You're right there. Machines cost just pennies per kw/h, work day and night, and require very little in the way of "benefits". They have been replacing people in virtually every industry since 1900, and this is what caused the crash of '29. Robots produced more, but less people worked, and therefor had no money with which to buy the new abundance of stuff. Simple economics: supply goes up, demand goes down, price goes WAY down, hence, crash. The only reason we've stabilized since then (if you call this stable) is because of *amazing* economic legislating (ever compare the complexity of economics these days to 1900?), and the huge debt creation during WW2 and since. Essentially we have an economy on life support, waiting for the debt to catch up with us. We can no longer afford to enforce a scarcity and try to use machines to produce abundance at the same time. One of them has got to go, and since I think most of us would rather not give up our technological living, we have to find an economy that does not enforce scarcity. To date, I have only ever found one that does this, developed by a group called Technocracy.
Here is a detailed explaination of what I just said, based on their research. For those who don't like math, here's a shorter explaination.
I've been collecting news articles about this since Oct. '98. From what I understand, once your brain gets used to the chip being there, moving the cursor, or whatever, is just like moving your arm. You think, it happens, but not if you're just "imagining" it, like imagining to move your arm. You have to actually send the correct impulse. Bio-feedback already is used to gain control of your heart and such things, and similar techniques would be useful for training to use this.
Even if the part of your brain they connect the chip to is being used for something else, you'll notice right away with the output wildly fluctuating, until you learn to bring it under control. The brain would shunt the previous function (probably) to another area, allow this area to be used for the chip. Worst case scenario, if the brain can't "shunt" the previious function, is that you have to think of aunt Thelma when you move the cursor, or remember what peaches smell like, etc. Of course, I'm just speculating here.
Slashdot Mirror
You're right there. Machines cost just pennies per kw/h, work day and night, and require very little in the way of "benefits". They have been replacing people in virtually every industry since 1900, and this is what caused the crash of '29. Robots produced more, but less people worked, and therefor had no money with which to buy the new abundance of stuff. Simple economics: supply goes up, demand goes down, price goes WAY down, hence, crash. The only reason we've stabilized since then (if you call this stable) is because of *amazing* economic legislating (ever compare the complexity of economics these days to 1900?), and the huge debt creation during WW2 and since. Essentially we have an economy on life support, waiting for the debt to catch up with us. We can no longer afford to enforce a scarcity and try to use machines to produce abundance at the same time. One of them has got to go, and since I think most of us would rather not give up our technological living, we have to find an economy that does not enforce scarcity. To date, I have only ever found one that does this, developed by a group called Technocracy.
Here is a detailed explaination of what I just said, based on their research. For those who don't like math, here's a shorter explaination.
WHAT HAPPENS when you JUST THINK and it happens
I've been collecting news articles about this since Oct. '98. From what I understand, once your brain gets used to the chip being there, moving the cursor, or whatever, is just like moving your arm. You think, it happens, but not if you're just "imagining" it, like imagining to move your arm. You have to actually send the correct impulse. Bio-feedback already is used to gain control of your heart and such things, and similar techniques would be useful for training to use this.
Even if the part of your brain they connect the chip to is being used for something else, you'll notice right away with the output wildly fluctuating, until you learn to bring it under control. The brain would shunt the previous function (probably) to another area, allow this area to be used for the chip. Worst case scenario, if the brain can't "shunt" the previious function, is that you have to think of aunt Thelma when you move the cursor, or remember what peaches smell like, etc. Of course, I'm just speculating here.