Star Trek is Already Steampunk

[YARN]

Either way, don't deprecate the flesh. It'll be a long time before technology, nano-scale or otherwise, can surpass the capability, functionality, and ruggedness of biology.

Indeed, some of the most promising cutting-edge research in computer technology involves using neural matter or DNA. I think that instead of technology replacing biology, the future will involve the two becoming increasingly interdependent and maybe eventually all but indistinguishable.

Yes, the end of the biohuman as we know it. Long live the new flesh.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Or the end of the computer as we know it.

Instead of becoming more intrusive, technology will be less intrusive.

 

[MANT!]

Either way, don't deprecate the flesh. It'll be a long time before technology, nano-scale or otherwise, can surpass the capability, functionality, and ruggedness of biology.

Indeed, some of the most promising cutting-edge research in computer technology involves using neural matter or DNA. I think that instead of technology replacing biology, the future will involve the two becoming increasingly interdependent and maybe eventually all but indistinguishable.

Yes, the end of the biohuman as we know it. Long live the new flesh.

So, you'll be volunteering for the research eh?

 

[YARN]

Indeed, some of the most promising cutting-edge research in computer technology involves using neural matter or DNA. I think that instead of technology replacing biology, the future will involve the two becoming increasingly interdependent and maybe eventually all but indistinguishable.

Yes, the end of the biohuman as we know it. Long live the new flesh.

So, you'll be volunteering for the research eh?

Hell no. This stuff scares me.

 

[Ghrakh]

Computers are great at flying planes -- when they're working right and everything is going smoothly. But computers, like the humans who build them, are not infallible, so it's a good idea to have human beings in the cockpit in case the computers malfunction or an unexpected crisis arises.

I agree, but it doesn't even have to be an emergency. Crosswind landings are more common than people realize, because when you're a passenger an experienced pilot will make it so you don't feel in any danger and give as smooth of landing as possible despite unpredictable gusts. For providing such things as precise calculations and dealing with low-level tasks as well as extended cruising through "safe" conditions though, no question as to a computer's benefit.

Yes humans aren't infallible, but if there was a choice to ride in a plane with a pilot but no computer, or one with a computer but no pilot, which would one choose?

 

[Christopher]

Yes humans aren't infallible, but if there was a choice to ride in a plane with a pilot but no computer, or one with a computer but no pilot, which would one choose?

I'd rather not choose. I think the combination of both is the best approach. Different entities combining their strengths and compensating for each other's weaknesses are always better than just one acting indepenently.

 

[YARN]

Yes humans aren't infallible, but if there was a choice to ride in a plane with a pilot but no computer, or one with a computer but no pilot, which would one choose?

I'll take the one flown by a computer.

Most crashes are caused by human error.

Computers don't get drunk.

Computers don't text.

Computers don't get tired.

Computers don't get distracted.

Computers don't get macho.

And computers can land an airliner in a crosswind too.

 

[GalacticWierdo]

It can only be attributable to human error.

 

[YARN]

It can only be attributable to human error.

This sort of thing has cropped up before and it has always been attributable to human error.

 

[Maurice]

5. The Enterprise has people on it when should be a diplomatic space probe.

What does "diplomatic space probe" even mean?

Ever here of the Voyager space probe?

Hear, hear! And by that I mean the word you meant to use was "hear", not "here". I don't agree with your example.

In fact, invoking Voyager probes as exemplars is asinine, as they were never intended to "seek out new life" or any of that rot, but designed primarily to study the outer reaches of our solar system. The plaque and record were add-ons in the impossibly-unlikely event that some spacefaring civilization might someday spot it, and more symbolic than anything. A "message-in-a-bottle" thing, if you will.

 

[YARN]

5. The Enterprise has people on it when should be a diplomatic space probe.

What does "diplomatic space probe" even mean?

Ever here of the Voyager space probe?

Hear, hear! And by that I mean the word you meant to use was "hear", not "here". I don't agree with your example.

In fact, invoking Voyager probes as exemplars is asinine, as they were never intended to "seek out new life" or any of that rot, but designed primarily to study the outer reaches of our solar system. The plaque and record were add-ons in the impossibly-unlikely event that some spacefaring civilization might someday spot it, and more symbolic than anything. A "message-in-a-bottle" thing, if you will.

Ho Ho! You got me there. And by that I mean BFD.

Add on or not, Voyager is our first emissary beyond the solar system.

And the analysis surrounding the example still stands.

 

[MANT!]

As on who works in aviation let me show you the following example of why it's still not safe to only have computers (autopilots)...in fact OVER RELIANCE ON AUTOMATIC SYSTEMS was a direct cause of this accident..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Anyway, Pioneers 10 and 11 were launched before Voyagers 1 and 2, left the solar system first, and bear the famous plaques designed to be sensed by hypothetical ETs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque].

 

[Ghrakh]

Yes humans aren't infallible, but if there was a choice to ride in a plane with a pilot but no computer, or one with a computer but no pilot, which would one choose?

I'll take the one flown by a computer.

Most crashes are caused by human error.

Computers don't get drunk.

Computers don't text.

Computers don't get tired.

Computers don't get distracted.

Computers don't get macho.

Oddly enough, neither do most pilots. Those that do were likely thinking "whatever, the computer will handle it. They can fly this plane better than a human could anyway".

And computers can land an airliner in a crosswind too.

I'm sure they can. So?

'As soon as they jumped out of course, being an airship, he knew it would rise up and it did.
'They found him still at the controls when it crashed. He also steered it away from his ground crew.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nges-ground-flames-Germany.html#ixzz1ghlmJ0wI

 

[Ghrakh]

Yes humans aren't infallible, but if there was a choice to ride in a plane with a pilot but no computer, or one with a computer but no pilot, which would one choose?

I'd rather not choose. I think the combination of both is the best approach. Different entities combining their strengths and compensating for each other's weaknesses are always better than just one acting indepenently.

It was a hypothetical question.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Not taking the whole thing so damned seriously is a better alternative.

 

[Christopher]

Yes humans aren't infallible, but if there was a choice to ride in a plane with a pilot but no computer, or one with a computer but no pilot, which would one choose?

I'd rather not choose. I think the combination of both is the best approach. Different entities combining their strengths and compensating for each other's weaknesses are always better than just one acting indepenently.

It was a hypothetical question.

Which you presented to convey a point of view (that you prefer humans to machines, if I understood the implication correctly). I responded to offer an alternative point of view (that I prefer to approach it in terms of cooperation than competition). All part of having a discussion.

 

[YARN]

Or the end of the computer as we know it.

Instead of becoming more intrusive, technology will be less intrusive.

The result is still posthumanism. The result is still the end of the human as we know it. Be it orga, mecha, or hybrid, the twilight of the species is upon us.

 

[Maurice]

5. The Enterprise has people on it when should be a diplomatic space probe.
Ever here of the Voyager space probe?

Hear, hear! And by that I mean the word you meant to use was "hear", not "here". I don't agree with your example.

In fact, invoking Voyager probes as exemplars is asinine, as they were never intended to "seek out new life" or any of that rot, but designed primarily to study the outer reaches of our solar system. The plaque and record were add-ons in the impossibly-unlikely event that some spacefaring civilization might someday spot it, and more symbolic than anything. A "message-in-a-bottle" thing, if you will.

Ho Ho! You got me there. And by that I mean BFD.

Add on or not, Voyager is our first emissary beyond the solar system.

And the analysis surrounding the example still stands.

In a word: Baloney.

 

[YARN]

In a word: Baloney.

Specify.