Saturday 18 January 2014

The Problems With Technology

There are some things from future technology that seem exciting until you think them through and you find yourself thinking that actually, it would be a nightmare.
Flying cars for example, sounds great in theory, soaring above the roads and houses but if it goes wrong, if the car suddenly stops or it stalls or you run out of petrol or get into a prang with another flying car, that's you plummeting to earth inside a tonne of metal and firemen pulling your scorched body from flaming heap of twisted car.
Another idea that sounds great but is already with us is the replicator, or the 3d Printer as it is called in the real world.
What could possibly go wrong with a machine that could build anything. Hungry? Print a meal. Cold? Print a blanket. Indigestion? Print a tablet.
It should be great, a world where anybody can have anything they want by just printing it.
The problem see may occur is that we wouldn't need anybody to make anything. Clothes, food, furniture, pills and even other 3d printers. The only people who would need a job are the people who provide the elements that go into 3d printers and even they would be out of a job if we could 3d print the elements required.  
Nobody would have a job and nobody would need one because anything we wanted, which we would have paid for in the old days, we can now just print.
Technology, not as good as we think and don't get me started on making robots more intelligent than us!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok I want comment on robot intelligence or your intelligence...

Q

Lucy said...

Robot intelligence - Ai intelligence at the moment is apparently at the level of a cockroach which isn't that bright in the scheme of things but it can still beat our best brains at thinking challenges such as chess. Just imagine what it can do when it moves up to the intelligence of an ant or a bee or even the lowest form of intelligence in humans, Conservative party voters, Manchester United fans or people who laugh at Seinfeld jokes.

My intelligence - i trap insects in a glass and put them outside, dislike the Conservative Party and Man Utd and have never been in danger of chuckling at a Seinfeld joke. I also once got to the semi-final of the school chess competition when i was about 11 but got well and truly beaten by a boy who would wear slip on shoes because he couldn't tie his laces. Not sure what that means though.

Anonymous said...

I reread your post. To prevent job loss, did you just say we should go back to:
- farming with mules
- horse drawn carriages
- wood stoves
- windmills
- handmade fabric
- etc

q

Nog said...

You hear about 3D printed guns?