Man vs. Machine...?
The wife sometimes tells me that I should have an ethernet cable plugged directly into my head!
For my work, I spend a considerable amount of time in front of several computers; I also use the computers for just about everything else in my life. In fact, if I could take a hyper-dump, I would!
Well, we just got one step closer to that reality. I saw a short little piece in Popular Science that is closely related to this very subject. The article basically told of a new microchip implant that can record nerve impulses in the motor cortex. The impulses are transmitted to a computer that controls a robotic arm. Here’s a diagram:
I can see many pros and cons to advancement of these ideas. Should we be integrating with machines and computers in this way? How does this advancement in technology make everyone feel?
posted by Preston @ 4:19 PM
5 Comments:
Sorry for the length of this comment, but I have very strong feelings about this subject, I just found a treasure trove of Analog, Science Fiction / Science Fact magazines ranging from 1970 to 1977 in the garbage plus a Galaxy 1968. It is amazing to read what people thought the then far future XXI century would be. (Hey, today was still 35 long years ahead). Fantastic supercomputers still with buttons and levers, ha! Flying cars with steering wheels, ignition keys, and brakes! No voice recognition or synapsis meshing.
I find that we are to the computer what our parents were to the TV, and their parents to the radio. Who would have thought, at that time, of the magnitude of mass media, of instant communication. The phone has come a long way, and so have the different inventions of this century. The phone and TV will be the symbol of the twentieth century. The computer is that of the twenty-first.
I see computers more and more involved in our daily living. In traffic lights and subways, elevators in high rises, in our calls to those we love, and in the presentation of the morning news. Already cars are getting smart. Planes and submarines, space-craft on Mars. They’re at school and in the kitchen.
What worries me is that our mentality is so much behind in technology. Humanity as a whole is still in that period such as that in an adolescent’s life, in which he can do “things like a man”, such as use and take and make; but still thinks like a child. Make bombs smarter so they can surgically zap our enemies. Taking is not reciprocal, not really. It is all for me. My strength can ensure it.
This much informational power in hands of a few is very dangerous. The promise at the dawn of personal computing was more work in less time. The computer would free us all from the tedium of doing repetitive tasks. Our workday would be shorter, having more time to dedicate to personal matters. It did free us of repetitive tasks at the price of taking over the jobs of thousnads who would do that tedious job earning a living. The workday didn't become shorter, only we got more done in a full workday. Now with cellphones we have less time for our personal matters, and this is fodder for an upcoming blog, we are even connected to work after-hours.
We are using and disposing of our planet and ourselves. If in the new century we continue with the separateness of classes, the computer will make this gap so much more evident, those who control the information will be the high-class, the rest of us will struggle to survive. How much real paper money is there really left. More and more our money is never seen. We receive an electronic check in our account (direct deposit), we pay with our Bank card (debit card). Heck, I haven’t seen my money since I can't remember when. Yes, I can still get the real paper money to buy milk and bread and such, but the “real” money is up in the air, Cyberspace.
Wearable Computers are not science-fiction anymore. Since the 80s companies have been making wearable computers. Not 35 years ago a computer mainframe would occupy a five storey building full of technicians busy in changing burned-out tubes. Comparing the clonkers, that anyway got man to the moon, to desktops, laptops, and palm computers of today we have to believe that a more powerful, more versatile computer is in our near future.
Computers could be one of the best things that have happened to mankind. They could help us build a better future for our children and their children’s children, is that not what we all want? They could also be the worst curse. If misused they could become the worst tool of the Inquisition.
Hey Henry.... you oughta consider going with a wireless card in your head... seems like the ethernet cable would get a bit too restrictive...
Besides, as WiMax rolls out you'll be able to stay connected pretty much everywhere.... and in the mean time... there's always STARBUCK'S!!!!
;-)
K
I like integrating with a robot arm if the arm cleans my apartment :)
H:
The robotic arm sounds cool, esp if you've lost your own, of course. The thing that worries me is if we reach the point where we all have to have computer chips implanted. That's downright scary. Also intriguing is the "Blade Runner" notion of sentient man-made beings. All very fruitful food for thought, indeed.
I also find it intriguing to note just how much we come to depend on our computers. I feel like a spoiled impatient child if my Herman takes more than 30 seconds to perform a function. Certainly, the whole Y2K thing would have been disastrous if it had come to pass.
Computers are also vulnerable to viruses, as we are. Which reminds me: just heard on the radio about a new one, and they mentioned Microsoft in some context I don't recall (the devil's virus maker?) Just wanted to give a head's up.
I think once something can be done, it will be done regardless of moral and social implications.
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