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nigelswift 8112 posts |
Oct 26, 2008, 12:30
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Aye, three cheers for Mr Gates et al (yes, I know the downside...) Not having grown up with computers I'm still full of wonderment about how good they are and how they've enriched my life - and grateful I've just squeezed into the lucky generation that has experienced them. A lot of science has proved to be a curse but these (if you steer clear of scams and bad stuff) have made everyone hugely better off. My father used to cut interesting snippets out of the paper and carry them round in his wallet. I often think he'd have been stunned to know that now we're all instantly in touch with the whole of the world's knowledge via Google. Sorry if I'm going on about the obvious but there's not a day goes by when I don't think how lucky I am to have seen the internet. (Silly old sod...)
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handofdave 3515 posts |
Oct 26, 2008, 15:47
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nigelswift wrote: Sorry if I'm going on about the obvious but there's not a day goes by when I don't think how lucky I am to have seen the internet. (Silly old sod...) I'm with you. When I was a kid I was all excited about the thought that someday I'd fly into space. Well, that's still an extremely rare thing for anyone to do, but the internet came along instead, which is really a sort of mind travel, you know? And available to nearly everybody, and connecting people, and giving silly sods like me to make some money from home and work in art forms that few anticipated in the late 60s. This is something that would never have arisen without some large capital investments, or even if it had, it would be the sole domain of the wealthy. Mass production makes it affordable. It really is a very democratizing phenomenon in that it really supports a more egalitarian platform where everyone can contribute and participate. I don't think it's going to far to suggest that the personal computer and the internet are right up there with antibiotics, making fire, and the wheel in terms of being monumental achievements.
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nigelswift 8112 posts |
Oct 26, 2008, 18:09
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"I don't think it's going to far to suggest that the personal computer and the internet are right up there with antibiotics, making fire, and the wheel in terms of being monumental achievements." Totally. But if downsides ought to be mentioned as well I'd like to cite the demise of expertness. There was a time when if the chatter turned to, say, moths (about which I know a lot) I could derive some innocent pleasure from being a guru. Now, every bugger's an expert, in proportion to their skill in making a quick web search. And I'm told there are people who actually make out they are quoting from their own knowledge, though that might be just a rumour. ;)
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handofdave 3515 posts |
Oct 26, 2008, 20:20
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nigelswift wrote: "I don't think it's going to far to suggest that the personal computer and the internet are right up there with antibiotics, making fire, and the wheel in terms of being monumental achievements." Totally. But if downsides ought to be mentioned as well I'd like to cite the demise of expertness. There was a time when if the chatter turned to, say, moths (about which I know a lot) I could derive some innocent pleasure from being a guru. Now, every bugger's an expert, in proportion to their skill in making a quick web search. And I'm told there are people who actually make out they are quoting from their own knowledge, though that might be just a rumour. ;) I'd have to disagree with that. Just because you can pull up information quickly from the internet doesn't make one an expert. You still need contextual understanding of what you're looking up to be an 'expert' on it. Did you ever read the William Gibson 'Neuromancer' (early 80's)? In that fictional future you can buy chips that plug right into a surgically implanted port in your head that grant you instant, useable knowledge, such as a foreign language. I don't see that happening for a while... we still are very fuzzy about how complex knowledge is assimilated in the brain. He also conceived of 'cyberspace', tho, which he extrapolated from early video parlor games. It's funny to think now that he wrote that novel on a manual typewriter.
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nigelswift 8112 posts |
Oct 27, 2008, 06:52
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"Just because you can pull up information quickly from the internet doesn't make one an expert. You still need contextual understanding of what you're looking up to be an 'expert' on it." Well that's certainly what experts say, to a man. Especially my doctor! Actually, non-specialist doctors are one of the most affected by this. If you happen to be lucky enough to suffer from a very rare malaise it doesn't take long on the net to make yourself more knowledgeable than them.
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shanshee_allures 2563 posts |
Oct 28, 2008, 14:12
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nigelswift wrote: Actually, non-specialist doctors are one of the most affected by this. If you happen to be lucky enough to suffer from a very rare malaise it doesn't take long on the net to make yourself more knowledgeable than them. Actually, hope I ain't getting too personal but I took along some information to my doctor that I'd got off the 'net re a permanent female sterilisation procedure he hadn't heard about, one that's practiced in the US (called 'Essure' folks). I was hoping it was available here, cos it's utterly non-invasive or hormone based etc. For a very brief moment I was 'educating' him on something he knew nothing of, even though I may have got a bit carried away and made an arse of myself with using medical terminology. The outcome was he did some investigating and told me only the most exclusive of clinics and very few NHS trusts were offering it here (so he regretted he couldn't even recommned me), and we had a chat about how radical,yet simple and even cost effective it was! We left with us both concluding, 'hope it becomes available soon'! Whod've thunk? x
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handofdave 3515 posts |
Oct 28, 2008, 14:48
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Score another one for the internet! Anything that allows the patient/consumer/etc. to be better informed, I applaud it.
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the dog 40 posts |
Oct 28, 2008, 14:48
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shanshee_allures wrote: nigelswift wrote: Actually, non-specialist doctors are one of the most affected by this. If you happen to be lucky enough to suffer from a very rare malaise it doesn't take long on the net to make yourself more knowledgeable than them. Actually, hope I ain't getting too personal but I took along some information to my doctor that I'd got off the 'net re a permanent female sterilisation procedure he hadn't heard about, one that's practiced in the US (called 'Essure' folks). I was hoping it was available here, cos it's utterly non-invasive or hormone based etc. For a very brief moment I was 'educating' him on something he knew nothing of, even though I may have got a bit carried away and made an arse of myself with using medical terminology. The outcome was he did some investigating and told me only the most exclusive of clinics and very few NHS trusts were offering it here (so he regretted he couldn't even recommned me), and we had a chat about how radical,yet simple and even cost effective it was! We left with us both concluding, 'hope it becomes available soon'! Whod've thunk? I totally agree that the internet is opening up our collective knowlege of how the world works and besides all my ranting of the past, education is essential to unify the planet and to omprove everybodies life style. Good for you for going to your doctor with some research of your own and not being left to the need to know policies of the specialists. With the knowlege that you now have, maybe you can find out where you can get the treatment that would help you. Good luck. x
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grufty jim 1978 posts |
Oct 31, 2008, 02:03
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handofdave wrote: PMM, if you have some workable ideas as to how to radicalize hundreds of millions of people overnight without creating an even bigger mess, I'd love to hear it. I'm working on it.... just give me a little while... ;-)
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ron 706 posts |
Nov 01, 2008, 02:39
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PMM wrote: This isn't some stupid debating society game. Peak oil is here. Climate change is here. There's no point tinkering with the way things are. We need radical change... aye... laddie boi.. aye... that we do... she knows... u-know... x
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