It's odd, but I keep feeling like the pace of progress is slowing down. When was the last time you used a product and said “this is vastly better?” A PS 4 feels somewhat better than a PS3 which was release 10 years ago. Cellphones seem stuck on the black rectangle design. Cars are getting ever so slightly better cruise control every year vs. becoming self-driving. We almost have a cure for AIDS except not quite. Or i…
A world where everyone has a robot: why 2040 could blow your mind
21–26 of 26 posts
Re: A world where everyone has a robot: why 2040 could blow your mind
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
...says Retric, typing on a cheap, portable super computer which is connected to a globe-spanning network that pipes all the world's information directly into one's eyeballs, on-demand, at the speed of light...
Fiber optics and the internet are both older than I am. The internet is 45 years old. Companies started laying huge fiber optic networks in the 70's.
The internet may be a few decades old but we're just getting started using it, and portable computing using the Internet has accelerated rapidly in the last decade along with virtual assistants, AI, bioinformatics, autonomous cars, robotics, drones etc etc. Lots of things are changing very rapidly right now.
Re: A world where everyone has a robot: why 2040 could blow your mind
#23Re: A world where everyone has a robot: why 2040 could blow your mind
#24am I crazy to think the cultural shift in the rich world will actually be to more local communities, a return to rewarding physical labor such as gardening and craftsmanship to form a low ecological impact society of selected technology? I don't see the upcoming generation as being dazzled by accumulation and owning stuff. Nor do I see them wanting to ride on the hands of leisure. I see a culture of rejection of the…
> a return to rewarding physical labor such as gardening Gardening for food, no. Craftsmanship, yes. From a previous thread... Everyone thinks about food in terms of economic costs. Few people consider the time that's involved. Yes, food is already cheap, but it isn't free because of the time humans spend involved in its production. That time must be remunerated, otherwise we'd call it slavery. Imagine removing human…
Recently I've taken up urban harvesting. There's a loquat tree at a local gas station. Out by the river there's an orange and lemon tree. Near my office there's an avocado tree.
We have mostly ornamental horticulture in urban environments. I'm suggesting it will tend to be more functional overtime as resources are strapped and people turn to more fresh, natural, and regional foods.
The other aspect is that it's good for the psyche: urban harvesting is meditative and calming. There's been a large rise in community gardens and a number of schools have set aside plots of land for it.
In a way, you need to categorize it with physical recreation. Put it in the same group as say, jogging, yoga, martial arts, pickup soccer.
Every trajectory in rich-people's food culture is going exactly this way. When I introduce the idea to my peers in the 100k+ income group, something clicks and now they are mapping out where the trees are and some have started planting their own.
I routinely engage with teenagers (through aikido) and when I've told them about this, the reaction has been almost universal: "Oh you just started doing that? Do you know about the pomegranate tree over yonder, or the kumquat tree near this fence?"
Those are the people that will be running the world in 2050.
And what about the low-income people who have succumbed to food deserts after the corporate supermarkets exited the market? Recently, in south LA, cooperative farming initiatives have been popping up. There's one I saw in Lynwood and two in South Gate. I've heard about a budding one in Compton. This is the communities response to the corporate exit.
The change will and has always come from the people - not their possessions.
Re: A world where everyone has a robot: why 2040 could blow your mind
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
...says Retric, typing on a cheap, portable super computer which is connected to a globe-spanning network that pipes all the world's information directly into one's eyeballs, on-demand, at the speed of light...
Fiber optics and the internet are both older than I am. The internet is 45 years old. Companies started laying huge fiber optic networks in the 70's.
Re: A world where everyone has a robot: why 2040 could blow your mind
#26am I crazy to think the cultural shift in the rich world will actually be to more local communities, a return to rewarding physical labor such as gardening and craftsmanship to form a low ecological impact society of selected technology? I don't see the upcoming generation as being dazzled by accumulation and owning stuff. Nor do I see them wanting to ride on the hands of leisure. I see a culture of rejection of the…
Expand on this - you've got a great blog article right there.
For innovations you can look towards organizations like http://dignityvillage.org/ ... Literally, a legally recognized homeless community.
If you are expecting to find future cultural innovation coming from elite organizations, you're looking in the wrong place.
The disenfranchised through radical organization is where that occurs.
As it happens it deradicalizes. Things such as not smoking, abstaining from red meat, not attending religious services weekly or not getting married were once radical positions. But as the cultural barriers imposed by radical animosity fell, personal reservations against these habits fell with them and they gave rise to cultural change.
That's why you can't simply elongate the status quo by 20 years in a linear trajectory and get "The Future!"