Any sufficiently advanced home automation is indistinguishable from a haunting.
Old tech is haunted
41–50 of 103 posts
Re: Old tech is haunted
#42If you've ever worked on a codebase with developers who are no longer around, you come to understand the data structures, algorithms and comments they leave behind give a sense of their personality. A 'ghost' if you will.
Re: Old tech is haunted
#43Re: Old tech is haunted
#44Relevant philosophical discussion: Koestler (1967)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_in_the_Machine
This work has informed quite a bit of art and literature ever since, from the manga/anime series Ghost in the Shell to a fair bit of William Gibson's work (see 'semiotic ghosts' of futures that might-have-been in The Gernsback Continuum).
As far as religious belief in modern civilization, Frank Herbert in Dune (Appendix II) describes what I imagine is the common modern view among the 'power elite':
The agnostic ruling class (including the Guild) for whom religion was a kind of puppet show to amuse the populace and keep it docile, and who believed essentially that all phenomena - even religious phenomena - could be reduced to mechanical explanations.
With respect to as belief, I think anyone who says 'I believe in ' is actually expressing doubt in their own world view. I'm more impressed by the so-called religious fanatics who instead say, 'I know of '. Consider the person who hears the voice of 'invisble sky friends' in their heads and writes it down in an (eventually holy) text - who is to say with certainty whether that's the result of schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations, or an actual interdimensional communication from the architect of this virtual reality simulation we're all (okay, perhaps) living in?
As far as haunted old tech:
"We build our computers the way we build our cities - over time, without a plan, on top of ruins." - Ellen Ullman, Life in Code
Re: Old tech is haunted
#45No post body was provided.
Re: Old tech is haunted
#46Relevant philosophical discussion: Koestler (1967) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_in_the_Machine This work has informed quite a bit of art and literature ever since, from the manga/anime series Ghost in the Shell to a fair bit of William Gibson's work (see 'semiotic ghosts' of futures that might-have-been in The Gernsback Continuum). As far as religious belief in modern civilization, Frank Herbert in Dune (A…
> who is to say with certainty whether that's the result of schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations, or an actual interdimensional communication from the architect of this virtual reality simulation we're all (okay, perhaps) living in?
Russel's Teapot. Also, Occam's Razor.
Re: Old tech is haunted
#47I have a haunted TV: my 4 year old Sony Bravia (Android TV) reboots seemingly intentionally during the most interesting parts of TV broadcasts. And since a few weeks ago, it also regularly loses the Wi-Fi connection. Thanks Google and Sony!
My Samsung TV remote used to stop working once a week, every week. The only fix was "rebooting" the remote by popping the batteries out and back in.
Re: Old tech is haunted
#48I'm reminded of the "I can't send email to anyone over 100 miles away" story. There is, of course, a perfectly rational explanation... but that doesn't change the spooky arbitrariness of it.. EDIT: Not sure why I forgot to link this, out of one of my all-time favorite presentations. I give you: The Mechanical Transmogrification of Diodes into Capacitors! https://c3.ndc.nasa.gov/dashlink/static/media/other/Observed...
For those that haven't see it yet. https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html
That was a fun read
Re: Old tech is haunted
#49I can attest to this; we have a vacuum cleaning robot that has recently taken to spontaneous vacuuming at random times - the first time was naturally just after midnight and scared the life out of me :-)
Be scared if it suddenly starts to play the "1812 Overture".
Re: Old tech is haunted
#50My brother worked in tech support at a Christian college. People would come in with a PC that wasn't working. He would look at it thoughfuly for a few moments, then, in a loud voice and great dramatic flair would say "Demon, Be Gone" and smash his hands into the keyboard (carefully, such that he was actually hitting control-alt-delete-- but you wouldn't notice this because of the acting). the computer would shut down…
Ah, that's how ComStar and the Word-of-Blake got their religious ideas from!