lukadjo

Hello there 👋

I mostly share/reshare/rebug stuff.

I share/reshare/rebug more art than I do here at @lukadjo-art-i-like


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pnictogen-wing
@pnictogen-wing

A week or two ago, I was talking with @cathoderaydude about...well, a lot of things, but one of the topics was whether it's even possible to imagine a new major technological device. Is it really possible that we already have versions—nonideal ones, maybe, but still—of every machine that's needed to fulfill all human needs?

I'm reminded of the wilful futility inherent in the promise of Elon Musk's "hyperloop" and other such outlandish high-tech projects that are intended to come up with a cooler and sparklier (and more exclusive) solution to a solved problem, which is that of furnishing cities with high-speed and high-capacity means of transportation. Trains already exist; shouldn't we be building more of them, rather than trying to invent something that's more fashionable in the eyes of corporate executives?

I'm not so certain about this. Partly it's because I'm crazy, but also I've read Phil Dick (who was also crazy), who had at least a couple of ideas about how humanity might develop unexpected new needs, prompting new technological developments. Meeting an alien civilization, for example, would undoubtedly prompt such development. But there's a more down-to-Earth possibility that also features in some Phil Dick stories, and that's the possibility of a new religious movement spurring the production of unique new technology—I have here in mind the Mercerists' empathy boxes.

I guarantee this much: if some totally new type of device appears in human technology and becomes the next "killer [whatever]" that absolutely everyone needs to own, then it won't be anything obvious, it'll probably be nothing I could ever think up myself without seeing it first, and we'll all be kicking ourselves afterwards for not noticing the technological niche existed until it was filled.

~Chara


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