The 'internet of things' is sending us back to the Middle Ages

Re:The 'internet of things' is sending us back to the Middle... by golemotron on Sunday September 17, 2017 @06:58PM (#15272170)

> The problem is software complexity. You can't really own anything you don't understand, and you can't be free in a world you don't understand. And we don't understand software.

What this means is that for all practical purposes AI is already here. AI, or rather the fear of AI, is about software making decisions that impact us outside of our knowledge or control.

Prior to software this was done by bureaucracy. We can see software (on the slope to AI) as disempowering in the same way.

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Re:The 'internet of things' is sending us back to the Middle... by jeffdavis on Monday September 18, 2017 @12:10AM (#15273347)

+1. The AI apocalypse looks more like a Kafka-esque bureaucracy and not so much like I, Robot with machines shooting at us.

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Re:The 'internet of things' is sending us back to the Middle... by rwnspace on Monday September 18, 2017 @01:14PM (#15277663)

This is one of the issues with sci-fi movies for the less metaphorically minded. Or, well, anyone. I find books make the ideas much more portable, which is half the fun of sci-fi in the first place. Things in real life are never exactly what they're like in the pictures.

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Re:The 'internet of things' is sending us back to the Middle... by andygates on Monday September 18, 2017 @08:30AM (#15275249)

Is it truly Kafka-esque when it provides us with adorable kitten gifs? At worst Brave New World-esque, at best actually good. Kitty!

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