Non smartphone users of the world unite!

What's a smartphone?

It's a device used to track and control you psychologically whilst making you less engaged with the real world.

And if you are in a high signal area it might also function as a telephone, but not as reliably as a 1960's corded instrument... 

I Sperg said:

It's a device used to track and control you psychologically whilst making you less engaged with the real world

Well said! So few people realise this 

I'm a total waste of air, in reality.

Except when I'm cleaning something or warming up a cat...

Nothing I do, changes anything.

If we get the damn device producing energy, it's iherently dangerous, new technology.

I may yet step away, and concentrate on the cat warming and cleaning.

Yes, I've seen it.....the ultimate ME = looks the same but is COMPLETELY different.  

Well said 

Number said:

my concern is jobs & human executive functioning capabilities and the globalised "systems" that are increasingly run and managed by AI.  We are a "doing" species......we need to be "doing" stuff......and you know what they say about idol hands !!  People need jobs.  People need to feel that they can bring "worth" and that they are "needed" for a useful purpose.  Non-rogue AI taking charge is my concern

I was just reading the story about Georffrey Hinton on the Telegraph a few minutes ago.
I agree, have you ever seen I Robot? I have felt like Will Smith's character in that film for a long time now

You are both - an advanced citizen scientist AND independently minded social commentator.  That's pretty solid !  Congrats on your new title....I find myself curiously unsure as to whether I prefer to think of you as the safety officer....or as the director of FEP.   I don't suppose I care which - just so long as you keep it rolling forward.  I salute you.

yes

out_of_step said:

It's only made life more convenient probably because it's made it more difficult in the first place.

Now that right there, is a fine bit of thinking! 

Around where I live people are taking direct action to destroy 5G infrastructrure.

I've no involvement in this except that I do approve ideologically, but am not firm enough in my belief that  5G is an existential threat to join in the fray, talented as I am when it comes to destruction. 

I do take some pride however, that that our local vandals have the sense to attack the boxes, where all the expensive and hard to replace electricals are. The one at the end of our road looked like godzilla himself had STAMPED on it. 

I remember in the seventies not understanding why people would wreck telephone boxes and bus shelters.

After a few decades of consideration I've come to the conclusion that in the seventies that the working classes realised they were no longer working for their own benefit or for that matter the nations.

Working class people aren't as dumb as some of us like to pretend when taken as a mass, far from it.

Those Seventies "Vandals" realised that our very society and it's institutions and aims were at odds with the well being and comfort of the average British working family at the time, so they "struck" and they broke things, and they organised and at one point in a horribly executed "I'm backing Britain" P.R. campaign, they tried to make it clear what we now call globalisation was doing to our little battered and bruised island culture.

But the TV set crushed them. 

By the time the media had finished painting the populist leaders as cartoon characters  like"Red Robbo" etc. and depicting their very real concerns for the British working man and woman as foppery and mischief we were done for as a Nation. 

Now we live in a post truth society, where people actually consider the telling of truth as a malicious act! (I've been accused of exactly that, here in the fairly recent past) 

I'm now finding that the basic transactions on which we all depend are ALL tainted with dishonesty and partial failure. Promising what you cannot deliver is de-rigeur across the board now such that putting your money in the hands of strangers and expecting them to deliver on their promises is like placing a bet on the horses. If you break even and they don't break your car more than they fix it it, you are WINNING.

But in the background, (and rapidly coming to the fore) our real leaders were planing a society in which you will own NOTHING, and what you are allowed to USE will depend on your "social credit score". 

I for example would not own an almost fully equipped laboratory, in which I can push at the boundaries of science in between episodes of crippling depression, I'd just own the depression, so "fighting the power" is definitely in my best interest, if I only knew how.

In the meantime, since we didn't get any traction with the helium production part, (I'd hoped we'd get some interest leading to funding over that accomplishment) I've stepped down from my position as "safety officer" in our fusion project, where I've spent ten years bending our effort towards the safe production of helium assumed the role of director of the fusion energy production version. 

"Red House"?  William Morris?

I'm guessing in a few years it'll be the new climate change. Humans take millennia to evolve and look at how much the world has changed even in the last ten years. It's only made life more convenient probably because it's made it more difficult in the first place. We could say in an ideal world everything would be automated and we can be leisurely creatures but there is no purpose in that and yes idol hands etc. The worry for me is the influence on the ruling classes and how we will be more and more divided as we won't know what to believe. It's already happening. That and the eradication of culture. Where's the soul in AI generated art. There isn't any. But in 100 years no-one will share that sentiment because everyone will be used to it. I'll see you at The Red House!

Indeed so (kind of).......but the point is, no one particularly wants to......the genie is now out of the bottle.  Those people who don't share my perspectives on these matters would probably say something like "oh, don't be so alarmist.....we can just unplug it if we need to....and in the meanwhile it makes everything so much easier, better, faster, cheaper."

[Disambiguation - I am not concerned that the machines will take over and start killing humans SCI-FI style (although I wouldn't rule out the distant possibility of this)......my concern is jobs & human executive functioning capabilities and the globalised "systems" that are increasingly run and managed by AI.  We are a "doing" species......we need to be "doing" stuff......and you know what they say about idol hands !!  People need jobs.  People need to feel that they can bring "worth" and that they are "needed" for a useful purpose.  Non-rogue AI taking charge is my concern.]

I don't mean to be flippant but what I don't get is why we can't just unplug it. Surely that'll solve everything!

Actually Billy, I think most people do know that.....they just don't care !

I can't understand why people can't see the MASSIVE risks inherent of the infrastructure that enables them.

I'm going to veer slightly into AI now, rather than smart phones specifically - but potato, tomato........

It interests me greatly (but also heightens my anxiety about this issue significantly) that Geoffery Hinton has quit his job in the last 48 hours to concentrate his final years of life (he's 75) on WARNING EVERYBODY about where AI is taking us.  I do wish that people would wake up.  How many more specialists in the field do people need to hear from before they wake up to the issue.  Its a BIG issue !

I have felt like Noah on this issue for many years (certainly since 2007) warning of the catastrophic flood that IS coming........no one has been listening......and no one seems to care....not even now ?!

Autistic people are known for being catastrophisers.........but catastrophisers and autistic people do get things right at a different pace to everyone else !!

Actually Billy, I think most people do know that.....they just don't care !

I can't understand why people can't see the MASSIVE risks inherent of the infrastructure that enables them.

I'm going to veer slightly into AI now, rather than smart phones specifically - but potato, tomato........

It interests me greatly (but also heightens my anxiety about this issue significantly) that Geoffery Hinton has quit his job in the last 48 hours to concentrate his final years of life (he's 75) on WARNING EVERYBODY about where AI is taking us.  I do wish that people would wake up.  How many more specialists in the field do people need to hear from before they wake up to the issue.  Its a BIG issue !

I have felt like Noah on this issue for many years (certainly since 2007) warning of the catastrophic flood that IS coming........no one has been listening......and no one seems to care....not even now ?!

Autistic people are known for being catastrophisers.........but catastrophisers and autistic people do get things right at a different pace to everyone else !!

I'm a total waste of air, in reality.

Except when I'm cleaning something or warming up a cat...

Nothing I do, changes anything.

If we get the damn device producing energy, it's iherently dangerous, new technology.

I may yet step away, and concentrate on the cat warming and cleaning.

Yes, I've seen it.....the ultimate ME = looks the same but is COMPLETELY different.  

Well said 

Number said:

my concern is jobs & human executive functioning capabilities and the globalised "systems" that are increasingly run and managed by AI.  We are a "doing" species......we need to be "doing" stuff......and you know what they say about idol hands !!  People need jobs.  People need to feel that they can bring "worth" and that they are "needed" for a useful purpose.  Non-rogue AI taking charge is my concern

I was just reading the story about Georffrey Hinton on the Telegraph a few minutes ago.
I agree, have you ever seen I Robot? I have felt like Will Smith's character in that film for a long time now

You are both - an advanced citizen scientist AND independently minded social commentator.  That's pretty solid !  Congrats on your new title....I find myself curiously unsure as to whether I prefer to think of you as the safety officer....or as the director of FEP.   I don't suppose I care which - just so long as you keep it rolling forward.  I salute you.

yes

out_of_step said:

It's only made life more convenient probably because it's made it more difficult in the first place.

Now that right there, is a fine bit of thinking! 

Around where I live people are taking direct action to destroy 5G infrastructrure.

I've no involvement in this except that I do approve ideologically, but am not firm enough in my belief that  5G is an existential threat to join in the fray, talented as I am when it comes to destruction. 

I do take some pride however, that that our local vandals have the sense to attack the boxes, where all the expensive and hard to replace electricals are. The one at the end of our road looked like godzilla himself had STAMPED on it. 

I remember in the seventies not understanding why people would wreck telephone boxes and bus shelters.

After a few decades of consideration I've come to the conclusion that in the seventies that the working classes realised they were no longer working for their own benefit or for that matter the nations.

Working class people aren't as dumb as some of us like to pretend when taken as a mass, far from it.

Those Seventies "Vandals" realised that our very society and it's institutions and aims were at odds with the well being and comfort of the average British working family at the time, so they "struck" and they broke things, and they organised and at one point in a horribly executed "I'm backing Britain" P.R. campaign, they tried to make it clear what we now call globalisation was doing to our little battered and bruised island culture.

But the TV set crushed them. 

By the time the media had finished painting the populist leaders as cartoon characters  like"Red Robbo" etc. and depicting their very real concerns for the British working man and woman as foppery and mischief we were done for as a Nation. 

Now we live in a post truth society, where people actually consider the telling of truth as a malicious act! (I've been accused of exactly that, here in the fairly recent past) 

I'm now finding that the basic transactions on which we all depend are ALL tainted with dishonesty and partial failure. Promising what you cannot deliver is de-rigeur across the board now such that putting your money in the hands of strangers and expecting them to deliver on their promises is like placing a bet on the horses. If you break even and they don't break your car more than they fix it it, you are WINNING.

But in the background, (and rapidly coming to the fore) our real leaders were planing a society in which you will own NOTHING, and what you are allowed to USE will depend on your "social credit score". 

I for example would not own an almost fully equipped laboratory, in which I can push at the boundaries of science in between episodes of crippling depression, I'd just own the depression, so "fighting the power" is definitely in my best interest, if I only knew how.

In the meantime, since we didn't get any traction with the helium production part, (I'd hoped we'd get some interest leading to funding over that accomplishment) I've stepped down from my position as "safety officer" in our fusion project, where I've spent ten years bending our effort towards the safe production of helium assumed the role of director of the fusion energy production version. 

"Red House"?  William Morris?

I'm guessing in a few years it'll be the new climate change. Humans take millennia to evolve and look at how much the world has changed even in the last ten years. It's only made life more convenient probably because it's made it more difficult in the first place. We could say in an ideal world everything would be automated and we can be leisurely creatures but there is no purpose in that and yes idol hands etc. The worry for me is the influence on the ruling classes and how we will be more and more divided as we won't know what to believe. It's already happening. That and the eradication of culture. Where's the soul in AI generated art. There isn't any. But in 100 years no-one will share that sentiment because everyone will be used to it. I'll see you at The Red House!

Indeed so (kind of).......but the point is, no one particularly wants to......the genie is now out of the bottle.  Those people who don't share my perspectives on these matters would probably say something like "oh, don't be so alarmist.....we can just unplug it if we need to....and in the meanwhile it makes everything so much easier, better, faster, cheaper."

[Disambiguation - I am not concerned that the machines will take over and start killing humans SCI-FI style (although I wouldn't rule out the distant possibility of this)......my concern is jobs & human executive functioning capabilities and the globalised "systems" that are increasingly run and managed by AI.  We are a "doing" species......we need to be "doing" stuff......and you know what they say about idol hands !!  People need jobs.  People need to feel that they can bring "worth" and that they are "needed" for a useful purpose.  Non-rogue AI taking charge is my concern.]

I don't mean to be flippant but what I don't get is why we can't just unplug it. Surely that'll solve everything!