Hypothetical technology you couldn't adjust to.

[ThunderCavalier]

Due to this one Cracked article [http://www.cracked.com/article_15655_5-awesome-sci-fi-inventions-that-would-actually-suck.html], my views of some futuristic technology has been biased to the point where any conversation like this will have me bring up the Star Trek Matter Replicators.

Because, as Cracked puts it simply, any technology that is able to perfectly replicate any object in existence would crash the entire economy.

 

[HardkorSB]

You can view anything from the past.

Anytime, anywhere. You know what this means? It means if your neighbour is a pervert, he can watch when you undressed last night. Rabid fans could watch their favorite stars make love. Every single embarrassing and personal moment of your life is available to anyone with the inclination.

Haven't read that but I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't let just anyone use that thing and even if they did, I imagine that it would be rather expensive (if not the equipment itself then the energy used to open that window) so unless your perverted neighbor has some shares in Apple, I don't think he could watch you.
But if everyone had access to it all the time, there would surely be some laws and regulations for it. Plus, it would be nice if no one could ever lie about something and get away with it. Imagine how politics would look I think that in the long run, it would be a change for the better.
Also, I don't care about someone watching me take a shower, or even fuck. Call me crazy but I just don't.

As for the topic, I think that I am intelligent enough to learn how to use even the most sophisticated of human inventions and I can adapt to pretty much any living conditions and lifestyle.

 

[F4LL3N]

But that's the thing, how do you know if what your playing isn't real and the supposedly 'real' life isn't some delusion brought up by your zombie addled mind.

*Shudder*

I wouldn't care. I would love to permanantly live in a Pokemon or Final Fantasy world. And if it sends you crazy? Well, most illegal drugs already do this, not to mention other mental illnesses.

But still. There'd probably be safeguards to prevent that.

Virtual Reality Zombie Apolcalypse.

BEST IDEA EVER.

That just got me thinking how amazing it would be to actual experience that level of immersion. Someone invent VR NOW.

I'd prefer Pokemon, Final Fantasy or Star Wars. Zombies in real life would actually be quite scary, even if you're into gore. Walking mutilated corpses chasing you? Ahh. But if I knew it wasn't real I would do it. Although, one time I did have the best zombie apocolypse dream ever.

 

[Kiardras]

Rabid fans could watch their favorite stars make love.

You mean I can watch Hayley Williams in the shower? Hell Yeah!

Ahem. Ok, in all seriousness, I tend to embrace any and all new technology. I love how interconnected everything is becoming, I can't imagine anything that would worry me (well, other than people watching me shower 2 years in the past.... but I guess I would adapt).

 

[Chairman Miaow]

Virtual reality.

I'm paranoid right now, the horror of realizing that my entire life could be nothing but a fabricated program inserted into my mind at my own request no less as a form of escapism would break me into millions of pieces.

Think total recall but with more gore and less bad facial morphing effects.

Virtual reality is basically the ultimate gaming platform. Once we have that, there's nothing else to improve on. You'd be able to play Pokemon in real life, have a zombie apocalypse, and that's only the beginning. I probably wouldn't even care if I spent 23 1/2 hours a day lying on a chair with absolutely no sunlight or human contact.

But that's the thing, how do you know if what your playing isn't real and the supposedly 'real' life isn't some delusion brought up by your zombie addled mind.

*Shudder*

So basically, if this was the Matrix, you would be Cypher. You treacherous bastard!

But is it important? I mean, if you can't tell the difference between reality and VR then surely you should just pick the best one and live there? That's what I never got about the matrix. Oh no we're living in a VR program where we can potentially live a vaguely agreeable lifestyle rather than running from squid robots and eating tasteless mush. Screw that! Plug me in and use my body as a freaky battery. As long as I don't know the difference I couldn't care less.

Reality is all about perception.

That would make you Cypher if it were the Matrix. You treacherous bastard.

 

[Patathatapon]

If we ever get to the point where we have computer chips inserted into our skin, tracking our every location, every movement, every beat of our heart, I would NOT be able to adapt. If it was not as safe, I could cared less. Partly because I'm Christian, but mostly because I don't want EVERYONE knowing where I am.

 

[Tilted_Logic]

You can view anything from the past.

Anytime, anywhere. You know what this means? It means if your neighbour is a pervert, he can watch when you undressed last night. Rabid fans could watch their favorite stars make love. Every single embarrassing and personal moment of your life is available to anyone with the inclination.

Haven't read that but I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't let just anyone use that thing and even if they did, I imagine that it would be rather expensive (if not the equipment itself then the energy used to open that window) so unless your perverted neighbor has some shares in Apple, I don't think he could watch you.
But if everyone had access to it all the time, there would surely be some laws and regulations for it. Plus, it would be nice if no one could ever lie about something and get away with it. Imagine how politics would look I think that in the long run, it would be a change for the better.
Also, I don't care about someone watching me take a shower, or even fuck. Call me crazy but I just don't.

As for the topic, I think that I am intelligent enough to learn how to use even the most sophisticated of human inventions and I can adapt to pretty much any living conditions and lifestyle.

Well, regardless of how they intended the technology to be used in the book, the means by which you'd actually view the past was widely available and extremely small (to the point where people got eye implants so they could watch the past whenever they desired). There was no regulation, because as far as I recall anyone could get their hands on the device. I read the book a while ago, so I'm a little rusty on specifics, but I do know that pretty much everyone and their brother had the time viewer in some form or another to the point where no one really controlled it anymore.

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

What if Valve goes out of business? Then what happens to all my games on Steam?

Valve has stated that in the event they go bankrupt, they'll back up all game files to a permanent server, allowing us to still access our games. If all else fails, put Steam into offline mode before they officially close down and make sure to keep backups of your games in case of hard drive failure.

But that's the worst case scenario, and hopefully it won't come to that within our lifetimes, or ever, for that matter.

 

[lacktheknack]

Paper feels good and smells lovely. Don't force me to get e-books, please.

 

[deadish]

Anyway, long story short, it got me thinking; is there some sort of technological advancement or a great change the next generation is simply born into, that you don't think you could come to terms with or accept?
Be it something as widely detailed as cybernetics; humans being implanted with technology used to enhance or correct the body (yay for Deus Ex!) - to virtual reality hubs that allow us to explore the world safely, removing the inclination to actually go outside and see things for ourselves.

It has already happen to me.

Facebook and all the other social media stuff.

While I have a Facebook account, I never really use it. Maybe I'm an anti-social loner or a privacy paranoia nut, but I never really got it.

However this shit is all the rage now.

/shrug

 

[craftomega]

-snip-

OK I have acually gave this quite a bit of thought.

I think that your viewing this backwards.

Because we were born in the technological age, I think we will be able to adept to most new technology, but will be able to adapt to a lack of technology. What happens if we have another giant shift in culture that makes technology no longer used for entertanment. What would we do then?

 

[Cpu46]

One more! Teleportation. Star-Trek style wherein all of your cells are broken down and reassembled elsewhere in the space between one second and the next. For this one I wouldn't do it mainly because it would mean I'd be disintegrated in one spot and a perfect copy of me would reappear in another. That copy would go about his business while the original me would be fucking dead. There would be no way of knowing if my current, original consciousness can survive that type of transportation because the only person who can say so is you, yourself. Of course your perfect copy will say "Well gosh, that was easy." but the you who stepped on pod A down the road will have been reduced to less than a memory.

Curses Shoggoth! I just got over my most recent "what happens when we die/consciousness shutdown" fit. Now you have to bring this up and make me think about it again.

However as far as teleportation goes. I really wouldn't care. Either A: I step out of the teleporter at the destination going "Well gosh, that was easy" or B: I am literally not able to care.


OT: I am fine with any technology. Cyborgs, nanobots, teleporters, virtual reality. I can deal with all of them.

 

[Philol]

You won't ever get me to use e-books so you don't even need hypothetical technology for something i won't ever adjust to. I like my reading material in paper, thankyouverymuch.

If it's a book I'm reading because I enjoy it then I want a paper copy, but If it's for my history course then I prefer e-books.

 

[Zipa]

Cybernetics/augmentation, do not want well unless its like a replacement organ for medical reasons.

 

[kasperbbs]

Having no privacy would suck, everyone would act like they are on 'reality' TV show 24/7 and would get pissed if nobody is stalking them. As for cybernetic augmentations, i think thats a good thing if used for medical purposes and not making rich people immortal, i doubt that average Joe could afford them. But honestly if we do get all that good stuff, cures for all diseases, unlimited supply of elecricity and whatnot, the world would get so damn crowded without people dying and that can't be good.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

Well with the watchy stuff you mentioned... I got nothing to hide, I'm proud of who I am... Someone wants to watch me naked go a fuckin head, whatever floats your boat, I guess, glad I'm makin u happy.

Well there is one thing that I see that bothers me, that is the disconnect happening in all our lives due to being connected all the time, people have a harder time relaxing, like truly relaxing, I've found that people are less personable in person... I don't like it, I like being able to talk to people, texting hurts my thumbs, and when it comes down to it, there's no real personality being expressed, I tend to be the kinda person that you hafta see how I'm standing or my facial expression to understand half my humour, or at least my vocal inflection...

Maybe that's just me but I would far rather take a step backwards in out communication technology than keep going on the route we are taking, so many socially awkward people who can't carry out a conversation face to face... saddening and maddening.

 

[Justanewguy]

Virtual reality.

I'm paranoid right now, the horror of realizing that my entire life could be nothing but a fabricated program inserted into my mind at my own request no less as a form of escapism would break me into millions of pieces.

Think total recall but with more gore and less bad facial morphing effects.

Virtual reality is basically the ultimate gaming platform. Once we have that, there's nothing else to improve on. You'd be able to play Pokemon in real life, have a zombie apocalypse, and that's only the beginning. I probably wouldn't even care if I spent 23 1/2 hours a day lying on a chair with absolutely no sunlight or human contact.

But that's the thing, how do you know if what your playing isn't real and the supposedly 'real' life isn't some delusion brought up by your zombie addled mind.

*Shudder*

If this is my fantasy, I have a seriously messed up mind.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

You can view anything from the past.

Anytime, anywhere. You know what this means? It means if your neighbour is a pervert, he can watch when you undressed last night. Rabid fans could watch their favorite stars make love. Every single embarrassing and personal moment of your life is available to anyone with the inclination.

Haven't read that but I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't let just anyone use that thing and even if they did, I imagine that it would be rather expensive (if not the equipment itself then the energy used to open that window) so unless your perverted neighbor has some shares in Apple, I don't think he could watch you.
But if everyone had access to it all the time, there would surely be some laws and regulations for it. Plus, it would be nice if no one could ever lie about something and get away with it. Imagine how politics would look I think that in the long run, it would be a change for the better.
Also, I don't care about someone watching me take a shower, or even fuck. Call me crazy but I just don't.

As for the topic, I think that I am intelligent enough to learn how to use even the most sophisticated of human inventions and I can adapt to pretty much any living conditions and lifestyle.

Well, regardless of how they intended the technology to be used in the book, the means by which you'd actually view the past was widely available and extremely small (to the point where people got eye implants so they could watch the past whenever they desired). There was no regulation, because as far as I recall anyone could get their hands on the device. I read the book a while ago, so I'm a little rusty on specifics, but I do know that pretty much everyone and their brother had the time viewer in some form or another to the point where no one really controlled it anymore.

I read it a very, very, very long time ago, but that's about how I remember it too. It was so ubiquitous at the point the story took place that even if anyone had wanted to control it it would've been unenforceable. If I'm not mixing it up with another similar story, I think that's the one where they were originally trying to see into the distant past, but it turned out that it didn't work very well for that (more degraded/lossy signal the farther back you go) but it worked great for more recent stuff...like ten minutes ago. That's the kind of thing that causes a lot of chaos at first and people don't know how to cope with it, but eventually they'd just kind of have to accept it.

 

[Ironman126]

Those guidance system bullets that came up recently.

Fuck. That. Shit.

War casualties will skyrocket.

That is pretty much why we have the Geneva and Hague Conventions. We don't like expanding bullets creating huge entry/exit wounds? Outlawed them. We don't like napalm and flamethrowers torching humans? Outlawed as well. Why not just outlaw guided bullets?

 

[AdmiralMemo]

I like my physical stuff. Yes, I like my virtual stuff, too, because it's easier to use in most cases, but the physical-to-virtual (and vice versa) conversion methods should always be available. You don't need to recharge a book. You don't need the Internet to play Dungeon Siege. As long as a physical option exists, I'm happy.