On the cusp of the technological age - what do you think is coming over the horizon?

I liked this image to convey a certain impression, but in many respects some of its elements could be considered obsolete ie: where the product or service has utility, but doesn't exist in a tangible, material sense within the context of a manufactured product of some kind.


Personally, I have a sneaking suspicion that, in an effort to somehow evade the various debt and investment bubbles, which are sure to burst, the PTB and new PTB (which could at some level include us all in one way or another), will begin to try to shift the economy in favor of innovation and technological advance in an effort to drive a new 21ts century American and global economy and to propel the world into the new technological age for better or worse and probably both.

I think that it's fair to assume that we are indeed on the very edge or cusp of such a technological age, and a very solid argument could be put forth to demonstrate that fact.

But my question, and the purpose of this thread, is to ask and try to imagine - what's coming? What's next?

What do you see coming that will revolutionize our world and help us all make it into a bright future, while avoiding calamity? Is your view dystopian, and rather bleak, or are you more optimistic and hopeful, as I am?

Maybe we should start preparing ourselves for what's coming over the horizon, and for what tech might be getting released for the purpose of some sort of global salvation?

It might even be a very wise and smart process to engage in, as there could be a whole host of very difficult ethical considerations to be made regarding whether or not something should be done, just because it CAN be done, and that's the problem with humanity really; if it CAN be done, we'll do it and to heck with the consequences (don't press this self destruct button?).

For example, if some day it were discovered how to disassemble the planet Mercury with self-replicating nanobots to create a Dyson sphere as the means to harness the energy levels needed to launch von Neumann probes throughout the Galaxy, we would probably do it, even if there was a risk of perturbing Earth's orbit and that of the rest of the solar system in the process, and if there were real alien spacecraft who've been zipping around and visiting our planet, that's probably about the time that an entire Armada would show up, to put a stop to it.

What if we were to enter into a runaway technological advance but without any major ethical constraints or limitations?

Could that really happen? Could we enter into a technological singularity from which there's no point of return where the rate of change or "transformation" being the better word, since change is merely something better than or different from what went before, exceeds our ability to stop or pause long enough to even begin to consider the ethical considerations of various new technologies?

I think it's Quantum Computing AI (technological singularity), which has to be still at least 10-20 years off, but that's not a long time not in the grand scheme of things and will take place in most of our own lifetimes.

Is it something to be concerned about do you think?

Or is it a world and an era of humanity that's just waiting to be born like some sort of high-tech golden age ie: with free energy and infinite computational capability that's able to attack almost any problem at either the macro or micro level, or could it be the end of us, at least in terms of our present experience of being a human being living on planet Earth? Say for example that contact was made and suddenly there's a whole series of Earth's stretching out as far as the mind can imagine? What then? What are the implications of that? Are there human beings right now, who, on some sort of exchange program are experiencing the reality of other planets and civilizations?

I've always felt, and sort of prophesied from a very young age, that something absolutely momentous would take place at some point in my lifetime, and to be honest I'm still waiting for it at the age of 49 approaching 50..

But perhaps now, at long last, the time has come to bear witness to a period of historical transformation via technological innovation, the likes of which have never been seen before and even looking back on it, will never be seen again.

It's both exciting and kind of scary!

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

One thing I know is automaton will displace many blue collar workers.

Humanity has been destroying itself for thousands of years... technology just seems to make that process more efficient.

When we collectively decide that we kill no more... when we decide that EVERY human life is precious... only then will we be ready for a technological advance...

Maybe we should start preparing ourselves for what's coming over the horizon, and for what tech might be getting released for the purpose of some sort of global salvation?

The first prerequisite is the people have to be ready for it, and that it's all about the id.

I WANT.

Notable examples of this is Virtual Reality or VR. It made a splash in the 90s only to fade in to obscurity.

Betamax made splash only to go the way of the dinosaur.

The Iwatch is another one thats been a bust or at least IMO.

Not for the lack of trying though.

The last big thing was the smart phone. A thing most people can't seem to live without today.

My vote is the drone.

It has the potential to revolutionize the world.

Of course it has to obstacles to overcome.

a reply to: starwarsisreal

Robots. Job killing robots. Yep. That's coming.

We should consider developing a giant moon-shot type project, to spark the imagination and energies of humanity, say by getting involved in building the new moon base alpha (that's what they should name it), as well as a new rotating spacebuilding that's like a hotel, with a space elevator on a line down to the surface (now or soon possible with new cabling systems).

There's a couple of trillion dollars to start with right there.

Yeah we need better infrastructure and that will put a LOT of people to work in various ways, but we also need something novel to lift our spirits high, something to shoot for, a destiny of some kind and we seem to be flailing around right now, without a true arrow of progress that's pointing in any particular direction.

I fear that Vacuum Energy or FREE energy will get stifled by the old power systems, but what if we had some new way to direct and channel the harnessing of such energy that would see a breakout point as well as a means for the healing of the Earth and the Nations.

I think we're missing something fundamental, but that it's coming, that it's on it's way and soon.

"Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Read more at: www.brainyquote.com...

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I've just been seeing a lot of rock bleeding and dirt milking of technology for it to be able to even advance.

We focus too much on entertainment, even in our technology and science fields.

Then with everything being a " product " innovation takes a backseat to deceptive engineering, like adding a proprietary charger from what is considered the norm or creating a more costing and more wasteful product just to make more money, like bluetooth headphones that aren't connected, so when you loose one, you have to buy two.

How is humanity going to advance in the future?

I think poorly, unless a miracle happens and people become more interested in the stems, through either a robotic sports league

( using that entertainment push that everyone is so fond of but forcing some actual skills with those sports... )

But from where I stand I see the following for the future:

Augmented reality replacing smartphones in as little as 5 to 10 years, as well as it being the main way many work remotely from home.

Advertising and marketing will become something you get paid to see, either by means of discounts or actual money to spend on said products.

A worldwide digital currency, akin to bitcoin, but allowing much more to take place, such as web hosting / domain ownership, uncensorable social media, crowdsourced loaning.

Opensourced Companies will become a much smarter way of operating a business do to the many heads are better than one concept.

Robotic Asteroid Mining will become a thing once augmented reality is ironed out

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

In about 20 years or so we will hit the singularity. It's hard to predict what happens next.

Real space colonization and exploration is not realistic until faster than light travel.
The singularity should speed up the discovery of FTL travel

Either we get wiped out or All our big questions get solved quickly.

Remember only 10 years or so later after the singularity ai will be as smart as all humans combined. Hard to even comprehend.

Autonomous bots waiting on us, cleaning us, feeding us and taking care of our every need until we expire.

Much like Life Aboard the Axiom

a reply to: neo96

VR has come back big time, the problem with the systems in the 90's were that they were bulky and very limited in computing ability. I have very clear memories of them. You were limited to simple polygon shapes, couldn't do texture mapping, and they just weren't very good.

I never would have imagined as a kid that I would be building VR software today, but that's exactly what I'm doing. And the technology has become very quick to develop for. For example, last weekend I participated in a game jam, and inside of 48 hours my team (4 people) were able to create a VR game start to finish, and publish it.

This only scratches the surface though. A few months ago I did some contract work for a local company building them some VR training scenarios for their technicians. It took me one weekend, I was able to digitize their product, build the scenarios, and have them deployed for use in days. Since it was photorealistic, it resulted in the company being able to very quickly set up training scenarios rather than have to manually configure units with problems.

I bet you that within the next two years there will be VR systems that let you visit the Pyramids, Great Wall of China, Eiffel Tower, etc from your living room. Even walking around these landmarks using omnidirectional treadmills and VR suits. VR is getting damn close to the holodecks in Star Trek.

a reply to: Aazadan

Wait till we are going to be paid to try out products digitally in our Augmented or Virtual Games.

Think advertising in movies was much, lol, wait till you get ads for nikes to outrun call of duty zombies with, or drinking a redbull energy drink in a MMORPG gives you real wings.

Augmented & Virtual reality ( once we solve the bulky size and power issue ) will make smartphones look as useless as pagers once did.

What is coming over the horizon? Ahmish people. The most intelligent way is always the simplest way. We are making it harder and harder to live yet we think we are making it easier.

I also thought of a great change in my lifetime, I'm turning 50 this year God willing. Maybe that's just the hope of man, I've always known there's more after a strange UFO experience as a kid, following with 2 more.

a reply to: jellyrev

I think that NASA should launch robotic probes to every body in the solar system, and that we need a moon base and a new space-hotel and space elevator, if only just for fun and exploration, and so that every day people will be able to participate in it. We really ought to be shuttling back and forth to the moon.

But then, Strong AI, and it all changes as we discover FTL and can map the galaxy, and maybe even others.

If UFO's are real or if SOME of them are actual alien craft, then surely their craft are piloted across or through space and time with some sort of Quantum Computer capable of mapping spacetime, and we must be 100 years away from that kind of thing you would think.

But when things change, it's sudden. There's a before, and an after and we're in the before where the "after" is impossible to imagine from this perspective or vantage point.

That's a strange place to find one's self in time and history, in the before but on the very edge of the after. This brings to my mind the writings and talks of Terrance McKenna.

One moment in the historical timeline we were running around on the plains of Africa eating magic mushrooms from the cowpaddies of ungulates
while copulating so profusely that no one knows who's child belongs to whom and thus the formation of the first "tribe", and the next, we're riding in the comfort of the biospheric bubble of a von Neumann probe hurtling to Zeta Reticuli or somewhere even much further and stranger than that, or never mind that, just popping straight through time and space into what amounts to a type of universal "Earth" in an infinite hall of mirrors. Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it! lol

Likely what we are looking at is the opposite:

www.theguardian.com...

originally posted by: Tranceopticalinclined
a reply to: Aazadan

Wait till we are going to be paid to try out products digitally in our Augmented or Virtual Games.

Think advertising in movies was much, lol, wait till you get ads for nikes to outrun call of duty zombies with, or drinking a redbull energy drink in a MMORPG gives you real wings.

Augmented & Virtual reality ( once we solve the bulky size and power issue ) will make smartphones look as useless as pagers once did.

I'm pretty sure the next step in advertising is going to be using AR to digitally insert product placements in TV and movies.

For example, the actor just uses a generic can, but Coke pays to have their label on the can during the first broadcast of the show, Pepsi pays for the season rerun, and then it's changed to a Jones can for the DVD release. This was all possible in the past, but AR makes it a lot easier to do, to the point where it's more cost effective.

With different product placements going in different releases, more advertisers could get in on the same limited space.

a reply to: Aazadan

That's actually already happening through the use of Beacons.

Not only are they being used to send you PUSH msgs on your phone when you walk into a store that uses it, but it can and does already listen for specialized sounds from TV ads that could then decide what ads to load you on your google search or website adsense.

Your phone is listening

It's just going to get more invasive.

It might not be the super imposed brand product concept, but that's the next step, I still think we as the public will end up making money off it.

originally posted by: jellyrev
a reply to: AnkhMorpork


Real space colonization and exploration is not realistic until faster than light travel.

The singularity should speed up the discovery of FTL travel

I like to imagine running that as a type of imaginary simulation, and believe that it clearly would intersect the point of contact, who've already solved that issue longgg longgg ago, so it's unlikely that there are pristine completely undiscovered and unvisited or uninhabited Earth-like worlds.

Our presumption is that when we get there, it will be like Columbus' voyage, except in this case the "natives" technological prowess will have preceded our exploration.

I suspect that the human being, being the most recent adaptation of sentience, is at some level, if we like in some sort of non-localized, holographic universe, the most new and improved version on a cosmological scale and thus, our own DNA and that of the Earth's biosphere may have been accessed or borrowed to help seed other worlds, so that by the time we get there, we ourselves in some form of another will already be there to greet us, as if by anticipation, and that will really freak us out and blow our hair back and set us back on our heels. It would also make Star Trek much more plausible in terms of the variations of humanoid on other worlds.

When the highway opens up - we'll find that it's already populated and governed by some sort of prime directive.

Therefore when the time comes, we'll be shepherded or escorted there, and it will be done in a such a way as to anticipate our arrival and yet without violating the prime directive or some sort of party and celebration - if we ever get that far..

In deference to my earlier post....

Weapons technology. That is what is on the horizon.

Anti-matter weapons, micro-nukes etc... all things made better through applied physics.

originally posted by: madmac5150
In deference to my earlier post....

Weapons technology. That is what is on the horizon.

Anti-matter weapons, micro-nukes etc... all things made better through applied physics.

Not good.

a reply to: madmac5150

I wish to GOD that they, the MIC, would go from tactical to practical - someday it will have to happen, or a LOT of people are going to die unnecessarily.