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There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

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Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#161

Post by inigyou »

automatic6131 wrote: post #143
thrtythreeforty wrote: post #134

I read this story in 4th grade. It felt like the future. Now, it feels like most of the technology is within reach - at least, it could be built. The automated stove being the main exception. But the most unrealistic part of this story is how all the IoT automation continues to work in the absence of the Internet.

> In the living room the voice-clock sang, Connecting to Brand(tm) servers... Connecting to Brand(tm) servers... Connecting to Brand(tm) servers...

The fridge dispensed a verification can.

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#162

Post by inigyou »

pavlov wrote: post #122
mrloopex wrote: post #110

Born in 1968 I missed “duck and cover” but rode the wave of Reagan brinkmanship with my skater friends until 1990, watching all the broadcast TV PSAs and songs and art about nuclear war. It was real. It pervaded daily life: the notion that two old white men were having a pissing contest with every human as disposable bargaining chips. And as always, 25% of the US population cheered for purification of the planet beca…

[flagged]

And we're still doing nothing to stop any of this.

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#164

Post by dylan604 »

mlhpdx wrote: post #131
physPop wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN crowd is not representative of the world at large. consumers don't care. cost and convenience are primary motivators.

As far as I can tell, many “regular” people do care and alter buying decisions based on privacy concerns. They use words like “creepy” instead of technical ones, but the underlying discomfort is the same.

I doubt the vast majority of people objecting to ads are doing it because creepy privacy invading reasons compared to just simply who would actually want ads running on a screen on the fridge? Who would actually just stand in front of the fridge watching an ad? Unless they really do something stupid like keep the fridge locked until the ad finishes, but really, who do they think is going to pay attention to it?

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#165

Post by inigyou »

WillAdams wrote: post #98

One thing which I find striking here is that a modern home and attendant conveniences roughly embodies 10--15 horsepower of effort, or the work of 40 or so full time house staff. Thus far, the only notable robots are little disks which vacuum up floors (and they're getting outlawed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49104371 ) and some innovations just haven't become widespread (an uncle of mine piped his home for…

Amazon Alexa. You're a decade late.

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#166

Post by inigyou »

dylan604 wrote: post #160
ern_ave wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What will be the first device to bottle up AI and other modern technologies in a package and become widely in-demand One problem I see is that corporations insist on collecting and reselling our data. As a result, a lot of people are reticent to get much automation. They seem to accept it with TVs, but other devices - it's just too much of an intrusion. I say "a lot of people" but I don't know how many people it is…

> it could show you what's inside before you open the door I've always thought it would be cool to have transparent doors so you could see inside without needing to open the doors. Obviously, most people do not have "neat" fridge interiors and would be considered ugly and not a good look. But having those cool spy room windows that go frosted or mirrored or some other opaque look with the flip of a switch could solve…

It would necessarily let heat leak in

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#167

Post by inigyou »

troupo wrote: post #130
physPop wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN crowd is not representative of the world at large. consumers don't care. cost and convenience are primary motivators.

Onve again it's been shown that consumers do care when they are properly shown the extent of data collection and/or are allowed to opt out. E.g. when iOS introduced "ask apps to not track", 96% of users clicked "do not track" : https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/96-of-us-users-opt-o... If consumers didn't care, companies wouldn't go to extreme lengths to hide the fact that they are tracking you, and to invent cr…

What about when it's "accept all" and "reject and subscribe for $1.99"?

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#168

Post by ben_w »

Tade0 wrote: post #94

I feel like the modern version of this would have the neighbourhood largely intact, but humans killed via miniature drones. Drives home the point how few anticipated that batteries would advance so much.

There are many ways this could all end, a nuclear war is still on the list.

"Wireheaded by social media so hard you're unemployable" is at least as plausible as a city-scale antipersonel drone strike; even Ukraine's strikes against Russia are around 1200-1800/day.

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#170

Post by [deleted] »

WillAdams wrote: post #98

One thing which I find striking here is that a modern home and attendant conveniences roughly embodies 10--15 horsepower of effort, or the work of 40 or so full time house staff. Thus far, the only notable robots are little disks which vacuum up floors (and they're getting outlawed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49104371 ) and some innovations just haven't become widespread (an uncle of mine piped his home for…

[deleted]
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