Just a note: education is the biggest expenditure in most state budgets, but the above statistic (that it is greater than "EVERYTHING ELSE COMBINED") is an exxageration. I think all the state budgets are online--see for yourselves if you want.
Cause it's embarassing to walk around spouting false statistics you heard somewhere. I've done it many times.
I think quantum computing is not a simulation of parallel computing, except in a very weird sense. That is, a quantum computer can sort-of be thought of as a machine in which each possible sub-problem is modeled on at least one processor, except all the processors are loosely connected to one another and in the end the machine will only return the correct answer with a high probability. It's nondeterministic and non-binary (like us, but in a very different way IMHO).
As a logical matter, however, I think any formal system of thought, including quantum mechanics and, I expect, a functional AI too, will be able to be represented in terms of boolean logic. That's sort of an extension of the popular version of the Church-Turing-Tarsky thesis the computation theory people love talking about.
The philosophy in The Matrix runs a lot deeper than people give it credit for. Philip K. Dick used the same basic thought experiement from Descartes and used it as a jumping off point in lots of books and stories to look at how technology highlights those old metaphysical and ontological issues, and The Matrix is very much in that tradition (see Ubik and The Man in the High Castle, and then read Stanislaw Lem's book of essays Microworlds. Or don't). But it also adds elements from current "cutting-edge" philosophers like Jean Baudrillard (whose book, Simulacra and Simulation, appears, appropriately hollowed out, in Thomas Anderson's apartment) who are more interested in ontology not as some mental puzzle but as it relates to the politics of our consumer culture. There are lots of essays around by people who know a lot more than me--try searching for (Baudrillard or Semiotics or Simulacra or Deconstructionism) and The Matrix on the search engine of your choice.
Slashdot Mirror
Just a note: education is the biggest expenditure in most state budgets, but the above statistic (that it is greater than "EVERYTHING ELSE COMBINED") is an exxageration. I think all the state budgets are online--see for yourselves if you want.
Cause it's embarassing to walk around spouting false statistics you heard somewhere. I've done it many times.
I think they meant it was seven lines after
use AI::SelfAware;
I think quantum computing is not a simulation of parallel computing, except in a very weird sense. That is, a quantum computer can sort-of be thought of as a machine in which each possible sub-problem is modeled on at least one processor, except all the processors are loosely connected to one another and in the end the machine will only return the correct answer with a high probability. It's nondeterministic and non-binary (like us, but in a very different way IMHO). As a logical matter, however, I think any formal system of thought, including quantum mechanics and, I expect, a functional AI too, will be able to be represented in terms of boolean logic. That's sort of an extension of the popular version of the Church-Turing-Tarsky thesis the computation theory people love talking about.
More like, "Well, we think our cigarettes are fine, but in order to put an end to all this costly litigation, here's 10 $1-off coupons."
The philosophy in The Matrix runs a lot deeper than people give it credit for. Philip K. Dick used the same basic thought experiement from Descartes and used it as a jumping off point in lots of books and stories to look at how technology highlights those old metaphysical and ontological issues, and The Matrix is very much in that tradition (see Ubik and The Man in the High Castle, and then read Stanislaw Lem's book of essays Microworlds. Or don't). But it also adds elements from current "cutting-edge" philosophers like Jean Baudrillard (whose book, Simulacra and Simulation, appears, appropriately hollowed out, in Thomas Anderson's apartment) who are more interested in ontology not as some mental puzzle but as it relates to the politics of our consumer culture. There are lots of essays around by people who know a lot more than me--try searching for (Baudrillard or Semiotics or Simulacra or Deconstructionism) and The Matrix on the search engine of your choice.