Analogy - let's say there's a technology that disables the part of the brain responsible for speech. It's a new technology, but would it really be 'progress'? Progress is defined as follows;
forward or onward movement towards a destination. "the darkness did not stop my progress" synonyms: forward movement, onward movement, progression, advance, advancement, headway, passage; going "ceaseless rain made further progress impossible"
2. development towards an improved or more advanced condition. "we are making progress towards equal rights" synonyms: development, advance, advancement, headway, step(s) forward, progression, improvement, betterment, growth; breakthrough "the progress of medical science"
Typically, progress would refer to an improved condition from the previous one. Self checkouts exist as a manner to say ''hey look! No hands!'' - but at the same time, there's something off about it. I am an extrovert. If I don't talk to lots of people regularly, I start to feel depressed and irritable. I prefer face to face communication - real life. If I get depressed and irritable, I may require medication for said depression and irritability, thus costing the government money for healthcare. See the issue?
Self checkouts have always struck the wrong nerve for me. Last month almost every McDonald's restaurant in my city was closed down for 6 weeks for 'refurbishment'. After 6 weeks, little has changed in terms of the appearance of the interior but there are now two very ugly looking self-checkout machines that are three or four feet away from the actual cashiers, and in addition block the way. I had to wait 6 weeks just because of these silly machines which I have never used in my life and likely will be covered with germs - germs that will get onto my hands and fingers and those hands and fingers I use to put food into my mouth.
Amazon are now pushing for staff-less stores and I find it an outlet for people who hate socialization. I do not care if you have a disorder that makes you inherantly antisocial and introverted (Autism and Asperger Syndrome notwithstanding), this isn't the right way to deal with it. A lot of cashiers I know enjoy making small talk with customers and so do I. I will often leave a store with a smile on my face and overall a warm vibe since I talked with someone!
I also enjoy talking with taxi drivers and it really helps to pass the time. Most taxi drivers I have been with like talking with me,be it little subjects or their own work. Some people can't ''get another job''. Unemployment is a major issue now, so we should stop acting like it won't be an issue when millions of jobs are lost in the name of ''just because we can''. (Doesn't mean we should.)
My city is pushing for these driverless taxis and soon after driverless cars. Now I have a big problem with this. I am an airplane nut and even the most advanced airplanes flying today still have a crew to take over in case anything goes wrong. Basically, even in the most advanced plane, the computer is still redundant, and even if the computer goes completely haywire, the pilot can switch to manual control (rudder and pitch trim). A car on the other hand has a LOT more obstacles and it only takes a slight error to crash into another car and yet they want to push for driverless cars where the driver is redundant and not the other way around.
The human brain has been around for millions of years, and even if you want to beat around the bush and try 'perfecting' the technology, at the end of the day it'll be a whole lot less convoluted with having a person there and the computer redundant. Computers are not holy beings - they are created by us and as such are still subjected to human error in the form of programming errors or even processing errors - which in themselves are computer errors. Code can be 100% perfect, but the execution of that code can go wrong. There's a higher chance of this with complexity - but I can personally testify that a simple var. check sent my computer into a BSOD. I ran the code again after a reboot and nothing happened - the code was fine, but even computers can hiccup. Fortunately, my computer was not driving a car at sixty miles per hour on a busy road.
Actual progress would be car material technology that renders car crashes non-fatal. For example a material which can 'heal' itself or act as a kind of sponge. This way head-on collisions would be a lot less fatal. Another manner of progress would be producing a car engine that runs on something such as hydrogen - a clean energy source, or even an engine that reverses pollution. That would be technology I'd invest in, not some silly anti social junk that people are worshiping simply for the sake of it being new technology.
Disliking 2 or 3 new technologies out of hundreds does not make me a luddite which by definition is someone who generally hates new technology. I use an advanced electromagnetic tablet to paint digitally. I also have a computer and mobile phone. Just because a technology is new doesn't nullify it as a concept being silly, potentially dangerous or flawed. Disliking the idea of driverless cars and anti social checkout machines plus brain implants connected to the internet is not comparable to how people felt about machines taking over labor work back in the 19th century. For one, labor work back then was very, very tedious. Also, the machines wouldn't kill people if they stopped working or got hacked or cause massive issues.
Basically what I am trying to say is just because you don't see 100.00% of new technology as being the best thing ever since sliced bread doesn't mean you're stupid and/or a luddite. Part of me wonders how many of the 100.00% crowd love the idea of the Juicero - the 700-dollar 'futuristic' Juicer that has to be connected to the internet just to squeeze packets of juice.
Sources/Links
Juicero - [
link to www.youtube.com (secure)]
Amazon cashier-less stores - [
link to www.youtube.com (secure)]
United Kingdom
United States
