A review of the future, as it is available today:

[flamingsword]

Science is changing every aspect of our lives, from what we eat to how we cook it, parenting to child development to our own personal development. If facebook has changed how we relate to our friends, what about the emerging technologies that are changing how we relate to ourselves? The structures of our society are shifting over to new paradigms as the ease of communication increases and the cost of biological technologies steadily decreases. Last century's technology and the worldview that its use brought about are being replaced.

I saw the first episode of Mad Men a few weeks ago. Our lives must be damn near incomprehensible to that generation, but it didn't really hit me how much context difference they had been working with until one of the characters had a throwaway line about how there weren't magical machines that could make exact copies of a report. Now Xerox machines are so common we don't even consider them technology. Copiers are largely obsolete now that so much data processing is paperless. What must our world be like for them, to have had the world slowly rewritten as they were trying to navigate it? I understand my grandmother's disorientation and paranoia a lot better now.

The informational shape of our world is vastly different from theirs, and if there is no intervening cataclysm then by the time I am old, we will have more robots than we have cars, our cars will be able to drive themselves, we can have mobile phones that boost our memory retention implanted in our heads, wireless power and phone service worldwide; we will be able to breathe underwater, and our grandchildren will probably all be technologically enhanced.

And I, for one, welcome our cyborg grandchildren.

When we get implanted chipware, we won't need external physical representations of the past to spark our memories. We'll just set our neurochip playlist function on random and have our lives flash before our eyes all the time. Or whenever we're bored, which I hear for some people is not that often.

We'll be able to go back over our memories and own ourselves in a way that is alien to everyone who doesn't have an eidetic memory. We'll be able to relive experiences more fully, never forget the name of who we're talking to, and always have a dozen cheat sheets available on the wireless internet connection in our brains. It'll be like playing in god mode (with interesting possibilities for 1UP mushrooms).

Comments

[jslorentz.livejournal.com]

But so far technology has been masterful at moving obliquely to our expectations. Things the generations past felt were certainly not far away have yet to materialize, while others have effortlessly redefined our lives.

I had never thought about augmented memory as a way of recording and reliving the past, but that is exactly how I would use it, and I'm certain I would do so to my detriment. When I'm feeling a bit lonely or missing someone who is no longer in my life, it's already hard for me not to dwell a little too long on knickknacks, photos, and memories. I remember ten years ago a comedian saying that once VR allowed any man to have sex with Claudia Schiffer, we would know new realms of addiction, but for me the much larger threat would be VTT--Virtual Time Travel. My memory is already too good at that.

Thanks for the food for thought. I am now thoroughly ambivalent about the future of technology! ;)

[flamingsword.livejournal.com]

But how much easier will socializing and making new memories be when you have external recording of memory that you can't distort and can replay without fade? You can go back over a situation to understand why another person is upset, and own your actions more objectively. You could learn more from the sharper memories than you would from the same experience without the technology.

Addiction (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1928990,00.html) immunization (http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-01/synthetic-alcohol-gives-drinkers-pleasant-buzz-without-hangover-addiction) is one of the medical technologies currently in the works. It'll take another 8 to 10 years to get the vaccine effective and them apply that to the rest of the major drug addictions. But as our computer modeling of the brain becomes more accurate (through technology!) we'll be more aware and better able to deal with reward centers and addictive behavior.

[jslorentz.livejournal.com]

Not easier at all. I fear I would be the kind of person who replays such conversations long after I've won the battle and lost the connection.

As soon as I understand a situation (such as conflict between my motivations and someone else's), all frustration leaves me, but others will seek it out and hold an iron grip on being right, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. I invest a lot of time in understanding other people's perspectives, even after the fact, but that only does so much good against people who will not, themselves, recognize that perspectives vary.

I've learned that it's not enough to have a good memory (not that mine is perfect). I've entered discussions/arguments with all the data I needed to prove my point, only to be eviscerated because the other person interpreted specific words or actions very differently. If anything, this could lead to some people not investing so much in communication and understanding, confident in their ability to prove how right they are at any given moment and using that to justify not bothering to learn.

But again, thanks for the food for thought. This hinges with some other stuff bouncing around my head right now.

Addiction immunization... hmmm... I'm a fan of treatment for addictions, and I do believe everyone should have the right to do anything they want to their bodies so long as no one else is endangered, but I can't say I'm enthusiastic about it. It's a pretty strong personal conviction to experience life as naturally as possible.

[jslorentz.livejournal.com]

BUT! Considering how few technologies function quite the way we anticipate, I could totally see people getting tired of recording their lives (like how little people use video chat), but applying such technology for study, download of information, and OHOHOHIWOULDLOVETHIS: direct mental transcription!

OK, I'm on board. :D

[kadairk.livejournal.com]

But ... we aren't gods. Thus, we should not function in god mode.

Of course, I spent yesterday fasting from the internet. I'm something of a Luddite, when you get down to it.

[sushi-slave.livejournal.com]

"If facebook has changed how we relate to our friends, what about the emerging technologies that are changing how we relate to ourselves?"... and what would those be?

PS, Huzzah for Cyborg grandchildren!