Is technology good for us?

[Ashleyxoxo]

Sure, it makes everything easier and more convenient. Sometimes it even saves lives. But it also makes us lazy, anti-social and unfocused. Is technology good or bad for us?

I think technology is ultimately good. Living virtually can be depressing, but sadness is a luxury few can afford. I’d rather be sad and comfortable than happy and homeless, like the mystics in developing countries.

[PC2]

Sure, it makes everything easier and more convenient. Sometimes it even saves lives. But it also makes us lazy, anti-social and unfocused. Is technology good or bad for us?

I think technology is ultimately good. Living virtually can be depressing, but sadness is a luxury few can afford. I’d rather be sad and comfortable than happy and homeless, like the mystics in developing countries.

We'd be dead without technology so this isn't much of a debate. Everything from clothing, to agriculture, computers, cars, medical instruments... People have no idea just how shitty it was centuries ago.

Rejecting technology is one of the fastest ways that you can make yourself irrelevant in 2020.

[Redwyrm]

The only problem with technology I can list at the moment is people driving while on their phones (talking and texting)

[rayvio]

technology is good for us
technology is also bad for us
there is nothing that can be useful but cannot be misused

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Two way street. I mean technologies make our lives easier and in a lot of ways and not to mention meaningful. Life is more than look for and find food at the basic day to day level. But they also can lead to our ultimate demise. Pollutions and weapons being a by product of most of them we come up with.

[breadisfunny]

We'd be dead without technology so this isn't much of a debate. Everything from clothing, to agriculture, computers, cars, medical instruments... People have no idea just how shitty it was centuries ago.

Rejecting technology is one of the fastest ways that you can make yourself irrelevant in 2020.

maybe YOU would but there are plenty of people that live off the grid and are doing just fine. technology can be both a boon and a hindrance when you rely TOO much on it. one good CME would knock that technology out just like that.

[shadowmouse]

Without technology I wouldn't even know who Luddites are! >.>

[Machismo]

A spoon and fork are technology. Anyone who thinks technology doesn't make life better, is free to move to the middle of the desert, and go their own way.

[deepr]

Technology shows that science works and in turn helps science move forward.
If anything, technology helps us to learn about the universe and allows us to marvel at its wonders and mysteries, which puts our own little lives and planet into perspective. Which I think is important for us if we want to move forward as a species.

[zenkai]

Sure, it makes everything easier and more convenient. Sometimes OFTEN it even saves lives. But it also makes us lazy, anti-social and unfocused. Is technology good or bad for us?

I think technology is ultimately good. Living virtually can be depressing, but sadness is a luxury few can afford. I’d rather be sad and comfortable than happy and homeless, like the mystics in developing countries.

Of course it is, and like anything else it can be abused.

[unbound]

Technology is just a tool. It generally helps things, but there is always a cost. It really isn't a good or bad thing.

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;"
- If, Rudyard Kipling

[PC2]

The greatest technological threat atm is AI.

Just think of how those ten billion people in third world countries will react when all their work and income is taken away and will go to Google AI in California instead. Some of those third world countries have a whole lot of people, weapons and even some nukes. And they'll also have a whole lot of time to kill when they no longer have jobs.

lol don't worry about AI in the slightest. The kind of AI they're working on is purely ANI, they mistakenly believe that intelligence is about the reinforcement and recognition of patterns.

In the US jobs are at around 150 mil, ~3.3 bil globally, you should expect these stats to go up incrementally over the next few decades even as AI gets better. Because the type of AI they're making doesn't share a space with human intelligence(especially creativity) that allows us to generate new kinds work, where as ANI can't generate anything new.

maybe YOU would but there are plenty of people that live off the grid and are doing just fine. technology can be both a boon and a hindrance when you rely TOO much on it. one good CME would knock that technology out just like that.

I said they have made themselves "irrelevant", which doesn't mean they aren't doing "fine". A lack of technology is basically like a glass ceiling, it doesn't stop you from eating and drinking or working simple jobs buts it does prevent you from getting all the modern skills that are needed to be competitive in 2020.

[Powerogue]

Technology is a tool. We are bad for us.

[Shadowferal]

Technology is a tool. We are bad for us.

This.
Tech is two-edged sword. Though I'd say it cuts us more than not.

Thank the gods for paper ballots!

[PC2]

Considering the current google AI can teach itself from scratch how to beat the previous grandmaster World Champion Chess AI in less than 4 hours, the previous AI containing a database of hundreds of millions of grandmaster games to pool it's decisions from, and simultaneously show off new genius tactics that were never seen before in the history of mankind, I wouldn't be so sure that the current AI is only capable of 'pattern recognition'.

And even the AI that does depend on pattern recognition, such as the current Google search engine, already determines the way the market works. We don't make websites or make adverts on the internet that appeal to humans, we make them to appeal to the Google search engine algorithm.

Oh apparently you're talking about AI that operates in a bounded domain of discourse like Chess, where there's only a finite amount of state spaces to learn from. For problem domains that have that characteristic AI most certainly will be setting superhuman records constantly now and in the future. That's not the kind of AI that will make humans obsolete though because only human-type intelligence can generalize from a specific domain like a Chessboard to all other possible domains.

[Dsonsion]

Technology has the potential to do much good for the human race. As of now, a great portion of it is being used for anything but that. But it's not a problem of technology, it's a problem of the system.

[PC2]

Are you of the opinion that that is what is expected today from low-skilled workers?

Absolutely yes, even the most seemingly mundane jobs like clerk, janitor, truck driver, or whatever, can nary get through a day in which at least one new thing happens for which there is no prior in their past experience(training data). A classical inductive AI only has knowledge that is distributed between the training examples it has already seen. The real world is very "messy" and highly unpredictably and just one never before experienced event will cause a functional breakdown to a non-AGI.

Also, people generally have no clue how much complexity goes into low-skill work. Often times what we consider to be the bottom of the barrel, low skill physical work, is actually the most difficult to automate. The reason for that is because of Moravec's paradox.

[jonnysensible]

The wheel was a mistake!

[Mihalik]

like the mystics in developing countries.

Huh? Wut? /10char

- - - Updated - - -

The wheel was a mistake!

Think of all the people pulling sleds who were put out of work by the wheel!

- - - Updated - - -

Absolutely yes, even the most seemingly mundane jobs like clerk, janitor, truck driver, or whatever, can nary get through a day in which at least one new thing happens for which there is no prior in their past experience(training data). A classical inductive AI only has knowledge that is distributed between the training examples it has already seen. The real world is very "messy" and highly unpredictably and just one never before experienced event will cause a functional breakdown to a non-AGI.

Also, people generally have no clue how much complexity goes into low-skill work. Often times what we consider to be the bottom of the barrel, low skill physical work, is actually the most difficult to automate. The reason for that is because of Moravec's paradox.

Most of the unpredictability in mundane tasks is derived from the human element. By increasing automation you are reducing to eliminating unpredictability.

This is why factories are looking more and more like this...



It's also why most job loss to manufacturing wasn't due to outsourcing but due to automation.

It's why self driving cars are already safer than cars driven by humans.

It's why most vending points for things like tickets or fast food are now automated etc.

Automation, computation and machine-human interfaces have absolutely leapfrogged in the past 10 years, if the trend keeps for the next 10 (absolutely no reason why it wouldn't) a stunning amount of low skilled work will become redundant in the Western world.

I work in geological services (geological engineering, mining, dredging, water management, environmental impact management), a lot of what we do is quite labor intensive. When I started working in the industry about 13 years ago the ratio of skilled to low skilled labor on most projects was around 1 to 3. Thanks to automation, pre-fabrication, and increased access to software solutions today we are down to 1-1 and this is not because we need significantly more skilled labor, we just need less low skilled labor. We can do more in less time with fewer people, and this is just a 13 year period in one industry.

I mean, not to mention the average midsized office lost about 50% administrative and backoffice staff in the past 20 years due to software solutions, databases etc. The number is even higher for larger companies that can afford personalized software solutions and not just off the shelf commercial software.

[XangXu]

I am a firm believer in Internet Regulation.

Cults, Pyramid Schemes, Sex Trafficking, Brain Washing, Racist stunts... all of these are due to an unregulated internet.

Fucking President Trump being elected is due to an unregulated internet.

It has damaged our species permanently.