What applications do you see for robotics?

[tbeltrans]

We've already reached the point where computers can generate unique works of art in any style programmed into it, and they're not that bad if all you want is something to hang over the couch. Computers can generate music.

Bleh. I'm glad I'm old. I don't want to live in a computer centered world. And I'm a software engineer!

From what I can determine from various posts, it seems you, asp3, and I are in the same field. I am retired, but do take the occasional short term engineering contract these days. I have always found software engineering interesting, certainly far more interesting than application programming (at least for me). Yes, computers can generate unique works of art, but I still think they have a ways to go to reach the level I was talking about.

We already live in a computer centered world. In hindsight, I am glad the VA steered me to working in computers. I had absolutely no interest, but they gave me some tests and said it would be a good fit. I deal with people in our condo association nearly every day who just can't seem to grasp the concepts they need to get beyond step 1, do this, step 2 do this, etc. To get a grasp of the work flow so they can learn to deal with what they need to get things done, just seems an uphill battle for many. I would probably be in that group too if I had not followed the VA's advice. It would be like not knowing how to drive and therefore being dependent on kindly neighbors for a ride whenever I needed to go where buses don't, or at least on their schedule, or when grocery shopping and carrying bags of groceries on the bus would be impractical. We have a few of those, with several younger folks in that situation, in our condo association too.

Tony

 

[Irwin]

From what I can determine from various posts, it seems you, asp3, and I are in the same field. I am retired, but do take the occasional short term engineering contract these days. I have always found software engineering interesting, certainly far more interesting than application programming (at least for me). Yes, computers can generate unique works of art, but I still think they have a ways to go to reach the level I was talking about.

We already live in a computer centered world. In hindsight, I am glad the VA steered me to working in computers. I had absolutely no interest, but they gave me some tests and said it would be a good fit. I deal with people in our condo association nearly every day who just can't seem to grasp the concepts they need to get beyond step 1, do this, step 2 do this, etc. To get a grasp of the work flow so they can learn to deal with what they need to get things done, just seems an uphill battle for many. I would probably be in that group too if I had not followed the VA's advice. It would be like not knowing how to drive and therefore being dependent on kindly neighbors for a ride whenever I needed to go where buses don't, or at least on their schedule, or when grocery shopping and carrying bags of groceries on the bus would be impractical. We have a few of those, with several younger folks in that situation, in our condo association too.

Tony

At this stage, computers are still just tools we use to do what we want. They're not the end, itself; they're a means to an end.

I watch concerts on YouTube -- mainly from the '70s, which allows me to experience bands that I never got to see -- bands that wouldn't have been anywhere near as good if they had computers for editing or generating tracks, other than real basic stuff that was interesting back then because it was new. Not only can we watch concerts, we can watch interviews with band members.

We can also take virtual tours of art galleries, watch lectures, travel... without getting off the couch! All in high definition! That's a good thing, but there are also some drawbacks in not having to leave the house to do those things. We don't have to interact with anyone else. There are no chance meetings of someone at an art gallery or coffee house you'd stop in on the way. There's no getting lost in an interesting neighborhood that we never knew existed. Of course, we don't have to worry about that, anyway, thanks to our cars' navigation systems.

I watched a video last night of someone analyzing the Beatle's use of polyrhythms in Happiness is a Warm Gun. I never knew what polyrhythms were before. It's possible the Beatles didn't know, either. They might have been just doing what sounded good to them. And how they came up with some of the lyrics for that song -- some of them suggestions from friends. Without computers and the internet, they just observed what was going on around them.

There are probably songwriters today who write about their social media and problems they're having with broadband speed. Bleh. There's nothing even remotely romantic about that. But maybe someday, people will look back fondly on it. There's no telling where we're going with technology. Maybe we'll all lead VR lives and I'll be able to have a drink with Jerry Garcia or jam with him.

Hmmm... That might actually be kind of fun.

 

[Gaer]

Can you imagine what someone from the year 1700, and earlier, would think if they were suddenly transported into today's world....they would probably think they had been transported to another planet. Technology is advancing at such a rapid pace that most of what we take for granted today was unknown 100 years ago. If this pace continues, life in the next century will be totally foreign to what we know today.

The problem humanity will have to face is the obsolesce of People.....and with ever soaring populations, this is going to create conditions of unimaginable chaos...maybe even in the latter years of this century.

Technology has outgrown spirituality, for the present. It will be the sciences which delve into the SOUL and the importance of strong productive thought which will naturally delve into the absolute being. The different phases of humanity rarely move at the same rate.

I should say: IMO.

 

[tbeltrans]

I don't try to predict the future because I honestly don't know where technology, or anything else for that matter, is going years from now. I remember going to computer programming school at night in a 13 month non-degree program back around 1982. This was mainframe territory with Hollerith cards and the whole mainframe bit. I was working as an electronic tech at the time and I wanted to get my hands on computers, which was not the way things were done in the mainframe world where you sit at a terminal and the computer may not even be in the same building. I built my own Z80 based computer from scratch. I brought it to school and showed it to some class mates. Our instructor spent the first 15 or 20 minutes of class that night, telling the class how stupid I was for wasting my time with microprocessors, since these were mere toys that had no future. This is what happens when we try to predict the future. Even though I didn't know much about computers yet then, even I could tell that there was something in that Z80 that would not simply go away.

I met my (future) wife at that school. She sat in front of me, and still gets a laugh out of the event. It wasn't until some years later that I finally got my degree, and that was time well spent.

All through my lifetime, developing technology has had an impact on our day to day lives. I remember in college doing a report for an anthropology class I took on the development of TV dinners and the impact these had on families' eating habits. Without TV, there would have been no need for TV dinners, but since the advent of TV dinners, there was no longer a particular need for families to sit down to dinner together either. Then, the microwave oven came along, and now "eating on the run" became a thing. These are just simple examples of technology that impacted our lives before everybody had access to computers.

I simply don't have that dislike for computers. To me, they are another tool. The Beatles had 4 track tape, the run of the studio that no musician had before then, and they used whatever technology was available to them at the time to create their music. That continues today, whether I particularly like the results or not. The difference now is that we can have more capability in technology in our own homes today for making music than the Beatles had back then. Ho we choose to make use of it (or not) is as much up to us as what the Beatles had available to them back then. As I pointed out in an earlier post in this thread, entire movie soundtracks are made now without the need for ANY studio musicians, yet the soundtrack can be that of a large orchestra and just as dynamic. We all have access to that capability, but without the skills to make use of it, we certainly won't get those kinds of results. Musicians still have to "pay their dues" to develop the skill set needed produce anything worthwhile.

Tony

 

[Aunt Bea]

Some oldman just lost a job…these are popping up in my area.