Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Saturday, August 01, 2015

Republican Cyborg Manifesto

Steve King, Futurist: "You could marry your lawnmower with this [gay marriage] decision."

4 comments:

jimf said...

> "You could marry your lawnmower with this [gay marriage] decision."

Florida man demands right to wed computer
Man sues for the right to marry his porn-laden Macbook, arguing that
if gays are allowed to marry then so should other sexual minorities
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10814098/marriage-gay-marriage-mac-wedding-computer-Florida-Utah.html

Maybe he's decided he can't afford to wait for _Her_.


http://edge.org/conversation/john_markoff-the-next-wave
--------------
[I]t's an interesting time in Silicon Valley. . . [S]omething I've been reporting about since 1977. . .
is this Moore's Law acceleration. Over the last five years, another layer has been added to the
Moore's Law discussion, with Kurzweil and people like him arguing that we're on the brink of
self-aware machines. Just recently, Gates and Musk and Hawking have all been saying that this
is an existential threat to humankind. I simply don't see it. If you begin to pick it apart,
their argument and the fundamental argument of Silicon Valley, it's all about this exponential
acceleration that comes out of the semiconductor industry. I suddenly discovered it was over.

Now, it may not be over forever, but it's clearly paused. All the things that have been driving
everything that I do, the kinds of technology that have emerged out of here that have changed the
world, have ridden on the fact that the cost of computing doesn't just fall, it falls at an
accelerating rate. And guess what? In the last two years, the price of each transistor has
stopped falling. That's a profound moment.

Kurzweil argues that you have interlocked curves, so even after silicon tops out there's
going to be something else. Maybe he's right, but right now that's not what's going on,
so it unwinds a lot of the arguments about the future of computing and the impact of
computing on society. If we are at a plateau, a lot of these things that we expect, and
what's become the ideology of Silicon Valley, doesn't happen. It doesn't happen the way
we think it does. I see evidence of that slowdown everywhere. The belief system of
Silicon Valley doesn't take that into account.
====


But. . . But. . . Quantum! Quantum!
I want my quantum!

jimf said...

> Quantum! Quantum!
> I want my quantum!

I want my Lawnmower Man. :-0

Chad Lott said...

Are we sure he doesn't mean an available lawn care professional?

Dale Carrico said...

"I'm Running For Office, For Pete's Sake, I Can't Have Illegals."