3 ms·

An interesting theme unmentioned so far here appears in Fire.., Children… & (somewhat) in Deepness…: technology progress and it’s possible acceleration dependin

An interesting theme unmentioned so far here appears in Fire.., Children… & (somewhat) in Deepness…: technology progress and it’s possible acceleration depending on the information you have. Level of civilization tech has fallen (or never existed). People a) recall that some tech worked OR b) Know specific choices are right ones OR c) Have a computer (or at least a book)with detailed instructions. Now: is it possible to rebuild tech? If so, which paths and what’s quickest way? Often one needs to build a chain of techs first. For example, as a thought experiment, a time machine can send back a VLSI design textbook (which makes clear that planar CMOS wins). If that’s to 1947, diverts from building big vacuum tube computers into pushing to VLSI as fast as possible. But if sent to 1900? Likewise, complete design for iPhone sent to 1990 doesn’t help much.

JohnMashey 5y ago
As a CS professor, Vernor was always familiar with then-current computing researcher(s) and practice, then extrapolated into stories. Hence: 1981 Arpanet => True Names' cyberspace, and lookahead to issues of identity and privacy 1992: USENET => FIre's galactic communication network, with mix of well-informed commenters, flamers and out-of-touch people 1999: smart dust => Deepness' localizers (note presentation by Pister 1997) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartdust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartdust 2006: Wikipedia revert wars => battles to enforce augment3ed reality perceptions As for issues of sensor nets and surveillance, at 2004 Foo Camp, Pam Samuelson and I did a session where I talked about the sensor net technology and she talked about issues of surveillance, privacy, law that were already surfacing ... even years before iPhones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Camp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Camp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Samuelson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Samuelson

JohnMashey 5y ago

As a CS professor, Vernor was always familiar with then-current computing researcher(s) and practice, then extrapolated into stories. Hence: 1981 Arpanet => True Names' cyberspace, and lookahead to issues of identity and privacy 1992: USENET => FIre's galactic communication network, with mix of well-informed commenters, flamers and out-of-touch people 1999: smart dust => Deepness' localizers (note presentation by Pister 1997) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartdust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartdust 2006: Wikipedia revert wars => battles to enforce augment3ed reality perceptions As for issues of sensor nets and surveillance, at 2004 Foo Camp, Pam Samuelson and I did a session where I talked about the sensor net technology and she talked about issues of surveillance, privacy, law that were already surfacing ... even years before iPhones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Camp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Camp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Samuelson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Samuelson