Technology's Future Psychological Impact

[KeysrSoze]

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Obviously technology will turn us into unsociable blithering idiots as its major end conciously or subconciously has always been the creation of an anatomically correct sex robot available en masse for masturbation purposes. We have almost reached the zenith.


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Yeah, exactly. Star Trek, for instance, is really off-base. If humanity had ready access to replicators and holo-decks there sure would be less of that whizzing about the galaxy that the show depicts. Hmmm, go on risky exploration missions to study boring gaseous anomalies light years away, or stay in my virtual heaven banging super-models for the rest of my life? Tough decision. I think Ian Banks "the Culture" series hints at this some: 99.99% of the population would be shut-ins letting automated systems run things, leaving a handfull of non-conformist misfits to muck about on starships and such. Of course, the "not satisfied with fake reality" gene is going to be selected and prosper after a few generations to counter this.

[peritonlogon]

Star Trek also has this odd notion that in the future everyone will have productive hobbies like playing in a string quartet or doing biology experiments, have no desire to accumulate things or power, go around do-gooding and genrally live in a happy, productive, and well informed Marxist society.

[KeysrSoze]

Marxist? Really? Maybe Stalinist, but from my view it looks more like classical fascism. From wikipedia, characteristics of fascism are
1) a very high degree of nationalism
we all know how how they like to pontificate about how great their Federation is and is the height of human achievement and all. Their prime directive itself views pre-warp societies as primitive and beneath them, deserving no aid.

2) centralized control of private enterprise
Starfleet seems to run everything. They control energy production and land aquisition at least, the only thing that matters in an free-energy economy.

and, after it attains political control of a country, involves 3) a powerful, dictatorial state that views the nation as superior to the individuals or groups composing it.
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few"

It might look Marxist because with anti-matter and replicators theres really no need for hard currency, but the state still sticks its nose in everyones business and controls the capital of the future economy, and it certainly isn't a classless society (even lowly ensigns are gods among men and are shagging Ashley Judd). Anyway, fascism and modern communism are just two sides of the same authoritarian coin.

[BluffTHIS!]

I was cathing up on my magazine reading today, and in the latest issue of PC Mag there was a reader letter repsonding to a writer bemoaning the fact that most computer users really didn't understand how their computers worked or how to maintain them and protect them security wise I assume. But he used the analogy that someone who buys a new car might not understand the difference between carbuerization and fuel injection, but he doesn't really care because that doesn't matter to his use of it.

I think that will always be the attitude of the majority of people toward everyday technological products they use. Of course a better understanding would allow them to get a higher level of use in many cases, and also to spot the early signs of malfunctions which could get much worse.

[andyfox]

Seems David is asking what the psychological effect will be on the 5% who have a cursory knowledge of how the then-current technology works and/or the smaller percentage that have a hope of understanding the underlying principles.

I suppose it will be the same as it's been throughout history. Those who think they know more than others, and that the others will never be smart enough to hope to know what they (the smart ones) know, will look down on the dummies, and think that their smartness means that they can do anything better than the less smart. Indeed, they can, in the sense that, as David has pointed out, smarter people, all other things being equal, will do a better job at anything.

But if the gap between the knowledge of the smart and the lack of knowledge of the less smart widens, and the smart realize this, there may be a psychological hubris that causes the smart to forget that not everything is equal and that they cannot simply apply their smartness to all areas or situations without care and deep thought.

[Goodnews]

The effect is simply an angrier, meaner IT technicians cursing the 95% of the populace. Ironically, these 95% are to be thanked for giving the IT guys employment.

FWIW this trend is nothing new, in fact it is the natural cycle of any technology. A search on Technoology S-Curves will lead to a realization that many engineers and inventors rarely make the jump from old to new technology since many have invested much time into being an expert at their chosen field.

[Shandrax]

The future will be a repetition of the past. Around 1900 technology was advancing at such rapid speed that it changed everyone's live and made them jobless. People were either rich or extremely poor. Then came the war....

It will be just like that. Technology will take over in all areas and push people out of their jobs. They will be poor, there will be revolutions or at least the attempt of it. In the end the USA and China will fight a nuclear war over world trade, price dumping and the last resources.

Hopefully we will be all dead by then, so we don't have to go through this apocalypse.