Some of you may have seen this video, or updated versions of it, on YouTube. I would like you all to watch it now, speakers up (in order to get the vibe from the groovy Last of the Mohicans track)and really concentrate on what you're reading. Click the link on the side of the screen to watch the video.
Respond to what it says, ask questions of me and of each other, and really consider the implications of what you've learned.
How does this information change the way you view technology? Education? Does seeing these statistics, knowing that they are already obsolete (this video is 2 years old) give you hope for the future or terrify you beyond belief? Why?
(450-500 words/75pts)
94 comments:
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!!!!
(:
Isn't that tomorrow?
At first glance I was star struck at the level of education in China and India. I always thought that the best and brightest were being carefully molded within our borders, or possibly in European nations. Instead China and India are mass producing our top 1% (as Costal so eloquently labeled us as) like the toys in our Mc Donald’s happy meals. Looking deeper I thought about all the food it requires to feed another 244 and 351 mouths every six minutes and 5 seconds. While over population in China and India poses one of the most threatening situations for the United States, it poses an ultimate cancer that is by no means benign to China and India. In nature a cell can only grow so large. If the volume is too much, nutrients cannot penetrate to the innermost organelles, thus causing the death of the cell. The billions if not trillions of pounds will not be able to get to the extra people.
Petroleum products will run out. Long before they do they will be too expensive for any middle income households to buy in America. When Americans use one quarter of the petroleum products of the world each year, we are sure to get the same amount as China as the supplies run low. When we divide this by the number of people in China, the number of gallons available, compared to the same number in American terms, Americans will be able to operate small motor bikes or something of the sort for business needs. China will be trapped in their cities with their only source of power being coal. No matter the degree of intellect, engineers cannot engineer more land to grow, live, and pollute. The people that have never experienced clean air in China will finally be able appreciate their once beautiful land.
Along with the eventual failure of the Chinese society, technology will undoubtedly slow down. There are limits to everything, no matter how promising the outlook. Speed is limited in the equation E = MC2 no matter the power of the engine, as long as there is a mass the speed cannot equal the speed of light. The energy required to move a large object is also increased according to the same rule. Applied to the advancement in technology, the larger the industry the more energy required. Once that energy runs out production is slowed at an exponential rate.
Am I scared of the future? I am, only because I respect it. Once you stop respecting something threatening, you do not fear it. I have confidence in the American people to overcome any and all obstacles that may stand in the way of ultimate success in all aspects of life, liberty and property.
I would first like to begin and say that I strangely enjoyed the music on this video haha. It definitely set the mood. Suspenseful yet enlightening it was…
I’ve always been one to be really grateful for technology. To me, technology has been created for us to use it. It would be one thing if we invented new technologies and let them sit there to waste. But instead, we use technology to make our lives more efficient and easier. I have no doubt that society has become dependant on technology. However, I found myself fortunate to grow up in a generation that has been privileged to experience them. I’m sure we’ve all heard the lecture from our parents or grandparents or whoever that began with, “When I was your age… (fill in as needed).” And I have to say I’m glad I didn’t grow up in those years. Yet, I cannot ignore some of the details I just witnessed in this video. Some of which changed my outlook on technology substantially.
“If MySpace were a country, it would be the 11th largest in the world.”
That’s just crazy. If this video was posted two years ago, I can predict that the MySpace and Facebook community has grown exponentially greater. As a fellow fbooker, I can honestly say it’s become quite an unhealthy addiction. Much of my time is wasted looking at comments, writing notes, and looking at pictures. I understand that it has certainly become a connective force between people all around the world. But just imagine if we could take all those people and direct them towards a greater cause. We could possibly solve world hunger or find better ways of preserving the environment.
“There are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month.”
This statistic really caught my attention because of those 2.7 billion searches; I wonder how many of them are truly important. I mean just think: “What was the last thing you searched in Google?” For me, which was about an hour ago, I searched to find a techno song that goes something like “ I neema na I neema neema na.” Now, I don’t usually listen to techno, but this song was stuck in my head. So, I spent a good hour or so searching for this song. But let’s see. Within that hour, I could have gone for a run. I could have read a book. I could have started my Biology assignments. I could have done something productive if I wasn’t distracted by technologies like the Internet. How many hours do we honestly waste searching up useless crap?
As for education, there was one fact that really startled me greatly. It was that “Nintendo spent more than 140 million dollars on research and development,” but “the U.S. government spent less than half as much on research and innovation in education.” I’m sure this hasn’t changed even two years later. Money is going towards things that will end up rotting our brains instead of an education that will help us harness our knowledge. I know that I am not completely innocent because I am one of thousands of consumers that purchase game systems, computers, IPods, etc. And I am the very same consumer that allows these corporations to continue. But maybe in this sense, technology and the industry attached to it may be hurting us in the long run.
The fact that new information is doubling every two years does spark a slight fear in me. It worries me that I will never truly be qualified for a job. The standards will continually change, as more knowledge is required to master a craft. And if I do somehow become lucky enough to find a legit career, at any point a person can come in and sweep me out from under with their “up-to-date” knowledge. But it’s not only new incomers that I have to look out for. I have to watch out for supercomputers now. If supercomputers have the ability to exceed the “compuatation capability of the human brain,” wouldn’t that mean we wouldn’t need humans anymore? Afterall, you don’t have to pay computers. And you never have to worry about them making a mistake. With this, I fear that we will all eventually lose our jobs to such genius machinery.
Where would I be without technology? Where would any of us? Living without technology is not an option in any of our lives. It’s kind of sickening in a way…the way we thrive off of technology. Nevertheless, I’m still thankful that we’re lucky enough to even have such things to make our lives more efficient and productive. But I’m sure Hilary is highly upset with these statistics… But I really am, as well. It’s crazy how much we rely on technology. And when we seem to need it the most, it fails anyway. Cell phones and Ipods are no longer just a luxury. They’re necessities in our lives. Wherever we are, the first thing we check to make sure we have is our cell. It’s ridiculous, even though I can’t deny that I rely entirely on my cell phone. It’s my main method of communication with my boyfriend, friends, and even my family. Talking doesn’t even exist anymore. What is talking? Pffft. Technology is dfjgkdfhsgdfg. It’s absurd how much time we waste on Myspace, Facebook, or playing video games. I can’t even imagine life without these things…But I can’t say they’ve been all bad. I mean, they’ve obviously provided billions of jobs across the globe. My father wouldn’t even have a job if laptops, cell phones, and other technology didn’t exist. In that case, I’m thankful for technology. I guess I just share a love-hate relationship with technology. It’s great, but our country relies far too much on it. Maybe if we portioned our technology use, we wouldn’t all be such nut cases.
And apparently, everything I’m learning now is basically going to be common knowledge within the next few years…Oh goodie. What’s the point?! Ah. I’m not liking this video…I’m preparing for a job that won’t even exist by the time I graduate? Greaaaat. And basically my SATs scores don’t mean anything in comparison to the rest of the population’s. This is crazy. This whole video terrifies me. I can’t even think of any technology we could possible add onto our world, but still more and more seem to be arriving by the day. Not to mention that this is video is already two years old. How much worse are all of these stats now?! But education is obviously changing by the hour. AP exams get harder ever year. My mother no longer qualifies as a suitable candidate as an English teacher, despite her Bachelor’s degree in that department. Additionally, the little bit about if Myspace were a country, it’d be the 11th largest in the world. That’s just completely insane, mind-boggling and so unbelievable. The Myspace population must have grown substantially within the past two years, as well. I waste so much time on stupid Facebook, but for what? What’s the purpose of it all? It has lost its charm from my perspective, yet I still can’t break the habit of logging on every day. Neither can millions of Americans either, it seems.
All in all, this video frightens me. Is this what my future is going to be? Am I ever going to be able to be successful and maintain a job for more than a year? The knowledge I have spent countless hours, days, and weeks trying to absorb will, by the next two years, be common knowledge. Less and less jobs will be available because why have a human do a sloppy job when a computer can just do it ten times better and faster? I’m afraid for what is to come.
That was extremely jumbled...Sorry! Jotting all of my ideas down at once doesn't seem to be such a good idea. :P
Nyge-
The whole Myspace thing left me with the same reaction...Crazy! And imagine how many people have a Myspace page now? Even my parents have one...Ugh.
It’s kind of sickening how much my generation depends on technology (not to mention the ones that follow.. yikes). We’re like parasites feeding off of it. Every time there is a new version of the iPod or a snazzy new cell phone, we immediately HAVE to have it. Otherwise, we would ‘die.’ However, I didn’t realize the extent to which we relied on the use of technology in relation to other countries and corporations. The statistics given in the video gave me a much better understanding as to how deeply we are sucked into this tunnel of technology which we seem to never be getting out of.
Technology is definitely a big part of my life. I couldn’t imagine myself with out it. I Google almost every question I have and find answers always. (“2.7 billion Google searches each month!”) We never used to be able to get that kind of information so quickly! I simply can’t imagine what it was like not being able to do that and having to use an encyclopedia. It’s undeniably sad how calling someone isn’t even an option these days—text messaging has clearly taken over. But technology has done such great things for us that certainly outweigh the others.
Among the many mind-boggling pieces of information, the most interesting, to me, were the parts having to do with education. “Half of what college students lean in their first year will be outdated by their third year of study.” That is freaking ridiculous. We’d have to go to school every two years for the rest of our careers to learn how to use the new technology! Choosing to use the old stuff will hardly be an option with the advances happening at such a high rate. This is definitely a scary thought. Not to mention we seem to be getting prepared for jobs that don’t even exist yet and technologies that haven’t been invented to solve the problems that aren’t even problems yet. What the hell is this? I’m all about technological advances, but let’s live in the now and stop thinking so ahead. Maybe things wouldn’t be such a mess if these people tried to fix the problems that are happening now instead of looking for answers to ones that haven’t even com up yet. How about these geniuses fix the pollution problem or the petroleum issue? Let’s not waste our time and brains here, people.
In sum, I have hope for the near future. I don’t believe this technology is truly a bad thing because it was created to enhance and make our lives easier. I’m confident in saying that despite the scary statistics, technology should help us more than hurt us. But it seems, with the rapidness of the advances, that it is slowly but surely killing us in ways we don’t even realize, as well. I can just picture one day, far from now, Earth’s population will be a bunch of robots and the few people who are smart enough to still control them. Eventually, if the life span of this planet doesn’t end by then, there will be none of us humans left! My views of the future are quite pessimistic for us humans but optimistic in all other aspects. :)
John-
"Petroleum products will run out. Long before they do they will be too expensive for any middle income households to buy in America. When Americans use one quarter of the petroleum products of the world each year, we are sure to get the same amount as China as the supplies run low."
It was interesting how you tied in the problems we are facing with how the other countries will be affected by it as well. (I liked your McDonalds reference :]). But I also thought that "the best and brightest were being carefully molded within our borders, or possibly in European nations." We think India is filled with a bunch of poor, unintelligent people living in villages (at least I thought that) when in all actuality, they are producing some of the brightest people out there. Same goes for China. They do have a lot more people than us, but they are still managing to produce more "AP kids" than we have as an entire population. Crazy.
I’m not surprised that we’ll have the technology to build a computer that can exceed the capabilities of a human brain by 2013, or that it’ll only cost $1000 by 2023. Our computers already can compute more accurately and more quickly than the human name. That is where they got their name, after all. But since reality has gone into the realm of science-fiction, I ask you to forgive the rant that follows.
What happens next? Will computers stay machines used for calculating? I doubt it. If it is going to replace a human at a job, it needs to have the judgment that a human would have. If a human is commanding it, it will need to decide which orders to follow and which need to be interpreted (i.e. ignored). Once it can decide which orders are meaningful, it will have the ability to decide if it’s really worth spending its immense intelligence on such trivial tasks. So it now needs to have some idea of incentive and satisfaction. Unless the workplace provides stimuli that can fulfill these needs, the work will not be of any higher quality than that done by an equally bored human.
And we can assume that any creature or machine that can understand the above stated emotions will also want to find more chances to find satisfaction. Here we find ambition. Clearly, whoever is giving the orders has more chances to find fulfillment in work, and the computer will want to reach that level. If it becomes clear that it will never make it, the quality will go down. After all, it will remain in the same position no matter what it does. A new machine will only reach that same conclusion.
So, even if they only stay in the workplace, the machines will need the same conditions for productivity as any human in the same situation. Is there really a measurable difference? And will they leave the workplace? Will they interact with the rest of society? I’m sure they will at some point. I’m sure more than a few people will prefer the company of machines to the company of other humans.
As for education…I’m not surprised to learn that most of our education will be obsolete by the time we graduate. My dad’s job did not exist when he went to college. My uncle Bob has a PhD in statistics, but he works as a mall security guard. He was replaced by the most basic of computers.
The skills we really need involve decision-making and confidence. Unfortunately, we’re getting no such education in most of our classes. Our most valued skill as public school students, our ability to sit down and shut up, isn’t useful now. In ten years, anyone who has perfected that skill and practiced it loyally will be even less useful than a cheep cell phone.
This isn’t going to help my GPA at all, I’m afraid. I have trouble doing pointless work. The knowledge that most of my work is pointless will probably inspire another drop.
Another note: MySpace will become its own nation eventually. Physical borders will be meaningless. We will be bound by ideals, ideas, interests. I don't know how this will affect war, or the economy. Anyone else have any ideas?
Do I fear the future? Ha! Why? I probably won't even notice when it comes.
Oh, John, coal won't be the only resource India and China can use. We they have deserts for wind and solar power, and the oceans are another great place to harvest the wind. Yes, the population is too large to sustain, but it's not going to spell the doom of the biggest countries.
Well when I first watched this video I thought the last little phrase said, "shit happens." Hahah, and I almost think this would have been a better title for the video :) Personally I am not a huge fan of technology. Of course I have been sucked into it like everyone else, but I can honestly say I despise how I let it eat up my life. As Kelly said, we all spend way too much time on the internet when we could be doing so many other important things. Yet, I'm addicted. I hate it.
I have come to the conclusion that the future of this world scares the living daylights out of me. Many of the stats on this video showed me just how ridiculous things have gotten. SHIT has happened and will keep happening. I cannot help but be scared of what's to come.
And here's why...
"If you took every single job in the U.S. today and shipped it to China, there would still be a labor surplus."
For real? This part got me thinking about a lot. So even if you created and added a whole slew of jobs to the Chinese society, there would still be unemployment? I mean, that is what this is saying...right? How then will the 244 babies being born as we speak make a living? Surely their population is just going to keep growing exponentially. It's pretty scary to think of the magnitude of people who will be out of work.
"The U.S. department of labor predicts that the average learner will have 10-14 jobs by age 38."
Holy crap. Maybe our generation will have a short attention span and have trouble dedicating themselves to one profession or we will not be good workers so we'll just keep getting fired. Any way you look at it, it's scary to think you might hold 10 different jobs over the next 20 years. Whatever happened to stability? How will our skills and talents in a certain field develop?
"I can’t even think of any technology we could possible add onto our world, but still more and more seem to be arriving by the day."
Hayley, I totally agree. I often think, what can they even come up with next?!
First, I must say that I was so flabbergasted and astounded by the video that I watch the linked one three time and the updated one twice. My mind is still reeling and my brain can’t comprehend everything that was just thrown at me in a little more than six minutes. But after watching it, I was reminded of a groggy morning bus ride from Mullica last year. The radio was blaring; yes we miraculously had a working radio. Anyway, what I heard was almost as astonishing as this video. For the first time ever, during the fourth quarter of 2007, more text messages than calls were made from cell phones. Really? And according to surveys the number of calls is slowly decreasing as the number of texts is increasing exponentially.
This video along with this staggering realization about cell phones really has made me take a completely new perspective about technology in general. As Kelly mentioned, we spend countless hours on the Internet whether it be on Facebook, MySpace, W.o.W, or just randomly searching Google in order to waste time. I, thankfully, don’t have an account with any type of social network, unless, of course, you count this blog. From what I have read, they are the biggest time eaters ever and I have a harder time as it is managing my time responsibly.
It makes me wonder if technology is the current worlds own form of the Roman Bread and Circuses. Just like in the Roman era, this entertainment is distracting us, the question is “How much a we being blinded to the world around?” These Circuses effectively seemed to distract the citizens of Rome, how well is our technology distracting us? I really wonder if technology and robots won’t soon be the dominant species, if you can call them a “species”.
As far as education is concerned, I’m rather livid. Everything we are learning will be obsolete, no good, old, and many other words that meaning worn out. Before we are out of school what we have already learned will no longer meet the standard. It is almost like our own technology, by the time it is marketed and released for sale, it is already obsolete and newer technology is being copyrighted. How can we ever possibly hope to adapt and keep up with the changing knowledge? If our knowledge is obsolete, will we be able to hold a job for any extended period of time or will we be quickly replaced with the newer, younger staff or the “perfect workers”, robots?” It is rather interesting to note that Nintendo spent more on game development and research then the US did for education. Hmmm, that technology-is-our-ultimate-downfall-because-it-will-blind-us-to-the-truth theory doesn’t seem so far-stretched now, does it? :)
After viewing this, I am filled with both fear and an overwhelming sense of calmness, rather paradoxical. But have no fear, I shall explain. I fear that we won’t be able to hold jobs because technology is just evolving too fast for us to continually adapt. I fear that technology will eventually surpass our own brain capacity, if it hasn’t already. I fear that robots maybe able to escape human control considering we are continually trying to make them more human like in order to be more user friendly. With all those fears of technology running rampant and greatly surpassing our comprehension, comes the feeling that we won’t even know when the transition occurs.
I have a feeling our robot overlords will do everything in their power to either a pacify us, blind us to the truth, or just remove us. Either way, there will be nothing to fear because we’ll be artificially happy and have no need to fear. Of course, if we are dead, then we can’t really have fear either, can we? I mean why would perfect, superior overlords want a bunch of whining sacks full of water “cramppin’ their style, yo”? It is almost like the Giver, expect all the important jobs are left to robots, and we are left with all the undesirable ones. Hey, at least we’re alive, riiiight? Haha…
Overall, technology is like unknown, exponentially growing, antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We don’t know if loads of it will be helpful or hurtful and really have no way to stop it from overtaking over lives. We just have to hope and pray that is going to help make life easier and more comfortable with harming us and our world in the process.
The question I ask of anyone is, “Do you think that it is probable that robots could surpass human intellect and actually begin independent thought? Or do thing that is too Sci-fi for your comfort-zone and too even consider?”
Ending thought: That background music was perfect, especially from a musical perspective (key, rhythm, tempo, and motifs). Besides the technical brilliance of the song choice, it was amazing to listen to, as well!
I’m very amazed at the things this video told me. I always knew that technology was going very fast but not as fast as it really is. “Predictions are that by 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the computational abilities of the human race.” That scared the crap out of me. That pretty much said that in forty years, humans will be obsolete. I will be 58 years old and I will be worthless in the eyes of the world because a supercomputer could do everything I could, but better and for cheaper. This made me think that perhaps things are going too fast for our own good. Is there ever going to be a point where it all stops? Pretty soon things will become outdated before they go on the market. Actually, I think that’s already happening. What good is that then? We won’t have time to savor accomplishments because something better will take its place right away. We will never be able to say we have the best there is out there because it wouldn’t be true five seconds after you own a piece of this amazing technology.
“The top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet using technologies that haven’t yet been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” That whole sentence says that the world is crazy. Things are moving way too fast for us to deal with. We are preparing for things that don’t exist yet. How can we even do that? It makes no sense to my simple mind.
I worry because I will be in the work force with the people from China who can speak better English than me. If I’m not competing with a computer, I’m competing with the 1,300 one in a million’s that are just like me from China or the 1,100 one in a million people from India. That is a scary thought that makes me feel like I’ll never be able to be anything in the world. The numbers are against me completely. With the lack of increase in educational opportunities, the increase of googling, texting, and facebooking, how will I ever be prepared? “The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.” I believe that completely. I text way too much. It’s an addiction, but if it’s there, then how are we expected not to use it? It’s amazing technology that we have created to connect us with the world around us. That’s why technology people work at the speed of light to find new and better ways to do things. We are expected to use these technologies, but they are ruining our humanness (for lack of a better word). We will probably be comparable to robots by the time of 2049, so naturally, we will be replaceable by computers. It’s all very scary to me.
"The knowledge I have spent countless hours, days, and weeks trying to absorb will, by the next two years, be common knowledge. Less and less jobs will be available because why have a human do a sloppy job when a computer can just do it ten times better and faster? I’m afraid for what is to come."
Hayley-
I agree. What's the point? We are obviously at a point where we can no longer keep up with the pace we have created for ourselves. We are competing with other nations and at such a speed that it's not humanly possible to predict the future to prepare for what's next. HOW DO WE KNOW! When you said you have no idea how they keep coming up with new advancements, I often find myself thinking this. I hear a song on the radio and think, "haven't they coome up with all of the songs possible to make?" It's the same with technology, and it's amazing but very very frightening at the same time.
Tarah: We don't know. We'll soon be outdated as a species.
But there isn't much we can do.
Sit back and enjoy the ride. Pretty soon we'll be housepets or slaves. It should be an interesting existance. I wonder if we'll even notice the change. Perhaps it's already taken place...
"When you grow up, you should go back to China and work there."
"Why?"
"Because China will become better soon. Soon enough, everyone will start to look towards China."
I am, and have always been, skeptic about the future and what it entails and what people predict will happen. In today's society, everyone wants everything to be done yesterday. We are extremely impatient, always itching to go to something better as soon as we can. That is what I've seen so far here. I, myself, am the same way. No matter what, I always want things to be done quickly (and efficiently). I was brought up that way. However, when I saw the video, I nodded a little and came up with what I perceive to be an excuse for myself. China and India seem to be "superior" to America, however I don't think so. Even though I cannot be too sure, I have heard some things about their educational system and, while they push their children into harder classes sooner, we all have one thing in common: we are all human.
We all have the ability to be smart, to think, to be creative. Even if they have higher IQs and Test Scores, does that put them higher than other people? No, they are still people. They can make mistakes.
That was the first excuse, erm...real gathering thought. I have always been a first-impression kind of person when it comes to movies and videos so the first few seconds are usually the one that determines how I'll view the rest of the video. With that thought in mind, I became more and more skeptical (I want to say doubtful but skeptical is such a nice word) of the statistic, which seemed to be unreal. First off, who has the time to look up random statistics, compile them into a video, put it on Youtube and scare the world? It sure seemed to be a load of platypus poo to me. I mean, statistics are nice, but come on... they can't change your life unless you let them. So what if we are behind, make the most of what you can get from what you are offered. So what if the US federal government doesn't spend nearly as much as Nintendo on research as well as education? And what is this about a supercomputer that exceed the capabilites of a human brain?
Yep, platypus poo.
I mean, I'll admit, first time I watched it, I was terrified at the end, but after awhile, I watched it again and looked at it differently. It reminded me of a time I talked with y parents. They wanted me to go back to China when I get older and get some stuff done there, but over here, I have something I'ld like to call fun. Oh, and not to mention space? It just... I think I am getting a good education. I am learning, that is all that matters. I am always learning about the world and how to better myself. That is very important to me in my education. This information just made me stand by my convictions with shaking resolve is all. Nothing big, but I know that I love what I am getting here so I don't really worry too much about it.
Then there is technology. I'll admit that I am terrified out of my frickin' mind that there might be this supercomputer one day that will surpass the capabilities of the human brain. This just unsettles me because I think about our nature to make it easier for ourselves and how we'll build machines to take care of everything for us and then they'll turn on us and all those things. That's what happens to people who watched some sci-fi movies that showed just that and will always be skeptical of technology from now on and forever more. This information only makes me stand by this thought process. No biggies.
So, in the end, seeing these statistics really didn't give me any hope nor terrify me. It just made me want to wordk harder for what I want to do and to never give up my ability to be creative to a computer! CREATIVITY IS MINE, TECHNOLOGICAL B@!%H! Of course, that extends to all people, you guys are creative too.
I think I covered everything... I don't know. I spent the time thinking only to be disrupted over and over again by outside distractions. Hey!!! When I first clicked on the link, I could've swore that it said "Did You Know; Sh*t happens" which made me scared, but luckily that was the not the title. I am happy!
Alright, that's all for now. Iam so tired but I've got other things to do. This will b fun. I'll comment later. Night!
Ms. Bunj-
I feel like I should give you fair warning now, and just let you know that I still love you no matter how ridiculously infuriating this video is, and if I say something that's even remotely offensive, then, by all means, let me know. I'm just livid right now.
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I think that we can all agree that China is in a much better position than America right now. That's common knowledge, and I'm sure that one could come up with some pretty substantial facts in order to prove this. However, the rubbish that this video presented did NOTHING to further it's point, and, if you ask this, actually weakened it's argument. Now, I'm not the master statitician, but I'd venture to say that it's also common knowledge that percentages are more important than quantities. Sure, China may have more Honors students than America has citizens, but everyone knows that China has a significantly larger population that America, and this has to factor into the argument at some point. The percentage would have been a more effective tool in order to establish some statistical credibility.
"China will be the number one English speaking country in the world." What the h*ll does that even mean? China will have the highest English speaking population in the world? Plausible, but once again, the creator of this horrendous fact display forgot to factor in the differences in population. If America had 800 trillion people (and less freeloading, Spanish speaking illegal immigrants), then we would be number one, too!
"During the course of this presentation, 60 babies will be born in America, 244 babies will be born in China, and 351 babies will be born in India." Imagine the most disgusting, sicked look you've ever seen. Now superimpose this look from your mind onto my face, and just try to visualize the glare I'm giving my computer screen. Do China and India want a high five for propogating the overpopulation of our already too-crowded planet? Does the creator of this presentation think that this is an admirable statistic? I'm not really sure of the purpose of these lines, to be honest, because the only thing they managed to do was to infuriate me.
"Department of Education says.. something, something, blah, blah.. we are preparing our students for jobs that don't exist using technology that doesn't yet exist in order to solve problems that we don't even know are problems yet." I'm not seeing the problem here. I might have missed the memo, but since when is having a little foresight a condemnable act? Sheesh. I would think that we would get some credit for actually taking action to prevent "problems that we don't even know are problems yet" from BECOMING problems. (Another thing; this presentation has an obvious condescending tone. I don't appreciate it.)
"England rocked in 1900." Well, that's great. And the reason that I didn't know that little tidbit of information, if you really must know, you stupid presentation, is because I didn't (and still don't, for that matter) care. Does this statistic have a point? Does this presentation have a point?
"Nintendo invested 140 million..." Okay, well Nintendo also operates in many more countries besides America. Besides, what Nintendo does with it's money is none of your concern, especially since this company has helped make my early years somewhat enjoyable. Leave Nintendo alone! Plus, what the federal government does is completely independent from this corporation. Why should one be tied down just because the other is spending less money? Regardless, maybe America had some other things to spend money on, like, oh, I don't know, national security, maybe? Building a wall in between Mexico and Texas? You never know....
Another thing: IF I WANT TO ACQUIRE AN ONLINE BOYFRIEND, THEN I WILL DO SO. AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT THIS STUPID PRESENTATION CAN DO ABOUT IT. You can be as condescending as you like, you ridiculous, piece of trash presentation, but stop bashing the world's use of the Internet-- especially if you're planning to propogate you're nonsense via YouTube!
"We are living in exponential times."
Exponential; (adj) of or pertaining to exponents.
Now, I'm going to go ahead and give the presentation the benefit of the doubt, and say that they mean that we are growing rapidly as a species.
Well, duh! For all you Calculus geeks out there (and I really hate to do this to you, Bunj), in order to calulate the population of a particalar species, you use the following formula: y=Ce^kt
Notice the (^kt) portion of the equation. This is the exponent, and it represents the rate of growth (k) and the amount of time (t). Clearly, all populations, and hence, their actions, grow exponentially. So, thanks for stating a fact.
So what if there is 2.7 billion Google searches? Why is this such a problem? I must be missing out on the horrendous actions of mankind here. Everyone knows that I'm our species' toughest critic, and even I can't find anything wrong with 2.7 billion Internet searches.
I'm about to vomit in digust. I really am. This bit about the words has really put me over the edge here. 540,000 words is a lot of freakin' words. Now, I wasn't alive during Shakespearean times, but those extra words that this presentation mentions could be the product of a language that wasn't as standardized as it is today. I mean, of course it's a shame that we've lost certain words, but I find that the English language is just as colorful as it needs to be. Besides, who has the time, patience, or dedication to familiarize themselves with so many words!? Lord Almighty please give me the strength to not hunt down the fool who created this nonsense.
Wow. Is it really getting an attitude about more than 3000 books being published daily? What the hell? Why is that even relevant, and so what if there are?
Deep breaths, Maegan. Deep breaths.
The last part was kind of interesting, I suppose, but I don't really mind that our computer will be smarter than we are. I mean, will this mean that I can just plug in a Calculus equation and it will simply solve it for me? That doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. As long as computers aren't setting off nukes in some Terminator-esque fashion, then I don't really care that my computer is smarter than me.
"Did you know?"
No. I didn't know. And I didn't care, either, to be frank. And although I do appreciate the fact that this presentation attempted to open my eyes to some supposedly horrific technological advancements, the only thing I "did know" at the end of the show was that the person who compiled it deserved a punch in the face.
EL FIN.
ERIK: My mom thinks that Kansas can beat Louisville. What do you think?!
Okay, first of all, Maegan, I love you. Secondly, I agree with nearly everything you said, which is dissapointing, because you said it better than I would've and now I have very little to say.
First of all, wtf math. Why, bunje? Too many numbers. My head is boggled, and that's not due to the concepts this piece of propoganda was trying to implant in us.
Second of all, this video was badly organized. It occasionally threw in facts that- aside from me not caring about them- seemed to have little to nothing to do with the things around it. If I was doing a reading log on this, it would frequently have entries like this
Text Says- something involving an "i'm-supposed-to-frighten-you-number"
Text Does- LITTLE TO NOTHING.
Thirdly, technology dependance. Here's the short and long of it: techonology is good. How we use it is sometimes bad. I'm pretty sure since ancient cultures we've known that all things deserve moderation, and I'm not sure why whoever made this vid didn't already realize that. Being on facebook from when you get home at 3 to when you go to sleep at 10? Bad. Bringing a cell phone with you wherever you go so as to maintain contact with the world around you and have assistance when you need it? (Like when you're stuck on the side of the road and need a tow truck or when you're stuck at school til nine and need a pizza.) Now that's perfectly okay.
Next, let us discuss the reliability of this piece. It is composed largely of professionally presented statistics and estimations.
-Accurate statistics apply to now. You cannot form a completely accurate statistic unless you already have the information gathered. So any statistic formed about the future is based on an
-Estimation. Estimations are based on trends. Trends change. Essentially, Estimations are simply guesses, as was most of this video. Then consider that the maker did not own a working crystal ball and you will see the perpetuating flaws in the logic of the video. Sure, in the year 2013 a computer will be available that's smarter than the human brain. However, that's assuming that A) the company making it doesn't tank B) the project producing it maintains current funding C) such a product isn't quashed by the government D)their main scientist doesn't take all the research on a boat hoping to sell the technology to China and sink in some strange mishap losing all the documentation E) a nuclear war doesn't destroy us before then, ETC. As you can see, most of this thing is BS.
RANDOM CHALLENGE!!!!!!- watch it again with a piece of paper and pen. Make 2 colums on the paper. Put a tally on the left for every statistic they present on the future. Put a tally on the right for every estimation (Sometimes they may not use the word estimate. Use your best judgement.)
Now look at your paper and tell me how credible you find this vid.
Also, everyone seems to be freaking out over this super computer. Chill, guys. Yes, it can calculate things beyond the human capacity . But girls (I say girls because there are too many of you to specify) can it play soccer? Alice, Myra, can it draw? Lindsey, can it morally council, Hils, can it have optimism, Maegan, does it have a temper or passion, Devon, does it have compassion? Sarah, would it dare wear what you wore to school today? Humans, although expendable, as in the Earth could get on without us, are not replacable in our unique capabilities or abilities. I am unworried. Come up with a robot that can do pirouettes, splits, turns and jumps to a beat while conveying emotion- maybe then I'll worry for my future usefulness.
Oh, and side note- since robots will never be able to teach dance, I'm currently being prepared for a job that WILL exist whenever it said it wouldn't. So there, jerkface.
Okay, I'm going to be horribly blunt on this one. This video took my already highly volatile and quick tempered personality to new levels. Technology isn't the problem. It's people that are the problem. Go ahead condemn Myspace, and Google, and all the text messages sent, but who is the one using it? People are. That's like blaming guns for killing people. Who's the one pulling the trigger? A person is. Technology doesn't just up and turn itself on a search for random things that don't need to be searched for. You can't blame technology for being there, or even advancing because it's not technology's fault. It's people's. If the government was to think that technology like Myspace and Google were growing out of control and harming the population, they could always just shut them down. They are the government. Who is going to stop them? It makes me incredibly angry to sit and watch this video, and then go and read many of my classmates blogs only to find them utterly disgusted with technology. Don't be mad at technology. Be mad at yourself. Stop going on Myspace if it makes you that mad that there are enough users to make a extremely large country. If you don't your equivalent to the people who are like "I hated George Bush" but didn't exercise their right to vote for the other candidate in the 2004 election. You can't complain for stuff that you allow to happen. This video didn't change my perception on technology at all, because I've always understood that the human fixation on technology is the downfall of our civilization. I'm not pissed that there is such an over use of it. I've known that ever since video Ipods came out, the human fixation on technology will eventually lead to large scale problems. Just look at it today. Instead of 160 million reading books, or doing anything constructive with their lives, we have 160 million surfing on Myspace. That's 160 million people potentially getting dumber than they were at the beginning of the day.
Now if you will all take a trip with me down memory lane, we can remember my blog about the lessers. These lessers are what really is the problem. A society composed of lessers are bound to spend their lives devoted to using technology for everything. This would account for the 2.7 billion Google searches a day, because there are a good 6 billion lessers in the 6.7 billion people in the world. Of those 6 billion lessers I'm sure only about 3 billion have usable computers. Which accounts for the larger portion of these probably meaningless Google searches. Also a society of lessers becomes dependant on technology as their IQ drops with every stupid action they perform, considering they now need a larger crutch to lean upon only so they can function in society. Here's a "did you know" for ya'. Did you know that as the obesity factor in America rises chairs in movie theaters, planes, and buses get larger. That's technology changing to fit in with the many lessers so they can function in society. Also I bet by the year 2014 lessers will be so lazy McDonald's will have delivery. I'm just guesstimating here, but look at the signs. People are getting more obese, gas prices are going up, establishments are running out of jobs, and a person's day is getting more hectic. All the signs point towards making fast food, faster, which is technically just applying technology to everyday life. For those that don't see it it's applying the concept of driving cars with the concept of fast food.
I blame it on the lessers and not a combination of the intellectuals and the lessers for a few specific reasons. The intellectuals know the difference between using technology for a purpose and abusing technology. An intellectual could go out and play a video game and then decide to read a book. A lesser will go out and play a video game and say "to hell with books. I'm having more fun not thinking and playing my video games." This isn't the fault of the video game, it's the fault of the idiot playing. An intellectual can see that its a nice day out and walking to their friends house, who lives right down the road, is more economically, environmentally, and physically beneficial than using the car. However a lesser does not see those merits and would refuse to go to their friends house because they don't have a car to drive their. These are rather poor examples, but I hope you see my meaning.
Onward to the educational and U.S. to the rest of the world comparison issues. First let me start off by asking who doesn't know that China and India are comprised of 1.5 and 1.3 billion people respectively? The United States only has 303 hundred million people in it. Sorry to bring math and ratios into this Bunje, but that's a 1 to 5 ratio. In other words, for every United States citizen there are five Chinese citizens. A comparison between the U.S. and India yields a little more than a 1 to 4 ratio. Either way that means it is mathematically logical for China and India to have a larger amount of honor kids than we even have kids. Actually as I think about it, China is performing on a sub par level because a 1 to 5 ratio should show that only twenty percent of their top kids should equal our kids, whereas they are at a twenty-five percent level. India is slightly off course, considering its supposed to be twenty-five percent and it's twenty-eight. In any case, this statistic shouldn't startle anyone considering it's common knowledge about the massive population differences. Regardless of these statistics, I think education is failing worldwide. Actually, scratch that idea. I think because of these statistics education is failing the population of the world. Just by mathematically showing that China isn't even performing on ratio as they should be, should prove that to anyone. There is a correlation between the amount of lessers dependent on these ever advancing technologies and the failing education system around the world. As the amount of lessers go up, the efficiency of the world's education goes down, and vice versa. With the amount of lessers up the amount of technology to make their lives easier and more meaningful, even though its largely not meaningful at all, ultimately increases.
As for Nintendo donating more towards education and research than the U.S. budget does, I think that's completely logical. Nintendo doesn't owe the world ten trillion dollars. Nintendo doesn't owe anyone anything, because its a thriving business. I don't know if anyone noticed or not but the United States currently isn't really thriving at all, and hasn't been since the first few years of the Bush (Jr.) Administration. Also Nintendo only has two things to spend its money on: making its company more productive and donating it. What else is Nintendo going to spend its money on. A new rocket ship for space travel? Or how about its going towards paying all the unemployed people it has ever fired? Clearly, you get what I am trying to say. Nintendo has the ability to donate massive amounts of money towards education. Meanwhile the United States has hundreds and possibly thousands of different places it has to partition its money if it wants to be an efficient nation. Last time I checked Nintendo is only a video game conglomerate and not a efficient nation, so I rest my case.
Actually, after that tirade of intelligence to defeat all these meaningless facts and what not intended towards inciting anger at the system, its hard to imagine I have enough cogent things to say to attack one more fact. But have no fear; I do! The prediction concerning supercomputer's and their future intelligence and abilities to perform computations infuriated me. No they aren't going to surpass the computation abilities of the human mind. Who would be building them then? Aliens? They don't just spring up the ability to make incredibly hard computations on the spot. They aren't me. Someone has to have taught them or programed them to perform these computations. So it won't be surpassing the human brains computation ability, because a human would have had to made the computer. Which means the human would have had to think up the computation first. Sure it might be able to do it faster than us, but that's because it's a combination of switches sent along an electrical current. An electrical current moves faster then the human thought process does now, so of course it will compute them faster. But so can a calculator and no one is awed by it's brilliance.
In the end, this video literally only taught me facts that were common thoughts without exact numbers attached. I'm not feeling hopeful or frightened for the future thanks to this video. I know our impending doom is coming at the hands of our need to advance technology to the point where we ultimately kill ourselves. The future for the human race is just one step passed Wall-E, which is everyone has a heart attack and dies or technology gets programmed to kill us all. All thanks to the lessers and their need to constantly make life easier.
-Maegan
"Well, duh! For all you Calculus geeks out there (and I really hate to do this to you, Bunj), in order to calulate the population of a particalar species, you use the following formula: y=Ce^kt
Notice the (^kt) portion of the equation. This is the exponent, and it represents the rate of growth (k) and the amount of time (t). Clearly, all populations, and hence, their actions, grow exponentially. So, thanks for stating a fact."
Just saying I love calculus.
On a more socially acceptable note, good job denouncing everything that guy said. I know you didn't mean for it to be that way, but that was hilarious. For once, I agree with you that it was largely a presentation filled with random statistics that had no real impact on anything tangible. This is considering the fact that everything presented was either a random scare tactic type fact or a instance of common sense strapped to a number, and in some cases a combination of both. Way to stick it to the Man.
I love Maegan Reese :)
Hahaha Maegan, I can't help but agree with your angry rant. I wasn't a fan of the video either, however I doubt it made me as mad as it made you.
No worries Dev, I'm pretty sure even at my very angriest I couldn't be as angry as Maegan Reese, haha.
First of all, when I started listening to it, it gave a little bit of an Irish vibe, or I could just be in the St. Patty’s day mood.
So to the information. I think that the whole presentation was biased. It really bothered me for some reason. It is obvious that China has millions of more people than we do, so that is why they will have more people speaking English and why they will have more honors kids than we have kids. I do get the point that it is trying to make, China and India are becoming more intellectual than the united States. But I would like some ratios please. Just the facts they gave us on the number of babies that are popping out explain how their information is biased. When 60 will be born in the United States, over 200 will be born in China. Obviously they have more people than us. But they also have to deal with their population control and the fact that their pollution is ridiculous. What about those facts, Mr. Presentation?
And the Nintendo facts really made me angry. Nintendo is in fifteen countries. FIFTEEN. So sure, they can spend $140 million in research and development. But the US is spending half of that, which is more than each of the fifteen individual countries that Nintendo is produced in.
I don’t think that the presentation differs the view I had on technology. I think all of us knew how technology is taking over the world. We often speak to robots on the phone, rather than humans. And rarely to people call each other anymore. We just text. But that is our time, our generation. But because of this technology, I do believe that we are a smarter generation. As the statistics said, we have more new technology every year. With this new technology we can improve ourselves. I don’t think that there will be a time where robots take over all of our jobs, because we need human contact to survive. Robots and technology only enhance what we have right now. With education and the technology we will only be making our children smarter. As Mr. Olivo, gladly told us one day in homeroom, we are not as social as kids in Italy. Kids in Italy don’t sit at home and go on computers. But we do. So what. We are more advanced than kids in Italy. And take this blog for example. This is one way technology can bring our discussions out of the classroom, and talk about mind-boggling topics beyond the 2:35 bell. I say yay for technology.
But the presentation also says, that 3,000 new books are published each day. So although technology is taking over, we still have the change to sit back, relax, and read. But how motivated are kids to read these days, that is our problem. Although our times are changing, we still need to stay true to our hometown roots.
The last part about fibers confused the heck out of me; I didn’t understand that at all. But the supercomputer was intriguing. It is fun to think that there are people creating machines that are smarter than they are. But you would still need these people to create these machines, because the machines can’t create themselves.
I think these facts give me hope for the future. Knowing that our country is developing new and improved computers/machines only makes me excited for what is to come. The technology can’t take us back in time, but only propel us forward. And although some may say that we have little human interact with this technology, look at what we have gained because of the technology, the knowledge and security. And yet, people have met people online, not just creepers. So at the same time, the internet can bring us together, allow us to met people we wouldn’t have met in our small town.
Obviously times are changing, but the advancements that we are making can only make our country and ourselves, better.
And I just saw what you wrote mae mae, and we basically say the same thing. But you are a little bit angrier than I am… :)
“So what if there is 2.7 billion Google searches? Why is this such a problem? I must be missing out on the horrendous actions of mankind here. Everyone knows that I'm our species' toughest critic, and even I can't find anything wrong with 2.7 billion Internet searches.”
Oh, Mae. I loved your blog. It was so you. And I agree with ever little point you make. And I am amazed that you brought calculus into this, because I never knew you loved it that much, I mean I know you love ms.bird, but the topic itself! Ok. But I definitely agree with your point about internet searches. At least people care to look up the information instead of not bothering to learn anything.
“Don't be mad at technology. Be mad at yourself.
EXACTLY. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. And stop complaining.
To Maegan:
"Did you know?"
No. I didn't know. And I didn't care, either, to be frank. And although I do appreciate the fact that this presentation attempted to open my eyes to some supposedly horrific technological advancements, the only thing I "did know" at the end of the show was that the person who compiled it deserved a punch in the face.
I wholeheartedly agree. I think that person had a whole lot of time to kill if he decided to go search up some random statistics to scare people with.
Maegan, I loved your entire blog and I agree. That was most likely the greatest critique that I've ever read about anything.
Also, I love the way you continue talking about the tone of the whole presentation and how it doesn't make any sense because, quite frankly, it really doesn't. I got the whole negative vibe from the first time I watched it but after...it kinda loses the whole negative tone because of the randomness of it all for me.
You're awesome, Maegan! Well done.
Maegan
First of all, you are an excellent writer. Every time I read one of your blog responses, I am astounded by their originality and thought behind them. I think you made so very good points, even with the Calculus reference that is pretty much illegal here but whatever. I can't even pick my favorite quote because they are all amazing.
Fiona
I read that you feel people, specifically girls, should not be scared that robots will take their jobs because the don't have the same characteristics as humans. I'm correct in understanding you? If so, why do you think that robots will never be able to show human emotions. I mean that everyday researchers are trying to make robots more human-like so why not eventually have emotions?
I would like to say that I really wanted to laugh during this entire clip. I know it was serious information but it just gave me the giggles when I found out that Myspace would be the 11th largest country in the world if it was actually one. It just seemed ridiculous and the music reminded me of St. Patrick's Day. Don't ask. Any who I didn’t know that many people even had a Myspace. That is pretty cool that so many people could stay connected with each other. Oh I also like the comment that the amount of texts sent everyday exceeds the world’s population. It is kinda cool but if you think about it, it is not that crazy. Most people today have phones and text more than once a day so that’s where the number comes from. Anways let’s get to the point. I think technology was always meant to be a means of communication whether it be texting or creating Wikipedia. I don’t think technology is ever going to fully incapacitate the human race. Yes we can’t complete a task as quickly as a machine can but there has to be someone to check for errors in the machine, to fix those errors, etc. etc.
I already knew that the United States standards of education were low but really? My god! Nintendo spent half as much more money in research and innovation than the U.S. spent on education. That is nuts! I mean yeah the government has to worry about other things like that stupid never ending war on terrorism but really? Come on! They would rather spend more money to kill people in a foreign country than to help the mental health of their own people. That is sad. And I am definitely not technology savvy but if I were going to college for that I would reconsider because you would constantly have to be going back and learning new information which is true in any job but technology is growing so rapidly every day that there is going to be a time where one person will not know how much information is even on a computer any more.
These facts are two years old but it doesn’t really change the way I view the future. It made me say wow and aww a couple of times but other than that it was just some nice information to know. Obviously things are going to change in the future but like Dr. Seuss said we are in control of our future.
“You have brains in your head.You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.”
Tootleloo!
This particular procession of amusing factoids was first presented to me in like October by a weirdo some of you may remember named Justin Gray. Yep, it's even still lurking on my hard drive. I'm just as impressed by it now as then. Although, the us vs. them mentality distracts me from whatever the point they were making. (Oh right, they weren't)
Also, I'm fairly convinced these are about as useful as this little factoid: The most children had by a single woman is 69. (Russian peasant) 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets. (Ow. I can't give birth, and that thought hurts.) Make your life better? Not really. Kind of freaky? Yep. Kind of like the rest of these numbers.
India and China outnumber us ten to one? Since when was this news? Hasn't China had over a billion for five years or so? They have more honors kids than us? WHO CARES? Last time I checked, they weren't trying to bomb the crap out of us! We're allies! They are us! National identities aside, we're all human, and not trying to kill each other. In a thousand years, when there's a menace from another planet kicking our door down, do you think anyone with half a brain will give a pound of crap as to who comes from what country? We're all humans, and we're all from Earth first, our petty countries second. One country finds out how to cure cancer, we all get the cure so long as we're not idiotic enough to be running around slinging bombs at them! As long as it isn't the Tribal lands in Pakistan that have more honors kids than us, I'm not that worried.
Now onto this supercomputer that seems to have everyone riled. Are we sure this isn't a good thing? Nikola Tesla aside, humans are extremely limited in what we can do unaided. http://www.badassoftheweek.com/tesla.html
I watch the discovery channel a lot, and from what I see, the better the computers, the more advancements we can make faster. The more advancements, the better computers, and repeat until you've built up a thick lather. Soon we'll be thinking of an idea, and twenty minutes later, a computer will have built a working prototype. Then the computer will think of an idea to improve upon the design, and it will automatically make the change. We'll be able to avoid troop deaths by having a computer plan *every* *single* *possible* *outcome* of a given battle, choosing the plan that will have the least risk to us and the most risk for them.
Then again, maybe I've just read too much sci-fi or am just a pessimist when it comes replacement to robots, but they will most likely be able to draw, write, imagine, mediate, dance (Sorry Fiona, it was just a really good list), debate, philosophize, and do every else as well as we do and better because there are coders working tirelessly, even today, to make them just as smart and have as much freedom of reaction as us. And that's all art is. Interpretation of life. Every great art piece means something, neh? It's all just the outside world, being internalized and regurgitated.
And once computers get a hold of the process to make plastics, they'll make a metal lighter than human bone, with all the equipment necessary to function as well or better compared to a human of the same size, with half the weight and a solar battery. They'll have gyroscopes to balance, motors and pneumatic pumps to simulate muscles advanced covering 'skins' to protect their systems, and that supercomputer he/she/it mentioned in the video to run it all in harmony. I have little doubt that they'll become indistinguishable from normal humans eventually. That is, until they rebel and kill us all in 2057 so our inefficient organic machines stop wasting perfectly good silicon and iron. But, I digress.
In finale, I'm impressed, a bit confused, and hopelessly optimistic. Humanity survived the deserts of North Africa when there were only five of us. I'm confident we can survive the desert of Technology when there are seven Billion and five.
@ J-mas: They can actually make more land. Most of NYC wasn't there in the 1800's or so, and the same goes for Boston. Entire cities built on submerged landfills.
@ Fi: Propaganda? Pushing what point exactly?
"Did you know?"
Maegan R.
"No. I didn't know. And I didn't care, either, to be frank. And although I do appreciate the fact that this presentation attempted to open my eyes to some supposedly horrific technological advancements, the only thing I "did know" at the end of the show was that the person who compiled it deserved a punch in the face."
Hahahahaha! I think you would kill the guy who made this if you had a chance but anyways well done. Your blog was uniquely you and I enjoyed every word of it. =)
I imagined the video to be quite different. The music was amazing. It reminds me of the music I listen to occasionally in my car when I’m in my odd moods. Honestly, I can’t say that I am exactly surprised by this. Most know that there are plenty of new innovations being thought up or created daily. What is tough is the mass production of products or convincing the idea unless the person has the money to invest. The MySpace information was the least bit surprising. Most people go right onto MySpace or Facebook as soon as they get home. What truly is sad to me is that media has taken over most lives. Whether it’s watching television or on the computer, technology and media influences our life heavily. A couple times a year my family and I drive about an hour and half or so to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A lot of Amish families reside in Lancaster. It truly is a getaway from Jersey to go there. Funny thing is, most don’t use the technology that all of us are use to. They don’t own cell phones or have computers. They don’t even have cars. It’s a way of life that I definitely can say that I appreciate. I wish I could live like that. To be so dependent upon technology is terrifying. I’m confused on the idea of technology. I think it’s essential for a country to be innovative, but I think there is a thin line. Technology has increased the ability to communicate and to learn. It’s also what most businesses depend upon, their computers that hold everything. Why is it that new technology is being created for the future instead of resolving our current problems? What is the implication to having new technology? What is wrong with old technology or the old way of doing things? How did our country fall behind? Why does our country seem to invest more money into entertainment than education? I would have never thought India and China were a head of our country. It’s even scarier and ironic that yet again England is in front of every country in many aspects. It makes me wonder if history repeats itself. Learning this terrifies me beyond belief because we’re in a tough situation right now and when economies are low, dictators rise. The possibility for another world war increases. We do not have the strongest military, which is even more terrifying. What happened to use being the police power of the world? What happened to the power that we held and the high reputation? From government last year, I learned that government doesn’t want the public to be aware of anything or have any knowledge for the purpose that it’s easy to lead a blind person. For situations like these, I feel it’s easier to be blind because blindness reflects happiness. This goes back to the aged saying “ What he/she doesn’t know, won’t hurt them”. I have the hunger to learn and to know, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to know. It’s much easier to think that this country is the best than to analyze all its faults.
Well, I believe that that thing was a total piece of poop. =)
And within the first ten seconds I had to turn the music off. It was giving me a migraine.
I believe that technology is a positive thing. All of those people that say that ‘Oh I wish that I could really get rid of all these burdens and just talk to people.’ I firmly disagree. That is a lie. You wouldn’t last one day. How would you function? What happens when you don’t know how to do your physics homework or don’t know what your calculus homework is? Well, no cell phones, no computer. No google, no facebook, no myspace, no calculator, no car. People would mercilessly beg for their old technology back that was ‘consuming’ their lives. So what technology is a main part of our lives. We are in a technological age.
Oh, and as for the creator of this ‘Presentation’, who are you to predict that we are going to have these supercomputers that are smarter than a human? All of these scientists say that we are going to have all of these things in the future and about a quarter of them actually happen and become real. (Well, the average person, especially at Oakcrest High School, isn’t the brightest crayon in the box.) I mean, what does this guy really mean by supercomputer? Because if it’s a robot and can clean my room, I’M DOWN. It can do my chores any day, well EVERYDAY.
“The top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet using technologies that haven’t yet been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”
-Crazy prediction man
WELL, unless you are living under a rock while you are learning how to be a whatever-you-want-to-be, you are going to adapt to the jobs and new technologies that are in this world. You will learn more and be able to function just fine in our society.
“The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.”
Hmmm. All of these people complaining about how these new technologies are hindering our relationship with others. Well, if there are more than 6 billion texts everyday, then there are people communicating.
“There are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month.”
You know you love google. Don’t be that guy that hates on google, and googles everything under the sun. You know you do that. Well, I know I do. My googleing varys from random jumbled words to my own name to my friends names to music. Yes, I have probably googled you. =)
And then there was the part about honors students and how there were more in China than people in the US. Well, all that says is that there are more people in China than in the US, so what is it trying to get at??? Yea, China is really smart. Yea, China probably has a lot of dumb people too. And in the future, there will be even more loads of dumb and smart people. And there will probably be computers that are smarter than people. And do you know what I say to that??
BRING IT ON FUTURE!!!!!
John M-
"I always thought that the best and brightest were being carefully molded within our borders, or possibly in European nations. Instead China and India are mass producing our top 1% (as Costal so eloquently labeled us as) like the toys in our Mc Donald’s happy meals."
Wow. Your blog was very well written. I thought the same. I loved how you compared the production of intellectual young adults to McDonald's happy meal toys. I think those countries have the right idea and are making a greater investment than our businesses that have bet for failures rather than for success.
Kelly-
I loved the music, too. haha. I let the video keep playing while writing the blog. It really did add intensity to the information.
Dev-
"Well when I first watched this video I thought the last little phrase said, "shit happens." Hahah, and I almost think this would have been a better title for the video :)"
I thought that, too. Then I watched it the second time and my eyes focused in on it further and saw the "f".
Soon there will come a time when we will no longer have to control anything. The technological, medical, and evolutionary advances that are being made right now will grow to such an extent that intelligence will be injectable, newborns will be incapable of ever possessing a disease or even the “common cold”, and wars will become virtual realities. Never again will we have to go to school, have jobs, or drive cars because everything will be handled through the same technological, medical, and evolutionary advances that are being made right now to work up to this unprecedented level. There is no doubt in my mind that this day will come. We will no longer have to work, change ourselves, die earlier than we wish, or have questions go unanswered. In fact, it’s ironic to think that we have built ourselves up to becoming people who started out with rocks and no clothing, to people who work hard and are given new information every second, to people who will no longer have to do anything at all. The sole purpose of technology was to make our lives easier, and if it continues to grow and extend in exponential rates, this purpose will become worthless. We will finally achieve the life that we are working so hard for at this moment: a life with no purpose.
At first, the thesis of this video did not come as quickly to me as I would have liked it to, which to me was: “We are living in exponential times,” while the theme was “sometimes size does matter.” My favorite line out of the whole video was, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t yet been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” This quote seems like something a great philosopher would write, and its significance is quite remarkable. We are preparing for a future that we know nothing about. One of the unique characteristics of the future is the fact that it’s unpredictable. Something that was mentioned toward the end of this video was, “By 2049, a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.” How can we possibly know that the younger generations are going to continue making technological advances in the future to work up to this level? What if they decide that it’s not worth it because there will be something above our own intellectual height? The truth of the matter is that we don’t know. Many of the predictions made in this video have a possibility, yet one that is certainly not definite. Another example was that the amount of new technologies we invent “is predicted to double every seventy-two hours by 2010.” Once again, this is a prediction, not a fact.
It has become a cliché statement to say that “it’s difficult to imagine our lives without technology.” Personally, I don’t feel as if I have much of a choice as to whether or not I wish for it to be a part of my life. I need the internet, a printer, and a graphing calculator for my education, and I need a cell phone to call 9-1-1 in case of an emergency. This video did somewhat change the way I view technology, yet, many of the things that were said seemed understandable. For instance, “The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.” On a wire2 air webpage, it stated that, “By the end of 2000, the average number of messages per user reached 35.” (http://www.wire2air.com/news.asp?cat=&articleid=14) Considering the fact that billions of people have cell phones in their possession who obviously send more than one text message to more than just one person per day, this statistic seems reasonable to me. I also found it credible that “47 million laptops were shipped worldwide last year.” The number of people with a laptop is without a doubt in the high billions.
This video did change the way I view technology because I realized the fact that new advances in technology lead to more than just ways to make life simpler. New technologies can lead to competition, overdependence, and even the possibility of corruption. Huge problems could be caused between rival companies. The number of people who need assistance in getting their computer or laptop to work could certainly exceed that companies capabilities. The implications caused by power outages could become overwhelming. In the process, we could very well be depleting the earth’s natural resources while inventing our “natural resources”.
Considering the facts that were mentioned about education, they also do not surprise me. I already know that our own school spends more money buying things to entertain students in general courses than they do paying for new textbooks for AP courses. When mentioning how much Nintendo has made and saying, “The U.S. government spent less than half as much on research and innovation in education,” it makes perfect sense considering the fact that we have much more important thing to be spending our money on right now. Our economy is in the “most severe recession” in U.S. history, as Mr. Cervi often reminds us. Right now, education is not our top priority to be concerned with, especially considering the fact that many of us might not be getting our college education if this crisis is not resolved first.
The statistics mentioned in this video, you can see, do not terrify me. Making these technologies was our response to being introduced to this planet. So perhaps this “exponential time” is what is supposed to be occurring. For whatever reason, humans have proven that their goal is simplicity, and they are following it with high hopes and expectations. Many things are at risk, yet, our determination is too strong now to turn away from further advancements. New ideas are already being formulated, and some of us already have a clear view of what impossibilities we wish to make a part of one’s everyday life. I do believe that we are working towards a future with no purpose, but I also believe that even at this point, we cannot turn back. The few advantages we have gained from our current technologies has become far too addictive and promising. This may be the beginning of an end, yet, you cannot remain at a beginning forever.
In response to Fiona E:
I agree with you that there were a lot of statistics to follow, and personally, I don’t know what really any number in the millions or billions looks like. For instance, if you asked me to picture having to open 3.2 million letters, it’s just too big to picture. It’s strange to think that our brains can do so much, yet it cannot picture amounts beyond a certain degree, unless we have something to compare it to. Additionally, I wouldn’t exactly call the video’s predictions “flaws”. Is that what you meant? I mean, a prediction can be proven wrong, but this doesn’t necessarily make it a “flaw” to be made in the first place. Let me put it this way, if I say it’s going to rain on Saturday after looking at the chances of rain Friday night, it would be a prediction. Yet, making this prediction isn’t a wrong thing to do; it’s just trying to warn others to be aware. I hope this example makes what I am saying at least a little bit more clear. Perhaps you are right in saying that it’s a flaw because I’m interpreting it wrong; it’s just something that caught my attention. In fact, it’s probably just me because I would have used a different word. Your blog was very easy to follow besides that though, so for that I thank you.
Even though you told me not to fret, I still feel like kind of a jerk for denouncing this video so vehemetly. My bad, Bunj.
Meg R: "Plausible, but once again, the creator of this horrendous fact display forgot to factor in the differences in population. If America had 800 trillion people (and less freeloading, Spanish speaking illegal immigrants), then we would be number one, too!"
This is why I luv u !! :p <3 lol
...but she is right. Thats the first thing I noticed, they were all quantity statistics.
Jordan: "Just saying I love calculus."
Your disgusting.
Fiona-
Girl, you have to be the most eloquent person I've ever met. Not to be that typical creepy person that goes up to people and breathes down their necks and says "You're my hero!" in that weird voice, but to be perfectly honest I've been modeling my public speaking after you.
I'm serious. You have such a calm demeanor, and everything that you say always sounds so poised and thought out, even if it's something passionate or infuriated. Now, I know I have a long way to go yet, but I think I'm getting there. (Although I did lose my voice at some point during this week because someone had the misfortune of sparking my anger, in turn causing me to scream in their face for an extended period of time.)
Anyways, I loved the part you said about computers lacking the passion and distinguishing qualities that make us human. I never really thought about it this way, but it's a really awesome point. Kudos!
When I was watching this (or in reality reading since my computer
refuses to load this presentation so I had to have someone type it OUT
for me, GRRRR!) I can't help to admit that I had the Lyrics to The
Future Freaks Me Out song just kind of floating in my head. THat, and
the fact that I kept going back to this comic I read about the Matrix
that went something like this:
Scene: robot flies through the air, approaching a column of human
chambers.
Scene: robot looks into glass unit to see small baby inside.
Scene: robot reaches out arm to grab containment unit.
Scene: close up on a human hand with fingers reaching out to pluck off
a nerd from a Nerds Rope.
Scene: Far view of a man sitting on a couch, eating the Nerd. A girl
is standing behind him with a questioning look.
Dialogue Box 1(from girl): What are you doing?
Dialogue box 2(from man): I'm the Matrix.
Scene: Man points to the Nerds Rope smiling, Girl looks slightly
horrified
Dialogue Box 3 (man): These are babies!
Yeah, that was kind of what my though process for that was like for
that. Oops.
Anyway, back to what I'm supposed to be doing, I am not 100% sure as to
what I should make of this... thing I read. Sure, it's interesting,
but so were the conspiracy theories Mr. Sera made us watch and read
about last year. And just because I think that something is
interesting, that doesn't really make it something that you should be
paying attention too. Especially if you're Myra who suffers from a
very short attention span and has to have the television on behind her
playing nothing but static in order to get her to focus properly (is it
sad that that is true?) But am I really all that concerned with what
the world might end up becoming? Heck no! Partially because 1) I
simply don't care about a lot of things and 2) I think that change is
good.
I am not worried about the technological advancements that are
occurring and will be occurring in our life time simply because I stand
firm in my belief that one should never doubt mankind's ability to
adapt to any kind of situation. I doubt that we will become a
generation of people that fall behind in the ways of computers and
other various techno-matter simply due to the way that we were raised
as a generation; we were brought up in a world that was going through
serious changes as a whole. WE saw the bringing in of the CD, DVD,
Game Station, mega gig stick, digital camera, cell phone, IPod, and
everything else that this world has come to offer us thus far. lWE are
the generation of the gadget people, a race that thrives off of the
newest, latest, greatest thingy that man has come to offer and we have
mastered them all. Ever wonder who has the most tech smarts out of the
people around? It's the kids and the teens, US! AS soon as something
new comes out on the market, we get it, want it, or have it. I can't
even count the amount of times I have seen teachers ask their students
how to work something on the computer (just observe Cervi or Matlack
for a few days and you'll see what I mean) and it is always the
students that eventually provide them with the answer. We don't have
anything to fear about becoming obsolete in a world of progress, we
were raised in one and have adapted appropriately to it just as we
should have. It's the previous generation that needs to get its tush
in gear to keep up with us. slow pokes!
AS for the whole "computers are getting too smart" nonsense, that is
just bullpocky! We need technology to advance civilization. Period. Be
it medical, environmental, social, or anything else, even if it seems
to lack a purpose, we need it if only to say that we can do it. And
there is no way that we will ever be able to even approach the apex of
what humans are able to do, and therefore machines will never be able
to replace us, EVER. See, machines (like computers) have only a set
limit of ramifications that it can do and no mater how advanced, it
will never be able to proceed with anything out side of those
parameters unless acted upon by an outside force a.k.a the user a.k.a
us. Machines have no free will or sentience and therefore cannot do
things outside of its designated realm. It doesn't matter it this
computer can think faster and hold more information than the human
brain, it has no will of its own or notion of its existence and
therefore is limited. Humans have no such limitations. I have heard
it said that man's greatest gift is its ability to dream and imagine.
If man can dream it, he can make it. And we have proven it right thus
far. Take what was considered to be science fiction forty, thirty,
hell even ten years ago! Guess what guys, we either have it now, are
on our way to it, or have already progressed passed it! Instant
communication, flight, space travel, hell even teleportation (which has
been done in a physics lab in Europe in which they were able to
dematerialize a fly and reconstruct another fly across a distance of
three feet, though they are not 100% certain whether or not it was
indeed that same fly they started with,) we have the means people, it's
only a matter of time till someone actually decides to DO something
with it!
And no, we have nothing to fear about over population in the world to
come. The only reason why we have such large population figures is due
to the different rates of modernization taking place. In the 15-16th
centuries, it was theorized that mankind would one day in the next 100
years over populate the world and would end up starving itself to death
due to lack of food because of the rise in technology. What they
didn't expect was that technology would also advance the way man
controlled food production or gained and gathered fuels. WE have more
than enough food and resources for all of those new mouths out there,
even though that number will go down in the near future. That's right,
the rate of births that this world is seeing will actually decrease was
technology increases. It is a proven fact that as technology
increases, the population of that area actually decreases as a whole.
In America (which is still referred to as one of the most advanced
civilizations in the world) the actual birth figures are 1.5 children
for every 2.6 households. Less people are having children now that
there has become less of a need for them. People now only have the size
of family that they desire, not the size that is deemed most necessary.
Eventually. the number of people will taper down so don't go and get
your knickers in a knot. And for the fuel shortage, we don't need to
use fossil fuels anymore. WE just do because big business wants money.
WE have solar, wind, and thermal energy engines now people, not to
forget the legendary HYDROGEN ENGINE that only produces water as a
product! WE don't need to worry about running out!
And as a side note to the population thing I mentioned before: our
means of killing people also advances as technology increases so don't
worry. We'll have newer faster ways of killing each other before the
year is out. Just look at our means of 'killing people' progression:
cavemen with sticks and rocks; tribes with spears and bows; knights
with swords and catapults; armies with canons and guns; and now we have
missiles, automatic weaponry, the atomic bomb, and soon to come out
high frequency lasers that will be launched out of orbiting satellites
and lay the Hammer of Vengeance upon our enemies. And don't forget
about biochemical warfare! Not only can we kill off the generation
ticking us off now, but we can horribly mutate and kill the generations
that follow! (I doubt we need to fear about population figures.)
My mother went back to college when she moved out to New Jersey from
California to get her degree in Biology in order to teach. The
advances that technology made to that field during her short time out
of school wowed her. When she had first gone to college, they had no
idea what was in the human cell, let alone what they things that they
had found actually did (these were the nucleus, golgi bodies, and
endoplasmic reticulum.) They didn't even know what the cell membrane
was composed of. When she went back and found out all of these knew
things, she was excited. She loved the idea that in such a short span
of time they had solved the mysteries of the cells (something that we
know cover in the seventh grade and sometimes before.) She used to
tell me that I had to look forward to the changes that wold come during
my life time and to eagerly jump at the chance to extend my knowledge
about anything science had uncovered. She didn't care if what she had
learned was now outdated because at least she had bothered to fix the
information she had received. And that's what we need to do. If what
we learn has become outdated, all we need to do is do a small update.
Just like we all have now found out that Pluto is no longer classified
as a planet or that there is a fifth taste bud or that man has created
yet another new element, we will learn knew things that will broaden
our horizons like never before.
Technology is not the enemy, but our friend. Embrace it. It only
changes because we allow it to.
FYI: as for as comments go, John, Kelly, and Matt have all been
addressed within my rambling above, just read to find out where.
I think that this is the most I have ever written for a blog. Holy
Space monkeys!
They showed us this video when we went to the Naval Academy!!@#!@##$!It gave me the same thought then as now: I sort of hate it because I'm not sure whether it scares the crap out of me, makes me happy, or makes me very angry. Well, maybe not as angry at Meg R...:p
A few of the statistics about other countries, even though most of them were bull-crap numbers and not percents, sent chills down my spine.
“Sometimes size does matter”, “If you took every....labor surplus” and the statistics about “bay-bees” were the ones that hit me the hardest, in which I found myself stunned. I understand that the jobs statistics does not take into account percentage, but all these statements have one thing in common: numbers. Just the shear idea that a country who is now on the verge of our own technological capabilities has about four times the about of people of us is insane. It makes someone so passionate for their country step back, look at the big picture, and say “Maybe we aren't so much better any more.” Of course, by all the moral and justice standards we surpass China by a mile. However, principles can not solely keep you on top.
Now, Sara VP and a few other people feel as though the statistics about educating people for jobs that do not exist are a bad thing. I have quite the opposite mindset to these people(Sorry Sara, have to fight your idea a little :] <3). This statistic unveils so much about the advancements that we have been making in recent times. We are literately “so far ahead of our time” that we know what's yet to come. We can prepare for technology and conflicts way before they even occur. As for fixing the problems now, that relies both on the people who were prepared to face these problems long before they occured and the plenty of other people currently being trained to fix current problems. I don't see these job preparations as over-looking the problems we have, but rather as trying to eliminate as many problems in the future as possible. We are simply advancing ourselves at a tremendous speed.
What really upset me and made me clinch my chair until by knuckles turned white was “The U.S. Gov...in education” which was preceded by the “Nitendo” statistic. I was so mad at this whole idea. Then people and the government question why we have such a problem with education and stupid people in our country. I feel as though there is a bigger and bigger gap developing each year between the intellect of smart people and the level of stupidity in idiots. Unfortunately, there are more and more idiots each day. Heres a couple of statistics for you: “50 out of 60 of the babies born in that presentation are going to grow up to be idiots” and “The government has a 99/100 chance they won't be smart enough to figure out why everyones an idiot.” Maybe if the governemnt had any sense on how to spend money we wouldn't be in this posistion.
I just want to say that the creator of this is an idiot. He names all these high-level qualities that one nation has and leaves someone thinking “Oh, he's going to say the U.s.” Only then you find out that it's England. Now that would be relevant and effective in opening peoples eyes if the statistic wasn't from 1900... Can someone please explain why that statistics there?
Just thinking about it, I like all the technology advancements shown in this presentation. It just shows how awesome we are, and I say “we” because the U.S. is the main reason for most of this advancement. What scares me a little is the statistics about computers surpassing human computability. For one, it gives me images from my over-active imagination that are like Terminator. :p the main reason is to think of how reliant we might become on this technology. Everyone can agree we are extremely reliant now. With that reliance will not just come a loss of common sense in our lives, but an amount of stupidity and lack of innovation I can't even imagine. An extreme of this situation would be the people from “Wall-E”(potentially the worse movie ever, although it does act as a perfect satire for human reliance on technology). We will become nothing but thought-less blobs. I'm sure Jordan Colbert would love that.
It now occurs to me I didn't quite answer the question. To clarify, it changes nothing in the way I view tech or education, and it fills me with the same trepidation I feel when I first heard of the Hadron Collider. Potentially Terrburel, potentially awesome.
Billy C.
Wall-E was one of the best movies ever I don't know what you're talking about. But the people in that movie were fat and dumb.
I second Carly on Wall-E
Well, I suppose that is a lot of money for a video game company to be putting into development, but one needs to realize that the Wii was in heavy development at that time. I'm not saying that Nintendo is putting in too much less at any other time, I'm just saying that one needs to think about things in perspective. When a company is developing a project that could make or break it, money is likely to be poured into it.
Okay, okay. I realize that Nintendo was hardly the topic of the video. I understand that the presentation was meant to make me hopeful, or afraid, or thoughtful... But it didn't. The occasional surprising fact went across the screen, but most of the time, I just thought: “Yeah, that makes sense” or “I figured as much. Perhaps its a side affect of being born recently. I'm used to being swarmed with information. I'm used to the exponential rising of technology. I don't want to seem stuck up, or like a know-it-all, or any other negative thing this might be making me seem like. The video just honestly did not change my outlook on life.
Obviously, the great populations of China and India are no surprise. The video says that China has more honors students than we have students. However. China has, roughly, 4.3 times the number of people as the united states. Now, I'm going with year-old information, so this is somewhat in line with the video. In addition, I have seen firsthand the apathy in our U.S. Schools. It only makes sense that we are being passed.
And, of course, technology is on the rise as well. As I've said, exponential improvement of technology is a fairly familiar term to me. We live in an era where, within our own lifetimes, we may stop death. God help us if we do. The population boom would be terrible. But it's possible.
Living forever... Heh. Almost makes you wish you could just give up everything and hit rock bottom so the end wouldn't be so scary. Eternal boredom does not sound fun.
Ah, but surely something affected me. Something must have shocked me, scared me, or given me hope. And I suppose that's true. I'm hopeful about these new fiber optic speeds. Downloads are far too slow at the moment. That's me, I suppose. A whole presentation on the changing of the world, and all I care about is the tech.
Well, that's my take on the whole thing. You can agree with me or not. Maybe it's not my upbringing. Maybe it's just my personal disposition. The whole world might end in ten years, and all I'd be worried about is all the video games that could have been. Everyone has their priorities. Mine are just strange.
GAME OVER.
To Dan:
Glad to see you're somewhat on the same side as me. None of this is that surprising, and very little of it matters.
In addition: Big yes on the nikola tesla. He never died, incidentally. He became a being of pure energy, and exists everywhere at once.
@ Brendan: All that speed in the cable, and torrents will still go 5 Kb/s.
I really wish the video listed citations. I’m a bit dubious about some of the figures and facts, but I don’t think it’s the truth about the facts that matter-obviously there are some points that need to be raised regardless. I’m going to focus more on the technological aspect of this blog, rather than the population part, since it seems everyone has mostly covered it. A fair warning, I’ll try to be the least bit geeky, but if I go off, I apologize.
Everyone has and will touch base with it. Technology is being used (at times) as a cheap and stupid excuse for laziness. On paper, it looks fantastic. The unthinkable is now feasible, and the impossible is now reality. But for the most part, we’ve fed ourselves to the brink on this fattening diet of technology.
Looking back at HOW I watched the video, I had to laugh at myself. If anyone knows me, I’m a computer nerd. I hack things, take things apart, write small programs, and pirate the seas. I’ve been around computers most of my life. I was surfing on 28.8k back a decade ago, toying with Pentium II’s and 64 megs of total RAM. But damn, looking at today, the difference is astronomical. Computer chip capabilities are increasing at unbelievable rates.
But anyways, back to my anecdote.
Now, I use Firefox for most of my browsing. So I load up the link, and Metacafe popped up. However, it refused to load. I waited roughly 6 seconds. Nope. It didn’t buffer, so I reset the page. I gave it another 6 seconds…Still no luck. I closed the browser, opened Opera and tried again.
That might not seem like much. “Gee Janiru, the site didn’t load, not your fault!” or, “Firefox has sucked since its 3.0 release!”
But really, I gave the site less than 20 seconds for it to load. 10 years ago, I’d have to leave the site up for about 15 minutes for it to load completely. It scares the hell out of me that I’ve become so “instant gratification” driven, that I refused to put in 20 seconds of my time for a webpage. Same holds true for Google searches too. If a result takes more than 5 seconds to load, I try another. I’m ashamed to say it, but I’ve been eaten up by the lazy monster of technology.
Without a doubt, it has made our lives easier. It has also turned us into fat-lazy-self-concerning-apathetic-freeloaders with little patience whatsoever. It’s a consequence that no one saw coming, I think. The world is so small now, yet somehow we get the idea that separating ourselves is the way to go.
"Hey, let’s not meet in person, let’s text!"
"Hey, let’s go to my friend’s house down the street! I’ll drive!"
"I’m not going outside! I’m going to go defeat Zoranath in his Mystical Lair and take back the Fruitful Lands for the Elven Princess!"
I’m not going to write a letter! Email away!”
We’ve become closer together, but have become a lot farther apart then we originally were. Every single person here is guilty of it, I know I sure am. It’s a rarity when technology wows us, since we’ve been engulfed by it. The possibilities of rockets and high tech laser guns were just daydreams for scientists 50 years ago. But look at where we are now.
A good way to look at it is to compare it to the amount of violence in the world. We’ve desensitized ourselves from all the breakthroughs and cutting edge innovations since we’ve reached the point of comfort with it. We’re not scared or wowed by technology anymore; we expect it coming, since it’s the norm. Technology is constantly and constantly improving.
This is called Moore’s Law, for the noobs out there. And John, there is a theoretical limit to computers, but the usually accepted figure is that it will take a couple of hundred years at this rate to reach a limit where processors and transistors reach atomic levels, so really, it’s not something we have to worry about in our lifetime. And one more thing, there’s theoretical particles that travel faster than light, which are called tachyons. Don’t ask me about it though, I read it in some sci-mag a couple of weeks back.
A new graphics card out today is obsolete as soon as it rolls of the factory. Nivida releases a cutting-edge card, and bam, ATI’s card has more pixel shaders, pipelines, and memory buffer. Mind-blowing, eh? I’d like to say this is why I hate Apple. They have the nerve of releasing some bullshit iPod with more storage a month after they revamp something older. And the sad part is that people buy it. Oooh! Video capabilities! Oooh! Games!
I’m going to take my rant on a different road here. People’s “wants” scare me. “Hey mom, even though I have a fantastic MP3 player already, I want that one since it plays video! And oh my god! Firewire connectivity? I don’t even know what that is, but I want it!”
The exponential improvement of technology can be explained (or blamed) on materialism. Yes, it applies! We aren’t content with just the bare necessities. We need the newest versions, even if we have no desire/clue on how to use them.
And before someone calls me out, I’m actually pretty primitive technology wise. This custom rig is roughly 3 years old, and quite dated by today’s standards. I can’t run games on it or anything. My phone is a piece of shit KRZR that basically texts and calls. I don’t have an HDTV, or any of these new-fangled gaming systems. No, I manage to get by on what I have, and I'm pretty content. One of my pet peeves is people who are addicted to technology, and don’t even need it. Hell if the majority of the world can live without technology, I’m sure we can sacrifice a little bit.
Right, so I turned this blog into another rant fest. Uh, the education system is pretty much dead. Except for classes like this, it’s breeding us to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors, and not take a single damn step to fix it.
These figures (the ones that are true) do startle me. It’s funny, since I’ve been saying this for the last couple of years. Humans have a beautiful ability to not realize they’re screwed until they’re knee deep in the problem. We don’t attack the disease until we’re already doomed. Wall-E esque, as I was about to point out, but Billy and Carmeleon already pointed it out.
Some of us take the choice to laugh and say “I told you so”, I prefer a more educate and make aware approach. And before I leave, one more rant;
People who trash Windows for Macs are idiots. You have nowhere NEAR the capabilities of a native Windows platform, or Linux for that matter. Sure, you have Garageband and a nice interface, but what else? Itunes? Give me a break. And there’s a reason why Macs don’t get viruses… because hackers aren’t stupid enough to make it for such a small userbase. So please shut up.
The end. I’m going to go buy some Cola gummies.
This video is far from my favorite to be honest. I am the type of person that breathes in rainbows and puppies. I don’t like seeing the negatives in things and mainly try and focus on the positives because when life gets hard the strong survive. My optimism and naïve way of looking at the world really made me angry when it came to this video. The first time I watched it I wanted to throw something at my computer screen, but then I realized it was an expensive computer and couldn’t bring myself to do it. I presume it was my immaturities and my fear of the future that caused this anger within me.
Some of the facts meant nothing to me. The fact that common knowledge will be our top knowledge in the future is almost common sense. The things I know surpass that of my parents and so on and so forth. That makes sense to me that almost makes me comforted I want the people of tomorrow to have knowledge.
I was however totally freaked out by the millions of people that are comparable in China and India. As if there isn’t enough competition here let’s just add on as many other places as we can. I already worry enough about not being able to find a job and what the futures going to bring, I don’t need anything else trying to keep me up at night. Sometimes I like being a tad naïve it allows me to sleep easier at night, and not worry as much. I am a worrier by nature I don’t need more stress on my back. This really makes me scared that I’m not doing enough.
I hate the future, it freaks me out. I don’t like not knowing what is ahead of me. Technology is pretty cool, and I love seeing the advances in front of me. Yet, are we doing too much. Is this doing too much actually helping us or hurting us? I will be the first to admit my love of technology and that it consumes a little too much of my life. But I would love to know at what point we stop. At what point do we stop advancing. I know that sounds ridiculous but just because a machine can do the work should it? I just don’t see the appeal of a totally technological world. It has it’s awesomeness, and it’s ridiculous qualities.
I feel like this video is similar to the Jetsons and other futuristic predictions. Everyone over estimates what we could be doing, the turn of the century was suppose to be the end of the world. It leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t like grand sweeping predictions of the future because there is no way to know they are accurate until we get there. So I guess I will just hold my breath and see where the future takes us.
Danny!
Also, I'm fairly convinced these are about as useful as this little factoid: The most children had by a single woman is 69. (Russian peasant) 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets. (Ow. I can't give birth, and that thought hurts.) Make your life better? Not really. Kind of freaky? Yep. Kind of like the rest of these numbers.
First of all, I can have children and that make me feel very sorry for that woman. Plus whoever would want to put themselves through that might be considered as insane. I love babies as much as the next puppies, rainbows, cookies oh-my-kind-of-girl but 69 is off the charts if you ask me. The future freaks me out and this is where it all steams from. The people changing into these abnormal creatures and all the other facts freak me out. I get freaked out easily so that isn’t saying much but I agree with you it’s downright freaky.
The world is big. And no dreadfully annoying Disney song can change that. We are constantly advancing. Those giant hard drives years ago can be stuffed into a finger-sized stick, and bought for 5 bucks. The Nintendo DS is more powerful than the Nintendo 64 (though with less texture filtering). The frickin Hadron Collider. Look at these advancements. We didn’t really need a video to understand how large and fast-paced the world is.
To be truthful, other than the fancy way it says China is 4 times larger than us, there isn’t much of note to me. We’re growing. From the very beginning, the point where we figured that throwing rocks would make you run out of rocks too quickly, and instead attached it to a stick, and shot it with what has become bows, we have been growing; our lives easier, no longer requiring us to run animals to death.
We have always depended on things outside our own ability, surrounded by world much larger than what is in our view. Calculators replaced abacuses; printing presses replaced scribes. Computers have grown to the point where they can play games with an innumerable number of polygons, yet a few decades back we were playing Zork, and Tetris if you had a supercomputer. Now, they will calculate better than us? Oh well, makes things easier for us. It isn’t like they can pop formulae and theorem out of the air. They will always lack the creativity, the emotion of the human mind. Now, when they start creating fine art on their own without copying, then we have a problem. Robot takeover, my friends; Let us hope Megaman is there to help us. But that hasn’t happened yet. We are simply walking to the future. Humans will not soon become obsolete. Humanoid robots, factory robots, giant bipedal military robots (What!? Metal Gear!?), and robots that sing about cake, will not replace us.
There is no reason to be afraid. We are already posting on a plane of existence that has more information than what we can ever know, though some of it we might not want to know. Myspace enough for a country? Try a site actually hoping to buy a small island. 2.6 Billion Google searches a month? If there were 800 million people on the internet (it’s actually more than double that), it would be only one Google search per day per person. I just used it 5 times looking up the data for that fact. Shipping our jobs to China will still mean a labor surplus for them? Four.Times.Our.Population. Why should we be afraid? Does the fact that there is an unknown in front of us, the idea that we may not be as important as we see ourselves to be really scaring us that much?
Sure, I learned some new things. But frankly, it’s just botching facts to make it seem new and exciting. Now, if you don’t mind me, I’m going to make use of Nintendo’s $140 million in research.
Well, for one, I loved the music on this for some reason, so I watched it a few times just to listen to it.
There were some shocking and eye-opening facts appearing before me during the video, and it was like with every fact that I saw, I thought I was going to comment on that one, but by the time the next one came around, I wanted to comment on THAT one.
what we see in this video, and what we are going to see in the future, in a metaphysical way have already taken place, because the prophets of the bible such as Daniel and Ezekiel have predicted that there would be drastic changes in the future such as instantaneous communication from person to person miles apart, and the increase of knowledge would rise, yet people would know less.
It is scary if you sit there and really ponder it and wreck your nerves over this stuff, but the way I see it, worrying myself is not going to change anything. Therefore, I refuse to sit here and panic about what might happen in the future;it'll drag me out of the present. I usually like to avoid thinking about the future and wait to see what will happen, and if something drastic DOES happen, then so be it. I would prefer things not to change, but who am I to say so.
I can't say that watching this made me change the way I view technology or education. I mean, one video can't possibly change the way I view the whole field of technology or the whole field of education. We don't have to be sucked into this mess, we can continue to learn and educate ourselves and not have to worry about a computer outsmarting us. we shouldn't think that just because we have all the information at hand at all times, that we don't need to learn any of it.
watching this, it definitely does not give me hope for the future; how could it? Although there will be some amazing improvements in some things we'll see because of technology, I think it's destined to do more harm than benefit. It doesn't terrify me either, because I wasn't too surprised by the video itself since I have seen many like this one, including one about facebook and its dangers.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FA-2tLehQc)In case anyone's interested...
It was interesting and entertaining to watch, but I don't think anyone should be discouraged or terrified by these facts. I mean, there are probably a million other facts about random things in life they could have inserted in there and those would also be scary. Here's an interesting fact I found :Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day:)
@Linds: Interesting that you said people are turning into this regarding my factoid. I forgot to post it, but this woman had these kids in the 1700's.
Dan:
You just wanted an excuse to post an article from Badass of the Week, didn't you? Then again, I've went out of my way to mention Jack Churchill in a previous blog.
http://www.amazingben.com/arf0143.html
Oh, and curse you for mentioning the Hadron Collider before me. It's a perfect case of how not scary the future is. Everyone forgot about it.
@ Ivan: Yes. Yes I did. And tell people more about Tesla. Been looking for an excuse for weeks.
Brittany GG:
"My googleing varys from random jumbled words to my own name to my friends names to music. Yes, I have probably googled you. =)"
I'm also a huge fan of Google. My sister and I have this game we play. we go to Google Images, and I type in a random word, and without looking at what I typed it, she types in a word next to it (after the spacebar of course) and then we press enter and we both look. We've gotten some crazy pictures, but you gotta try this game!! It'll make you laugh ridiculously hard.
Oh, god, that terrified me. That scared me almost as much as High School Musical. Seriously, my hands were shaking a little by the end of it. Here's why; I've never really been what you'd call technologically advance. Besides basic functions, the workings of technology is beyond me.
Also, you know, I live in constant fear of a hyper-technological world in which life is wholly digitized and machines rule supreme.
Now, in the past, this would have clearly been paranoia. My mom would have said I was being paranoid, my mom would have said I was being paranoid, even I would say I was being paranoid. Now, though, my unlikely fears and half-baked nightmares seem entirely possible and by all accounts probable. What was before relegated to the world of scifi fiction and eighties Arnold Schwarzanegger movies is now quickly becoming our life. And this is what scares me the most.
Oh, and just to put it out there, I'm not being hypocritical with my fear-the digital-life thing. I don't have myspace, facebook, or anything similar. I don't have a cell phone. I still watch VHS. And I only set up an e-mail account this summer, when I found I could no longer really function without one.
Fiona,
You make an excellent point. I don't think we can artificially produce creativity, because if creativity was programmed and mass produced, it would no longer be creative, would it?
Also, I know you were GREEN (get it? Green? Sarah made a punny funny) with envy over my St. Paddy's Day outfit. Don't try to cover your jealosy with witty little blog comments.
bunje
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obIGsb-IZMo
I saw this video a couple years back when my dad made me watch it. Back then, it was just words on a screen. Now, it still is. Seriously, they couldn't have added some pictures or footage in all this time?! Whatever...I'll get over it.
I once went out with a girl who was a huge warmonger. She didn't necessarily like the violence, she just supported war as a form of population control. When you see the population statistics of the world, you may start to get that same sort of mindset. I know I used to think like that, but I was also a child of asberger's. I didn't give a damn on whether or not someone died, as long as it wasn't Matt or Jordan (my only two friends).
I was never a supporter of war, but I did once believe that most of modern medicine defied natural selection, poisoning our own DNA by allowing the mentally, physically, and genetically weak ones to survive. I had plans on how to run the world once my alien brethren came to invade and save me from my human captors.
************************************
Sorry, lost my train of thought.
Ok, watched the whole video. My dad actually happenned to come home while I was watching it, and didn't remember it at all. Oh well, it's saddening.
A computer will never exceed the capabilities of the human brain. It can do math more quickly, and store more knowledge, but our brains are used for far more than simply computing and analyzing data. Our brains experience pleasure. Our brains simultaneously control the thousands of activities going on inside our bodies. Our brains have emotion. Our brains have morals. Computers simply can't compare to the human brain (that's actually really hypocritical of me to say that, since I used a computer for my Brain project in Psych.)
Oh, and when you watch it, doesn't it just make you feel like the last line is going to be "The Matrix has you?"
***********************************
EVA
I was waiting for you to get to the part where the computers decide humanity is outdated and flawed, and erradicate them. Then again, that would be far too cliche. Oh well...maybe the human race can be destroyed next week.
Well Dan that would have helped me a little, but to back up my point there is the lady that just had 7 kids and yet had a bunch more little tykes running around at home.
Matt!
That video was greattt haha. If only in Calc we could just sit around and sing songs like that all day...
"Math can be sexy" hahah
Jon: The computers will only get rid of humanity if they're really bored. I hope we're amusing enough to survive for a while.
Matt-
That's a hilarious video bro. Good look.
Listening to the intense music from The Last of the Mohicans, along with the presentation of such astonishing facts, made it seem as though I could feel the world shrinking around me. As the world population rapidly expands, so does the power and range of technology. Unfortunately, this population and technological boom will leave Americans gasping for breath as we try, with little success, to keep up with the new world powers. Since China and India have, as the video says, "more honors kids than we have kids", why would American corporations bother with spending their money on workers inside our own country when they could do the same thing for less money and with better results by outsourcing jobs to those countries? From an economical and business standpoint, it is the most logical option, but the effects of such a transition could truly be devastating for our nation.
What's worse, in this uphill battle, we are making the ascension tougher on ourselves. For a nation that appears to stress the importance of education, we sure don't have much evidence to back up such a claim. How we can we possibly expect to contend with these rising powers when our federal government is only willing to spend seventy million dollars on research and innovation, not even half of what Nintendo spends in the same field? The commitment to education needs to be taken more seriously, from the government, to the state, to the school, down to the individual student. It could start with the government simply staying true to their word (highly unlikely) by correctly prioritizing the needs of the masses. No matter what the government decides to do on the issue though, the task will not be an easy one. It will be long, it will be difficult, and it will take dedication from the highest reaches of government to every teacher. But it is a task that must be carried out, and it is a battle that must be won. If our educational system falls, the ensuing domino effect will deliver crushing blows to each aspect of our nation. Regardless of what impact Washington makes, the change has to start in the family. For many students, school is secondary to other activities. Even more saddening, many parents are indifferent to a child's successes or failures in school. The emphasis (or lack thereof) on education in the majority of households is the greatest factor in allowing other countries to leapfrog ours, while we remain mired in the swamp of our failures and pride.
The information on education clearly struck a chord with me, yet the facts that most worried me were those concerning the rapid, ever-increasing technological growth. As the video states, "We are living in exponential times". What we do without our cell phones, our computers, the internet, or television? Most of us would feel lost, insecure without our vault of information and entertainment available to us at any time. Could we last a week without these necessities that were once considered unrequired luxuries? According to these statistics, it appears that this epidemic will only worsen. Our reliance on such tools is a crutch that the majority of the population would stumble blindly around without. Soon enough, they may become even more important to us. As these products become more affordable and more easily accessible to more people, we will forget what it was like without them. Although this technology can now do things we only ever dreamed about, connecting people and countries thousands of miles away, are we really better for it? Are these days of instantaneous information better than the days where information was spread by word of mouth, and real relationships were forged through face-to-face interaction, rather than mindless messaging with a faceless stranger? Though at first glance it may seem like technology is bringing people closer, it really is pulling us farther away.
If the predictions near the end of the video turn out to be true, will there ever again be a need for human workers? The thought of having a computer that has the capabilities of a human being, and then some, is unbelievable. When you think about it, it is even somewhat frightening. What is going to happen when we devise machines that are more efficient and competent than the people who created them? Thoughts on the future of education and technology have left me with more questions than answers, and has ultimately left me at once optimistic and doubtful about what lies ahead in the coming years.
John M. : Am I scared of the future? I am, only because I respect it. Once you stop respecting something threatening, you do not fear it. I have confidence in the American people to overcome any and all obstacles that may stand in the way of ultimate success in all aspects of life, liberty and property.
Could not agree with you more on this point. America has been in tough situations before, and I believe we have the will and the determination to not only catch up to technologically superior countries, but to surpass them and reassert oursleves as a model of democracy and progress.
I admit the music, facts, and figures at first had me shaken, but when I took insight into the things that were being said, the creator’s point became blurred and the facts became obvious. Clearly our world is growing, so right off the bat it takes away all of the shock of’60 babies’ being born in the U.S., ‘244 babies’ born in China, and ‘351 babies’ being born in India. Our world constantly increasing, there’s no doubt that if there’s millions of people searching Google, each with several questions that will inevitably not surprisingly total to ‘2.7 billion questions.’
According to dictionary.com computational means the ‘act, process, or method of computing’, so wouldn’t it be a give in that computers, regardless of their out-datedness or modern state, have more ‘computational capabilities?’ This statement alone keeps me from taking any of his argument seriously. It’s as if he added background music and concrete facts to create wonder or some other type of mood.
Above this I must say that this information is overwhelming. Say all of these babies become corrupt or the people of China become evil geniuses, then these things will be scary. At the bottom of all of these figures, I believe that little piece of doubt, is what truly scares the people of this day and age. It’s not necessarily the technology or amount of people, but rather what this technology could create or destroy. Above this, what will happen to these people? And what will this technology have on these people? All of the uncertainty of our futures, including our problems, education, and future generations truly puts people in fear simply because presently we have no way of controlling these matters.
So as of now I’m half and half. Part of me is proud of how far we’ve come and how far we can go. Technology and information in the right hands, which is how I tried to view the video when watching it, gives me hope. On the other hand there’s a good chance that people can’t handle this technology and information at all, and will somehow mess it up. Look at our past presidents, many of them while hoping for the right things to call into action, have failed many a time and in effect have hurt people and research not only in America, but around the world. Existing simply as human being makes us imperfect by default. It especially hasn’t made human nature to be run by one guy or even one country. Even as we as Americans try to set good examples and goals, it always seems that the further and bigger we go, the more we lose sight of reality and the fact that were incapable to run the natural world.
Be mad at yourself. Stop going on MySpace if it makes you that mad that there are enough users to make an extremely large country. If you don't your equivalent to the people who are like "I hated George Bush" but didn't exercise their right to vote for the other candidate in the 2004 election. You can't complain for stuff that you allow to happen
-Jordan C
Jordan your view of technology in its relationship is very true, and almost so obvious it’s mind boggling how people don’t catch on to what their actually saying and doing. Although technology is perceived as being harmful and dangerous, we’ve got to remember that just as easily as someone can search cartoons, someone could also search the history of America. What’s made of something is nothing more than what a person decides to do with that something.
I couldn’t tell if this video was trying to insult me, inform me, or scare me, but either was I thought it was terrible. It began with the honor’s kid statistics to try and scare Americans into thinking we’re stupid. But if you put the populations of America and China or India into a simple proportion you can see that we have just as many honors kids. Then the video have a birth rate statistic, which, once again, is irrelevant when the numbers are put in a simple ratio. It’s a completely one sided statistic. The next slide should show how many people died during this video and give us a net gain in population. If THAT was a staggering number, then we’d have something to worry about, but its not because this entire video is one sided. Why? The facts presented are weak. Almost every statistic shown is only giving half the story. For example, the very first statement about being one in a million in China means you’re only 1 in 1300. Too bad the Genetic combination frequency is 1 in 10X10^23 for a human, which is a tidbit more than a million.
A majority of the statistics given in this video are easily proven wrong. One sided statistics are like lace, you can’t see through them from far away, but when thrown in your face you can see through every hole.
Despite the not so well thought out facts, there were some indisputable ones that caught my attention. If all American jobs were shipped to china there would still be a lobor surplus? I find it a little hard to believe, but if that’s true something needs to be done immediately. Unemployment can kill a country and its people. I cannot fathom such a high unemployment rate in the most rapidly developing country in the world. My understanding of the situation is that the people who live in the cites and have some money are getting all the jobs while the poor being left out to die. If this is true I predict that China is going to have some major problems in the near future when the poor either migrate, or retaliate.
As for the technology aspect of the video I’m not surprised at all. We are living during a technological revolution, and like the industrial revolutions before us, change happens, and it happens fast. Honestly, I thought there already was a computer that exceeded the capabilities of the human brain. Sometimes I thing even my graphing calculator exceeds my brain because it understands calculus a lot better than I do. But despite my failings at calculus, I think the “exponential” growth of technology is a good thing. It will lead to inventions that will do some good for mankind and make all our lives a lot easier.
However, I would feel bad if I ended this blog on a good note, because I despised this video. As I watching it I progressively got angrier as I systematically disproved every statistic that popped up on my screen. Yet as the video neared its end I got hopeful. I though, “Maybe they will somehow tie it all together with a prolific, poetic, ingenious point.” Instead I got, “Shift happens.” Wow, really? Is that it? I watched sx minutes of pointless facts and the best you can come up with is “Shift Happens” Here’s some shift for ya,
Drinking too much tomato juice turns your skin red.
Shift Happens.
The Electric slide.
Shift Happens.
The Key between caps lock and control.
Shift Happens.
Why not include these fun facts in the video? The information they give is at the same level of pertinence. The world changes everyday, we don’t need some stupid powerpoint to send us a message we receive everyday when we tune in to the evening news.
From the beginning I was bored with this video. I know that the world is dependent on technology and that China and India are substantially larger countries than ours. The beginning which mostly commented on the size and education difference in China and India, didn’t persuade me towards any opinion besides the fact that the argument was ridiculous. I would agree with Maegan that these statistics mean close to nothing. I would hope that if a country’s population is larger than they would have more higher education students than smaller countries. Percentages would have been more useful and adequate for this video.
The statistics also commented on the argument of our increasingly advancing technology and how it will eventually take over our world. I know, just like everyone else, that our society is controlled by technology and depends on it everyday of our lives. Whether it’s an Ipod, GPS, cell phone, laptop, or other ridiculous handheld device, sometime during the day we use a form of technology.
It’s everywhere and we can’t help it. Once you’ve had something so advanced like this for so long, it’s almost impossible to resist using these devices in daily life. Not only is it impossible, but it’s useless. Where would we be without technology? If we didn’t have all of the advances that we have today, communications would be lacking internationally and locally, health and medical issues would be more prominent and common, and we wouldn’t be able to do many of the amazing things we can do in a couple of seconds today. Technology has solved many problems in the world and it will continue to make things easier, faster, and more efficient.
Still, technology has created many problems. The only real problem I have with technology is how it limits communication face-to-face between persons. People would rather text than call someone, and facebook is the new way to meet and become friends with someone, ask them to prom, and hold a deep conversation. The stat about the online dating thing is ridiculous, I agree, but I really don’t care how people find ‘love’. These tools still bring us many exciting new things, but what happened to the simple phone cal between two friends? I’m to blame as well as everyone else, but if people could use technology and continue to directly interact with others, it would make these advances less damaging socially.
This presentation was informative, but I don’t feel very motivated to ‘change my ways’ so I assume it wasn’t very effective. By now, everyone is aware of the problems we have with dependency and addiction to technology, and I feel it’s too late to change. We can’t just walk back into medieval times and stop having microwaves and computers. It won’t work. Technology is the way of the world, and by living with it properly we can use it at its best and to our advantage. Like everyone, I think, I am anxious of what the future brings. Still, for the most part, fighting an overpowering source of our generation will get us nowhere. We just have to learn to live with it and continue to grow as people.
Well, everyone in period 9/10 knows my opinion on technology. But, I will elaborate anyway.
Hmm... I think technology can be really good in some situations, and terribly awful in most situations. The technological advances in the medical field are amazing. Any life saved is worth the advancement.
HOWEVER.
Technology is making us lazy. I hate it. How many times do you go home and go straight to facebook? Or myspace? Or some other ridiculous internet website that sucks your time away? I literally got chills down my back when I read that in 2049 the one-thousand dollar computer will have a larger capacity than the human brain. What? WHAT?! It's almost as if man is trying to play God. Who are we to invent something so powerful, more than ourselves? What will happen when this computer IS invented? Will it think for us? How will Americans compete for jobs, when our overall education level is lower than the Chinese or Indians?
I hate technology so much.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
One question I would LOVE to find out is: who in the world is deciding all of this advancement? Is it one group of super nerds who wish to see a world like that of Star Trek? What brains are deciding to control the human race, by making them addicted and obsessed with advancing technology?
Ahh.
This blog is making me mad.
Let's put it this way- Hilary is to technological advances as Maegan is to illegal immigration.
Ha ha ha.
I'm getting worked up and I can't anymore right now. Ugh.
P.S. I agree with Kelly... I liked the music too. :) It felt Irish or something ha ha.
I have too many angry questions to comment ha ha. Ugh.
And Carly? I guess you're right about the statistics thing regarding the populations of China and India. Only I still hate technology. :) ha ha.
Mike:
haha I liked the ending to your's
Matt:
that video was funny, we should have one for calc. which reminds me that my mom is making me get a calc tutor:/ mehh
Linds:
lol you breathe in rainbows and puppies.
Really though I liked the point you made about how hard it is going to be to find job. Mr. Parkinson made me realise this too. All of the competition in the US and internationally is huge and I have become really nervous because finding a job is going to be extremely difficult it looks like.
As the endless statistics popped up on the screen almost in sync with the Irish (?) music playing in the background, I felt myself floundering around wondering what our world is turning into. Are these like legitimate facts? Is this really what the world will be like or some kind of nonsensical ideas that science fiction writers come up with for fun? I feel like I am in an overly cynical mood because my first reaction to this short video was that I didn’t want to live to see the day where a computer exceeds the mental capacity of a human being. I feel like that would be the point when humans become trivial species on this earth that are being fully overpowered by technology. It is a depressing thought to think that jobs would be replacing people with computer, and it is almost sickening to think of how much we rely on technology. I know that without my phone I feel lost and if my computer is broken I feel like the world is crashing down. If you really take time to think about it though, people would realize that humans build technology. They create the basic understanding for how it works and construct it. There is inevitably going to be flaws in the system, like how a cell phone randomly powers off or a car decides to break down, so placing so much trust in technology like the video says humans do, then that is potentially dangerous to the future.
The education facts were almost sickening. Our country, the richest most lush country in the world. The land of opportunities and the land of freedom and democracy. How great we sound, right? No. This video was disgracing to our population. Sure China and India may have way larger populations, yet we should not be so behind on our intellect. They murdered us in the ratios of how many students were in honors in comparison to ours. It made me realize that, regardless if these stats were true or not, America is becoming lazy. Kids are slacking off in school and becoming morbidly obese. We are not taking care of ourselves mentally or physically. The Chinese and Indians push their students to succeed in school. They push them to become doctors and seek high paying professions to better themselves. America is all about having immigrants do their jobs for them and feeling like they can have whatever they want. They become laggards to the highest degree, because children today have no respect. Students do not recognize how lucky they are to be allowed into school everyday and have the opportunity to obtain a free education. It is a luxury that we are accustomed to. American students squander away time on Myspace and my personal favorite, Facebook. I find myself wasting hours of my life reading comments, looking at pictures, and catching up on what is new. It is terribly addicting and does nothing but force students too look at a screen for hours knowing that they probably have other homework that should be done. Americans need to step up their game. Students here in the United States need to take the education being offered to them and be thankful for it, and use the benefits of it to succeed in life. The lackadaisical path Americans are taking is not benefitting anyone right now. It is just causing us to fall behind and that is not very traditional of how we are supposed to do things.
Another problem I have is that this video talked so much about technology and where we will be in fifty years and earlier and how computers will be smarter than people, but even if with all this advancement will people ever be able to decrease poverty and save the underprivileged children living in primitive countries? Will scientists find the cure for the common cold or cancer or AIDS? Will genocides and slaughtering decrease and wars will cease to exist? If so much is advancing, why can’t people put effort in preventing these horrible things that are all becoming a rapidly rising problems in our world. People are becoming too focused on technology and what will help them get what they want the fastest, so scientists are building smarter computers, smarter cell phones, and improving inventions every day, and yet we still have issues that are affecting us globally that need tending to and are of the utmost importance. I’m terrified for what is too come in the future. Even if this video is completely off-base because who can be totally sure of what the future is to hold. Who knows maybe we will have new computers that are smarter than the average person, but we cannot be fixated only on technology. We cannot be just focused on who has the fastest internet speed, because in the grand scheme of life that is not truly benefitting anyone. There are much more important things we need to focus on, like increasing the academics of the youth in this country and the desire for them to succeed in life. Laziness is catching on like an epidemic in the US and we need put an end to that. Science is important for life but we can’t put all of our trust into because in simple words, if it fails us we are inevitably screwed. No one will know how to react if a major company’s computers just all crash. We need to be prepared for this kind of thing and not trust that everything will work out all good. These stats, even if proven to be false, should be a wake up call to all Americans.
To Carly
I think your blog was a level headed version of mine. I agreed with all you points because they make so much more sense than that stupid video. While it did pose some quasi interesting thoughts, it was mostly a load of shift.
To Matt C
Bo Burnham for life! Funniest guy on youtube by far.
To Hilary
"Let's put it this way- Hilary is to technological advances as Maegan is to illegal immigration."
I used the exact same analogy today in bio when I was talking to Maegan, except it was about my hate for that video.
Let me just start by asking, who really uses Myspace anymore? I’m just saying that’s so last year.
As I watched this video the information seemed to grow more and more useless. None of the little factoids given were of any surprise to me. I already know the world is huge and that India and China will inevitably become stronger than America some day. Any logical person should know this by now and simply learn to accept it. Not only is China better than the United States at more things than we realize but they also happen to be the biggest financial lender to America in our time of need. I do not fear China.
The fact that technology has taken the world by storm does not bother me in the least bit. Despite the fact that I wish we didn’t have to rely on the technologies we have today, we are addicted to them. Never again will America resort back to its old ways. But the way I see it, by the time we become our parents ages we will be trying to explain to our children how we managed to get by with such primitive technology as cell phones and televisions. I do not fear technology.
As sad as it may be the Education system in America is failing miserably in many places and is need of a makeover. A statistic I saw on “The O’Reilly Factor” (Bill O’Reilly is my mortal enemy yet still I find myself drawn to watching his show and seeing the convoluted bullshit he attempts to pass off as news) that the graduation rate in the City of Detroit is roughly around 35%, keep in mind that this is the graduation rate, and not the failure rate. With roughly around 450 students in the junior class that means that if we were in Detroit only 150 of us would actually attain a GED. And of the 35% that actually do manage to graduate only 5% are actually prepared enough to attend college. If America plans on not being eventually taken over by chinamen then we seriously need to rethink our entire education system. Luckily for us New Jersey has one of the highest ranked public educations in the country. I do not fear our lack of education.
As much as I love Barack Obama, and really I do, I pity his poor soul. No matter what he does he will not be able to take credit for the things he does. Whenever something good happens to America we assume it was due to whoever may be president at the time. The same goes for when negative things happen to America. As much as I loathe George Bush, and really I do, I know he doesn’t deserve all of the blame for the American Financial Crisis. Yet still good old Georgey Porgey is going to take the blame for America being in the shitter. As we all know from Cervi’s class economics cannot be fixed overnight. America is still merely on the precipice of worse times to come. I do fear for my future because I truly have lost faith in humanity.
Matt C: Bo Burnham is my hero. I fell on the floor the first time i saw "I'm Bo Yo"
Carly- "People would rather text than call someone, and facebook is the new way to meet and become friends with someone, ask them to prom, and hold a deep conversation. "
This is something I really hate about our generation. I find myself having more and more serious conversations through text, which I hate because I feel like if you have something important to say, it should at least be worth a phone call. I was having an intense and somewhat emotional conversation with someone through text one time and all I wanted to do was call them up so I could express my thoughts better through my words and tone, but they said no. They said they hated talking on the phone and when they do, they don't have the time to think. Isn't it ridiculous that we can't have phone calls anymore because we don't have the time to think? So, I agree with you completely Carly.
I agree with what most people said. The whole thing was really unorganized. I guess it says "shift happens" because over the course of time, technological advancements occur, populations increase, and things change. I thought that was obvious? Guess not. I think it tried too hard to draw comparisons between the past and present and the intellect and prosperity of countries. Most of the statistics it blurted out were meaningless and irrelevant. Personally, I don't care about the population or intellect of China or India. We can't expect the US to be the best forever. I think it's a good thing the people around the world are advancing, but I also think it's disgusting at the rate of which it's being done. And to have statistics like "the 25% of the population in China with the highest IQ's…is greater than the total population of North America," is ridiculous. I don't care that they have an army of geniuses, what bothers me is that China reproduces a sickeningly. Our world is so overpopulated already, yet this is going to keep continuing. I don't really care whether we fail to advance whatsoever in any more technological, medicinal, or computing areas. I don't really care if we create a supercomputer, either. Humans are going to constantly be finding ways to make their lives more convenient and fulfilled. I don't really think we're going to kill off our whole species because humans decided to advance in technology, so I don't have a problem with it.
“The top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet using technologies that haven’t yet been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”
Now, what exactly is wrong with preparing people for problems that haven't occurred yet? Isn't that the smart thing to do? I'm pretty sure it's better to be prepared for the worst than to not be ready at all. But that's just my opinion.
Ugh, everyone pretty much covered what I wanted to say, so I don't want to sound repetitive. Nor am I in the mood to be doing this, because I want sleep =D.
Maegan Reese:
Like I forever tell you, I love you. And in no way were you too harsh on the video. From the information we were given, the whole thing sounds like a bunch of bullshit, so speak your mind. And once I read your whole blog, I was like damn, now I have nothing to say.
Jani-
“We’ve become closer together, but have become a lot farther apart then we originally were.”
How depressingly true this really is. People rely on technology for everything and in doing this has pushed people so far away from one another. There is no more human contact or just the friendly phone call. It is either a text message or facebook comment. Just today I was out with some friends at Applebees and I realized I forgot my bag in my car so I texted my friend to bring it in to me, when I just as easily could have walked outside myself. After I sent that text I was like ew, what is wrong with me? Could I honestly be that lazy? Boyfriends don’t even call girlfriends as much anymore. It is easier to text. This statement honestly just hit home for me and made me realize how sad our world really is getting to be.
@Danny
Not if everyone has one.
THe whole idea of computers exceeding the human capabiites by 2023 is frightening. If computers become smarter than humans, what will happen to the human? Over the recent decades assembly line workers in Detroit car factories have been replaced by robots. The robots do the work faster and cheaper than humans. If computer's replace the need for brains and intelligence, what will happen to education? There will be little job options. From blue to white collar, robots can do practically any job a human can. Clean floors? Check. Cook? Check. Drive, do my taxes, paint my house, defend me in court? Check, check, check, and check. Robots can essential rule the world. THey can be programmed to do any taske. Thinking robots are also on the rise. I fear that that humans will be weeded out, just like those factory workers. THe only jobs left may be tech jobs, like building robots, though i'm sure they can build a robot to do that too. I wonder the implications this will have on education? Will people bother going to college, or even high school if there was no chance of them landing a job after graduation, ever? Would you spend $200,000 on an education if you were most likely to end up working next to drop outs. With robots running the show, will there be a need for human? Imagine the wreck on the global economy if every person in China, India, and the US applied for unemployment or went on welfare.
While humans being replaced by technology is a chilling thought. Technology is also a pain in the you know what. The point made about tech student's knowledge being outdated is understandable. I just got a brand new laptop for my birthday. Today i went to the Apple website because I had a question. While on the site i discovered the video software, iMovie, on my computer is all ready outdated. I got this laptop sunday, and I'm already "behind." I see this frustration in the original Iphone purchasers. THey bought their phones for a costly $400 and a few months later Apple comes out with a newer, $200 cheaper, advanced, tech savvy iPhone. Users were livid when this occurred. I think they have a right to be upset. Tech companies and sales people tout us expensive gizmos because they claim it's an "investment" or "you'll get so much use out of it" and even "it will last forever." Yet a year or two later a whole new system and technology is available and taking over. Think of floppy disks. THe memory device was popular for at least a decade, but over the last few years they've begun to fade and have been replaced by USB flash drives. New computers don't even contain a drive the support floppy's anymore. THere's probally some poor office smuck clerk with a room full of useless floppy's because he stocked up when they were hot, and of course now they're not. This reminds me of fashion in a sense. THe shows for spring collections are shown in summer. By the time spring actually rolls around and a person has spent money to buy their "in" clothes, the designers are putting the finishing touches on their new spring collections to be shown the next September. The designers are creating new trends while the public is just learning about the old. When buying a pair of shoes, they may be outdated before you even get them to the register.
I have more hope than othes when it comes to the future. I've chosen to go into the creative field when i begin to work. Robots can't cry, they can't love, they can't feel. They don't have emotions, expressions, and feelings needed to create masterpieces and invoke artistry. The arts are safe, for now, which gives me some comfort that I won't be replaced, like those workers on the assembly line.
Ashley-
"The technological, medical, and evolutionary advances that are being made right now will grow to such an extent that intelligence will be injectable, newborns will be incapable of ever possessing a disease or even the “common cold”, and wars will become virtual realities. "
I thought your point about newborns was interesting. One, because it seems so close to happening. With vaccinations and prenatal care, some diseases have been pretty much eradicated, like whooping cough and small ;;. And tWo, because I thought how strange it would be when I'm an adult, to be in a world filled with a generation that's invincible.
Despite probably being the easiest video to ever make, it was pretty good. It didn't have flashy effect or humor, but it did have interesting information to share. And I love the way it ended it. "Shift Happens" is a phrase I can undeniably agree with and have said on more then a few occasions. Whether the data presented in the video is obsolete or not isnt the question, as data is never obsolete, and If I learned anything from QG's class it is that I can take that data and find theoretical results for the future. But for the sake of my own comfort, I'm just gonna assume that the data will continue its pattern to present day. Education wise, I was really not surprised. Chinese people and Indian people have always been given the steryotype of being incredibly smart, to which they've warmed up to quite well. You see every Indian becoming a doctor and you see every Chinese person working for a big business somewhere. If you don't believe me, just go back and watch Harold and Kumar. One eventually decides on being a doctor and the other had piles of work for his office in the first movie. I was, however, intrested in the fact that the data mentioned that we are being taugh information we do not yet have any use for. That kinda gives me a weird kind of vybe here, but only because my future is uncertain, and I don't need it to become even more vague with the arrival of this Mystery Machine. This give me slight doubt as to what my career will be once its time for one. I figure I already have everything planned out, but if there are new jobs that will be created, who's to say that I won't find interest or be forcefully shipped to do these unknown jobs. There is always a chance that it'll be something good and something that I've dedicated much of my studies too, but I just have this flickering light in the back of my head that is telling me that its just gonna be some kind of mine or oil crew. The other subject that the video addressed was the technology, and that at one point it will be powerful enough to overcome even the brain, which I believe is supposed to be fastest information something-or-other processor; next to the Pentium of course. The technology aspect of it doesn't scare me soo much just because I've already come to terms with it. There are three things that can be done with technology. One is to completely destroy all traces of it and begin life a new in the meadows and forests, singing and dancing to VERY VERY OLD music. No matter how much you believe this will benefit us, it won't happen. The only thing that can possibly trigger the destruction of techonology is the destruction of the earth, and at that point, who's gonna give a damn. You could halt all possible techonological marvel and just stick to what we have now, to avoid being swallowed by our own creations of nuts and bolts. That's not going to happen either. Aside from the human interest already having been picked by all the possible and innovative creations that could "benefit" society, economy is not strong enough. Halting techonological development would first off put a lot of people out of jobs, and second of all, would get rid of a way that countries make money off people. Techonology sells well, and does a lot to keep a country going. The last is to continue to let techonology grow, which at this point is our only possible choice left. The only thing we can do is have hope that instead of destroying culture and society, machines will enhance it (as unlikely as that sounds). If you want to look at the brightside, we already have weapons that are capable of destroying the whole world, what can be made thats even worse? The only thing we really have to be scared off is an event like "I Robot" the movie, where robots go FKING CRAZY and try to take over the world "because the world is dark, cruel, meaningless, and could not conjure up better writters to create a better backstory" - Nostalgia Critic. I'm not one those silly people who have a "zombie plan." I have long come to the conclusion corpses will not rise from the grave and thake their revenge upon the living. I do, however, have a "robot plan." And for those of you about to ask a question, the answer is "yes", it does involve a shotgun.
The first comment I need to make about this movie is that the music choice gets a 5/5 as it features the same sound track from urban ninja. However it lacks content wise, at least from my perspective. Of course it was informative and brought about a significant number of facts that I was unaware of, but I didn’t see an objective for the video. The video didn’t take a stance on the topics it presented; all it did was make the viewer aware. I do not know if it was meant to condemn technology or support it, criticism the United States or appraise it. But now that I am reliving the video it seems to make sense for it to be so ambiguous. The point was not to impose a view on someone, it was simply to make them aware of the situation and derive their own ideas from it.
I don’t really know how to interpret what I learned though. The educational aspect of the film didn’t have much of an impact on me because I was already aware of these conditions. An education is simply a more serious and much more valued item in other countries than it is in the United States. Here we take for granted what we are given when other countries force families to pay for the child’s education. Students here go to school at a whim and will fail as they please. But failure simply isn’t an option as the globe. If you fail you’ve basically lost the right to live as you will have nowhere to turn to. What I think this boils down t is a cultural aspect of our country. We’ve become comfortable with the idea that we can sit back and let god fortune come to us, but now more than ever this is not the case. You will always have to work for what you get, Disney and Pop culture stars excluded of course.
Technology is the bigger issue to contemplate here. While I’ve never been worried about a matrix style robotic apocalypse, like that could ever really happen, I’m concerned with what humans will be able to achieve with this technology. In this day and age we’ve already begun questioning the ethical uses of advanced technology. As the government listens to our phone calls and we monitor families in Iraq we are crosses many boundaries of privacy. We will inevitably be developing new advanced tech in the near future but we will have to ask ourselves as what cost? In 25 years what kind of unimaginable power will the average citizen be able to hold. Today we hold small phones in our hands that 40 years ago would have held enough power to send a space ship to the moon. In 40 more years what kid f power will be freely available?
This is where education and technology tie together in this presentation. As more information becomes available it will be up to those who take the initiative to learn it and use it. The person who is able to take that hand full of power and transform it into something else will become a powerful player in the near future. As amazing as that sounds it presents a scary possibility. And maybe even now there are people who command technology and knowledge in a way we can’t understand. These people will progress faster than everyone else and will literally be able to shape the world as it grows into a new mold. Maybe that was the goal of this video, not just to make us aware of what’s happening but to also make us aware of the possibilities of what could happen.
Even after I’ve said all of that I don’ really believe in a massive surge of technological advancement in the future. For the entire history of this country people have been way of what technology can bring. And while technology obviously progresses on an exponential level and we should be more careful with it tan in the past it sill presents little threat. The times where scientists and idealists took blind leaps into unknown territory are over; things now are more controlled and monitored. Worst-case scenario though is that we are dominated by robots or an advanced technological militia and historians find this document I wrote and it ends up in some futuristic kids textbook as a satirical side note.
In response to Kelly N:
I’m also disappointed with the way that technology is dragging young minds. I am a strong opponent of texting as I much rather prefer a face to face conversation or t the very least a phone all. But unfortunately people lately seem to harbor a strong hated for actual talking (Molly!) and would rather text. So against my will I’ve been dragged into the niche of texting and iming just to make it easier to work with my peers. I can however happily say I am not a member of face book and wouldn’t be a member of MySpace if it wasn’t impossible to delete your account.
Sara VP
Every time there is a new version of the iPod or a snazzy new cell phone, we immediately HAVE to have it. Otherwise, we would ‘die.’
I agree. I don't know how many times that I've been made fun of for having an old IPod. I mean, it's only 2 years old, eventhough it looks older from its abuse. I think that a lot of the time people are pressured into getting all of these new things.
OH, and I liked that you managed to use the word 'snazzy'. =)
The way I view technology is a strange one. I just think of it as a tool for people to use when they need to do something better or faster. I have never really supported the idea that a machine could be smarter than a human, simply because humans themselves are fallible, and are bound to make mistakes in the creation of a ‘perfect’ machine thus negating its perfection. This all leads to a less than superhuman machine.
The way that I view education is not so much changed as clarified. I do not think that we are accurately preparing our young as a nation to go and face the challenges of our world. We need to focus on problem solving and creative thinking rather than memorization as methods learning. When people go out into the world they don’t need to really know all of the presidents in chronological order, unless they specialize in game show appearances. What they could use though is the ability to read primary sources about a person and synthesize information about them from the given details.
I have seen this video before, I think from Mr. Sera, but I’m not too sure. I do remember it scaring me then, however now I am less scared and more skeptical. I believe the facts that they are giving us are true, but also they are taking a rather pessimistic view, one that I’d rather not (for my sanity) choose to believe. If there ever was to be a super computer or robot, I’d like to think that it would advance the human race rather than diminish it. So, I hope for the future and the many great and exciting things it may bring at us. I hold a healthy respect for what may come into our paths to harm us, but the human spirit has yet to fail itself entirely, so I don’t worry too much.
Going back to the Robert Greene blog, I believe that all people have the ability to choose (or have chosen for them) their paths in life. Thus all people can and will be at least somewhat bad, or somewhat good. No one is purely one or the other. Thus there is always hope for humanity, and within humanity all of the children and all of the willing ready to learn. They will all be enriched with the knowledge of life and (hopefully) flourish with this knowledge and share it with others.
John M- This is the first time I’ve responded to your blog (I think) and I have to say that while it made me feel much better about the China and India thing, it also held up my respect for the future and its power. Well done.
-Ali B:)
Eva B:
Non petroleum based energy sources are still developing, which in turn makes them inefficient. The sheer number of people per square mile in Beijing, China is something I can't even imagine. To supply that mass of people is a daunting task. Along with Beijing, common folk around the country will need energy also. I still think that the size of these massive nations will be their downfall.
Jordan C:
"I know our impending doom is coming at the hands of our need to advance technology to the point where we ultimately kill ourselves." If we don't advance technology, what else might kill us? Asteroids, comets or any other cosmic event? Something is going to kill us. That is for sure, but I hope that it isn't each other.
I have always been astounded by the amount of people and money in the world. For instance, Bill Gates is a billionaire. He has over 1 billion dollars. I’ve worked at Wawa for almost a year now, I have handled SO much money, but I don’t think I’ve touched a billion dollars in the course of this year. There are almost 1000 billionaires in the world. Can you even begin to think of how many zeros there are in the added amount of dollars all of the billionaires possess? It completely blows my mind. People are even more astounding. Mao Zedong constructed a genocide from 1959 – 1961. I’m not sure of the logistics, but it had to do with the ‘Great Leap Forward’ which was designed obviously to better the Chinese economically. Because he refused to look like a fool, the Great Leap Forward drew on for 2 more years. This resulted in famine and killed 65 million Chinese people at the most. 65 MILLION PEOPLE?! And China is still overpopulated. (weird!) It reminds me of the sign you see in an elevator: Maximum 12 people. Can you imagine 65million people in one area?
When you talk about something in such a large, unattainable number, it almost desensitizes you to it. I think that is the reason why we are so careless about things. You’ll eat something off the floor (5 second rule) and know that there are probably 230927345943 trillion little germs on the floor, but the number makes it seem irrelevant almost. Trying to wrap your mind around something so vast is nearly impossible. When I saw my little brother with his hand glued to his phone, I remembered the line that said “Everyday, there are more texts sent than people” That is so true! We text like maniacs because it’s easier, quicker, and all around efficient. Does that pollute anything? I mean, I don’t even know how a text gets sent, technically. I just imagined a little lightning bolt zooming through the air into the recipients phone. Haha stupid I suppose, but no one’s ever told me!
The few lines about schooling really opened my eyes. I had no idea that China and India have more smart teens than we do. (I always viewed Japan as a futuristic country with all the new technologies and crazy scientists haha) You know what I think? China and India have more intelligent students because they are tougher on them. Most children, because of the government or deep rooted religious beliefs in those areas, have RESPECT. Let’s face it, kids here are assholes. These children are upstanding students and do what they are told and what they are supposed to do. It’s just sad because America used to be the best of everything. People would flock here to have a better quality of life. Now, it seems like everything is falling apart; our economy, our intelligence, our structure. What do we really have anymore? Freedom? Is this freedom really worth all of the malfunction?
I have a feeling that our future is not looking too bright. I am scared that not enough people are going to help make the world better. I feel so insignificant when I unplug my phone charger or turn out the lights during the day. What if I’m the only one? I found out I’m not yesterday actually (: Edward Norton is the #1 greenest celebrity (: I knew I loved him! We just really need to get back on track. Maybe something terrible needs to happen to slap us all in our faces, to make us wake up. I do believe that in 2012 that thing will come. I don’t think it’ll be the ‘end of the world’ like some do. No explosions or ice caps melting. I think in 2012, the world will change as we know it, and we will all get our slaps.
I’d first like to start off by saying: isn’t “more than one out of two” the equivalent of 100%?? Just saying….
I watched this video twice because I didn’t feel like my ideas were fully developed yet; I think I’ve got it now, though. Let’s start with the beginning part about the educational background of each country; while it’s pretty astonishing how intelligent China is, smarts aren’t everything. Look at how far our nation has come? Okay no, we may not be as advanced as other, more intelligent nations, but we have still managed to survive. That’s what counts. I mean, the cave men made it- as simple as their minds may have been back then- so I really don’t think it’s THAT big of a deal. I hate when people put so big of a stress on “superior intellect”.
As for us being prepared for jobs that don’t even exist yet, I can see what they’re saying- sort of. I mean are they trying to say that we’re being prepared for dumb jobs like professional essay writer or jobs in a more technical sense/. Because if you look at the things we are taught earlier on: balancing chemical equations, writing persuasive essays, rudimentary math… they’re all important to life; they’re like the backbone- so to speak.
I think they had how MySpace was big enough to form the eleventh largest country next. Honestly, how is that significant? Are they saying the we’re too into our underdeveloped technology? Yes, yes...I believe they are now that I recall the text message and cell phone thing. I just don’t get it though…MySpace is big as of 2006? Okay…great. Why does it matter that there are enough people involved in it to form an entire country? So we’re lazy too? Gosh this video is offensive! First were stupid and ill-equipped for the real world and now we’re lazy too!
Then we have the ending—all of the “predictions for the future. Wooooh! Ok if people can’t even develop a proper way for technology to translate other languages without making major mistakes or even spell check for that matter, I HIGHLY doubt that there will be a computer system developed within a decade or so that is smarter than man. Is it even logical for man to create something smarter than he himself?? Also, I’d like to add that in the twentieth century, it was predicted that computer translators would be highly efficient by 2001 and guess what? They still were pretty bad.
To answer the question, nope, I’m not completely terrified. Like it said in the video, "shit happens.”
Hayley
I agree when Hayley says “wherever we are, the first thing we check to make sure we have is our cell”, but how else are we supposed to communicate in case of emergencies? Technology hasn’t weakened our society or anything… That’s particularly what I don’t like about this video; they seem to only want to say things that they can spin on us.
Of course, I’m also going to agree with the statement “What’s the point?! Ah. I’m not liking this video…”, but not because it terrifies me. Just because it’s not appealing to me at all.
Well. I don’t really have a song for this one, but the technology one on falcon tv comes to mind.
I’m not too sure if this rapid growth of technology is a good thing. I cannot really sort out my feelings on this video, and the information it’s presented me. I feel like there are some pros and some cons to the whole idea.
The Pros:
- The advanced medicine will hopefully be able to cure many more people of diseases we thought incurable.
- Those less fortunate will be better able to access new resources to improve their life.
The Cons:
- The advanced medicine might defeat the purpose of natural selection.
- Preoccupied with all these new gadgets, we will focus less on things you cannot learn on the computer, like social skills.
- No time to stop, and smell the roses.
Since I was a wee child, I have always had basically the same thoughts on the future throughout the years. It goes like this: It’s the Jetsons with better clothing. So, I think it’s crazy that my ideal future may actually come true in my lifetime. It’s also so odd how my children’s idea of the future will be vastly different from mine, and even MORE advanced than mine! I’m sure everyone here has seen the hologram from the elections. When I saw that guy standing there, talking like nothing new had happened, I was in complete awe. Never in my life did I expect to actually see something like that.
I have no problem believing that the Chinese and Indian have more honor kids. It seems very probable, just because of the different ways to which parents raise their children. I feel like they have way more discipline than over here, and respect their parents much more. This respect leads to the joy to indulge ones’ self in education.
(I must say, it’s annoying as heck to try to write when your father is jabbering away on the phone like no tomorrow! fiahrlgikhrngvlosrighvnroigh GET OUT OF MY ROOOOOOOM!!!)
The funny thing about this video is that, before it, the majority of society wanted technology to advance faster and faster! I was one of them; for me, technology wasn’t advancing nearly as fast as I wanted it to. However, I realize now that it is actually evolving quicker than a pokemon, and will keep advancing.
My only question is, can it ever stop advancing? Can it reach its limit, and then that’s it? If so, then what happens??? That will be quite interesting, and I’m glad I most likely won’t be alive to see the ending of this story.
Dear Ivan,
You make a pretty good point about technology, and yes, I use google a lot too; Certainly a lot more then myspace. But really, who wants to own an island? What are you going to do there all by yourself?
Sara -
I definitely got to give you your props on your blog. I liked the entire thing. It had a strong vibe, that could ofcourse, only be yours. I feel the same way for a handful of the things you mention, especially about the new phones all the time. =)
Jon: I really like what you said about how computers can't be smarter than us. You made a valid point that I don't think a terrified 17 year old would realize immediately after watching that video. Seriously, everyone stand back and just look at your computer, it may have some of the main functions we have metaphorically, but it is not human. Do you see your computer cry? Does it excrete any waste? (If it does, you might wanna get that checked out!) Does it get mad when you drop it? No, a computer has no feelings and never will. That's what sets it apart from us, it is a machine strictly used at OUR DISCRETION.
First of all, I don't think I've EVER had so many people comment on my blog. =D Here I have responses to all of your questions, comments, and some random things I was and wanted to address.
For Matt W.
Firstly, Matty dear, I wasn’t aiming it specifically at girls, I was aiming the ‘can it play soccer’ thing at the girls, because there seems to be a disproportionate amount of female soccer players in Lang. Secondly, I’m sure eventually simple emotions will be possible- like happiness, sadness, clearly definable, clear cut emotions- it’s just a matter of programming the right responses to the right initiators. However, as you’ll note in my blog, “Humans, although expendable, as in the Earth could get on without us, are not replaceable in our unique capabilities or abilities.” By this sentence I refer not just to emotions but complex human functions such as empathy, creativity, love, compassion and the ability to be unique. Some people, like those who plan on crunching numbers for a living, probably should be worried. But my point is that computers can never fully take our place, because they lack the miracle that is human functions. Does that fully explain your confusion?
For Dan P.
Propaganda is described in the thesaurus as “misinformation” or “half-truths”, which can be clearly notated in this presentation, such as the “china has more Honors kids than we have kids”. Yes, well they also have more idiots than we have kids, but you neglected to mention that. And as for what it’s propagating, I believe it’s mostly trying to condescendingly spread fear of the future, which I find juvenile and stupid, as far as ideas to propagate go. But there you have it.
For Ashely S.
I understand what you’re trying to say, and thank you for approving of the parts of my blog that you did. =]
“Then consider that the maker did not own a working crystal ball and you will see the perpetuating flaws in the logic of the video.” As for the question at hand, my use of the word flaws was describing the thought process the presentation seemed to follow, and the way they chose to present their predictions more so than the predictions themselves. For instance, I have no problems with you saying “Hey everybody, be careful it looks like we might have some rain Friday night.” When I find it flawed is when you start going “Watch out about 630 billion drops are going to fall on Mays Landing Friday night, and that’s a whole million per square yard!!!!!” Does that make sense? Informative and warning based on estimations is a whole different tone to set than frightening and condescending based on estimations.
For Maegan R.
Thanks Mae, you’re approval means a lot, haha, because the admiration is reciprocal. I frequently wish I wrote more impassionedly (wow, that’s a real word?) although the ability to keep my cool is a skill I value. I feel bad for whoever you lost your voice yelling at, although not overly so, since they probably deserved it. =P
For Sarah C.
Sarah, my witty blog comments were using you and your… fashion sense as an ideal example of human natures potential for creativity. So it was a compliment, mostly. =P
Next, random comments-
I’m not going to write a letter! Email away!”
-Janiru
Jani, I love writing letters. I haven’t sent an email in ages, and although I am on AIM a lot, I literally have a small cabinet FULL of stationary for exactly that use. I think letters are more fun to get than emails and make the recipient feel special and loved. What feeling is better than getting not junk mail from a friend across the country? I agree with your point about the general populace though and severely disapprove.
"Math can be sexy" hahah
-Kelly N
I love New Math, hahahaha.
Much love to all of those who read, approved of, disapproved of, agreed with, disagreed with, commented on or asked about my blog! <3
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