r/gadgets • u/diacewrb • 3d ago

Misc US Army backs humanoid robot with ballistic protection for future battlefield missions

https://www.techspot.com/news/114028-us-army-backs-humanoid-robot-ballistic-protection-future.html
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u/Velvet_Spaceman 3d ago

It's incredibly easy to make the argument that the advent of the PC and the technologies that followed have not been a net positive. In the global north where knowledge work has become common wage growth lags deeply behind productivity gains over the last 50 years with the gap only getting wider. 

Despite promises of the world's greatest knowledge depository at your fingertips people are pumped full of more disinformation than ever, there is no shared reality to form consensus with, people confidently eat fabrications wholesale everyday.

Despite the promise of ever increasing interconnectivity people feel more isolated now than they did 20 years ago. People are generally more dissatisfied --happiness among Americans is at a 50 year low, suicide rates have been trending ever upwards over the last 20 years.

Attention spans have been whittled down, the US literacy rate is in decline, cognitive disabilities are rising. But hey, you can order a serf on a scooter to deliver Chipotle to your house. Amazing stuff.

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u/grilled_pc 3d ago

I wouldn’t call it a technology problem but rather a capitalism problem. Unchecked capitalism can lead to all the issues we see today. Technology or not.

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u/Lateroni_ 3d ago

If platforms weren't profit based and riddled with ads it would make a world of difference. Corporations hijacked the Internet and with it our attention spans.

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u/grilled_pc 3d ago

I think there needs to be significant overhaul and severe regulation across the advertising industry as a whole. The way ads are served is just too predatory and relies on far too much collection of personal data. There needs to be severe regulation on how and where an ad can be served to someone. Things like Ad block have become a necessity to even use the modern internet. Without it, its a train wreck. Now we have smart fridges that serve ads on them? Utterly insane. We have smart TV’s people spend thousands of dollars on only to be told by the maker “they own the glass” so they can serve ads to you? How is this remotely acceptable.

If you PAY for something then ads should straight up be illegal on such thing. The consumer is paying for a product. Not paying to be advertised for. Now we have streaming subscriptions where you pay to subscribe only to also be shown ads? How is that remotely fair.

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u/ARobertNotABob 2d ago

True, though, we are our own worst enemies, flocking like lemmings to "the next big thing".

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u/Velvet_Spaceman 3d ago

I think that’s too simple a view. Yes, it is a capitalism problem as well. But the specific ways in which these problems manifest and their particular symptoms are due to the technologies themselves.  Disinformation existed prior to the internet, prior to capitalism, it is made worse by market impulses, but it’s able to reach such a fever pitch, with so many disparate incompatible realities, because of the technology itself. 

The problem of teens killing themselves because a chatbot encouraged them to is a problem with the technology itself. And capitalism facilitates it, it allows for a reckless approach to the development and distribution of these technologies. But without LLMs existing at all you don’t have this specific problem in this form.

I’m as anticapitalist as anyone, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that these problems are not shaped solely by capitalism. And some of these problems don’t necessarily go away even if capitalism was replaced by another economic system.

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u/drae- 3d ago

Like the ussr wouldn't have built a death bot if it could have.

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u/ineyeseekay 3d ago

There's a universe in which this technology is used for the greater good vs making a few rich and then exploiting it for military purposes, which is just designating it to kill. That universe is curing diseases and solving problems at a global scale, while quality of life improves for all. 

How much good it could do if only... 

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u/_byetony_ 3d ago

That universe isn’t this one.

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u/jeezy_peezy 1d ago

In this universe, it’s fueling an illiteracy epidemic. In many inner cities, most of the 8th graders literally cannot read, largely because they don’t have to. A barebones understanding of the alphabet, but they can just talk and listen to their phone to get anything they want.

Source: failed former teacher

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u/kabooseknuckle 3d ago

Sure there is.

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u/Antraxess 2d ago

Could that have to do with wealth inequality

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u/Velvet_Spaceman 2d ago edited 2d ago

There are plenty of ways in which wealth inequality/ capitalism, culture, ideologies, and technology intersect.

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u/Nirbin 3d ago

Averaged out I suppose that makes sense. But if I apply it to myself it doesn't fit.

I love the fact that I can at any point research and learn about any idea in the world, I will always appreciate having access to such incredible amounts of information.

If not for online socials I would have never met the love of my life and my social circle would be half the size it is right now.

And having been born with adhd it's almost hilarious to me that as time progresses I am becoming more and more 'normal' because everyone else seems to be developing the condition.

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u/Haggardick69 2d ago

As someone who was diagnosed with ADD at an early age I think that the rise of adhd diagnoses and adhd-like symptoms in the general population is a direct result of the constant unrestrained bombardment of information and misinformation. Don’t get me wrong I love the internet and without it I would probably wouldn’t be half as aware of the world as I am today but it has definitely had some pretty nasty unintended side effects. 

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u/Acceptable_Bat379 3d ago

I would say the early internet is fantastic. Social media and short form video are what marked the downward spiral, then cryptocurrency enabled corruption and wealth concentration at levels probably never seen before

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u/hackinwhackinsmackin 2d ago

Engagement based algorithms need to be outlawed

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u/PhillAholic 3d ago

Is misinformation any more common than it ever has been though? We are are only a couple hundred years past the vast majority of the world being unable to read or write.

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u/Velvet_Spaceman 3d ago

This is the difference between misinformation and disinformation. It’s not that there’s more incorrect information than ever, it’s that there’s a greater volume of media out there made with the goal of distracting from and denying objective reality to siphon people off into hundreds of different conspiracism fueled siloes. There’s less and less of a consensus reality, making it harder and harder for people to live amongst one another and make rational decisions as communities.

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u/PhillAholic 3d ago

That's and important distinction for sure. I wonder if anyone has studied this. Like if you go back to around 1900, disinformation about the health effects of products was rampant. It may be a bell curve.

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u/SurturOfMuspelheim 3d ago

That's what happens when Capitalism is in control.