Technology
Big Questions
Is Elon Musk an honest and benevolent tycoon? Or, a dangerous and evil Tony Stark?
How aware are we of our relationship with technology and how well do we understand its impacts?
Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu
Can the world control the technology it creates?
Why do we explore? Simply, to discover New Knowledge v.0, also:
- you meet the best people
- your fear turns to awe and inspiration
- you gain a unique perspective
- you activate the everyday explorer in all of us.
- it gets you out there into the biosphere, and
- it motivates you to protect what you love.
Nature is an interconnected global force.
Weapons of Mass Artificial Intelligent Destruction (WoMAID)
If scientists know how to do something, it’s not a question of IF, but WHEN they choose to do it.
Are you confident all scientists are working in the best interests of the public? We should really be afraid of the scientists and technologists who are the only ones who understand how to research, design, develop, commercialize, manufacture and deploy the Weapons of Mass Artificial Intelligent Destruction (WoMAID) that hold the capability to destroy all of us.
Many of the scientists and engineers who agree to pursue this dangerous science are agnostic on the moral value of what they do. They stick their head in the sand about the unintended consequences and claim that it’s up to the generals and the politicians to make sure their scientific power is not abused. If scientists know how to do something regardless of the potential unintended consequences, it’s not a question of IF, but WHEN they choose to do it.
American Prometheus: The Inspiration for the Major Motion Picture OPPENHEIMER by Kai Bird
Our Final Invention by James Barrat
Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age by James L. Nolan Jr.
The Every by Dave Eggers
That has never worked so well for society. Scientists can always be recruited to support a political or religious agenda, or to protect a corporation’s profits; e.g., the cigarette industry, and the oil and gas industry’s gas lighting climate change for 40 years. There will always be an unscrupulous scientist (s) who will do anything for career fame and money, letting the apocalyptic chips fall where they may while still sleeping well in their gated golf communities at night.
How do we protect ourselves from those scientists (e.g., Oppenheimer et al) who would willingly allow (mindful ignorance) the weaponization of their kinetic and biological and artificially intelligent (ai) technologies they develop?
sp
Big Picture / Technology
Development of Technology
- History of Technology
- Organization of Human Work
- Technology’s Impact on Humans
- The Future of Well-Being in a Tech-Saturated World
- The Empathy Diaries by Sherry Turkle
Elements of Technology
- Energy Conversion & Utilization
- Tools and Machines
- Measurement, Observation, Control
- Industrial Raw Materials
- Industrial Production Processes
Fields of Technology
- AGRICULTURE & FOOD PRODUCTION
- Major industries
- Construction Technology
- Transportation Technology
- wireless charging: Momentum Dynamics
- INFORMATION PROCESSING & COMMUNICATIONS
- Military Technology
- Offensive weaponry
- Defensive weaponry
- Weapon platforms
- Engineering
- Logistics
- Electronics
- Urban Community Technology
- Earth & Space Exploration
- 1769-1859: The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
- rivers: River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard
- Space X
Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space by Erika Nesvold
Further reading
The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet by Arthur Turrell
- ai: Human Compatible Stuart Russell
- decision making: Tools and Weapons by Brad Smith
- fusion power: The Star Builders by Arthur Turrell
- militarization of technology:
- Atomic Doctors by James L. Nolan Jr.
- Space Force
- moral consequences: The Ethical Algorithm by Kearns
- PEACE
- silicon valley: Sway by Kara Swisher
- sustainability: Technology, Humans, and Society by Richard Dorf
- trends: 16 Minutes News by Andreessen Horowitz