Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Shades of Cold Fusion


Golamaphobia -- fear of robots

Periodically visionaries appear in the news with proposals that appeal to the public's WOW element ... a public usually composed of those younger people who have not seen it all before ... and who don't bring a healthy skepticism into such dreams. I distinctly remember many years ago how the world was all aflutter about the possibility of unlimited cheap energy from "cold fusion" ... essentially capturing a hydrogen bomb in a bottle. Here we are over 25 years later and this dream is yet to become a reality.

Enter stage left, Elon Musk, the world's latest technical visionary who has just announced his intent to link our brains directly with computers ... or Neuralink as he has dubbed it. This new company would create a helmet that fits over one's head to transmit and receive directly from a computer in order to eliminate the middleman and increase the bandwidth ... see: LA Times Article. Musk's intent to use to Neuralink to defeat robots. Not to be outdone by this loopiness, Musk is also promising space travelers a trip around the moon next year ... and a flight to Mars by 2024 using his company, SpaceX's technology ... see: Daily Caller Article.c

Musk seems to be transfixed with the survival of mankind using the Mars colonization scheme to prevent an Apocalypse ... the subjudigation of humans by robots. If Musk had not already had his share of successes with Tesla and SpaceX, I expect that the authorities would be after him with a net ... shades of cold fusion. But he has had impressive wins and people are therefore reluctant to criticism his visions.

But I am a doubter ... reluctantly ...

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8 comments:

  1. ChillFin6:43 AM

    You might recall the Gartner Hype Curve. See http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3412017
    Note that some things that are innovation triggers are ten years out at best. Rich entrepreneurs can take a long view forward.

    Unlike our POTUS who is driving our vision backward. You might create a disestablishment curve for their visions.

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    Replies
    1. George W. Potts11:02 AM

      I guess Trump, like Bush, is going to be blamed for everything that goes wrong from now on ... eh?

      Delete
    2. ChillFin6:54 PM

      Not exactly. Trump is aggressive on Bannon's deconstruction agenda. Bush was seeking Cheney's goals of global domination. Deconstruction is not really wrong, just sad. Maybe we'll get back to the world of 1776, the way the originalists intended.

      Delete
    3. George W. Potts8:09 PM

      You're overthinking and overstating things ... actually a little like Mr. Musk.

      Delete
    4. ChillFin8:38 PM

      Oh OK. I'll just underthink and understate instead. I feel the greatness of the past lulling me into not giving a damn about anything other than my job, home, and family. I still think my expectations for continued existence of Medicare and Social Security are investments I made. Not crashing the stock market would be good. Other than that, why should I care?

      Delete
    5. ChillFin8:41 PM

      BTW, saying that I am like Mr. Musk is very flattering. Thank you.

      Delete
  2. ChillFin6:57 AM

    BTW, to temper the hype curve hype, here is look at the 2009 curve. 3D printing in 5-10 years... who knew?

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  3. ChillFin6:57 AM

    http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2009/08/un-hyping-the-gartner-hype-cycle.html

    ReplyDelete