All I know is that it was much bigger and less capable than my current computer. But – then again – it wasn’t designed to monopolize and commoditize my attention.
In summary: bigger, slower, less capable, but less sinister.
The state of the modern world. Increasingly, I feel humanity has jumped the shark.
Years ago, I heard someone wise use the term “information inflation” to describe the fact that we were so awash in information that each piece of information became virtually valueless. [Not to mention that with so much information it becomes harder to distinguish quality information from junk information or quasi-information.] I think we are now treading water in an ocean of [mostly shit] information and quasi-information, and the exhaustion is setting in.
This makes people crave simplicity, which would be great except that we often try to simplify the complexities that must be accepted to have a bit of tolerance and humility.
[The one thing I learned in years of education involving policy is whenever anyone says, “This problem would be so easy to fix, all you’ve got to do is ____________.” that person has no idea what he is talking about and is completely blind to the challenges, complexities, feedback effects, and externalities of the issue at hand.]
As nuclear weapons may yet be the death of us all, they would be a sound candidate. But I think it’s utter fantasy to think that a possible technology can be anything more than delayed. Besides, once GAI (general artificial intelligence) starts freeballing it’ll inevitably stumble onto a mode of death that makes the H-bomb look like a caveman’s campfire by comparison.
Blenders. They’re loud, annoying sounding, and we have both liquid and solid foods — there is no cause for liquifying solid foods.
Plus, I’m fond of all ten fingers.
How do you manage screen time for yourself?
Keep moving. One can’t be zombified by the machine when one is swimming, running, or otherwise getting a move on.
What will your life be like in three years?
I have no idea. That’s the beauty of life, and the curse of living during period in which technology will soon grow completely beyond our control. Life might be an ever-better version of what it is now, or I might be living in a cave trying to stay out of the way of the war between Skynet and our would-be Alien overlords. Or I might be farming in a world that has EMP’d itself back to the Stone Age to avoid being overtaken by technology. Nothing is certain but that change will come.
What are your favorite websites?
I fall down the YouTube rabbit hole more than I’d like to admit.
Nothing. My philosophy is that if I need technology to function flawlessly every second to keep me alive, I don’t need to be in that place.
What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?
At this point, it would need to be something AI / robots won’t possibly be able to do better, faster, cheaper in the near term. This leaves jobs for which one’s humanity is a central part of the job. Unfortunately, I suck at many aspects of being a human. Maybe I’ll become a robot and beat them at their own game.
Your life without a computer:
what does it look like?
I imagine like it does when I go on long hikes, and have no access to computer or internet. i.e. Mostly blissful with the occasional bleak thought that the world might be ending without one’s awareness.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 