Let's Riff on the next Tech/Social Revolution

[KerningChameleon]

Liberal arts can be completely decentralized at this point. You never need to leave your house. All the essential reading is free.

tumblr exists, theory checks out.

[TheReal_ND]

Heh

[C-Mag]

I think we are looking at it all wrong.

For a lot of things, we don't really need universities. We should consider going back to the classical model of education, with students directly seeking out specific individuals to teach them. Provide some common spaces and resources (the campus, I guess), but other than that, let at least part of higher education develop organically. This is especially true for probably the entire arts departments at every university.

Engineering, actual science, and mathematics.. not so much. But cut out all that liberal arts garbage and the university would go back to normal real fast.

And.. no.. I am not against liberal arts. I just don't think they have a place in the university in the way they have come to dominate them. These programs have become cancer. What liberal arts programs go on in a university should be so difficult that at least half the population would never be accepted. That's kind of the point of universities. Think about it for a while. Most people should not even be able to go to college.

Basically that is the Medieval model of the University.
I think we are headed that way through on line education. At some point traditional resident Universities will start seeing a dramatic loss in enrollment, and then the game will start changing.

[SuburbanFarmer]

(And can anyone here answer my car question?)

Break the window.

Call the car security company (I forget the name)

[TheReal_ND]

Tell me how that's better than an old fashioned key lock?

Idk someone tore out all my locks

[Ph64]

Some of you will enjoy this guy's stuff:

https://twitter.com/internetofshit

https://internetofshit.net/

That was good. Yeah, to what KC said about his HVAC system, look - I could see the advantage of the newer digital thermostats of say 10+ years ago, they'd let you program a daytime temp when maybe you were at work, let it kick up/down (whatever your need for your local climate) at 5pm so it was warmer/cooler when you got home, etc. But internet connection seems pointless - yeah, you can change the temperature from your "smart" phone while sitting on your lazy ass munching cheese puffs and HFCS laden soda in front of your TV... Or you could get up off your fat ass for 60 seconds to change it. Seriously, how often do you really change the thermostat anyways? How often do you adjust the temperatures in your fridge? (I don't think I've changed mine in a decade ). Its just adding technology for the sake of technology, and IMHO increasing overall system "fragility" and vulnerability.

Not to mention things like that DDOS attack the other year where the hackers compromised some Chinese dome security cameras, internet connected of course, 10's of thousands of them around the planet. I wonder what people will do when they're eating their Twinkies and Doritoes in front of the TV and say "Alexa, turn the temperature down 2 degrees" and it doesn't respond because their fridge and thermostat are DDOSing the Alexa servers, and even getting up and manually trying doesn't work because they've been hacked?

Hell, when hurricane Sandy ripped through a couple years ago and my neighborhood was out for a week (and trees down all over, no wired internet/phone or cable even if you had a generator)... I cooked up all my frozen food in a few days, had lots of canned stuff and rice/pasta for after, grabbed my solar one high brightness LED driveway lights (one AA NiCad battery each) - put them out all day, they gave enough light spotted around the house to get around easily until the wee hours of the morning - a couple of battery powered lamps, and I could occupy my nights reading a book for a few hours.

My one neighbor? 8KW generator running virtually 24/7, house lit up like a Christmas tree at night, I could see the TV going in their living room (probably DVDs). Meh, kinda pissed me off because it was gorgeous clear nights after and would have been great to drag the telescope out - except for the damn "light show" going on next door. Apparently they can't enjoy peace and quiet and starry nights, its gotta be generator grinding while they stare into a brainwashing device.

...goes right along with the people that practically walk right into me at the store because they're too distracted by the person they're talking to on their bluetooth, or staring into their hand while oblivious to the world around them.

At what point does technology go from enhancing our lives to occupying our lives?

[SuburbanFarmer]

Some of you will enjoy this guy's stuff:

https://twitter.com/internetofshit

https://internetofshit.net/

That was good. Yeah, to what KC said about his HVAC system, look - I could see the advantage of the newer digital thermostats of say 10+ years ago, they'd let you program a daytime temp when maybe you were at work, let it kick up/down (whatever your need for your local climate) at 5pm so it was warmer/cooler when you got home, etc. But internet connection seems pointless - yeah, you can change the temperature from your "smart" phone while sitting on your lazy ass munching cheese puffs and HFCS laden soda in front of your TV... Or you could get up off your fat ass for 60 seconds to change it. Seriously, how often do you really change the thermostat anyways? How often do you adjust the temperatures in your fridge? (I don't think I've changed mine in a decade ). Its just adding technology for the sake of technology, and IMHO increasing overall system "fragility" and vulnerability.

Not to mention things like that DDOS attack the other year where the hackers compromised some Chinese dome security cameras, internet connected of course, 10's of thousands of them around the planet. I wonder what people will do when they're eating their Twinkies and Doritoes in front of the TV and say "Alexa, turn the temperature down 2 degrees" and it doesn't respond because their fridge and thermostat are DDOSing the Alexa servers, and even getting up and manually trying doesn't work because they've been hacked?

Hell, when hurricane Sandy ripped through a couple years ago and my neighborhood was out for a week (and trees down all over, no wired internet/phone or cable even if you had a generator)... I cooked up all my frozen food in a few days, had lots of canned stuff and rice/pasta for after, grabbed my solar one high brightness LED driveway lights (one AA NiCad battery each) - put them out all day, they gave enough light spotted around the house to get around easily until the wee hours of the morning - a couple of battery powered lamps, and I could occupy my nights reading a book for a few hours.

My one neighbor? 8KW generator running virtually 24/7, house lit up like a Christmas tree at night, I could see the TV going in their living room (probably DVDs). Meh, kinda pissed me off because it was gorgeous clear nights after and would have been great to drag the telescope out - except for the damn "light show" going on next door. Apparently they can't enjoy peace and quiet and starry nights, its gotta be generator grinding while they stare into a brainwashing device.

...goes right along with the people that practically walk right into me at the store because they're too distracted by the person they're talking to on their bluetooth, or staring into their hand while oblivious to the world around them.

At what point does technology go from enhancing our lives to occupying our lives?

As a veteran of Florida '04, I can speak to the essential need for a generator after a hurricane. I'm sure it wasn't bad up there in NYC, but that summer had many evenings of sweat-soaked 100+ degree evenings.

Using it to watch tv is pretty stupid, but whatever.

[TheReal_ND]

100+

Evening

You what? The hottest I've ever seen it get at night is 90

[Ph64]

(And can anyone here answer my car question?)

Break the window.

Call the car security company (I forget the name)

So I need to call someone to get into my own car, when the "key"(fob) is in my hand - not like losing your keys, locking yourself out of your house... Nope "key" in hand but you're still locked out. "Progress"?

[SuburbanFarmer]

100+

Evening

You what? The hottest I've ever seen it get at night is 90

Southwest Florida, right across from Miami. It's a fucking oven dude.