Boring? Wasn't that the period when they cracked the human genome, and boy bands roamed the earth? -Professor Hubert Farnsworth
Truly, to suggest the times we live in are boring is rather amazing to me.
Sure, people might be a disappointed at first. Much like a child that wanted a bright new shiny toy and instead got a book instead. They read the book and a whole new world opens up for them. Ideas pour into their head and change their life, placing them on a path towards a rich and rewarding life. The shiny toy is not even remembered years later.
Organ replacements are now a common place. the most common cancers people recover from most of the time.I can get my vision corrected to better than 20/20. Stems cells are being used in cutting edge medicine. If I have a little bit of extra cash to burn I can get a printout of all my genes. I now can keep in nearly effortless contact with anyone I care to. I can make life long friends with nearly anyone on the planet, never meeting them in person but knowing much about their day to day life. I have effortless access to more information than can be comfortably understood by someone 60 years ago. I can be as informed as most heads of state from that era. I can translate for free entire documents from one language to another anywhere my phone has a connection.We connect people better now than at any time in history. We can now share our thoughts and feelings - the very essence of who we are - faster and better with more people than were alive 60 years ago. I now have the potential power that, with the right thought, I can change the world.
So, I don't hit/. as much as i used to,for lots of reasons. But when I do I LOVE seeing the content, like your comment, that is a call back to a kinder,gentler/.
A time when we had overloads, Soviet Russia and ?????
The patch of land you were born on? The city? State? Country? Continent? The entire planet? And can you go anywhere you want within that area or are people allowed to build walls and not let you into "their" home?
As for your belief that you have the "right", it is strangely interesting that through a happenstance of birth, something you had no control over, you think there are certain rights granted to you - you have a right to be "here". You feel entitled to that despite having done nothing to earn it.
I have a brother in-law who isn't even a cop, just works a corrections official, get the same kinda of treatment. Has been let off many times for things worse then just a little speeding....
Being part of the right group can sure have it's privileges....
hahahahahahahahahaha. ahem, sorry. But to prove his point so directly - just excellent. I truly hope it was sarcasm, but it didn't come off that way....
So this is weird, normally i would agree with you but just now, reading what you said, I came to the notion that it makes SENSE to do it that way, at least from one point of view.
If the notion is that you have to wait to drink until you are responsible enough to handle yourself, one could make a VERY good argument that someone who has made the choice to fight for their country has made possible the most responsible decision possible, to give his life for his country. To me, it in the same vein as Starship Troopers.
Mind you, I think it should clearly be 18 for everyone, if not possibly younger,I am just saying that the notion you are demonstrating the ability to make a "more adult" choice could reasonably lead to someone gaining more access.
Does acknowledging cultural differences I've observed with my own eyes make me a racist?
Yes.
Haven't you paid attention to how you are suppose to think,feel and speak? Everyone is completely equal regardless of race, religion, culture, height, weight, gender. Everyone is a special little snow flake who can be anything and do anything they want.
It has been said above somewhere I think, I know i have heard it MANY times and the wiki link makes it clear: Treason is MEANT to have a very restrictive definition.
For some strange reason the founding fathers had strong opinions on the topic.
There is no need to broaden the scope or overstate what happened. If there was voter fraud that is damning enough to warrant prosecution. However personally I would rather it be taken as a reiteration that the electronic voting process needs to be fixed, in some fashion, to reduce the chance of this happening again.
So, first let me state that I am not sure what the right choice was here. The way bills are drawn up, and political power is used and obtained, it is messy all around. . my instinct is that he did the wrong thing, maybe for the right reasons or maybe not. But honestly, everything was complicated and just nasty all around. I do not know if i have enough information to make an informed choice....
If it IS messing with the forth amendment then there IS suppose to be a checksum for all laws: the three branches of government, with the supreme court being the final link in that chain. In essence, if they allow this law to be compiled, or ANY broken law to violate the Constitution or the bill of rights, we are fucked and that will always be true.
If all of your branches of government are infected with a virus, say $GREED 5.0, your only choice maybe to reformat your hard drive.
I don't think that is true, that things are largely the same.
The nature of information is the same, since words haven't been eliminated, and keyboard are FANTASTIC form for getting alot of text information in, and text is most of what we put into a computer. But we are also on the cusp of touch being an important means of interaction with our computers. Already I find myself reaching for my LCD screen to interact with my computer thou my PC does not have a touch screen.
Then I remembered my main computer is not the $1200 PC on my desktop but the cell phone in my pocket.
And strangely enough I think it is apparent that touch is at the same cusp that mice were in the mid/late 80s. Touch is available on a few, limited platforms and has quickly became the only thing that made sense in that space, that people love interacting in that fashion and that in some drastic difference will occur once it becomes common.
A GUI is not just a command line with a few extra options. Touch won't be either.
I KNOW it is so very often sited but if every was a time to mention the "5 computers in the whole world" it is this. In fact, I would dare say that is the whole point of this push by Intel: trying to get people (programmers) used to the thought of having so many parallel cpus in a home computer.
Sure, from where we stand now, 64 seems like a lot but maybe a core for nearly each pixel on my screen makes sense, has real value to add. Or how about just flat-out smarter computers, something which might happen by simulating 100 neurons per core. As far as I understand it, speech recognition can always use more power. Let me put it differently:
Games requiring a lot of computing power makes sense to you in the future but not elsewhere. The same would have been said about a high end gaming rig just a handful of years ago, and yeta low-end PC today has amazing graphics,amazing everything, compared to what things were just 10 years ago. And it gets used, much of the time. If we have the power, we will use it. Games just push the envelope further, sooner, but they don't go anywhere that we all wouldn't wouldn't like to go anyways.
I can not think of a single task in a game that I would not want to be able to do in real life. Games are about living an idealized life, of some sort, inside your computer. The next step is bring it our here, to the rest of the world.
There are only so many plot stories that can possibly exist: boy meets girl, good vs. evil, overcoming adversity, etc. Those are all the same plot, right?
Something which i have seen a number of times is that more/faster is sometimes different in a meaningful way from what came before. Hard drive space, internet speeds are examples of how more changes what is.
So while, in theory, you could run a computer at one millionth the speed of real time to test certain things PEOPLE don't work that way. The lack of quick feedback and tuning ability means that getting closer to real time will change what can be found and done.
Here is a link i just found quickly off Google. Current BlueGene is simulating 8 million neurons. To get to human level norm would require roughly 14 generations at most of moores law. How long that takes depends on how long you think it will take to go 14 gen will to pass. You also would want to add another couple of generations to make it real time and more complications but 5 more orders of magnitude would likely be more than enough. Note the above article is over a year old.
Which boils down to somewhere between 28 to 56 years before this happen,depending on the length of time for a moore cycle. And then just a few Moore generations before the machine is thinking far faster than an any human.
And it will happen in our lifetime.
The funny thing is that there is SO MUCH room for optimization that the number for a Strong AI could be MUCH lower than 2^19 of current tech. And besides long before that is reached all sorts of powerful "weak" AI will be around us. A dog level AI would be able to do so many things, in a narrow context, that our lives would be totally different. One only has to look to google to see how "weak" ai can change the world.
It's very dangerous to look at our advances in computer technology and try to apply those curves to other disciplines. It's equally ridiculous to assume that the rate of increase will remain the same with no compelling evidence to support the assertion. In terms of computers and biotech, we're still taking baby steps, and while they seem like a big deal, we still have a long way to go. Computers underpin every aspect of research today. As computers advance they will bring along with them other fields. Today BlueGene/L is simulating a portion of mouse cortex. In 15 years instead of being the world's top super computer costing 300 million, small research companies will be able to buy for just a couple million. Being able to see *EXACTLY* what a drug does, in real time, once in the brain will have powerful repercussions. And there are many organ much simpleier than the brain waiting to be simulated.
As for the rate of change in computers, we have at least 10 years of tech left to advance for the current substrate that we have not even put into production. Even if you assume we will hit the limit of our current system in just 15 years and that no further tech comes along to surpass what we already have, the results from what we will be able to simulate should be amazing.
The last point, social inertia is personally the trickiest to solve. However I think there is a source of test subjects that, of their own free will, are going to be eager beyond belief to help: Baby boomers.
They are going to be getting seriously old just when we need them to be. The elderly are the ones who have the most to gain and the least to lose from experimental technology. Additionally, when death stares someone in the face many people's ideology falls by the way side as they suddenly want to live. "Yes, please try this new medication if it might stave of the dementia i am already beginning to experience."
But in this case, the fanbase is so uncritical, so slavish, that he still has massive success even as he's shoveling steaming feces down their throats; they just smack their lips and beg for more.
That's Star Wars in a nutshell. uncritical? slavish? Are you reading the same/. I am? I do not think i have ever heard anyone in geekdom go on about how wonderful ep 1-3 are. I hear lots of reasons why they are bad, we have some of those listed above. Sometime, as above, you will see people try and salvage value from them but praise? Beg for more of ep 1-3?? Never.
What you do hear is people touched by eps 4-6 wanting that magic back, hoping that this time he can do it, he can fix what once went wrong.
Just think how much of a boon this is for microsurgeons - folks who stitch together nerves, small blood vessels, etc. Hand tremor and even its inherent precision is no longer an issue. Plus, you can have more than two "hands". This will only get better, and eventually we'll probably see minor surgeries performed without any human intervention. Is there really any doubt that as time moves forward minor, and then major, surgeries are going to be more automated all the time?
The interesting question for me is not if but how fast this happens. It seems likely that in just 15 years, 30 at the insanely litigious most, you could have one talented surgeon overseeing 5 major surgeries at the same time, acting as an exec over the computers/robots/whatever that are in fact performing all of the major work themselves.
I mention litigious above because that is the most likely thing to delay these advances. The basics of the tech is "simple" - that is to say a well defined, relatively narrow problems set - which is exactly the sort of challenge that computers/robots/whatever are progressing so well on.
This is just another stage of the evolution we have been doing for billions of years. If we select out some trait that we need, evolution will let us know by the only way it knows: death.
Or turn it around:
We will never know if we are wise enough for something until we try. We have no outside source to consult, no oracle to give guidance, no teacher to give us passing marks. Internally there will always be those who are not ready, who will not want it.
In fact, I will disagree with myself slightly and say we will never be ready, never be wise enough until we enter this new world. We have no clue about where this will take us and we never will until we do it. We didn't have any clue what computers would become, changing the very nature of ourselves will be even more mysterious.
Slashdot Mirror
Truly, to suggest the times we live in are boring is rather amazing to me.
Sure, people might be a disappointed at first. Much like a child that wanted a bright new shiny toy and instead got a book instead. They read the book and a whole new world opens up for them. Ideas pour into their head and change their life, placing them on a path towards a rich and rewarding life. The shiny toy is not even remembered years later.
Organ replacements are now a common place. the most common cancers people recover from most of the time.I can get my vision corrected to better than 20/20. Stems cells are being used in cutting edge medicine. If I have a little bit of extra cash to burn I can get a printout of all my genes. I now can keep in nearly effortless contact with anyone I care to. I can make life long friends with nearly anyone on the planet, never meeting them in person but knowing much about their day to day life. I have effortless access to more information than can be comfortably understood by someone 60 years ago. I can be as informed as most heads of state from that era. I can translate for free entire documents from one language to another anywhere my phone has a connection.We connect people better now than at any time in history. We can now share our thoughts and feelings - the very essence of who we are - faster and better with more people than were alive 60 years ago. I now have the potential power that, with the right thought, I can change the world.
And you think they would be bored?
There are other countries in the world? Wait - there is something OUTSIDE the USA?
Sunlight???
Sounds dangerous.
So, I don't hit /. as much as i used to,for lots of reasons. But when I do I LOVE seeing the content, like your comment, that is a call back to a kinder,gentler /.
A time when we had overloads, Soviet Russia and ?????
weird, the achievement got me to post today. My brain has been hacked.
No, never be afraid. Take control, change the system, do something.
Never fear your government.
That is a nice view but where is "here"?
The patch of land you were born on? The city? State? Country? Continent? The entire planet? And can you go anywhere you want within that area or are people allowed to build walls and not let you into "their" home?
As for your belief that you have the "right", it is strangely interesting that through a happenstance of birth, something you had no control over, you think there are certain rights granted to you - you have a right to be "here". You feel entitled to that despite having done nothing to earn it.
Heredity titles are quaint at best.
I have a brother in-law who isn't even a cop, just works a corrections official, get the same kinda of treatment. Has been let off many times for things worse then just a little speeding....
Being part of the right group can sure have it's privileges....
hahahahahahahahahaha.
ahem, sorry. But to prove his point so directly - just excellent. I truly hope it was sarcasm, but it didn't come off that way....
So this is weird, normally i would agree with you but just now, reading what you said, I came to the notion that it makes SENSE to do it that way, at least from one point of view.
If the notion is that you have to wait to drink until you are responsible enough to handle yourself, one could make a VERY good argument that someone who has made the choice to fight for their country has made possible the most responsible decision possible, to give his life for his country. To me, it in the same vein as Starship Troopers.
Mind you, I think it should clearly be 18 for everyone, if not possibly younger,I am just saying that the notion you are demonstrating the ability to make a "more adult" choice could reasonably lead to someone gaining more access.
Does acknowledging cultural differences I've observed with my own eyes make me a racist?
Yes.
Haven't you paid attention to how you are suppose to think,feel and speak? Everyone is completely equal regardless of race, religion, culture, height, weight, gender. Everyone is a special little snow flake who can be anything and do anything they want.
It has been said above somewhere I think, I know i have heard it MANY times and the wiki link makes it clear: Treason is MEANT to have a very restrictive definition.
For some strange reason the founding fathers had strong opinions on the topic.
There is no need to broaden the scope or overstate what happened. If there was voter fraud that is damning enough to warrant prosecution. However personally I would rather it be taken as a reiteration that the electronic voting process needs to be fixed, in some fashion, to reduce the chance of this happening again.
why the need to have him undergo a psych eval? I mean, he is pissed and lashing out - not a whole lot of deep thought there.
Sometimes, people are just vengeful. I say if it is good enough for God, it is good enough for me.
So, first let me state that I am not sure what the right choice was here. The way bills are drawn up, and political power is used and obtained, it is messy all around. . my instinct is that he did the wrong thing, maybe for the right reasons or maybe not. But honestly, everything was complicated and just nasty all around. I do not know if i have enough information to make an informed choice....
If it IS messing with the forth amendment then there IS suppose to be a checksum for all laws: the three branches of government, with the supreme court being the final link in that chain. In essence, if they allow this law to be compiled, or ANY broken law to violate the Constitution or the bill of rights, we are fucked and that will always be true.
If all of your branches of government are infected with a virus, say $GREED 5.0, your only choice maybe to reformat your hard drive.
I don't think that is true, that things are largely the same.
The nature of information is the same, since words haven't been eliminated, and keyboard are FANTASTIC form for getting alot of text information in, and text is most of what we put into a computer. But we are also on the cusp of touch being an important means of interaction with our computers. Already I find myself reaching for my LCD screen to interact with my computer thou my PC does not have a touch screen.
Then I remembered my main computer is not the $1200 PC on my desktop but the cell phone in my pocket.
And strangely enough I think it is apparent that touch is at the same cusp that mice were in the mid/late 80s. Touch is available on a few, limited platforms and has quickly became the only thing that made sense in that space, that people love interacting in that fashion and that in some drastic difference will occur once it becomes common.
A GUI is not just a command line with a few extra options. Touch won't be either.
I KNOW it is so very often sited but if every was a time to mention the "5 computers in the whole world" it is this. In fact, I would dare say that is the whole point of this push by Intel: trying to get people (programmers) used to the thought of having so many parallel cpus in a home computer.
Sure, from where we stand now, 64 seems like a lot but maybe a core for nearly each pixel on my screen makes sense, has real value to add. Or how about just flat-out smarter computers, something which might happen by simulating 100 neurons per core. As far as I understand it, speech recognition can always use more power. Let me put it differently:
Games requiring a lot of computing power makes sense to you in the future but not elsewhere. The same would have been said about a high end gaming rig just a handful of years ago, and yeta low-end PC today has amazing graphics,amazing everything, compared to what things were just 10 years ago. And it gets used, much of the time. If we have the power, we will use it. Games just push the envelope further, sooner, but they don't go anywhere that we all wouldn't wouldn't like to go anyways.
I can not think of a single task in a game that I would not want to be able to do in real life. Games are about living an idealized life, of some sort, inside your computer. The next step is bring it our here, to the rest of the world.
I would like to some of the goatse versions, but no one would click on them.....
Something which i have seen a number of times is that more/faster is sometimes different in a meaningful way from what came before. Hard drive space, internet speeds are examples of how more changes what is.
So while, in theory, you could run a computer at one millionth the speed of real time to test certain things PEOPLE don't work that way. The lack of quick feedback and tuning ability means that getting closer to real time will change what can be found and done.
well, you could argue that it IS flamebait, not because you intended it as such, just that people could easily be tempted to flame because of it....
oh, and yeah, it is not clear you are being sarcastic..
You seem to assume all of this is happening on one chip. You can knock off 13 moore cycles just by adding a number of chips.
However, instead of making numbers out of thin air, let us look at hard and fast numbers, numbers that are going on right now: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6600965.stm
Here is a link i just found quickly off Google. Current BlueGene is simulating 8 million neurons. To get to human level norm would require roughly 14 generations at most of moores law. How long that takes depends on how long you think it will take to go 14 gen will to pass. You also would want to add another couple of generations to make it real time and more complications but 5 more orders of magnitude would likely be more than enough. Note the above article is over a year old.
Which boils down to somewhere between 28 to 56 years before this happen,depending on the length of time for a moore cycle. And then just a few Moore generations before the machine is thinking far faster than an any human.
And it will happen in our lifetime.
The funny thing is that there is SO MUCH room for optimization that the number for a Strong AI could be MUCH lower than 2^19 of current tech. And besides long before that is reached all sorts of powerful "weak" AI will be around us. A dog level AI would be able to do so many things, in a narrow context, that our lives would be totally different. One only has to look to google to see how "weak" ai can change the world.
As for the rate of change in computers, we have at least 10 years of tech left to advance for the current substrate that we have not even put into production. Even if you assume we will hit the limit of our current system in just 15 years and that no further tech comes along to surpass what we already have, the results from what we will be able to simulate should be amazing.
The last point, social inertia is personally the trickiest to solve. However I think there is a source of test subjects that, of their own free will, are going to be eager beyond belief to help: Baby boomers.
They are going to be getting seriously old just when we need them to be. The elderly are the ones who have the most to gain and the least to lose from experimental technology. Additionally, when death stares someone in the face many people's ideology falls by the way side as they suddenly want to live. "Yes, please try this new medication if it might stave of the dementia i am already beginning to experience."
That's Star Wars in a nutshell. uncritical? slavish? Are you reading the same
What you do hear is people touched by eps 4-6 wanting that magic back, hoping that this time he can do it, he can fix what once went wrong.
The interesting question for me is not if but how fast this happens. It seems likely that in just 15 years, 30 at the insanely litigious most, you could have one talented surgeon overseeing 5 major surgeries at the same time, acting as an exec over the computers/robots/whatever that are in fact performing all of the major work themselves.
I mention litigious above because that is the most likely thing to delay these advances. The basics of the tech is "simple" - that is to say a well defined, relatively narrow problems set - which is exactly the sort of challenge that computers/robots/whatever are progressing so well on.
This is just another stage of the evolution we have been doing for billions of years. If we select out some trait that we need, evolution will let us know by the only way it knows: death.
Or turn it around:
We will never know if we are wise enough for something until we try. We have no outside source to consult, no oracle to give guidance, no teacher to give us passing marks. Internally there will always be those who are not ready, who will not want it.
In fact, I will disagree with myself slightly and say we will never be ready, never be wise enough until we enter this new world. We have no clue about where this will take us and we never will until we do it. We didn't have any clue what computers would become, changing the very nature of ourselves will be even more mysterious.