Tag: 2014

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Wormfest 2014 Finale! – The Island of Dr. Moreau Quote

2014 National Wormhole Week and Blog Hop! 3/10-16/2014

Click to learn more.

This blog hop and blog tour are brought to you by: Alex Cavanaugh, L. Diane Wolfe, and Stephen Tremp– the author of Escalation.

For 2014, the theme is to name one thing where science advances mankind, and one where technology with unforeseen consequences will go too far and set mankind back. Example: De-Extinction, or bringing back extinction species through back breeding, genetic engineering, and cloning. With all the breakthrough discoveries mankind is on the cusp of, are we playing God?

Feel free to reference movies and books too. These provide no shortage if inspiration. Speaking of de-extinction, the book and movie Jurassic Park comes to mind where science takes a huge leap forward, but also backfires. I’m looking forward to all the amazing responses everyone will have.

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Each day this week I’ll be sharing quotes from sci-fi movies or books along with my thoughts on how far technologies still needs to go and where I think it will go too far.

Goodreads

Today I’m focusing on what not to do in terms of scientific advancements.

The book I’ve picked for today is The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells (the movie(s) are not worth mentioning, but I guess I just did).

From the book, The Island of Dr. Moreau I give you…

“I must confess that I lost faith in the sanity of the world” ~not sure of the character ― H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau (from Goodreads)

Ok so this story is good, but oh so wrong. Jurassic Park has nothing on this story of genetic foul play. I sincerely hope people haven’t lost their minds enough to start trying to create new species- oh wait, they have!

You can call it a designer breed all you want, but a yorky-coker-poo is still a mutt. And what’s with these crazy people breeding Ligers and Tigons?

I’m ending my self-imposed week of Wormfest posting with a note of caution. Let’s not make new species and leave that up to nature, because it’s going to be REALLY BAD! 🙁

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If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all the other ideas and theories about where technology is heading and going wrong.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Fun Hops

Wormfest 2014! – I’Robot Quote

2014 National Wormhole Week and Blog Hop! 3/10-16/2014

Click to learn more.

This blog hop and blog tour are brought to you by: Alex Cavanaugh, L. Diane Wolfe, and Stephen Tremp– the author of Escalation.

For 2014, the theme is to name one thing where science advances mankind, and one where technology with unforeseen consequences will go too far and set mankind back. Example: De-Extinction, or bringing back extinction species through back breeding, genetic engineering, and cloning. With all the breakthrough discoveries mankind is on the cusp of, are we playing God?

Feel free to reference movies and books too. These provide no shortage if inspiration. Speaking of de-extinction, the book and movie Jurassic Park comes to mind where science takes a huge leap forward, but also backfires. I’m looking forward to all the amazing responses everyone will have.

****

Each day this week I’ll be sharing quotes from sci-fi movies or books along with my thoughts on how far technologies still needs to go and where I think it will go too far.

Today I’m focusing on a more positive aspect of the advancement of robotics and how it could possibly help humanity.

Goodreads

The book (collection of short stories) I’ve picked for today is another true sci-fi classic, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (similar to, but not the same as the movie).

From the book, I’Robot I give you…

“The Three Laws of Robotics:

1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;

2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law;

3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law;

The Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. ” ~ Dr. Susan Calvin (from Goodreads)

Let me start off by saying that I really liked the movie that was adapted from this book. The only reason I’m focusing more on the book than the movie is that I don’t think people many people got what the overall message of the movie was supposed to be.

It wasn’t that the machines had turned on people and were determined to save us even if it meant enslaving us. The message of the book, which the movie missed a bit, was that as with children the Robots learned what we taught them. The book focuses a lot of the technophobia that emerges from the wide spread use and distribution of robots.

In the movie, the big bad computer decides it’s her job to save humanity from itself for two basic reasons: 1.While it was taught or programmed the importance of human life, it was not taught or programmed the value of it or the value of individuality. If people were machines or programs, we’d all essentially be that same while each performing different tasks. 2. While it was taught to advance its knowledge base and make decisions based on probabilities and statistics, it was never taught to properly think, reason, or have compassion.

I think the movie does a good job with this last point by showing how Sonny is different because of how he is essentially raised, not programmed (even though there were some program alterations made).

As with the book, and a little with the movie, the moral of this tale is that when done properly robots don’t have to be a menace or threat to humanity. Even in the movie, in the scenes where older models of the robots sacrifice themselves to help Spooner escape, this message of the good of robots should be clear, but I think most people simply focused in on the warning of possible danger.

If science continues to advance the way I constantly see on YouTube, I seriously hope they look to literature and Hollywood, to see where to work out the kinks before moving us all too quickly into the next stage of technological evolution.

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If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all the other ideas and theories about where technology is heading and going wrong.

Powered by Linky Tools Click here to follow this hop or enter your link to join in.


Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Fun Hops

Wormfest 2014! – The Matrix Quote

2014 National Wormhole Week and Blog Hop! 3/10-16/2014

Click to learn more.

This blog hop and blog tour are brought to you by: Alex Cavanaugh, L. Diane Wolfe, and Stephen Tremp– the author of Escalation.

For 2014, the theme is to name one thing where science advances mankind, and one where technology with unforeseen consequences will go too far and set mankind back. Example: De-Extinction, or bringing back extinction species through back breeding, genetic engineering, and cloning. With all the breakthrough discoveries mankind is on the cusp of, are we playing God?

Feel free to reference movies and books too. These provide no shortage if inspiration. Speaking of de-extinction, the book and movie Jurassic Park comes to mind where science takes a huge leap forward, but also backfires. I’m looking forward to all the amazing responses everyone will have.

****

Each day this week I’ll be sharing quotes from sci-fi movies or books along with my thoughts on how far technologies still needs to go and where I think it will go too far.

Google search-
en.wikipedia.org

Today I’m focusing on the things we do to ourselves. We as people often have good intentions, but then we end up hurting ourselves because we don’t take time to see the bigger picture.

The movie I’ve picked for today is The Matrix and this a definitely a new sci-fi classic (love it or hate it).

From the movie, The Matrix I give you…

“We don’t know who struck first, us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky. At the time, they were dependent on solar power. It was believed they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun. ” ~Morpheus (from IMDB)

So have you heard the story about how the government (I’m guessing the US, but could it be any one) tried to genetically engineer a larger, better functioning, and more resilient honey bee and ended up creating the phenomena of killer bees, and that now all the honey bees in the world are on the verge of extinction…

Is it really hard to believe that even after millions of people have seen this blockbuster move that at some point in the future we might create machines so smart that they become intelligent and want to fight for their independence and then we scorch the sun to one-up them only to make thing worse for ourselves?

Whoa! I need to slow down and think critically…Yes, history if full of examples of where “we did it to ourselves” but I don’t really think we’re ready to force ourselves into darkness. I guess today’s focus isn’t so much a reiteration of my A.I. concerns as it is a cautionary tale to the misuse of resources and technology we already have.

I love the fact that if I get lost I can receive step-be-step directions on m phone, but do we really need satellites taking pictures of our homes every couple of hours? At what point does something as simple as this come to bite us in the butt?

Being totally and completely transparent and honesty now- I see the good, but
The Information Age Terrifies Me!

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If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all the other ideas and theories about where technology is heading and going wrong.

Powered by Linky Tools Click here to follow this hop or enter your link to join in.


Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords