tuscl

OT: Bloomberg: Microsoft's Headband Helps the Blind to 'See'

Saturday, November 15, 2014 4:05 AM
Technological advances like this are a great example of just how DOOMED we are (just like Steve-girl said) and how bleak the "future" is looking: [view link]

28 comments

  • Dougster
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    10 years ago
    Heartless mega-corps!
  • GoVikings
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    10 years ago
    That's cool...man technology is something I wonder how much they'll cost
  • steve229
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    10 years ago
    Cool tech! Wonder if they're working on anything to help lonely, unmarried, super creepy, socially awkward losers evesdrop on hot young millennials in noisy bars?
  • Dougster
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    10 years ago
    ^^^ ew! Looks gramps is pretty cranky this morning. Forgot to drink his prune juice?
  • crazyjoe
    •
    10 years ago
    Nice gadget
  • ATACdawg
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    10 years ago
    I remember when Ray Kurzweil invented a scanner that could read a page of text and convert it to speech in real time. Stevie Wonder heard about the gadget and bought the prototype for $50,000. He stayed up the whole of the first night that he had it reading. I imagine that this will be much the same.
  • san_jose_guy
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    10 years ago
    Fantastic! But our economic system is still broken. Helping the blind to see and getting other spin offs is great. But our society is still in a huge mess right now, and this stuff does not change it. SJG
  • Dougster
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    10 years ago
    @SJG: Why do you say society is in a huge mess? Looks pretty healthy from my POV.
  • PhantomGeek
    •
    10 years ago
    I guess SJG's helping society and our economic system by staying down in his mom's basement and spending his days and nights reading TUSCL.
  • san_jose_guy
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    10 years ago
    Why is it a huge mess. Lots of people are working 2 and 3 jobs and still can't afford to live. Lots of people have no future. Lots of people are saddled with massive college loan debts. Every indicator is going the wrong way. This didn't just start with the 2008 crash either. It has been consistently going the wrong way for at least 40 years. SJG
  • Dougster
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    10 years ago
    @SJG: what in your opinion should be done to fix the huge mess you see?
  • san_jose_guy
    •
    10 years ago
    There have to be jobs for ordinary people to earn a living wage, working 40 hours per week or maybe even a bit less. Then there have to be affordable places to live, plus health care. SJG
  • Dougster
    •
    10 years ago
    Ok, how to achieve that?
  • san_jose_guy
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    10 years ago
    It looks like there are going to need to be state owned housing complexes, state run industries, and also a big expansion in the social safety net. Thing is though, we don't want to be paying people just to stay out of trouble. We need participatory democracy, and that means people should actually be participating in the system. So one good thing is free ongoing education for everybody. At least by doing that, people are contributing to an ongoing cultural discourse. SJG
  • san_jose_guy
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    10 years ago
    Other ways might be if people try to form communal living or other more tribal like groups, and if there can be some forms of public assistance to help make this go. Right now our streets are filled with people who have never had a chance. Most are the victims of child abuse. So they end up on drugs, alcohol, in the psychiatric system, being mind fucked by Christian evangelicals, or they are in prison or just dead. People try to offer rehabilitation. But this is not justice. It is just more mind fucking. Justice would be a chance to fight back and a chance to redress the wrongs which were done. What we need is a revolution, coming up from the gutter. But problem is, that is where the effort to keep people stupefied are really strong. So just to prevent more predation, people have to try new things, and so public funding for communal / tribal groups , plus strong enforcement and financial compensation for child abuse, would be places to start. SJG
  • IanSmith
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    10 years ago
    ^^^^^Sort of like “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” Is that about right? You really are a daft cunt. Why don’t you go pull a cow's cunt over your head and get a bull to fuck some sense into you?
  • Dougster
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    10 years ago
    What exactly would these communal/tribal groups look like? Like the experiment s with these tried in the 60s that didn't work? Or you have something else in mind?
  • san_jose_guy
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    10 years ago
    Right now people can have children just so that they can use them. There is no accountability for this, not individually or publicly. So one way to change this is to start opening the envelop of the types of law suits which can be filed against people's parents. And then follow the way it is in Western Europe and make it so that it is just about impossible to disinherit a child. What this would do is remove the stain of presumed guilt from those who's lives have just collapsed. The truth would be exposed. Then beyond this, there just need to be more options. These might be jobs via programs with public funding. But the might also be these communal / tribal systems. SJG
  • san_jose_guy
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    10 years ago
    Some communal groups do work, there is a magazine called Communities. I am sure that now it is online. And then of course Roman Catholic and Buddhist monastic groups work, and also the Protestant Taise community. Revolutionary groups have often worked too. I was at a church late at night. This guy approached me for money, he explained that he had a heart condition and that he might die and that he just got kicked out of his place by the guy he was renting from, and on and on and on. I could see that the disability money he was getting was intended to make him helpless, that this was its purpose. So what I wanted to be able to say was, follow me, you will be sheltered, clothed, fed, educated, trained, and armed to fight in the revolution. Communal living works if people can agree on the rules, and then how to deal with deviance and dissent. Most public assistance stuff now is not intended to provide for the poor, and it certainly is not intended to redress past wrongs. It is intended to regulate the poor, to keep them helpless. And then of course the Recovery and Salvation programs are even worse. So what we need is some public money going into communal groups intended to raise consciousness, to make people more aware, and to help them fight for justice. [view link] SJG
  • Dougster
    •
    10 years ago
    I don't know about the idea for lawsuits. Seems like most who are in the situations you describe due to shifty parents would not have parents with a great deal of money to be sued for. As far as jobs, we are probably getting close to point where it just won't. Be necessary to have old employment levels. I think you have a good point about education not keeping up and that needs to be a big focus. We have a huge demand for more people where I work but just not enough qualified applicants to fill them. We are willing to pay huge bucks to relocate them from overseas (like $50k just for entry level when you add up all the fees) but still have trouble finding enough qualified workers.
  • san_jose_guy
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    10 years ago
    There is lots and lots of middle class child abuse. Mostly it is parents who are using their child. The only thing these people understand is money. So to change things, that is where you have to hit them. I personally just helped put one such person into San Quentin for sexual fondling his daughters. But in most cases, the most you could get them for is money. I think we need to recognize that people will be making a cultural contribution in some form, and it may not be wage employment. But these people still need to live and their contributions still need to be recognized. The idea that everyone is a worker, even if it is not for wages, is big in: [view link] And also, their newest book is a manifesto for the Occupy Movement. SJG
  • Dougster
    •
    10 years ago
    As I said before, I can definitely see "basic income" societies becoming the norm. Maybe as early as 15 years from now. Then again, I'm apparently more optimistic than most about the future. :-) Oh well, getting used to it.
  • Dougster
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    10 years ago
    You know, SJG. I don't care what anybody says. You're actually a pretty cool guy, in my books.
  • Dougster
    •
    10 years ago
    I have a friend who is more into politics than I am and he insists that replacing all the welfare and rehabilitation program we have right now with basic income guarantees would save money even today. When I'm older and into politics again and philanthropy I'll think about it some more. Till then. Make money. Make money. Make money.
  • san_jose_guy
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    10 years ago
    Thank you Dougster. I do appreciate your being on this forum. As I see it, emphasis on "The Family" and allowing child abuse, are ways that the government and our entire society enforce Capitalism. Basic Income is kind of like Welfare. Problem is it regulates and controls, but does not empower. The people at the bottom need to organize, instead of drinking, using, and praying for salvation or recovery. There needs to be social participation for those at the bottom. We need to invent some new institutions. SJG
  • Dougster
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    10 years ago
    I also like your idea about a more participatory democracy. Give us that and I think we become Athens in the Golden Age. (* And I know I'll be corrected that Athens democracy did not include women and slaves, so we would be a step even ahead of them. Now that would be a BOOM cubed!)
  • georgmicrodong
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    10 years ago
    A "participatory democracy" seems to something our Founders shied away from. Not completely, but avoiding the tyranny of the majority was one of the things toward which they were striving, and they still didn't hit the mark. As evidenced by our current system.
  • san_jose_guy
    •
    10 years ago
    [view link] Yes, the founding fathers were scared of participatory democracy. But at this point, we have to accept it and make it happen. SJG
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