Science Fiction Theatre

[abacch02]

- Why do we have these computer dystopias?

- Why are people scared of a computerized future?

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The biggest reasons I believe that people's fear of a computerized future is centered on the concept of computers removing thinking from the individual.

That loss of control, and in some ways consciousness, is a scary

Comments

[kstanley]

If people are willing to give up the vast majority of their liberties in the quest to simplify their own lives, then we rely on the machines unlike HAL. We are also not making the most of our physical and mental capacities. In that way we are as dynamic and useful as a moon rock.But the idea behind machines, computers is that they will taken over the mundane tasks and free us up to work on more important things. That has occurred to a certain extent: it doesn't take us as long to do chores or to calculate complex figures or to find information. But what are we doing with that extra time? Very few people are using it to enrich humanity--even in a small way

[danny_ma]

Funny thing about what you said, it reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode where machines didn't take over, but the state did. The episode was called the obsolete man. They all started to act like machines instead. Libraries, religion, emotions, etc... were all considered obsolete. When te state finds out about a man being a librarian, the punishment was death. The whole episode was kind of corny, and of course humans would never act in such a way as to execute people that are obsolete. The man that was in charge of the librarians executioner wound up being executed for being obsolete as well. So when the time comes are we ready to fight all that wish to suppress our rights? I think something like this is happening already. Have you seen what New yok City bans? Trans fat, dancing in bars, smoking in bars, some politician recently suggested the banning of a certain breed of dog. When are we going to draw the line?