Does anyone get the idea that technology has gone way too far?

[Lihu]

The light switch in my lab keeps turning off. My administrator said that by law, every switch installed in an office has to have a motion sensor (guessing 24GHz doppler sensor since Alibaba sells them in the hundreds of millions).

In any case, mine keeps "crashing".

Note the two cat5/6 cables plugged into it. . .

The day there's an OS and Wifi on every light bulb or switch is going to be the day that I slap my forehead.

Oops, we've got that too.

Technology is getting way too much, and new "power saving" laws are getting pretty outrageous if we end up with light switches that turn off every 2 minutes without movement. On top of that, one that needs to be rebooted every hour. . .Obviously broken, but if it was just a simple switch. . .

 

[Groucho Valentine]

You lost me at GHz...

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, Groucho Valentine said:

You lost me at GHz...

Actually, my mistake, it was a ceiling mounted PIR sensor that isn't working reliably. Getting a new one installed. 

[iacas]

I don't.

[14ledo81]

I don't think tech has necessarily gone to far, but the way it gets used certainly can.

For example, based on government mandates, all residential electric water heaters of 55 gallons must be of the heat pump design.  True, these water heaters are very efficient, but the air it is taking heat from is inside the house, and needs to be warmed back up using your heating appliance.  What if the heating equipment has a low efficiency rating?  I think this is a code that looks good on the surface, but does not look at the big picture.

[nevets88]

IoT gonna happen whether you like it or not, might as well adapt.

[JxQx]

They will probably just add more/smarter sensors that can tell how many people enter and exit rooms so you wont have to worry about lights turning off while still in there. Some companies already use them in case of fires to tell if everyone has evacuated buildings and if fire fighters need to be sent in to rescue people.

I don't think technology has went to far yet, once people start uploading their consciousness into computers may be the point of going to far or unconstrained AI.

[boogielicious]

I don't either. Power saving laws are there to take stress of the grid. If technology helps that, then it is ok by me.

[bmartin461]

I was talking to a guy who's company supplies the meters for residential electrical utilities.  He told me every one of them transmits data over the lines and every 100th one or so is slightly thicker as it's the one that transmits the data wirelessly to get around the transformers.  All this data is MASSIVE and untapped at this point.

He said they can detect what brand your refrigerator is, know it has a faulty part and identify the part to order.  He also said they can detect when a tree is causing resistance on the power lines due to growing too close etc.  Crazy stuff for sure.

But to answer the original question, no, not I don't.

I think in less than 10 years no one will need own a car, that autonomous cars will become so prevalent and efficient that you would simply walk outside and you would have a ride waiting and you would go where you need to go and the car would then leave.  

I also think an eye implant/contact will replace the smartphone.  

[Lihu]

16 minutes ago, bmartin461 said:

They can detect what brand your refrigerator is, know it has a faulty part and identify the part to order.  He also said they can detect when a tree is causing resistance on the power lines due to growing too close etc.  Crazy stuff for sure.

By the power signature? Or through some residential control protocol over the AC lines?

 

16 minutes ago, bmartin461 said:

I think in less than 10 years no one will need own a car, that autonomous cars will become so prevalent and efficient that you would simply walk outside and you would have a ride waiting and you would go where you need to go and the car would then leave.  

Makes sense for short urban routes for sure. Not so sure about cross country type of driving though.

 

Quote

I also think an eye implant/contact will replace the smartphone.  

That's a bit scary, but one of my cousins would be the perfect candidate for one.

[Let it Fly]

Was having this conversation with my girlfriend just last night.  She sells data storage, and is all about bigger/better/faster/stronger technology, etc.  I agree that advancements have the potential to do wonders for society and the world.  However, it does scare me a bit that tech has seemed to affect the ability of people to actually take care of, and think for, themselves.  I used the example of her almost putting us under a tractor trailer 3 weeks ago b/c her lane-departure-warning-system malfunctioned, but she just assumed that it was safe to change lanes at 75mph since nothing "beeped" telling her not to.

Really went down the rabbit hole when the conversation evolved to incorporate Maslow's Hieracrhy of Needs and the effect tech has on this scale.  She argued that tech will soon be able to satisfy the basic needs of every human, leaving more time for humans to reach/attempt to reach self-actualization.  I agreed with the basic thought behind this (food, water, etc), but that the feelings of relationships/belongingness  may become blurred between reality and virtual reality.  One step further - when everything is given to you, or taken care of for you, is it truly possible to feel like you've accomplished something?  Lots of levels here, so who knows.

 TL:DR -  Technology is awesome, but I hope it doesn't eventually take away the things that make us human.

[Kalnoky]

15 minutes ago, bmartin461 said:

I was talking to a guy who's company supplies the meters for residential electrical utilities.  He told me every one of them transmits data over the lines and every 100th one or so is slightly thicker as it's the one that transmits the data wirelessly to get around the transformers.  All this data is MASSIVE and untapped at this point.

He said they can detect what brand your refrigerator is, know it has a faulty part and identify the part to order.  He also said they can detect when a tree is causing resistance on the power lines due to growing too close etc.  Crazy stuff for sure.

 

Wow, that is the stuff of science fiction. 

There's no stopping any of this, whether I like it or not. 

[Lihu]

14 minutes ago, Let it Fly said:

Was having this conversation with my girlfriend just last night.  She sells data storage, and is all about bigger/better/faster/stronger technology, etc.  I agree that advancements have the potential to do wonders for society and the world.  However, it does scare me a bit that tech has seemed to affect the ability of people to actually take care of, and think for, themselves.  I used the example of her almost putting us under a tractor trailer 3 weeks ago b/c her lane-departure-warning-system malfunctioned, but she just assumed that it was safe to change lanes at 75mph since nothing "beeped" telling her not to.

This example of your is very scary. Too much dependence upon the technology while your senses are potentially ignored? Wow.

What's also scary is that high level code and OS are being put into what would ordinarily be mundane things. The amount of complexity and the fact that humans programmed them make them inherently faulty.

It's like we're just waiting for that day everything starts failing at the same time.

 

48 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

IoT gonna happen whether you like it or not, might as well adapt.

Sigh, I know. I build these things that supposedly make our lives "easier".

 

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Really went down the rabbit hole when the conversation evolved to incorporate Maslow's Hieracrhy of Needs and the effect tech has on this scale.  She argued that tech will soon be able to satisfy the basic needs of every human, leaving more time for humans to reach/attempt to reach self-actualization.

My self actualization is building stuff like in the OP, I just didn't think I'd be the victim of it. I wonder if the person who designed this switch system is using one of the products that I made with similar results? I certainly hope so. . .payback! hehehe. 

 

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I agreed with the basic thought behind this (food, water, etc), but that the feelings of relationships/belongingness  may become blurred between reality and virtual reality.  One step further - when everything is given to you, or taken care of for you, is it truly possible to feel like you've accomplished something?  Lots of levels here, so who knows.

This is very deep, indeed.

 

Quote

 TL:DR -  Technology is awesome, but I hope it doesn't eventually take away the things that make us human.

Like having to wave our arms every 2 minutes?

[Let it Fly]

5 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Like having to wave out arms every 2 minutes?

And wedding reception dance moves 

[iacas]

44 minutes ago, bmartin461 said:

I think in less than 10 years no one will need own a car, that autonomous cars will become so prevalent and efficient that you would simply walk outside and you would have a ride waiting and you would go where you need to go and the car would then leave.  

I also think an eye implant/contact will replace the smartphone.  

I'd take that bet at any reasonable odds.

No way that happens in only ten years. Not even if we limit "no one" to people within 20 miles of cities with 100k people or more. In the U.S.

[cipher]

 

Just now, iacas said:

I'd take that bet at any reasonable odds.

No way that happens in only ten years. Not even if we limit "no one" to people within 20 miles of cities with 100k people or more. In the U.S.

Correct, it is gong to take much longer than ten years for the acceptance to be wide spread.  In ten years the majority of people who do now are still going to own cars.  If not then I need to find a new line of work quick, but I am very confident that won't happen so quickly.  

The tech is already available for on board crash diagnostics and parts procurement through the computer systems and modules though.  

[bmartin461]

11 minutes ago, iacas said:

I'd take that bet at any reasonable odds.

No way that happens in only ten years. Not even if we limit "no one" to people within 20 miles of cities with 100k people or more. In the U.S.

Fair enough, maybe 10 years is aggressive, how about 2-1 on "in our lifetime"?

I selfishly wanted to just document this prediction somewhere as years ago I predicted they would improve technology so much that you would be able to walk into a grocery store, pick what you want and walk out without having to check out.   Damn you AMAZON!    Of course, now when I tell people of that prediction no one believes me.  LOL.

 

 

45 minutes ago, Lihu said:

By the power signature? Or through some residential control protocol over the AC lines?

I would think each appliance has a fingerprint, it would be just knowing what it was.

How about this for crazy:

 

Smart meters that monitor electricity usage in homes in parts of Germany leak data that could reveal what programs are being watched on the digital TV, researchers there say.

The researchers tested smart meters made by German company Discovergy and found that someone with network sniffing skills and equipment could use a "man in the middle" attack to eavesdrop on data related to power use in the home.

The smart meters record high-resolution energy consumption of appliances every two seconds and transmit it to the server at the utility company over the Internet. The system gives utilities up-to-date information on power usage and allows customers to use a Web browser to get detailed data and statistics that can help them track usage and expenses. The data includes the amount of electricity used and the type of appliances used, but also granular information based on the lighting display of the digital TV, according to the researchers.

The household electrical usage profile reveals content displayed on a cathode ray tube (CRT), a plasma display TV, or a liquid crystal display (LCD) TV set with dynamic backlighting, the paper says. The lighting patterns, basically the amount of light and dark emitted on the display for individual frames, is unique for each TV program and movie. Someone would have to already know the light pattern "fingerprint" of the specific content to compare with samples coming from the smart meters at the homes to be able to look for a match to recognized content.

This technique of matching the light patterns could be used to determine what channels are being watched on TV and what TV programs, DVDs, or even downloaded videos are being viewed, said Dennis Loehr, a researcher at Muenster University of Applied Sciences who is getting a doctorate degree at Ruhr Universitat Bochum.

 

[nevets88]

16 minutes ago, cipher said:

 

Correct, it is gong to take much longer than ten years for the acceptance to be wide spread.  In ten years the majority of people who do now are still going to own cars.  If not then I need to find a new line of work quick, but I am very confident that won't happen so quickly.  

The tech is already available for on board crash diagnostics and parts procurement through the computer systems and modules though.  

I agree too. Politics, legal issues, insurance (one policy for driving, one for autonomous), infrastructure, etc... so many non technical factors. People were predicting flying cars by now. Ha! People can barely drive today. We'll definitely need autonomous for flying cars.