![]() The confluence of degrading economic conditions, civil unrest, uncertain long-term pandemic outcomes strike me as more likely to lead to technology-related harms and abuses than not, particularly as products rush to market with even less rigor applied to threat modeling, risk assessment, etc. This section opens with a number of broad statements from respondents about these concerns, followed by sets of assertions sorted under themed headings. Finally, they wonder who will take action to bring about the positive change necessary to tackle all of these obvious issues. Additionally, they worry about people’s mental health at a time of so much isolation. Some pointed out a variety of downsides to telework, and said they worry over the accelerating automation of more business systems and processes causing the number of available jobs for humans to shrink. Many warned that health-monitoring, work-surveillance and security solutions that may be applied will expand mass oversight, threaten human rights and lead more regions of the world to become more authoritarian. They maintain that the seemingly unstoppable flow of lies, disinformation and misinformation online is divisive, dangerous and destructive. They acknowledged that some of the likely remedies may interfere with civil liberties. Some argued that the spread of lies via social media and other digital platforms will damage social, political and economic systems. ![]() They noted that solutions to this problem have a double-edged quality because opportunity and challenge are equally present. Most respondents to this canvassing who discussed the problems tied to the business models of Big Tech said it is highly unlikely that there will be a successful movement soon to change market capitalism and the competitive imperative to make profit-making the primary priority. Much of their concern focuses on the growing power held by the technology companies that control information flows into people’s lives and their potential to compromise individuals’ privacy and autonomy. Their views embraced several overarching themes that can be summed up in one: The advantaged enjoy more advantages the disadvantaged fall further behind. (One of them remembers completing the game and getting a certificate from the Learning Company declaring him the 34 th person to finish.) Foote called his version DroidQuest, and it is the easiest way to play Robot Odyssey today.Whether they expressed optimistic or pessimistic views about the “new normal” in 2025, these respondents also weighed in with their worries for the near future of humans and digital technologies. Thomas Foote was so taken with the game that he spent years re-implementing the entire game in Java, with the support of a small but dedicated fan community. The tech law professor James Grimmelmann told me it had been his “game for a rainy decade,” describing an immense sense of accomplishment on finishing one of the nastier puzzles-“a big part of why I loved programming.” Programmer/musician/hacker Joan Touzet used it to teach programming to middle schoolers-in 2004. Game designer and hardware hacker Quinn Dunki of One Girl, One Laptop wrote Gate, a spiritual successor to Robot Odyssey that employed many of the same concepts. My younger brother, who suffered with my sister and me as we struggled through the game, told me, “It’s where I started on the road to becoming a programmer.” Even if players got stuck (and everyone got stuck), the game offered ideas and concepts that no other game did. The game had a profound effect on those who played it. Programmer Thomas Foote had just started college when he picked up the game: “I swore to myself,” he told me, “that as God is my witness, I would finish this game before I finished college. The challenge of the game-and it was one serious challenge-was to understand that other world. The world it presented was like being exposed to Plato’s forms, a secret, nonphysical realm of pure ideas and logic. It is the game I love (and despise) the most, because it was the hardest, the most complex, the most challenging. ![]() It is the game I remember most from my childhood. Visionary, absurdly difficult games such as this gain cult followings. It is also a stunning technical achievement, and one of the most innovative games of the Apple IIe era. Robot Odyssey is the hardest damn “educational” game ever made. Hell, any adult who can complete this game should go into engineering. Let me say: Any kid who completes this game while still a kid (I know only one, who also is one of the smartest programmers I’ve ever met) is guaranteed a career as a software engineer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |