Artificial Intelligence and the Post Truth Era

Nebfanatic said:
I would completely agree. Plastics have made alot of things possible in the medical field and allow for much better access to water around the world. Reckless use of the technology is more of a problem than the technology itself and it has been extremely beneficial to society. I'd say the same can be true of AI going forward as with most true innovations I suppose.
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And I would completely agree with you. Every new technology comes challenges. I think the government has been too slow to react though. There needs to be standard federal regulations if you want to prevent issues, but I think it's pretty clear that one party knows they will benefit greatly from the lack of regulations and the chaos it will cause.

 
ZRod said:
You're entire modern existence is because of plastics. It's the reason why things are cheap and productivity goes up. The problem isn't plastic it's lazy a$$ people and corporations not doing the right thing when disposing of them. And not all plastics are part of the forever chemical health problems.
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Plastics are only a part of things bring cheap and productivity going up. And forever chemicals are a separate issue from microplastics. I'm not convinced plastics are net bad for society, but let's not go overboard singing their praises either.

 
Nebfanatic said:
What is beneficial about plastics vs other types of packaging other than cost? There are microplastics in all of our brains now because of its creation as well. I'd say its impact is beyond envirobros. Its generally considered subpar to everything made with other materials. Its not entirely bad I'd say because there are so many different kinds and some are used for very specialized purposes, but overall I think most people can argue they are a net negative on society.

AI has a potential to go either way at this point I would say. There are amazing things that can be accomplished with this technology, but it can also be incredibly dangerous. Much more so than things like calculators or the internet and in a vastly different way than things like cars and planes. We are entering uncharted territory here and much is yet to be determined. 
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If you think plastics is horrible for society as a whole, then you obviously have not thoroughly thought this through. 
 

Just simply looking at healthcare alone, it’s laughable to think we aren’t better off with plastic. 

 
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RedDenver said:
Plastics are only a part of things bring cheap and productivity going up. And forever chemicals are a separate issue from microplastics. I'm not convinced plastics are net bad for society, but let's not go overboard singing their praises either.
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I'm not going over board  :lol:  it's just the reality. Sure there are a lot of other technological advancements that have improved efficiency (e.g. micro processors), but I'd argue none more so than plastics. What used to take hours to either make dies to cast, stamp, extrude, aneal, plate, polish, paint, etc. now takes on average less than a minute to produce a visually appealing component or finished product.

Now there's definitely something to be said about craftsmanship and durability, but plastic makes everything faster, cheaper, lighter; and that's what capitalism is all about.

 
ZRod said:
I'm not going over board  :lol:  it's just the reality. Sure there are a lot of other technological advancements that have improved efficiency (e.g. micro processors), but I'd argue none more so than plastics. What used to take hours to either make dies to cast, stamp, extrude, aneal, plate, polish, paint, etc. now takes on average less than a minute to produce a visually appealing component or finished product.

Now there's definitely something to be said about craftsmanship and durability, but plastic makes everything faster, cheaper, lighter; and that's what capitalism is all about.
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Computers most likely wouldn’t be anything like they are today without plastics.  I would argue that plastics led to the exponential growth in tech over the last 100years at least just as much as any other technology.

 
funhusker said:
Computers most likely wouldn’t be anything like they are today without plastics.  I would argue that plastics led to the exponential growth in tech over the last 100years at least just as much as any other technology.
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I didn't want to go overboard  :lol:

 
ZRod said:
I didn't want to go overboard  :lol:
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That’s not overboard at all.  You used the example “microprocessors”.  I don’t see how those would be possible without plastic.  Do you?  The silicon they are made out of is a man made plastic.

 
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ZRod said:
I'm not going over board  :lol:  it's just the reality. Sure there are a lot of other technological advancements that have improved efficiency (e.g. micro processors), but I'd argue none more so than plastics. What used to take hours to either make dies to cast, stamp, extrude, aneal, plate, polish, paint, etc. now takes on average less than a minute to produce a visually appealing component or finished product.

Now there's definitely something to be said about craftsmanship and durability, but plastic makes everything faster, cheaper, lighter; and that's what capitalism is all about.
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I guess there are no down sides to plastics to consider and capitalism is the only thing that matters in society, so plastics are clearly the greatest thing ever. No reason to even discuss microplastics.

 
funhusker said:
That’s not overboard at all.  You used the example “microprocessors”.  I don’t see how those would be possible without plastic.  Do you?  The silicon they are made out of is a man made plastic.
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You got a link for that? I'm no expert in chip manufacturing, but silicon comes from silica sand AFAIK. Plastic might be a major part of making microprocessors, but I don't know how it could be the source of the silicon.

 
ZRod said:
I'm not going over board  :lol:  it's just the reality. Sure there are a lot of other technological advancements that have improved efficiency (e.g. micro processors), but I'd argue none more so than plastics. What used to take hours to either make dies to cast, stamp, extrude, aneal, plate, polish, paint, etc. now takes on average less than a minute to produce a visually appealing component or finished product.

Now there's definitely something to be said about craftsmanship and durability, but plastic makes everything faster, cheaper, lighter; and that's what capitalism is all about.
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Before PVC was invented, electrical insulation was actually flammable. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all our wiring was still like that?

 
RedDenver said:
You got a link for that? I'm no expert in chip manufacturing, but silicon comes from silica sand AFAIK. Plastic might be a major part of making microprocessors, but I don't know how it could be the source of the silicon.
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You know what?  I'm doing some learning today. 

The "silicon" in microchips isn't the same as "silicone" (a plastic) that is used in a lot of other places.

Good to know!

 
ZRod said:
Good thing that's what I said  :rolleyes:
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Don't act like because the exact words you used were different that wasn't what you were saying. You said "plastics aren't the problem", which is intended to avoid discussing any problems plastics might have. If you intended something else, then you could engage in the discussion and clarify or elaborate.

 
RedDenver said:
Don't act like because the exact words you used were different that wasn't what you were saying. You said "plastics aren't the problem", which is intended to avoid discussing any problems plastics might have. If you intended something else, then you could engage in the discussion and clarify or elaborate.
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No, it's not... As I explained in the exact same post I think proper handling and disposal is a big problem; and at this point with the research still out, I think a blanket statement of an extremely broad category of materials such as "plastic" being a net negative is foolish at best.

Again, all technologies have their downsides. We need corporate leaders to realize they are part of a business and environmental ecosystem. They need to emphasize doing the right thing for the world and not their bottom line. A great example would be saran wrap changing their formula in a way that would negatively impact their products performance and their company's bottom line, but was the right decision for the health of people and the environment. Which I suppose circles back to a lot of things AI related. People will keep pushing the boundaries and trying to figure out if they can do it instead of if they should do it. Which is why I think we all agree regulations are a necessary thing.

 
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