Grex Cyberpunk Conference

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Grex Cyberpunk Item 2: The future a bright shiny toy?
Entered by raven on Fri Jun 10 04:29:58 UTC 1994:

        How close are we to the cyberpunk future portrayed in novels like
Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Synners, etc? How does a wireless mb/sec modem,
walkman style power pc, and lcd glasses sound to you? Will privacy become
obsolete? Will there be an ecological catastrophy? Will we learn to surf
entropy? Who knows, I don't... Please tell me if you know better.

17 responses total.

#1 of 17 by matts on Mon Jun 20 00:12:39 1994:

Technology will eventually overwhelm average society.  It will take an 
effect more profound than the industrial revolution, or even the advancment
from the stone age, to the bronze age.
Things beyond your wildest modern dreams will be reality in just a few years.
Things are getting smaller, and getting more powerfull.  And this will
stop only when civilization ends.  ANd it will be soon.

#2 of 17 by dang on Fri Jun 24 17:43:01 1994:

!pico
oh well, that didn't work.  anyway, the neuromancer age is still
well the the future.  it isn't computer tech. that is holding us back,
but physiology and understanding of the brain.  however, virtual reality
may approach those standards in the near future.  
re#1:  that sounds like heaven.  just one question.  what about data
entry?

#3 of 17 by raven on Fri Sep 9 16:54:37 1994:

        Data entry with a virtual keyboard, type into the air. Ofcourse a lot
of the "data" entered will probably be video and sound at that point so bye,
bye need for a keyboard.

#4 of 17 by orinoco on Wed Oct 5 23:14:17 1994:

motion sensors on your fingers, and on your goggles, to transmit info
about your position will be *de rigeur* of course.

#5 of 17 by peacefrg on Thu Nov 10 18:22:26 1994:

The way that technology and government are unfolding right now. I think that
we'll be coming up on a brave nerw world or 1984 a lot sooner than people
think. The dark future is on its way!!!

#6 of 17 by jg on Sat Nov 19 01:18:14 1994:

From an idealogical perspective, I believe that you cannot get caught up 
in the hardware.  Think instead how people will use instead of choose their
weapons.  What does that mean?  Well, it means simply the person that discovers
the application is eons ahead of the person who invented the tool.
-ME

#7 of 17 by raven on Sat Nov 19 01:51:06 1994:

        re # 6 I agree.  It seems like we are exhaulting the people that
invent the tools way too much.  Afterall it's not the paint brush that's
important, but the painting that is produced.

#8 of 17 by other on Thu Dec 22 18:06:58 1994:

Data entry is almost obsolete already with the advancement of OCR (optical
character recognition) software for scanners.  The post office has been using
OCR for years to automatically read and route mail by the zip codes.

#9 of 17 by randall on Fri Dec 23 01:46:29 1994:

Isn't "obsolete", even with the almost qualifier, a bit exaggerative?

#10 of 17 by breathe on Sat Sep 27 21:06:33 1997:

Everything will become obsolete! Everything! Look at 500 years ago: everyone
believe in spontaineous generation, the ptolomeic view of the solar system,
etc.  Now we laugh at them.  We even laugh at the scientists who believed the
atom was shaped like a custard (wasn't that it?)  Look, in 500 years from now
people will laugh at us for using computers, using paper (from trees! Can you
believe that???) believing in photons, evolution and the "fact" that the earth
was formed 5 billion years ago.  They will say "Wasn't is funny that we
believed in DNA and heredity? Remember when we though every organisma was just
a different pattern of A, C, G, and T?"  EVERYTHING WILL BECOME OBSOLETE!!
Now how does that make you think about the sciences today?

#11 of 17 by scott on Sat Sep 27 22:31:03 1997:

 We still use wheels, don't we?  Our descendants in the future may make 
fun of some of our beliefs, but other ideas from our time will still be 
in use.

#12 of 17 by font on Fri Oct 24 19:52:31 1997:

Re:  #2, #3, & #9....
Data Entry may be "Obsolete", but that doesn't stop companies paying single
moms $7-8 dollars an hour to do it in big white collar sweatshops.
Things like EDI and BISAC may exist for these things, and record them
on big tapes of microfilm, but people still look at them, and preform
processes that your Pentium could do in a small fraction of the time.
Companies are still very conservative.  Rad tech is something the CEO's
just don't understand, where as people=numbers they are verry comfortable
with.  The idea that "If I have been doing it this way for N number of years,
why should I change?  Change is expensive and risky (even if I have been
around for N number of years)."  Also , another thing to keep in mind, is that
one of the reasons that "downsizing" happens (besides cheaper labor in 3rd
world nations) *is* the technology we used 10 years ago.
Only advertisers and the "entertainment" industry are willing to use this
radness, even if the radness was borrowed from a fialed company in the '80's.
I see VR becoming widespread in about 20 years.  (home VR stations being
first,  and only when every kid on the block has one is yawning and saying
it's *obsolete* by some as of yet unknown medium, will companies start using
it for business purposes.

#13 of 17 by occam on Sat Feb 6 03:02:02 1999:

I find it interesting that everyone keeps talking about the "cyberpunk 
future."  Isn't it already here. Hasn't it been since the very beginning
of information networks.  The technology may not be the same, but the
mentality exists.
Such walkman computers DO exist.  They are still way too expensive for the
general public, but that will change soon.
Will privacy become obsolete?  NO!  Eversince the invention of the
curtain, people have been working to protect their privacy.   But at the
same time, others have been working to undermine that.  The methodes have
become more more complex over time, and the cracks have followed suit. Now
we have firewalls, passwords, encryptiption, etc.  But many cracks have
been made for all of the above.

Will there be an ecological catastrophy?  Yes, it looks like it will
happen.  It is a population control.  Its like if there become too many   
wolves, they run out of rabbits to eat, so many die.  We are the wolves.
After a while the earth will be low on food, resources, and it will become
poisoned.  Then a huge amount of the pop will die off, and we will be ok
until the population rises again.

re: #1  Althoug things are getting smaller/more powerful (I am assuming
you mean electronics)  soon, the Information Tech age will end, and we
will find something new to focus on.  FOr example, 30 years ago, we were
in the space age.  The countries were working on space travel at a  
tremendous rate.  They thought be would be to mars and beyond by now, but
the focus shifted, and all the space travel that goes on anymore is a   
satalite launch every once in a while.


re: #2  It may be that the next major field will be biology.  There is so
much power/benifits in organisms (especially microorganisms)   The
discovery of DNA has triggered a new explosion in genetic engeneering.
I suggest the book: Wyrms by Orson Scott Card.  It is set in the future
where they the technology of the Medieval times, accept they have
tremendous knowlege in altering organisms.


RE: #3   Most likely, typing in the air will never be used.  THe most   
likely data entry mechanism to replace the keyboard would be the keyboards
that have just a few buttons.  THings are typed with one hand using
"chords" of multiple buttions.  It is said to be much faster than a
conventional keyboard (which was actually designed to slow your typing so
the typewriter wouldn't get jammed).
I personaly beleive that the keyboard will never get replaced by voice.
Voice may be used for basic data entry, but there will always be uses for
the keyboard that can not be replaced adequatly with voice.


RE: #5  I beleive the dark Anarchaic future will arrive soon.
Government/society is bound to collapse because of overpopulation and the 
lack of resources.  Only the truely competent will survive,  thus  
improving the gene pool and the entire human race.

RE: #6  You got it man.  The technology will not make it the cyberpunk
future, but the mentality.  I beleive cyberpunk already exists.  It just
depends on whether you make yourself part of it.


RE: #10  Many of the facts that we beleive in the most will become
obsolete, but not all.  Just as we look back at ancient cultures, and say
"They figured that out/did that with such low technology, its amazing"    
people will look back and find that we have made discoveries that or done
things that are seemingly impossible with our primitive knowlege.

I wrote a whole lot there...


--Occam

#14 of 17 by leak on Thu Apr 1 03:49:53 1999:

Come on, we've evolved and we are not going into some dark blade-runner type
world.  There is also going to be resistenceq

#15 of 17 by kickin on Tue Apr 20 02:22:38 1999:

This shit is all pretty cool...

#16 of 17 by ratz on Tue Feb 18 12:43:38 2003:

we are living in a cyberpunk world. files shared over the internett, the first
human clone is borne.

#17 of 17 by trustnon on Sun May 9 17:59:12 2004:

we already have human to computer integration, just look at the monocular
displays and those tiny computers the fit in ure pocket, i wish i had a link
but i'm too tired to find it

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