Where is technology headed?

[Tedster]

I found myself pondering technology, where we've come, and where we have yet to go. Over the next, say 10 years...100 years, even 1000 years (provided we don't destroy ourselves or mutate into beings from "The Omega Man" by then). Now, I'm sure I'm gonna get a lot of goofy answers, but, please, some serious ones as well. Not only musically, but in all fields.

 

Whaddya think? And wouldn't it be interesting to write these down, seal 'em in a time capsule to be opened in 2104 by Craig Anderton V? I mean, obviously we wouldn't get any benefit...but I'm sure someone down the line would get a hoot outta reading our thoughts...

[member 30687]

I won't get into what might occur but I think what should occur is a greater devlopment by artists of their own marketing operations rather than the dependence that many have reverted to post-1980. Remember the DYI "Revolution"?

 

Also I think there's much that could be done to advance the material that artists offer---multi-media presentations, interactive & changable mixes, the "virtual concert", etc.

[Rog]

Hmm ...

 

Real-time collaboration all over the world? If connections get fast enough this could be a possibility.

 

Maybe a different way of mixing? I guess we only use faders, tracks, groups, pots and inserts in DAWs because they are conventions we're familiar with.

 

With all the softsynths out there we could start mixing in sound rather than mixing guitars or basses or vocals. I'm thinking about an enviroment like a spectral analysis window where colours denote amplitude and you can draw the tones you want.

 

Maybe some kind of 3D mixing enviroment?

 

Holographic displays?

 

A sensor to record air guitar solos?

 

Forget autotune, a plugin will take your performance and make you sound like Tom Waits or someone?

[gmstudio99]

http://www.startrekanimated.com/tas_gif/tas_anim_arex_guitar.gif

[The Thrashole]

i think audio is going to get more localized. instead of a speaker exciting all of the air between you and the speaker technology will allow just the air in the vicinity of the ear to be excited thus lowering hearing related damage and enviornmental noise.

 

not too smart assed.

[Tedster]

Originally posted by Tedster:

Not only musically, but in all fields.

 

[Slowly]

Guys, it's over. Man has reached the limit. There has been nothing new since 1937. It ain't gonna get any better than this! Kcbass

[boosh]

I want a wired helmet which can record all the albums I've written in my head but never produced.

[NMcGuitar]

Shouldn't this thread have Zager & Evans' "In the Year 2525" as a soundtrack?

 

I can't even speculate where we will go.

Up to this point major cultural, technological and artistic trends have taken decades (even centuries) to change/grow/evolve. Suddenly in the last 100-130 years the process has accelerated, and it continues to do so.

 

My guess is that this will become the "Change Age" (like the "Stone Age", the "Iron Age", the "Space Age", etc.). When it has run it's course (and who knows how much longer that will take ), I suspect that humanity will settle down into some new "age". I have no idea what that will be, or what may be the cause of it. I only hope that it is a time of peace and prosperity for all of the world.

[Tedster]

Originally posted by boosh:

I want a wired helmet which can record all the albums I've written in my head but never produced.

THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout!

[Tedster]

Actually, I was looking for stuff along this line, too...I quote from Doug Osbourne from another thread:

 

"If it didn't pollute the air so much, I would say go ahead H2s, use up all the gas. The energy companies will then and only then pull the 100 MPG carburators, efficient battery technology, and renewable energy sources out of their secret files so we can all benefit equally from a cleaner environment."

[strat0124]

Space....the final frontier......

[GeorgeVW]

Originally posted by Rog:

...Real-time collaboration all over the world? If connections get fast enough this could be a possibility...

Hate to be a spoilsport, but basic physics makes this unlikely (unless they can figure out a reliable, consistent way to break the cosmic speed limit). Even assuming perfect transmission (speed of light, unlimited bandwidth, no packet switching delays or anything like that) latency for a round trip around the world is about 120ms or so. To get latencies down to reasonably times, you'd need to be able to get signals traveling at about 10-60c (giving a 2-12ms round trip latency). Anything less than that is gonna mess with your groove.

[Valkyrie Sound]

We just had a NPR piece on an inventor doing some REALLY interesting things in audio. Listen to the piece on Woody Norris:

http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=19-May-2004&prgId=17

 

Valky

[KenElevenShadows]

Originally posted by Kcbass:

Guys, it's over. Man has reached the limit. There has been nothing new since 1937. It ain't gonna get any better than this! Kcbass

Seemingly half the people on this forum seem to feel that way about music!

[antimatter]

At some point we will be able to 'build' molecules. The future of nanotechnology will enable us to 'create' food, materials, body organs, you name it!

Bad liver? We'll just build another using your own DNA map.

 

There you have it. Nostradantamatterous.

[pseudonym]

If it get's too-much-more complex, there won't be enough time to read all the manuals, so my guess is more power/easier to learn and use! Please!!!!

[Philip OKeefe]

My guess is that the next technology "revolution" will be in the field of nanotechnology. Do some research on the topic and you might be surprised at the potential for that.

[dementia13]

I love technology, I'm addicted to it, and dependent on it for a living, but I think the Unabomber really had some good points about it (Except for the part about blowing people up. That was reprehensible.) I'm worried that our dependence on technology is heading us down a bad road. Those with power and wealth will use technology to further consolidate their status.

- Surveillance: there are cameras everywhere. Does your job involve any driving? You're monitored on GPS. It's fair that you should be accountable for your work hours, but GPS is being used not for accountability but as an intimidation tool to squeeze productivity out of already-squeezed workers. Cell phones will soon be delivering advertising content tailored to where you are. I hope you don't love privacy too much.

- The business world is using technology to increase production- both from its people and from its machines- faster and faster. To some extent, you have to look at some of our production, including farm production, as artificial, and we are living beyond our means. If some catastrophe were to wipe out our communications, food distribution, or electricity, you'd be looking at an obscene death toll. Particularly among us pampered Americans. I think that being dependent on technology to the point where we can't function without it is a bad tradeoff. And so many of the things we're used to and can't imagine being without- cars, VCRs, cell phones- so much of our perceived "need" for them is based more on successful advertising than on real need. I'm not about to move to a cabin in Montana- you can pry my Powerbook from my cold, dead fingers. But science has no conscience, and not every "advance" is really beneficial.

[techristian]

ALL TECHNOLOGY CAN BE USED FOR GOOD OR EVIL.

 

It all depends on what side you are on.

 

Organ transplant GOOD IDEA.

Steal my organs before I die for $$ on EBAY... BAD IDEA.

 

Information accesible to all....GOOD IDEA.

Webcam following us everywhere and broadcasting every move...BAD IDEA

 

I don't like GENE splicing AT ALL.

 

I also think that illiteracy and IGNORANCE WILL RUN RAMPANT. As more and more VIDEO MEDIUMS develop there will be less need to read. Also few will be able to even add 2+2 because there will be little need for it. If you want to control the masses then keep them illiterate then they will believe anything that you tell them.(on TV)

 

That is all I will say for now. I started writing a book called 2030 5 years ago, but I'm too busy now to finish it.

 

Dan

 

http://musicinit.com/pvideos.html

[YourMotherShouldKnow]

Biotechnology.

 

In medicine and agriculture I expect ridiculous alternatives in 20 years. 1000 years from now? I think the great scientists will have found a way to make us immortal. I mean, we'll still be able to get run over by a bus maybe, but I think the secret of life is in that genetic code. Manipulate that and all kinds of crazy things are gonna happen.

 

However, I also believe a major US city will be flattened by a terrorist/enemy A-bomb in the near future. That's why I'm a war-monger now. I want to eliminate that threat before it happens.

 

It is conceivable that we are at the peak of human technology. If the world is destroyed in the next 200 years and man enters a new dark age (or is wiped out entirely) I wouldn't be surprised. We are very lucky to live in these times, in spite of all the lunacy that goes on.

 

Anyhow,

[philbo_Tangent]

Originally posted by The Thrashole:

i think audio is going to get more localized. instead of a speaker exciting all of the air between you and the speaker technology will allow just the air in the vicinity of the ear to be excited thus lowering hearing related damage and enviornmental noise.

 

not too smart assed.

This has been done. There is a company that uses high-power ultra-sonic transducers to form a (for lack of a better word) 'audio laser' that can cause sound to be created at a specific target up to 150 feet away. It works by taking advantage of the non-linear mixing effect of ultrasound frequencies in air. (Really!)

 

Look here:

http://www.spie.org/web/oer/october/oct00/indfocus.html

[philbo_Tangent]

Originally posted by dementia13:

I love technology, I'm addicted to it, and dependent on it for a living, but I think the Unabomber really had some good points about it (Except for the part about blowing people up. That was reprehensible.) I'm worried that our dependence on technology is heading us down a bad road. Those with power and wealth will use technology to further consolidate their status.

- Surveillance: there are cameras everywhere. Does your job involve any driving? You're monitored on GPS. It's fair that you should be accountable for your work hours, but GPS is being used not for accountability but as an intimidation tool to squeeze productivity out of already-squeezed workers. Cell phones will soon be delivering advertising content tailored to where you are. I hope you don't love privacy too much.

- The business world is using technology to increase production- both from its people and from its machines- faster and faster. To some extent, you have to look at some of our production, including farm production, as artificial, and we are living beyond our means. If some catastrophe were to wipe out our communications, food distribution, or electricity, you'd be looking at an obscene death toll. Particularly among us pampered Americans. I think that being dependent on technology to the point where we can't function without it is a bad tradeoff. And so many of the things we're used to and can't imagine being without- cars, VCRs, cell phones- so much of our perceived "need" for them is based more on successful advertising than on real need. I'm not about to move to a cabin in Montana- you can pry my Powerbook from my cold, dead fingers. But science has no conscience, and not every "advance" is really beneficial.

The problem with technology is that it always creates more complex problems than it solves.

 

Examples abound:

Petro-energy - Allowed the earth to spawn and feed thousands of times more people than it can sustain. The average family of today uses the energy that would have taken at least 100 servants a century ago. Sounds good, right? BUT, once the oil is gone, it's famine time...

 

Cheap, abundant energy - Nuclear plants were once billed as providing electricity that would be 'too cheap to meter'. No mention made of the 6000 years it would take for the waste products to become non-toxic.

 

The closest metaphor I can think of:

Technology is a seductive beautiful mistress, who gives you the clap...but at least you'll have a good time for a little while.

[Mark LaCoste]

Okay, here's the REAL answer: Music-wise, technology removes all the barriers to making great music so that the only variable is the creativity of the artist... waitaminit... that already happened... and the music isn't any better than it was in 1976...

 

Could it be that music depends on completely human properties and is actually uneffected by technocrap?

 

Might greed still cause wars? Might self esteem still be low despite improvments in anti-perspirant formulas?

 

I know this sounds flip, but I'm as half serious as the other flippy posts here, and you know we've all given a lot of thought to this question. Technology is not going to cure stupidity, my own included. There are improvements needed in *other* areas before technology can be brought to bear on problems like hunger. I just hope it doesn't turn out like a cheap sci-fi series.

 

-mark lacoste

[Bryson]

"Seargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" will be re-released, and hit #1 on the charts.

[pseudonym]

I almost froze to death once in the winter hitch-hiking and it really was a pleasant feeling, I would volunteer to be frozen alive and brought back in, say 200 years maybe, just to see the future!

 

And maybe I could make a few investments and come-back wealthy or something? I'd want to live to be at least 55 or 60 now though, I doubt that science is going to advance to great longevity by then or even a several years after that. The best they'll do short-term is keep you mechanically or chemically alive - sans DNA breakthroughs.

 

Another bad thing is, what to do when everyone is living to be 150-200 years old? What about the health-care system now? The one's who benefit the most are the wealthy or living in a developed country with access to it!

 

Maybe the world would be so f**ked-up in 200 years a person now would not want-to live in it, or be able to adapt to a very different set of parameters in which to live? I saw the other day that we earthlings are loosing our magnetic field rapidly.

[fluxONE]

nano

[Hound Dog]

While technology serves many of our "likes", necessity is still the mother of invention. (Of course, the meaning of necessity is relative) Technology will continue to be used to compensation for the natural resources we destroy. Therefore, alot will depend on how well we preserve our resources.

 

Years ago many futurist predicted that we would all be wearing unisex jumpsuits made out of space age material and living in shelters made of man made polymers. We learned that just because we could do something, we wouldn't necessarily adopt it. Even today, human seem to show a preference for wearing wool and cotton and living surrounded by the warm atmosphere of wood. These are natural and organic things. We would be wise to use technology to help us preserve our natural resources. I believe that even in 2525, the beauty, sound and feel of a fine Les Paul would be much appreciated.

[Tedster]

Yeah, the old "necessity is the mother of Frank Zappa" bit...very true.

 

The folks back in the 40s and 50s predicted that by now we'd all have flying cars (they made a few prototypes of a car with attachable wings) and we'd be starting to explore and possibly colonize other planets. None of it is true of course, because it's just flat out not practical. There is no need...unless we discovered some huge resource of mineral wealth on the Moon or Mars.

[the.circular.motion.rub.it]

Originally posted by Ken/Eleven Shadows:

Originally posted by Kcbass:

Guys, it's over. Man has reached the limit. There has been nothing new since 1937. It ain't gonna get any better than this! Kcbass

Seemingly half the people on this forum seem to feel that way about music!

oh SNAP!