I'm glad our homes aren't shrieking at us at all hours. Amazing story, though.
I had to replace a fire alarm last week, so sometimes they do shriek at us at all hours!
There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
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Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#222I 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.
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Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#223Among the ruins, one wall stood alone. Within the wall, a last voice said,
over and over, “Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is …”
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#224It seems quaint now, but it’s astonishing how much the fear of war (especially nuclear annihilation) affected mid-century fiction. In addition to "There Will Come Soft Rains" we have short stories like Stephen Vincent Benét’s "By the Waters of Babylon." In that story, society has been bombed back to the stone age. Even religion is a stone age recreation. Something like hot and cold running water seems like it must co…
Reading Philip K. Dick's short stories in publication order is also quite something in that respect. It was so pervasive in his early stories.
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> They use words like “creepy” This is common for useless products, like smart glasses or pendant-style AI devices. When consumers have clear utility, however, most give away privacy quite willingly.
> When consumers have clear utility, however, most give away privacy quite willingly.
Exhibits 1, 2, and 3; "Smart" phones, "Smart" watches, and pretty much 90% or so of "apps" people install on either from their respective "app stores".
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#226Earlier 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…
I hate that I'm being an advertisement for the corporate appliance dystopia. I'm sure it's somehow loaded with a whole bunch of surveillance, ads, and other anti-features. And I'm pretty sure it was from a brand where repair parts are essentially nonexistent. But I was shopping for appliances recently and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a fridge like this. I think the shaded glass was based on an LCD mechanism.
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#227n/a
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Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#228USSR animated version (1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oxP3TyuQx0
The bird scene at the end where it repeatedly smashes into the window really hit me... something this version does better than the original.
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#229Earlier 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…
A screen with an ad on it is objectionable enough, even if the ad is untargeted.
> A screen with an ad on it is objectionable enough, even if the ad is untargeted.
Especially these days when pretty nearly the entire advertising industry has a whole library of "dark patterns" and psychological trickery they've effectively outright "weaponized" against the "consumer class".
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#230[deleted]