(01-26-2018 10:04 AM)bearcatmark Wrote: Technological innovation = higher quality of life.
Yay and nay. On the one hand, we can do things with greater efficiency and less labor intensive methodology, on the other we have little kids developing coronary heart disease due to their sedentary lifestyle. It's also the case that social and cultural decline, low birth rates and eventual sterility could leave us in a situation that's despotic and quite violent.
I think the way in which we conserve and use technology will have to change, but that's not the same thing as saying we have to go backwards in terms of innovation. We just have to approach life a little differently. We see a lot of agoraphobia, because people have walled themselves off from life, communication and failure. Rather than embracing change and adapting/working to become better versions of themselves. In a self indulgent society of narcissists who have never been challenged, I think they may find life untenable.
Hedonism isn't just a problem from a religious perspective, it also makes people into emotional/psychological cripples. In Japan for instance, they have people who spend a decade or more never leaving their room.
The potential I see, is in educating people about how to use technology as a tool. Rather than just a shield to distract themselves from life itself.
(says the grown ass man posting on a web forum) For instance, how to code and complete tasks, rather than play World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto.
How to solder, draw up schematics, run simulations in Arduino or Solid Works, rather than looking at some stupid app that rates pictures of cakes.
My dad was a car guy, imagining someone working on a robot as opposed to a car is what I'm trying to get at. We have E-scrap all around us and yet, most of this supposedly tech savy population couldn't use any of it. They don't know how. But circuits and passive components are in damn near everything we use, that seems a little absurd to me. When the railways were a new thing, steel and shipping were the exciting paths and people wanted to be a part of it. I see a genuine lack of enthusiasm to involve oneself with any of the industry relevant to what is currently shaping our world and instead an intense desire to distract ourselves from reality. Fortunately, I think people have more potential than that. The culture will need to change but I think we can manage that.
We have a high tech culture in the US, it just needs to be made more practical and immediately useful to people.
When they view it as something they can manipulate for their own ends and not just something they can either escape with or get off to, we'll be entering a very bright future IMO.