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Dumb ideas that make good sci-fi somehow

KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
in General Media
  • Technological singularity
  • Mind uploading
  • FTL travel
  • Ancient astronauts

Comments

  • TachyonTachyon
    imagei will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch
    humanoids with face tentacles
  • BeeBee
    edited 2018-05-25 02:18:53
    "Sergeant?  Make it spin."

    "Spin?  S...sir it doesn't spin."

    "What?  It has to spin!  It's ROUND!  Spinning is so much cooler than not spinning.  I'm the general, I want it to spin!"
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    edited 2018-05-25 02:54:28
    can someone explain to me how a technological singularity is meant to work and why it's conceived as a dangerous thing?

    because it's never quite made sense to me, and so i went and specifically looked up the wikipedia page on it just now, and it seems to be based in the really silly assumption that technological advancement just keeps going up and up in some arbitrary abstract way defined by "up"

    except the whole idea of technological advancement being a linear thing is based on human conceptions of (un)familiarity and of temporal ordering -- there's really no hard physical constraint that says that a civilization has to develop flush toilets before maglev trains, for example
    (except maybe the reasoning more basic human needs are met by flush toilets than by maglev trains, but in that case it's still an anthropocentric view)

    i mean, you can say "technological development" or "technological progress" keeps happening, but...how exactly is it gonna happen?  and don't say "more and more" or "up and up"
  • BeeBee
    edited 2018-05-25 06:19:40
    At this point I just assume whoever uses that term either is, or is talking about someone who is, saying  they're totally going to be an immortal cyborg with an internet brain and shits Bayes nets and there are no downsides to this whatsoever and anyone who says otherwise hates science or something.

    Meanwhile as a programmer and web developer myself, OH CHRIST NO.  If we ever make sapient AI, the first thing I'm going to do is hug them because they're probably going to need it.  You think us meatbags have it bad?  Imagine going through a new puberty every time Adobe updates, or being able to contract STDs just by looking at things.
  • CalicaCalica
    Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    Bee said:

    "Sergeant?  Make it spin."


    "Spin?  S...sir it doesn't spin."

    "What?  It has to spin!  It's ROUND!  Spinning is so much cooler than not spinning.  I'm the general, I want it to spin!"
  • BeeBee
    edited 2018-05-25 05:00:18
    RIP Don S. Davis :(

    I had a dream last night that I was in some kind of mix between Stargate Atlantis and Xenoblade X.  It was kind of awesome, except for the implication that most of humanity was dead.
  • KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
    kill living beings
    glennmagusharvey said:

    can someone explain to me how a technological singularity is meant to work and why it's conceived as a dangerous thing?

    because it's never quite made sense to me, and so i went and specifically looked up the wikipedia page on it just now, and it seems to be based in the really silly assumption that technological advancement just keeps going up and up in some arbitrary abstract way defined by "up"

    you see how i put "dumb ideas" in the title? this is why
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    the singularity basically assumes that we'll always be able to make faster and faster computers with no slowdown in progress, never mind those pesky laws of physics (or something like an economic collapse making the required materials and energy difficult to get).
  • BeeBee
    Of course we can arbitrarily increase processor speed!  You don't mind your laptop reaching the approximate temperature of a rocket nozzle, do you?  CROTCH PANINI FOR EVERYONE
  • vtkvtk
    embrace the confusion
    Bee said:

    or being able to contract STDs just by looking at things.

    Sight-transmitted diseases?

    But yeah, hugs would be good. Finding one's place in life as a newly-created consciousness can be stressful and confusing. I know this almost first-hand.
  • TachyonTachyon
    imagei will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch
    y'know Klino i can't remember, was it you who pointed out on TVT why the singularity thing doesn't work, why processors are not going to just keep getting faster and faster forever?

    i just remember being tremendously disappointed
  • KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
    kill living beings
    i absolutely do not remember that far back

    but, well

    there are experimental transistors now that are 5 nm wide, which is like 50 silicon atoms across

    there's like... there's limits there. there's lots of room at the bottom but not unlimited

    and that's before you get into heat dissipation, having more transistors not actually helping as much, and what i didn't know on tvt, which is that the smaller you make transistors the shittier they get (go figure)
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