I agree, and they seemed overly dismissive about the environmental thing, too. (Having only as many SmartDust particles as Pentia seems like an extrodinarily conservative estimate.) "Yeah, somebody could misuse these things. Don't mention possible misuses, it's 'hype'. Misuses are not our problem, don't bug us about it." Naive, arrogant, or both.
... but I find it a little hard to believe that nobody's seemed to think to ask Monsanto how long they will refrain from marketing this technology.
What's to stop them from going ahead with their original plans after things have quieted down? It's not like they handed the patents over to the Rural Advancement Foundation or the UN or whoever.
What we need is a society that values pleasure, and places less emphasis on paid work. Sadly I suspect that's some distance away.
... and may be getting farther away. Idleness and leisure and "stopping to smell the roses" is at least as frowned upon as it ever was.
As far as "dumbing us down", well, it's not exactly a scientific observation but look at all the dismissive responses to these ideas. Everybody thinks that they seen it before, thinks that they've thought about it before, so they don't bother really thinking about it at all. Our pace has made it even more tempting than ever to make cognitive shortcuts, leaving us more vulnerable than ever to manipulation by those who know how to train us into those shortcuts.
Pay attention. It's the last thing you have left of value...
Cold fusion within 30 years when we aren't even CLOSE to hot fusion?
Cold fusion research doesn't necessarily depend on hot fusion research. If there's anything to cold fusion, it will develop separately from hot fusion. (Though funding for cold fusion research is very hard to come by. The US gov't, for instance, has refused to fund anything that sounds like it even might be distantly related to cold fusion.)
The funniest -- and least likely -- part of this is the thought that Gates could or would run as a Libertarian. Any time Gates -- or almost any corporate master -- mentions the "free market", any libertarian with more than a couple of brain cells to rub together laughs hysterically.
In general, the larger the corporation is, the less likely they are to be interested in a real free market, PR bullshit aside. An honestly free market would probably result in Gates being down to his BVDs in less than a year.
I'd have to go back and re-read it to be sure, but I don't think citizenship was limited to military vets. That was just the focus. I think some forms of civil service counted as well.
Be careful in thinking that this will be the great leap in technology, and we'll all be talking to our computers in a year. This 11 neuron system is capable of differentiating four words, each of which was trained extensively. That's a very tight niche. Until we have a system where each word doesn't have to be trained explicitly, we won't have gotten too far. (Imagine training your computer with the estimated 1+ million English words...)
A good point, but maybe the long involved process they used in the lab can be automated somehow. Lab work is sometimes like that. Some gruntwork is necessary to set up proof-of-concept, but there are often ways to speed up the gruntwork if the p-o-c gets you sufficient funding.
"Sounds like some pretty dubious claims that some neurons can out do a human brain."
Relax. Some neurons can outdo a human brain for a specific, limited function. Note especially that according to the article, it was "benchmark testing using just a few spoken words".
Presumably it'd take a larger neural net to deal with tens of thousands of words. Though it's possible the concept could be extended to that level.
"Sounds like some pretty dubious claims that some neurons can out do a human brain."
Relax. Some neurons can outdo a human brain for a specific, limited function. Note especially, that according to the article, it was "benchmark testing using just a few spoken words". Presumably it'd take a larger neural net to deal with tens of thousands of words. Though possibly the concept could be extended to that level.
Oh, but that would Send The Wrong Message To Kids... that environmental concerns and long-term social and economic benefits outweigh political opportunism and short-term economic advantages for entrenched interests.
Actually, my question would be "Who's gonna launch a bomb or a virus canister or whatever?" There are easier ways to deliver a weapon of mass destruction.
ICBMs are good at delivering lots of weapons, quickly, on short notice. But if your object is, say, commiting a large-scale terrorist act, you don't have the same kind of time-pressure. A boat, a truck, a private aircraft -- or in the case of a virus, a bunch of followers with spray cans and airline tickets.
Would the EKV have stopped Timothy McVeigh? Or Shoko Asahara?
It sounds like people are a little overly-focussed on one delivery method.
'Cause they have the Apple example to show them how stupid that'd be, and 'cause Handspring could afford seriously high-powered lawyers to ream 'em out if they did.
And mostly, 'cause Palm isn't dumb enough to want Hawkins' brains in direct opposition to them The current competitive cooperation is a heck of a lot better for them.
Besides, no doubt the Palm folks are salivating at the thought of licensing the Springboard technology from Handspring. One hand washes the other, and all that.
A serial cradle will also be available. Given that these are "100% PalmOS compatible" devices, won't it be possible to use the Linux stuff currently available for Palms?
... No self-respecting business person will probably carry around a Visor at work. I haven't seen pictures yet, but I'd be willing to bet that the Visor models will have a decidedly non-business look to them (although hopefully not as bad as what Apple would come up with).
Handspring has said that they'll be more heavily targetting the consumer market, while Palm has made noises about concentrating on the business market. So I think you're right, for the most part.
But... Palm seems to have made at least some effort to get students with the IIIe, and while Handspring's design may be too flashy for most corporate droids, I bet there will be bleed-over in that direction, too. (Especially if a company/employee wants to cultivate an non-pinstripe image.)
It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes down.
We shouldn't meddle with the affairs of mother nature - this is her lab, not ours.
It's too late. We already have meddled, and that's why a lot of species are extinct that might not be.
Heck, there's no way we can't "meddle" -- we're right smack in the middle of it. Anything we do -- or don't do -- will have an effect. What we need to do is get a lot better at thinking about what we're doing, and the effects thereof.
It's like Stewart Brand said: "We are as gods and might as well get good at it." Hell, we'd better get damn good at it, and quick, before we seriously fuck things up.
What I find ironic is that one of the probable motivations for 3Com spinning off Palm Computing is Handspring -- which was founded by the original founders of Palm Computing. What's even more ironic is that -- according to some sources -- Handspring was formed because 3Com refused to spin off Palm a year ago.
... more likely they are looking at selling their own PalmOS to other manufacturers (taking on MS and WinCE?).
Licensing PalmOS, yes. They've already started this process with IBM, Qualcomm, Handspring, etc.
"2) enterprise computing solutions."
On a plam top? Discuss.
On a combination of palmtops and more centralized systems. Example: Salesdroid syncs his/her Palm with a networked PC database to load up the latest prices, etc. Goes off to customer site(s), makes sales, enters info into Palm, syncs again later to get the sales info into the system. And lots of variations on the theme.
Handspring supposedly rolls out their first PalmOS-based devices tomorrow. Surely the timing is no accident.
Until now 3Com/Palm had little real competition in the market, not even from WinCe devices. With the entry of the original developers of Palm into the market as licensee/competitiors, Palm now has to be a lot more nimble to keep selling their own devices. There's no way they could do that while being a division of a larger company, particular one with such a different focus.
(In fact, that may be why Hawkins and Dubinsky left 3Com to form Handspring.)
Slashdot Mirror
(shrug) It's not as if she'd be the first queen to do so. Perhaps the first for whom it's more than a hobby, though.
I agree, and they seemed overly dismissive about the environmental thing, too. (Having only as many SmartDust particles as Pentia seems like an extrodinarily conservative estimate.) "Yeah, somebody could misuse these things. Don't mention possible misuses, it's 'hype'. Misuses are not our problem, don't bug us about it." Naive, arrogant, or both.
What's to stop them from going ahead with their original plans after things have quieted down? It's not like they handed the patents over to the Rural Advancement Foundation or the UN or whoever.
WinCE is toast.
As far as "dumbing us down", well, it's not exactly a scientific observation but look at all the dismissive responses to these ideas. Everybody thinks that they seen it before, thinks that they've thought about it before, so they don't bother really thinking about it at all. Our pace has made it even more tempting than ever to make cognitive shortcuts, leaving us more vulnerable than ever to manipulation by those who know how to train us into those shortcuts.
Pay attention. It's the last thing you have left of value ...
Cold fusion research doesn't necessarily depend on hot fusion research. If there's anything to cold fusion, it will develop separately from hot fusion. (Though funding for cold fusion research is very hard to come by. The US gov't, for instance, has refused to fund anything that sounds like it even might be distantly related to cold fusion.)
So buy stock in U-Haul now. Those mileage fees will really add up.
In general, the larger the corporation is, the less likely they are to be interested in a real free market, PR bullshit aside. An honestly free market would probably result in Gates being down to his BVDs in less than a year.
"And then there are those who say that this has already happened."
I'd have to go back and re-read it to be sure, but I don't think citizenship was limited to military vets. That was just the focus. I think some forms of civil service counted as well.
A good point, but maybe the long involved process they used in the lab can be automated somehow. Lab work is sometimes like that. Some gruntwork is necessary to set up proof-of-concept, but there are often ways to speed up the gruntwork if the p-o-c gets you sufficient funding.
Actually, some slashdotters are using english at a level less than 80% correct ... so if you translated that to french, it would be about 64% correct.
Maybe we should just stick to pointing and grunting.
Relax. Some neurons can outdo a human brain for a specific, limited function. Note especially that according to the article, it was "benchmark testing using just a few spoken words".
Presumably it'd take a larger neural net to deal with tens of thousands of words. Though it's possible the concept could be extended to that level.
And why not?
Relax. Some neurons can outdo a human brain for a specific, limited function. Note especially, that according to the article, it was "benchmark testing using just a few spoken words". Presumably it'd take a larger neural net to deal with tens of thousands of words. Though possibly the concept could be extended to that level.
Rowan Robinson
ISBN 0-89281-541-8
Includes references to relevant sources, for those who actually do want facts and not FUD.
Can't have them thinking that, can we?
ICBMs are good at delivering lots of weapons, quickly, on short notice. But if your object is, say, commiting a large-scale terrorist act, you don't have the same kind of time-pressure. A boat, a truck, a private aircraft -- or in the case of a virus, a bunch of followers with spray cans and airline tickets.
Would the EKV have stopped Timothy McVeigh? Or Shoko Asahara?
It sounds like people are a little overly-focussed on one delivery method.
And mostly, 'cause Palm isn't dumb enough to want Hawkins' brains in direct opposition to them The current competitive cooperation is a heck of a lot better for them.
Besides, no doubt the Palm folks are salivating at the thought of licensing the Springboard technology from Handspring. One hand washes the other, and all that.
A serial cradle will also be available. Given that these are "100% PalmOS compatible" devices, won't it be possible to use the Linux stuff currently available for Palms?
Handspring has said that they'll be more heavily targetting the consumer market, while Palm has made noises about concentrating on the business market. So I think you're right, for the most part.
But ... Palm seems to have made at least some effort to get students with the IIIe, and while Handspring's design may be too flashy for most corporate droids, I bet there will be bleed-over in that direction, too. (Especially if a company/employee wants to cultivate an non-pinstripe image.)
It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes down.
It's too late. We already have meddled, and that's why a lot of species are extinct that might not be.
Heck, there's no way we can't "meddle" -- we're right smack in the middle of it. Anything we do -- or don't do -- will have an effect. What we need to do is get a lot better at thinking about what we're doing, and the effects thereof.
It's like Stewart Brand said: "We are as gods and might as well get good at it." Hell, we'd better get damn good at it, and quick, before we seriously fuck things up.
Go figure.
Licensing PalmOS, yes. They've already started this process with IBM, Qualcomm, Handspring, etc.
"2) enterprise computing solutions."
On a plam top? Discuss.
On a combination of palmtops and more centralized systems. Example: Salesdroid syncs his/her Palm with a networked PC database to load up the latest prices, etc. Goes off to customer site(s), makes sales, enters info into Palm, syncs again later to get the sales info into the system. And lots of variations on the theme.
Bearpaw
Handspring supposedly rolls out their first PalmOS-based devices tomorrow. Surely the timing is no accident.
Until now 3Com/Palm had little real competition in the market, not even from WinCe devices. With the entry of the original developers of Palm into the market as licensee/competitiors, Palm now has to be a lot more nimble to keep selling their own devices. There's no way they could do that while being a division of a larger company, particular one with such a different focus.
(In fact, that may be why Hawkins and Dubinsky left 3Com to form Handspring.)
Well, I guess that settles it then.
Wasn't she also a big fan of thinking for oneself?