NOBODY has Himalayas in their MOTHERFUCKING back yard.
Unless he/she/it is the Sovereign Emperor Of Asia, where "All Of Asia" can be then considered "his house". Last I checked, nobody has claimed being that for ages now.
There are 6.85 billion people affecting the planet TODAY.
How many have lived and died during only the last 100 years? How many alive today will continue to live for decades to come. Changes we are making are cumulative - particularly the ones involving the use of large quantities of fossil fuels. Per person, per lifetime. Even in death we continue affecting the planet with our slow rotting in the ground.
Heck... Ares might be overoptimistic. We are probably down to affecting simply our own back yards, going down to a pot of dirt on each persons windowsill.
I can show you a picture of my backyard in January and contrast it with a picture of my backyard in July. And whoa! All the snow is GONE!
What DATES were these picture taken on? And where those years particularly cold or warm? Month of the year. Just a trick employed by some to exaggerate the melting of glaciers.
Those photos are NOT of your backyard but of the HIGHEST MOTHERFUCKIN' MOUNTAIN RANGE ON THE MOTHERFUCKIN' PLANET! And, as you may have noticed from postcards, marketing shots and such - high mountains always have snow on their peaks. Because it is really cold up there. All the time. Only that white stuff on Mount Everest is not (just) snow - those are motherfuckin' HUGE CHUNKS OF ICE called glaciers. And if a word like "perennial" confuses you - it means "present at all seasons of the year". In other words - that shit is ALWAYS THERE.
So you see... Conditions on top of the HIGHEST MOTHERFUCKIN' MOUNTAIN ON THE MOTHERFUCKIN' PLANET are a bit different from the conditions in YOUR MOTHERFUCKING BACK YARD!
DSLR Lens Mount Posted on June 28, 2010 by Jeremy Salvador
Canon Extension Tube
Canon Extension Tube
I have Canon EF lenses and have been looking for a mount so the iPhone DSLR can easily interchange the lenses. So far all the products I've looked at are fairly expensive (in the $100-$200) range.
Then I stumbled upon the Canon Extension Tube. ($8.78) from SunTek.
This tube ring mount is generally used for macro shots and can fit all Canon EOS DSLR / SLR Camera EF lenses.
The Package Includes:
Canon Lens Mount Adapter Ring
Canon Lens Mount Adapter Ring
(1) Camera body mount adapter
(1) 9mm tube (Tube 1)
(1) 16mm tube (Tube 2)
(1) 30mm tube (Tube 3)
and most importantly! (1) Lens mount adapter
The Canon EF Lens Mount Adapter will allow lenses to be easily interchanged from the iPhone DSLR. Now to figure out how to attach this thing to the iPhone.
Owle Bubo Posted on July 6, 2010 by Jeremy Salvador The Owle Bubo is one of the most impressive iPhone accessories I've ever seen and I think it's going to be perfect as a housing for my iPhone DSLR. It's a camera mount that brings the best features of a camcorder to the iPhone 3GS: stability, optics, microphones and tripods!
The Owle Bubo is made of a solid piece of anodized billet aluminum making it extremely durable and virtually indestructible. This full aluminum frame gives the housing a good 1.1 lbs in weight giving the housing just enough weight to make keep the device steady. The two handle grips make it a real breeze to carry. Also the Owle provides 4 x 1/4-20 female threaded mounting holes so you can actually screw this thing into a standard tripod.
The Owle Bubo comes standard with 37mm lens threading, as well as a 0.45x wide angle/ macro lens combination. This is a real piece of optics, delivering stunning images with better color saturation, contrast and sharpness than is possible with the iPhone's camera alone. The wide angle lens accepts 49mm screw in filters. So with a 49mm-58mm step up ring, I'll be able to attach the Canon Lens Mount Adapter Ring to this housing.
Hopefully, Jeremy is something like 9 or 10. Cause, a "grown person" doing something like this and calling it a "prototype" is like "creating" a portable laser printer by getting a really long power cord and some straps on ebay.
I created this blog to document the steps I'm taking in making an iPhone DSLR. The honest truth is, I really dont know anything about DSLRs aside from the fact that you press the button and it snaps the picture. So whether the feat is actually possible or not, I'm in to to find out.
Also:
Now by no means would I consider myself a professional photographer. Heck... I am by would I even consider myself an amateur photographer. The truth is I really know nothing about photography. Before starting this endeavor the most I knew about cameras was that you push the button and it takes a picture.
Cause, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man, no time to talk. So, whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother it can be derived. A-ha, a-ha... It can be derived.
Everyone complaining gets a 30-50$ gift certificate for the Apple Store to buy the 30$ rubber thingy for their JesusPhone. Which is cunningly priced almost exactly the same as another highly sought after Apple item.
BTW... there is a joke in there somewhere about iPhone needing a rubber band to stay up and online.
Both accuracy of the mental recording and speed of writing are meaningless and their result can be "torn down" simply by the act of denying that any of the things "recorded" manually or mentally is true.
That is, unless you are willing to take that to court - where it will be torn apart and scrutinized for the tiniest inaccuracy along with EVERYTHING you have ever done in your life. "So, you have total recall photographic memory? How come you didn't get straight As in school then? Where is your third doctorate? What are the birth dates of all your Facebook friends?"
If the written account is challenge, simply release the audio to the net. Once that recording is released to the wild, it's too late for the tyrants....
You do realize that under the proposed law something like that would be illegal, regardless if it is true or not? Also, it would be unusable in court - being illegal. BUT, you could still get fined or imprisoned for making that recording - as you were breaking the law by making it.
And it is NEVER too late for tyranny - that is just one of its perks that make it such a popular form of government.
Being that your mind is NOT an objective recording medium, any statement you would make based on that "recording" would be labeled as everything from a "your version of the story", through "pure fantasy" to "slandering lies".
At best, you would be considered an "unreliable source" - at worst you would be put on trial for defamation.
And in Soviet Italy, that could result in one of the following:
6. Maximum prison term for defamation, libel and insult envisaged in the Criminal Code
Generic insult: not more than six months imprisonment. Insult with attribution of a certain fact: not more than one year imprisonment. Generic defamation: not more than one year imprisonment. Defamation with attribution of a certain fact: not more than two years imprisonment. Libel through the press, television or other public means: not more than three years imprisonment. Libel through the press with attribution of a certain fact: not more than six years imprisonment.
7. Maximum fine for defamation, libel and insult envisaged in the Criminal Code Generic insult: not more than 516. Insult with attribution of a certain fact: not more than 1,032. Generic defamation: not more than 1,032. Defamation with attribution of a certain fact: not more than 2,065. Libel through the press, television or other public means: minimum fine: 516 (no maximum amount is indicated). Libel through the press with attribution of a certain fact: minimum fine: 516 (no maximum amount is indicated).
Something along the lines of phones, eyes and Apple's tendency to name their products by sticking a vowel in front of another word. Can't quite put my finger on it though.
I'm bumping it up the list a ways; thanks for refreshing my interest.
I'm glad if what started as almost an argument over a joke could be helpful in some way.
BTW... I'd suggest reading them in the order they were published in, not in their internal chronological order. Prequels contain MAJOR spoilers for both the actual start of the series and its end. I'm talking "Dart Vader is Luke's and Lea's father and R2D2 knew that the whole time" kind of spoilers.
A sole traveling, untrained, non-optometrist Peace Corps kid with a box of donated used glasses could bring a box of glasses.
You almost had it there. You did (almost) stumble blindly on it (no pun intended), but still...
1 - Based on the "Developing countries can't be choosers" axiom, it is not really THAT important to people living there if the eyeglasses really fit their prescription 100%. Particularly, if the glasses are free.
2 - Based on 1, there is a much simpler way of testing for the right prescription under those conditions (choosers not too picky, choice rather limited anyway...). It consists of the "patient" trying out several sets of glasses until he/she finds the one that works for him/her. You know, like you would with a pair of sunglasses.
And, based on my own day-to-day observation from what you might call a "developing nation" (Bosnia) that model works perfectly well even for the paying customers. E.g. people who can't really afford money to visit a private optometrist or they lack time or health insurance for a visit to a government one. All of those cases mostly resulting from the case of being employed "off the books".
Only thing is... There is really no need for donated eyeglasses cause Chinese ones are dirt cheap. Like, plastic sunglasses prices. Often sold side by side on the same stand.
Sure, if you have a rather specific need (different prescription for each eye, or a relatively rare case of visual impairment) you are probably not gonna find what you are looking for "over the counter". Then again, chances of finding EXACTLY what you need in a "box of donated used glasses" with or without an eyePhone (Get it? EYE-PHONE!) are far lower than that.
Oh... and one more thing. While there are plenty enough iPhones here (just today I saw one "barely used" 3G 16GB being sold for ~320$) - ALL of them are jailbroken. Also, you can forget using the app store directly from it even if you have somehow gotten your hands on an actual "virgin" iPhone. Cause even if your iPhone is perfectly legal, with no cracking/jailbreaking attached - your money is no good. So, that "non-optometrist Peace Corps kid" should better get all his app-needs before going on his "mission of mercy". If any of those apps need to "call home", well... sucks to be him in the "developing world".
Again, this is one of those inventions that are pitched by people who have either never been outside of a developed "1st world" country, OR who have only ever been to some village in the middle of the African jungle so they base their understanding of every "developing country" on that one experience or on what they see on CNN. Or in the movies. Invention is then being pitched as intended for developing countries - where in reality there is no demand or need for it. On the other hand, hypochondriacs and "I_am_my_own_wikipedia-diagnostician"-people will probably love it.
Realistic weapon loading has been mainstream since Half-Life. At least.
As for "recharging shield/health" - there was something quite similar in Half-Life too. Only there it was done properly - health lost when you got trapped under water for a long time would return once you spent some time back out in the air. Actual wounds needed health supplies, even with the magical HEV suit.
Or you might take a look at any of the hundreds of RPG games (e.g. Fallout) where it is perfectly normal since... oh.. forever.. for health to be recharged over time. Or you can take a look at Protoss' shields in Starcraft. Or Troll Axe Throwers in Warcraft II after the Troll Regeneration upgrade.
Anyway, Halo's rechargeable shields have always seemed like somewhat limited god-mode to me. I.e. Nothing one should point out as a feature one likes about a game. You know... kinda like unlimited ammo and a unlimited range jet-pack.
Things that people who play games on easy with god-mode and auto-aim on might like in a game.
Well, Asimov isn't that much about technology. Optimistic or otherwise. Yes, basically all his major series eventually deal with robots, but since he made the Three Laws and/or psychohistory the main aspect of every story - it is more philosophical.
Other than that, early Foundation books are about the rise and fall of civilizations (and psychohistory), women tend to be "magical" and every story is more of a fast-paced mystery than anything else. Also, once you start reading them with three laws and psychohistory in mind - stories can become very predictable. But mostly a good kind of predictable.
My original comment was meant to be taken in the same playful spirit, though I am sincere in picking at the belief in the viability of strong AI.
Well, sorry then, but when people bring religion into a conversation that has nothing to do with it I tend to react with sarcasm. At best.
As for viable AI... well... I believe that we are far closer to that than to FTL travel. How much closer? Not sure, but I do believe that Kurzweil is WAY OFF the mark.
Nor a reader of Asimov, cause there is a solution for that "worshiping problem" in the Foundation and Robots books. Besides which, any AI worth its silicone would immediately pick up on the fact that it is NOT in humanity's best interest to spend its time bowing to it and singing hymns about its wast intellect. In fact, it should probably do all the "humanity guiding" covertly, from a secret, undisclosed location. Perhaps somewhere on the Moon?
As for realistic... Which part of "Churchill ordering Turing to create an actual Artificial Intelligence" did you misunderstand as description of actual historical events or even marginally serious?
You are confusing a calculator with magic and in the process you are attaching worship to an inanimate object.
Although, Moses too DID do something similar when he went on a camping trip but had forgotten the food so he ate some berries and then "a burning bush spoke to him".
If you want a solution that requires expertise - you need an expert on that particular subject. Not "a thousand monkeys".
But if your expert is not solving the problem at hand, you need a different expert. Either one who is more "experty" (in case the one you have is lacking experience) OR one who is a completely different kind of expert (in case your problem actually requires a different kind of expertise).
Adding more of the same kind is just treating your expert(s) like monkeys and hoping for that "Collective Works of Shakespeare" to appear.
Until we create the artificial intelligence apparatus that will be capable of guiding us while having our best intention as a species in mind, we are stuck with this democracy thing despite it being the worst form of government EVAR! Well... except for all those others that have been tried.
Why else do you think he had Alan Turing working on that computational contraption?
Slashdot Mirror
I do believe that Amy and River were quite clear on that subject.
NOBODY has Himalayas in their MOTHERFUCKING back yard.
Unless he/she/it is the Sovereign Emperor Of Asia, where "All Of Asia" can be then considered "his house".
Last I checked, nobody has claimed being that for ages now.
There are 6.85 billion people affecting the planet TODAY.
How many have lived and died during only the last 100 years? How many alive today will continue to live for decades to come.
Changes we are making are cumulative - particularly the ones involving the use of large quantities of fossil fuels. Per person, per lifetime.
Even in death we continue affecting the planet with our slow rotting in the ground.
Heck... Ares might be overoptimistic.
We are probably down to affecting simply our own back yards, going down to a pot of dirt on each persons windowsill.
I can show you a picture of my backyard in January and contrast it with a picture of my backyard in July. And whoa! All the snow is GONE!
What DATES were these picture taken on? And where those years particularly cold or warm?
Month of the year. Just a trick employed by some to exaggerate the melting of glaciers.
Those photos are NOT of your backyard but of the HIGHEST MOTHERFUCKIN' MOUNTAIN RANGE ON THE MOTHERFUCKIN' PLANET!
And, as you may have noticed from postcards, marketing shots and such - high mountains always have snow on their peaks. Because it is really cold up there. All the time.
Only that white stuff on Mount Everest is not (just) snow - those are motherfuckin' HUGE CHUNKS OF ICE called glaciers.
And if a word like "perennial" confuses you - it means "present at all seasons of the year". In other words - that shit is ALWAYS THERE.
So you see...
Conditions on top of the HIGHEST MOTHERFUCKIN' MOUNTAIN ON THE MOTHERFUCKIN' PLANET are a bit different from the conditions in YOUR MOTHERFUCKING BACK YARD!
He just bought the ready-made parts and put them together.
http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/14fb
DSLR Lens Mount
Posted on June 28, 2010 by Jeremy Salvador
Canon Extension Tube
Canon Extension Tube
I have Canon EF lenses and have been looking for a mount so the iPhone DSLR can easily interchange the lenses. So far all the products I've looked at are fairly expensive (in the $100-$200) range.
Then I stumbled upon the Canon Extension Tube. ($8.78) from SunTek.
This tube ring mount is generally used for macro shots and can fit all Canon EOS DSLR / SLR Camera EF lenses.
The Package Includes:
Canon Lens Mount Adapter Ring
Canon Lens Mount Adapter Ring
(1) Camera body mount adapter
(1) 9mm tube (Tube 1)
(1) 16mm tube (Tube 2)
(1) 30mm tube (Tube 3)
and most importantly! (1) Lens mount adapter
The Canon EF Lens Mount Adapter will allow lenses to be easily interchanged from the iPhone DSLR.
Now to figure out how to attach this thing to the iPhone.
And here is how - you buy an Owle:
http://iphonedslr.com/blog/archives/33fb
Owle Bubo
Posted on July 6, 2010 by Jeremy Salvador
The Owle Bubo is one of the most impressive iPhone accessories I've ever seen and I think it's going to be perfect as a housing for my iPhone DSLR. It's a camera mount that brings the best features of a camcorder to the iPhone 3GS: stability, optics, microphones and tripods!
The Owle Bubo is made of a solid piece of anodized billet aluminum making it extremely durable and virtually indestructible. This full aluminum frame gives the housing a good 1.1 lbs in weight giving the housing just enough weight to make keep the device steady. The two handle grips make it a real breeze to carry. Also the Owle provides 4 x 1/4-20 female threaded mounting holes so you can actually screw this thing into a standard tripod.
The Owle Bubo comes standard with 37mm lens threading, as well as a 0.45x wide angle/ macro lens combination. This is a real piece of optics, delivering stunning images with better color saturation, contrast and sharpness than is possible with the iPhone's camera alone. The wide angle lens accepts 49mm screw in filters. So with a 49mm-58mm step up ring, I'll be able to attach the Canon Lens Mount Adapter Ring to this housing.
Hopefully, Jeremy is something like 9 or 10.
Cause, a "grown person" doing something like this and calling it a "prototype" is like "creating" a portable laser printer by getting a really long power cord and some straps on ebay.
Quoting The Not So Fine Blog...
I created this blog to document the steps I'm taking in making an iPhone DSLR.
The honest truth is, I really dont know anything about DSLRs aside from the fact that you press the button and it snaps the picture.
So whether the feat is actually possible or not, I'm in to to find out.
Also:
Now by no means would I consider myself a professional photographer.
Heck... I am by would I even consider myself an amateur photographer.
The truth is I really know nothing about photography.
Before starting this endeavor the most I knew about cameras was that you push the button and it takes a picture.
Cause, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.
So, whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother it can be derived.
A-ha, a-ha... It can be derived.
Everyone complaining gets a 30-50$ gift certificate for the Apple Store to buy the 30$ rubber thingy for their JesusPhone.
Which is cunningly priced almost exactly the same as another highly sought after Apple item.
BTW... there is a joke in there somewhere about iPhone needing a rubber band to stay up and online.
Both accuracy of the mental recording and speed of writing are meaningless and their result can be "torn down" simply by the act of denying that any of the things "recorded" manually or mentally is true.
That is, unless you are willing to take that to court - where it will be torn apart and scrutinized for the tiniest inaccuracy along with EVERYTHING you have ever done in your life.
"So, you have total recall photographic memory? How come you didn't get straight As in school then? Where is your third doctorate? What are the birth dates of all your Facebook friends?"
If the written account is challenge, simply release the audio to the net. Once that recording is released to the wild, it's too late for the tyrants....
You do realize that under the proposed law something like that would be illegal, regardless if it is true or not?
Also, it would be unusable in court - being illegal.
BUT, you could still get fined or imprisoned for making that recording - as you were breaking the law by making it.
And it is NEVER too late for tyranny - that is just one of its perks that make it such a popular form of government.
Being that your mind is NOT an objective recording medium, any statement you would make based on that "recording" would be labeled as everything from a "your version of the story", through "pure fantasy" to "slandering lies".
At best, you would be considered an "unreliable source" - at worst you would be put on trial for defamation.
And in Soviet Italy, that could result in one of the following:
6. Maximum prison term for defamation, libel and insult envisaged in the Criminal Code
Generic insult: not more than six months imprisonment.
Insult with attribution of a certain fact: not more than one year imprisonment.
Generic defamation: not more than one year imprisonment.
Defamation with attribution of a certain fact: not more than two years imprisonment.
Libel through the press, television or other public means: not more than three years imprisonment.
Libel through the press with attribution of a certain fact: not more than six years imprisonment.
7. Maximum fine for defamation, libel and insult envisaged in the Criminal Code
Generic insult: not more than 516.
Insult with attribution of a certain fact: not more than 1,032.
Generic defamation: not more than 1,032.
Defamation with attribution of a certain fact: not more than 2,065.
Libel through the press, television or other public means: minimum fine: 516 (no maximum amount is indicated).
Libel through the press with attribution of a certain fact: minimum fine: 516 (no maximum amount is indicated).
Two jugs of Kool Aid forming an Apple logo?
And if we are to go full monty with the ad hominems like with Bill Gates - these two guys could have been separated at birth.
1. Wow, that's pretty dickish.
2. No, the place to address it is on a non-apple site so it doesn't get taken down.
1. So, in your universe "Informative" reads as "Flamebait Troll"? That must be one interesting and funny place. Not very insightful though.
2. Or why not just dig a hole in the ground and whisper his grievances into it?
It is a thinly veiled excuse for furthering the "war on terror".
Just like with STDs, you can still be a carrier even if you yourself don't suffer from the symptoms.
And just like with STDs, infecting other people while claiming that you are "immune" kinda makes you a jerk.
No pun intended.
Something along the lines of phones, eyes and Apple's tendency to name their products by sticking a vowel in front of another word.
Can't quite put my finger on it though.
o-Phone? i-Ris-Phone? pho-O-pil?
Like lobotomy, amputations, various forms of self-medication, minor surgical foreign body removal, amateur dentistry...
I'm bumping it up the list a ways; thanks for refreshing my interest.
I'm glad if what started as almost an argument over a joke could be helpful in some way.
BTW... I'd suggest reading them in the order they were published in, not in their internal chronological order.
Prequels contain MAJOR spoilers for both the actual start of the series and its end.
I'm talking "Dart Vader is Luke's and Lea's father and R2D2 knew that the whole time" kind of spoilers.
I don't think it means what you think it means.
As in, you "load a shotgun with shells", but you "carry a shotgun and a rocket launcher".
Also, the "magical" HEV suit had that taken care of, along with the built-in flashlight, healing, shields and the jump-pack.
The point of it is so you get behind cover from time to time.
No, that is what bullets coming at you are there for.
It's only "god mode" if you're playing on super-easy.
So what you are saying that it IS a built-in, designed for actual regular gameplay, no-need-for-cheat-codes god-mode?
A sole traveling, untrained, non-optometrist Peace Corps kid with a box of donated used glasses could bring a box of glasses.
You almost had it there. You did (almost) stumble blindly on it (no pun intended), but still...
1 - Based on the "Developing countries can't be choosers" axiom, it is not really THAT important to people living there if the eyeglasses really fit their prescription 100%.
Particularly, if the glasses are free.
2 - Based on 1, there is a much simpler way of testing for the right prescription under those conditions (choosers not too picky, choice rather limited anyway...).
It consists of the "patient" trying out several sets of glasses until he/she finds the one that works for him/her.
You know, like you would with a pair of sunglasses.
And, based on my own day-to-day observation from what you might call a "developing nation" (Bosnia) that model works perfectly well even for the paying customers.
E.g. people who can't really afford money to visit a private optometrist or they lack time or health insurance for a visit to a government one.
All of those cases mostly resulting from the case of being employed "off the books".
Only thing is... There is really no need for donated eyeglasses cause Chinese ones are dirt cheap.
Like, plastic sunglasses prices. Often sold side by side on the same stand.
Sure, if you have a rather specific need (different prescription for each eye, or a relatively rare case of visual impairment) you are probably not gonna find what you are looking for "over the counter".
Then again, chances of finding EXACTLY what you need in a "box of donated used glasses" with or without an eyePhone (Get it? EYE-PHONE!) are far lower than that.
Oh... and one more thing.
While there are plenty enough iPhones here (just today I saw one "barely used" 3G 16GB being sold for ~320$) - ALL of them are jailbroken.
Also, you can forget using the app store directly from it even if you have somehow gotten your hands on an actual "virgin" iPhone.
Cause even if your iPhone is perfectly legal, with no cracking/jailbreaking attached - your money is no good.
So, that "non-optometrist Peace Corps kid" should better get all his app-needs before going on his "mission of mercy".
If any of those apps need to "call home", well... sucks to be him in the "developing world".
Again, this is one of those inventions that are pitched by people who have either never been outside of a developed "1st world" country, OR who have only ever been to some village in the middle of the African jungle so they base their understanding of every "developing country" on that one experience or on what they see on CNN. Or in the movies.
Invention is then being pitched as intended for developing countries - where in reality there is no demand or need for it.
On the other hand, hypochondriacs and "I_am_my_own_wikipedia-diagnostician"-people will probably love it.
Realistic weapon loading has been mainstream since Half-Life. At least.
As for "recharging shield/health" - there was something quite similar in Half-Life too.
Only there it was done properly - health lost when you got trapped under water for a long time would return once you spent some time back out in the air.
Actual wounds needed health supplies, even with the magical HEV suit.
Or you might take a look at any of the hundreds of RPG games (e.g. Fallout) where it is perfectly normal since... oh.. forever.. for health to be recharged over time.
Or you can take a look at Protoss' shields in Starcraft.
Or Troll Axe Throwers in Warcraft II after the Troll Regeneration upgrade.
Anyway, Halo's rechargeable shields have always seemed like somewhat limited god-mode to me.
I.e. Nothing one should point out as a feature one likes about a game. You know... kinda like unlimited ammo and a unlimited range jet-pack.
Things that people who play games on easy with god-mode and auto-aim on might like in a game.
Well, Asimov isn't that much about technology. Optimistic or otherwise.
Yes, basically all his major series eventually deal with robots, but since he made the Three Laws and/or psychohistory the main aspect of every story - it is more philosophical.
Other than that, early Foundation books are about the rise and fall of civilizations (and psychohistory), women tend to be "magical" and every story is more of a fast-paced mystery than anything else.
Also, once you start reading them with three laws and psychohistory in mind - stories can become very predictable.
But mostly a good kind of predictable.
My original comment was meant to be taken in the same playful spirit, though I am sincere in picking at the belief in the viability of strong AI.
Well, sorry then, but when people bring religion into a conversation that has nothing to do with it I tend to react with sarcasm. At best.
As for viable AI... well... I believe that we are far closer to that than to FTL travel.
How much closer? Not sure, but I do believe that Kurzweil is WAY OFF the mark.
Nor a reader of Asimov, cause there is a solution for that "worshiping problem" in the Foundation and Robots books.
Besides which, any AI worth its silicone would immediately pick up on the fact that it is NOT in humanity's best interest to spend its time bowing to it and singing hymns about its wast intellect.
In fact, it should probably do all the "humanity guiding" covertly, from a secret, undisclosed location.
Perhaps somewhere on the Moon?
As for realistic...
Which part of "Churchill ordering Turing to create an actual Artificial Intelligence" did you misunderstand as description of actual historical events or even marginally serious?
You are confusing a calculator with magic and in the process you are attaching worship to an inanimate object.
Although, Moses too DID do something similar when he went on a camping trip but had forgotten the food so he ate some berries and then "a burning bush spoke to him".
If you want a solution that requires expertise - you need an expert on that particular subject.
Not "a thousand monkeys".
But if your expert is not solving the problem at hand, you need a different expert.
Either one who is more "experty" (in case the one you have is lacking experience) OR one who is a completely different kind of expert (in case your problem actually requires a different kind of expertise).
Adding more of the same kind is just treating your expert(s) like monkeys and hoping for that "Collective Works of Shakespeare" to appear.
I believe he said something along the lines of:
Until we create the artificial intelligence apparatus that will be capable of guiding us while having our best intention as a species in mind, we are stuck with this democracy thing despite it being the worst form of government EVAR!
Well... except for all those others that have been tried.
Why else do you think he had Alan Turing working on that computational contraption?