I'd rather live in a Tolkien Shire.

[Fielder 3,681]

Instead of the brave new world science is bringing.

 

[orchestra_nl 935]

Without science we would not have had flightsims, and even Gandalf needed an eagle to fly. They probably hadn't invented brooms yet.😁

But I agree al the advancements science has brought us comes at a price. At the moment I think it is more important for our wisdom to grow than our knowledge.

 

 

I am curious to learn what brought this up though.

Edited January 30 by orchestra_nl

[spilok 1,136]

Idyllic and peaceful.  I would miss the conveniences of modern life.  Medical care, and the wonderful experiences that the 21st century offers would be non-existent in that kind of life, of course. 

A nice place to visit, but I sure wouldn't want to live there!

[birdguy 3,943]

4 hours ago, orchestra_nl said:

At the moment I think it is more important for our wisdom to grow than our knowledge.

I agree.  I currently live in an old folks home I call the warehouse.  Our ages run from the early 70s to the late 90s.  We don't all agree on everything but one thing we almost all agree on...we lived in the best of times and are now entering the worst of times.  We almost all are confused and overwhelmed by all the new technology and what it is doing to society...especially i Phones.  It seems the later generations can't live without them on their person 24/7.  I have one but it never leaves my desk.

Perhaps most of us have lived too long.  We have nothing more of importance to contribute.  And all of this talk about robots and AI makes us feel impotent.

Can you imagine?  We still read books printed on paper pages!

There is an old Twilight Zone episode about euthanizing people who have become obsolete.  The principal character is a librarian who has become obsolete because there are no more books.  Will it ever come to that?  We who have nothing more to contribute but demand services to keep us alive as long as possible?  Think about it!

Noel

[dmwalker 607]

1 hour ago, spilok said:

Medical care, and the wonderful experiences that the 21st century offers would be non-existent in that kind of life, of course. 

The scenery shown in this video is about an hour's drive from the nearest hospital, in Bruneck, which has a population of about 16,000.

[LHookins 3,103]

I haven't been in Germany since 1975 (stationed in the US Army in Bamberg for three years, in Bavaria), but that German accent sounded weird to me.  Bruneck is in Austria south of Innsbruck.

Hook

[birdguy 3,943]

As I mentioned before the brave new world of technology frightens me on some aspects.  There are two sides to every new device that finds it's way into our lives.  iPhones, for instance, gives us instant communications with the world but also robs us of a degree of privacy.

This new one especially frightens me.

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/30/1227850900/elon-musk-neuralink-implant-clinical-trial

Yes, it can be a godsend to people with various disabilities.  But it can be a nightmare if controlled for nefarious reasons.  Being able to control brain functions via an iPhone or internet connection can be used for nefarious purposes in the wrong hands.  How can they be controlled and by whom?

I have a hearing aid and I can control the volume and the bass and treble levels through my iPhone.  Now, my hearing aid is easily removable.  But what about a brain implant?  Besides the stated benefits of correction disabilities what if an employer made getting a brain implant a condition of employment and then used them to increase productivity or the desire to work long hours?  Or penitentiary inmates to control their daily routines?  Right now that might seem far-fetched.  But as the advance of technology seems to be accelerating is it?

Noel

[dmwalker 607]

2 hours ago, LHookins said:

Bruneck is in Austria south of Innsbruck.

I kept thinking the sisters were Austrian but they are from the Autonomous Province of Bolzano in the Italian Tyrol. They seem to live in Mühlbach, west of Bruneck, while Prettau, the subject of the song, is in the northeast corner of the province.

Edited January 30 by dmwalker

[Mike A 338]

5 hours ago, birdguy said:

There is an old Twilight Zone episode about euthanizing people who have become obsolete.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Obsolete_Man

 

[martin-w 3,238]

On 1/30/2024 at 8:55 AM, Fielder said:

Instead of the brave new world science is bringing.

 

The brave new world science is bringing, may save us. 

[martin-w 3,238]

14 hours ago, birdguy said:

iPhones, for instance, gives us instant communications with the world but also robs us of a degree of privacy.

 

Not really, your privacy is still intact. There are plenty of privacy option included with phones, the choice is yours. 

 

14 hours ago, birdguy said:

Yes, it can be a godsend to people with various disabilities.  But it can be a nightmare if controlled for nefarious reasons.  Being able to control brain functions via an iPhone or internet connection can be used for nefarious purposes in the wrong hands.  How can they be controlled and by whom?

 

Same applies to any technology and always has. Your car is a godsend when it comes to transporting you around... but what if you use it as a weapon and run somebody over. An aircraft is a great way to travel long distances, but what if somebody uses it to drop bombs on people. Nothing has changed and we can't not develop  technologies that change peoples lives for the better, just in case somebody uses it for nefarious purposes. Anything can be used for nefarious purposes.

[birdguy 3,943]

6 hours ago, martin-w said:

Not really, your privacy is still intact. There are plenty of privacy option included with phones, the choice is yours

6 hours ago, martin-w said:

Same applies to any technology and always has.

Once your iPhone message is out there in the ether it can be compromised. 

Cars and airplanes don't control people's minds or brains.  Today people can be coerced to to do things they don't want to do by force or the threat of pain.  But they have a choice of not doing it by resisting the force or bearing the pain.  What if you could do it more easily by implanting a device in the brain with an external controller so the person becomes, in effect, a human robot subject to the whims of the controller?  That is a far cry from using a car or an  airplane as a weapon.  Those are choices people make.  But what if a brain implant in a truck driver is told to cross the double line and hit and oncoming car head on. 

The car and airplane are controlled by people who made a choice.  The truck driver with the brain implant did not make the choice.

When you can control a person to do your willing via a brain implant you have taken away that person's choice.  That is not technology making things better for mankind.  That is controlling an element of mankind by another element of mankind.  This is treading on dangerous ground.

Noel

 

[Fielder 3,681]

7 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

The brave new world science is bringing, may save us. 

All the other advanced civilizations in the universe, if there are any, were not saved by their technology. Based on the fact that a hundred years since radio was invented, all the myriad of our experiments have not detected them. Half of them, if they exist, started to exist before our civilization, many of them eons before. And these, therefore, can travel as fast and far as on Star Trek. Where is any evidence they exist? If they don't exist, why not? They were not saved by advancing technology. I say, reason insists, just the opposite, the advance of science killed them off.

Stephen Hawking warned that science is about to kill us all off. He let evidence and facts drive his beliefs. So did Einstein.

On the other hand Carl Sagan (I could mention a couple of very well known others) enthuse(d) greatly about the brave new world. Dreamers. True believers. And of them with more faith than me. 
 

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

I've always said I would have been the Blacksmith, because you will never run out of work, or have to go looking for work, and you will never be cold in the winter. Also you get to raise your kids where you work and know what they are up to all the time. 

The Automobile was what eliminated that sort of work / home environment, even up to the 1920s they used to build Shops with an apartment above and that building was both your home and your business, when the automobile came you ended up in a house in a suburb and for the first time in the history of the world, work and homelives become separated

 

[martin-w 3,238]

17 hours ago, birdguy said:

Once your iPhone message is out there in the ether it can be compromised. 

 

What are you talking about? Emails? Text messages? Emails are sent on all manner of devices including the one you are using now, a PC. And you'd be daft to send anything that can be compromised in a text message. 

 

17 hours ago, birdguy said:

What if you could do it more easily by implanting a device in the brain with an external controller so the person becomes, in effect, a human robot subject to the whims of the controller?

 

That technology doesn't exist though. What we are talking about is a device that enables the disabled to walk again, and other profound benefits. I could just as easily say, what if one day an aircraft is sentient and decides to bomb the innocent, all on its own. Not to mention numerous other futuristic scenarios that may or may not be manifest. You can't refrain from giving those that cannot see the ability to see again, and those that cannot walk the ability to walk again, and all manner of other fantastic benefits... just because your imagination can conjure up a negative scenario, in the future, that may or may not be  manifest. What we do with new technology is weigh up the benefits compared with any possible negative aspects. 

 

17 hours ago, birdguy said:

This is treading on dangerous ground.

 

Only in your science fiction inspired imagination. And yet, I would bet if you had one of the terrible afflictions this device will one day correct you'd be first in the queue. I believe you used to fly, well, back then,  I bet you didn't avoid the autopilot because one day it might be controlled by a sentient AI that will take over the world. And I bet you didn't hessite to enjoy flight simulation on your PC and use it for other things too, despite Asimov inspired futuristic scenarios that warned of the robots taking over. 

You can't stop the march of technology, and like it always has, it will have the facility to be used for positive things and negative things.