[AgentR11]

Lol borg.. Perhaps you've seen me with my bluetooth headset, bluetooth HR monitor, zipping along on my bike with the handbar mounted R-A-M holder displaying my phablet with readouts of speed,location, max/avg HR, etc; it can even provide a continuous status uplink that can be displayed on my desktop system in real-time. I'd get a google glass but its too hot here and I'd drench it in sweat half the year; that'd REALLY be borg-it-ized.

To the article, fact or fiction, they complain about people on phones at restaurants, many complaining that they aren't socializing or whatever. For my excuse, I simply can't understand anyone's voice with the typical background noise in restaurants, so phone or not, I generally won't say anything, and I order by pointing at items on the menu.

[Newfie]

What you describe, on your bike, is different. You are monitoring yourself.

What they are doing is developing a nascent cyborg interconnectedness. A group consciousness they are constantly touching. They are loosing their Ability to be individuals with deep personal thoughts.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'W')hat you describe, on your bike, is different. You are monitoring yourself.

What they are doing is developing a nascent cyborg interconnectedness. A group consciousness they are constantly touching. They are loosing their Ability to be individuals with deep personal thoughts.

[Newfie]

Well, that's kinda my point.

Years ago lots of folks spent lots of time alone. Not all were deep thinkers, but it encouraged those that had the inclination.

When was the last time you, or someone you know, spent more than 24 hours without outside influence? Just by yourself?

[Newfie]

I was ruminating on this Luddite issue a bit recently. Got me thinking that we may need to change perspective a bit.

Sure a lot of folks today use technology, but what do they understand of it? Cell phones and computers and BluRay are really just so much magic to most. The workings of our cars has become so advanced that we rely upon computers to tell us what is wrong.

We "technologist" push the buttons and read the output, but what so we really understand?

Now consider an Amish farmer without the modern tools he is much more in tune with what technology he has. In many ways he is less the Luddite.

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'I') was ruminating on this Luddite issue a bit recently. Got me thinking that we may need to change perspective a bit.

Sure a lot of folks today use technology, but what do they understand of it? Cell phones and computers and BluRay are really just so much magic to most. The workings of our cars has become so advanced that we rely upon computers to tell us what is wrong.

We "technologist" push the buttons and read the output, but what so we really understand?

Now consider an Amish farmer without the modern tools he is much more in tune with what technology he has. In many ways he is less the Luddite.

[Newfie]

That very quote was rolling through my head while I typed my post.

[dinopello]

Man hospitalized - for Google Glass addiction

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he man was using his Google Glass for up to 18 hours a day in the two months leading up to his admission in September 2013, according to the study. He wore it to work and reported feeling more confident in social situations while wearing it.

Google Glass users frequently reach for the device, tapping near their temples to control its features; this patient repeatedly did the same, even when the device was not there.

"He reported that if he had been prevented from wearing the device while at work, he would become extremely irritable and argumentative," the doctors write.

[Pops]

Paraphrasing a line (and author) I should have memorized:

"She loved the idea of nature, but thought it unfortunate it only occurred outside."


I like the idea of low tech but also like the advantages and even the entertainment of tech. To be honest I've actually struggled with this somewhat, to the extent of feeling a little guilty about my reliance on new tech these last 20 years or so.

But, this month I sold my tractor and bought a laptop, 2 iPhones, a cellular hotspot and cell signal amp and updated my programs, just about a straight $6k trade. I realize a tractor isn't exactly a Luddite device but it is essentially 18th century tech so close enough.

I guess along with facing my fear of becoming a refugee I'm accepting my inner technologist.



.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', 'L')ol borg.. Perhaps you've seen me with my bluetooth headset, bluetooth HR monitor, zipping along on my bike with the handbar mounted R-A-M holder displaying my phablet with readouts of speed,location, max/avg HR, etc; it can even provide a continuous status uplink that can be displayed on my desktop system in real-time.

[sparky]

.
@ Newfie "a lot of folks today use technology, but what do they understand of it? "

From interviewing young kids for tech jobs , it seems that they have an abysmal understanding of basic applied physics in processes
its not so much their ignorance , that's not a problem ,
the issue is they are not very keen on stepping outside a virtual world , interact with it and understand how it work and don't
as son as you take them out of their spreadsheet and out on the field , there is the blank look .
like if reality was irrelevant

[Newfie]

So I guess I'm starting to our technology more as a religion. God knows there seem to be many who thought Steve Jobs was God.

I now am more interested in older, but more useful and connected technologies. Fiberglassing remains a mystery to me, but I did manage to make a credible repair last weekend.

I've been slowly working on my welding. That too is still a crude skill, but getting better. I can do useful stuff with it.

With my laptop I can kill cockroaches.

[Strummer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I')s it still called a 'motherboard' if it inside a phone or Iputz???

[AgentR11]

KM...
I'm far too reckless to put a kiddy seat on the back of my bike.. besides, that's where the 12v7ah battery and buss goes that drives all the lights and gadgets.

Maybe I could add an arduino setup linked with a mobile 4g hotspot to the net, and have it make facebook and twitter posts on its own, that'd be kinda borg like, though it'd need a way to talk to me to make the comms two way. (though who would watch me riding my bike, I dunno...) Maybe I could set it up to annoy my daughter or wife with text messages. lol.

YO! You should be out here sweating with me, I just saw: [] at [].

Then again... that might result in suffering.. And I'm averse to suffering.

[Newfie]

alone. Without, TV, radio, Internet. Just yourself and your thoughts.

[Newfie]

I have short time to write so excuse my terse reply.

Any technology, on its own, is benign. It s how we use it, interactively, that is at issue.

We evolved over hundreds of thousands of years in a natural environment. That natural environment has sustained us, and our fellow species, for our entire lives.

This started to change with agriculture, subtly at first, but drastically now.

Agriculture allowed cities, and industrialization, and the concentration of humanity into squalid slums devoid on natural features ecpxcept perhaps the food they ate.

Fossil fuels have made the Western slums more platable assisted by heavy infusions of alcohol and narcotics. Our food, especially lower income food, has largely become unrecognizable as a natural product being so heavily processed as to be just so much more plastic.

The upper classes are likewise becoming more and more disengaged with the real physical world and how it operates. Those enthralled with technology fail to see how we are changing that environment. To a large degree they are UNAWARE of that environment.

This makes some interesting paradoxis. My generation was in love with the car. The car allowed me to escape the urban and visit rural areas. Now kids are eschewing cars, but they are also further distancing themselves from the natural environment.

Is it enough to have 3D, HD images of humpback whales breaching? Does it matter if they are extinct in the REAL world as long as we retain the historical images? After all, the vast majority will never observe the real thing in any case so what is the difference? What is the harm?

Its a blue pill/red pill question. Your choice.