Limit to optimisation

Whenever I look at some of the old technology, I can't help but think, "That was normal for the time!" Spending several minutes setting up a film roll, or the effort spent on trying to dial in a phone number was never looked at as tedious or time-consuming during that age.

Unless given something to contrast with, any process/thing seems normal for us humans. A similar thought occurred to me when reading a book. Anyone who has seen a book doesn't think much while flipping through it, or writing in it. But for a person in the far future, a book will be looked at the same way we look at stone tablets. Ancient and delicate. This shift to digital media is already underway and I can't help but think, is there a limit? A limit to the extent of optimisation and comforts.

Recent previous generations did not know how to carve on stone walls, or thatch a hut. Ours, does not know how to dial a number in a vintage telephone. The future generation shall never know how to flip the pages of a simple book.

With the progression of ease in our lives, is there a limit to optimisation? It may seem so considering that the only thing stopping us is our physical forms and the speed of human evolution. But then again, a man operating a dial phone would never have thought that the phone itself could remember the number! However imaginative we get in our sci-fi futuristic visions, we never truly know what we will come up with.

Coming to the original question, My answer would be, only as long as we have breakthroughs in the Biological field will technology progress beyond a point.

Humans have been evolving for 6 million years and the change from 'inventing the wheel' to 'flying in Jet-liner' took just 5000 years.

The ratio of evolution time to technology development comes to about 6,000,000 yrs / 5000 yrs = 1200. Meaning that at an average, every year given to human bodies to evolve is equivalent to about 1200 years worth of technological development!! And to think that only 200 years were enough to go from the ENIAC to iPhone 13 Pro. (not sponsored 🥲 )

➡

As long as we evolve at the same rate, technology will remain bounded by our limitations. Mobile phones have no scope of compaction, keyboards will be bulky, and space suits will be huge.

Comments

Empathy's Demise

It's quite wondrous really, How clocks around the world are ticking right now in perfect synchrony. Wondrous how even in such a large world, We are all nakedly defined by a common present. A common, now. Wondrous how the sun is setting right this moment, In one corner of the world. While it rises in another, all at the same time. . Perhaps it is all that's left that unites us through the present. Only the sun bears witness to the capering of man, For the world is simply too large for us. Large enough to let a man in Paris grab an afternoon Latté, While a woman in Casablanca runs to the sweet embrace of her lover. . Large enough that the loudest sound you hear is this poem, and my voice, Sheltered from the shelling beyond the sea. Large enough that at this very second, There's a little girl with ringing ears, Looking through the rubble, For her dead mother. . Now, when my voice too goes quiet. I implore you, tell me what is louder. Is it the luxury of silenc...

The 7 Billion Cyborgs of Earth

'A fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations with mechanical elements.' This is what the term- 'Cyborg' means. But, does it ? " Hey! V-Sauce, Michael here-" no lets not do that. Pop culture has defined a cyborg's appearance like this: But the way I see it, this is a more realistic cyborg. (DC don't sue me) You're probably thinking why this harmless depressed lady can be called a cyborg. It's all about perspective. We are born in a world where things don't change drastically, so we grow accustomed to our surroundings. Take a look at this scenario. A human communicates with a machine by releasing static from her phalanges (fingers) into the screen which the machine processes and via a global network, fetches the required data and interprets it in the form of light emitted by pixels in a coordinated succession that then enters the human's light receptors and causes a rush ...

Moretti's Café

Audio tracks add to the reading experience. (They are mood synced. Press play when they appear.) Setting down his book on the table, Malcolm rocked the spoon back and forth in his cup of earl grey, stirring up the contents before he took a long deep sip with closed eyes. The shadows cast by the nearby buildings marched forth inch by inch into the little cafe tucked into Piazza di Santa Croce, 14. He shifted his little stool to face the window and sipped away at his tea. The vapours of which rose like clouds of cotton in the dying sunlight. It bothered him to not know where everyone on the street was headed. Every pedestrian outside seemed to walk with such a sense of purpose and determination as if they would perish if their feet touched the pavement another second. Unless one stopped to notice each person’s face and gait, there was no real difference at all. Just cold pillars of such determination wandering aimlessly on the streets. One went left. Two went right...

Kopfkino

Search This Blog