This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
All your examples present the idea of various sensory technology whose use is so seamless it feels both natural and unobtrusive. I agree on this: if one needs (or wants) to use sensor technology, seamless is better than clunky; and if one needs (or wants) to have continual or immediate access to the sensor technology, then it's hard to imagine something more seamless than an a permanent augmentation that your brain fully adapts to.
Our disagreement rests on all those ifs. I have far more senses than I have attention, and my attention is very limited and therefore precious. I spend more time trying to minimize sensory input than augment it. I'm not just talking about earplugs and blindfolds for when I try to rest. Like, filtering out background noise when I talk to someone. Ignoring visual distractions when I read.
Do I really want to add ultrasound sense? Why, what am I going to do with that information? And do I need that info with continual or immediate access, all the time, to justify an implant?
By the way, you can totally do that with current technology: take a hearing aid, set it to receive ultrasound. You'd still need to use some of your actual senses for receiving the input, like taking those ultrasound waves and translating them down to normal hearing range. That will unfortunately interfere with you hearing the usual sounds, and if you don't want that, you can use some of your less-used senses. Like, have it be a vibrating butt-plug or something. I'm sure one can train the brain to distinguish different vibration pitches after a while.
Funny you should say that, as I was just studying for a psychiatry exam, and finished reading a few chapters on human memory and attention.
The 'frame buffer' for raw sensory input is OOMs larger than what's brought to your conscious attention. If you're sitting on a chair, mechanoreceptors are constantly sending signals upstream, but only salient information, presumably the text you're reading right now, is magnified and focused.
I strongly expect that additional senses will, while distracting initially, fade into the background until salient, no more of a nuisance than your proprioception of your legs interferes with your ability to read.
That is the key difference between a mature BCI and most other prosthetics. If you use neural connections, you avoid the issue of having to compress or wrest control of existing sensory bandwidth. You shouldn't settle for ultrasound pitched down to be audible, you should be able to hear both. I strongly expect that in actual usage, bandwidth won't be an issue, or have negligible impacts.
And of course, if you don't see the utility in something, don't install it into your body. I have nothing against people who are happy with their existing bodies and minds, I just desire otherwise for myself.
Ultimately, it's good to have early-adopters like yourself around. You are the willing guinea-pigs for the rest of us. So I will gladly root for your success from the sidelines of techno-cyborg progress. If it gets me a spider-chair instead of a wheel-chair by the time I need one, I'll be happy.
Years back, I had corrective laser eye surgery. It was great to not muck about with glasses (old clunky technology) or soft contact lenses (newer, more streamline technology). But I also found all this sharp focus quite distracting, especially during that first month when my long-distance vision was better than normal. Like, when driving, my attention would get drawn and fixed to those five-paragraph-essay parking rule signs ("parking permitted during A, B, C, except at X, Y, Z"). I had to re-train my brain to de-prioritize written signs. And yes, as you point out, eventually those signs indeed stopped drawing my attention, fading into the background.
But as a counter-example, my husband gets ear-worms. He goes into a store, and comes out with some inane pop song playing in a loop in his head for the next three days. Attention isn't as aligned to our needs as we'd like it to be.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
There's definitely a good porno plot in there somewhere about a world-class chess player who climaxes when hearing dog whistles.
You and I have different definitions of good porno if your idea of quality is a nude Bobby Fischer ejaculating every time someone says "those people". Compelling, sure - good though?
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link