Futurescape with John Woods

[Rory]

Does any of this stuff scare you guys like it does me? lol


I just watched an episode of how we're in the process of merging technology that allows you to connect and navigate the internet/computer with you thoughts with actual mind reading technology.

They claim to already have these technologies but they are in their infant stages. I picture this as being past the "pong stage" and into the "Nintendo stage" with "Nintendo 64 stage" just around the corner.

I once had a gentleman that I knew, tell me that the stuff I see out in the public is approx. 30 yrs behind what we already have behind the curtain. A strategy where your enemy sees that you have widget A and works on developing stuff to defeat it when you actually have widgets B, C and D in the background in case they do. The enemy can't prepare against what it does not know. He looked me straight in the eye when telling me this. it's been quite awhile, but that conversation really sticks in my head.

Not sure what yall think about this, but thought it would be a fun topic to discuss.

[John]

Here is the episode Rory is referring to.

The issue of privacy jumps to my mind. I would have some concerns about a world where someone could look at me and call up all sorts of my information. Could they see my yearly income? My medical records? Would they know that I read Fifty Shades of Gray? (Crap, now you know.)

The counterbalance is the convenience. Say goodbye to just about every device you carry around. Who needs a tablet, GPS, phone, etc.? You can accomplish everything through the always-on Internet connection overlaid on your eyes. I stand in a lot of lines with people who are burying their faces in tablets or phones, playing games or texting. I imagine a future standing in lines with people staring vacantly into space, playing games or texting.

Would this be good or bad? Probably some of both. As with anything, it's going to depend on how you utilize the technology. There's also the option to opt out, of course. While everyone around me is dickering with their tablets or phones, I'm reading a book. I imagine I'll be a little slow to adopt an always-on, mind-controlled Internet connection, too, but I don't see it as a sign of the impending fall of Western civilization.

It will, however, pose a challenge to parents. I very much believe in the potential for the combination of lax parental oversight and overexposure to the online/gaming world to have an addictive quality that can stunt development and growth. Parents are going to have to treat these new developments as tools, not babysitting devices, if they want their children to benefit and remain healthy.

[roncollins]

These kinds of things are "fun" to think about. I've had two stories published in Asimov's that dealt with ramifications of being tightly connected via technology ("1 is True" back some years ago, and "Primes" in January's issue). Technology like this will be used for both good and bad purposes, but in general I fall into the camp of saying there's no real way to stop it so we should embrace it and get as far ahead as we can--whatever "ahead" means. It is definitely getting to the stage, though, where the technology itself is changing the human race, to the point where we are essentially engineering ourselves. The practice of medicine has always been about this, really. Make us better. Make us live longer. Give us Lasix so we can see like Ted Williams. Freeze Teddy Ballgame so he can rise to hit again.

Not surprising, then that the first real SF story was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

The most interesting question on my mind as I sit down here typing on Christmas morning, is to wonder how much of our human existence will in the end actually depend on our human-ness? Will we engineer our human-ness out of ourselves? Personally, I think not. But that does not mean that I think things will be particularly good or nice. The human species has done a very fine job of ravaging itself for a very long time with or without various forms of technology. I don't expect that will end any time soon.

[Rory]

I can see in the future where we are in our own Holila-Decks (which has replaced our man caves) at home and we'll be able to scout our players as if we're there. Hearing the crack of the bats, the smell of a freshly cut field and even getting brick dust and chalk on our virtual shoes. Be able to talk to our prospects and their agents etc... But will it come in time for us, or the next generation of humans? But to be honest, if that technology reaches us in time before our generation is over I'd likely resign as GM.........Cause I'd want to play.