Up until the early Christian era, most books were written on scrolls. They were a bit tedious to use. However these are easy to emulate in computers. Some classic books such as synagoge torahs still use this ancient interface.
Petabyte technology suggests new avenues of scientific investigation, but doesnt end science or older alternative ways of doing things. The clever thing is to be first to discover the new possibilities.
My software division is part of a large conglomerate, so the CEO would not be on top the specialized sotware. Yet I've heard the promise now and then that the division leader would try to use all software, but nothing ever came from it.
On the other hand, our former CEO took a decade out to play in politics and run for state governer. But came back to industry, runs a new dsoftware, and does "booth babe" duty at trade shows. I'm impressed.
Even though its a bit exuberant, as some techies are,
the interesting point is that new generations of a "thousand" should give you new ways of looking at scientific problems. The claim it "ends science" is just a red-herring to get you to think about the issue.
There are still several computing problems from earlier, smaller eras that havent been solved by the "more" paradigm. One example is realistic synthetic voice. The bandwidth is megabytes, achieved by mp3 players some years ago. However voice is the last part of the "real world" we have to capture instead of synthesize to implement computer-generated feature movies or video games. This keeps the need for having some "flesh" actors around, at least for a few more years:-)
Then there was Slashdot's retrospective of Artificial Intelligence a few days ago. Many of the interesting advances where made in the kilobyte and megabyte eras. It seems the gigabyte and terabyte eras have barely made a dent in progress.
I've been in several organizations from universities to oil companies where large amounts of data have been lost due to system conversions, downsizings and geographic moves. I find it remarkable if a company can save several decades of history.
>Sexual intercourse is meant to be an act performed in private for the two parties that love and care for each other deeply enough to create a stronger bond.
In tribal cultures everyone knows who is doing who and when. Ditto when the whole extended family slept in one or two rooms. Ditto for all bodily functions.
I've hung around MIT & Stanford AI labs in the 1970s and 1980s and saw successes, but also tunneling in tinier and tinier academic corners. I dont hold much hope for academia or military R&D. My guess is that interesting AIs will come out of self-playing video games- games with interesting characters who surprise their human constestants. Another possibility may come out of Japan's robot obsession. They might invent more and more clever robot toys until someday they seem reasonably intelligent.
I was around when venture capitalists raided all the computer science departments to start AI companies. Venture capital was still pretty young at the time having funded some successful PC companies (Compaq) and productivity software (Lotus 123). Japan was at its zenith then having successfuling conquered cars, TVs, etc (like China today). An Japan threatened to conquer computing by leapfrogging AI with is "Fifth(*) Generation Computing" frightening US Congress. So all these together created a "perfect storm" of software company bubble. The centerpiece technology was Expert Systems. Japan focused a language solution- Prolog- a logic compiler. Neither technology delivered on it promises and most startups collapsed.
It birth a successful step-child however: graphics workstations. The A.I. companies like Xerox PARC were among the first to integrate bitmap graphics with computers. There was the Xerox Alto, Symbolics, and Texas Instruments graphics workstations based on LISP, an A.I. language. New startups like Apollo, Sun MicroSystems, DEC microVAX gambled graphics workstations were more easility commercialized in UNIX. Last, but not least, the Appled MacIntosh- direct "borowing" of the Xerox Alto.
In many schools they would not award the degree then.
Many college apps ask about criminal records. Certain types of crimes or a false answer can prevent admission to college. There was a famous case about a Harvard student being expelled for not putting her murder conviction on the application.
Both are Harvard dropouts, one havent gotten fabulously rich on software and the other about to. Both wrote good software in their days. Both are accused of stealing their best ideas from other people. Both seem to have a touch Aspergers. And one is trying to buy the other out. So is Mark going to be eventually as good as Bill in the computer business?
I credit my "kit building days" in helping me get admitted into MIT. As student interviewer nowadays, we are encouraged to look for signs of "active learning", kids who initiate projects on their own rather than passively take what's shoveled into them by the education system even if its college level course work.
In MITs entire fourteen decade history they've always had a labortory requirement for a SB degree. However in recent decades the requirement got watered down to "doing something on the computer" so an EE major could get through never soldered a circuit or chemist with never touching a test tube. But the faculty just change that an re-instituted hands-on lab course requirements.
Decades ago when I was a kid I subscribed to a "science kit of the month" advertised on the back of comic books. They kind of built on top each other - one month an amplifier, then a telegraph, then a radio, etc. The subscription was like an outrageous $5 a month - about a third of my paper-route profits. My parents then used to complain about me stinking up the basement with the soldering gun. My guess is that someone declared this dangerous and it went off the market pretty much like chemistry kits have also been emasculated. Then I suppose if it was these days I'd be hacking computers then.
It would nice to have access to stimulating teachers and AP courses. But my high school didnt have these. I must have read just about every non-fiction book in the library, subscribed to mail-ordr science gizmos. Its a lot easier to edcate yourself these days with the resources of the InterNet.
In some respect the invention of the telegraph changed the world forever because communications could be simultaneous around the earth. This would prevent gaffs like the Battle of New Orleans fought 29 years earlier, TWO WEEKS after the treaty ending that war had been signed because communications were so slow.
The capital burden of laying wires across continents and oceans helped create the modern corporations and banks. (In conjunction with railroads, steel, coal and petroleum development). There were wild economic booms and busts, not unlike the mainframes in the 1960s. PCs in the 1980s and dot.coms in the 1990s. The telegraph fueled modern media with a desire for today's news rather than weeks old letter and magazines.
The telegraph spawned other modern inventions. Randall Stoss's recent biography of Thomas Edison re-interprets the inventor in light of the dot.com boom. Several of Edison's inventions were aimed at cramming more messages on precious telegraph lines. The telephone arose out of the effort to send messages at different messages at separate frequencies. Voice is just using all frequencies. Several people beat Edison here, but he invented the first practical microphone. The phonograph was originally intended to record telegraph messages offline, then transmit them and record them at super-human speeds across precious telegraph lines. Recording and playing messages by themselves without the intervening telegraph became its own invention - the phonograph.
Slashdot Mirror
Up until the early Christian era, most books were written on scrolls. They were a bit tedious to use. However these are easy to emulate in computers. Some classic books such as synagoge torahs still use this ancient interface.
Petabyte technology suggests new avenues of scientific investigation, but doesnt end science or older alternative ways of doing things. The clever thing is to be first to discover the new possibilities.
My software division is part of a large conglomerate, so the CEO would not be on top the specialized sotware. Yet I've heard the promise now and then that the division leader would try to use all software, but nothing ever came from it.
On the other hand, our former CEO took a decade out to play in politics and run for state governer. But came back to industry, runs a new dsoftware, and does "booth babe" duty at trade shows. I'm impressed.
Too many goofy pundits in the petabyte age.
Even though its a bit exuberant, as some techies are,
the interesting point is that new generations of a "thousand" should give you new ways of looking at scientific problems. The claim it "ends science" is just a red-herring to get you to think about the issue.
There are still several computing problems from earlier, smaller eras that havent been solved by the "more" paradigm. One example is realistic synthetic voice. The bandwidth is megabytes, achieved by mp3 players some years ago. However voice is the last part of the "real world" we have to capture instead of synthesize to implement computer-generated feature movies or video games. This keeps the need for having some "flesh" actors around, at least for a few more years :-)
Then there was Slashdot's retrospective of Artificial Intelligence a few days ago. Many of the interesting advances where made in the kilobyte and megabyte eras. It seems the gigabyte and terabyte eras have barely made a dent in progress.
I've been in several organizations from universities to oil companies where large amounts of data have been lost due to system conversions, downsizings and geographic moves. I find it remarkable if a company can save several decades of history.
>Sexual intercourse is meant to be an act performed in private for the two parties that love and care for each other deeply enough to create a stronger bond.
In tribal cultures everyone knows who is doing who and when. Ditto when the whole extended family slept in one or two rooms. Ditto for all bodily functions.
It will be obvious when its really A.I., although it will be hard to describe what it makes it so.
I've hung around MIT & Stanford AI labs in the 1970s and 1980s and saw successes, but also tunneling in tinier and tinier academic corners. I dont hold much hope for academia or military R&D. My guess is that interesting AIs will come out of self-playing video games- games with interesting characters who surprise their human constestants. Another possibility may come out of Japan's robot obsession. They might invent more and more clever robot toys until someday they seem reasonably intelligent.
I was around when venture capitalists raided all the computer science departments to start AI companies. Venture capital was still pretty young at the time having funded some successful PC companies (Compaq) and productivity software (Lotus 123). Japan was at its zenith then having successfuling conquered cars, TVs, etc (like China today). An Japan threatened to conquer computing by leapfrogging AI with is "Fifth(*) Generation Computing" frightening US Congress. So all these together created a "perfect storm" of software company bubble. The centerpiece technology was Expert Systems. Japan focused a language solution- Prolog- a logic compiler. Neither technology delivered on it promises and most startups collapsed.
It birth a successful step-child however: graphics workstations. The A.I. companies like Xerox PARC were among the first to integrate bitmap graphics with computers. There was the Xerox Alto, Symbolics, and Texas Instruments graphics workstations based on LISP, an A.I. language. New startups like Apollo, Sun MicroSystems, DEC microVAX gambled graphics workstations were more easility commercialized in UNIX. Last, but not least, the Appled MacIntosh- direct "borowing" of the Xerox Alto.
Almost every web interfaces has been corrupted by paid or non-paid advertisments. Even Facebook sucks now. Spit is just around the corner.
If the earth was swallowed into a singularity, it would take less than a second.
OK, its carbon composite, and carbon is black before coating.
In many schools they would not award the degree then.
Many college apps ask about criminal records. Certain types of crimes or a false answer can prevent admission to college. There was a famous case about a Harvard student being expelled for not putting her murder conviction on the application.
I recall the particular distibution of experiments, including the UV light and cloud chamber. It was fun. Wished I saved it.
Both are Harvard dropouts, one havent gotten fabulously rich on software and the other about to. Both wrote good software in their days. Both are accused of stealing their best ideas from other people. Both seem to have a touch Aspergers. And one is trying to buy the other out. So is Mark going to be eventually as good as Bill in the computer business?
I credit my "kit building days" in helping me get admitted into MIT. As student interviewer nowadays, we are encouraged to look for signs of "active learning", kids who initiate projects on their own rather than passively take what's shoveled into them by the education system even if its college level course work.
In MITs entire fourteen decade history they've always had a labortory requirement for a SB degree. However in recent decades the requirement got watered down to "doing something on the computer" so an EE major could get through never soldered a circuit or chemist with never touching a test tube. But the faculty just change that an re-instituted hands-on lab course requirements.
Decades ago when I was a kid I subscribed to a "science kit of the month" advertised on the back of comic books. They kind of built on top each other - one month an amplifier, then a telegraph, then a radio, etc. The subscription was like an outrageous $5 a month - about a third of my paper-route profits. My parents then used to complain about me stinking up the basement with the soldering gun. My guess is that someone declared this dangerous and it went off the market pretty much like chemistry kits have also been emasculated. Then I suppose if it was these days I'd be hacking computers then.
I defined a supercomputer as the top order of magnitude of speed. That would 100 to 1000 teraflops in mid-2008 or 12 computers.
It would nice to have access to stimulating teachers and AP courses. But my high school didnt have these. I must have read just about every non-fiction book in the library, subscribed to mail-ordr science gizmos. Its a lot easier to edcate yourself these days with the resources of the InterNet.
Nuclear is being affected by commodities runnup tool. They are reopening old urnaium mines in Colorado.
I laugh at these eggheads who dont know real world conditions.
We've seen this over and over again. So why is this any different?
In some respect the invention of the telegraph changed the world forever because communications could be simultaneous around the earth. This would prevent gaffs like the Battle of New Orleans fought 29 years earlier, TWO WEEKS after the treaty ending that war had been signed because communications were so slow.
The capital burden of laying wires across continents and oceans helped create the modern corporations and banks. (In conjunction with railroads, steel, coal and petroleum development). There were wild economic booms and busts, not unlike the mainframes in the 1960s. PCs in the 1980s and dot.coms in the 1990s. The telegraph fueled modern media with a desire for today's news rather than weeks old letter and magazines.
The telegraph spawned other modern inventions. Randall Stoss's recent biography of Thomas Edison re-interprets the inventor in light of the dot.com boom. Several of Edison's inventions were aimed at cramming more messages on precious telegraph lines. The telephone arose out of the effort to send messages at different messages at separate frequencies. Voice is just using all frequencies. Several people beat Edison here, but he invented the first practical microphone. The phonograph was originally intended to record telegraph messages offline, then transmit them and record them at super-human speeds across precious telegraph lines. Recording and playing messages by themselves without the intervening telegraph became its own invention - the phonograph.