The acceleration of technology and knowledge

[Vinayaka]

How fast will it get? Doctors, car mechanics, teachers, computer guys, and many other industries have ever quickening change in the knowledge and new technology. It's hard to keep up. Every time I rent a car, I have to re-learn new gadgetry. Fifty years ago, you could train to be a doctor, and do some sort of upgrading once every 10-15 years, and call it a career after 40 years, having upgraded 3 times. Now it seems you have to go once every year to learn the new stuff, or read new manuals on your vacation, so you can still be a doctor when you get back. This rate of change (acceleration) is changing. So ... how has it affected you personally, and what things seem to have had the greatest impact, or will have the greatest impact on life on this planet as we know it. I sure wouldn't want to be Rip van Winkle today. It would be an extreme culture shock to wake up in 20 years.

 

[JustGeorge]

I had a clothing order botched to the Underworld and back. I left a terrible review. Someone reached out to me, and said they couldn't get ahold of me on my Whatsapp number. Its because its a telephone number, I told them. Well, that's a problem. To fix the problem, there has to be a confirmed Whatsapp call(I fear its pointless, but understand its policy).

Unfortunately, that means I have to wait for LeeAnder(my teen) to come home from his dad's house, so he can do all this for me. Otherwise I'm out of luck.

 

[exchemist]

I had a clothing order botched to the Underworld and back. I left a terrible review. Someone reached out to me, and said they couldn't get ahold of me on my Whatsapp number. Its because its a telephone number, I told them. Well, that's a problem. To fix the problem, there has to be a confirmed Whatsapp call(I fear its pointless, but understand its policy).

Unfortunately, that means I have to wait for LeeAnder(my teen) to come home from his dad's house, so he can do all this for me. Otherwise I'm out of luck.

So how did they get in touch then?

 

[JustGeorge]

So how did they get in touch then?

Email. I don't understand why it can't all be done via email.

 

[exchemist]

Email. I don't understand why it can't all be done via email.

Bloody ridiculous not to allow standard communication media and instead on a social media app that lots of people don’t use. I don’t have Whatsapp and never will.

 

[Nimos]

How fast will it get? Doctors, car mechanics, teachers, computer guys, and many other industries have ever quickening change in the knowledge and new technology. It's hard to keep up. Every time I rent a car, I have to re-learn new gadgetry. Fifty years ago, you could train to be a doctor, and do some sort of upgrading once every 10-15 years, and call it a career after 40 years, having upgraded 3 times. Now it seems you have to go once every year to learn the new stuff, or read new manuals on your vacation, so you can still be a doctor when you get back. This rate of change (acceleration) is changing. So ... how has it affected you personally, and what things seem to have had the greatest impact, or will have the greatest impact on life on this planet as we know it. I sure wouldn't want to be Rip van Winkle today. It would be an extreme culture shock to wake up in 20 years.

It's a good question.

If I should guess, I think it will eventually go so fast that we have to rely on AI to keep up. I look at it kind of the same way as the internet, you could spend hours upon hours reading books or you could simply do a search on the internet.

But also in the next many years, humans are going to compete with AI and robots which we have never had to. And we don't really stand a chance here. People still have to spend X amount of years learning things from scratch, whereas AI can simply copy/paste it in a very short time and will eventually have knowledge way beyond any human. So the only way we can keep up is to rely on them to give us the information we need or they might bypass us altogether.

How we are going to deal with that, is going to be very interesting to see, because I honestly don't think anyone has any clue. And to me at least, I think we are currently living through the most defining part of human history, the creation of something that can compete and outperform us in almost all ways.

 

[libre]

How fast will it get? Doctors, car mechanics, teachers, computer guys, and many other industries have ever quickening change in the knowledge and new technology. It's hard to keep up. Every time I rent a car, I have to re-learn new gadgetry. Fifty years ago, you could train to be a doctor, and do some sort of upgrading once every 10-15 years, and call it a career after 40 years, having upgraded 3 times. Now it seems you have to go once every year to learn the new stuff, or read new manuals on your vacation, so you can still be a doctor when you get back. This rate of change (acceleration) is changing. So ... how has it affected you personally, and what things seem to have had the greatest impact, or will have the greatest impact on life on this planet as we know it. I sure wouldn't want to be Rip van Winkle today. It would be an extreme culture shock to wake up in 20 years.

A family member of mine works adult education and provides assistance to people who are getting out of prison after 10-30 year sentences.

The people who were in for 10 years are at best learning how to use a smartphone for the first time.
One of them that served 30 didn't even have a semi-coherent idea of what the internet was, just that it was something to do with computers and that he was supposed to use it to apply for jobs.

 

[JustGeorge]

Bloody ridiculous not to allow standard communication media and instead on a social media app that lots of people don’t use. I don’t have Whatsapp and never will.

I thought the same thing. I assume its not the choice of the person reaching out, though, so didn't take it out on her.

I'm not optimistic about the call, as the English of the person resolving this(and most of those I dealt with regarding the order) is really bad, and I don't speak any other languages. But, if just saying she made the call will help her take care of it, I'll do it...

Been dealing with this company for over 8 years and never had this level of nonsense... small things(wrong color a few times, wrong kurti another, but I liked it so didn't raise a stink), but I'm pretty laid back. I would have never saw this coming; I assume I just got a bad apple that took out their issues on me.

 

[JustGeorge]

A family member of mine works adult education and provides assistance to people who are getting out of prison after 10-30 year sentences.

The people who were in for 10 years are at best learning how to use a smartphone for the first time.
One of them that served 30 didn't even have a semi-coherent idea of what the internet was, just that it was something to do with computers and that he was supposed to use it to apply for jobs.

THat would be a true shock...

 

[Eddi]

I recently got a new PC

Indeed I got it only last week

The last PC I had was given to me in 2004 but since then I have used Apple laptops

The difference between my new PC and the one from 2004 is enormous

Got my first ever PC in 1996, it had Windows 95 on it

The difference between that and my new computer is even more enormous

I wonder what they will be like ten years from now

My new PC is amazing it has loads of flashing lights on it and the mouse and keyboard light up, it is like a discotheque

Back in 1996 I could never have imagined such a thing

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Having been in the technology world for most of my life, I got somewhat accustomed to increasing rates of change. But the fact is, most people, after some time keeping up, will lose that ability. It's certainly true of me: I understood the technologies I worked with so well for about 2-3 decades that I was able to invent uses for them that got write-ups in IBM Solutions magazine. Now, I'm a technology antique. My understanding of AI is completely superficial (although I always knew that trying to achieve AI on a von Neumann architected computer wasn't going to happen). And quantum computing is a total mystery, and I'm never going to be able to catch up.

But like it or not, unless we annihilate ourselves, the speed of change is only going to get faster. Unless one dedicates part of one's life to being an eternal study, people won't last as long as I did.

 

[Vinayaka]

A family member of mine works adult education and provides assistance to people who are getting out of prison after 10-30 year sentences.

The people who were in for 10 years are at best learning how to use a smartphone for the first time.
One of them that served 30 didn't even have a semi-coherent idea of what the internet was, just that it was something to do with computers and that he was supposed to use it to apply for jobs.

Gosh, that has to be tough. Hopefully over a year or so they can adjust.

 

[Vinayaka]

Having been in the technology world for most of my life, I got somewhat accustomed to increasing rates of change. But the fact is, most people, after some time keeping up, will lose that ability. It's certainly true of me: I understood the technologies I worked with so well for about 2-3 decades that I was able to invent uses for them that got write-ups in IBM Solutions magazine. Now, I'm a technology antique. My understanding of AI is completely superficial (although I always knew that trying to achieve AI on a von Neumann architected computer wasn't going to happen). And quantum computing is a total mystery, and I'm never going to be able to catch up.

But like it or not, unless we annihilate ourselves, the speed of change is only going to get faster. Unless one dedicates part of one's life to being an eternal study, people won't last as long as I did.

I would not survive at all in a school today, after 15 years of being out of it. Firstly, I wouldn't be able to find any chalk. It would take a very patient colleague that I would have to 'apprentice' under. Quite regularly it's the students teaching teachers. My 13 yr old granddaughter goes on line with friends, takes tutorials about movie making, and she and friends make movies together. Her teacher has to ask her some of the specifics of how-to.

I suspect there will be a day, sooner than later, when I will HAVE to learn something, just like 40 years ago when I had to get a credit card, just to be able to rent a car.

 

[Vinayaka]

Email. I don't understand why it can't all be done via email.

My Mom ordered stuff from the Eaton's catalogue. My first Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey came that way.

 

[JustGeorge]

My Mom ordered stuff from the Eaton's catalogue. My first Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey came that way.

I've been ordering all my clothes online since it became on option! Mostly favorable experiences, but once and awhile a dud.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

My Mom ordered stuff from the Eaton's catalogue. My first Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey came that way.

98.3% of every family in Canada lived for the Eaton's Catalogue! For decades. Not only could we see merchandise we would die for, there were the models -- in (gasp) nothing but underwear! Nearest thing to National Geographic back in the day.

 

[Vinayaka]

98.3% of every family in Canada lived for the Eaton's Catalogue! For decades. Not only could we see merchandise we would die for, there were the models -- in (gasp) nothing but underwear! Nearest thing to National Geographic back in the day.

Yeah, Mom occasionally caught us on the lingerie page. We would circle items or bend the corners on the pages where the good (greedy us) stuff was. That shipping department had to be incredibly busy in November/December. They were also great for collages, and shin pads for the very poor. The thing caused fights in our house, me and 4 siblings.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Yeah, Mom occasionally caught us on the lingerie page. We would circle items or bend the corners on the pages where the good (greedy us) stuff was. That shipping department had to be incredibly busy in November/December. They were also great for collages, and shin pads for the very poor. The thing caused fights in our house, me and 4 siblings.

Lingerie for you, men's undies for me. All of it "officially" licentious, but hey, that's what the Eaton's Catologue gave us!

 

[Quintessence]

It's driving humans off several cliffs so quickly that hitting the breaks will not stop humans from careening off of them. The collapse is coming. It's only a matter of time. The species has proven itself incapable of exercising restraint and is more or less racing to its own technologically-induced doom. See: global ecosystem degradation and climate change.

 

[bobhikes]

How fast will it get? Doctors, car mechanics, teachers, computer guys, and many other industries have ever quickening change in the knowledge and new technology. It's hard to keep up. Every time I rent a car, I have to re-learn new gadgetry. Fifty years ago, you could train to be a doctor, and do some sort of upgrading once every 10-15 years, and call it a career after 40 years, having upgraded 3 times. Now it seems you have to go once every year to learn the new stuff, or read new manuals on your vacation, so you can still be a doctor when you get back. This rate of change (acceleration) is changing. So ... how has it affected you personally, and what things seem to have had the greatest impact, or will have the greatest impact on life on this planet as we know it. I sure wouldn't want to be Rip van Winkle today. It would be an extreme culture shock to wake up in 20 years.

My life started in 1965 From 1980's when I was trained on the IBM PC to the 2010's when I got my first, I phone the I phone 5. Technology did an incredible spin in all aspects of my life. From the 2010's on it has slowed down to a creep for me. Yes, they are constantly trying to apply the technology in new ways, but the technology has been constant which is why they can roll it into different areas and these rollouts are not improvements just changes usually to increase revenue by claiming improvement. From 1980 to 2010 it was annoying because I had to change to keep up, from 2010 on it is annoying because they are forcing me to change at an expense.