Yes, but unless we manufacture one, it's impossible to predict when Nature will get around to the job.
Which makes these guys (err... gals) an unstable invasive species. They may roll in, take over, settle into a niche... and then die out due to disease, causing a second major disruption when they do.
>Many that I know would be willing to take the 'deep sleep' pill because they feel that they are a burden to others. They have outlived their usefulness. It's time to go
Let me let you in on a little secret - you outlived your usefulness before you were conceived, simply because there's no objective point to existing. Why should your worth be measured by your ability to make life easier for others?
Subjectively, life is what you make it. As a social primate, your instincts should probably drive you to find some kind of point in life based on having and sharing experiences with others... and being near the end of normal human life expectancy doesn't prevent you from doing that so long as your health is decent.
>Why not let seniors opt out?
I would actually say, "Why not let people opt out?". And my response is that we should. But since as best we can tell your unique consciousness gets one go and one only at life, it's probably not a bad idea to make really, really sure people aren't taking a permanent nap to avoid a transitory issue that perhaps could be overcome with some assistance. Eventually you'll die anyway, so ever possible positive second of existence should be enjoyed. Right back to that 'social primate' thingy - empathy, communal care, etc.
Now, having said all that, please don't ask how I'm making the most of my life, because I'm pretty much a keyboard warrior at work and a couch potato at home.
We have pretty decent environment mapping and object detection now. Not as good as a small mammal, but pretty good compared to what most people believe computers can do these days.
There are now robots that can walk, run, climb stairs, etc.
We (common consumers, not the military or industry) will get full-function sexbots first. That's where the easy money is - there's already one with an animated head that can utter prerecorded sounds when triggered. Then will come the basic robotic nurse. And after that, presumably the dual-use nurse/sexbot.
CURRENT robotics can't solve all these problems. We simply don't have the general AI to run them (or even a sufficiently complex but unthinking algorithm). It's not a hardware issue anymore, it's a software issue.
I can even see something like those privacy invading 'speakers' we're reading so much about solving some of the issues. Imagine, for instance, a system set up not to buy things from Amazon, but to engage a home automation mechanism or grab the attention of a remote operator with nursing training when called upon. Or maybe have it listen for sounds of anguish or a fall so it can ask, "Are you OK?" and notify 911 if it doesn't get a suitable response. Connect it to things in the home so it knows if you've used the toilet in the last 24hrs, if the stove has been left on, to let it shut the TV off if it thinks it needs to communicate with you, to monitor whether you're even in your home at all.
Maybe (most sinister of all) give it access to your contacts list and keep track of how long its been since you've spoken to anyone, then send reminders of birthdays, anniversaries, etc. to hopefully get you some protection against unintentional social isolation.
>If a researcher, tester, AV company sends some PoC code opening calc.exe, then this is not malware!
If a researcher, tester, AV company sends some PoC code opening calc.exe, then you can reasonably assume that malicious code based on the same exploit already exists and is probably further along.
I imagine a single high-capacity encrypted media player with two copies of the files would work - one high quality copy with analog outputs and one lower quality copy for direct digital access that (presumably) you'd expect owners to pirate.
It could hold music and music videos, album playlists, etc., and music stores would have the required equipment to add another song or album. And if I were doing it, I'd have the tracks and videos re-encoded at purchase with the purchaser's credit card information as a watermark.
You could have limited-edition album or artist-specific players, too, to encourage people to buy more than one.
I believe that there is a strong possibility that the first general AI housed in the first practical android body will lead to a dystopia to end all dystopias.
When a 100% loyal metal servant can be your miner, your engineer, your soldier, your laborer, your cook, your companion, or your whore... EVERYTHING and ANYTHING a human does now... the people who own those robots won't need anybody else any longer. So why waste resources on them?
It's a race. Whoever has the first 'von Neumann army' wins. Or possibly the first few, who will find a way to divide up the earth amongst themselves while everyone else gets pushed back into less desirable territory until we're all dead.
>Nearly Three-Quarters of Adults in US Believe AI Will Eliminate More Jobs Than It Will Create
In the short term, we're in for epic disaster levels of unemployment. Only the owners of capital will be immune to the worst effects.
Of course, in the long term the economy will adjust and we'll use our extra productivity to sell each other goods and services we previously wouldn't have bothered with... only this new economy will be totally disconnected from the 'real' economy where land (with sunlight, water, minerals, and space to live) will be a source of wealth and power worth more than all crap all the average people will be producing.
The gap between the rich and the poor will grow to immeasurable proportions.
That really depends on how you are measuring it. In practical terms, Bitcoin's value is exactly what you can get for it at a given moment.
It's digital casino chips for a house that doesn't exist - but as long as there's a table to sit at, there's some value, I suppose. Just remember that nobody has any obligation to cash out your chips when you want to leave.
>The only thing missing is sex and I bet they can write that in.
The sex isn't missing, it's implied. (And didn't Manny have sex with Whyo at least once in the book???) The problem is the chain marriage and considering girls to be appropriate sex partners for men of any age as soon as they're fertile. And making fun of Americans as being intolerant racists and idiots... I bet that sells well in Hollywood's home market.
And then there's the silly libertarian nonsense Heinlein was so fond of. I mean really... criminals paying for their own judges and accepting punishment when they could more easily pay for 'friends' to help space their accusers?
It is entirely possible there are 'habitable' planets within reach of our technology - if we're willing to invest in building a heavily redundant generation ship and live forever in domes when we arrive at the destination, totally dependent on advanced technology for survival.
If I were a gambler, I'd say finding a Mars-equivalent would be like hitting the jackpot...
>If intelligent life 15 light years away can give us schematics for FTL drives
Then we have proof that either the Laws of Nature vary with location (because FTL is absolutely impossible here), or an alien prankster has control of the transmitter.
I agree... but at a certain point you have to accept that you've lost the battle and the word now has a new meaning, and that further resistance means YOU are no longer using the word properly.
Ultimately, the goal is effective communication, and if your definition doesn't match that of the majority, you're going to have a problem communicating.
Language evolves, and faster in niche groups. In the 'popular geek stuff' group, 'crypto' now refers to blockchain-based electronic economic token systems and not encryption and such.
Which is regrettable, because only one of those things should be of any importance to us, and it isn't the one that is currently called 'crypto'.
>Actually if you exclude auto accidents the life expectancy would increase even further.
Under the assumption we perfect self-driving cars in the next 1500 years, this is worth taking into account.
>If you exclude all accidents and allow for only predation the average life expectancy would shoot to a million.
Sure...
>Take predation away too, and man! you have become immortal.
Nope. Maintaining your current human body in perfect health would be insufficient as the Sun expands and cooks the Earth sterile in under a billion years from now. Sometime between that and now you'd hit a point where your body was insufficient to the task of operating in the changing environment. And you certainly wouldn't live through the period (about 3 billion years further along, I think) where the Sun engulfs the Earth and more or less dissolves it.
And there will still be accidents to account for; I imagine your odds of being fatally close to a natural disaster at some point rise quite a bit when your potential lifespan is 'unlimited' (or at least ~750 million years) instead of ~85 years.
On a related note, I believe humans free from ageing and illness would statistically live an average of 1500 years before death by accident under modern Western conditions.
>With the exception of the ability to pull the print in the first place...
Did the previously authenticated person clean the scanner surface? No? Oh, I just got their print.
That's why I like the 'swipe' version where you have to pull your finger across a narrow reader window instead of the imaging plate variant. At least then you have to work to get a good print off something else (which is actually pretty difficult when the person isn't deliberately trying to leave a print, contrary to what CSI would have you believe)
Interesting. Though it's difficult to weigh the relative prejudice of calling one group vs. another 'filthy animals', there's at least more diversity among Romanians overall making it even more ill-informed to choose them. And there's less pre-existing prejudice against them making it more difficult to understand (not forgive) as a product of upbringing.
Is this more or less a game on paper to get an infusion of cash for Dell, or could this actually have an effect on the VMWare business where I should be prepared for a chance of VMWare dying off?
>the average amount stocked in the machine being around $35k. Enough for a decent payday, even with multiple conspirators.
$17.5K/ea less any expenses for a two-man crew. That would NOT be worth it to me to even daydream about... in Canada the sentence for a conviction of Theft over $5000 is a max of 10 years... $1,750 per year (not indexed to inflation!) that you may not get to keep, though I suppose you do get free room and board.
It's worth mentioning to drive home the point that he works for the telecom cartel and not DJT.
While the WH was definitely on-side with the Net Neutrality debate, it'll be interesting to see Trump's Twitter reaction to this news (assuming Fox tells him what to think about it first). I mean, this will have to look like disloyalty to him, right? I wonder how he'll blame Obama or Hillary for this betrayal?
>I think the OP didn't highlight and bold and triple-underline the most important part of the design -- the not showing anything more. He's looking for a solution that turns off after use.
I know I overlooked it before I responded. I like the idea of a home 'television channel' for kids. Maybe something that plays random files from folders that are chosen by schedule..
And you know what else? I'd love it to detect good points to insert homebrew ads (based on how much time has passed and finding a scene transition). "Have you tried eating your vegetables today?" Or maybe throw in the good old Schoolhouse Rock shorts...
And I'm really going to show my age here - there used to be a time when television wasn't 24/7, and stations would have an 'end of day' video to play before switching to a test pattern and then sometimes shutting down entirely. An end of day message would be great. "Time to get ready for bed, see you tomorrow!"
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but unless we manufacture one, it's impossible to predict when Nature will get around to the job.
Which makes these guys (err... gals) an unstable invasive species. They may roll in, take over, settle into a niche... and then die out due to disease, causing a second major disruption when they do.
>Many that I know would be willing to take the 'deep sleep' pill because they feel that they are a burden to others. They have outlived their usefulness. It's time to go
Let me let you in on a little secret - you outlived your usefulness before you were conceived, simply because there's no objective point to existing. Why should your worth be measured by your ability to make life easier for others?
Subjectively, life is what you make it. As a social primate, your instincts should probably drive you to find some kind of point in life based on having and sharing experiences with others... and being near the end of normal human life expectancy doesn't prevent you from doing that so long as your health is decent.
>Why not let seniors opt out?
I would actually say, "Why not let people opt out?". And my response is that we should. But since as best we can tell your unique consciousness gets one go and one only at life, it's probably not a bad idea to make really, really sure people aren't taking a permanent nap to avoid a transitory issue that perhaps could be overcome with some assistance. Eventually you'll die anyway, so ever possible positive second of existence should be enjoyed. Right back to that 'social primate' thingy - empathy, communal care, etc.
Now, having said all that, please don't ask how I'm making the most of my life, because I'm pretty much a keyboard warrior at work and a couch potato at home.
We have pretty decent environment mapping and object detection now. Not as good as a small mammal, but pretty good compared to what most people believe computers can do these days.
There are now robots that can walk, run, climb stairs, etc.
We (common consumers, not the military or industry) will get full-function sexbots first. That's where the easy money is - there's already one with an animated head that can utter prerecorded sounds when triggered. Then will come the basic robotic nurse. And after that, presumably the dual-use nurse/sexbot.
CURRENT robotics can't solve all these problems. We simply don't have the general AI to run them (or even a sufficiently complex but unthinking algorithm). It's not a hardware issue anymore, it's a software issue.
I can even see something like those privacy invading 'speakers' we're reading so much about solving some of the issues. Imagine, for instance, a system set up not to buy things from Amazon, but to engage a home automation mechanism or grab the attention of a remote operator with nursing training when called upon. Or maybe have it listen for sounds of anguish or a fall so it can ask, "Are you OK?" and notify 911 if it doesn't get a suitable response. Connect it to things in the home so it knows if you've used the toilet in the last 24hrs, if the stove has been left on, to let it shut the TV off if it thinks it needs to communicate with you, to monitor whether you're even in your home at all.
Maybe (most sinister of all) give it access to your contacts list and keep track of how long its been since you've spoken to anyone, then send reminders of birthdays, anniversaries, etc. to hopefully get you some protection against unintentional social isolation.
>If a researcher, tester, AV company sends some PoC code opening calc.exe, then this is not malware!
If a researcher, tester, AV company sends some PoC code opening calc.exe, then you can reasonably assume that malicious code based on the same exploit already exists and is probably further along.
I imagine a single high-capacity encrypted media player with two copies of the files would work - one high quality copy with analog outputs and one lower quality copy for direct digital access that (presumably) you'd expect owners to pirate.
It could hold music and music videos, album playlists, etc., and music stores would have the required equipment to add another song or album. And if I were doing it, I'd have the tracks and videos re-encoded at purchase with the purchaser's credit card information as a watermark.
You could have limited-edition album or artist-specific players, too, to encourage people to buy more than one.
But please... with user-replaceable batteries...
It's got to be shorter or the broadcasters will start cutting it before the whole phrase gets out.
But I really like the idea. Way better than 'FHRITP'.
I believe that there is a strong possibility that the first general AI housed in the first practical android body will lead to a dystopia to end all dystopias.
When a 100% loyal metal servant can be your miner, your engineer, your soldier, your laborer, your cook, your companion, or your whore... EVERYTHING and ANYTHING a human does now... the people who own those robots won't need anybody else any longer. So why waste resources on them?
It's a race. Whoever has the first 'von Neumann army' wins. Or possibly the first few, who will find a way to divide up the earth amongst themselves while everyone else gets pushed back into less desirable territory until we're all dead.
>Nearly Three-Quarters of Adults in US Believe AI Will Eliminate More Jobs Than It Will Create
In the short term, we're in for epic disaster levels of unemployment. Only the owners of capital will be immune to the worst effects.
Of course, in the long term the economy will adjust and we'll use our extra productivity to sell each other goods and services we previously wouldn't have bothered with... only this new economy will be totally disconnected from the 'real' economy where land (with sunlight, water, minerals, and space to live) will be a source of wealth and power worth more than all crap all the average people will be producing.
The gap between the rich and the poor will grow to immeasurable proportions.
>Bitcoin's actual value is under a dollar.
That really depends on how you are measuring it. In practical terms, Bitcoin's value is exactly what you can get for it at a given moment.
It's digital casino chips for a house that doesn't exist - but as long as there's a table to sit at, there's some value, I suppose. Just remember that nobody has any obligation to cash out your chips when you want to leave.
>The only thing missing is sex and I bet they can write that in.
The sex isn't missing, it's implied. (And didn't Manny have sex with Whyo at least once in the book???) The problem is the chain marriage and considering girls to be appropriate sex partners for men of any age as soon as they're fertile. And making fun of Americans as being intolerant racists and idiots... I bet that sells well in Hollywood's home market.
And then there's the silly libertarian nonsense Heinlein was so fond of. I mean really... criminals paying for their own judges and accepting punishment when they could more easily pay for 'friends' to help space their accusers?
>There was a movie of it some time ago that was just terrible.
What? That movie was fine, I watch it every year or two.
>to find planets we'll never be able to reach!
It is entirely possible there are 'habitable' planets within reach of our technology - if we're willing to invest in building a heavily redundant generation ship and live forever in domes when we arrive at the destination, totally dependent on advanced technology for survival.
If I were a gambler, I'd say finding a Mars-equivalent would be like hitting the jackpot...
>If intelligent life 15 light years away can give us schematics for FTL drives
Then we have proof that either the Laws of Nature vary with location (because FTL is absolutely impossible here), or an alien prankster has control of the transmitter.
>Using words for what they mean is important
I agree... but at a certain point you have to accept that you've lost the battle and the word now has a new meaning, and that further resistance means YOU are no longer using the word properly.
Ultimately, the goal is effective communication, and if your definition doesn't match that of the majority, you're going to have a problem communicating.
I mean, I'm pretty sure they were an option back in the 80s... they just weren't worth the expense or trouble.
Language evolves, and faster in niche groups. In the 'popular geek stuff' group, 'crypto' now refers to blockchain-based electronic economic token systems and not encryption and such.
Which is regrettable, because only one of those things should be of any importance to us, and it isn't the one that is currently called 'crypto'.
>Actually if you exclude auto accidents the life expectancy would increase even further.
Under the assumption we perfect self-driving cars in the next 1500 years, this is worth taking into account.
>If you exclude all accidents and allow for only predation the average life expectancy would shoot to a million.
Sure...
>Take predation away too, and man! you have become immortal.
Nope. Maintaining your current human body in perfect health would be insufficient as the Sun expands and cooks the Earth sterile in under a billion years from now. Sometime between that and now you'd hit a point where your body was insufficient to the task of operating in the changing environment. And you certainly wouldn't live through the period (about 3 billion years further along, I think) where the Sun engulfs the Earth and more or less dissolves it.
And there will still be accidents to account for; I imagine your odds of being fatally close to a natural disaster at some point rise quite a bit when your potential lifespan is 'unlimited' (or at least ~750 million years) instead of ~85 years.
On a related note, I believe humans free from ageing and illness would statistically live an average of 1500 years before death by accident under modern Western conditions.
>With the exception of the ability to pull the print in the first place...
Did the previously authenticated person clean the scanner surface? No? Oh, I just got their print.
That's why I like the 'swipe' version where you have to pull your finger across a narrow reader window instead of the imaging plate variant. At least then you have to work to get a good print off something else (which is actually pretty difficult when the person isn't deliberately trying to leave a print, contrary to what CSI would have you believe)
Interesting. Though it's difficult to weigh the relative prejudice of calling one group vs. another 'filthy animals', there's at least more diversity among Romanians overall making it even more ill-informed to choose them. And there's less pre-existing prejudice against them making it more difficult to understand (not forgive) as a product of upbringing.
Is this more or less a game on paper to get an infusion of cash for Dell, or could this actually have an effect on the VMWare business where I should be prepared for a chance of VMWare dying off?
>the average amount stocked in the machine being around $35k. Enough for a decent payday, even with multiple conspirators.
$17.5K/ea less any expenses for a two-man crew. That would NOT be worth it to me to even daydream about... in Canada the sentence for a conviction of Theft over $5000 is a max of 10 years... $1,750 per year (not indexed to inflation!) that you may not get to keep, though I suppose you do get free room and board.
It's worth mentioning to drive home the point that he works for the telecom cartel and not DJT.
While the WH was definitely on-side with the Net Neutrality debate, it'll be interesting to see Trump's Twitter reaction to this news (assuming Fox tells him what to think about it first). I mean, this will have to look like disloyalty to him, right? I wonder how he'll blame Obama or Hillary for this betrayal?
>I think the OP didn't highlight and bold and triple-underline the most important part of the design -- the not showing anything more. He's looking for a solution that turns off after use.
I know I overlooked it before I responded. I like the idea of a home 'television channel' for kids. Maybe something that plays random files from folders that are chosen by schedule..
And you know what else? I'd love it to detect good points to insert homebrew ads (based on how much time has passed and finding a scene transition). "Have you tried eating your vegetables today?" Or maybe throw in the good old Schoolhouse Rock shorts...
And I'm really going to show my age here - there used to be a time when television wasn't 24/7, and stations would have an 'end of day' video to play before switching to a test pattern and then sometimes shutting down entirely. An end of day message would be great. "Time to get ready for bed, see you tomorrow!"