Technology is destroying the world

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I was once in a position where I was talking to California eco-types, who asked what I did for a living. They scoffed at me personally when I told them I was an automotive engineer. They pointed out all the pollution the industry creates.

I had to remind them that nobody put a gun to their heads and told them they had to buy cars or any other technology. Society as a whole embraced cars and decided it is better than horses. They have a choice on whether to embrace technology or ignore it.

They also have a choice on creating their own automotive industry that is easier on the environment, if they so choose.

It's so easy to criticize. It's difficult to get off your duff and do something about it. Not many people appreciate the earth-friendly efforts that go on in the manufacturing industry.
 
Good point, but the attitude isn't helping the cause.
"Slave-tards"?

But to his point, there was a great documentary on last night about how technology "such as GPS" is turning us into stimulus response learners (like pavlovs dogs), rather than utilizing cognitive learning (like intelligent human beings), which requires thinking, rationalization and criticism.

The difference? If we subject ourselves to stimulus response learning too much (as in our modern western society geared towards obedience), the part of our brain responsible for cognitive learning- the hippocampus- begins to atrophy! The hippocampus is the first area of the brain to suffer in demential related illnesses, such as alz.

When we're trained too much in stimulus response, not only does the hippocampus atrophy, but the 'caudate nucleus' which is what allows us to be "trained" or essentially "mind controlled" becomes disproportionately developed.

The resulting changes to human psychology are not hard to imagine.

The caudate nucleus is a very low-order part of the brain, part of the most primitive brain area, the basal ganglia or "the reptilian brain". This part is involved in FEAR, AGGRESSION, COMPETITION and our subconscious animalistic nature. It is the specialty part of the brain involved in reactions to stimulus, such as non-competent hypnosis or "mind control". It is the key component, our one vulnerability of our minds that allows mind control and respond to 'suggestions' ie marketing, nn-competent hypnosis

Stimulus can be any trigger, and can trigger any thing. For example, in an argument one can tell who is arguing from cognitive learning and who is arguing from a 'stimulus response' program. The SR person will unwittingly move from assumtion to assumption about the demographic of the person they are debating and tailor their argument to the "type" of person they believe their opponent to be. It's just as long as they don't accept defeat because avoiding defeat is the primary motive, rather than being accurate or correct. The SR debater is trying to avoid the unsettling discomfort of 'cognitive dissonance' to their program.

For instance, a racial argument takes place on the internet, and one debater A says "well, you shouldn't be so racist towards these people" while person B out of SR immediately concludes that this person is not only not of the same race, but is almost certainly a member of the disparaged race, and his argument may be then tailored toward attacking the opponent's assumed demography, even if they're both the same race in reality.

Rote learning is a fine example of SR. Be careful which parts of your brain you work out!
 
Originally Posted By: sayjac
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Anti technology video posted on You Tube. Yes!!!

irony+meter.jpg


It's preferable though to going Kaczynski.


It is ironic, but the implications of technology replacing jobs is a very real problem. It's occurred throughout history from the various technological ages where the great masses of people will find themselves technologically/economically displaced and no longer needed. increasing the minimum wage will only exacerbate the joblessness. Even in my career field of accounting, technology will replace the job of traditional accountants. It can all be done with computers.
 
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Originally Posted By: Kestas
I was once in a position where I was talking to California eco-types, who asked what I did for a living. They scoffed at me personally when I told them I was an automotive engineer. They pointed out all the pollution the industry creates.

I had to remind them that nobody put a gun to their heads and told them they had to buy cars or any other technology. Society as a whole embraced cars and decided it is better than horses. They have a choice on whether to embrace technology or ignore it.

They also have a choice on creating their own automotive industry that is easier on the environment, if they so choose.

It's so easy to criticize. It's difficult to get off your duff and do something about it. Not many people appreciate the earth-friendly efforts that go on in the manufacturing industry.


But I have to ask... What do you think prompted the earth friendly measures that they are employing?

I'd wager that it sure wasn't out of the goodness of their own hearts. Due largely in part to greed, manufacturers will cut many corners and in general don't give a rat's arse about the environment. If it means dumping toxic waste into a river, they would do it to save a dollar. No, I'd wager that they'd still be at their old grossly polluting ways if they hadn't been forced to change OR they weren't offered some form of credit, rebate or sales revenue generated by a "Green" campaign.
 
I cant download this photo for the life of me so ill just explain it. I found it on Facebook.

Its a black and white photo of a train full of people with newspapers in their faces. Not one of them doesn't have one. The caption says "All this technology is making us anti social."

I understand what the guy meant when he was complaining about all the kids with phones in their faces at social gatherings.. But at the same time.. Have things changed that much?
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Anti technology video posted on You Tube. Yes!!!


That irony aside, civilization has been changing since its existence--and people have been complaining about that change for just about as long...

Progress happen, and things change. Some will look for opportunity, some will complain about it and long for the way things used to be.
 
Yep, as I was younger I was eager to embrace changes and new technology. Now, I cringe at the though of replacing my aging smartphone, PC, and laptop. Aging!
 
The "steel-collared workers" - as we called them 30 years ago - are just another step in our evolution of technology used in manufacturing that displaces workers used in dull repetitive tasks.

Where was the outcry when the cotton gin was invented?... the backhoe?... the farmer's combine? Didn't they displace laborers with workers that required more skill?
 
Originally Posted By: JOD


That irony aside, civilization has been changing since its existence--and people have been complaining about that change for just about as long...

Progress happen, and things change. Some will look for opportunity, some will complain about it and long for the way things used to be.


That implies that all change is good or equal. I'm not one for luddites, but at the same time, all who are opposed to certain kinds of changes, are not luddites like how someone who embraces every/anything is not necessarily progressive..

We're becoming SR motivated beings, responding to beeps, notifications, step by step instructions, on-screen nessages, fear mitigation etc, and are becoming less self-directed, spatially aware, or critically conscious- we no longer see the forest for the trees, we're too busy being hyper-focussed on dead-end details- on components of our present situation, rather than the entire situation.

Consider someone that is fully engaged in a txt conversation. They are so engaged in the conversation that they have no idea how dissociated they are from their physical reality, though any passer by will immediately notice it.

That sure is a new change, but is it good? Is it what we really want?
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
The "steel-collared workers" - as we called them 30 years ago - are just another step in our evolution of technology used in manufacturing that displaces workers used in dull repetitive tasks.

Where was the outcry when the cotton gin was invented?... the backhoe?... the farmer's combine? Didn't they displace laborers with workers that required more skill?


Someone has to engineer, install, build, program and maintain those robots. I'm all for robots replacing humans in mind-numbing menial tasks
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
It's so easy to criticize. It's difficult to get off your duff and do something about it. Not many people appreciate the earth-friendly efforts that go on in the manufacturing industry.
 
The way I see "who's going to have the money to buy all the automation produced stuff" argument is: you let import / export between nations to figure that out. More efficient nation (with less labor, resources, whatever is more critical at the moment) will take over the production and eventually the currency and cost in international trades will balance that out. Eventually they will reach an equilibrium, and then cost minimized, and people as a whole benefit. Now, I do not think politicians or businessmen should take credit for it or reap huge profit from it using this as a justification, because they are just overhead like labors and should be reduced and put into competitions.
 
With sufficient trade barriers we could all decide to just have 3 or 4 day work weeks... Less disposable stuff and more durable goods and homes, and then spend our free time doing leisure type stuff.
Europe was heading this way but it seems they are having difficulty continuing. I suspect their lack of natural resources forces them to trade and therefore compete with lower standard of living countries. Canada and the US probably could do fine with what we have in our own borders.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
With sufficient trade barriers we could all decide to just have 3 or 4 day work weeks... Less disposable stuff and more durable goods and homes, and then spend our free time doing leisure type stuff.
Europe was heading this way but it seems they are having difficulty continuing. I suspect their lack of natural resources forces them to trade and therefore compete with lower standard of living countries. Canada and the US probably could do fine with what we have in our own borders.


A debt based free market monetary system HAS to have GDP growth year after year or it will collapse.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
With sufficient trade barriers we could all decide to just have 3 or 4 day work weeks... Less disposable stuff and more durable goods and homes, and then spend our free time doing leisure type stuff.
Yes please!
 
Uh this is like saying water is destroying the world because some people drowned in it.

You could make a video about how technology has improved our lives and it'd be 10 hrs long instead of this 18 minutes of rambling nostalgia about the good ole days.

Btw, my nieces & nephews are under 10 years old. They have iPads. But they are still very social. They love running around and playing w/ other people and socializing with other kids.

Technology doesn't make people anti-social. Those people were already antisocial and would still be antisocial if they didn't have smartphones.
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
I was once in a position where I was talking to California eco-types, who asked what I did for a living. They scoffed at me personally when I told them I was an automotive engineer. They pointed out all the pollution the industry creates.

I had to remind them that nobody put a gun to their heads and told them they had to buy cars or any other technology. Society as a whole embraced cars and decided it is better than horses. They have a choice on whether to embrace technology or ignore it.

They also have a choice on creating their own automotive industry that is easier on the environment, if they so choose.

It's so easy to criticize. It's difficult to get off your duff and do something about it. Not many people appreciate the earth-friendly efforts that go on in the manufacturing industry.


When we opened one of the power stations, there were a bunch of protestors in orange jump suits (early '90s)...couple weeks later, I was back at my parent's place, and having lunch with one of them...I went to school with her. She didn't know what I did, and I didn't know about her protesting.

Mum did...and opened the conversation.

Turns out this lady didn't have solar power/heat, nor a solar powered car, nor a pedal television to watch herself on, nor 5 acres of woodland and a combustion stove....turned out she was a bit of a hypocrite, embracing the fruits of coal fired electricity, while trying to stop it...

Anyway, this is a great clip (from a great movie)
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
With sufficient trade barriers we could all decide to just have 3 or 4 day work weeks... Less disposable stuff and more durable goods and homes, and then spend our free time doing leisure type stuff.
Europe was heading this way but it seems they are having difficulty continuing. I suspect their lack of natural resources forces them to trade and therefore compete with lower standard of living countries. Canada and the US probably could do fine with what we have in our own borders.


We also are heading this way, with 20% unemployment and 80% overworked.
 
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