xkcd: Will _____ Destroy Whole Industries? (Simple Answers) | Hacker News Reader

xkcd: Will _____ Destroy Whole Industries? (Simple Answers)

xkcd.com

47 pointscapableweb23 comments

From the alt text: > 'Will [ ] allow us to better understand each other and thus make war undesirable?' is one that pops up whenever we invent a new communication medium.

I sometimes wonder, if all cars were equipped with a radio where drivers could speak to and hear other drivers around them (naturally, not push-to-talk like CB), would driving behavior improve because it would humanize the other drivers? Or would it make drivers want to be at war with each other even more?

I think an easy way to answer this question is to look at major commuting thoroughfares where the people are not in cars to begin with, like busy sidewalks and cyclepaths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RQrKP9a0XE

For a split second, I thought you used "cyclepaths" as a slur for people riding bicycles.

If instead of flashing high beams or last-resorting to honking I could just say "hey, car in front of me, I'm kinda in a hurry, could you move to the right lane so I can pass?" I feel a lot more people would be relaxed. Me included.

At least until the first time you run across someone in a spiteful mood who ignores you or deliberately drives slower/in your way.

When I commute by bicycle on the trails that lead into DC, I frequently have the exact kind of interaction you are describing here.

A small percentage of people love to annoy and piss off other people. And it just takes one to provoke everybody around them. So I think it would lead to more road rage not less.

However I would love to have a system where drivers can spend (say) 10 penalty points a year on bad drivers they observe in traffic, and every year the top 1% receivers of penalty points (above a minimum amount) gets heavily fined, and are forced to reapply for a drivers license.

I thought a judging system that scored your driving based on others driving around you might get people to change their behavior, especially if the score was linked to the cost of driving in some way.

Some insurance companies have plans where you plug a module info your OBD2 port and get discounts for “safe driving”

This makes me want to go through all his comics to look for more alt-text easter eggs.

They all have an alt-text.

https://xkcd.com/1053/

Relatedly, m.xkcd.com is still one of the best ways to (re-)read long segments of xkcd comics because it moves the alt-text into an expando and is otherwise nicely clutter free truly focusing on the comics.

https://m.xkcd.com/1053/

Also, sometimes the Explain xkcd wiki is super handy (and also just includes the alt-text and also even explains the alt-text).

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1053:_Ten_Thousan...

You and me both.

> Will teens use [] for sex?

> Were they going to have sex anyway?

These are nice insertions to add humour, but I feel the "teen" specifier here dates this comic somewhat (even now, only about a decade after it was published). In a similar way that articles from a few decades ago about gamers being "kids" would seem dated today.

Concerns about teens having sex "too early" or even at all seem timeless to me. Abstinence-only education still exists in large parts of the country and may always exist in some (or pendulum back and forth forever between that and not-that). "Promise rings" were a big deal when I was in high school a mumble number of decades ago, and I just recently, randomly saw some recent "Disney Channel show" with a Promise Ring sub-plot.

If anything, this maybe dates you more than the comic and your distance from teen experiences and their parents fretting about them endlessly.

So, there's a few angles here.

To add initial context, I'm referring to the general tendency of younger people to have less interest in sex (statistically) than previous generations.

Firstly, you're starting with adult concerns rather than teen actualities - these typically lag reality (parents concerns about things their kids do come through a lens tuned based on the culture norms they grew up with). Sure, the comic questions are adult concerns, but the answers purport to address reality - it's the latter that seems dated.

Secondly, there's also sub-trends in certain areas of the US of increased subscription to (rather than previous rebellion against) sexually conservative rituals like promise rings. Especially in children of relatively more liberal parents. So, these being prevalent don't necessarily speak to concern for increased promiscuity in younger people.

Lastly, I wouldn't rate Disney as a good gauge for young people's genuine tendencies or behaviours. Focus groups aside, the writers aren't young.

> If anything, this maybe dates you more than the comic and your distance from teen experiences

I don't think so.

Maybe AI can function as a mediator/conciliator in the future, perhaps showing us with irrefutable logic that cooperation can be a better path for humanity. Geez, I'm wishing for a machine deity that will watch over us. Would that be faith or lack of it?

It is naive to believe that 100% understanding each other somehow will lead to less violence or war. If you 100% understand that somebody wants to take what is yours, rape you, or in any other way have a deep desire to cause you harm, then the conflict and violence will still happen.

There are people out there who truly and deeply believe that they are superior to others and therefore have the right to take what is yours. They might 100% understand that you are not happy about it but they simply don’t care.

So you either accept to be a victim or use violence to stop it. Any attempt to negotiate or talk about it will be answered with a fist in your face.

>will _x_ cause widespread alienation by creating a world of empty experiences >we were already alienated ah but we can become MORE alienated as we're not sure if X was made by a real person. Even before the AI scare, the transition of the web from being 90% certain that another human made the content on your screen to the paradigm of content mills or copysites(think stack overflow clones). I guess one can still find solace in the fact that these sites still do exist, albeit under a growing mass of grey paste

You forgot the follow up question. Will ____ bring rise to a new industry and create new jobs? Yes.

Will we still have human flaws (and strengths)? Oh yes, so much yes.

Now we will also have AI flaws.

"Sorry boss, it's not my fault, it's my AI that made a mistake."

It never hurts to have a second set of fingerprints on a weapon.

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