Projections of your digital Self

[Morten Blaabjerg]

This is not another thread on "custom" avatars. I just find this quite interesting. Kefka mentioned something about "a personal touch to an otherwise cold and impersonal internet" in another thread ("sniff")... So I was wondering, do you guys have any ideas about the future of the internet? As processors and cables get faster, I think there'll be greater possibilites of "personalizing" the internet itself and your appearance in it.

Check this link, for some inspiration...
Here's a guy who's gone to the extreme in creating his alter ego, as a 100% artificial female rock star...

http://www.kurzweilai.net

Also, what are the consequenses for the way we interact with other people in this "impersonal" environment? -Personally my life has changed somewhat since I got a faster connection, and I'm not sure I like all of it.

I'd like to go out into the wilderness some day, to Africa, because I sometimes think that all these material and abstract opportunities, if you're not too careful, they end up owning you. In other words, how can we live simple lives, with our basic "wild" instincts, and combine this with something as abstract as the internet? Is it simply just a prolonging of our desires into another realm, or will it change the way we live our lives?

Thoughts?

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

There's much sci-fi in the following. "Nanobots"? -Sounds like science-fiction to me. But what is realistic? What is just mind boggling?

From an article on Kurzweil
Futurist Ray Kurzweil ( www.kurzweilai.net ) shows how virtual reality will profoundly alter business, healthcare, and the conditions of human existence over the next 10 to 30 years.

In addition to biological technology, computers and communications technology is growing exponentially more powerful and smaller. Within 10 years, computers...will be embedded in our clothing and eyeglasses; images will be written directly to our retinas; and we will have very high-bandwidth communication ot the Internet at all times.

Within 30 years, it will be commonplace to have billions of nanobots - microscopic computerized robots the size of blood cell - traveling through the capillaries of our bloodstream. They will help keep our physical bodies healthy by scouthing for pathogens,
thereby augmenting our immune system. They will also communicate with our biological neurons through wireless, noninvasive communication.

They will communicate with each other on a wireless local area network and wirelessly with the Web. This will provide full-immersion, virtual reality shared environments incorporation all of the senses ( so you can hear, see, and touch the people you're meeting with through the internet. )

Ultimately these nanobots and similar technology will increase our intelligence and allow for the downloading of knowledge. The nanobots can create new interneuronal connections - the connections between neurons, which is where most of our thinking takes place.

Since technology is increasing exponentially, we can ultimately multiply our thinking abilities by factores of thousands or millions.

Journalist:
By the second half of this centurey, you see us capable of "reinstatiating" ourselves - meaning tiny computers will be able to scan our brains and transfer ourselves out of our physical bodies. Just what has to be developed to make this possible ?

Brain reverse-engineering is already well underway and futher along than most people realize. The nanobots will be capable of scanning local neuron processes, and the feasibility of this has already been demonstrated, although not yet with the capacity necessary for the scenario.

If we scan all of the salient neural details and then reinstatiate - intall - information on a neural computer of sufficient capacity, then the neural computer will display the same personality and knowledge and intelligence of the orginal brain that was scanned.

 

[floppa21]

Nanobots/Nanomachines are real, or at least will be as far as that goes. Could be used for surgery, health, cleaning the environment... I have no doubt it will happen. I don't know about internet though. I don't think it will be a major preference over going out and skiing or playing a game with your friends down at the park or something... Oh wait, it already is...
As for consequences? I find it enriching. Having conversations or just reading conversations involving people from ALL OVER the world, working with them through the internet, it is all good. Ordering online... I enjoy ordering things online...

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

I find it enriching. Having conversations or just reading conversations involving people from ALL OVER the world, working with them through the internet, it is all good. Ordering online... I enjoy ordering things online...

I know what you mean. Basically I feel the same, except I'm conflicted about it. Because the more time I spend in front of my computer, the less time I spend with my friends or my family and my close environments. It can't help but handicap my social skills! And that's what I don't like. I can feel it, sneaking up on me...

I don't think it will be a major preference over going out and skiing or playing a game with your friends down at the park or something... Oh wait, it already is...

Hope not. Ah... skiing, that's something I really miss doing more often.

Computers are invading our lives and our society for good and bad, and true, it's beneficial and useful and entertaining etc. But I can't help thinking, what do we lose? Everything has a price. I feel computers and the internet favours the "intellectual" and "rational" sides of us, at the cost of our human "instincts" -some of the more essential skills of shaping our lives, physically, emotionally, socially....

 

[allan]

There's a scary side as well. The technology to scan a person's brain and duplicate all his thoughts, feelings, and knowledge to a remote location COULD be the ultimate invasion of privacy, if it is forced on someone (or done without his knowledge--with a syringe in his sleep)....

Well, if technology gets too invasive I could always settle on a remote beach in Thailand or something--hopefully there will always be SOME place to escape technology, if it gets into too many evil hands....

The stuff that scares me is genetic profiling--that man may one day not be judged by his character or learned abilities, but by the contents of his DNA....

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

"A man is not defined by his memory, but by his actions" -(from the film "Total Recall")

by allan
Well, if technology gets too invasive I could always settle on a remote beach in Thailand or something--hopefully there will always be SOME place to escape technology, if it gets into too many evil hands....

But the trouble is, that this is already happening, without us noticing it. We're far from duplicating peoples minds etc. But think of Bill Gates and worldwide monopolies...

The other night I had some really frustrating moments with my computer, and I had to reinstall windows. I noticed in the pictures that shows while it installs, presenting all those *wonderful* things that Windows can do, that in WindowsWorld, noone is ever unhappy! Everybody is sooo happy, and everything is sooo *wonderful*, because everything is made soooo easy and userfriendly. So if it doesn't work, it can't possibly be Bill Gates or his company you're to blame. Because they've done it the best and most userfriendly way that can possibly be done. So if you're frustrated and unhappy about it, there must be something wrong with you. You must be stupid. And I kinda freaked over this in pure rage. Because in that attitude, I found something that was reminiscent of fascism.

Yes, I am overreacting. But anyway, I say, watch it, before we know it, there's a new *wonderful* invention we just can't live without, and if we can, we're not *right* in our heads. We must be forced or manipulated to be *happy*, and buy the right microsoft products.

Does anyone know, if Bill Gates is into Scientology? It just struck me. He could be, with that kind of presentation.

Anyway, it was just an example. But monopolies *combined* with technology is not a good thing.

 

[Leowind]

Very interesting and pertinant topic. First, I have no doubt that something similar to what Kurzweil envisions will happen. Science and technology continue to march onward, irregardless of the consequences. If it can be done, it will be done. Second, just because new technologies are available does NOT mean that everyone will be taking advantage of them. I'm still making do with a 166 Mhz Pentium I with a 33.6K Modem at home. And you know what, it works just fine! It won't run Civ III, which is a major bummer, but I'm still having fun with Civ II, so why do I need it? I think that's one of the issues. Just because there is some new technology that makes life wonderful does not mean we NEED to have it, or can afford to have it. I suspect there may eventually be a backlash over new technology. Perhaps not. Even now, though the numbers have increased dramatically, I believe the number of households withOUT a home computer is still close to 50%. Think about it. At least a third, and possibly closer to one half of America's population is not involved in all this new stuff that everyone supposedly has to have.
Anyway, thirdly: technology is basically neutral. How we use it makes for evil or good. And people will always use technology for both. Think about airplanes. Great technology for getting people to far away places faster, but can also result in more horriffic accidents, and even worse, as we have witnessed. The same will be true of any new technologies. They will have great potential for good, but also for evil. We must, individually and corporately (as a society), continually ensure we use them for good. And that means escaping to the "wilds" of the real world occasionally to work on our social skills, to use Morten's words.