Well argued piece Dave! But there are technologies which have been abandoned in human history: the making of walls out of massive stone blocks without mortar, by the Aztecs is one. We no longer know how to do this. Nor do we have the masonry skills to build buttressed gothic cathedrals. We've also lost the skills to make kiphus, the ancient Inca art of using knots for accounting.... Technology isn't just about wires and electrons... Hope to seeya soon
Thanks, Magaret! This is interesting. There are certainly examples of technologies being abandoned because they've been replaced by superior technologies. We don't see a lot of steam engines anymore. I was thinking more about technologies like fire, the wheel, gunpowder, all the way up through the combustion engine and nuclear energy, and into the modern information age. All of those technologies have negative and positive consequences, just like AI. But you have a great point... perhaps some technologies get abandoned when the cultures they came from disappear (like the Aztecs, ancient Egyptians, medieval craftsman, etc). This might come down to what we really mean by a "technology". Interesting thing to think about!
Well argued piece Dave! But there are technologies which have been abandoned in human history: the making of walls out of massive stone blocks without mortar, by the Aztecs is one. We no longer know how to do this. Nor do we have the masonry skills to build buttressed gothic cathedrals. We've also lost the skills to make kiphus, the ancient Inca art of using knots for accounting.... Technology isn't just about wires and electrons... Hope to seeya soon
Thanks, Magaret! This is interesting. There are certainly examples of technologies being abandoned because they've been replaced by superior technologies. We don't see a lot of steam engines anymore. I was thinking more about technologies like fire, the wheel, gunpowder, all the way up through the combustion engine and nuclear energy, and into the modern information age. All of those technologies have negative and positive consequences, just like AI. But you have a great point... perhaps some technologies get abandoned when the cultures they came from disappear (like the Aztecs, ancient Egyptians, medieval craftsman, etc). This might come down to what we really mean by a "technology". Interesting thing to think about!