It would have to be heat-sensitive rather than pressure-sensitive. Unlike an enclosed camera, a pressure plate would quickly fall pray to accumulating dust, twigs, and other debris. If a newspaper or package were put on the pressure plate, for instance, then the cat could not get in.
Even then, this is assuming live/dead prey and other undesired objects would be warm enough to differentiate from the background - which may in turn train the cat to only bring sufficiently old dead things back to the house. That may not be the desired result.
Actually, my family owns a small pet store. Cats CAN be trained in a sense. Much like squirrels, they learn how to get resources in the most direct manner possible through trial and error. They don't want a "treat" or to please their owner, they want to master their environment for themselves. So, when presented with a annoying door lock, instead of giving up their prey, they can recognize the signs that the door is unlocked (by sound), and also recognize what causes this response (nothing in mouth). It's not training in terms of what the owner wants, but it is training nonetheless.
What if a person required such tools in order to move, breathe, or even think? Would this not be the equivalent to destroying an experimental respirator which has already been O.K.'ed by a doctor?
Don't get me wrong, NOT searching would leave the possibility for a person claiming to be sick to be used as a bomb - but to RIP electrodes from a person's skin is reactionary, cruel, if not downright monsterous.
They could have just denied him access to the plane instead.
Ryan Fenton
The value of General Computers.
on
SSSCA Hearing
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The primary purpose of a general computer is to logically process data according to user input (software).
If this law passes - general computers will no longer be produced. The primary purpose of the computer will then be to check if the user is doing anything illegal, and THEN do it if it appears to be acceptable.
There is not so much a difference between polititians and programmers as some would believe - we must TALK or otherwise communicate with these law makers, so that they may understand the collosal value of the general computer - and understand why it should NOT be lost!
At least according to most of the CSPAN I've ever watched or listened to while programming/gaming, as far as sources of technical information, there isn't much emphasis put on actually being *qualified* for someone trusted to give information to polititians, so much as someone who can seem "official".
Currently, most "official" information on computer-related matters getting to polititians comes from interested parties with lobbyists and the like. Occasionally, resourceful polititians will contact professors and others when a debating point is in question - but for the most part, it is convenient to just talk to the same people who are there and seem qualified and eager to speak right away.
Regardless of campaign finance, this will always be the situation*. Now, if game designers and other people closer to the programming angle of things get to show the effects of laws - they gain credibility in the eyes of polititians, right or wrong. Their simulations could possibly show them simplified answers to questions quicker than even the paid lobbyist can explain.
Ethically, one would need to show every point in the logic of any given simulation where the results could be flawed, or have margins for error, or where complications are ignored - much unlike what a random lobbyist would likely show. While most polititians don't like to be called "technocrats", they also seem to like feeling they have depth to the information they are presenting.
If more programmers could spend some time helping polititians, perhaps there wouldn't be so much a distance between the groups as there are now.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
* Though I am fervently in favor of campaign finance reform
I was doing preliminary pricing research for suppliers for my parent's business (local pet store), and I actually found the sponsor's links more useful than other links. Knowing the sponsor links will likely be coming up the same as the last time I searched (for at least the immediate future) also helps. So other than a minor improvement, I wouldn't have noticed the difference.
...followed by emulation of a human memory. Followed by emulation of more and more of the human mind until we have a working method of emulating the human mind. And then, it wouldn't likely be called "Artificial Intelligence", but instead, just "Intelligence" in a system.
I see that as far more likely than reinventing self-regulating consciousnesses through slow evolution.
Likely, it wouldn't be used just to control things either - it's first use would be to back up human memory in keeping with our search for a form of immortality. We still won't know what we "are", in a philosophical sense - and if it can be continued with reconstructing memory after loss - but we at least will be able to keep the chain of conscious memory alive longer than previously possible. From that point - who knows?
Let's say that Microsoft simply does not comply with demands from the states when they finally make it past appeals (if they ever do).
What would be the punishment? Not being able to sell software in some states? Customers will demand it. More new penalties? That only means more trials, which will take even more years.
Meanwhile, Microsoft will be able to actually have the law changed in their favor, and only release source code long after they abandon the platform.
So what is a realistic punishment that will actually survive to have an impact on Microsoft if they don't comply with a request to release the correct source code?
How about a "Book of Mathematics and Science Rules for Computer Programmers", in ring binder format with pre-made tabs to the common sections. It would be a rugged book, priced as efficiently as possible, and be used to answer questions that come up in programming as quickly as possible. From obscure rules of simplifying derrivatives and integrals when working with formulas, to how to figure out the suface area of a sphere - it's all there in a format that is easy to quickly page through and find what you want.
Regarding earth-like planets with water and rock, the article stated:
...They may be as common as Jupiters, or they may be much less common.
Alan Boss, an expert in planetary system formation at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said the new calculations for Jovian twins seem reasonable. Trying then to estimate the number of Earthlike planets requires "a leap of faith, but one which appears to be plausible," he said.
What I'm wondering now is if these experiments were conducted at room temperature. I'm also wondering if the laser was used in a vacuum or with air in between the laser emiter and the crystal. If so, what are the sizes of the crystals involved, and how much room is required between all the components for the phenomenon shown to work at room temperature.
If it works at room temperature, with a normal earth atmosphere, and could occur reliably on microscopic levels - this could be amazing.
...However, my limited knowledge about the human embryo tells me that one of the first things that happens with a fertilized egg is the multiplying cells form three layers: One for the nerves and skin and bones, and one for muscles and the heart, and one for the digestive system and other internal organs.
Would scientists not be able to modify the "top" layer of pre-nerve, skin and bone cells either to completely remove that layer, or to just effectively prevent the moral implications of a brain forming? Naturally, it's more complicated than that, but it would seem a relatively broad set of basic genes to be able to disable and still have the other cells develop to the point where they may be used to save lives while avoiding more nagging moral issues. Because the cells are so early in development, one could experiment with any mammal or even most animals to get the same results one would with a human.
There's still the issue with the telomeres and generational cell aging though - anyone in a biology feild have any news on research into that?
Well, if it's a reproducable system, then presumably, you wouldn't buy just ONE such server, but the RIGHTS to make and use a certain number of them. If someone stole your server box, you'd have to get another (presumably relatively cheap) replacement, dump in the fluid, connect to the most recent backup, and go.
Very interesting that they have gotten to the point where they can cut portions of DNA and test them to identify which functions they can perform enough to make a rudimentary "computer".
Again, interesting - but one must wonder if this work is something inherently creative that should be protected by intellectual property laws, or if it is merely observing and splicing naturally occuring processes.
It may be a premature concern though - but ultimately, what difference is there other than scope in using DNA-oriented systems to create protein computers, and today's circuit-based fabrication technology? How long will the prior art of nature stand before companies will own DNA sequences?
$90 million in teacher training. That probably means teacher manuals and minimal direct training, meaning that Microsoft will be teaching the teachers, who will be trained to directly read Microsoft literature to children.
I wonder if copywrite law will become a sizable part of the computer carriculum.
The only thing I can think of that might be better would be "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians"!
Joel: Oh, and would you like for Christmas, little crow?
Crow: I want to decide who lives and who dies!
Joel: Oh, I don't know...
I was always proud when going to high school that I was learning in the same class room that Joel Hodgeson was in. Unfortunatly, none of the local cable networks recieved the Comedy Channel/Comedy Central, so no one even knew what the show was. Good 'ol sleepy eyed Joel.
Please people - remember be kind to your local software/electronics store employees. This is likely to be a long week for quite a few of them with unaware management.
Step 1. Use words and phrases such as 'sucks!', '100 percent crap', 'let's be clear', 'lemmings', etc.
Step 2. Complain about everything anyone does in the field you are studying.
Step 3. Forge a 'correct' way of doing things from whatever someone else is not doing. Do not actually spell out this 'correct' way of doing things using full descriptions or logic - but through insults of the current methods and twisted catch phrases.
Step 4. Edit, publish, and hope people can use your book as an excuse to use common sense.
(Optional) Step 5. Wait one economic cycle, go to step 1.
Well, aside from the obvious environmental and geo-political implications of self-replicating machines - there is another important aspect to such machines. Copywrite enforcement.
Just as magical as it would be to make a stable batch of these machines which would reliably work (even in laboratory conditions) - the thought of how these things would possibly be kept from being altered or copied ad infinitum is equal in terms of seeming implausibility.
What methods might work?
Making the constuction materials be of some "special" molecules? Not likely to keep people from making unauthorized copies before too long, plus it makes engineering potentially more difficult.
Adding extra logic to each one to ensure legality? Aside from again the engineering aspects, it is hard to even brainstorm minimally plausible ideas.
Harsh legal enforcement? The sheer convenience of these micromachines would ensure demand is high enough to bypass any law short of complete totalitarianism based on the product. This would be more than yesterday's computer, internet, or cell phone demand - once applications development hit mainstream programming, and then mainstream consciousness, the demand would be levels of magnitude higher than anything we've seen.
The only reliable way I could think to make these machines properly profitable would be to use societal paranoia and fear to convince everyone that these machines are dangerous, and only sell them to 'licensed technicians for clean-room-only use'. But this protection of profitability would only last so long before demand creeped back up, or some major catastrophy renewed the fear factor.
Everything about this sounds like it might make a good story though.
Code may be seen as a craft, just like legal documentation may be seen as a craft. However, code may be used for infinite other purposes than merely getting something to work with something else. Code may be used to create a altered version of physics in a game - and depending on how well the dynamics of the game work out - I'd consider those altered physics to possibly be a work of art. A fluid interaction of AI, which beyond funcionality, has a really dynamic flair of interactons with the user - things which could not be organizedly designed beforehand, but emerge from creative programming. There are many things I would consider art in the programming of a game itself.
Ryan Fenton
2 Games to consider - ICO and Planescape: Torment.
on
Are Videogames Art?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Having recently finished ICO on the PS2, I'd have to insist that anyone considering this question play this game to completion. As pure visual and emotional art, it is more complete than more works I've ever experienced.
On the literary side, I'd also have to insist anyone considering this subject thoroughly explore the game Planescape: Torment. The way this game reacts to actions, expectations, and self-reflection is quite amazing. If you read any review of this game, you can appreciate how difficult it is to put in a few words how... jarringly profound this game can be.
Both of these games tell a story that would be _Impossible_ to tell without the freedom to explore the story, and the strength of the choices given to one exploring it. These games fundamentally connect to many core aspects of the human state in both the same ways 'traditional' art does, and in many ways impossible to do so before - they are fundamentally art in my eyes.
To deny everyone the right to communicate in a way that may be deemed hateful to some group, especially in an international network, would be a rather large limitation on political freedom, and the ability to many forms of otherwise legitimate humor.
For instance, let's say I start a page ridiculing the beliefs of the Amish. I have many patently offensive Amish jokes on the page. I post ways to encourage Amish people to stop being Amish, and take a persona of someone who idealizes a world where Amish people do not exist.
Seeing those words may be reprehensible to many. However, it would be a valid work of humor, and also of political thought. These are all things that one would be able to print in a newspaper editorial, and say in a public forum - but suddenly would be illegal to write on a web page.
As an added 'bonus', such a law would clog up the legal system as special interest groups begin to accuse every one of their detractors of hate on the Internet.
Slashdot Mirror
It would have to be heat-sensitive rather than pressure-sensitive. Unlike an enclosed camera, a pressure plate would quickly fall pray to accumulating dust, twigs, and other debris. If a newspaper or package were put on the pressure plate, for instance, then the cat could not get in.
Even then, this is assuming live/dead prey and other undesired objects would be warm enough to differentiate from the background - which may in turn train the cat to only bring sufficiently old dead things back to the house. That may not be the desired result.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
Actually, my family owns a small pet store. Cats CAN be trained in a sense. Much like squirrels, they learn how to get resources in the most direct manner possible through trial and error. They don't want a "treat" or to please their owner, they want to master their environment for themselves. So, when presented with a annoying door lock, instead of giving up their prey, they can recognize the signs that the door is unlocked (by sound), and also recognize what causes this response (nothing in mouth). It's not training in terms of what the owner wants, but it is training nonetheless.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
1. Drop the undesirable object.
2. Trigger the door.
3. Pick up undesirable object and walk through door.
So don't count the cat out yet (when it has the unwanted object)!
:^)
Ryan Fenton
What if a person required such tools in order to move, breathe, or even think? Would this not be the equivalent to destroying an experimental respirator which has already been O.K.'ed by a doctor?
Don't get me wrong, NOT searching would leave the possibility for a person claiming to be sick to be used as a bomb - but to RIP electrodes from a person's skin is reactionary, cruel, if not downright monsterous.
They could have just denied him access to the plane instead.
Ryan Fenton
The primary purpose of a general computer is to logically process data according to user input (software).
If this law passes - general computers will no longer be produced. The primary purpose of the computer will then be to check if the user is doing anything illegal, and THEN do it if it appears to be acceptable.
There is not so much a difference between polititians and programmers as some would believe - we must TALK or otherwise communicate with these law makers, so that they may understand the collosal value of the general computer - and understand why it should NOT be lost!
Ryan Fenton
At least according to most of the CSPAN I've ever watched or listened to while programming/gaming, as far as sources of technical information, there isn't much emphasis put on actually being *qualified* for someone trusted to give information to polititians, so much as someone who can seem "official".
Currently, most "official" information on computer-related matters getting to polititians comes from interested parties with lobbyists and the like. Occasionally, resourceful polititians will contact professors and others when a debating point is in question - but for the most part, it is convenient to just talk to the same people who are there and seem qualified and eager to speak right away.
Regardless of campaign finance, this will always be the situation*. Now, if game designers and other people closer to the programming angle of things get to show the effects of laws - they gain credibility in the eyes of polititians, right or wrong. Their simulations could possibly show them simplified answers to questions quicker than even the paid lobbyist can explain.
Ethically, one would need to show every point in the logic of any given simulation where the results could be flawed, or have margins for error, or where complications are ignored - much unlike what a random lobbyist would likely show. While most polititians don't like to be called "technocrats", they also seem to like feeling they have depth to the information they are presenting.
If more programmers could spend some time helping polititians, perhaps there wouldn't be so much a distance between the groups as there are now.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
* Though I am fervently in favor of campaign finance reform
I was doing preliminary pricing research for suppliers for my parent's business (local pet store), and I actually found the sponsor's links more useful than other links. Knowing the sponsor links will likely be coming up the same as the last time I searched (for at least the immediate future) also helps. So other than a minor improvement, I wouldn't have noticed the difference.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
...followed by emulation of a human memory. Followed by emulation of more and more of the human mind until we have a working method of emulating the human mind. And then, it wouldn't likely be called "Artificial Intelligence", but instead, just "Intelligence" in a system.
I see that as far more likely than reinventing self-regulating consciousnesses through slow evolution.
Likely, it wouldn't be used just to control things either - it's first use would be to back up human memory in keeping with our search for a form of immortality. We still won't know what we "are", in a philosophical sense - and if it can be continued with reconstructing memory after loss - but we at least will be able to keep the chain of conscious memory alive longer than previously possible. From that point - who knows?
:^)
Ryan Fenton
Let's say that Microsoft simply does not comply with demands from the states when they finally make it past appeals (if they ever do).
What would be the punishment? Not being able to sell software in some states? Customers will demand it. More new penalties? That only means more trials, which will take even more years.
Meanwhile, Microsoft will be able to actually have the law changed in their favor, and only release source code long after they abandon the platform.
So what is a realistic punishment that will actually survive to have an impact on Microsoft if they don't comply with a request to release the correct source code?
:^)
Ryan Fenton
How about a "Book of Mathematics and Science Rules for Computer Programmers", in ring binder format with pre-made tabs to the common sections. It would be a rugged book, priced as efficiently as possible, and be used to answer questions that come up in programming as quickly as possible. From obscure rules of simplifying derrivatives and integrals when working with formulas, to how to figure out the suface area of a sphere - it's all there in a format that is easy to quickly page through and find what you want.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
Regarding earth-like planets with water and rock, the article stated:
...They may be as common as Jupiters, or they may be much less common.
Alan Boss, an expert in planetary system formation at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said the new calculations for Jovian twins seem reasonable. Trying then to estimate the number of Earthlike planets requires "a leap of faith, but one which appears to be plausible," he said.
So the headline was a bit much in this case.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
First, A copy of the NYT article on the same subject
What I'm wondering now is if these experiments were conducted at room temperature. I'm also wondering if the laser was used in a vacuum or with air in between the laser emiter and the crystal. If so, what are the sizes of the crystals involved, and how much room is required between all the components for the phenomenon shown to work at room temperature.
If it works at room temperature, with a normal earth atmosphere, and could occur reliably on microscopic levels - this could be amazing.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
...However, my limited knowledge about the human embryo tells me that one of the first things that happens with a fertilized egg is the multiplying cells form three layers: One for the nerves and skin and bones, and one for muscles and the heart, and one for the digestive system and other internal organs.
Would scientists not be able to modify the "top" layer of pre-nerve, skin and bone cells either to completely remove that layer, or to just effectively prevent the moral implications of a brain forming? Naturally, it's more complicated than that, but it would seem a relatively broad set of basic genes to be able to disable and still have the other cells develop to the point where they may be used to save lives while avoiding more nagging moral issues. Because the cells are so early in development, one could experiment with any mammal or even most animals to get the same results one would with a human.
There's still the issue with the telomeres and generational cell aging though - anyone in a biology feild have any news on research into that?
Ryan Fenton
Well, if it's a reproducable system, then presumably, you wouldn't buy just ONE such server, but the RIGHTS to make and use a certain number of them. If someone stole your server box, you'd have to get another (presumably relatively cheap) replacement, dump in the fluid, connect to the most recent backup, and go.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
Very interesting that they have gotten to the point where they can cut portions of DNA and test them to identify which functions they can perform enough to make a rudimentary "computer".
Again, interesting - but one must wonder if this work is something inherently creative that should be protected by intellectual property laws, or if it is merely observing and splicing naturally occuring processes.
It may be a premature concern though - but ultimately, what difference is there other than scope in using DNA-oriented systems to create protein computers, and today's circuit-based fabrication technology? How long will the prior art of nature stand before companies will own DNA sequences?
Ryan Fenton
$90 million in teacher training. That probably means teacher manuals and minimal direct training, meaning that Microsoft will be teaching the teachers, who will be trained to directly read Microsoft literature to children.
I wonder if copywrite law will become a sizable part of the computer carriculum.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
...Something about... ROCK CLIMBING!
:^)
Ryan Fenton
The only thing I can think of that might be better would be "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians"!
Joel: Oh, and would you like for Christmas, little crow?
Crow: I want to decide who lives and who dies!
Joel: Oh, I don't know...
I was always proud when going to high school that I was learning in the same class room that Joel Hodgeson was in. Unfortunatly, none of the local cable networks recieved the Comedy Channel/Comedy Central, so no one even knew what the show was. Good 'ol sleepy eyed Joel.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
Thanks!
:^)
Ryan Fenton
Please people - remember be kind to your local software/electronics store employees. This is likely to be a long week for quite a few of them with unaware management.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
Step 1. Use words and phrases such as 'sucks!', '100 percent crap', 'let's be clear', 'lemmings', etc.
Step 2. Complain about everything anyone does in the field you are studying.
Step 3. Forge a 'correct' way of doing things from whatever someone else is not doing. Do not actually spell out this 'correct' way of doing things using full descriptions or logic - but through insults of the current methods and twisted catch phrases.
Step 4. Edit, publish, and hope people can use your book as an excuse to use common sense.
(Optional) Step 5. Wait one economic cycle, go to step 1.
Ryan Fenton
Well, aside from the obvious environmental and geo-political implications of self-replicating machines - there is another important aspect to such machines. Copywrite enforcement.
Just as magical as it would be to make a stable batch of these machines which would reliably work (even in laboratory conditions) - the thought of how these things would possibly be kept from being altered or copied ad infinitum is equal in terms of seeming implausibility.
What methods might work?
Making the constuction materials be of some "special" molecules? Not likely to keep people from making unauthorized copies before too long, plus it makes engineering potentially more difficult.
Adding extra logic to each one to ensure legality? Aside from again the engineering aspects, it is hard to even brainstorm minimally plausible ideas.
Harsh legal enforcement? The sheer convenience of these micromachines would ensure demand is high enough to bypass any law short of complete totalitarianism based on the product. This would be more than yesterday's computer, internet, or cell phone demand - once applications development hit mainstream programming, and then mainstream consciousness, the demand would be levels of magnitude higher than anything we've seen.
The only reliable way I could think to make these machines properly profitable would be to use societal paranoia and fear to convince everyone that these machines are dangerous, and only sell them to 'licensed technicians for clean-room-only use'. But this protection of profitability would only last so long before demand creeped back up, or some major catastrophy renewed the fear factor.
Everything about this sounds like it might make a good story though.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
Code may be seen as a craft, just like legal documentation may be seen as a craft. However, code may be used for infinite other purposes than merely getting something to work with something else. Code may be used to create a altered version of physics in a game - and depending on how well the dynamics of the game work out - I'd consider those altered physics to possibly be a work of art. A fluid interaction of AI, which beyond funcionality, has a really dynamic flair of interactons with the user - things which could not be organizedly designed beforehand, but emerge from creative programming. There are many things I would consider art in the programming of a game itself.
Ryan Fenton
Having recently finished ICO on the PS2, I'd have to insist that anyone considering this question play this game to completion. As pure visual and emotional art, it is more complete than more works I've ever experienced.
On the literary side, I'd also have to insist anyone considering this subject thoroughly explore the game Planescape: Torment. The way this game reacts to actions, expectations, and self-reflection is quite amazing. If you read any review of this game, you can appreciate how difficult it is to put in a few words how
Both of these games tell a story that would be _Impossible_ to tell without the freedom to explore the story, and the strength of the choices given to one exploring it. These games fundamentally connect to many core aspects of the human state in both the same ways 'traditional' art does, and in many ways impossible to do so before - they are fundamentally art in my eyes.
Ryan Fenton
To deny everyone the right to communicate in a way that may be deemed hateful to some group, especially in an international network, would be a rather large limitation on political freedom, and the ability to many forms of otherwise legitimate humor.
For instance, let's say I start a page ridiculing the beliefs of the Amish. I have many patently offensive Amish jokes on the page. I post ways to encourage Amish people to stop being Amish, and take a persona of someone who idealizes a world where Amish people do not exist.
Seeing those words may be reprehensible to many. However, it would be a valid work of humor, and also of political thought. These are all things that one would be able to print in a newspaper editorial, and say in a public forum - but suddenly would be illegal to write on a web page.
As an added 'bonus', such a law would clog up the legal system as special interest groups begin to accuse every one of their detractors of hate on the Internet.
Ryan Fenton