5 ms·

> Today, we can get away with ‘knowing’ how Google works without understanding what a ‘principal eigenvector’ is. Tomorrow, we need to absolutely know that. Pa

by veddox 11y ago

> Today, we can get away with ‘knowing’ how Google works without understanding what a ‘principal eigenvector’ is. Tomorrow, we need to absolutely know that. Part of the advancement of technology is that fewer and fewer people actually understand how stuff works. What percentage of the population has any notion of how a computer works under the hood? How many people understand how our national power grid works? Our sewage system? Our cars? As our world gets more sophisticated, we specialize; we have to. Sure, there will be people who will have to know about eigenvectors tomorrow - but do we all? Not by a long shot.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Agreed. Its an old story - warriors say we all need to think like warriors; merchants say we all should think like merchants; engineers are getting on that bandwagon.
- sqeaky 11y ago
  It is rare that a population has a long term sustainable soldier/war economy. Merchants have always needed supporting trades (farmer's for food and raw material, sailors for shipping, for example). Today we have enough technology that an engineer can build a soldier or a merchant (or a farmer or a sailor). We are all familiar with drones and vending machines. It is important that an engineer not constrain his thinking though. Neither of these replacements does everything a human can do. Sometimes a soldier takes a bullet for a civilian and sometimes a merchant haggles and gives discounts to needy. Even though these replacements are not perfect they still compete with humans for jobs. We are still a long way from creating a robot engineer. If you want a job that won't be replaced quickly think like an engineer. We are also closer than ever but still a long way from having a robot doctor or lawyer and will likely be requiring humans for anything resembling a bedside manner or sympathy. Hopefully there will be jobs alongside these artificial replacements for human experts for some time.
scrollaway 11y ago
I agree to an extent but it's also very scary that some knowledge can become so rare it's more diluted than homeopathic medicine. In a world where very few know how some ubiquitous technology works, it's easy and cheap for some corp or govt to get a monopoly on that knowledge (just hire everyone). And with a monopoly on it, you can modify it to your liking and suddenly we're in a dystopian novel and nobody knows about it. Yes, yes, tinfoil and all that. It's theoretical, but is it really that far off?
- veddox 11y ago
  I'd think there'll always be enough people around who are interested in any given subject to prevent that kind of scenario - although of course there is no way to say for sure.
tzs 11y ago
That reminds of some idle thoughts I had several years ago, when I lived in an apartment, during a storm. It was a dark and stormy night. The rain was coming down hard, and there was a good bit of wind. It was not a night you would want to be outside in. As I sat in my dry, warm, lighted apartment I got to thinking about how different life was compared to my distant cave dwelling ancestors. If they wanted a drink of water, they had to leave their cave and go find running water. On a night like this, they would have to choose between thirst and going out in terrible weather. In my apartment, I simply turn the handle on a faucet, and as much water as I want is instantly available. No need to leave the apartment when I get thirsty. If I want to be in rain for some reason, such as to wash, I simply step into the shower and it will rain on my command, at whatever intensity I want, at whatever temperature I want. My ancestors would have to wait for rain, and accept whatever intensity and temperature that it happened to be. If I get cold, I turn the thermostat up, and minutes later the temperature is to my liking. My ancestors would have to move around in their cave and hope to find a warmer spot, or build a fire and trade away clean air for some warmth. If I want to do something that needs light and it is night out, I flip a switch and I have light. I can adjust the brightness to anything from just enough to get around to enough to do anything I can do in full sunlight. My cave dwelling ancestors would have to use fire for light at night, messing up the air of their cave and only partly lighting their home. If I want to enjoy a gentle breeze, I turn on a fan. They had to go outside. I then got to thinking about how if my ancestors could see me, they might think I was some kind of god as I summon running water, rain, wind, light at will, and control the temperature. Then I realized that if they were put in my apartment and I in their cave, they would be able to do all that I can do after a couple minutes instruction...and I would have no idea how to actually make a fire. I'm not a god compared to them. I just found a better cave.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  Ok, but 'we' are gods compared to them. We've build a better society together. You can take some pride in your part in that!
yellowapple 11y ago
I'm suddenly reminded of the episode "When the Bough Breaks" from Start Trek: TNG. Long-lost hyperadvanced planet-society finds itself infertile and unable to sustain its own population, steals kids from Enterprise to teach them how to be a generation of little Mozards and Rembrandts; Enterprise rescues kids and in the process figures out that said hyperadvanced society - having focused entirely on arts and humanities - forgot even the most basic understanding of the technologies they relied upon and were now falling victim to radiation poisoning brought on by ozone depletion and the power plant they were using to power their tech. Scaling down the power plant's energy production and reseeding the ozone layer implicitly fixes the fertility issues, at the cost of the long-lost planet now no longer being long-lost and the additional cost of the planet's inhabitants pledging to learn more about their technologies instead of blindly depending on them. Moral of the story: make sure understanding of relied-upon technologies is prioritized, lest they bite you in the rear later.
- coldcode 11y ago
  Idiocracy has a similar theme. People forget that you need to water plants if you want to grow them.
eropple 11y ago
> What percentage of the population has any notion of how a computer works under the hood? Tangential, but I'm starting to ask that question about developers. And it does get rather important when you have to debug their code because they can't.

by veddox 11y ago

JoeAltmaier 11y ago

Agreed. Its an old story - warriors say we all need to think like warriors; merchants say we all should think like merchants; engineers are getting on that bandwagon.

sqeaky 11y ago
It is rare that a population has a long term sustainable soldier/war economy. Merchants have always needed supporting trades (farmer's for food and raw material, sailors for shipping, for example). Today we have enough technology that an engineer can build a soldier or a merchant (or a farmer or a sailor). We are all familiar with drones and vending machines. It is important that an engineer not constrain his thinking though. Neither of these replacements does everything a human can do. Sometimes a soldier takes a bullet for a civilian and sometimes a merchant haggles and gives discounts to needy. Even though these replacements are not perfect they still compete with humans for jobs. We are still a long way from creating a robot engineer. If you want a job that won't be replaced quickly think like an engineer. We are also closer than ever but still a long way from having a robot doctor or lawyer and will likely be requiring humans for anything resembling a bedside manner or sympathy. Hopefully there will be jobs alongside these artificial replacements for human experts for some time.

scrollaway 11y ago

I agree to an extent but it's also very scary that some knowledge can become so rare it's more diluted than homeopathic medicine. In a world where very few know how some ubiquitous technology works, it's easy and cheap for some corp or govt to get a monopoly on that knowledge (just hire everyone). And with a monopoly on it, you can modify it to your liking and suddenly we're in a dystopian novel and nobody knows about it. Yes, yes, tinfoil and all that. It's theoretical, but is it really that far off?

veddox 11y ago
I'd think there'll always be enough people around who are interested in any given subject to prevent that kind of scenario - although of course there is no way to say for sure.

tzs 11y ago

That reminds of some idle thoughts I had several years ago, when I lived in an apartment, during a storm. It was a dark and stormy night. The rain was coming down hard, and there was a good bit of wind. It was not a night you would want to be outside in. As I sat in my dry, warm, lighted apartment I got to thinking about how different life was compared to my distant cave dwelling ancestors. If they wanted a drink of water, they had to leave their cave and go find running water. On a night like this, they would have to choose between thirst and going out in terrible weather. In my apartment, I simply turn the handle on a faucet, and as much water as I want is instantly available. No need to leave the apartment when I get thirsty. If I want to be in rain for some reason, such as to wash, I simply step into the shower and it will rain on my command, at whatever intensity I want, at whatever temperature I want. My ancestors would have to wait for rain, and accept whatever intensity and temperature that it happened to be. If I get cold, I turn the thermostat up, and minutes later the temperature is to my liking. My ancestors would have to move around in their cave and hope to find a warmer spot, or build a fire and trade away clean air for some warmth. If I want to do something that needs light and it is night out, I flip a switch and I have light. I can adjust the brightness to anything from just enough to get around to enough to do anything I can do in full sunlight. My cave dwelling ancestors would have to use fire for light at night, messing up the air of their cave and only partly lighting their home. If I want to enjoy a gentle breeze, I turn on a fan. They had to go outside. I then got to thinking about how if my ancestors could see me, they might think I was some kind of god as I summon running water, rain, wind, light at will, and control the temperature. Then I realized that if they were put in my apartment and I in their cave, they would be able to do all that I can do after a couple minutes instruction...and I would have no idea how to actually make a fire. I'm not a god compared to them. I just found a better cave.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Ok, but 'we' are gods compared to them. We've build a better society together. You can take some pride in your part in that!

yellowapple 11y ago

I'm suddenly reminded of the episode "When the Bough Breaks" from Start Trek: TNG. Long-lost hyperadvanced planet-society finds itself infertile and unable to sustain its own population, steals kids from Enterprise to teach them how to be a generation of little Mozards and Rembrandts; Enterprise rescues kids and in the process figures out that said hyperadvanced society - having focused entirely on arts and humanities - forgot even the most basic understanding of the technologies they relied upon and were now falling victim to radiation poisoning brought on by ozone depletion and the power plant they were using to power their tech. Scaling down the power plant's energy production and reseeding the ozone layer implicitly fixes the fertility issues, at the cost of the long-lost planet now no longer being long-lost and the additional cost of the planet's inhabitants pledging to learn more about their technologies instead of blindly depending on them. Moral of the story: make sure understanding of relied-upon technologies is prioritized, lest they bite you in the rear later.

coldcode 11y ago
Idiocracy has a similar theme. People forget that you need to water plants if you want to grow them.

eropple 11y ago

> What percentage of the population has any notion of how a computer works under the hood? Tangential, but I'm starting to ask that question about developers. And it does get rather important when you have to debug their code because they can't.