idiot Kurzweil ingests 150 pills a day trying to defy the aging process.
The three “thumbs down” suggests to me that you guys do not believe in the freedom of association anymore than the liberal-left, which supports my assertion that the liberal-left and social conservatives are mirror images of each other, philosophically speaking.
They suggest that these utopian technologies will not just be laying around free for the taking but will only be made available to people who are amenable to the authorities.
You aren’t being down voted for believing in freedom of association… but for be retarded enough to not recognize two important sides of human nature.
The side that when it has nothing to worry about, creates its own problems and destroys the environment that allows it to be so bored in the first place (think Antifa/Feminism)… and the side who wants to make sure that only appropriate people have access to such powerful tools (think TPTB) and enforce a system of regulation blocking out those who could use the technology to threaten their dominance… even if it’s just by offering an alternative.
Food has never been more plentiful… nor control more centralized and more difficult to grow your own without threat of prison/seizure if you violate some arbitrary rule.
I was going to say similar. If Abelard Lindsey thinks TPTB are going to allow access to life extension for the Dirt People, he’s in for a rude awakening.
There will always be ways to get around the “authoritarians” when it come to technologies such as life extension. I am not so naive to believe that forces that don’t want us to have this stuff do not exist (indeed, I just went around one such “force” this week to get what I wanted).
Your comments make clear that you despise centralized authority as much as I do. If you want a particular thing, you have to get off your ass and work to get it, or to make it happy regardless of what others (and the so-called “elites” think is best). You guys clearly understand this as it relates to your political or religious ideals. But your commitment to standing up to the “elites” seems to falter when it comes to DIY medicine (e.g. radical life extension) or some other possibility that would actually improve your life and your future.
I consider this to be logically inconsistent and it is very puzzling to me.
— “…(e.g. radical life extension) or some other possibility that would actually improve your life and your future.”
I don’t consider radical life extension an improvement.
— “I consider this to be logically inconsistent and it is very puzzling to me.”
That is because you are a bot.
Radical life extension is definitely an improvement for me. Your mileage may vary.
That is because you are a bot with no narrative.
I have narrative. Its just that I create my own narrative rather than plugging in to someone else’s narrative without thinking about it. I would say that your behavior is more “bot-like” than mine.
You’re a bot. It comes out in your try hard mannerisms.
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Razzle, you need to see a therapist.
If what I’ve been saying was nonsense, ignoring it should have been trivial.
Why so concerned whether some rando thinks you’re a bot? You’ve got an eternity of hiking and scuba diving that should render my commentary meaningfully non-existent if it’s got zero seed of truth in it.
Stephanie
Zero Hedge picked up your post and mistakenly credited it to me. I sent them an email to change it to you.
Awesome!
I see you revised your comment to remove the reference to Stephanie as daughter-in-law.
Good for you. Acceptance is the first step to healing.
Stephanie’s literary acumen “piqued” my Kill Me Now switch, and my neurons are just now recovering from Wretched Prose Triggering.
I have built some of the greatest tech in the world, as a Silly Valley product manager for nearly 30 years. While some semblance of our humanity has atrophied, we have also unlocked doors heretofore locked or unheralded. For example, the Japanese sex robot industry will finally replace the Leftist/Saprophytic female of our species. All Hail Eris. Imagine a world in which we have multiple Maria Sharapovas, who are able to cook, and remain faithful. Moreover, they never, ever use the words “patriarchal,” “oppressed,” and appreciate a good pussy grabbing.
Progress!
I’ve read about these “sexbots”. Personally I find them creepy. One does not have “sex” with an inanimate object, no matter what it looks like.
However, I don’t care if other people are into them as they do not represent any sort of “existential” threat to people like myself. The people who want to create new technologies and possibilities will continue to do so regardless of the existence of sexbots. We will still create the open, expansive future we seek to create. As long as we are able to do so, any social or other issue posses no existential threat. Thus, I could not care less about these issues.
My pal who does FB say something has changed; a year or so ago people gradually started to copy & re-post other people’s videos & articles rather than their own personal news or family pix. Reading a grab-bag of 3rd party cut & paste copies has become not worth the time. Gradually, 5 dozen people she’d read stuff from 4x per week has shriveled to 2 dozen, and those 2x per week.
FB will go the way of scrap-booking & AOL before long, suddenly seen as stupid & loathsome.
Fidget spinners are like Brawndo for the hand.
They have electrolytes?
AND, spin best with water, from the toilet! 🙂
What a wonderful world, full of schisms, cavernous swaths of jellied protoplasm, and metastasizing and arid, Globalist lands and tropes. It would all boggle me wee mind, if boggling were still Legal.
Fidget spinners, the perfect distraction while watching ouch my balls, or Monday night rehabitulation.
The fidget spinner was developed as a toy for kids with ADHD. Much like the Fidget Cube:
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I don’t think the popularity of these and other “fidget toys” says much about technology now and in the future, perhaps, as it says more about an increase in ADHD. The spinner did catch on with a larger market of kids, but I imagine the fad will be short-lived. My local 7-11 sells spinners and cubes, as well as a couple of other toys to help fidgety kids keep their hands and brains occupied. Only the spinners seem to be selling any significant volume. Also, many spinners have been recalled due to the very small bearings coming out and potentially ending up in a kid’s mouth.
Social media is likely a fad. However, other aspects of the internet are definitely here to stay. I bought a Kindle some years ago and I can tell you I will never go back to paper books (with a few exceptions). I travel a fair bit in my work. my Kindle allows me to have essentially a library in a small device for reading on the plane and in evenings in hotels. There is tons of self-published stuff on Amazon. 95% of what I buy and read is self-published, which should tell you the likely fate of the traditional publishing houses. My favorite genre is spy/covert op thrillers. The number of times I’ve been in a physical book store in the past 4 years can be counted on the fingers of one had. I do suspect my reading habits are representative of the general population.
My wife and I booked a condo for two weeks in Cancun over the Christmas/New Years holiday period. We did this through homeaway.com (I highly recommend this site for holiday travel) and booked our flights on Southwest through their website. We do all of our holiday travel arrangments through the internet. We do our Christmas shopping through the internet each year (thus avoiding holiday crowds in physical stores, “black Friday”, etc.) as well and have it delivered directly to recipients. We do essentially all of our non-grocery shopping through the internet, but generally not through Amazon. All of the more functional “brick and mortar” stores have websites that you can shop on, then pick up for free at the nearest physical store to our home.
I remember the year the internet first became mainstream (1995) some guy predicted that it would not last and even wrote a book about it call “Silicon Snake Oil”. This book has got to be one of the most wrong predictions made in modern history.
Trust me guys. The internet is here to stay.
Who here said the internet was going away?
The question will be: for what purposes will you be allowed to use it?
I see no believable scenario of how I use the internet ever going away.
Sure, consumerism will still be allowed, which seems to be your interest.
I’m talking about the free and open exchange of ideas. That part is in question.
Razzle-“They suggest that these utopian technologies will not just be laying around free for the taking but will only be made available to people who are amenable to the authorities.”
Spot on mate! Any tech that bestows an edge, commercial ,millitary, athletic, ect, ect, will be doled out strategically.
CRISPR babies are here, now. Who is first in line?
Surprising that nobody has mentioned Tech = control. A quick read…
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/07/vault_7_internet_security_and_your_life_on_display.html
“I bought a Kindle some years ago and I can tell you I will never go back to paper books (with a few exceptions).” FUCK YOU! Abeltard. Technology is becoming an archonic wet dream. Just look how much time people spend staring at a screen.
Hahaha! Are you serious? Also, what does the word “archonic” mean? I tried looking it up on the ‘Net and can’t find any definition.
In any case, I read my Kindle and use all manner of computing device. I also hike, scuba dive, kite board, and hang out with friends. In other words, I live a well-rounded life. So, I ask. What is your point?
@Diogenes…
You nailed it… it’s an archonic bot.
Abeltard is such a fucking mindless drone.
I agree with your piece, Steph. My grandson bugged the crap out of us for one of those fidget spinner things, so I finally found one and learned he already had SEVEN!
BTW I first saw this piece over on ZH and it had Jim Quinn’s byline. You might want to ask him ’bout that 🙂 🙂
I’m a voracious reader. As I mentioned previously, I can carry an entire library on my person, say, when I’m on a flight, in a hotel room, or on a beach in Southeast Asia. If I live in a non-English speaking country (like when I lived in Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia), no longer do I have to go out of my way to find an English-language book store (with limited selection) in order to get something to read. I only need an internet connection and I essentially have the whole-world’s books available to purchase on Amazon.
The internet is also great for discussion forums on places to visit, the ins and outs, where to stay, and what not; when traveling in places like Southeast Asia. It is also a boom for overseas sourcing of the one pharmaceutical med that I use, as well as medical tourism in the near future (SENS therapies, CRISPR, etc.).
The internet makes it easy for me to communicate with clients while I am traveling and to even do “remote” trouble-shooting of my automation and control systems on customer sites around the world. Technology is also a boom for telecommuting.
As you can see, I make use of technology in many ways, both personal and professional.
Given that this is an alt-right website, I find the hostility toward e-books quite puzzling as it is quite irrational. As you may or may not know, the traditional publishing houses have become infested with SJW’s, who act as self-appointed “gate keepers” who decide what is allowed to be published and read. I would think you guys in here would be keen to a technology such as e-books that allows for self-publishing such as to completely bypass the SJW infested publishing houses and their futile attempts to regulate what you can read. It also makes it easy for alt-right authors to self-publish on their own and bypass the SJW-infested marketing channels, as Milo and other authors have done with great success.
As a dissident political movement, you guys ought to be keen to use any technology that allows you to create your parallel social organizations and communities independent of the SJW-types who would try to shut you down. As you can see, a luddite attitude is quite irrational, not to mention self-defeating, for dissident political types such as yourselves.
Anything that empowers individuals and small groups towards greater autonomy is always a good thing.
I think you’re getting hung up on the Neo-luddite term. It was really meant to be tongue and cheek. But, considering you’re an avid reader I’m sure you’re well versed in irony.
I think people are really just going to limit their usage and return to a simpler internet. Mostly a pre-social media and pre-smartphone era. This need to attach a phone or app to every aspect of our lives is overbearing. Knowing the NSA can hack my T.V. is unsettling. The Internet of Things (IoT) was really a VC investing spaghetti strategy of fling everything at the wall and hope anything sticks.
Honestly, the only intelligent investment I’ve seen was Myspace Tom. He’s probably going to be the only winner when this fad dies out because he sold Myspace for $580 million to Rupert Murdoch at the height of the hype. Murdoch got hosed years later when he re-sold Myspace to Justin Timberlake for a mere $30 million. Can’t wait to see how Zuckerburg will end up. He’s a one trick pony who got lucky and doesn’t know it.
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On that, Stephanie, I agree with you 100%! It sounds like we’re on the same wavelength now.
In deed, what you described as your use of the ‘net there is essentially how I use it myself. I do have a smart phone, but use it mostly to check emails when I’m on a customer site without WiFi. I also use the real time traffic monitoring while I’m driving as well. That is about the only thing I use my phone for, other than to talk to people. I’ve yet to acquire the habit of text messaging (unfortunately, my electrical guy is well versed at messaging, particularly when either he or myself is about to board a plane).
I can also tell you as a control system and industrial automation engineer, I share your skepticism of the IoT (internet of things) and voice my skepticism often to my customers. Most of them agree with me. The IoT really does represent a huge security risk to the industrial and manufacturing infrastructure, and I mention this all the time to my customers. There is also the privacy issue as you mention as well. I really dislike the IoT concept.
I agree with you about the frivolous IPO’s in the social media space. All I can say about this is that I do not have any “tech” stocks (e.g. social media stocks) in my portfolio.
Can’t wait to see how Zuckerburg will end up. He’s a one trick pony who got lucky and doesn’t know it.
I suspect the existing tech giants (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.) are getting tons of money from the spy agencies (mostly NSA, some CIA) in some corrupt deal and that they are essentially “intelligence contractors”, the tech equivalent to the SoCal aerospace contractors of the 1980’s. Facebook was initially funded by the CIA’s VC fund QIntel, and it was known in the Valley that the NSA had offices in the basement of the building used by Google in the late 90’s. These guys are more like government contractors that the real entrepreneurs of the early 1980’s.
Hmmm, Abelard I’m guessing you are in your 30s? I’m also guessing that you have always been surrounded by computers?
No and no. I am merely pointing out that it IS possible to use computers to do useful things AND to live a well-rounded life, such as doing outdoor sports such as hiking and kit boarding as well as having a social life. You have difficulty grasping this possibility.
Given that you guys aren’t keen on social media, you might find this amusing.
I just thought of a really entertaining idea that would effectively destroy facebook. Develop an application that would enable people to see who looks at their facebook page.
I have a “community” page attached to my personal page (deactivated) that has some really interesting capabilities regarding where/who is viewing the page. I took screen shots of the data while building an audience for the page and it is quite interesting to see how the rumor mill of the bots works.
At one time, I had over 14,000 people watching my little page, but I’m sure most of them were simply gizmo views.
I will go to the “other” computer where all my data is stored and add those in a few minutes. Via Editing capabilities, a techy improvement added here just a year or so ago.
Those spinners are great for autistic kids who can spin and stare at them for hours while waiting for their next vaccine regimen
I like that Stephanie equates a toy (with precision bearings in it), most likely made in a computer controlled injection molding machine, with neo-luddism.
That was adorable.
I bought 1-3 newspapers a day for 25 years, news on the interweb is better so the love/hate relationship will continue.