tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post2809428641626395614..comments2024-03-24T17:01:24.541-04:00Comments on Crazy Eddie's Motie News: Thanks to Infidel 753, I describe how 'Westworld' is like 'Jurassic Park'Pinku-Senseihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-16634653543834849502016-11-30T20:01:56.209-05:002016-11-30T20:01:56.209-05:00I was thinking of mentioning "Frankenstein&qu...I was thinking of mentioning "Frankenstein" but decided to see if a commenter would bring it up instead. Thank you, you did.<br /><br />The "Westworld" TV series shows not only that a lot of technological progress has been made in the past 33 years that makes the concept of a theme park full of androids more likely, but that society has done some serious thinking about the possibility in the meantime. My wife and I are quite impressed at the depth of the ideas explored in the show. The creators have also done their research. Every time they mention something about evolution in Ford's dialog, they're right. This is especially true about the more disturbing concepts mentioned, like sexual selection contributing to the development of the human mind and what humans did to our nearest relatives. As someone who knows the field, that's both gratifying and unsettling.Pinku-Senseihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-37136245362578935602016-11-30T19:55:22.896-05:002016-11-30T19:55:22.896-05:00You're right about the progress of technology ...You're right about the progress of technology during World War II. Every semester, I give a lecture to every class I teach about how technological progress during World War II was converted into civilian use after the war. In fact, I gave one of those lectures today to one of my classes and will give to another tomorrow. I'm more worried about local reversion of social progress, however temporary, and how much additional environmental damage the next four to eight years will produce compared to what most of us were expecting.<br /><br />As for technological progress under Trump, I'm actually optimistic about what he'll do for space exploration. Yeah, that's like rooting for one of the Pauls to win to speed along marijuana legalization. The good will likely be outweighed by the bad.Pinku-Senseihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-31851077533076341992016-11-20T18:17:03.259-05:002016-11-20T18:17:03.259-05:00Oh, and concerning my technological optimism -- th...Oh, and concerning my technological optimism -- the record seems to show that in the modern world, technological progress is immune to disruption even by events that are otherwise catastrophic. World War II, for example, caused enormous destruction and suffering, but it hardly dented the pace of technological development at all.<br /><br />The recent election has certainly brought pessimism to the fore, and terrible things may yet happen, but I doubt they'll have any impact on the rate of progress in areas like robotics and artificial intelligence. Trump may drive a lot of that progress out of the US to Europe and Japan, but he won't be able to slow it down.Infidel753https://www.blogger.com/profile/10965786814334886696noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-81694873175640667252016-11-20T17:46:42.077-05:002016-11-20T17:46:42.077-05:00Thanks for the post. I saw the original Westworld...Thanks for the post. I saw the original <b>Westworld</b> movie years ago, and the parallels with <b>Jurassic Park</b> are straightforward enough -- both are fairly typical "scientific hubris" stories about monsters created by humans which turn on their creators, a theme which goes back to Mary Shelley's <b>Frankenstein</b>, if not to the myth of the golem.<br /><br />It does look like the new <b>Westworld</b> series has something more to offer, though. Neither the original movie nor <b>Jurassic Park</b> really raised much in the way of ethical issues, beyond the basic "do not create that which you cannot keep under control". The new series, as suggested by the article I found in your earlier post, really seems to be getting into the deep questions posed by artificial intelligence. If we create machines which have self-awareness and the capacity to suffer, what rights do they have? If we continue to treat them as property and use them for purposes like entertainment and sex, regardless of whatever wishes they themselves have, then haven't we really re-invented slavery? Should we acknowledge that such entities have a "right" to revolt against exploitation the same way humans would?<br /><br />These are issues we're likely to actually face in the near future. Anything that encourages people to think about them before the fact is valuable.Infidel753https://www.blogger.com/profile/10965786814334886696noreply@blogger.com