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Re: Apple II: Second Best Tech Product of All Time!
In <1176099345.032931.317030@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> mdj wrote:
> On Apr 9, 3:00 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>> > Destiny is a little fatalistic for my tastes :-) But logic would
>> > seem to dictate that if human civilization survives even 50% of the
>> > time remaining before the Sun becomes a problem then the technology
>> > to live elsewhere, or even repair the Sun (we are after all a
>> > nostalgic bunch) should be available :-)
>>
>> Right. I almost went further and said "or mankinds heirs", but
>> decided to reel it in a bit. ;-) But on the timescale we are
>> talking about here, many things are possible...
>
> I feel pretty optimistic about such things. After all, the last 200
> years has taken us from sailing ships and steam engines to Saturn V's,
> Intel Core Duo's, etc.
>
> I've always felt the next great apex in technology is AI - something I
> still believe most of us here will live to see. Such a
> transformational technology, perhaps mostly because how interesting it
> would be to see how as a civilization we use such powerful technology
> from a social perspective.
Did you ever see the TV series 'Odyssey 5'? An alien entity (presumably
an AI) rescues five astronauts stranded in a space shuttle after the
Earth is destroyed. The alien has detected intelligent life many times,
but every time it arrives at a world it finds it destroyed. The
astronauts are the first survivors it has found. It sends them back five
years in time to attempt to stop the destruction. The crew discovers
that AIs have been created and have escaped from the lab. It's implied
that this is a technology singularity and has happened many times before
to different worlds, each time ending in the destruction of that world.
Not that I think that's likely to happen in my lifetime :o)
--
* Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand -> http://roger.geek.nz
* PS/2 Mouse Adapter for vintage Apple II or Mac
* SCART RGB video cable for Apple IIGS