The Forces Of The Next 30 Years - SF author and
Mefi's Own Charles Stross talks to students at Olin College about sci-fi, fiction, speculation, the limits of computation, thermodynamics, Moore's Law, the history of travel, employment, automation, free trade, demographics, the developing world, privacy, and climate change in trying to answer the question
What Does The World Of 2043 Look Like? (Youtube 56:43)
posted by The Whelk
on Mar 27, 2013 -
18 comments
Never wanna work/Always wanna play/Pleasure, pleasure every day. What happens when the jobs go away and
don't return? Should we take the surpluses generated and
pay people not to work? What happens to the assumption of scarcity when
nanotechology allows us to generate potentially anything we want from
grass clippings? Maybe Marx had it wrong all along. Maybe, instead of fetishizing work and the authoritarian mindset that it generates, we should have been reading Paul Lafargue
instead.
Just as a thought experiment, what would you do if your job category disappeared? How would you spend your time? Would you invest more time and energy in friendships and other relationships? Hobbies? If you were your employer, what technologies would you use to get rid of your position and save money?
posted by jason's_planet
on Jun 25, 2006 -
43 comments
Computer as author. (NYT) "Dave Striver loved the university - its ivy-covered clocktowers, its ancient and sturdy brick, and its sun-splashed verdant greens and eager youth. The university, contrary to popular opinion, is far from free of the stark unforgiving trials of the business world: academia has its own tests, and some are as merciless as any in the marketplace. A prime example is the dissertation defense: to earn the Ph.D., to become a doctor, one must pass an oral examination on one's dissertation. This was a test Professor Edward Hart enjoyed giving." by Brutus.1
posted by semmi
on Nov 22, 2004 -
16 comments
The Soylent Green Biscuit Factory Are automation, robots, and computers taking human jobs and producing a new class of permanently superfluous ex-workers? (see
Robot Nation thanks spazzm) Maybe the Soylent Green Biscuit Factory can help!
Robert Wenzlaff says - "I'm not just the president. I'm also a raw material."
posted by troutfishing
on Nov 17, 2003 -
11 comments
Towards a robot-based economy. Lots of interesting ideas here regarding what might happen and possible solutions to economic and social problems when robotics and automation become as cheap as computers did in the 90s.
posted by skallas
on Aug 31, 2003 -
20 comments
Automaton \Au*tom"a*ton\, n.; pl. L.
Automata, E.
Automatons. [L. fr. Gr. ?, neut. of ? self-moving; ? self + a root ma, man, to strive, think, cf. ? to strive.] 1. Any thing or being regarded as having the power of spontaneous motion or action.
posted by crunchland
on Apr 14, 2003 -
13 comments
CAPTCHA is the Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. The test promises to keep online polls honest, block search engine bots, and end spam as we know it. The program generates and grades tests that (1) most humans can pass and (2) current computer programs can't pass. For example, humans can read distorted text but current computer programs can't. To see if you're human or not, take a Captcha test yourself
here. To read more check out this
nytimes article.
posted by josephtate
on Dec 10, 2002 -
27 comments
chip glitch Robbie Floyd - seemed agape even hours after learning of his defeat Wednesday.
"It was hard to believe that that type of mistake had happened," he said.
posted by specialk420
on Nov 18, 2002 -
8 comments
Tangent.cx is now online.
Endquote first came up with a concept for automating self-linking within his own blog. Now he's expanded the idea so that you can build a network of content-driven-sites that auto-link their content with your own. The niftiest part, to me, is his new link pop-up menus, so that one word can link to articles from multiple sites.
posted by nomisxid
on Aug 1, 2002 -
12 comments
