Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] predicting the future

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Rick wrote:
> Mike Miller wrote:
>
> > Yes.  How long until we can create robots that look and act 
> > indistinguishable from people?  It won't be happening in the 2020s.
> Are you defining a robot as a mechanical person constructed of metal & 
> plastic or a person "constructed" by altering the genetic structure. If 
> you'll recall, the only way to tell the difference in the movie was 
> studying behavior patterns and responses. The replicants were machines 
> because they had been engineered, not because they were made from spare 
> VW parts.
>
> > History shows that the flying car is always farther off than you think 
> > it is.
>
> http://www.moller.com/skycar/
>
> Looks like the car itself is here...now for the hard part, government 
> regulation.
>
> > I don't agree.  As soon as someone discovers a cure for cancer, he 
> > will start to use it to make money - tons of it.  If he hesitates, 
> > someone else will make the discovery and revenues from treatment 
> > patents will dry up.
>
>
> If it were that simple to "make the discovery", someone would have done 
> it already. You are, of course, free to disagree with my cynicism, but 
> if you think the forces that control our society want everyone to be 
> cured of everything with a single shiny pill, then I would have to be 
> very shocked at your naiveté's.
>
> It's sizably more profitable to construct a self-renewing revenue stream 
> than to charge even exorbitant one time prices. I have not one single 
> doubt that if an R&D scientist at Big Time Pharmaceutical Co. discovered 
> a cure for cancer, they're very next major project would be how to 
> dilute it down so it merely stemmed the progression of the cancer.

I simply don't believe this in any way whatsoever.


--

Stephen Montgomery-Smith
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://www.math.missouri.edu/~stephen

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