From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Thu May 22 2003 - 06:14:32 MDT
Emlyn stated:
<<In my more pessimistic moments I always feel that this universe is worth
being angry about.>>
The human condition is worth being angry about, if only to motivate us to
change it.
<<Look at the fate of those who went before us; ignominious, really.
Implicitly, we assume that we wont share that fate, but that's not at all
certain.>>
What do ya mean "we" ? :-D
<<The very fact that we have scarcity is crazy. Why isn't our environment
directly manipulable; eg: why is there matter? Humans are having to go to
absolutely extreme lengths to make matter behave like software (not there
yet), when it could have been that way from the beginning.>>
It could also have been harder, I suppose. You are comparing the real world
against the happy world of scifi.
<<Existence just seems so bloody banal.>>
Wait! Banal is good. Banal can mean security and freedom. Banal is boring,
maybe, but don't trade it in for an exciting life in the Central African
Republic.
<<It's a bad hollywood script that originating from what was once someone's
good idea; you can still sense the spark of brilliance in there somewhere,
but the implementation of reality seems hopelessly unimaginative and shitty.
It's been thought up by the kinds of people that think we'll have traffic
jams of flying cars in extreme urban future cities. Stupid.>>
Look, almost any schmuck can dream up fantasy futures, or fantasy pasts like
in LOTR. Putting one's imagination in a compelling plot line with good
characters is quite another. Inventing or innovating a new product, a new
technology is quite another. The image that what engineers and scientists do
comes easy, is the most fictional aspect of all. Its all sizzle and no steak,
because the nature of the universe is that complex technical achivements
frequently require tremendous work and huge amounts of time. Time is the key,
and what is most irritating, isn't it?
<<Not to say that these aren't interesting times, and that we can't add a few
layers of implementation to create a much more satisfactory virtual universe
running in the real one. But standing back, it really does look like we are
making the best of an appalling job.
Emlyn>>
Technology is opportunistic; or as Lenin said: "Probe with a bayonet. If you
find steel, withdraw, if you find mush, dig in!" The bayonet of technology
has found mush in the field of computers, computer electronics, telcom,
computer photonics, software design. Future areas or runner-ups seem to be
biology, medicine, biotechnology, bioengineering, tissue engineering, and the
like. I am not sure where nanotech, MEM's, molecular technology are heading.
Materials science seems quite active, and energy and space transportation now
seems to be a distant 4th, 5th, or 6th.
The Zen of this list should be: Grumpiness awakens, when the sojourner
realizes that the sci-fi novels, cinema, and futurist documentaries are found
to be too optimistic, too soon!
Mitch
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