Superpowers vs Technology

The ship might be little more than a container to make long distance travel easier or to protect fragile items during transport.    Could compare a modern military vs an ancient one.   The ability to call in artillery or aerial air attack might be seen like a divine intervention.  People walking down the street talking to themselves might be seen as possessed.    A superpower that maybe not far from us is the ability for social media responses to produce actual physical effect on users.    Likes could inject stimulants or strength enhancers, while negative likes could make other users shrink or weaken.   Super users could respond and produce effects on mass numbers of users, revenge on disliking users by draining power from the users or their devices.  A possible hazard if the devices implanted into users and have more function than just communication.   Wireless feeding or nutrition or medical intervention.  A super manchurian candidate with remote control.

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The ship might be little more than a container to make long distance travel easier or to protect fragile items during transport.    Could compare a modern military vs an ancient one.   The ability to call in artillery or aerial air attack might be seen like a divine intervention.  People walking down the street talking to themselves might be seen as possessed.    A superpower that maybe not far from us is the ability for social media responses to produce actual physical effect on users.    Likes could inject stimulants or strength enhancers, while negative likes could make other users shrink or weaken.   Super users could respond and produce effects on mass numbers of users, revenge on disliking users by draining power from the users or their devices.  A possible hazard if the devices implanted into users and have more function than just communication.   Wireless feeding or nutrition or medical intervention.  A super manchurian candidate with remote control.

Ah, the joys of cyborgs. I wouldn't be surprised if many people have electronic implants in the 22nd century, if not well nbefore. Carrying around cell phones?  How crude. Just implant the tech and go hands-free in a world of enhanced senses and capabilities, blending mind and machine. 

I suspect bionic/cybernetic additions to humans might go right along with the development of life-like androids. Perhaps meat-heads and machine-heads will meet somewhere in the middle, someday. 

A mixed world of humans and androids will someday make perfect sense, or so I suspect. But not my generation. Missed that boat. 

The interesting question is will androids be slaves or fellow citizens? Will enhanced natural and fully synthetic beings share the world?  I'm sure that will get argued over time, Civil rights for synthetics?

Unless, of course, we go down the Skynet path first. 

Shadar


 

wrote:

wrote:

The ship might be little more than a container to make long distance travel easier or to protect fragile items during transport.    Could compare a modern military vs an ancient one.   The ability to call in artillery or aerial air attack might be seen like a divine intervention.  People walking down the street talking to themselves might be seen as possessed.    A superpower that maybe not far from us is the ability for social media responses to produce actual physical effect on users.    Likes could inject stimulants or strength enhancers, while negative likes could make other users shrink or weaken.   Super users could respond and produce effects on mass numbers of users, revenge on disliking users by draining power from the users or their devices.  A possible hazard if the devices implanted into users and have more function than just communication.   Wireless feeding or nutrition or medical intervention.  A super manchurian candidate with remote control.

Ah, the joys of cyborgs. I wouldn't be surprised if many people have electronic implants in the 22nd century, if not well nbefore. Carrying around cell phones?  How crude. Just implant the tech and go hands-free in a world of enhanced senses and capabilities, blending mind and machine. 

I suspect bionic/cybernetic additions to humans might go right along with the development of life-like androids. Perhaps meat-heads and machine-heads will meet somewhere in the middle, someday. 

A mixed world of humans and androids will someday make perfect sense, or so I suspect. But not my generation. Missed that boat. 

The interesting question is will androids be slaves or fellow citizens? Will enhanced natural and fully synthetic beings share the world?  I'm sure that will get argued over time, Civil rights for synthetics?

Unless, of course, we go down the Skynet path first. 

Shadar




 

The advances in telephony you allude to were predicted way back in 1967: 

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The advances in telephony you allude to were predicted way back in 1967: 

This clip was great!  Really took me back to the 1970's when The Phone Company was what most people thought of as the Evil Mastermind. And yes, many of the top scientists in the world worked for its research arm, Bell Labs.

After that, the Evil Masterminds started migrating to Silicon Valley, and then to Seattle. The big Tech companies vanquished the Phone Company evil from popular culture and cheap Sci-Fi -- and replaced it with their own.

Question now... how long before Tech comes up with an implantable device that contains the full functionality of your smart phone and more, and without having to fumble around touching screens or ever running out of charge, etc. Powered by your body. Responding to your every thought.

Maybe 20 years?

By that time, unless you live off-grid and off-Net or are a Luddite, you'll have been thoroughly prepared, by a million subtle messages in TV shows, movies, all over the Net, etc. to be truly excited when the first implants are announced. Most people will say NO WAY! But after everyone cool has one, every influencer, every entertainer, then everyone else will want them too. 

Step 1 of the Human Seduction by our future Machine Overlords. DONE

Shadar

And our true superpowerful overlord simply snap her fingers and all mere mortals and machines alike are bent to every whim and fancy of her will.

Machines stand no chance against true superwomen nor would they even have a chance to develop in a world full of superwomen. Even their speed of subjugation of the human race is considered vastly inefficient to a true superwoman. 

We are getting close to the prediction. Already the wired telephone booth fits in a pocket with a video screen battery and wireless. To help users that can't see the tiny details on the screen or hear that well, implanted electrodes will provide assistance to overcome disabilities.  But as the cost of technology falls, it may become affordable to businesses and then consumers.   It may become harder to compete with users that can afford to be plugged into their virtual assistant to feed them cues on approaching  traffic or instantly remember names with recognition, pull up floor plans for unfamiliar buildings.    The superhuman part might be ability to coordinate any number of drone assistants like a fleet of roomba like devices.   Users that got disconnected from "the matrix" would likely fall into a catatonic state until they got used to only having their normal sensory inputs and what remained of their physical abilities.   A superwoman sys admin could exercise near unlimited power to connected users.   With the appropriate advertising her appearance would have the same effect as the great leader of a totaiitarian state.   The users would instantly submit to her every whim.

wrote:

We are getting close to the prediction. Already the wired telephone booth fits in a pocket with a video screen battery and wireless. To help users that can't see the tiny details on the screen or hear that well, implanted electrodes will provide assistance to overcome disabilities.  But as the cost of technology falls, it may become affordable to businesses and then consumers.   It may become harder to compete with users that can afford to be plugged into their virtual assistant to feed them cues on approaching  traffic or instantly remember names with recognition, pull up floor plans for unfamiliar buildings.    The superhuman part might be ability to coordinate any number of drone assistants like a fleet of roomba like devices.   Users that got disconnected from "the matrix" would likely fall into a catatonic state until they got used to only having their normal sensory inputs and what remained of their physical abilities.   A superwoman sys admin could exercise near unlimited power to connected users.   With the appropriate advertising her appearance would have the same effect as the great leader of a totaiitarian state.   The users would instantly submit to her every whim.

Yup. Injected nano-tech that travels to the right spot of the brain and then attaches itself. Draws its power from the blood, and vastly expands your senses and access to the virtual world. No longer limited to what your eyes can see and ears can hear, or even what your nose to taste buds sense, or what's close to you.

Virtual Reality simply becomes Reality. 

Agree that once people get used to such an expanded universe of senses and knowledge, when we become dependent on being connected, then going back to no connection would be like turning out the lights in the dark. Blind. 

We're already part way down that path. The lack of access to cell phones and internet out in the woods already bothers many people. Imagine how they'll feel after another 20 years of continued development and dependency on Big Data... easy to see where it leads, at least in general.

Question will be... will such a thing as independent thinking still exist then? Hell... it barely exists now, least of all among people who claim to value it the most. Such is the seduction of Big Data, which shapes our minds and knowledge in subtle ways.

Is it already too late to pull the plug?

Who would even want to?

Of course, by the time implants are available, they'll look at me and say "You're too old. You have to stay in the old world." Or as I call it, the Real World.

I won't shed a tear. The people around me will increasingly seem like cyborgs, seeing and hearing things I can't see or hear. It already seems a bit that way when I'm in urban areas and everyone has ear buds in and are staring at their phones, to be honest. Seems almost Borg'ish at times. They are not experiencing what I'm experiencing.

Shadar

A superwoman leading her virtual army with virtual reality would have eyes and ears from each user with ability to coordinate all their movements like a group of fire ants or termites in a mound  A human borg like shared consciousness

A major tech company has launched a "metaverse" group.  Much easier to have superpowers in a virtual world, also need to build applications that use up more bandwidth and computing power so that more will be built.