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

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

It is interesting to think neural level VR. if AI could model the universe perfectly the ai could allow FTL in their virtual world and it would be nearly the same thing except unlimited lives for when one crashes their ship.

I could see that as being an option for everyone.

As for growth constaints...Once the singularity is hit it supercedes all growth constraints assuming we are not wiped out.

Until then the physical wealth(non-informational) will likely not increase much per capita. More and more megacities will develop and most megacities are megaslums. It's not ideal.

I am wondering if they are going to crash the debt onto everyone or simply drag this zombie economy along in hopes we make it to the singularity before the cards fall.

originally posted by: starwarsisreal
a reply to: AnkhMorpork

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

not only blue collar workers but also white collar desk jobs are going to dry up due to programs that are capable of doing many jobs from the medical field to the legal field.
I started a thread to dicuss this topic of automation and how it is going to effect the job market and economy.Trump Vs the Robots

originally posted by: jellyrev

I am wondering if they are going to crash the debt onto everyone or simply drag this zombie economy along in hopes we make it to the singularity before the cards fall.

That's precisely what I was thinking and thus, if "they" are sitting on stuff, now's the time to bring it out and start putting it to good use.

I think that a Space Hotel and Space Elevator would be a great idea, provided that it doesn't become known as Trump Tower or something like that.

And we need to go back to the moon and set up a moon base, and if there are aliens on the other side of the moon tell them to f-off and if there are artifacts, then it's time for disclosure.

It's time.

We don't do these things because they are easy, but because they are hard..

originally posted by: AnkhMorpork

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.

Unfortunately, that is reality.

Our defense budget is huge... billions of dollars spent to kill other folks in the most efficient manner. That is the brutal truth.

I am speaking as a retired SNCO with 20+ years. I served 4 administrations. When called upon,we deploy. We kill. We wait to be deployed to do it all again. That has been FACT since Desert Storm, 26 years ago.

The Bushes, the Clintons and Obama have sent thousands of Americans to their deaths in proxy wars.

The technology of destruction is big money.

...and, money is the root of all evil...

originally posted by: starwarsisreal
a reply to: AnkhMorpork

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

I'm with you. As an inevitability, we are moving towards a post-employment economic structure that we aren't ready for.

Capitalism will absolutely be irrelevant in 25 years. And we won't be prepared.

I think the evolution of time displacement technology will be the biggest prime mover.
Sure, it could be used for weapons as well as any negative activity, but I think it will be patented, licenced and used as an expensive entertainment media just like the internet, cable and satellite services that provide content and interactivity with everything presently. Virtual Vacations would be cool, but going back to see who built the pyramids would be a whole new reality.

a reply to: charlyv

It will never be possible to go BACK in time I don't think or you end up with Back to the Future type paradoxes or the grandfather paradox.

I don't think that will ever work.

If it did, it would be the end of history.

originally posted by: AnkhMorpork
a reply to: charlyv

It will never be possible to go BACK in time I don't think or you end up with Back to the Future type paradoxes or the grandfather paradox.

I don't think that will ever work.

If it did, it would be the end of history.

I think the premise is timelines as in multiple universes where things are "almost" the same, but really different, basically because you are there.

AR/VR, 3d printing machines, laser cutters, and other material sciences that integrate with virtual reality.

That is the future for the next 50ish years I wager.

a reply to: SaturnFX

I think we may be farther than that

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

Continuing.. (in McKenna)

First it's one thing, and then it's the other, and yet we are neither here nor there, suspended as it were over, or under, the whole span of the entirety of human history; as if trapped in a historical quandary or bubble of sorts that as it rises and rises is about to BURST into the future, suddenly, unexpectedly, and at the slightest perturbation in the winds of time and history or as the surface tension simply can't be stretched any further between the past and the future - and then POP, just like that, we're into a whole new domain of seemingly limitless possibility from who's vantage point our present reality and way of life would be considered absurd and ridiculous by comparison - so it's a rise not only in novelty, but absurdity and all manner of nonsense, and that's where we find ourselves, right now. What a predicament! The anticipation alone is almost unbearable, while more and more people walk around like zombies trying to suck the marrow out of the dead bones of a dead civilization. This is not sustainable. Therefore if your world is going to pop anyway, as an inevitability, you might as well get it over with now while still on the way before it happens to you anyway but without your own prior consent or control.. There's still time in other words, until it runs out that is, which, the way things are going, and the way it's accelerating ever faster towards this OmegaPoint of the Cosmogenisis of the Noosphere, it could happen, and is ever more likely to happen as a probability, at any given moment!

By its very nature it carries with it the utmost sense of urgency - behold the Kingdom of Heaven is still close at hand! Do not wait another moment to prepare yourself for it so that when it comes you won't be caught unaware or without your lamp rightly trimmed, to use a Christian metaphor.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I am wondering if right before they get to the singularity, they pull the rug out of the bottom to cause mass death.

A large population gets us to the singularity faster, more brains, higher chance a high IQ brains that push the tech faster. Once they get there they would prefer to have less humans.

a reply to: jellyrev

Skynet.

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.

Awesome, a nuke for every turban that's wound too tightly delivered by micro cyborg insects.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork
I have to go to bed now, but I think the best ideas come from the most educated, most creative and most intelligent people. I don't think good ideas are cheap or common. Most of us can sense a good idea, but we can't make one. So I guess my message is threefold. Keep learning. Be creative. Nurture your intellect. I give this advice to myself equally. We should strive to improve ourselves. I think those who improve the best are the ones who own our future.

a reply to: jonnywhite

Nice! That's the right kind of spirit and attitude. And I guess if you have a great idea, there's no better time to get started on it than the present. Everything has to start somewhere eh?

....a new stone-age. Darkness and despair coupled with extreme survival limits.

I think a technology within the next couple of hundred years betting less than 100 though. We are on the verge of making replicators that will build anything we can imagine. When these become available money becomes useless people will work for replicator time. But even that will eventually disappear as they end up as common as TVs. Bottom line is people wont have to work since they could get anything they need from replicators. And people don't realize just how close we are to creating nano bots that can build anything one atom at a time. But ill bet it will never make a decent cup of coffee.

But the best hing will be you could put those dishes back after a meal and it will disassemble them for use later. Think no more washing dishes.

Well I want a Jetsons personal flying saucer. For gods sake man landed on the moon in the late 1960's. I thought for sure everybody would be flying anti-gravity vehicles by now. However we seem to be just as far from that as the 1800's. Technology for personal transport hasn't really changed since the invention of the motor car over 100 years ago. All that has happened is the improvement in design and engineering.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I would like to see a space elevator being launched and constructed.

The technology is just about there and such a device would pave the way as to us being able to launch both Man and materials into low Earth orbit cost effectively.

Essentially paving the way as to the eventual colonization of low Earth orbit, and possibly beyond.