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The March of Technology


deanb
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  • 2 weeks later...

We don't even really have the tech yet and folks want to ban sex robots

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34118482

 

I don't see any problem with them to be honest. Especially from a "this is bad for women". Worth noting for ages women have had electronic male replacements for ages and no one has raised any issues there.

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Sex robots are literally the entire point of making robots!  If you ban sex robots then everyone will lose interest in the field and scientific progress will stagnate!

 

Seriously though, that's ridiculous, I see absolutely no issue with sex robots.  If anything it seems like it would massively reduce the need for prostitution and all the associated terrible activity (human trafficking, most notably).

 

*Edit - Holy shit, $7,000?  That's shockingly affordable.  I was expecting it to be in the multiple 10's of thousands.

 

Though of course I wouldn't pay a penny over $1,500...

Edited by TheMightyEthan
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The only one I'm iffy on is child simulacra, solely for public policy issues of it being impliedly acceptable if a simulation is permitted. (And yes I know this opens a conversation of "murder simulators" etc.) Otherwise it's a "in the privacy of your home" issue.

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I have the same gut reaction to child simulacra, but when I actually try and think about it from a purely rational perspective I can't come up with a real reason why it's different than any other simulation of illegal activity.

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I imagine while there's likely a market for that, the suppliers might be less than forthcoming on that front. As mentioned there's not really anything "illegal" about it though I know some places take a hard stance on even owning or producing cartoon CP is illegal. Though it's all an entirely different convo.

 

On the grown-adult models I'd see zero issue with it. Just a very intelligent vibrator or fleshlight really.

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...

 

Pedophilia is what we're talking about...

 

Observe:

 

Public policy should weigh in favor of child sex simulates if the availability of such simulacra results in pedophiles having sex with robots rather than raping children. I'm not convinced it would, though.

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  • 5 weeks later...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/15/us-tesla-autopilot-idUSKCN0S82SW20151015?utm_source=twitter

 

Tesla is updating a bunch of its cars manufactured over the last year to enable "auto-steering".  You're still required to keep your hands on the wheel though, and the car gets mad at you if you don't.

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Well I think the reason it's not fully self-driving is that it's in beta.  Like, it /is/ self-driving, but since its in beta they put the restrictions on it.  That and the fact that the law isn't prepared for self-driving cars yet.

 

But yeah, my family took a 34-hour (round trip) car trip this summer, and a self-driving car would have been extremely nice.

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http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/most-earth-like-worlds-have-yet-to-be-born-according-to-theoretical-study

 

Not so much technology as science, but a study has concluded that Earth is one of the earliest 8% of all rocky planets in the habitable zone of stars that are likely to ever form.  It's not mentioned in the article, and 8% is still an absolute shitload of planets, but it makes me think of the "we're the first" hypothesis for explaining the Fermi paradox.

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  • 1 month later...


http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-12/08/tom-hanks-digital-puppet// http://www.washington.edu/news/2015/12/07/what-makes-tom-hanks-look-like-tom-hanks/
So this is potentially cool tech that can lead the way into virtual actors. At the moment much of it is done quite manually, building it around an algorithm would make it much quicker and cheaper process, and would also allow you to capture anyone in-camera to then be someone else down the line (at the moment they usually get actors playing themselves: See Michael Douglas in Ant-Man, and Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy).
 
Give it a few years and you'll probably be able to slap your friends face on yourself in some app that draws from FB photos or something.
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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/blocking-the-sun-is-no-plan-b-for-global-warming/

 

So folks are throwing around the idea of seeding clouds or similar to block out the sun to tackle global warming and those pesky robots over at 01.

It's more than likely pretty damn doable, albeit expensive, but the issue would be the side effects on stuff like Vitamin D generation, and things like photosynthesis n so on. Humanity could survive, but not much else would. Oh and the whole political aspect of it.

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Well that's largely Plan A. But good to have a Plan B. Plan 9 is to go to outer space.

 

It's a huge fucking issue cos it's gonna fuck over everyone, but next to no one can actually actively agree with everyone to try n sort shit out. We're pretty much fucked by a bunch of rich folks temporary ego puffing. If I was pretentious artist type and with the means to do so I'd probably get a mountain side or something and carve in the name each of the world leaders around since we realised climate change was an issue so it'll be there for near perpetuity.

 

I feel for all the smaller nations who are largely contributing nothing to the problem, still likely to be impacted, and too small to be able to do much themselves.

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More here.

Another proposed option is to go to Phobos, which should be a captured asteroid, around Mars and grab a (smaller) sample of that. It can showcase that, yes, our new spacecrafts can get to Mars, land and come back. Not sure if the asteroid deflection part of the mission would be on the table with that since there could be a risk we just send Phobos crashing into Mars... I think we got the physics all worked out so I don't think it is necessary.

 

Edit: Maybe I should mention that deflection of an asteroid also can mean the towing of one which some are worried could be used as a weapon. There is also the thing of grabbing a chunk of it and bringing it into the Earth's neighborhood.  Maybe humanity is not meant to colonize space.

Edited by MaliciousH
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