Focus

[gfish]

More wonderfully scary reality-imitating-fiction, this time a New York Times article on something very much like Vinge's Focus. I heard rumors about this at a con last year, but this is by far the most authoritative account I've seen. I actually believe it exists now. And I want one of these devices. I'd never take it off, I'd just be constantly twiddling with the settings, trying to optimize my brain usage for the current situation. Singularity, here we come!

Comments

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's redundant to talk about how spooky these prospects are, how the general-purpose mind is adapted for many things, and who can tell what kind of evolutionary dead-end we might find ourselves in?

I spoke to Mr. Vinge at a recent convention, asking him if focus was the main element of straumli realm's dysfunction, in the first book. He told me he hadn't thought about it, though he could certainly adapt such a plot line!

He also said that there's one other book coming out before a sequel to Deepness is released.

...oh, but the reason I had for dropping names, is that he's had several people come to him, wishing they could volunteer to be focused, how much more work they could get done! In the context of his book, it sounds like volunteering to be the star in a stephen king horror story. From the news article, it seems pretty harmless, I just dread the possibility (inevitability) of it being abused for advertizing/propaganda purposes.

Suppose one is only exposed to this effect while focusing on some subjects and not others? It makes me think of Larry Niven's Tasp, which could be used to enslave someone with their wholehearted cooperation.

Call me a nervous nelly, I just don't trust the new tech as long as we're still abusing the old tech.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

I agree in theory, but I believe we're at the point where the only way out is in. Meaning we can't put the various genies back in their bottles, so we'd better just keep innovating and looking for better technologies to replace our current bad ones.

I have no idea if this approach will work, of course. I'm just hoping that our abilities go vertical before any kind of collapse scenario. (Or that we can at least get eggs into other baskets first.) The only other option is to give up large section of modern technology -- and a few billion people whose lives are dependant on it. Neither part sounds all that great to me.

More importantly that isn't even a decision that can be made, any more than an ecosystem can decide to have scavengers but no predators. In the short run, anyway, technology gives its user an unbeatable advantage in just about any field. Without the exact kind of global tyranny we'd like to avoid, how can you prevent proliferation of technology like Focus? We can't even stop proliferation of nuclear weapons, and those aren't even all that useful in a practical sense.