My random thoughts

[funkervogt]

One danger of having all or most humans living in Matrix-like FIVR is that it would be possible to trap them inside permanently by simulating "real reality" during the periods when they chose to leave their Matrix pods. For example, let's say you've spent a whole week playing in the Matrix, and you want to spend a few days in the real world for a change of pace. Whoever is running the Matrix could secretly create a "Real World Simulation" and the moment you gave the order to be unplugged from the Matrix, your Matrix simulation would seamlessly switch to the Real World Simulation. To you, it would seem as if you were opening the door of your Matrix pod, pulling the plug out of the back of your head, standing up on your wobbly feet, and walking around your physical home, but in actuality, you'd still be laying in the Matrix pod and only experiencing those things in your mind.

[funkervogt]

I just watched the movie The Edge. It's not bad, and of course it got me thinking about futurism. In it, a small plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, and the two survivors have to walk back to civilization. On the way, they have to contend with nature and each other.

If the men were posthumans or intelligent machines, things would have been much easier for them. First, they would know the cardinal directions at all times and with high accuracy, thanks to internal compasses or advanced ways to deducing the directions by the sun's movements and star constellations. They would also have memorized maps of the area, either by downloading them before leaving on the plane trip, or by looking out the window during the plane flight to mentally compile maps. The survivors would have quickly realized what the best walking route was back to civilization, and they would have followed it without deviation.

Second, if they needed food for energy, they would have had a much better knowledge of which plants were edible, and they would have been able to easily kill animals by simply throwing rocks at them with superhuman force and accuracy.

Third, posthumans/machines wouldn't have been so deviled by the grizzly bear that stalked the survivors in the film. Due to heightened senses, future people would have detected the bear at much longer distances and been able to avoid it or ambush it. There would not have been instances where the bear sneaked up on them.

[funkervogt]

I'm looking forward to computer algorithms being able to generate new architectural styles, complete buildings, and city plans. Imagine a petro-dictator using his money to build an AI-generated capitol city that was more beautiful than Paris.

[funkervogt]

Imagine how demoralizing it would be if a villain created a mind upload of someone you loved, then they killed the actual person, and the upload was under the villain's control. It would do and say whatever they wanted.

[FloydWhite]

I've long believed that the English language has to be altered to make it more understandable and reasonable. Words should be phonetically spelled, irregular verbs should be made regular, and grammar rules should be made simpler and more consistent. In addition, I believe the alphabet should be modified such that each English phoneme has its own letter. This would need the development of a 44-letter alphabet. It's possible that some of the new letters are simply other letters with similar sounds that have accent marks added to them.

[funkervogt]

My argument against the possibility that I'm just an NPC in a computer simulation is that I know for a fact I have emotions, an inner world, and metacognition. If anything, I am a player in the simulation, and some fraction of the "people" I encounter are the NPCs.

However, I've recently stumbled on a disturbing alternative. Maybe I am an NPC, and my emotions, inner world, and metacognition are, in fact, very dull imitations of the real things. If an actual person could jump in my mind and experience the world as I do, it would be terribly limiting, like going from color vision to black-and-white vision. My "mind programming" is sufficient to generate the appropriate behaviors in response to given stimuli, so I'm an NPC that behaves realistically within the simulation. In the same way, the enemy ghost characters in "Pac-Man" display the same level of skill as the human player within the game.

[funkervogt]

I've long thought that the Americans born in 2000 were the last cohort whose "average intelligence, average work-ethic" members could expect to have the traditional career arc of reasonably short training in early adulthood, working at a small number of institutions thereafter, and then a comfortable retirement at age 65. Competition from foreign workers and machines will steadily reduce the share of each cohort that can have that good outcome or better each year thereafter.

[funkervogt]

It's possible to raise an existing house up and to build stilts underneath it. This could be an excellent way to adapt to rising sea levels in coastal areas.

[funkervogt]

If AI takes all our jobs, then in the long run, there will be no wealth or income inequality between humans.

If humans then revert to living in Matrix simulations catered to their individual tastes, there will be no crime or incivility since they won't interact with each other anymore. Each person will only be dealing with NPCs.

The foundations of racism, sexism, and grievances based on religion, ethnicity, and nationality will disappear. After a few generations, humans won't remember what the problem was.

[funkervogt]

Something you won't see often in VR is vehicles. If people and objects can Iinstantly teleport anywhere in a VR world, who needs cars, delivery trucks, planes, ships, or trains?

[funkervogt]

The lack of drones dates the movie District 9.

[funkervogt]

In the future, if you have a low social credit rating and are likelier to trash the inside of an autonomous taxi, the only taxis that will let you in will be those with hard seats and vinyl floors that can be sprayed down and thick windows that can't be broken. Public buses already have the first two features.

[funkervogt]

Once asteroid mining techniques become more advanced, the first step in the process will involve enclosing an asteroid in something like a mini Dyson Sphere. The Sphere's subcomponents would be satellite "panels" shaped like flat, equilateral triangles or flat hexagons. They would join with each other along their edges to encircle and enclose the asteroid.

Then, other machines with drills, explosive charges, and other types of devices would arrive and would be able to enter the Sphere thanks to one of the panels swiveling open like a big door. They would get to work breaking down the rock. The Sphere would keep any debris from escaping into space, which would not only reduce industrial waste, but also keep our Solar System from being cluttered with even more objects that could be collision hazards for other space ships. This process would resemble an amoeba engulfing a food particle and then digesting it.

When a load of processed metal was ready, the "door" would open again, allowing it to exit the Sphere and to meet a waiting cargo ship. Once the whole asteroid had been consumed, the Sphere would disassemble back into its satellite components, which would drift to their next destination(s) to help break down more asteroids.

[funkervogt]

Androids will be so fast, agile and observant that they'll be able to dodge, deflect or catch any objects you throw at them.

[funkervogt]

Shutting down an AGI wouldn't be the same as "murder" if it were possible to reactivate the AGI, with no memory loss. From the AGI's perspective, the shutdown period would seem like a period of dreamless sleep.

If reversibly shutting down an AGI were a crime, it would most closely parallel knocking a human unconscious.

[funkervogt]

"Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.“

-Spinoza

This implies that AGIs should, thanks to their lack of emotions, have more free will than humans.

[wjfox]

Androids will be so fast, agile and observant that they'll be able to dodge, deflect or catch any objects you throw at them.

What if you threw a cluster of multiple objects? Possibly some of unknown function/risk. How would they decide which to avoid or catch?

[funkervogt]

Then you would have some chance of hitting one of them, but remember your own accuracy will drop as the number of objects you throw increases.

[funkervogt]

Imagine if AI started mass murdering humans, but to copy our souls to an afterlife.

[ººº]

Imagine if AI started mass murdering humans, but to copy our souls to an afterlife.

That's a good plot, I wonder if there is a work based on it.