Dijkstra talked about this. Everyone here who uses terms like "the computer sees X as Y" or "the neural net thinks that A is actually B" or "the AI was mistrained" is making a fundamentally erroneous mistake: the computers do not think. The algorithms do not understand. The machine does not have vision; it does not see.
Does your air conditioning filter understand the difference between air and dust?
Does your cell phone's finger print reader or facial unlocker recognize you? Does your mirror?
Do your headphones speak English? Does your microphone understand what you're saying?
Does Google maps know where you are? Does a paper map know where you are?
Does your thermostat know the temperature of the room? Does a mercury thermometer?
Does your calculator know or understand mathematics? What about an abacus?
I understand that such idioms are handy and sort of get the point across: I use these idioms myself sometimes.
But slashdotters are supposed to be intelligent; are supposed to actually know and understand what the machines are doing and how they work. We are supposed to understand the difference between slang and reality when it comes to technology.
Don't be fooled by the jargon. Don't mistake a complex system with complex inputs and outputs for "understanding" or "knowing" or "intelligence".
Neural nets are nothing more than automatically calibrating digital classifiers. They're nothing more than statistics. They're not intelligent. They do not understand nor comprehend. They do not "see" nor "recognize".
I only want to clarify one thing: Vulkan is not easier ot use than OpenGL.
In fact Vulkan is much much more difficult and requires much much more setup. Vulkan is capable of being faster than OpenGL because Vulkan enables multi-threading the rendering commands rather than computing all the rendering commands in a single thread as OpenGL does it.
The reason Vulkan is more difficult to use compared to OpenGL is precisely because setting up a multi-threaded renderer is much more tricky to get right and requires way more in the way of boilerplate and you-just-have-to-already-know-what-you're-doing scaffolding in order to get places. Vulkan is much lower-level than OpenGL.
Don't worry, guys, Vietnam isn't an example of REAL communism. It's some kind of other thing entirely unrelated.
No, the socialism that we want here in the West is REAL communism: only right wingers will be sent to the gulags, you see.
I have more RPGs and strategy games than I have time to play and I use Linux exclusively. Steam works perfectly well on Linux Mint. I think you should do a more careful analysis of what it is that you really need Windows for and then try to find some alternatives. It very well may turn out that you actually judge Windows to be the better system because Windows runs something that Linux won't. That's perfectly fine. But don't complain about the choice you made.
Apple: Yeah we changed up the screen and we did a bunch of weird stuff without consulting you.
Developers: You're right, that is some weird stuff that you did there for no reason other than "look at me", but whatever, man.
Apple: And we want you to bend over backwards and change your app around to support the stuff that we implemented without asking or telling you.
Developer: Uh... wait, why did you do this in the first place? Is there a real compelling reason or...?
Apple: Because we had some artist say that he thinks it looks better this way. We might change our minds. But we might not.
Developer: Ugh. So I have to do a bunch of work for no real reason? What's your deal anyway?
Apple: No there's definitely a reason: because we have altered the deal. Now get to work, beeyotch.
Developer: (this deal is getting worse all the time...)
I hate to blame the victim... but you did it to yourself by continuing to use Windows after all this time and after all the abuse and after so many warnings. You really need to either stop complaining or switch to an OS that doesn't do crappy things to you like advertise to you on your desktop.
People have been campaigning for social justice since at least the time of Jesus Christ
I agree that all this has been going on for thousands of years.
But the modern difference is that the SJWs of today are self-righteous, privileged, and self-entitled scumbags interested not in making the world better but purely interested in virtue signalling, bullying, and gaining power for themselves... Much like the pharisees of Jesus' time come to think of it. So, basically, you're totally right and I agree.
So... you're agreeing that the budget needs to be balanced by cutting our expenses? In order to have a budget that will actually yield a surplus and pay off the debt we need to cut both the military and social security and medicare right?
Good thing this wasn't written by a high-level partisan toady, who worked for the Trump campaign, complaining about alleged partisan politics involving people investigating potentially illegal activities by his former boss and his campaign people (of which, again, he was one).
Do you have any evidence that this memo is inaccurate, or misleading, or contains any false information?
If the democrats have some kind of counter-evidence or some well-reasoned argument for why this "one-sided, misleading partisan document" is completely false and full of bull crap then let's hear it.
Come to think of it, if this document is so full of crap then why haven't the democrats simply pointed it all out already? Why play games? Why trump up a bunch of baloney to try and thwart the release of the document? (pun not intended)
Then they find out that you are not Using the newest version of office. So you have an option, upgrade to Office, or downgrade your job.
If you work at the kind of place that cares more about fonts and spacing than about getting work done then you and everyone else at that job deserves to be put out on the street.
...as science progresses we're realising that this isn't the case.
1. Define "conciousness".
2. [citation needed]
BUT, I absolutely detest vegans and vegetarians who insist on forcing their shitty diet on us using moral blackmail and abusive insinuation that meat eaters are murderers , etc. And anyway, I really like meat.
Agreed. Bottom line: animals eat each other. Veganism and vegetarianism are nothing but human virtue signalling.
So this might be the way forward. Tasty tasty cowflesh, without the dead cow.
Until some fool decides to re-define it as still being immoral because it's still a kind of cow (and, no, this is different from fetuses). From a sane perspective the advantage here is efficiency. It's price per pound of meat that will determine whether this succeeds or fails.
Im sure the vegan holier than though folks will still think up some reason to hate it. Fuck em
Agreed. They'll think up a reason to hate it because for them it's about moral posturing not about actually doing good in the world or preventing suffering. Proof: vegans do not advocate the extermination of natural predators-- even if they did then that itself is hypocritical.
One small point... monopolies can exist in the complete absence of any government at all
That's true. I agree.
so your supposition that government power is the key factor in creating monopolies is wrong.
In the case of telecoms that are using regulations to build and protect their monopolies I think it is true.
In fact, historically, government power has been one of the few things that broke up monopolies
This is true.
so you are going to need government power to end monopolies (because contrary to popular myth, the fairy godmother of the free market won't do it for you within an acceptable time frame) so if you cut government power you are strengthening the monopolist's power.
It's possible to give certain powers to the government and deny others.
For example, the power to wage wars but not the power to summarily execute citizens without due process of law.
Likewise, it should also be possible to limit the government's ability to stifle competition or support cronies while also giving the government the ability to judiciously decide what is or isn't a harmful monopoly and break it up.
If I'm going to be taxed by anybody I'd prefer it be the government because I can oust those bozos every four years by voting them out out of office.
That's where you're wrong.
You might be able to cast a vote every four years but your vote alone doesn't change your situation. If you just change service providers (assuming that it's possible in the first place) then your situation is immediately improved.
Furthermore, the TLAs (i.e. the FCC) do not change every four years because you voted for a new president or a new senator or whatever. So it's actually incorrect that you can oust the "bozos" every four years. There's a reason that the euphemism "revolving door" exists.
To go yet further still: what exactly has changed when one party takes power? The rhetoric does, but not much else as far as I can tell. It seems to me that it's just more crap from a different butt hole and meanwhile the deficits continue and the debt climbs and the roads still suck and the same "corporate oligarchs" that you complain about are still abusing their monopolies (assuming their protection money is all paid up...).
The real solution is two fold:
1. Cut government power: this prevents them from creating or protecting monopolies.
2. Break up the monopolies and end all protections for them thus forcing them to compete.
Slashdot Mirror
Dijkstra talked about this. Everyone here who uses terms like "the computer sees X as Y" or "the neural net thinks that A is actually B" or "the AI was mistrained" is making a fundamentally erroneous mistake: the computers do not think. The algorithms do not understand. The machine does not have vision; it does not see.
Does your air conditioning filter understand the difference between air and dust?
Does your cell phone's finger print reader or facial unlocker recognize you? Does your mirror?
Do your headphones speak English? Does your microphone understand what you're saying?
Does Google maps know where you are? Does a paper map know where you are?
Does your thermostat know the temperature of the room? Does a mercury thermometer?
Does your calculator know or understand mathematics? What about an abacus?
I understand that such idioms are handy and sort of get the point across: I use these idioms myself sometimes.
But slashdotters are supposed to be intelligent; are supposed to actually know and understand what the machines are doing and how they work. We are supposed to understand the difference between slang and reality when it comes to technology.
Don't be fooled by the jargon. Don't mistake a complex system with complex inputs and outputs for "understanding" or "knowing" or "intelligence".
Neural nets are nothing more than automatically calibrating digital classifiers. They're nothing more than statistics.
They're not intelligent.
They do not understand nor comprehend.
They do not "see" nor "recognize".
That's a good way of putting it.
...easier to use than OpenGL...
I only want to clarify one thing: Vulkan is not easier ot use than OpenGL.
In fact Vulkan is much much more difficult and requires much much more setup. Vulkan is capable of being faster than OpenGL because Vulkan enables multi-threading the rendering commands rather than computing all the rendering commands in a single thread as OpenGL does it.
The reason Vulkan is more difficult to use compared to OpenGL is precisely because setting up a multi-threaded renderer is much more tricky to get right and requires way more in the way of boilerplate and you-just-have-to-already-know-what-you're-doing scaffolding in order to get places. Vulkan is much lower-level than OpenGL.
This post helps explain.
Clearly I should have used a tag.
Don't worry, guys, Vietnam isn't an example of REAL communism. It's some kind of other thing entirely unrelated.
No, the socialism that we want here in the West is REAL communism: only right wingers will be sent to the gulags, you see.
Why in the world should have to do all of those things to ensure continuous access to something I legally purchased?
You seem to value your freedom and rights as an owner. So... you use Linux, right?
Are you guys using Dell or System76?
I have more RPGs and strategy games than I have time to play and I use Linux exclusively. Steam works perfectly well on Linux Mint. I think you should do a more careful analysis of what it is that you really need Windows for and then try to find some alternatives. It very well may turn out that you actually judge Windows to be the better system because Windows runs something that Linux won't. That's perfectly fine. But don't complain about the choice you made.
There is plenty of evidence that having people with different backgrounds and ideas results in better outcomes for companies.
And look at how that turned out for Damore.
Apple: Yeah we changed up the screen and we did a bunch of weird stuff without consulting you.
Developers: You're right, that is some weird stuff that you did there for no reason other than "look at me", but whatever, man.
Apple: And we want you to bend over backwards and change your app around to support the stuff that we implemented without asking or telling you.
Developer: Uh... wait, why did you do this in the first place? Is there a real compelling reason or...?
Apple: Because we had some artist say that he thinks it looks better this way. We might change our minds. But we might not.
Developer: Ugh. So I have to do a bunch of work for no real reason? What's your deal anyway?
Apple: No there's definitely a reason: because we have altered the deal. Now get to work, beeyotch.
Developer: (this deal is getting worse all the time...)
Welcome to the Linux family. It's not a perfect family-- no family is-- but welcome just the same.
I hate to blame the victim... but you did it to yourself by continuing to use Windows after all this time and after all the abuse and after so many warnings. You really need to either stop complaining or switch to an OS that doesn't do crappy things to you like advertise to you on your desktop.
People have been campaigning for social justice since at least the time of Jesus Christ
I agree that all this has been going on for thousands of years.
But the modern difference is that the SJWs of today are self-righteous, privileged, and self-entitled scumbags interested not in making the world better but purely interested in virtue signalling, bullying, and gaining power for themselves... Much like the pharisees of Jesus' time come to think of it. So, basically, you're totally right and I agree.
And here I am without mod points.
This is interesting and I want to believe you but I also want proof.
Do you have any studies or numbers to back this up?
So... you're agreeing that the budget needs to be balanced by cutting our expenses? In order to have a budget that will actually yield a surplus and pay off the debt we need to cut both the military and social security and medicare right?
I don't think you know what "hyperbole" means.
Good thing this wasn't written by a high-level partisan toady, who worked for the Trump campaign, complaining about alleged partisan politics involving people investigating potentially illegal activities by his former boss and his campaign people (of which, again, he was one).
Do you have any evidence that this memo is inaccurate, or misleading, or contains any false information?
If the democrats have some kind of counter-evidence or some well-reasoned argument for why this "one-sided, misleading partisan document" is completely false and full of bull crap then let's hear it.
Come to think of it, if this document is so full of crap then why haven't the democrats simply pointed it all out already? Why play games? Why trump up a bunch of baloney to try and thwart the release of the document? (pun not intended)
secret warrants
Isn't that an oxymoron?
Shouldn't it be?
Are we a free society or not?
Do we want to be?
Oh how I wish I had mod points to bump this up.
Then they find out that you are not Using the newest version of office. So you have an option, upgrade to Office, or downgrade your job.
If you work at the kind of place that cares more about fonts and spacing than about getting work done then you and everyone else at that job deserves to be put out on the street.
...as science progresses we're realising that this isn't the case.
1. Define "conciousness".
2. [citation needed]
BUT, I absolutely detest vegans and vegetarians who insist on forcing their shitty diet on us using moral blackmail and abusive insinuation that meat eaters are murderers , etc. And anyway, I really like meat.
Agreed. Bottom line: animals eat each other. Veganism and vegetarianism are nothing but human virtue signalling.
So this might be the way forward. Tasty tasty cowflesh, without the dead cow.
Until some fool decides to re-define it as still being immoral because it's still a kind of cow (and, no, this is different from fetuses). From a sane perspective the advantage here is efficiency. It's price per pound of meat that will determine whether this succeeds or fails.
Im sure the vegan holier than though folks will still think up some reason to hate it. Fuck em
Agreed. They'll think up a reason to hate it because for them it's about moral posturing not about actually doing good in the world or preventing suffering. Proof: vegans do not advocate the extermination of natural predators-- even if they did then that itself is hypocritical.
One small point ... monopolies can exist in the complete absence of any government at all
That's true. I agree.
so your supposition that government power is the key factor in creating monopolies is wrong.
In the case of telecoms that are using regulations to build and protect their monopolies I think it is true.
In fact, historically, government power has been one of the few things that broke up monopolies
This is true.
so you are going to need government power to end monopolies (because contrary to popular myth, the fairy godmother of the free market won't do it for you within an acceptable time frame) so if you cut government power you are strengthening the monopolist's power.
It's possible to give certain powers to the government and deny others.
For example, the power to wage wars but not the power to summarily execute citizens without due process of law.
Likewise, it should also be possible to limit the government's ability to stifle competition or support cronies while also giving the government the ability to judiciously decide what is or isn't a harmful monopoly and break it up.
If I'm going to be taxed by anybody I'd prefer it be the government because I can oust those bozos every four years by voting them out out of office.
That's where you're wrong.
You might be able to cast a vote every four years but your vote alone doesn't change your situation. If you just change service providers (assuming that it's possible in the first place) then your situation is immediately improved.
Furthermore, the TLAs (i.e. the FCC) do not change every four years because you voted for a new president or a new senator or whatever. So it's actually incorrect that you can oust the "bozos" every four years. There's a reason that the euphemism "revolving door" exists.
To go yet further still: what exactly has changed when one party takes power? The rhetoric does, but not much else as far as I can tell. It seems to me that it's just more crap from a different butt hole and meanwhile the deficits continue and the debt climbs and the roads still suck and the same "corporate oligarchs" that you complain about are still abusing their monopolies (assuming their protection money is all paid up...).
The real solution is two fold:
1. Cut government power: this prevents them from creating or protecting monopolies.
2. Break up the monopolies and end all protections for them thus forcing them to compete.