Future of war: Private robot armies fight it out

[Slargos]

I'm not saying it's impossible to predict the evolution of the appearance of technology, with the kind of hind sight and the wealth of information we all have available now it's obviously going to be easier today than it was 50 years ago.

That said, I think it's an intense expression of hubris to believe that you can predict to any practically significant degree of accuracy what the appearance and more importantly function of technology will be in even 20 years, let alone 100.

Perhaps instead of "oh har har iz ezy" you could make an actual prediction and we can table this discussion for a single decade and see how right you were.

Presumably, people understood the concepts you describe 20 years ago aswell, but if you asked any people but the ones busily developing the Internet what communication would look like today, do you honestly believe they would've pictured this?

Beeb doesn't believe it will ever be possible to wear a computer as an ear ring. I'm willing to wager most people in the 70s didn't believe they'd have the entire world's collective knowledge at their fingertips 30 years later.

Have you read Neuromancer? Gibson describes a world where people access cyberspace with neural implants. Now we have both extremely primitive neural implants and a worldwide net. It will happen. And he wrote it almost 30 years ago.

Yet we still have no flying cars. Funny how some predictions will come true while others won't. That one did in some variation (Gibson certainly overshot quite a bit) doesn't mean that all will or that it's somehow easy to make them accurately.

Regardless, my point to begin with was not aesthetics. Ide made a claim as to what will and will not be made possible by technology in the future, and I asserted that making such a claim is nonsensical since while we may make predictions right now, and while we may envision what kind of capability we will develop in the future, and even while we may assert what is possible due to the limitations of the laws of physics, we certainly have only limited ideas of how those laws can be bent, cheated or changed.

[Slargos]

Sorry, I don't do much robotics Ide. Building one with the necessary coordination for sex is going to be hard I think. We can barely make them walk as it is.
But have no fear, just as it happened with porn and the Web, you can bet much of the early applications of wetware or robotics will surely involve sex. DARPA funds research for limb replacement and weapon interface and the sex industry then takes over to make your wishes reality.

Maybe you simply worded yourself carelessly, but I am really honestly confounded by this type of thinking.

There's no doubt that it is hard right now, but why would you imagine that it is going to be hard in the future? Double entendre unintended.

The rate of progress in robotics implies, on the contrary, that it's going to be easier.

[Ideologue]

Sorry, I don't do much robotics Ide. Building one with the necessary coordination for sex is going to be hard I think. We can barely make them walk as it is.
But have no fear, just as it happened with porn and the Web, you can bet much of the early applications of wetware or robotics will surely involve sex. DARPA funds research for limb replacement and weapon interface and the sex industry then takes over to make your wishes reality.

Automating power plants and stuff is important too I guess.

[Edit] It is also interesting to note that a skilled sex robot good enough to pass for a human would pretty much render manual labor obsolete.

Yeah, I mean, I planned on also using it as a maid.

[Eddie Teach]

[Edit] It is also interesting to note that a skilled sex robot good enough to pass for a human would pretty much render manual labor obsolete.

[Iormlund]

Heh. There are quite a few flying cars. Which unsurprisingly are forced by the authorities to take off from and land in an airport, so there's not much point in having one. Or are you referring to Hollywood stuff like Back to the Future grav cars?

Anyway. There are predictions that can be made with fair confidence. And when I mean predictions I'm thinking of reasoned, grounded on actual knowledge. Orwell for example knew man well enough to predict governments would try to use technology to put their subjects under surveillance. Guess what, he was right too. And that was what, over sixty years ago?

[Slargos]

Ok grumblund, you win the thread. 

And much like your progenitor, you manage to miss the point completely.

"My nick is Iormlund, not grumblund."

Yeah, you got me there aswell, Iormlund. WELL done.

[Iormlund]

Maybe you simply worded yourself carelessly, but I am really honestly confounded by this type of thinking.

There's no doubt that it is hard right now, but why would you imagine that it is going to be hard in the future? Double entendre unintended.

The rate of progress in robotics implies, on the contrary, that it's going to be easier.

Bad wording I guess.

It'll take a lot getting there. The movement of a real human body is quite hard to replicate, and you'll want it to feel like an actual body part as well. It'll perhaps be easier and cheaper to grow a body with its accompanying motor neural networks. But that might be ethically challenging.

[Razgovory]

Ok grumblund, you win the thread. 

And much like your progenitor, you manage to miss the point completely.

"My nick is Iormlund, not grumblund."

Yeah, you got me there aswell, Iormlund. WELL done.

The point is that you have a poor grasp of how technology works.

[Slargos]

Ok grumblund, you win the thread. 

And much like your progenitor, you manage to miss the point completely.

"My nick is Iormlund, not grumblund."

Yeah, you got me there aswell, Iormlund. WELL done.

The point is that you have a poor grasp of how technology works.

I just realized something. I don't think I've ever seen you actually participate in an actual honest to god discussion. All you've got is your mildly clever snide commentary.

Are you angry because you feel you can't?

[Ideologue]

Maybe you simply worded yourself carelessly, but I am really honestly confounded by this type of thinking.

There's no doubt that it is hard right now, but why would you imagine that it is going to be hard in the future? Double entendre unintended.

The rate of progress in robotics implies, on the contrary, that it's going to be easier.

Bad wording I guess.

It'll take a lot getting there. The movement of a real human body is quite hard to replicate, and you'll want it to feel like an actual body part as well. It'll perhaps be easier and cheaper to grow a body with its accompanying motor neural networks. But that might be ethically challenging.

I don't mind being ethically challenged.

Bring on the sex retards!

[Razgovory]

I just realized something. I don't think I've ever seen you actually participate in an actual honest to god discussion. All you've got is your mildly clever snide commentary.

Are you angry because you feel you can't?

I respond in kind.

[Neil]

Not necessarily.  We're really running into thermodynamic barriers when it comes to computers.

You couldn't wear a computer as an earring because it would use too much power,  and therefore produce too much heat, to be comfortable.

Just use Clan double heat sinks.

[Barrister]

Not necessarily.  We're really running into thermodynamic barriers when it comes to computers.

You couldn't wear a computer as an earring because it would use too much power,  and therefore produce too much heat, to be comfortable.

Just use Clan double heat sinks.

Damn cheesy clan-tech

[Neil]

Not necessarily.  We're really running into thermodynamic barriers when it comes to computers.

You couldn't wear a computer as an earring because it would use too much power,  and therefore produce too much heat, to be comfortable.

Just use Clan double heat sinks.

Damn cheesy clan-tech

See, there were some Clan tech that I could live with, and other that was total munch.  The heat sinks, endosteel and ferrofibrous armour wasn't so bad, but the ER PPC was worse than Hitler.

[Razgovory]

Yeah, I never really got into that.  I enjoyed the PC games made in the1990's, but the minis game.  Meh.