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:::—Venkatesh Rao, ''The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial'' (2017)<ref>You should really read this, which you can do [https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-life-of-maya-millennial/ here]</ref> | :::—Venkatesh Rao, ''The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial'' (2017)<ref>You should really read this, which you can do [https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-life-of-maya-millennial/ here]</ref> | ||
===What is new about technology=== | ===What is new about technology=== | ||
{{Author|Ray Kurzweil}} will tell you we are at an inflection point where our technology is so good, and developing so quickly, it is about to become self-aware. Not only that, the ''universe itself'' is about to wake up and become self aware.<ref>See {{br|The Singularity is Near}}. Now there is [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632800-900-is-the-universe-conscious-it-seems-impossible-until-you-do-the-maths/ a view that the universe is ''already'' self aware], only it operates at level of abstraction so far above our own mortal plane that we can’t see it — we are to its consciousness as our brain’s individual neurons are to ''our'' consciousness — and this idea has force (even if it ios a shade unfalsifiable). But that is not what Kurzweil is saying.</ref> | {{Author|Ray Kurzweil}} will tell you we are at an inflection point where our technology is so good, and developing so quickly, it is about to become self-aware. Not only that, the ''universe itself'' is about to wake up and become self aware.<ref>See {{br|The Singularity is Near}}. Now there is [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632800-900-is-the-universe-conscious-it-seems-impossible-until-you-do-the-maths/ a view that the universe is ''already'' self aware], only it operates at level of abstraction so far above our own mortal plane that we can’t see it — we are to its consciousness as our brain’s individual neurons are to ''our'' consciousness — and this idea has force (even if it ios a shade unfalsifiable). But that is not what Kurzweil is saying.</ref> Now that particular cup of Kool-Aid hasn’t made it to the [[JC]] yet — it seems to be going the other way around the circle as a matter of fact — so set him old forth on what ''he'' knows, and that is this: the startling developments in technology in the last forty years hail from three interconnected places: | ||
*'''[[The analogue/digital transformation]]''': The discovery that information can be abstracted from the [[substrate]] in which it is usually embedded, so that data can be transferred from place to place ''without'' being buried in an analog medium of some kind. You can send a letter without any paper. | |||
*'''Moore’s law''': Now we have liberated data from its substrate, we need the kit to process it. This finally came good when the vacuum tube gave way to the transistor. Transistors suddenly got better, fast. Moore’s law documents an exponential increase in processing power, and decrease in size and cost of processors themselves — though one which seems to be reaching its logical limit; | |||
*'''The network effect''': The exponential increase in our own digital inter-connectivity. Data is finally free of its mortal shackles, and we have the machines to crunch it, and now we can move it frictionlessly from place to place, anywhere on the globe. | |||
Any one of these developments is powerful, but when the three work together the results are revolutionary. The analogue/digital transformation commenced as long ago as the [[Jacquard loom]] in 1804. Moore’s law has been a thing since before Gordon Moore first noticed it in 1965. The internet — a global network of interconnected computers, used mainly by the military industrial complex<ref>See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet Wikipedia] for more.</ref> — became a public thing when Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989. Then suddenly we were cooking with gas | |||
But note: all of these things are ''hardware'' developments. They make software possible and worthwhile, but this is all about the kit. | |||
===Why is reg tech so disappointing?=== | ===Why is reg tech so disappointing?=== | ||