Specific technology aside, but let's look at this thing with an eye towards the future. What happens when the appropriate software is developed that can learn personality traits? What happens when it can use those personality traits in new situations? Can you imagine that? If the program was so good it could have conversations in your absence. Would we ever truly die then? I understand we still have a long, long way to go before we understand how our brains functions, but once we do what is to prevent brain functionality from being "ported" to a computer?
When the appropriate software is developed which can learn personality traits, how far away are we from AI? I have the feeling this would be closely related to AI. And that's kind of odd. I mean, it would be kind of cool to spawn an AI with my personality, but at the same time, I'd feel kind of guilty. Who am I to put all my insecurities and personality flaws (see what I mean?) on some AI's shoulders?
Plus, I myself would find it freaky that some AI would be so good at being me that I wouldn't know what I had or hadn't done/said/etc, which wouldn't be too hard, given how integrated the net is now, and how integrated it could get in the future.
The question for me isn't "Would we ever truly die then?" but rather: Would we ever truly live?
Sheesh, is my paranoid conspiratorialist streak showing or what?
Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin...
Think about how everybody learns to read and write in elementary school. They will learn to write in English (or Spanish, French, or whatever the native language is). But how many of those people ever go on to learn to be fluent in a second (or third, or fourth) language? Sure, many high school districts require a couple years of learning a foreign language, but in those two years, few people ever learn or even remeber more than how to say "Hello" and other basic phrases.
I beg to differ, but will present the exception first. When in Elementary school in Saudi Arabia (an American one) we used to have Arabic classes. I was doing quite well in it, but in third grade it got pulled permanently from the curriculum because of parents going to the PTA. My Arabic now consists of a 20-word vocabulary.
When I was in 6th grade, I started learning French. I was fluent by 11th grade. However, since I'm no longer taking classes in it, it has dropped to a conversational level, even though I'm living in Quebec. The only languages I only remember basic phrases like "Hello" are those I asked friends how to say them in: Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Cantonese, and so on. I will admit, the Junior High level stuff didn't really stick too well, but the High School stuff stuck like glue.
By weaning people on Python or any single language, many people will only use Python for the rest of their lives. Python is a good language, of course, but has its limitations. Also, these people will only be able to modify other Python programs to their needs, and would just shrug their shoulders at the vast majority of code written in C, C++, Perl, and other languages.
I started learning computer languages in University. I took the Intro to CS course over the summer in just two months. We started off with Pascal, and then in the last two weeks learned C. The Pascal was, to put it not too bluntly, very easy to learn -- the hardest part was learning pointers (wasn't until 4 months later that I finally mastered them). Yes, I found the C difficult to learn then, but since I needed it for a class the very next term, I found I was able to cement it in my mind. This next class I've mentioned also taught us MIPS Assembly. I'm now learning C++ and the whole idea of OOP in about three days for another course, and am actually finding it quite workable.
I don't translate my C/C++ thinking into Pascal just because that's what I first learned. I learn the other languages to the point where I think in them. If anything, I think of my Pascal/C/C++ in terms of Assembly, which I find to be a much healthier approach.
What I'm saying is: sure, if you're not gonna do a good job teaching any of the other languages, of course the kids'll translate back to Python. But they do need an introduction to the *feel* and *style* of programming. And then, if you do a decent job with the next languages, the kids'll think in terms of them, too. They'll be able to look at a problem and decide which language would be best to solve it, and that's what we're trying to breed here.
Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin...
I honestly do believe that there's a relatively high number of people here that have damaged psyches and could use some mental help.
Well, that can be said of any "fringe" group. People with "damaged psyches" tend to feel more outside of the mainstream. However, because of our strong social need for groups and networks of social support, these people tend to be attracted to groups which are, themselves, outside the mainstream. You know, I'm a rebel, just like all the others? Of course, we tend to feel that once we're in the group that we're okay, we don't need help, we're not psychos: how could we be part of a group like this and be psycho? Groups are comforting and powerfully healing as well as potentially powerfully misleading. Case in point: witness the attraction of cults.
And I'm sure some of the people out here who need mental help are getting it (I know I am). But that's not my point. My point is, just because some people could use some mental help, should their opinions be disregarded or deemed trash? I would say, rather, that the pseudo-trollers (those who post flamebait not to watch the fireworks but because of conviction) need not mental help, but rather the space to grow up. During that time, I'm not saying they should be coddled, as that will not encourage aforementioned growing up. I'd just as soon ignore the psuedo-trollers as the trollers. In the latter case to deprive them of their vaunted power of creating havoc, and in the former case because when children seek attention, they don't differentiate between 'good' attention or 'bad' attention, and so only learn to change their behaviour through the (to the child's mindframe) horrifying response of no attention. Yes, it's slightly harsh, but it's a lot better, also for the child to learn it on their own by figuring out that everyone's ignoring them when they say inappropriate things than by being put down all the time for them and thus feeling defensive and justified.
But please, don't assume that they need mental help or that, even worse, those who need mental help are incapable of contributing intelligently to these forums. To do so is to fall into the stereotypes Western society has set up in recent times. I find that people with "damaged psyches" tend to have a better insight into how the world works, as they've more empathy.
getting off the soapbox...:) Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin...
Your grammar teachers are rolling over in their graves, darlings.
When referring to a collective entity, one uses either the singular or the plural depending on what they mean. If the collective entity is acting like a single unit and undivided, it is singular. If the collective entity are divided in their opinions (like any political decision making congregation) then they are plural.
Examples:
NATO recognized its 50th birthday this past week.
NATO are trying to maintain peace in the world.
Okay, so that last one was just a bit snarky and cynical of me, but do you see the point now? I find this odd, because I was just explaining this to some students in the library the other day about why Mathematics is singular.
Maybe it was the Canadain Goverment halting him because he didn't mirror his page French.
Nahhh... if he were in Quebec, it would be believable for the Office de la Langue Francaise to pull that seeing as they do all the time. But the Canadian government on a federal basis doesn't require mirroring except of its own sites.
Nightmares of Bloom County and Donald Trump
on
Web Sites Shut Down
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· Score: 1
UF is only really known by people who already don't like MS, so it's not like UF is doing much to influence public opinion.
UF is *NOT* only on the web anymore. As any UF fanatic knows, it has been being printed in the National Post for around a month now. Granted, the NP doesn't exactly have a wide coverage...
For all you non-Canadians, the National Post is the paper started by good ole' Conrad Black aimed to be a national paper for all of Canada. It has articl... ahem, submissions from writers for all the major newspapers in the country. Plus, they're handing it out for free in the metro in Montreal, so I've finally read some of it. Hey, any Montrealers out there wanna speculate on whether they'll end up using the Gazette's schoolboy labourers to get subscriptions?
Slashdot Mirror
When the appropriate software is developed which can learn personality traits, how far away are we from AI? I have the feeling this would be closely related to AI. And that's kind of odd. I mean, it would be kind of cool to spawn an AI with my personality, but at the same time, I'd feel kind of guilty. Who am I to put all my insecurities and personality flaws (see what I mean?) on some AI's shoulders?
Plus, I myself would find it freaky that some AI would be so good at being me that I wouldn't know what I had or hadn't done/said/etc, which wouldn't be too hard, given how integrated the net is now, and how integrated it could get in the future.
The question for me isn't "Would we ever truly die then?" but rather: Would we ever truly live?
Sheesh, is my paranoid conspiratorialist streak showing or what?
Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin...
I beg to differ, but will present the exception first. When in Elementary school in Saudi Arabia (an American one) we used to have Arabic classes. I was doing quite well in it, but in third grade it got pulled permanently from the curriculum because of parents going to the PTA. My Arabic now consists of a 20-word vocabulary.
When I was in 6th grade, I started learning French. I was fluent by 11th grade. However, since I'm no longer taking classes in it, it has dropped to a conversational level, even though I'm living in Quebec. The only languages I only remember basic phrases like "Hello" are those I asked friends how to say them in: Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Cantonese, and so on. I will admit, the Junior High level stuff didn't really stick too well, but the High School stuff stuck like glue.
By weaning people on Python or any single language, many people will only use Python for the rest of their lives. Python is a good language, of course, but has its limitations. Also, these people will only be able to modify other Python programs to their needs, and would just shrug their shoulders at the vast majority of code written in C, C++, Perl, and other languages.
I started learning computer languages in University. I took the Intro to CS course over the summer in just two months. We started off with Pascal, and then in the last two weeks learned C. The Pascal was, to put it not too bluntly, very easy to learn -- the hardest part was learning pointers (wasn't until 4 months later that I finally mastered them). Yes, I found the C difficult to learn then, but since I needed it for a class the very next term, I found I was able to cement it in my mind. This next class I've mentioned also taught us MIPS Assembly. I'm now learning C++ and the whole idea of OOP in about three days for another course, and am actually finding it quite workable.
I don't translate my C/C++ thinking into Pascal just because that's what I first learned. I learn the other languages to the point where I think in them. If anything, I think of my Pascal/C/C++ in terms of Assembly, which I find to be a much healthier approach.
What I'm saying is: sure, if you're not gonna do a good job teaching any of the other languages, of course the kids'll translate back to Python. But they do need an introduction to the *feel* and *style* of programming. And then, if you do a decent job with the next languages, the kids'll think in terms of them, too. They'll be able to look at a problem and decide which language would be best to solve it, and that's what we're trying to breed here.
Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin...
Well, that can be said of any "fringe" group. People with "damaged psyches" tend to feel more outside of the mainstream. However, because of our strong social need for groups and networks of social support, these people tend to be attracted to groups which are, themselves, outside the mainstream. You know, I'm a rebel, just like all the others? Of course, we tend to feel that once we're in the group that we're okay, we don't need help, we're not psychos: how could we be part of a group like this and be psycho? Groups are comforting and powerfully healing as well as potentially powerfully misleading. Case in point: witness the attraction of cults.
And I'm sure some of the people out here who need mental help are getting it (I know I am). But that's not my point. My point is, just because some people could use some mental help, should their opinions be disregarded or deemed trash? I would say, rather, that the pseudo-trollers (those who post flamebait not to watch the fireworks but because of conviction) need not mental help, but rather the space to grow up. During that time, I'm not saying they should be coddled, as that will not encourage aforementioned growing up. I'd just as soon ignore the psuedo-trollers as the trollers. In the latter case to deprive them of their vaunted power of creating havoc, and in the former case because when children seek attention, they don't differentiate between 'good' attention or 'bad' attention, and so only learn to change their behaviour through the (to the child's mindframe) horrifying response of no attention. Yes, it's slightly harsh, but it's a lot better, also for the child to learn it on their own by figuring out that everyone's ignoring them when they say inappropriate things than by being put down all the time for them and thus feeling defensive and justified.
But please, don't assume that they need mental help or that, even worse, those who need mental help are incapable of contributing intelligently to these forums. To do so is to fall into the stereotypes Western society has set up in recent times. I find that people with "damaged psyches" tend to have a better insight into how the world works, as they've more empathy.
getting off the soapbox... :)
Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin...
When referring to a collective entity, one uses either the singular or the plural depending on what they mean. If the collective entity is acting like a single unit and undivided, it is singular. If the collective entity are divided in their opinions (like any political decision making congregation) then they are plural.
Examples:
NATO recognized its 50th birthday this past week.
NATO are trying to maintain peace in the world.
Okay, so that last one was just a bit snarky and cynical of me, but do you see the point now? I find this odd, because I was just explaining this to some students in the library the other day about why Mathematics is singular.
Nahhh... if he were in Quebec, it would be believable for the Office de la Langue Francaise to pull that seeing as they do all the time. But the Canadian government on a federal basis doesn't require mirroring except of its own sites.
UF is *NOT* only on the web anymore. As any UF fanatic knows, it has been being printed in the National Post for around a month now. Granted, the NP doesn't exactly have a wide coverage...
For all you non-Canadians, the National Post is the paper started by good ole' Conrad Black aimed to be a national paper for all of Canada. It has articl... ahem, submissions from writers for all the major newspapers in the country. Plus, they're handing it out for free in the metro in Montreal, so I've finally read some of it. Hey, any Montrealers out there wanna speculate on whether they'll end up using the Gazette's schoolboy labourers to get subscriptions?
Illiad resides in B.C. A quick search on Canada 411 reveals no M DeWitt in the entire province of British Columbia.
Hmmm... the evidence mounts.