Let's put the future behind us • Hacker News Board

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#21

Post by gdubs » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:13 PM UTC

Any West Wing fan will recognize the futurist's "whine" as attributed to Leo McGarry, the president's chief of staff:

  Leo McGarry: My generation never got the future it was promised... 
  Thirty-five years later, cars, air travel is exactly 
  the same. We don't even have the Concorde anymore.
  Technology stopped.

  Josh Lyman: The personal computer...?

  Leo McGarry: A more efficient delivery system for gossip
  and pornography? Where's my jet pack, my colonies on the
  Moon?

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#22

Post by gaius » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:14 PM UTC

mazork wrote: post #5

The article was interesting, but am I alone thinking that those tenebrous, click-baity titles are bad ?

Also while I enjoy his writing, I feel it's in bad taste to submit your own stuff. It seems pushy.

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#23

Post by cstross » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:24 PM UTC

joshmarlow wrote: post #18

DennisP wrote: post #4

I'm sure he's right, while there's only one O'Neill colony. But I can't help thinking that after a couple centuries of exponential growth, when there are millions of them, that it will be a boon for human freedom. I'm not convinced that such extensive surveillance will be necessary for safety purposes. Detectors for explosives, and security around critical points like airlocks, is likely to be sufficient. Ultimately,…

I would worry about relying only on specific countermeasures like explosive detection. You can only build detectors like that for attack's that you can imagine; it's always possible someone is a bit more clever and comes up with a unique/lateral attack. With extensive surveillance and AI good enough to interpret body-language with a high-degree of accuracy, you could have a very general detector; as long as the perso…

The worst threats aren't deliberate attacks: when you get thousands of people living somewhere, there will be screw-ups, misunderstandings, and just plain reckless behaviour.

We're used to living in a (relatively) fault-tolerant environment, where if I damage my home's plumbing it will, at worst, damage my neighbours apartments -- it won't kill them instantly by letting all the air out!

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#24

Post by justincormack » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:24 PM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #2

Maybe it's just the stuff people end up linking, but Stross's blog always seems so negative. It's a bit of a drag.

Dystopia has always been a glorious part of our culture, in the UK and in Europe more generally. From Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, through HG Wells, Joseph Conrad (the Machine Stops), Orwell, JG Ballard, not to mention Pink Floyd, Chris Morris and When the Wind Blows.

We love it, the discordance between what might have been and the plastic shittiness of what is, and we hate that Hollywood happy ending bollocks where everyone is going to live for even and ever and everything will be quite super.

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#25

Post by justincormack » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:31 PM UTC

gdubs wrote: post #21

Any West Wing fan will recognize the futurist's "whine" as attributed to Leo McGarry, the president's chief of staff: Leo McGarry: My generation never got the future it was promised... Thirty-five years later, cars, air travel is exactly the same. We don't even have the Concorde anymore. Technology stopped. Josh Lyman: The personal computer...? Leo McGarry: A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography?…

Or is that from They Might Be Giants, the World Before Later On (also 2004)? Or is there an earlier source?

I'm trapped in a world before later on I'm trapped in a world before later on

Where's my hovercraft? Where's my jet pack?

Where's the font of acquired wisdom that eludes me now?

We're trapped in a world before later on We're trapped in a world before later on

Where's our telray? Where's our space face? Where are all the complications we won't see around?

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#26

Post by raldi » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:43 PM UTC

icegreentea wrote: post #20

raldi wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, then I must've given up before I found the part where he reveals his point. What is it?

He's using it as a tool to think about the implications of space colonies - with the major point being that he believes that space colonies must implement some level of high fidelity individual tracking and monitoring for security purposes / that people would likely accept that loss of privacy for various reasons.

"Life in space would require privacy sacrifices"

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#27

Post by lisper » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:43 PM UTC

justincormack wrote: post #25

gdubs wrote: post #21

Any West Wing fan will recognize the futurist's "whine" as attributed to Leo McGarry, the president's chief of staff: Leo McGarry: My generation never got the future it was promised... Thirty-five years later, cars, air travel is exactly the same. We don't even have the Concorde anymore. Technology stopped. Josh Lyman: The personal computer...? Leo McGarry: A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography?…

Or is that from They Might Be Giants, the World Before Later On (also 2004)? Or is there an earlier source? I'm trapped in a world before later on I'm trapped in a world before later on Where's my hovercraft? Where's my jet pack? Where's the font of acquired wisdom that eludes me now? We're trapped in a world before later on We're trapped in a world before later on Where's our telray? Where's our space face? Where ar…

You got your tricorder and your communicator -- both in one box no less! (And smaller and wizzier than they were originally imagined!) You can even get a phaser if you really want one:

http://www.wickedlasers.com

And we're making pretty good progress on the holodeck. Sure, we're still waiting for warp drive and the transporter, but still we're batting over 500. That's not too shabby.

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#28

Post by lisper » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:45 PM UTC

spacefight wrote: post #16

When I read the intro, I thought he's going to write about modern luxury cruise ships.... not too far off.

This. If you've never been on the Oasis of the Seas (or her sister ship, the Allure) it's worth checking out. Not nearly as dystopian as the article imagines.

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#29

Post by _random_ » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:55 PM UTC

Would rather have aging cured. Would make sense to manage things long-term for everyone.

Re: Let's put the future behind us

#30

Post by jacquesm » Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 5:59 PM UTC

cstross wrote: post #11

digi_owl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either it is the Scottish weather, or it is his way of dealing with a serious case of tech burnout, from being in the thick of the 90s Internet boom in UK.

Also: older and more cynical this decade. (Although I have a soft spot for Elon Musk's projects: both Tesla and SpaceX seem poised to go the distance, and they're both potentially huge game-changers in their respective fields.)

It's a hard trap to avoid. I suffer from the same and I notice many other people that are still active and getting older have this too. (For instance, Richard Dawkins).

I attribute this to a very simple thing: We had these youthful dreams and we realize that we are probably not going to be around to see them realized.