- Leslie Bachert
- Rocher De Naye
- Switzerland
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Is our species past relevant to the technology of tomorrow?
In your opinion, is there any more to gain from learning more about our species, culture or social behaviors from past civilizations that would enable us to change or alter technology today? If yes, explain...
Scott Armstrong 50+
I'm advocating all of them. The trend towards thinking, speaking and acting like machines is getting a bit tired for me. I don't believe the next "generation" of "smart" devices has anything to offer other than distraction and profiteering.
Leslie Bachert
Therefore, our looking around at the past, forever and a day, will not advance future technology in my opinion. Let's put our funding where it really counts. Who needs to know how the King once reigned and how many slaves he had and who his favorite woman was, etc.. Enough is enough on that subject and trying to understand the past social behavior of man. We know we had dinosaurs and ape-like hairy man with a bulging head, and he evolved. It will never prove a creation. It's not here to be found. It's out there!
Scott Armstrong 50+
you're still talking about toys. just big toys. none of the measuring of the universe carried out so devoutly by scienticians helps with coming to terms with the human experience.
at best, it helps us pigeon-hole what we see and allows people to imagine that we have control/understanding of our plight.
but the latest map of the universe looks cool.
Scott Armstrong 50+
Leslie Bachert
Scott Armstrong 50+
aside from some obvious improvements brought about through our advancing technology, most modern tech is now part of the rampant consumerism raging through the global village and in fact, does little in the way of anything special other than "advance" convenience.
now that I've given it some thought, I would answer your question by saying technology needs a spiritual element or at least help enable us to get in touch with our own identity. I'm not convinced there's an App for that. :)
10 machines get better
20 machines get better as one
30 people go around
40 and around
50 goto 10
Leslie Bachert
I don't think we could excavate anything from our past that would assist in altering the course or enhance the future of technology, nor prove our creation, at least not on this planet. Perhaps in the far reaches of the universe....but, surely not by digging up our past here.
There is an App for that.... http://www.nasa.gov/connect/apps.html ;~)
W. Ying 10+
.
Yes!
Because of our entire DNA is composed of past.
Allan Macdougall 50+
An interesting conversation (just ended) hosted by Michael Rose about bullying and the possible links towards TV reality shows/children's behaviour, I'm sure has similar threads to your question:
http://www.ted.com/conversations/17040/how_can_we_help_to_prevent_bul.html
I tried to put some links up in that conversation about the anthropological work of Jared Diamond - but the conversation closed before I could do so. His excellent work in studying traditional societies in Papua New Guinea shows there is much we can learn from them about how we westerners bring our children up and how we treat older people in our society - and that happiness is not necessarily linked to sophisticated technology:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/11/traditional-family-values-without-smacking
and:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/jan/06/jared-diamond-tribal-life-anthropology
If the technology of the future enhances civilization and the lives of end-users, then it has relevance. If it is used for any other insidious purpose such as social engineering, then it does not.
Civilization should develop on a human framework - not a technological one. For that, science and technology should develop likewise if we are to evolve - rather than devolve into the redundant, underemployed subservience in an out-of-control technocracy.
Leslie Bachert
Leo Taylor
This might help us learn more about us, what is at our core, and help guide us to technology that will affect specific attributes. We certainly see collaboration in the gaming world on the level that it would have taken to build the pyramids, or the walls of Babylon. Online transparency curbs our social inhibitions, while avatars allow us to be less inhibited..... How did we do that in the past? Was it available? Is it new? I doubt it, but the technology has certainly made it a lot more obvious that those attributes exist in many of us.... and that is merely one example
Leslie Bachert
gale kooser 20+
Seamus McGrenery
In my opinion we are a species of apes who have developed a second evolutionary channel. This second channel works by passing advantage to our offspring in ways other than through changes to our bodies. It is the cumulative effect of those changes, and the conditions needed to sustain their passing through generations, which has shaped our world.
The technology of tomorrow will be shaped by that same process, so they more we understand the past the better our technology will be.
This conversation is enabled by system of networked computers. The idea for the computer came from a mathematical problem set by a previous generation. This idea was made physical, in part using relays from telephone systems, so the idea of networking computers also has a history.
The written language we are using has a history, and there seems to be evidence that the way we use language shapes the way we think about the world.
The concept that sharing and discussing ideas also has a history. That history has many instances of conflict between openness to new ideas and sustaining the dominant culture.
Our understanding of our own origins is sketchy to say the least. Who knows what insights we will gain by studying it more, and who knows where those insights will lead.
Leslie Bachert
Farokh Shahabi Nezhad 10+
History teach us how to react on future occasions, How to not repeat our mistake and learn from others experiences.
Lots of our problems are just differently shaped problems of pasts.