Comments on: H+ The Digital Series — A Review

By: G

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 06:43:20 +0000

What a ridiculous review. I stopped reading after the reviewer became, what he thought, an expert of the future of technology. If you want something real and accurate to fact, watch a well made documentary. If you want to be entertained, let film makers do what they do without picking apart a story with ill reasoned rubbish. I thought reviewers were meant to review the content, not bleat on about what they think would make a good film.

I imagine a STORY that covers every inch of what this reviewer deems accurate to this fictional setting, would make for a very boring series indeed.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 02:09:02 +0000

I think you’re way too harsh on this. I love the series–great production values, good plot, interesting concept, and capable acting. All scifi past a few years out is ridiculous in some sense and gets more so as technological change accelerates, but I think this addresses some real issues in a relatively intelligent way. I remember when transhumanism wasn’t just about boosterism, but was a recognition that we needed to be aware of the way the future was going to fundamentally change things, so we could respond intelligently.

I will grant you that the 3-5 minute format thing is annoying, though I understand why they did it and am glad they took the risk to shake things up. Bravo Cabrera, De Tommaso, and Singer!

By: JZA

JZA — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:22:43 +0000

i think this is analog to the movie The NET with sandra bullock. Painting a scary version of technology is usually a stretch, but then again we can ignore some degree of truthness. Sure, 20 something years after the net has been with us we still dont have complete takeover of people documents across all agencies to disapear them. But we do have some degree of identity theft.
Also the H+ might reside on google glasses type devices but self driving cars wont reach 100 of the population, no matter how hard or popular they become. We still dont have 50 pct electric cars and AI still under years of research.
Nano robots might not need to take control of our nervous system. by having a robot behind our eyeball beaming images on our retina we would be able to have that visual interface without touching our nerves. I dont think this can me ordered from the nervous system and will argue on being able to do with the neuronal system.
However I think that true topics of H+ like aging issues, and counsiousness migration to bits and bytes are still far beyond this future.

By: JZA

JZA — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 17:57:33 +0000

In reality the husband Lee would just switch on the car’s autopilot and crack open a beer. Yes, in the future it will be legal to drink in a vehicle if you aren’t driving and the cars will be designed such that they won’t let you drive if you do drink.

If you got nanorobots, wouldnt they just alter ur flavour so that anything u drink tastes like beer?

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:40:22 +0000

This is a ridiculous review. The moment you start dissecting this fantasy world, you’ve unraveled the fabric of fiction. Go read a programming book.. That’s real exciting huh.

By: JC

JC — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 22:12:51 +0000

I like this review a lot. Some very good points.

I guess my only beef is that your futurist predictions don’t seem to have a great deal of realism. To me they feel like a laundry list of transhumanist themes.

I get that the series opens an a way that might make some feel uneasy about the future, but I don’t think this is in any way an affront to transhumanism. I think it *attempts* to look at the costs that have always come with progress (the spread of Black Plague in dense cities, the fumbles during the industrial revolution, the the horrors seen by nuclear energy.) We are a remarkable species that seems always willing to accept risks… and perhaps it’s because we understand that those bumps are a part of the larger story.

This notion that one or more technologies affirms existence of others… I just don’t believe it’s the way progress works. It is a mix of need, desire, efficiency, market conditions, legal obstructions, and more. There are 1st world countries that have had high speed trains for decades while the US has none. Many futurists of years past would have laughed at visions of a computer culture without one. But the reason the world looks the way it does today has only partly to do what is technologically possible. I can imagine a revisionist scenario, for example, where an advanced species develops computer technology like ours today, without ever making it to Mars or the moon or even space itself, since those advances were as much political as they were scientific.

Aside from the fact that we’ve only seen a couple cars in the series so far, and have little idea for the rest of the traffic infrastructure, I think a future with implants but few or no autocars is totally conceivable.

Just like I think it’s ridiculous the idea that a neural implant *wouldn’t* piggy back off the brain-to-hand signals in order to control the interface. It’s a vernacular we know well. As a transhumanist yourself, I have to imagine you’ve seen the videos of disabled individuals today using rudimentary forms of this technology to control tech with their minds. It’s not easy. There’s a learning curve. This technology would need to eliminate that learning curve completely out of the gate in order to appeal to an early mass market.

You do make a great (and humorous) point about people slapping each other in the face, though… but how much more ridiculous than a bunch of people sitting around a dinner table all looking down at their iPhones.

Thank you for your thoughtful review.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:13:31 +0000

The H+ implants in the series do nothing that could not be done by some advanced Google glasses. You will likely be able to get glasses that do all those things within a decade, as well as an auto drive car so you can use them while you commute. People waving there hands about like idiots will likely become a common sight within a few years. If you more far fetched had implants like H+ you likely you would likely see people freeze still frequently while they use VR to do such things, but increasingly people would spend more and more time in the fully imersive VR world such implants could provide not bothering to leave bed.