VickyG

Comment Threads

• Simon commented on The revolution will not be hand-stitched
  Automation and Convergence are not going to make a better world, technically they can but humanity has exceeded its social carrying capacity. We aren't capable of good enough judgements to tget through many of the problems we face. I suspect the people in charge , if they think about such things which is highly unlikely probably figure they can handle the unrest with machines. In not that many years it really wont be that difficult to rig up more advanced smart drones with various nasties and simply exterminate Dalek style unwanted people with some combination of those nasties and simply...
• Charlie Stross commented on The revolution will not be hand-stitched
  There is an argument I've heard, to the effect that we are really ruled by two parties (whether in the US or in other nations): the party of the Sane Billionaires, and the party of the Mad Billionaires. Mad Billionaire: "let's kill everyone and use robots to take their shit!" Sane Billionaire: "hang on, if we do that, who's going to mow our lawns? (And anyway, genocide is naughty.)" If we can engineer a signifier shift whereby being a humanitarian philanthropists becomes the way billionaires assert their status, then ... well, it couldn't be any worse than the current situation,...
• xuenay commented on The revolution will not be hand-stitched
  At least one start-up already does the "we'll scan you and then custom-tailor your clothes for your exact measurements" thing, though their clothing is made the traditional way rather than printed: http://www.nomojeans.com/nomo/how_nomo_works...
• kali.ratatosk commented on Making history personal
  When I lived in the UK as a child, our house was built in the 1850s. We went to church in a building that was allegedly built in the 1200s....
• kurt.seifried.org commented on The revolution will not be hand-stitched
  This will probably cause western firms to look at automation more seriously: http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/massive-fire-started-by-angry-workers-destorys-factory-of-bi Not that this seemed to really be helping them escape the poverty trap....