It seems to me that this book, like most North Americans, equates happiness with a good life. This is ridiculous. Happiness is a by-product, perhaps, of a good life, but it is not the goal.
The goal is truth. What does it matter if you live your whole life a successful Hedonist and then it turns out that the theists were right - maybe you end up in hell for eternity, what does your 'happy' little century mean then? Most people don't care about truth because the truth can be harsh, or even worse, downright confusing.
But then, so can 'happiness'. No one is ever happy all the time, and many people who live at least peaceful lives turn 90 and decide they were never really satisfied. Why? They lack truth. They lack meaning. The job doesn't satisfy. Well jeez, maybe another job will fulfill me...
One can drown out the need to have a meaning for existence in many different things, but they all culminate in a single concept - self-deception. Yes, that's right, we're just one big, deluded nation. I've got a million silicon slices in front of me and a thousand fantasies at my fingertips - yay for the reality of ignorance. It truly is bliss.
Say goodbye to the mindless flash of flak cannon, hello to deus ex 3...(though 2 is supposed to be quite advanced in the malleable-storyline aspects already).
Seriously, though, I'd rather just screw the whole graphics vs AI argument and go right back to text adventures (actually, for the most part I have). Forget about the computer thinking, let me think. That's all the challenge I need.
And therefore all the fun.
Why can't music industry mojos see that jumping on the 'downloadables' bandwagon won't help anything? The problem remains: no unethical person will pay for something that is also available free.
Maybe one day someone will realize that the only thing the music industry has going for it (unless they begin propagating morality, *hack*) is whatever the internet/burning scene doesn't.
Namely: appealing tactile products (ie-cd jackets) or whatever else you can come up with
It is because chess is difficult for humans that it is the perfect test. To determine the limits of a machine you won't run software you know it can handle, instead you'll try your very hardest to crash the darned thing. Same goes for humans, the more difficult the challenge, the more accurate the measurement of success.
However, it seems to me that playing chess against a machine is hardly an accurate measurement of human intelligence. Rather, it is a test of cause-and-effect predictability.
A machine has a perfectly logical understanding understanding of chess, and is going to weigh options mathematically, not accounting for variations of human intellect. Thus, a skilled player (this still obviously requires intelligence, just a different kind) could 'psych out' a machine. Human behaviour is far more erratic and therefore unpredicable.
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It seems to me that this book, like most North Americans, equates happiness with a good life. This is ridiculous. Happiness is a by-product, perhaps, of a good life, but it is not the goal.
The goal is truth. What does it matter if you live your whole life a successful Hedonist and then it turns out that the theists were right - maybe you end up in hell for eternity, what does your 'happy' little century mean then? Most people don't care about truth because the truth can be harsh, or even worse, downright confusing.
But then, so can 'happiness'. No one is ever happy all the time, and many people who live at least peaceful lives turn 90 and decide they were never really satisfied. Why? They lack truth. They lack meaning. The job doesn't satisfy. Well jeez, maybe another job will fulfill me...
One can drown out the need to have a meaning for existence in many different things, but they all culminate in a single concept - self-deception. Yes, that's right, we're just one big, deluded nation.
I've got a million silicon slices in front of me and a thousand fantasies at my fingertips - yay for the reality of ignorance. It truly is bliss.
Say goodbye to the mindless flash of flak cannon, hello to deus ex 3...(though 2 is supposed to be quite advanced in the malleable-storyline aspects already). Seriously, though, I'd rather just screw the whole graphics vs AI argument and go right back to text adventures (actually, for the most part I have). Forget about the computer thinking, let me think. That's all the challenge I need. And therefore all the fun.
Why can't music industry mojos see that jumping on the 'downloadables' bandwagon won't help anything? The problem remains: no unethical person will pay for something that is also available free.
Maybe one day someone will realize that the only thing the music industry has going for it (unless they begin propagating morality, *hack*) is whatever the internet/burning scene doesn't.
Namely: appealing tactile products (ie-cd jackets) or whatever else you can come up with
It is because chess is difficult for humans that it is the perfect test. To determine the limits of a machine you won't run software you know it can handle, instead you'll try your very hardest to crash the darned thing. Same goes for humans, the more difficult the challenge, the more accurate the measurement of success.
However, it seems to me that playing chess against a machine is hardly an accurate measurement of human intelligence. Rather, it is a test of cause-and-effect predictability.
A machine has a perfectly logical understanding understanding of chess, and is going to weigh options mathematically, not accounting for variations of human intellect. Thus, a skilled player (this still obviously requires intelligence, just a different kind) could 'psych out' a machine. Human behaviour is far more erratic and therefore unpredicable.