Technology

Early Adopters Through History

by Socrates
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Want to see the costs and benefits of technology’s early adopters throughout history? Check out this hilarious video. (Hat tip to George Dvorsky‘s Sentient Developments for posting the video first.)

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Is A Spiritual Singularity Near?

by Matt Swayne
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The deep connection between human spirituality and advancing technology has proven to be intimate. As our understanding of technology grows, so does our understanding of the spiritual universe, it seems. Over the eons, our conception of God has formed and reformed into the shape of our technology. Not only that, spiritual figures are seen as a master of current and future technology. Early man saw gods and goddesses as hunters or warriors. Statues and artwork portrayed deities wielding the latest technology of destruction–bows and arrows, spears, and, sometimes, darting about in the new model year chariot. The Middle East, where most of our current major religions ferments, saw the rise of a God who was more like a tribal chieftain. As the Renaissance approached, God was no longer the angry warrior. He was a clockmaker, an expert, deterministic mathematician that [...]

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Kevin Kelly At TED: What Technology Wants

by Socrates
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Kevin Kelly just published a new book called What Technology Wants. I have been planning to buy it ever since I heard he was writing another book but after Seth Godin called it The Book Of The Year and said that “if there’s justice it will win the Pulitzer prize,” I just couldn’t wait and ordered it online. In the meantime, I decided to watch and post some of the most interesting TED videos that Kelly did during the last several years. The 3 videos bellow were shot in 2 year intervals (from 2006 to 2010) and represent a chronological progression of Kevin’s quest to answer the titular question of his book. I recommend you watch them in order or, if you really don’t have the time, skip to the very last one. Kevin Kelly’s Profile on TED: Perhaps there [...]

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Does Technology Make Us Smart or Stupid?

by Socrates
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Technology often divides us into techno-optimists and techno-skeptics. The optimists, as exemplified by a recent Reuters news article, believe for example that the Internet will make us smarter and that technology has an overwhelmingly positive effect on the human species. After all, ever since our Cro-Magnon fore-fathers left the caves it has been technology which has provided not only our food and shelter but almost everything else above and beyond — from the iPod in your pocket to the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit. It allows us to travel vast distances in short periods of time, to communicate instantaneously across continents and to live on average 3 times longer than the ancient Greeks. It is hard to deny that technology makes our lives easier, more comfortable and more pleasant. But does technology make us smart or stupid? Is it, [...]

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