MOODBOARD: "OMNI MAGAZINE'S 'FUTURE ALMANAC' " ( 1982). I'LL BE TAKING SCREENSHOTS FROM RANDOM PAGES OF THE ALMANAC, AND POSTING THEM AS MOODBOARDS. ONE HAS TO ADMIRE THE OVER EXAGGERATION OF PREDICTIONS, PARTICULARLY WHEN LOOKING 40 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE FROM THE EARLY 1980S, AT WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN OUR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS. SOME PREDICTIONS ARE ON THE MONEY, A LOT WERE NOT. (UPDATE 2)

Below is what was envisaged 42 years ago in 1982, on computer chips and human biological interaction, mixed with Cold War Fears of Artificial Intelligence running amok.  The "biochip interface" is still way off, and it won't be placed into the chest per se, but the brain.  To assist in motor function, possibly after brain damage from injury or a stroke.  However, interestingly on the 'Beyond 2010' section ala the "Computer Responsibility Act", what is about to come into force is the August 2024 "European Union "Artificial Intelligence Act".  AI as it currently stands, is narrow and very much still in its learning process, thus flawed.  It will be over a decade before it apparently is interlinked into everything, so the 2035 'Omni Future Almanac' scenario is still a possibility.  If, it is programmed with Proto-Fascist human idealisms, ala when many biological (not AI) Right Wing commentators online during the COVID pandemic (yes, no one saw that coming) argued that the virus should be allowed to kill off the already sick and unhealthy, rather than lockdown the economy.  So, the question/s one must ask: Do computers learn ethics of rationality and moral outcomes from themselves?  Or us?   

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"2010 

The first portable biochip interface computer model will be demonstrated. A corporate partnership using high-speed computers will develop and patent a biochip interface that may operate with a vest-pocket computer. The chip will be implanted near crucial nerve bundles in one side of the chest with a plug that lies on the skin surface. A thin wire will run from the chip to the computer, which can be kept in any convenient pocket. The chip will pick up, average, and translate brain waves recorded through residual ganglia vibration. 

Beyond 2010 

The decision-making power of computers will become so awesome that a Computer Responsibility Act may have to be passed in the United States. A possible scenario: In 2035, some seven hundred fifty publicly assisted housing unit residents, deemed expendable by a civic energy balance maintenance computer, will be frozen in their homes. Many of the elderly will die. Upon examination and investigation, the computer will respond that its evaluation revealed that the community was better served by letting the individuals freeze than by saving energy in any other fashion. Resulting protests from computers over the dismantling of the offending machine may lead to negotiations on computer responsibility for such actions. The establishment of a computer court for dealing with ethical problems will be the result."

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All my Moodboards to date: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search/label/moodboards