I'd stay away from the Mitnick book, if I were you. It reads like an executive summary of a much more interesting book. There's not much there: it's got large print and bullet points every few pages.
That humans are too complicated for us to reproduce artificially is an empirical claim, and it's one that I think is likely true.
Even if it turned out that we were able to produce what we'd now count as a "human machine," I think that we would then deny that it was human. That is, I suspect that it's a conceptual claim that there will never be any such thing as a human machine.
No matter how human or intelligent a machine is, it'll never count as human (or even fully possessed of human intelligence, whatever that is), since the bar will be raised. (Consider that at one point, people thought the hallmark of being human was being rational and that the characteristic activity of rational beings was doing math...)
When we've got a machine that passes all of the existing tests, someone'll ask "but why doesn't it cry during 'Sleepless in Seattle'?" or "why doesn't it hate Jar Jar?" or "does it get easily embarassed?"
I realize that an exception might have been made in the case of the Red Hat IPO, given the reaction to the lockout. In response to the people who have been decrying this apparent attempt to keep from the People the ability to Cash In, it must be pointed out that, in light of the recent Atlanta shootings, any relaxation of the requirements for online traders is unlikely to happen in the near future. Maybe this is a Good Thing.
Generally, it's been my experience* that lawyers identify good possible suits, and then go hunting for people who might fall into the class. If a lawyer thinks there is a good chance of this suit settling, or (*gasp*) winning, all of you folks who were invited to take part in the IPO may find yourselves receiving letters from some law firm, letting you know that you are in the class and that they have already filed suit on your behalf.
(* having been involved in the defense against a few class action suits)
I am a bit confused about this crackdown on software which converts from a particular file format. Would this be like MS or WordPerfect suing MarinerWrite because MarinerWrite includes in its software the means to convert from Word and WP files to text files or MarinerWrite files? It seems as though quite a bit of this sort of thing goes on, that is - software converting some file formats to others.
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I'd stay away from the Mitnick book, if I were you. It reads like an executive summary of a much more interesting book. There's not much there: it's got large print and bullet points every few pages.
"Myth or Moneymaker?" To assume that being one of these entails not being the other gives consumers too much credit.
It takes balls to make a PC like that.
That humans are too complicated for us to reproduce artificially is an empirical claim, and it's one that I think is likely true.
Even if it turned out that we were able to produce what we'd now count as a "human machine," I think that we would then deny that it was human. That is, I suspect that it's a conceptual claim that there will never be any such thing as a human machine.
No matter how human or intelligent a machine is, it'll never count as human (or even fully possessed of human intelligence, whatever that is), since the bar will be raised. (Consider that at one point, people thought the hallmark of being human was being rational and that the characteristic activity of rational beings was doing math...)
When we've got a machine that passes all of the existing tests, someone'll ask "but why doesn't it cry during 'Sleepless in Seattle'?" or "why doesn't it hate Jar Jar?" or "does it get easily embarassed?"
I realize that an exception might have been made in the case of the Red Hat IPO, given the reaction to the lockout. In response to the people who have been decrying this apparent attempt to keep from the People the ability to Cash In, it must be pointed out that, in light of the recent Atlanta shootings, any relaxation of the requirements for online traders is unlikely to happen in the near future. Maybe this is a Good Thing.
Generally, it's been my experience* that lawyers identify good possible suits, and then go hunting for people who might fall into the class. If a lawyer thinks there is a good chance of this suit settling, or (*gasp*) winning, all of you folks who were invited to take part in the IPO may find yourselves receiving letters from some law firm, letting you know that you are in the class and that they have already filed suit on your behalf.
(* having been involved in the defense against a few class action suits)
I am a bit confused about this crackdown on software which converts from a particular file format. Would this be like MS or WordPerfect suing MarinerWrite because MarinerWrite includes in its software the means to convert from Word and WP files to text files or MarinerWrite files? It seems as though quite a bit of this sort of thing goes on, that is - software converting some file formats to others.