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“When we all have pocket telephones”

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Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#91

Post by bena »

ekianjo wrote: post #16
bsza wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet it predicted the future more accurately than Blade Runner (1982) where people still use pay phones in 2019.

Blade Runner was never about predicting the future. It was what could become if technology went in certain ways. Japan did not end up ruling the west either.

Blade Runner isn't about the technology per se. It's about our reactions to the technology. If we create a completely autonomous artificial life, is it "a person"? Does it deserve personhood?

The source book is a little better about the question. The major difference between Replicants and people is that people have empathy and Replicants don't. In the book there's a device that allows people to essentially get into this weird empathy group mind thing. It's been a hot minute since I read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" so forgive the details.

And that's what the Voight-Kampf device measures. That's what the questions are designed to test. It's why the first Replicant flips out on the turtle question. He can't process the need to flip over the turtle. He can't empathise with the turtle.

But he's kind of still a child. Which is a little understandable, because Replicants have a 3-year lifespan. They are babies. Toddlers. He flips out because he's throwing a tantrum. Roy Batty and Pris are closer to the end of their life, they've developed empathy, as any person would. That's what gets Deckard. He realizes Replicants are fully people and what we do to them is wrong. Batty was never the bad guy.

But that's all tangential. Blade Runner is set 37 years in the future. Which is now 3 years in the past. It was trying to guess when the relevant technology will be available. I think that's a better way of thinking about it. Science Fiction isn't trying to predict what will be available in X years, it's trying to predict in how many years X will be available.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#92

Post by trashtester »

jsrcout wrote: post #62
trashtester wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When Google advertises to you in your dreams, daydreams and nightmares. If we let them wire something into our brains, it's a lot easier to connect it to the happiness centres: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3984894/ If you can gain networked control of such a device, you could easily gain complete control of their motivations and disires. Much more strongly than with any drug. Not only would you be a…

I'd be stunned if there aren't well-funded groups working on this as we speak.

It's already deployed to some extent medically.

As for the dystopian applications, I would not be suprised if there are some dr Mengele wannabies in some dark corners of the world experimenting with how to control prison inmates or similar "disposable" people using such tech.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#93

Post by hammock »

coldtea wrote: post #15
nonrandomstring wrote: post #7

Lately, stand-up comedians have been saying they're out of a job, because the absurdity of reality is escaping parody. Nothing stays funny for long, because soon enough it's true, and then banal. In a world where all things are absurd, ipso facto nothing is absurd. An interesting question becomes what remains? What are the solid relations that underpin our humanity? Having a boss that tells you what to do? No, long s…

> The insane conceit of a "cash-less society" has already created situations where you cannot physically force someone to take money from you. You'd be very very surprised...

Yeah isn’t that the sinister point of CBDC’s… transforming our world to what you get is doled by daddy govt

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#95

Post by mark38848 »

creshal wrote: post #35
sethammons wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that is batshit crazy.

Germany's highest form of comedy is political cabaret, i.e. someone quotes a politician verbatim and the audience, briefly, imagines they were actually serious . It's the only form of entertainment that keeps getting funnier every year.

There is Tatortreiniger and Stromberg, both of which are funnier.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#96

Post by jimbokun »

bostik wrote: post #58
googlryas wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stand up comedians are saying this while they're...performing standup?

I wish I could remember who said this, because it was a standup saying something ... in an interview. Not performing. "It's a sad state of affairs when the most accurate political commentary is done by comedians, while the country is being governed by clowns." Such an apt description of the UK. And while that was said two governments (ie. less than a year) ago, it's only slightly less accurate now.

When could that have not been truthfully said?

Wasn't the court jester the only telling the truth a trope hundreds of years ago?

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#97

Post by warner25 »

alistairSH wrote: post #89
WaitWaitWha wrote: post #84

> Now, increasingly, cellphones are * day-to-day life* . Far from the literal “pocket telephones” envisioned a century ago, they’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of human existence, including those Haselden could never have considered. It is now essential to be considered part of the society, to the point that someone who does not want to or cannot carry a cell phone is sneered at. Anecdotally, I was in t…

Wow, that's a new one for me (only app payments accepted). In the US, at least.

I haven't encountered that yet, but I'm starting to encounter mobile apps as required proof of membership for things. My family got a membership to a children's museum a few weeks ago, and the expectation is that my wife and I have their app on our phones to get inside. For our second visit, I brought our printed receipt, but my wife had to stand there downloading and installing their app so that we could use our guest passes. The person at the front desk didn't seem to have any other way to do it. Similarly, my neighborhood's community pool and fitness center requires the Brivo Mobile Pass app to get through the front door (and it's unattended, so there's nobody who can just look you up in the system and let you in).

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#99

Post by nonameiguess »

hammock wrote: post #81
superchroma wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comedians weren't lining up to do college campuses 20 years ago either.

College campus is never the preferred venue however as I said, it’s a money maker. Similar to corporate gigs. The difference is now they’re not worth the trouble. Seinfeld (not even who you think of as “anti-woke”) has a good take on it you could search for. https://ew.com/article/2015/06/08/jerry-seinfeld-politically... >“I don’t play colleges.” Seinfeld says teens and college-aged kids don’t understand what it mean…

I would at least like to see real quantifiable evidence that comedy shows on college campuses are less frequent now than they used to be, as opposed to individual comedians who are two generations removed from current college students saying they personally don't feel welcome there any more.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#100

Post by Buttons840 »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #84

> Now, increasingly, cellphones are * day-to-day life* . Far from the literal “pocket telephones” envisioned a century ago, they’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of human existence, including those Haselden could never have considered. It is now essential to be considered part of the society, to the point that someone who does not want to or cannot carry a cell phone is sneered at. Anecdotally, I was in t…

I've wondered, as wealth inequality grows, perhaps the poorest among us simple won't have enough money to exchange for goods. "Sorry, you don't have enough money to make a haircut worth my time, but if you let me invade your privacy and show you ads until the end of time, that will be valuable enough to exchange for a haircut. Read and sign this 200 page contract and I'll go get a chair ready."

See also essential software that cannot be purchased, only rented. Many of the most essential apps today are not paid for with money, occasionally people talk about how they want to pay for these apps (in exchange for better customer service, etc), but no, they don't want our money, our money is worth less than the data we give.

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