• Welcome to the new Internet Infidels Discussion Board, formerly Talk Freethought.

This is so gawdam awesome

P

Perspicuo

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
Messages
1,289
Location
Costa Rica
Basic Beliefs
Empiricist, ergo agnostic
What new research and/or development have you discovered recently that makes you go "This is so goddamn awesome!"?


Mine today:
Students develop nail polish that can detect rape drugs

Worried About Date Rape? These Guys Have the Nail Polish for You
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...stry-in-an-unexpected-way-fighting-date-rape/

Many have spoken out against the epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses, and many others have spoken out against the booze-fueled party culture in which sexual assaults often take place and the “progressivism” that blurs distinctions between different kinds of assault.

While the pundits and policymakers debate the issue, four guys at North Carolina State University are doing something proactive (and unorthodox): inventing a nail polish that can detect date rape drugs.
Click to expand...


Kind of like blows out of the water the stereotype of the soulless scientist too, huh? : )
 
Read the comments. You can see some of the conservative denial.
 
hylidae said:
That doesn't really scare me. Does it scare you? If so, why?
Click to expand...

Uncertainty.

I believe automatization will resolve poverty, because it has the potential to substitute more then 75% of jobs currently performed by good looking apes. Therefore, societies will have to establish salaries for everyone. In the meantime, depending on the resistance by Luddites, politicians and the rich (each with their own motivations to do so), will create uncertainty. The Swiss have already proposed a 2500 franc minimum income, so that's promising.

Also, the degree of power given to robotization powered by big data, personal data and all data, will create philosophical and practical conundrums and struggles for the ages. And while we fight over it, big electronic brother may decide that humans need protection from themselves, due to a glitch, a virus, a hack or psychiatric/penitential vigilance and management system slightly misaligned and spilt all over the web. Etcetera.

As I said, uncertainty.

Great hopes and great perils.
 
I wouldn't mind a medical bot that is better than any human medic can ever hope to be (bias, hubris, stature, grafts, grants etc. included - or rather excluded), nor an auto that drives a hypothetical inebriated whore-mongering me, accident-free.

Yes, such a world can create a truly labor-free, Start-Trek like independent individuals (assuming that the rich would allow this, which they most certainly won't).

But then what? What would humans do after that?

http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/associated-press-will-use-robots-write-articles - is this what we want or embrace? And it's already here.
 
Perspicuo said:
hylidae said:
That doesn't really scare me. Does it scare you? If so, why?
Click to expand...

Uncertainty.

I believe automatization will resolve poverty, because it has the potential to substitute more then 75% of jobs currently performed by good looking apes. Therefore, societies will have to establish salaries for everyone. In the meantime, depending on the resistance by Luddites, politicians and the rich (each with their own motivations to do so), will create uncertainty. The Swiss have already proposed a 2500 franc minimum income, so that's promising.

Also, the degree of power given to robotization powered by big data, personal data and all data, will create philosophical and practical conundrums and struggles for the ages. And while we fight over it, big electronic brother may decide that humans need protection from themselves, due to a glitch, a virus, a hack or psychiatric/penitential vigilance and management system slightly misaligned and spilt all over the web. Etcetera.

As I said, uncertainty.

Great hopes and great perils.
Click to expand...

Uncertainty of this kind is still better than the uncertainty of nature. If we all dropped science, then we would just have different, and probably more chaotic uncertainty. Bad weather, meteorites, volcanoes, earthquakes, diseases, infectious diseases, the next ice age, aliens, and other scientifically predictable disasters will all have free reign over us. Advancing technology and faith in the humanity is the better of the two imperfect options.

And don't worry about robots taking arr jerbs; they are just extensions of us. Except we might look back and find out that we were enslaving them.
 
I would like to be wrong about it but I think 80% of people would not be able to cope with robots replacing them.
Most people don't have decent hobbies to occupy them usefully.
And I am of firm opinion that medical robots will become problem for human doctors in 10-15 years or even faster.
So if you are a young person thinking about becoming a doctor for financial reasons alone then you should think twice about it.
Same with education, not everything but large chunks of education is even easier to AI.
 
Last edited:
Musing Man said:
I wouldn't mind a medical bot that is better than any human medic can ever hope to be (bias, hubris, stature, grafts, grants etc. included - or rather excluded), nor an auto that drives a hypothetical inebriated whore-mongering me, accident-free.
Click to expand...

I would like at least a cashier-lady type doctor. Everything is calculated by the software but I'd have a doctor administrating it, especially if what's going on is serious, like oncology etc. For transmissible, not-generally-deadly diseases, an automatic teller kind of machine could be ok.

I think humans will always prefer the human touch. In any case we'd have billions of people without anything else to do anyway!
 
Perspicuo said:
Musing Man said:
I wouldn't mind a medical bot that is better than any human medic can ever hope to be (bias, hubris, stature, grafts, grants etc. included - or rather excluded), nor an auto that drives a hypothetical inebriated whore-mongering me, accident-free.
Click to expand...

I would like at least a cashier-lady type doctor. Everything is calculated by the software but I'd have a doctor administrating it, especially if what's going on is serious, like oncology etc. For transmissible, not-generally-deadly diseases, an automatic teller kind of machine could be ok.

I think humans will always prefer the human touch. In any case we'd have billions of people without anything else to do anyway!
Click to expand...
Don't know, if it comes to taking my poop out while I am in bed then I would prefer a robot and I am sure it will be cheaper too.
In any case, I believe health care will soon progress to Star Trek level, where you don't even get to the point where you lie in bed, everything will be corrected long before it becomes a problem., I am talking about things like cancer not broken legs.
 
They used a balloon to model my brain before surgery. Don't ask me why.
 
v0_master.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom