If a computer came to you and said that, you would either freak, or assume it was a cool hack.
On a more topical note, most humans don't agree on those statements. Look at the arguements over the (fairly plain) Second Amendment, or the way that people were enslaved years ago. A machine, like a small child, would have to first talk to you, and prove that it had an idea of what you and I consider to be liberty, rather than what it thinks is liberty. It might be talking about the power lead, or bipedal motion, rather than a better life.
Another interesting point is that how would you write a test that could tell if a machine was truely intelligent? Ask it any question that is on the web, and it could provide an answer. Not only that, but it could tailor the answer (which someone else wrote) by picking the one that most closely aligned with the tests it had applied to you, so that you were more likely to accept it's answer!
You have a very valid point.
Give it a few years, and you will be able to do this. Don't laugh! You can already "print" plastic and metal parts with rapid prototyping. Give it a few more years, and printed circuits will be available in 3D at home. They already do it in cellphone manufacture.
I have a functional adjustable wrench at home from a US company made from ABS plastic (just don't expect too much torque!) which was made by a computer linked to a 3d printer in ONE piece! The tolerancing was done with a water soluble plastic that was disolved afterwards.
How long before the local gang-banger can print an Uzi? Not very. How long before you sign an NDA and license before taking delivery of your new fridge? What will happen to the market for things when you can print a new CPU cooler at home?
These designs don't need batteries. There are lots of other ways to do it.
The most promising and common is simply to make it micropowered, and run it off a capacitor. Another way is to use a coil and leach off RF or magnetic fields from 50/60Hz AC hum (very viable in a modern home or hospital). Another one is this bit of advanced magic for picking up higher-energy RF, called the "solar cell", which neatly sidesteps problems with antenna lengths.
The neatest, and most tricky to counter, is, of course, a built in generator which leaches energy from movement directly, by the movement of a tiny magnet inside a coil, with some charging logic. Store it in a thin-film capacitor for a while.
Another clever way, which would be good for small devices, would be a peizoelectric skin over a small air bubble, which would generate voltage from changes in air pressure, or sound.
So you don't even want a battery, most of the time.
Because you have never seen it on the TV, you don't believe it. Well, believe it.
Professor John Lott has just published a book called "The hidden bias against guns", or similar, which shows the bias the media have against law-abiding citizens who act to stop crime.
Whether it is Tony Martin, convicted of murder in the UK for shooting two men who were ransacking his remote farmhouse in the dead of night, or the fact that most of the high school massacres in the United States were stopped by either an armed teacher or an armed student, rather than a cop or security guard, time and again the media just parrots the line that says "All guns are bad", despite all evidence to the contrary.
Let me ask you this: If guns are inherently evil, why aren't cops affected by it? Why have none of my guns ever escaped the cabinet and shot someone in all these years? How come armed robbers never try to rob gun shows or police stations?
Anyway, my karma is bad enough at the moment, so I will wrap up this OT post!
These kids will be the next generation of politians, lawyers, street criminals, pimps and hookers, rather than being productive members of society (rather than rich) and so may well fsck up everything...
And how long before the kids who want to shoot the place up, and get on TV, decide that the camera poses they practise for the CCTV in the school will work really well when they shoot up assembly?
Of course, this means that when the hero kids break federal law to get their own guns and stop the killers, they might actually get some credit on TV, rather than just "some students stopped the gunman", which sounds like they just wandered up and asked him not to shoot anyone else...
Guns don't kill people, american school kids kill people...
Although a lot of slashdotter's have never read the archives (someone must have posted a link at some point) these cameras are common in the UK. Motorway gantries have these cameras mounted on them, and they have two IR spotlights next to them, and they read your (front) numberplate, and take your photo.
Some distance further down the road, they read it again, and then they work out your average speed.
Police PR sources claim that they can get 15,000 people a day without loading the system. At the moment, they are just used on areas with roadworks, outside the M25 (London's outer carpark/ringroad) but they are used to enforce the variable speed limits which are supposed to ease congestion.
Also, as of the 7th(?) of Feb, all cars, vans, etc. that drive into the center of London will get their numberplates read, and the owner will be charged £5 for the privilidge of sitting in traffic for hours. See this article in the Guardian for ways around the cameras! They are optical, and they are OCR.
Car cloning is one thing they mention, and to try and stop this, you now have to show documents to get a numberplate made up.. Of course, if you simply buy a numberplate making set, you don't need to show anything!
Well, what can I say? This is a very dumb idea, since the whole world is turning, and gyro's drift over time, in a random manner. Imagine, you get talking to someone at work, look back, and your 3D view of the web has wandered away to some pr0n site, and you get fired!
"It wasn't me, it was the rotation of the earth causing precession of the gyro in my PDA, causing Lucsious Linda to.. er.. forget it, I'll go quietly..."
On another technical note, what is the update rate going to be like? God knows, Windoze on a 2GHz PC often pauses for long enough that you get upset just scrolling in a big Word document! If that was your entire view of the world, getting lost would be all too common.
"Where do you want to go today? Tough, you're lost AGAIN!"
---
Insert witty comment here
Slashdot Mirror
If a computer came to you and said that, you would either freak, or assume it was a cool hack.
On a more topical note, most humans don't agree on those statements. Look at the arguements over the (fairly plain) Second Amendment, or the way that people were enslaved years ago. A machine, like a small child, would have to first talk to you, and prove that it had an idea of what you and I consider to be liberty, rather than what it thinks is liberty. It might be talking about the power lead, or bipedal motion, rather than a better life.
Another interesting point is that how would you write a test that could tell if a machine was truely intelligent? Ask it any question that is on the web, and it could provide an answer. Not only that, but it could tailor the answer (which someone else wrote) by picking the one that most closely aligned with the tests it had applied to you, so that you were more likely to accept it's answer!
You have a very valid point.
Give it a few years, and you will be able to do this. Don't laugh! You can already "print" plastic and metal parts with rapid prototyping. Give it a few more years, and printed circuits will be available in 3D at home. They already do it in cellphone manufacture.
I have a functional adjustable wrench at home from a US company made from ABS plastic (just don't expect too much torque!) which was made by a computer linked to a 3d printer in ONE piece! The tolerancing was done with a water soluble plastic that was disolved afterwards.
How long before the local gang-banger can print an Uzi? Not very. How long before you sign an NDA and license before taking delivery of your new fridge? What will happen to the market for things when you can print a new CPU cooler at home?
I'm looking forward to the day the protection will actually prevent people from listening to the music they bought.
Err... Isn't that what the article was about?
Your day has come!
These designs don't need batteries. There are lots of other ways to do it.
The most promising and common is simply to make it micropowered, and run it off a capacitor. Another way is to use a coil and leach off RF or magnetic fields from 50/60Hz AC hum (very viable in a modern home or hospital). Another one is this bit of advanced magic for picking up higher-energy RF, called the "solar cell", which neatly sidesteps problems with antenna lengths.
The neatest, and most tricky to counter, is, of course, a built in generator which leaches energy from movement directly, by the movement of a tiny magnet inside a coil, with some charging logic. Store it in a thin-film capacitor for a while.
Another clever way, which would be good for small devices, would be a peizoelectric skin over a small air bubble, which would generate voltage from changes in air pressure, or sound.
So you don't even want a battery, most of the time.
See? You prove my point for me.
Because you have never seen it on the TV, you don't believe it. Well, believe it.
Professor John Lott has just published a book called "The hidden bias against guns", or similar, which shows the bias the media have against law-abiding citizens who act to stop crime.
Whether it is Tony Martin, convicted of murder in the UK for shooting two men who were ransacking his remote farmhouse in the dead of night, or the fact that most of the high school massacres in the United States were stopped by either an armed teacher or an armed student, rather than a cop or security guard, time and again the media just parrots the line that says "All guns are bad", despite all evidence to the contrary.
Let me ask you this: If guns are inherently evil, why aren't cops affected by it? Why have none of my guns ever escaped the cabinet and shot someone in all these years? How come armed robbers never try to rob gun shows or police stations?
Anyway, my karma is bad enough at the moment, so I will wrap up this OT post!
God, I hate people like you.
The law forces the kids to be there, so they should not have to give up all their rights in exchange for a mandated thing!
I hope you have the same attidude the first time you get a body cavity search when you turn on a public access channel on your TV.
Well, you are getting it for free, aren't you? How can you object?
Oh, and from that day, your TV ALWAYS comes on tuned to the free ones!
Want to bet it isn't life or death?
These kids will be the next generation of politians, lawyers, street criminals, pimps and hookers, rather than being productive members of society (rather than rich) and so may well fsck up everything...
And how long before the kids who want to shoot the place up, and get on TV, decide that the camera poses they practise for the CCTV in the school will work really well when they shoot up assembly?
Of course, this means that when the hero kids break federal law to get their own guns and stop the killers, they might actually get some credit on TV, rather than just "some students stopped the gunman", which sounds like they just wandered up and asked him not to shoot anyone else...
Guns don't kill people, american school kids kill people...
Although a lot of slashdotter's have never read the archives (someone must have posted a link at some point) these cameras are common in the UK. Motorway gantries have these cameras mounted on them, and they have two IR spotlights next to them, and they read your (front) numberplate, and take your photo.
Some distance further down the road, they read it again, and then they work out your average speed.
Police PR sources claim that they can get 15,000 people a day without loading the system. At the moment, they are just used on areas with roadworks, outside the M25 (London's outer carpark/ringroad) but they are used to enforce the variable speed limits which are supposed to ease congestion.
Also, as of the 7th(?) of Feb, all cars, vans, etc. that drive into the center of London will get their numberplates read, and the owner will be charged £5 for the privilidge of sitting in traffic for hours.
See this article in the Guardian for ways around the cameras! They are optical, and they are OCR.
Car cloning is one thing they mention, and to try and stop this, you now have to show documents to get a numberplate made up.. Of course, if you simply buy a numberplate making set, you don't need to show anything!
Well, what can I say? This is a very dumb idea, since the whole world is turning, and gyro's drift over time, in a random manner. Imagine, you get talking to someone at work, look back, and your 3D view of the web has wandered away to some pr0n site, and you get fired! "It wasn't me, it was the rotation of the earth causing precession of the gyro in my PDA, causing Lucsious Linda to.. er.. forget it, I'll go quietly..." On another technical note, what is the update rate going to be like? God knows, Windoze on a 2GHz PC often pauses for long enough that you get upset just scrolling in a big Word document! If that was your entire view of the world, getting lost would be all too common. "Where do you want to go today? Tough, you're lost AGAIN!" --- Insert witty comment here