Interesting Links for 29-08-2013

[andrewducker]

• Generational shift in attitudes among young soccer players towards gay teammates
  (tags: uk football sport lgbt )
• Syria: what do Liberal Democrats want?
  (tags: libdem syria )
• The Middle East, explained in one (sort of terrifying) chart
  (tags: middle_east )
• Isaac Asimov's 1964 predictions for 2014.
  (tags: asimov thefuture predictions )
• Will we ever

Comments

[bart_calendar]

Yes we will eventually fuck robots.

Any and all interactive technology is eventually used to cause orgasms.

And the first company to deploy decent sex robots will be the company that is the dominant company in the robot business.

Remember back when Blu-Ray had competition and nobody was sure which HD shiny disk format was going to win?

As soon as Blu-Ray locked up the contracts with the major porn companies they won so strongly that I can't even remember what their competitor was called.

Remember back when there were Beta tapes and VHS tapes? Beta was actually better - but the people who built the VHS format made all the initial contracts with the porn studios and Beta died.

[bart_calendar]

To say nothing of the fact that high speed broadband access pretty much became a thing because people wanted to watch porn without a ton of buffering.

[andrewducker]

I'm sure that there are now people out there with a fetish for judderiness :->

[bart_calendar]

There is actually a site for that!

http://slowloadingporn.com/

Re: Isaac Asimov's 1964 predictions for 2014

[bracknellexile]

"Boston-to-Washington, the most crowded area of its size on the earth, will have become a single city with a population of over 40,000,000."

Hmmm, I wonder if this is this coincidence or the inspiration for Mega-City One? Google-fu is failing to find me any direct link between Dredd and Asimov bar articles that mention both as examples of urban sprawl.

I'm guessing this prediction of Asimov's was based on his own fictional Trantor in Foundation but the fact that, here, he's going for real-world Boston-to-Washington ties in with (some versions of) Mega-City One quite nicely.

Re: Isaac Asimov's 1964 predictions for 2014

[andrewducker]

Seems to have been a common trait. Harry Harrison's "Make Room! Make Room!" also used the idea heavily, shortly after that.

Looks like it hit the non-fiction world around the same time too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb

Re: Isaac Asimov's 1964 predictions for 2014

[ice_hesitant]

Asimov also wrote Caves of Steel, a mystery novel set in a Boston-to-Washington megacity.

Re: Isaac Asimov's 1964 predictions for 2014

[strawberryfrog]

> Hmmm, I wonder if this is this coincidence or the inspiration for Mega-City One?

Hey now, I wouldn't accuse Judge Dredd of originality.

[cybik]

Considering we live in a world with fleshlights, realdolls and a staggering array of vibrators, I would be amazed if sex with robots didn't become relatively common..

[bart_calendar]

Yep.

[ajr]

Depending on the definition of 'robot' you use, then surely teledildonics counts. Though I've no idea how common that is.

[andrewducker]

Interesting. URLs in link notes don't come through as links.

In any case: DON'T DATE ROBOTS!
http://vimeo.com/12915013

[a_pawson]

Fascinating that Asimov's predictions about overpopulation were so accurate. Depressing that his optimism that we would have recognised the problem and be actively doing something to control it was so wrong.

[andrewducker]

Thankfully the problem seems to be fixing itself, and hasn't had results nearly as bad as people predicted.