It'll happen; computers have the advantage of scaling much better than our wetware can. You could build a huge computer in orbit *far* easier than you could build a better human brain. Given that kind of scalability, it'll only be a matter of time and some pretty remarkible programming before we come up with a computer that's smarter than any human
You can look at the way civilization has evolved as kind of a scaling of human minds. It's pretty impressive, no? For that matter, the development of Linux is another example.
As far as computers being "smater" than humans, think about other machines that exceed human abilities, but we don't much worry about them. For example, cars can go faster than you could run, but so what?
We don't need to build "brains" anymore than we need to build "walkers" (i.e. machines that walk), wheels work much better.
...richie
Re:Can You Install Windows 98? I think I can!
on
CNN Installs Linux
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· Score: 1
If you system hard drive has no partitions on it and if your computer can boot directly from a CD-ROM drive (either ATAPI 1.2 compatible IDE or SCSI connected to Adaptec host adapter), you can literally install the full or OEM installation version of Windows 98 directly from a CD-ROM boot. Try THAT with Linux.
I've installed Debian Linux on a P120 with 16Meg in about 15 minutes, booting from the CD. The part that took longest was installation of a large number of software packages that don't even come with Windows (i.e. C/C++ compiler, Web server, databases etc...).
Configuring X was also easy because I just used the SVGA X server.
There are just too many points that are completely bogus in this essay and I didn't even read the whole thing! For example:
Perhaps she could draw from Slashdot's amazing and elaborate discussion moderating systems (where offensive speech isn't banned but smothered in cool software programs), and meta-moderate technology for us.
John, Slashdot moderation and meta-moderation is done by people, not software!!!
AFAIK, Von Neumann designed what this today's typical computer architecture. You know, one CPU, some memory for storage. Data has to move from memory to the CPU for processing etc...
Was he also the one who realized that programs are just another kind of data that can be stored in memory?
Our computers are just finite state machines. They have many states (2**number_of_bits ), but they don't have infinite tape (as Turing machine).
Well, the tape is not infinite, but can be extended when needed.:-)
However, the main point of Universal TM was that it could take a coded description of any TM (i.e. a program) and run it. So a UTM could simulate any TM in "software".
I would say that Alan Turing invented the computer - after all every digital computer today is a Universal Turing Machine. But he only did it on paper.
Then the question becomes who built the first working electronic, stored program, digital computer.
...richie
P.S. Except maybe Charles Babagge thought of it too. I haven't studied his Analytical Engine.
All of science is Theory. Theory of Gravity, Theory of Relativity. [...]
An important property of s scientific theory is that in principle it can be falsified. That is we can imagine some evidence that will make the theory false. For evolution, imagine if we found a lifeform on Earth that wasn't based on DNA.
If "creationism" is a theory, what evidence (in principle) would make it false?
Your agrument for why it SHOULD be taught as a THEORY is the same as that of the Crhistians with respect to why Creation should be taught as THEORY. Oh my how the secular world is outraged when the shoe is on the other foot. The fact is, most schools teach creation as FACT not THEORY and it HAS NOT BEEN PROVEN. So either present all current existing theories, teach NO theories (bad idea), or SHUT UP and SIT DOWN!!!!
Sigh! I wish schools would teach "creationism" as a theory, following scientific principles. Then teach the evolution and let the students make up their mind.
Where is the evidence for creationism? The Bible? Anything else?
...richie
P.S. If you really believe that evolution is false, why are you not afraid to ride elevators? After all falsity of evolution would imply that elevators cannot possibly work!
Well, I've only read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, but I found the latter to be better than the former.
Funny, I feel exactly the same. I liked "Speaker for the Dead" much better. It covered the problem of communication between species much better. Most SF books gloss over this rather fundamendal problem with universal translators and such...
I've never read Stanislav Lem. What's his most famous book?
His most famous book must be "Solaris". It's about strange happenings on a station orbiting a planet whose surface is covered with a sentient, it seems, ocean.
Two more silly books are "The Cyberiad" and "Star Diaries". These are in the spirit of "Gulliver's Travels".
One of his later book is a first contact story titled "Fiasco". You can guess how this turned out.
For more philosopical musings check out "A Perfect Vacum" or maybe "One Human Minute". Two collections of reviews of non-existant books.
Oddly, in his native Poland, Lem's books are considered on par with Asimov, that is to say, geared towards boys in their early teens.
A lot of Lem's writing is very pointed political satire, hardly the stuff for teenage boys. A lot of his writing touches on interesting sociological issues, such as relationship between technology and religion.
I agree about Rudy Rucker. I would also recomend Stanislaw Lem. Although not cyberpunk, his books are certainly thought provoking and much deeper than your average run-of-the-mill SF.
Where are the rules of gentlemanly and gentlewomanly conduct that guide most of us? They should apply here, too. It feels wrong to link to images on another site. At least, it should.
Why should linking to images from other web sites be wrong? If you don't want people to link to your stuff, don't put it on the Web.
Off-time experience is no experience from the standpoint of most employers. You can be the biggest Linux expert in the world, but if you can't point to a job where your title was "Linux developer" or a test you passed with "Linux" in the title, many prospective employers won't want to hear from you.
That's why you should contribute to Open Source projects. Let the future employer see your code.
Looks interesting. And useful. However, it also enforces an explicit client/server model. You get RMI, but the "remote" is always very explicit.
Would it be useful for broad in-process use? (no)
Explicit is not always bad. Especially when you have to debug.:-)
For the second point, you are saying that for communication within a single address space http/XML is overkill. Right?
But isn't CORBA also? Even if the remote call gets "reduced" to standard call for performance reasons, it's still seems like a lot tedious work for the programmer.
And, I suppose my challenge still stands: could you implement something like Berlin, completely replacing CORBA and C++ with WIDL(XML)/HTTP and your language of choice?
Too bad I already made plans for this weekend...;-)
In the future there will be more networked devices, most of which will talk http, so the idea of a UI based on http/XML is not so far fetched. I'll probably look different than today's desktops and I have no idea what it might be like...
Just because CORBA servers are not preceded by a browser message saying "CORBA now loading..."; doesn't mean they aren't a sizeable contribution to the Internet. As an example, I believe CNN.com uses CORBA services extensively.
OK. I stand corrected...(but can I write code that runs on my computer that calls the CORBA services on CNN.com?)
- Write and exchange general-purpose documents in IDL format
- Implement a desktop environment using XML and HTTP
I would not want to think about the first, but the second is a quite interesting proposition. If every object on your desktop has a URL then maybe you could get to your desktop from any machine on the internet.
Anyway, have you heard of WIDL? Take a look...Keep in mind that nearly every machine connected to the Internet has a web server.
What simple tasks? CORBA is not primarily a standard for document interchange, it's a standard for allowing distributed objects to communicate to implement arbitrary functionalities (which may or may not have anything to do with documents, as such). Although, I wouldn't be very inclined to use it for most web stuff, if that's what you mean.
When you pass a message to a program it can do any complex task you want. Only the app code will be more explicit (i.e. you will see that you are doing a network operation, rather than pretend that it's a function call).
A Web server is a simpler thing that exposes an interface to the network (http/XML) and various programs can communicate with it using messages that are readable by humans (to an extend).
Why not imbed an http interface into an app and use it along with XML for message formatting for communications.
Just the fact that you need IDL is wrong. IDL is completely backwards. You describe your interface in IDL, then compile it to generate code that describes the interface in your favorite language - the same information in two places. Shouldn't the interface be generated from your sources so that it exists in just one place?
What exactly do you use CORBA for in Berlin? D-n-D?
I agree CORBA is pretty complex (perhaps needlessly so), but it is very efficient when compared to XML. The XML equivalent of a CORBA message is roughly 100X larger in size. (I'm not making this up - consult any XML-RPC web page). With the poor bandwidth of today's Internet this is extremely significant. We'll have things like CORBA and DCOM for a while yet.
I don't know. The Web seems to work fine with HTML and http. If CORBA made such a tremendous difference why are there no CORBA servers on the Internet?
Is there any good reason to use CORBA instead of simpler things, like http protocol and (let's say) XML?
The whole CORBA thing feels too complex for the simple tasks its trying to accomplished.
Just the fact that the book reviewed here is 1100 pages, tells me that something is not right. After all Knuth's "Fundental Algorithms" is only about 600 pages. And the content of Knuth's book is much deeper.:-)
Now, my competitor also starts to use it, but without the initial startup cost. Neither of us gain with respect to the other, except I had to pay for the development.
Am I reaping benifits that I don't see?
If the package is being used by other people, you will always be able to find programmers that are familiar with it and can maintain it and improve it.
If you keep it to yourself, once the main developers move on to other things you'll have hard time finding people that can work on your system. If you need bug fixes or new features you'll have to spend money and waste time to get new developers up to speed.
I have about 20 different projects sitting on my harddrive that I haven't released to anyone because I don't think they are useful to anyone but me. I wouldn't want to foist bad unusable code on Freshmeat just to say "me too"
Too bad that you don't release them. How do you know that no one else would find them useful?
Slashdot Mirror
You can look at the way civilization has evolved as kind of a scaling of human minds. It's pretty impressive, no? For that matter, the development of Linux is another example.
As far as computers being "smater" than humans, think about other machines that exceed human abilities, but we don't much worry about them. For example, cars can go faster than you could run, but so what?
We don't need to build "brains" anymore than we need to build "walkers" (i.e. machines that walk), wheels work much better.
I've installed Debian Linux on a P120 with 16Meg in about 15 minutes, booting from the CD. The part that took longest was installation of a large number of software packages that don't even come with Windows (i.e. C/C++ compiler, Web server, databases etc...).
Configuring X was also easy because I just used the SVGA X server.
Perhaps she could draw from Slashdot's amazing and elaborate discussion moderating systems (where offensive speech isn't banned but smothered in cool software programs), and meta-moderate technology for us.
John, Slashdot moderation and meta-moderation is done by people, not software!!!
Disappointed...
AFAIK, Von Neumann designed what this today's typical computer architecture. You know, one CPU, some memory for storage. Data has to move from memory to the CPU for processing etc...
Was he also the one who realized that programs are just another kind of data that can be stored in memory?
Well, the tape is not infinite, but can be extended when needed. :-)
However, the main point of Universal TM was that it could take a coded description of any TM (i.e. a program) and run it. So a UTM could simulate any TM in "software".
Then the question becomes who built the first working electronic, stored program, digital computer.
P.S. Except maybe Charles Babagge thought of it too. I haven't studied his Analytical Engine.
The source is art and so is the result.... ;-)
Have you heard of the Theory of Electricity? Ever seen electricity? If not, why are paying the electric bills...
Open your mind.
Yes, but not so widely that it falls out and you are left with a void between your ears.
An important property of s scientific theory is that in principle it can be falsified. That is we can imagine some evidence that will make the theory false. For evolution, imagine if we found a lifeform on Earth that wasn't based on DNA.
If "creationism" is a theory, what evidence (in principle) would make it false?
Sigh! I wish schools would teach "creationism" as a theory, following scientific principles. Then teach the evolution and let the students make up their mind.
Where is the evidence for creationism? The Bible? Anything else?
P.S. If you really believe that evolution is false, why are you not afraid to ride elevators? After all falsity of evolution would imply that elevators cannot possibly work!
Funny, I feel exactly the same. I liked "Speaker for the Dead" much better. It covered the problem of communication between species much better. Most SF books gloss over this rather fundamendal problem with universal translators and such...
His most famous book must be "Solaris". It's about strange happenings on a station orbiting a planet whose surface is covered with a sentient, it seems, ocean.
Two more silly books are "The Cyberiad" and "Star Diaries". These are in the spirit of "Gulliver's Travels".
One of his later book is a first contact story titled "Fiasco". You can guess how this turned out.
For more philosopical musings check out "A Perfect Vacum" or maybe "One Human Minute". Two collections of reviews of non-existant books.
I should probably write some reviews for /.
A lot of Lem's writing is very pointed political satire, hardly the stuff for teenage boys. A lot of his writing touches on interesting sociological issues, such as relationship between technology and religion.
Why should linking to images from other web sites be wrong? If you don't want people to link to your stuff, don't put it on the Web.
That's why you should contribute to Open Source projects. Let the future employer see your code.
Would it be useful for broad in-process use? (no)
Explicit is not always bad. Especially when you have to debug. :-)
For the second point, you are saying that for communication within a single address space http/XML is overkill. Right?
But isn't CORBA also? Even if the remote call gets "reduced" to standard call for performance reasons, it's still seems like a lot tedious work for the programmer.
And, I suppose my challenge still stands: could you implement something like Berlin, completely replacing CORBA and C++ with WIDL(XML)/HTTP and your language of choice?
Too bad I already made plans for this weekend... ;-)
In the future there will be more networked devices, most of which will talk http, so the idea of a UI based on http/XML is not so far fetched. I'll probably look different than today's desktops and I have no idea what it might be like...
OK. I stand corrected...(but can I write code that runs on my computer that calls the CORBA services on CNN.com?)
- Write and exchange general-purpose documents in IDL format
- Implement a desktop environment using XML and HTTP
I would not want to think about the first, but the second is a quite interesting proposition. If every object on your desktop has a URL then maybe you could get to your desktop from any machine on the internet.
Anyway, have you heard of WIDL? Take a look...Keep in mind that nearly every machine connected to the Internet has a web server.
When you pass a message to a program it can do any complex task you want. Only the app code will be more explicit (i.e. you will see that you are doing a network operation, rather than pretend that it's a function call).
A Web server is a simpler thing that exposes an interface to the network (http/XML) and various programs can communicate with it using messages that are readable by humans (to an extend).
Why not imbed an http interface into an app and use it along with XML for message formatting for communications.
Just the fact that you need IDL is wrong. IDL is completely backwards. You describe your interface in IDL, then compile it to generate code that describes the interface in your favorite language - the same information in two places. Shouldn't the interface be generated from your sources so that it exists in just one place?
What exactly do you use CORBA for in Berlin? D-n-D?
I don't know. The Web seems to work fine with HTML and http. If CORBA made such a tremendous difference why are there no CORBA servers on the Internet?
The whole CORBA thing feels too complex for the simple tasks its trying to accomplished.
Just the fact that the book reviewed here is 1100 pages, tells me that something is not right. After all Knuth's "Fundental Algorithms" is only about 600 pages. And the content of Knuth's book is much deeper. :-)
Am I reaping benifits that I don't see?
If the package is being used by other people, you will always be able to find programmers that are familiar with it and can maintain it and improve it.
If you keep it to yourself, once the main developers move on to other things you'll have hard time finding people that can work on your system. If you need bug fixes or new features you'll have to spend money and waste time to get new developers up to speed.
Too bad that you don't release them. How do you know that no one else would find them useful?