215. The Theory of Accelerating Change

2021-10-15

Futurists often suggest that technology grows exponentially more powerful over time, but there may be good reasons to doubt this notion, & very good reasons not to wait around for the future tech they promise is imminent.

Audio Version MP3

Climate Change Links Sunrise Movement - https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ The Green New Deal Network - https://www.greennewdealnetwork.org/ Sierra Club - https://www.sierraclub.org/take-action 350.org - https://350.org/

Philosophical Analysis of Dark Souls, by Gemsbok - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpf3KQBIoCY

  1. The Antikythera Mechanism THUNK - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM3BDiKQdc4&feature=youtu.be

Why Futurism Has a Cultural Blindspot - Issue 65: In Plain Sight - Nautilus - https://nautil.us/issue/65/in-plain-sight/why-futurism-has-a-cultural-blindspot-rp

View of The 21st Century Singularity and its Big History Implications: A re-analysis - https://jbh.journals.villanova.edu/article/view/2329/2236

Whole Brain Emulation: No Progress on C. elgans After 10 Years - https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mHqQxwKuzZS69CXX5/whole-brain-emulation-no-progress-on-c-elgans-after-10-years

THE CALIFORNIAN IDEOLOGY by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron - http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/the-californian-ideology-2/

Tomorrows World - Office of the Future (BBC, 1969) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnMjoitdRRM&feature=youtu.be

What the 21st Century office of the future looked like in the 1960s - https://workplaceinsight.net/what-the-21st-century-office-looked-like-in-1967/

Futurism Needs More Women (Eveleth, 2015) - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/futurism-sexism-men/400097/

Kids in the 1960’s predict what the year 2000 will be like - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-OKfcljAok

1980’s prediction of 2020 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmdZU_WFm8g

Breakthrough in fusion energy: Is abundant low carbon energy within reach? - https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/breakthrough-in-fusion-energy-is-abundant-low-carbon-energy-within-reach/

artima - The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work - https://www.artima.com/articles/the-simplest-thing-that-could-possibly-work#part3

Can Technology Reverse Climate Change? (IEEE, 2018) - https://spectrum.ieee.org/can-technology-reverse-climate-change

Overconfidence in new technologies can influence decision-making - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150408100742.htm

Does Technology Drive History? (Smith, 1994) - https://nissenbaum.tech.cornell.edu/papers/Smith%20-%20Technological%20Determinism.pdf

The Social in the Machine: How Historians of Technology Look Beyond the Object Perspectives on History AHA - https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/march-2014/the-social-in-the-machine
Does Technological Change Shape Historical Change? by Chris Neels Predict - https://medium.com/predict/does-technological-change-shape-historical-change-eff16bc1e6d6

Do Machines Make History? (Heilbroner, 1967) - https://www.jstor.org/stable/3101719

Countdown to the Singularity - https://www.diamandis.com/blog/countdown-to-the-singularity

Where Americans Stand on Energy & Climate - https://apnorc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/EPIC_infographic.pdf

https://www.wired.com/story/italy-futurist-movement-techno-utopians/

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19900009424

“The lock washer serves as a spring while the bolt is being tightened. However, the washer is normally flat by the time the bolt is fully torqued. At this time it is equivalent to a solid flat washer, and its locking ability is nonexistent. In summary, a Iock washer of this type is useless for locking.”

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