Billions Donated to Charity

Anonymous Philanthropist writes " Warren Buffet , the world's second-richest man, announced over the weekend that he will soon donate 85% of his entire net worth, weighing in at around $37 Billion, to charities, with over 80% of it going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This makes it the single largest monetary donation in history."

Comments

Re:Put it in AI research

[Randall Shane]

The responses to my post mostly don't seem to have an appreciation for the importance and massively revolutionary consequences of AI. It would change everything. And I don't mean change a lot, I mean REALLY change everything. For example poverty would be completely eliminated. DEATH would be eliminated. If it's possible in the near future, then it needs to be done as soon as we can. With the billions available, IBM may be able to make a version of Blue Gene optimized for AI that could actually work.

Uh, exactly HOW is this supposed to work? All we need to eliminate poverty and death is to have something smarter tell us what to do? (Assuming that artificial intelligence would be smarter than the smartest humans, which is Not Necessarily The Case.) Maybe the problems we have can't be cured by just being smarter, anyway.

Re:Put it in AI research

[Elminst]

And I don't mean change a lot, I mean REALLY change everything. For example poverty would be completely eliminated. DEATH would be eliminated.

Outside of popular science fiction authors and movies... How the heck to you figure this?? Your post is speculation of the purest form.
Revolutionary, sure, but eliminating death?? WTF?

Hitler!

[Ivan Matveitch]

And I thought you were dead.

Re:Put it in AI research

[mrcaseyj]

I suspect that the lack of progress in AI isn't due to the difficulty of developing the algorithms, but rather the lack of sufficiently powerfull hardware. No matter how cleverly you rewire the neurons of a lizard brain, you will never match Einstein's intelligence, because the lizard brain simply lacks sufficient computing power. What's more is it's difficult to even discover the algorithms if you don't have the hardware to experiment with. If I gave Charles Babage my calculator wristwatch, he probably couldn't do what Linus Torvalds did, because he wouldn't be able to experiment enough to develop the linux kernel. It's not that the linux kernel is beyond human capabilities, it's that you need the hardware to experiment with.

I don't think there are any grants available that are big enough to hire IBM to make a custom version of Blue Gene to dedicate to AI research. With tens of billions though, you could get one built, and it might have enough computing power.

Re:Before anyone asks...

[vasus]

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Re:Before anyone asks...

[stonetony]

BBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTT!

I'm sorry, you didn't phrase your answer in the form of a question.

A GWB aka Junior

Q Who isn't a working class man who started out with nothing in life but two strong hands and a brain, and now has to make due with just the hands?

ill gotten

[twitter]

Purchase != Donation.

It is a donation when you have no choice or intention to use said crappy software. Of the hundreds of dollars each of us has given in this way, what fraction has gone to this foundation and then what fraction of that is actually spent on worthwhile projects? Pennies, no doubt. This should not really make anyone feel better about paying the M$ Tax when they buy a new computer, pay their student tech fees or any other monopoly rent extortion.

Re:ill gotten

[twitter]

Did the government force you to buy windows? Did the police give you an ultimatum? Microsoft? Anyone?

I managed to personally avoid the M$ tax for about six years. Then I went back to school and had to pay a "tech fee", half of which goes into providing an "atmosphere of software abundance," which is mostly the same crap that comes with any major brand PC. Most people don't know enough to get that far.

The US government proved and convicted M$ of anti-competitive practices, which indeed constitute force for anyone buying a new computer. Their failure to rectify the situation is a tacit endorsement. So yes, I have been forced to pay the Windoze tax by my government.

Re:Before anyone asks...

[SirSlud]

If you made more money than you needed before you died, you're guilty of earning too much. By the time you die, your kids should be on solid financial and social footing, and they shouldn't need your help.

You just believe in private property to an extreme that most societies don't (well, except for the middle ages, but in those days you pretty much had to protect your own property, so you'd have to not be capitalist to assert your views.)

Your ideals were proven to be against the interest of the greater good centuries ago.