Technology moves on. I do not, or at least at nothing like the speed required by it, or that is the way it feels sometimes. Look, there are parts of it that I appreciate deeply – from medicine to e-books, being able to do my research online with a much larger library than even a bibliophile like me has.
I think where it really drives me spare is when a system is working for me, anyway, just fine, and they damn well ‘update it’ – which, inevitably, doesn’t work just fine, or even at all. My e-mail seems to be the latest victim — they want me to switch to ‘the new Outlook’ – which requires me to answer questions I don’t know the answer to, for services I don’t want (I want my addresses and mail kept on MY computer, thank you very much). I haven’t switched over, and suddenly outgoing e-mails get somehow trapped and incoming ones get returned as undeliverable. But not ALL of them, no. Just some. So: If I haven’t replied – well, I may have. Or I may just not have got the message.
Today this extended itself to WordPress – which I don’t love but have managed to use through two ‘updates’ I didn’t like at all. I automatically log in. Only today I didn’t, and it took considerable ingenuity – which I have a limited supply of and conserve for building houses and writing stories – to get here at all.
And then last week we had the little crowdstrike debacle. Well, if that doesn’t bring out the luddite ‘perhaps I should have some cash’ and ‘No, really, I don’t want everything on the ‘cloud’ (which really means someone else’s computer)’ because when that goes down (and it will) I don’t really want to start again with ‘keep banging the rocks together’.
I write sf (and fantasy and historical romance) and spend a fair amount of my time playing “What if” games in my head (and yes, some are good ‘what if’, and some are disasters) with technology. Aspects like ‘insufficient redundancy’ and ‘unintended consequences of change’ are grist for my mill. Stories like the ‘Smart’-fridge that locked the owner out of itself during the crowdstrike debacle, have to extend to the idea of ‘Smart’ homes or ‘Smart’ cities. If this doesn’t give you entire books of ideas as a writer… maybe it is not for you ;-/.
So, the luddite wants to know: if a brain implant were developed that would give you the equivalent of 50 IQ points in the ability to do math, use logic and give you a vast amount of extra data in the shape of what you hope are facts… would you take it? Just points to consider – the taker might be happy or at least enjoy being smarter, but would they be you? And what about that update, just when you got used to being you?
And yes. I am using you to crystalize my thoughts on a story.
Mad Genius Club 
27 responses to “Luddite”
I have a psychological history of dissociation (and years of therapy) so that’s going to filter how I imagine such an implant working. I’m assuming that you’re talking about something more than an onboard computer the user could access through a virtual HUD (which might be cool) but something that would put new thoughts directly into the user’s brain. One wouldn’t “see” the answer, but “just know” it, right?
I, personally, would absolutely NOT get such an implant, but I could imagine people doing so. I think the effects would be subtle but profound. I am reminded of how Larry Niven wrote the Protectors in the novel of that name–they were so intelligent that they lost their free will. They had the one right answer before they had finished formulating the question.
I don’t think that would happen with an increase in natural intelligence, but I think it would be a good description of how a human+AI hybrid would function. Enhanced users would gradually lose the ability to make choices, since they would be instantly aware of the “best” option for any choice they needed to make, at least under ordinary circumstances.
I think this would lead to option paralysis during a system outage, or else a wild disregard for logical consequence, with former users exercising ridiculously bad judgement. Or perhaps a combination of both.
And I can’t imagine that the programmers would be purely altruistic–they would put their own prejudges and preconceptions into the software. And now we’re into Lewis’ The Abolition Of Man territory…
Nah. It would have to, at the least, improve mental functions I’m weak in.
I disagree that refusing to have cloud or smart devices is being a Luddite. It is a refusal to give up control of your data and property. I realized the danger of smart devices and that the risks were not worth the convenience. Over a decade I spoke with Congressional candidate. who was in the medical field. He though it would be efficient(true) to have patients data on databases. I asked him about how to keep this data confidential. He brought up Hippa laws. I brought cases where private data ( abortion) paid by a elected official and his wife got this info and a scandal ensued. This candidate never thought about the risk. He did not get elected. I brought this up because passionate people often ignore risks of new technology.
I have a brain implant that helps me think more quickly and can check logic problems.
It’s deconstructed form, though: I use my “hands” to manipulate my “phone” or “computer” or even “paper” and can verify the equation for a logic question is accurate.
Which avoids the real issue with the Cloud Strife— uh, I mean Cloud Strike— is not that it went down, but that it was a single point of failure. There wasn’t an available work-around, like with my “phone, computer, paper” option.
After watching people look at the world solely through a filter (cell-phone screen) and seeing the CloudStrife mess from outside the primary impact zone, my answer would be no, I would refuse the implant. I tend toward analysis-paralysis already. The single-point failure mode is just another reason to be wary of tech that lacks a hard-copy backup, so to speak.
Oof. My first thought was “who the heck would be stupid enough to make/want their firmware wirelessly updatable?” And then I realized…. It’s the same people who would be early adopters and voluntarily get the chips installed electively. (The very first test cases would of course be the brain damaged, who would likely have better sense.)
(And at this point I wandered off to see how well the human body functions a as an antenna. Fortunately, not very well. The source has to be either close or strong. Unfortunately, the cell phone in your pocket qualifies.)
I’ve lived through multiple hurricanes and icestorm-induced power outages, and way too many computer updates gone wrong. Absolutely no way would I get that implant. If you can put in my brain, you can put it in a calculator I can then hold in my hand – or toss if it gets bricked!
I gave my characters implants and upgrades… and then I promptly started showing the problems with such, because I’ve seen too many problems not only with upgrades, but also with end-of-life hardware and software, and no technology lasts forever.
I would not be an early adopter.
But I wouldn’t worry too much about extra IQ changing my personality. From what I’ve seen by being around many people who are smarter than me, IQ means you can process faster and possibly but not probably multithread better… but it doesn’t give you any more wisdom or a better personality.
My prediction is, it’s probably just make more intellectuals of the “I went to Harvard, so I’m better than you, and I know I’m smarter than you, so I must be right!” variety, who then go around making Really Stupid Mistakes your average six year old could have seen coming.
I’ve done it, but it was a means to an end.
The character was a very bad Buddhist looking to obtain Nirvana on the cheap by dying in soul sucking darkness between the stars. As such, being able to perform relativistic maths in his head was important to him. Long term consequences for his health and psyche, weren’t.
The Christian religious answer to the idea of making choices when you know everything, is that you still have free will for the first choice. Will you choose good or evil? And all the other choices you make over time will be based upon that first choice. There might be one “right” answer but you can reject it.
That said, I’m completely skeptical that anything humans can build will actually incorporate knowledge such that ‘right choices’ will be obvious. Humans themselves can affect the world so as to change any built in parameters.
Isn’t this occasionally the premise for time-travel stories?
Could not agree more. I save everything on my computer, and I have been holding out against Windows 11 for a year now. I use Gmail so i do not have the outlook problem, but I use it for work and I am very leery of it. Confusion to the bastiches!
In the midst of all of this “interconnectivity” the Bible story about the Tower of Babel keeps popping into my mind…
I’m finding that Window 11 isn’t actually too bad.
Yes, there’s a lot of stuff that comes with it that you have to uninstall… like Copilot… and all the built-in popup ads, WTH Microsoft…
And they are very very obnoxious about “sign in to your Microsoft account, link all your information to our servers for a better experience”.
But! You don’t have to link anything to them, you can uninstall the bloatware they put in the OS, and it’s a wonderful impetus to explore other options to replace the native applications.
… none of which makes it sound very attractive, does it… hmm.
Anyway, switching to it is not the end of the world.
Nope, nope, nope! Not in my brain! My Evil Empire does that, and while I’ve had fun playing with the idea, I never showed it as a positive.
Right now, outside of a few edge cases, I couldn’t see the tech being viable for general usage. You’re dealing with a lot of factors that include the biases of the creative team (bless their hearts, but having been one of them they have issues…let’s just start that I know far too many from both the tech industry and the furry fandom communities and go from there), what happens when the tech isn’t supported anymore for some reason or another, lifespan of the hardware in general, how easy it now becomes to “hack” people by putting in a communications channel that they can’t shut off, etc, etc, etc…
And this is from someone who has a character with an implanted computer (but, of course, ATHENA would laugh at Cloud Strike. Her reply to their mistakes would include “oh, I’ve went in and fixed over a terabyte of mistakes. My invoice is submitted, pay in thirty days or I file charges on your company,” and she does get paid…)
In Weber & Ringo’s Prince Roger novels, the Military had plenty of “Implants” and the Bad Guys used one character’s Implants to control her (in spite of the safeguards).
So no way would I want a brain implant.
But the implants made them 100 times more combat effective. They could interface with their weapons, track the whole battlefield, coordinate in large groups. The implants could be compromised, but without them they’d just lose every battle in the first few minutes.
“I think where it really drives me spare is when a system is working for me, anyway, just fine, and they damn well ‘update it’…”
Yas, and when they “update it” they MOVE everything so you can’t find the command you want on the frigging UI. WordPress seems to be doing that about every week lately. Google does it less frequently, but they still do it, which is why I use DuckDuckGo for everything.
A brain chip? The same people who run #ClownStrike will have written the chipware, whatever that turned out to be. You’ve given the keys to your brain to a bunch of software engineers, half of whom are BELOW AVERAGE engineers.
One of the things about engineers that frightens me is their love of “efficiency.” If you take Sarah Hoyt’s “If only everyone…” and couple that with “EFFICIENCY!!!!” you get the electric self-driving taxi. The JohnnyCab, if you will. It is so efficient because the total number of cars can be reduced, and the cars are always working instead of sitting in your driveway waiting for you. And if there’s an emergency (or it’s bar closing time), you don’t have a ride. BUT THEY KEEP PUSHING IT ANYWAY because they love how “efficient” it is.
You also get the Tesla door handle. A beautiful feat of engineering, the electric, pushbutton car door. It’s so Jetsons! And in an electric car, completely reasonable! Manual release? Why? The battery will never go flat, its an electric car! EFFICIENCY!
Leading inevitably to people being locked out of their cars, or worse, locked in. In fact I remember an SF story where the MC was considered a weirdo because he insisted the interior doors on his spaceship have manual controls.
The guy who decided the Tesla door handle would be 100% electric with no manual function is the same guy designing your brain chip.
Personally, I blame marketing. Everything computer is marketed as NEW and CONVENIENT and EXCITING and WOW, even when you’re talking about the servo on an automated sewage system valve.
Yes, the automated system saves labor cost. No, it does not eliminate human error. It -magnifies- human error, because when one guy can switch all the valves with the push of a button… one guy can push the wrong button and f- up ALL the valves instead of having to f- them up one at a time. #ClownStrike
So, the brain chip thing. Maybe, if I had a horrendous head injury or Alzheimer’s or some other wretched nightmare, -maybe- I would consider it to regain normal function. Because Tesla door handle is acceptable if the alternative is not being able to wipe your own butt.
Wireless remote update? Never. No way.
Some years ago in San Diego, we had an 18-hour blackout because somebody flipped the wrong switch. Automate it, so a computer can flip the wrong switch instead? And then lose power, so it takes 18 hours just to figure out exactly what happened? Nuh-uh.
I don’t know. If it works, I suspect I eventually would. I was a very late adopter of cellphones (I am writing this on only my second smartphone) but I did adopt them. And it is much harder to function without one.
At the same time, I can’t really comprehend what being smarter would be like. I’ve been stupider. Apparently there is at least one medication that wipes out my ability to think. And it is a profoundly weird experience. Things just don’t work and I can’t understand why. Until the fog lifts and I just have no idea why I was plugging the wiring back into itself shorting the batteries.
And what’s weird is I still can’t describe the difference. I still think I’m me and thinking like me, even if I when my head is back on, I had no clue how I reasoned so badly.
Even in the world I’m writing with manufactured to spec humans, I’ve given up entirely on having intelligence be a controllable factor. Memories yes, but not brilliance. Artisans are a sport, and no-one tries to make mind-workers anymore, not after the accountants.
This brings out the southerner in me. Aw HELL NO. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I’ll keep my wetware the way it is, thanks. An external device that I can lean on, and that I can check other data against? SURE. Hard wired inside where I can’t tell if what I “know” is me, or someone’s software? Blot on your knife.
Cox outsourced their email system to Yahoo for management earlier this year. “Oh, everything will be fine! You just log into Yahoo exactly the same as you did with Cox!”
Uh-huh. As I suspected, it would NOT work with Outlook 2003 to POP3 and SMTP my email to my local machine. “Security” protocols were different. The Yahoo interface is pure garbage, besides them having control of all of my messages.
FORTUNATELY, right at the time I was about to get in the car and go harass the local Cox store (which I know would only have made me feel better without fixing anything), one of the blogs had a link to a sale for Office 2022. Cost me $130, but I now have it back to complete local control. (Also fortunately, the archive format hadn’t been changed, so I still had all of my folders and saved emails.)
Now, at first, I got annoyed at it also changing the default Excel over to the 2022 version, which ALSO has “enhanced security” – so I had to enable my macros on every single spreadsheet I opened. Annoying because if I forgot, instead of a timestamp I inserted a table. But I decided to keep it, because the one real improvement is that I can Alt-Tab between sheets instead of having to find the one I need in the Windows menu.
Oh Heck NO!
IOT is for the birds. There’s no way I’m letting a chip interact directly with my brain barring some catastrophic nervous system damage. Even if they come up with a treatment some day grow me a new rectum, I’m probably letting that slide for a good 15-20 years just in case they find some horrible side effect in their longitudinal study.
There was a thought experiment at Son of Silvercon yesterday. Enhanced armor can make female warriors as strong as male warriors. Unless the tech stops working.
I’m extremely possessive of my mind.
I would not want to trust anything that I could not investigate and debug, and do not trust entirely trust the stuff that I can investigate and debug. My brain works funny, but it is mine, and I would hesitate at a risk of breaking it irreversibly.
But, I do the mental experiment of 50 points more IQ, effectively, in narrow area?
Yeah, not for anything that would build on my actual strengths. Would be difficult to predict outcomes, and I am already crazy enough when ti comes to predicting others, and at getting frustrated with folks not understnading the ‘simple’ ‘obvious’ ‘self-evident’ thing.
Strictly covering only some of the actual areas of deficit? More tempting, and also some definite areas of nope.
I’m interested in some environemtnal or behavioral changes to up my coping mechanism game, sure.
I think habits, or an organizer, that was worth about ten to twenty points worth of organizational disability could be quite the thing. But, fifty points, I think could still be much more than I could cope around without breaking.
Well, obviously aging will eventually cause me a decline in function, and that is gonna be not very fun. I’m resigned to that.
I’m not resigned to eating the cost of doing anything optional to my self.
From time to time I do get frustrated with my incompetence, and do another experiment, etc. So, me in an entirely different technological and social environment is a wee bit difficult to fully and conclusively study.
Yep.
Pretty much.
My current computer is only a year old, but that’s because my old one (Broadwell, Maxwell, ~2014) died.
Yes, but….
I’m an old techie and used to pride myself on the systems I have cobbled together that get my external cognitive environment (computer, etc.) powered up.
But now… The constantly-upgraded assemblage of tools still work, and I still (barely) have the skills to ride through the adjustments/substitutions necessitated by component changes/upgrades, but the meat-ware is now the problem. There’s a certain amount of spit & glue holding my external-to-body cognitive environment together, and damned if I can always remember exactly how it works, without help.
Much of this year will be devoted to even better notes and simplifications in preparation for eventual further meatware degradation. The goal is to keep me functional with all my tool & software assists until the internal component declares “just lie back and watchen dem blinkenden lights”, and the ereader drops from my indifferent form.
So, as far as I’m concerned, the issue isn’t really where the assist-components reside, inside head or outside, and how to update them and keep it all functional. The real issue is the head itself (and long life). The rest is just tool maintenance, and if you can no longer hold the screwdriver, well…
Yet another retired engineer here. I have a smart phone, but it’s sole purpose in life is to act as the control panel for some widgitry the travel trailer people didn’t bother to do in hardware. And that smart phone replaced an iPhone that decided to commit suicide by battery elephantiasis. My actual cell phone is a flip phone that rides in my shirt pocket when I go to town. The rest of the time, it’s off. You can get off my lawn any time now.
I resisted Windows 10 (rather liked Win 7 until MS stopped the updates), and now all the computers in the house run Slackware Linux, which seems to be popular with engineers/programmers who use clay tablets as scratchpads. History with Unix dating to the mid 1980s had a lot to do with that decision.
Beyond horrifying news stories, the only direct effect I saw of Cloudstrife was the fact that the regional club store only had two registers running, instead of the 4 it should have. I was impressed and amused with Southwest Airlines surviving it due to ancient operating systems on their computers. Win 3.1 and Win 95 for the win!
My cardiologist says I might need a pacemaker in several years. If I get one, I’ll push for the dumbest one available. Botnet of Things in my body? Not if I can help it. Brain implant? No. Way. In. Hell.