"When we read an article in an encyclopedia, a lot of other stuff other than intelligence comes into play: x years of public school education, idiomatic constructs, varying by geographic location, that may or may not enhance or obscure meaning, and, of course, the double meanings and entendres inserted by bored or biased encyclopedia writers."
On the contrary, I think these examples you provided ARE intelligence. It's quite obvious that we can instill the kind of intelligence you speak of into software (raw logic/reasoning)but I would call this merely logic/reasoning. The challenge comes ONLY on the front of the semantics of culture and society. But don't give us humans too much credit. Even moral reasoning can be reduced to a few simple algorithms. I'd argue that there's nothing THAT special about our brains. When you get to the lowest levels of thought it's just basic reasoning skills and a large, interlinked repository of information. In fact the only advantage we have over a machine is that we're wired into the most versatile data collection instrument we know of- our body.
The question is whether that's something that can be replaced by a team of deep-thinking programmers.
Who here actually gives a shit about fair use? The question in my eyes is whether we'll be able to illegally duplicate this copyrighted property so we can enjoy it for free with our friends and family. And of course WE (the geeks) will, because we're priveledged with the skills and support network to make it happen, but the problem here is that the people who really can't afford it (and just about everyone reading this CAN afford to pay) are going to have to revert back to paying for it, just as we were getting close to making the technology accessible to these people. It's now very aparrent that this and other information technologies that might make for a more upwardly mobile lower class will just continue to be snuffed in the name of conserving our intellectual property rights. And the real pisser is that WE(the middle class and myself) are the ones inducing this sort of reaction from the system by ripping IP in the first place. The thought of under-priveledged people having to pay for their information (Its hard enough for them to take an interest in information in the first place) is pretty shitty.
---FuntshotIV
"...I could explain it but no one would care."
Bravo. I was thinking along these same lines- any college student can create a fusion reaction in the tradition of our sun, the trick is moderating the thing.
FuntshotIV
"...I could explain it but no one would care."
I would agree that I don't see this as much of a change. The internet as we know it is already divided into realms of commercial and free, and the contrast between the two keeps getting stronger and stronger (with the free software movement). Have you all noticed that the more bloated the commercial sector gets, the more radical and enthused the free sector gets. As this continues I anticipate that we'll end up with a fairly large core of proponents of free communication, which is where the real information will be.
If the then separate commerce domain chooses to charge people to spend money(?) then so be it.
The worst that could come of this is me having to go out to the store.
Slashdot Mirror
"When we read an article in an encyclopedia, a lot of other stuff other than intelligence comes into play: x years of public school education, idiomatic constructs, varying by geographic location, that may or may not enhance or obscure meaning, and, of course, the double meanings and entendres inserted by bored or biased encyclopedia writers."
On the contrary, I think these examples you provided ARE intelligence. It's quite obvious that we can instill the kind of intelligence you speak of into software (raw logic/reasoning)but I would call this merely logic/reasoning. The challenge comes ONLY on the front of the semantics of culture and society. But don't give us humans too much credit. Even moral reasoning can be reduced to a few simple algorithms. I'd argue that there's nothing THAT special about our brains. When you get to the lowest levels of thought it's just basic reasoning skills and a large, interlinked repository of information. In fact the only advantage we have over a machine is that we're wired into the most versatile data collection instrument we know of- our body.
The question is whether that's something that can be replaced by a team of deep-thinking programmers.
Who here actually gives a shit about fair use? The question in my eyes is whether we'll be able to illegally duplicate this copyrighted property so we can enjoy it for free with our friends and family. And of course WE (the geeks) will, because we're priveledged with the skills and support network to make it happen, but the problem here is that the people who really can't afford it (and just about everyone reading this CAN afford to pay) are going to have to revert back to paying for it, just as we were getting close to making the technology accessible to these people. It's now very aparrent that this and other information technologies that might make for a more upwardly mobile lower class will just continue to be snuffed in the name of conserving our intellectual property rights. And the real pisser is that WE(the middle class and myself) are the ones inducing this sort of reaction from the system by ripping IP in the first place. The thought of under-priveledged people having to pay for their information (Its hard enough for them to take an interest in information in the first place) is pretty shitty. ---FuntshotIV "...I could explain it but no one would care."
Bravo. I was thinking along these same lines- any college student can create a fusion reaction in the tradition of our sun, the trick is moderating the thing. FuntshotIV "...I could explain it but no one would care."
I would agree that I don't see this as much of a change. The internet as we know it is already divided into realms of commercial and free, and the contrast between the two keeps getting stronger and stronger (with the free software movement). Have you all noticed that the more bloated the commercial sector gets, the more radical and enthused the free sector gets. As this continues I anticipate that we'll end up with a fairly large core of proponents of free communication, which is where the real information will be. If the then separate commerce domain chooses to charge people to spend money(?) then so be it. The worst that could come of this is me having to go out to the store.