I am a fan of technology, a big fan, but I am not always a fan of the motives behind its use.
Currently listening to a BBC World Service prog on the ethics of technology (are there any?), the power that "technology" companies (Facehook, Googoe et al) are gaining and how they use it.
One little item new to me: Uber can read the charge on the battery in your mobile. If it is very low they charge you extra for your ride because they reckon you have no air time to argue about it. I have not corroborated this yet but would not be surprised to find this is correct
I have no intention, at all, to join the so-called "social" media. What I miss gives me the warmish feeling that, via those platforms at least, I am offering no data on me. OK, Tescos, Amazon etc gather armfulls of data from my purchases on their systems and I would be very surprised if someone was not gathering meta-data on what we write on forums such as this - maybe even the very companies hosting them, they have to make a profit on even the free forums.
Paranoid? No, pragmatic - knowledge is cash in the bank.
New technology has always put the willys up people. See "Trains" and "Going too fast will kill you!"
Social Media is just a new technology. People learned not to stand in front of trains some will learn to be careful about using Social Media. Those that don't will be 'flattened' :D
The golden rule of social media is 'Never post anything you wouldn't say or tell your grandma/partner/boss.' And that includes in private messages.
New tech just needs a considered approach in my experience. And believe me I learned the social media rule the hard way! :D
True, Tank, but the older ""physical" technology was much easier to avoid than the ubiquitous and insidious nature of covert analytical technology. Yes, marketeers have always had surveys and till records to design their strategies on, but now even never owning a computer, tablet or mobile phone is no defence. Your every move outside your house is scrutinised, analysed if younuse any kind of card for travelling or shopping.
No, I am not paranoid, bit fed up with adverts chasing me over every website I visit etc but . . . I once looked at one website for bedding and got pestered by ads from several entirely different companies offering me similar products. Doubt that Dunelm fed my enquiry to M&S, their competitor, but someone working for M&S monitored my behaviour.
Yup, chuck all the technology toys and brick up the doors and windows, or move to a remote hilltop or island - only way of evading the data gatherers ;D
Later: oops, you need a bit of land to grow crops, some chickens, some sheep (for wool for clothes) and a good stream nearby as well.
New tech often has some benefits and some detriments.
I find the best strategy is a measured approach. Stay aware of the dangers, and use the parts that work for you.
Sure, they all collect data for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's helpful (like suggesting new shows to watch), sometimes not (like showing you ads for something you just bought), sometimes dangerous (posting too much personal info to FB)
I'm hopeful that tech will usher us into a new future. One where my robot body and internet connected brain don't have to worry about the planet slowly becoming uninhabitable for living things. Oops - got to dark there!
Precrime/thoughtcrime is a barrier to using damming information by the government. I heard on NPR that the alphabet agencies were tipped off to terrorist ramblings on social media. The government was apparently unable to act because of free speech and it became too late. It's almost as if the terrorists want us to beg for less freedom.
Technology could save us all, but it's being used to enslave us. In the seventies, CEO's realized that automation saves a lot of money and it doesn't have to be passed on to employees. Technology could be used to provide near free energy and relieve our burdens. We'll have to cooperate rather than compete to get to that point.
Yes, new tech is definitely double edged, tool and weapon. As a life long science/future fiction fan I could hardly be entirely against it. Though, having said that, if I were an histotical fiction fan I would not welcome a reversion to "the old days", life was too often bad, brutish and short. Less than fifty years earlier I would no longer be alive, I literally live purely because of modern technology.
Yup, just be careful what you say where and to whom, but you will provide meta data, at least, whatever you do, short of being a hermitl
Certainly this gathering will help, I have no objection to an anonimised version of my medical history being used to determine future strategy and treatment. I have survived things that have killed others - why? If it is genetic then they can have samples hapilly if that will help others. But not merely to boost the profits of drug companies!
Technology is both good and bad at the same time. We do enjoy the benefits of advanced chemistry, electronics, transportation, medicines, communication and a lot more good things. On the other hand robotics, lasers, water jet metal cutters, CNC machines, spectacular agricultural equipment, monster earth movers, synthetic materials, and that sort of thing, have been responsible for the elimination of craftsmen, workmen, and artisans of all kinds. The damned machines are putting us out of jobs and all the while the world population is increasing.
The sky is falling.
Yes, like fire, it is how you use it.
People use it, certain kinds of people are frightening! Some of them work with technology or msybe willing to use it to frightening ends . . .
[Don't worry, not getting neurotic, just read too much future-fiction*! Too old to really worry, hope the youngsters get the training they need and listen to the advice.]
[* mistyped that as, "future-fuction" . . . could be that as well :)
Quote from: Gloucester on July 05, 2016, 09:19:09 PM
Yes, like fire, it is how you use it.
People use it, certain kinds of people are frightening! Some of them work with technology or msybe willing to use it to frightening ends . . .
[Don't worry, not getting neurotic, just read too much future-fiction*! Too old to really worry, hope the youngsters get the training they need and listen to the advice.]
[* mistyped that as, "future-fuction" . . . could be that as well :)
The future ain't what it used to be:
http://www.joesdump.com/2014/03/24/future-sucks/
(https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.joesdump.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F03%2FFutureSucks_Pulp-O-Mizer_Cover_Image.jpg&hash=4fa808a3387bcc4cff60e3836c014f2097e3fa72)
Quote from: joeactor on July 05, 2016, 10:11:55 PM
Quote from: Gloucester on July 05, 2016, 09:19:09 PM
Yes, like fire, it is how you use it.
People use it, certain kinds of people are frightening! Some of them work with technology or msybe willing to use it to frightening ends . . .
[Don't worry, not getting neurotic, just read too much future-fiction*! Too old to really worry, hope the youngsters get the training they need and listen to the advice.]
[* mistyped that as, "future-fuction" . . . could be that as well :)
The future ain't what it used to be:
http://www.joesdump.com/2014/03/24/future-sucks/
(https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.joesdump.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F03%2FFutureSucks_Pulp-O-Mizer_Cover_Image.jpg&hash=4fa808a3387bcc4cff60e3836c014f2097e3fa72)
:lol:
Currently reading a sci-fi story thst has a load of dsimilar themes in it the following prog by "Connections" man, James Burke, seems very relevant.
QuoteBroadcasting legend James Burke returns to the airwaves to discuss the biggest change to humanity in 10,000 years. In 50 years or so he predicts nanotechnology will give us capabilities we've only imagined of in science fiction. In labs around the world the foundations are being laid for the 'nano-fabricator' a device that will allow us to assemble just about anything, atom by atom; including itself. IT COULD MEAN THE END OF SCARCITY ITSELF.
As far-fetched as it seems it's an idea that was first posited as long ago as 1959 by physicist Richard Feynman and then popularised as the 'replicator' in Star Trek. But this is no fantasy - in Manchester Professor David Leigh has made the world's first nano-robot, an arm a millionth of a millimetre in size that will assemble the molecules you programme into it. While at MIT's Centre for Bits and Atoms they're taking the replicator as their inspiration and are working on materials and methods to make our physical world as programmable as our digital one.
What fascinates James isn't so much the revolution in the technology but what it will mean for us as a species; one whose raison d'etre has been about managing the scarcity of what we need or want. It's been the impetus to human development since our very beginning and the reason why we have markets and jobs and governments and maths and every other innovation that's helped us along the way to get us to now. By taking us on a high speed journey through our history of scarcity busting invention James will demonstrate just how disruptive what's coming will be. For him it will be nothing less than the next stage in our evolution.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jvfc4
Quote from: Dave on July 01, 2016, 09:53:55 AM
I am a fan of technology, a big fan, but I am not always a fan of the motives behind its use.
I agree, it's not the tech that scares me, it's the people behind the tech.
For me it's the rapidity of the change. You have no time to get used to one innovation before another comes along.
QuoteGoogle's AI is being used by US military drone programme
Google's artificial intelligence technologies are being used by the US military for one of its drone projects, causing controversy both inside and outside the company.
Google's TensorFlow AI systems are being used by the US Department of Defense's (DoD) Project Maven, which was established in July last year to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyse the vast amount of footage shot by US drones. The initial intention is to have AI analyse the video, detect objects of interest and flag them for a human analyst to review.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/07/google-ai-us-department-of-defense-military-drone-project-maven-tensorflow
Only a military trial so far but how long before it finds its way to a police station in your town in a smaller drone?
QuoteiPhone Armed With Facial Recognition App Lets Cops ID Perps on the Street
https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-06/police-get-facial-recognition-iphone-app-id-perps-field
Still a long way to go to match China's efforts, but do we even want to go there? I can see advantages but it's definitely a double edged sword - especially when allied to the present ability to "doctor" digital imaging. Could evidence gathered in this way be relied on solely in a court?
It's getting creepy, apparently. :???:
Amazon working to fix Alexa after users report random burst of 'creepy' laughter (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/07/amazon-alexa-random-creepy-laughter-company-fixing)
What I wouldn't give to know what Alexa finds so funny! :lol:
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on March 08, 2018, 01:34:30 AM
It's getting creepy, apparently. :???:
Amazon working to fix Alexa after users report random burst of 'creepy' laughter (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/07/amazon-alexa-random-creepy-laughter-company-fixing)
What I wouldn't give to know what Alexa finds so funny! :lol:
That there are people geeky and gorky enough to spend money on such things?
(Hey! "Geeky & Gorky" good title for a spoofy comedy series about a couple of techno freaks? Now, whivh one will I audition for?)
[My friend Jane is a non-technology-knowledgeable gadgeteer, she has a "random" robot" lawn mower, a Roomba type floor cleaner, three Amazon TV stick thingies, six or seven different computers/tablets/phones and a couple of other gizmos. She asked me about the Echo but when I told her she would need enabled devices, like expensive light and power switches etc, to make full use of it she decided it was a gizmo too far.]