Slashdot Mirror
You Are Already Living Inside a Computer (theatlantic.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Think about the computing systems you use every day. All of them represent attempts to simulate something else. Like how Turing's original thinking machine (PDF) strived to pass as a man or woman, a computer tries to pass, in a way, as another thing. As a calculator, for example, or a ledger, or a typewriter, or a telephone, or a camera, or a storefront, or a cafe. After a while, successful simulated machines displace and overtake the machines they originally imitated. The word processor is no longer just a simulated typewriter or secretary, but a first-order tool for producing written materials of all kinds. Eventually, if they thrive, simulated machines become just machines. Today, computation overall is doing this. There's not much work and play left that computers don't handle. And so, the computer is splitting from its origins as a means of symbol manipulation for productive and creative ends, and becoming an activity in its own right. Today, people don't seek out computers in order to get things done; they do the things that let them use computers.
Well, in my case, I've been living inside a computer since 1982. Don't know about the rest of you...
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
None of what you said means anything. Go away.
The article is a little bit hung up on doorbells, old doorbells versus "smart" doorbells. But to me, the doorbell has been obsoleted in a completely different way. If someone is coming over, they text me ahead of time and I can leave the door unlocked for them. The only people who ring the doorbell are solicitors or missionaries, both of which are ignored.
This is what happens when you legalize it.
Dude, my kid just tossed down his tablet and said, "Dad, do we have time to throw the ball before dinner?"
Oh yes we do little man. Best part of my day.
I was expecting some article to say that we're sims in a world that has people playing Sims ... maybe SimCity will also add features for *their* sims to play a game controlling a city too! Either that, or an article about how the entire internet is somehow a giant computer spanning the entire world, and hence we all live within it.
Instead, its just about people using computers to mimic older technologies and displace them; because the 'mimicking' version is actually better and offers features beyond those present in the original.
How many times is Slashdot going to post about this topic? It's a question that can never be answered and even when answered has no value. This is like the sixth time I've seen this same damn topic here and it's boring me. Then again, maybe I'm in control of the computer and want you stop obsessing about this or I'll hit the reset button! ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
"Go outside for once, pasty-skinned hipster. Ride a bike."
Hipsters do ride bikes. The hard part is getting them to do it without recording their path on a computer and broadcasting it to everyone they can.
Waflor and Woftam sound like they'd be the cranky old twin Norse Gods of "I told you so, you stupid mortal". Sure, being Norse Gods I imagine they'd have big shiny weapons and a big mug of ale or mead at all times, but mostly I think they'd wander around cuffing fools and laugh at them when they fell on their mortal asses.
I'm not sure that portfolio's ever been assigned to a God before, but I like it.
"...computing systems...represent attempts to simulate something else...like...a calculator...a ledger, or a typewriter, or a telephone, or a camera..."
That's meaningless attempts to simulate meaningful conversation and thought. A computer is a calculator, is a ledger, is a typewriter, is a telephone, is a camera. There is no meaningful need to continue to implement a function the way it was done the first time. With the writer's logic a film camera is an attempt to simulate a glass plate camera which is an attempt to simulate a photorealistic drawing which is an attempt to simulate a still life. No, the computer is a camera, is a ledger, is a typewriter, camera, etc. The physical manual or electric version is a mere implementation. The newer version, which includes a CCD and computer, is a far better implementation of a camera than the old glass plate or film versions ever were.
This is reality.
Sigh, the reason they slap computers into everything is that it has become more cost effective to do so. It's cheaper to take a generic 8 bit CPU and program it to be a calculator, a memory stick, a microwave or dishwasher than it is to build custom circuits for each. It's that fucken simple. It's not going to go away, in fact it's going to get a lot "worse", if you consider that a bad thing. What's annoying me about it is the whole IOT part which is getting shoved down our throats, whether we want it or not. I don't mind the general concept of IOT, I have an issue with proprietary devices circumventing my firewall to "phone home" and how inherently insecure they are proving to be, on top of the lack of updates (blueborne is but a recent example). Hence my not so newfound hobby - electronics! Will roll my own IOT devices, thank you very much.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.