This chapter started to get more into the technological breakthroughs that have been made recently. I found the prediction made by Kurzweil to be very interesting but, as you probably noticed, he was more accurate in predicting things a few years out. With the way that technology is increasing, there is no way to fully predict what is going to happen in the next few years. 30 years ago, I was going to be driving a flying car today. 20 years ago I was going to be having a conversation with my maid robot and 10 years ago I was going to have a computer with the processing power of a mainframe sitting in my lap. I'm typing on a laptop but I still don't have a maid (alive or robot) and my car has no aspirations of flying. The point I'm trying to make is that what might seem like a viable option for technology at one point in time might not be a pressing need for technology once that time comes around.
I must admit, the Doppelganger program sounds like a pretty neat piece of technology but I'm still weary about having this program send my information over a system called Pretty Good Privacy... I want the best security! This could be made possible with the quantum computers that we learned about in class. These computers could constantly update encryption codes keeping intruders out. That is the type of technology I want.
I laughed when I read the heading "Simulated Humans Can't Be Trusted" because I was thinking back to the previous chapter about terrorists. Apparently real humans can't be trusted either. All kidding aside though, Simson made a great point about robots not sharing the same emotional language as humans. It is going to be very hard to get a robot to understand emotions because there are so many variables that go into emotions (people cry when they are sad, happy, or mad)...
2 comments:
If you could afford a maid robot then I am sure they are out there, and if not a maid robot, a real maid? You do not need one, you have a girlfriend and they are good for that (only kidding). I agree with you in that technology is always being discussed and made out to be huge deals such as flying cars, though when the time arrives, there is not a pressing need. And I made the same remark regarding pretty good security, I agree, I want the best too!
You make a good point about predicted technology not always being on target. I can't help but think about the Back to the Future movie where Michael J. Fox wore the jacket with adjustable sleeves. Anyway I personally think the maid robot is not too far off...have you seen the new Roomba iRobots? They are awesome--you can set them to vaccuum whenever you are not there, it leaves it's docking station and if it starts to run low on battery, it goes back to its docking station and once its charged it finished the job.
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