Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: everything2.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to everything2.org.

Comments · 154

  1. examples? by bludstone · · Score: 3 · on Middle Media

    how about indymedia?
    adbusters
    the onion :-)
    would slashdot be considered an alternative media source? probably?
    anyone else got some good outside-the-mainstream media sources?
    I don't know about you, but i still get all my news from everything 2 :-)


  2. Well, I dunno, but... by pavelivanov · · Score: 1 · on Jargon File 4.2.0 Out

    Who really needs the Jargon File all that bad when you've got Everything2 !?!?!

    I'm sure CowboyNeal will agree,
    Paul "Pavel" Ivanov

  3. Deterministic != Predictable !! by Thomas+Miconi · · Score: 2 · on What Computers Really Can't Do

    Basic Chaos Theory [?].



    The very essence of being conscious is an ability to behave in a random fashion, also known as free will

    There's no such thing as true randomness on the non-quantic scale. What we call "free will" is the result of a (highly structured) bunch of intercommunicating neurons. While the process of decision (ie will) remains one of the darkest parts of the Neurosciences realm, we already have enough clues to figure out where we should look (can you say "basal ganglia" ?).


    Thomas Miconi

  4. Modern AI against the NP-hard curse by Thomas+Miconi · · Score: 2 · on What Computers Really Can't Do

    From what I understand though JK's description, Mr Harel is probably talking about the NP-hard problems, ie problems which take exponential time to solve (exponential being related to their "size", eg solving the travelling salesman problem for N cities takes k*exp(N) steps).

    Although those problems are effectively unsolvable through the classical, algorithmic way, quite a lot of them can be solved using the most recent AI techniques - the drawback being that the solution is not 100% guaranteed optimal. Genetic Algorithms [?], for example, are the most powerful optimization tool that ever came out of AI. It can deal with the travalling salesman's problem (see one version here), just as well as other technique such as "Ant colonies"

    Furthermore, complexity theory (which deals with "computability") only holds for Turing machines. DNA / quantum computers do not fell in the "NP-cursed" category of computers.

    Mr Harel's thoughts, while being perfectly snesible as far as his own field is concerned (Turing-like algorithmics), should not be taken as holy scripture. Digital calculators are only a couple of decades old. It took thousands of years to fully exploit the power of the steam engine. We can try to imagine what "computers" will be like in 30 years from now, but expecting such a forecast to be accurate would be foolish.

    Thomas Miconi