Not almost anything. As much as I love his stuff, there's a mighty whopping of violence and/or death (plus a few naughty words) in some of his Discworld novels. "Maskerade", for instance, is one that I would recommend for a slightly older audience (who would also appreciate the "subtle" Phantom of the Opera references).
Back in six grade, we read "Invitation to the Game" by Monica Hughes, and I've been hooked on scifi ever since.
Brief plot synopsis: unemployment is skyrocketing due to mass mechanization of society, although the unemployed are well taken-care-of due to the same efficient use of resources. It can be dull to be unemployed, at least until you get an invitation on your doorstep mentioning a secret game with a very exclusive list of players.
Mystery/adventure/scifi, very highly rated, but do not read the Amazon editorials (thar be spoilers afoot).
Here's another easy-to-grasp one: public key encryption (think: credit card purchases online) is dependent upon the use of large primes. Large primes are currently not the easiest/fastest to find - what if you knew better where to look for them?
The Riemann zeta function is \zeta(s) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^{s}} [written for LaTeX], or "the sum of 1/(n^s) as n goes from 0 to infinity (increasing by 1 repeatedly)" [in more human-readable form].
Riemann was interested in the zeros to this function, where s is a complex number. He conjectured that all zeros (aside from those of the form s = -2c, where c is a positive integer) would have to be of the form (1/2) + ki, where k is a constant and i is the square root of -1.
This paper is saying that they've found a way to verify this intuition by patching a hole in a previous attempt.
Assuming that everything is correct (a big assumption), this would finally solve a long-standing problem (dating back to 1859).
Details of the actual solution are a bit heavy. Those actually interested in this sort of number theory might want to start here.
For a more traditional start, I'd suggest AI: A Modern Approach (by Russell & Norvig). It's a classic, it's (fairly) easy to read, and technical universities and most larger libraries should have at least one copy.
What about when a successful human-mimicking system is successful to the point that it is indistinguishable from sentience? If you make a system that finds Waldo in a picture by scanning around like a person, is that AI or still ML? What about an ELIZA system that works 99.9% of the time?
And who said that something acting intelligently had to be sentient? A chess-playing bot that beats you repeatably can be said to play intelligently, even if it's purely reactionary. With smart load-balancing on multi-core/processor machines, I'd say your OS is intelligent.
Who said that complex behaviour cannot be simplified to search, planning, and classification? Doesn't multi-agent interaction boil down to a search for actions that produce competitive/mutually-beneficial/self-serving reward (utility)?
Yes, some (small) parts of AI research have gone down the "just an algorithm" path in pursuit of a best solution for very specific problems, but you should not be so quick to write off even those advances which only seem to improve on relatively "simple" tasks. If you can represent a complex problem in a simple fashion, then even incremental improvements can produce large quality/efficiency improvements.
If you're looking for AI disciplines producing work with layman-notable results that are not as clearly search- or planning-based, natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision have both been quite hot over the past five years. Chris Bishop's latest book is a great read for a quick jump-in to the technical underpinnings of a number of the big-press projects today, and for "pretty picture" motivation you may want to look at something like this.
Nitpicks: it's k-means, and A* is a heuristic search algorithm. Yes, IAAAIR (IAm An AIResearcher).
Unlike rubber or plastic bullets which cause moderate too [sic] severe damage, can be deadly and are inaccurate.
Actually, since they fall under the heading of incapacitating weapons, we're talking stun damage - guaranteed nonlethal (even if you overflow your remaining blocks).
And yes, if you got that, you're also going to hell, chummer.
Filenames: Plugins\Gracenote dir: CDDBControlWinamp.dll | CDDBUIWinamp.dll | CddbMusicIDWinamp.dll | CddbWOManagerWinamp.dll | Cddb*.dll (misc libraries).
Adds support for looking up Artist/Album/Title/etc info for Audio CD's.
Well, since they're likely to be using IR sensors, all signs point to no.
It does, however, mean that you can mess with them using a blowdryer, cranking up the building temperature, reflecting sunlight on it, or fiddling with the direction of the heat ducts nearby. Other measures exist for alternate detector types (like using a white noise generator to mess with ultrasonic devices).
I'm not sure where you're working, but over here we have motion sensors on all lights in offices, hallways, and bathrooms (with adjustable sensitivity and null-motion persistence). The same can be said for places I've interned - larger companies seem to be particularly "on the ball" for the savings and good eco-karma.
For temperature, it might be more efficient to keep that boiler lit than having to reignite every day....
Slashdot Mirror
Not almost anything. As much as I love his stuff, there's a mighty whopping of violence and/or death (plus a few naughty words) in some of his Discworld novels. "Maskerade", for instance, is one that I would recommend for a slightly older audience (who would also appreciate the "subtle" Phantom of the Opera references).
That being said, "Going Postal" (and Making Money), as well as "The Truth", would probably go over well.
Back in six grade, we read "Invitation to the Game" by Monica Hughes, and I've been hooked on scifi ever since.
Brief plot synopsis: unemployment is skyrocketing due to mass mechanization of society, although the unemployed are well taken-care-of due to the same efficient use of resources. It can be dull to be unemployed, at least until you get an invitation on your doorstep mentioning a secret game with a very exclusive list of players.
Mystery/adventure/scifi, very highly rated, but do not read the Amazon editorials (thar be spoilers afoot).
Well, according to Nintendo, it must be.
Also feel free to check this out. It's not fantastic, but it's not bad.
Here's another easy-to-grasp one: public key encryption (think: credit card purchases online) is dependent upon the use of large primes. Large primes are currently not the easiest/fastest to find - what if you knew better where to look for them?
Whoops. Thanks for catching that - missed it in preview.
Well, holy cow. Didn't expect you here.
Although, on second thought, I guess I'm not surprised. heh.
::groan::
That joke is nearly a year old online, and about 1000 if you've spent any time in a university math department.
The Riemann zeta function is \zeta(s) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^{s}} [written for LaTeX], or "the sum of 1/(n^s) as n goes from 0 to infinity (increasing by 1 repeatedly)" [in more human-readable form].
Riemann was interested in the zeros to this function, where s is a complex number. He conjectured that all zeros (aside from those of the form s = -2c, where c is a positive integer) would have to be of the form (1/2) + ki, where k is a constant and i is the square root of -1.
This paper is saying that they've found a way to verify this intuition by patching a hole in a previous attempt.
Assuming that everything is correct (a big assumption), this would finally solve a long-standing problem (dating back to 1859).
Details of the actual solution are a bit heavy. Those actually interested in this sort of number theory might want to start here.
To play devil's advocate:
Maybe AI is too large for one human (or even one generation of scientists) to integrate at a level where it's functionally useful.
Also, who said that AI had to be integrated anyway? Isn't it possible that each advancement might be independently important?
For a more traditional start, I'd suggest AI: A Modern Approach (by Russell & Norvig). It's a classic, it's (fairly) easy to read, and technical universities and most larger libraries should have at least one copy.
Just to stir up trouble:
What about when a successful human-mimicking system is successful to the point that it is indistinguishable from sentience? If you make a system that finds Waldo in a picture by scanning around like a person, is that AI or still ML? What about an ELIZA system that works 99.9% of the time?
And who said that something acting intelligently had to be sentient? A chess-playing bot that beats you repeatably can be said to play intelligently, even if it's purely reactionary. With smart load-balancing on multi-core/processor machines, I'd say your OS is intelligent.
Who said that complex behaviour cannot be simplified to search, planning, and classification? Doesn't multi-agent interaction boil down to a search for actions that produce competitive/mutually-beneficial/self-serving reward (utility)?
Yes, some (small) parts of AI research have gone down the "just an algorithm" path in pursuit of a best solution for very specific problems, but you should not be so quick to write off even those advances which only seem to improve on relatively "simple" tasks. If you can represent a complex problem in a simple fashion, then even incremental improvements can produce large quality/efficiency improvements.
If you're looking for AI disciplines producing work with layman-notable results that are not as clearly search- or planning-based, natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision have both been quite hot over the past five years. Chris Bishop's latest book is a great read for a quick jump-in to the technical underpinnings of a number of the big-press projects today, and for "pretty picture" motivation you may want to look at something like this.
Nitpicks: it's k-means, and A* is a heuristic search algorithm. Yes, IAAAIR (I Am An AI Researcher).
This is without a doubt the best response I've heard to "just do X in real life instead of playing a game about X".
Personally, I'm all for beery freedom.
pwned.
Actually, there are 19 of them, assuming you count everything with "Final Fantasy" in the title.
Yes, it's still absurd.
And yes, if you got that, you're also going to hell, chummer.
Benevolent music pirates.
Because, really, have you heard his music?
True, but you may choose to honor the person's wishes as you previously honored their corporeal being. Your legacy is still you.
Just a guess, but trash these:
Filenames: Plugins\Gracenote dir: CDDBControlWinamp.dll | CDDBUIWinamp.dll | CddbMusicIDWinamp.dll | CddbWOManagerWinamp.dll | Cddb*.dll (misc libraries).
Adds support for looking up Artist/Album/Title/etc info for Audio CD's.
That's axlotl. You may retain your geek card if you can name one or more Bene Gesserit who succesfully infiltrated the Bene Tleilax.
You left out the rather amusing fact that Tupac Shakur, despite being very much dead, elicits more interest than Eminem.
Maybe it's the name....
Well, since they're likely to be using IR sensors, all signs point to no.
It does, however, mean that you can mess with them using a blowdryer, cranking up the building temperature, reflecting sunlight on it, or fiddling with the direction of the heat ducts nearby. Other measures exist for alternate detector types (like using a white noise generator to mess with ultrasonic devices).
I'm not sure where you're working, but over here we have motion sensors on all lights in offices, hallways, and bathrooms (with adjustable sensitivity and null-motion persistence). The same can be said for places I've interned - larger companies seem to be particularly "on the ball" for the savings and good eco-karma.
For temperature, it might be more efficient to keep that boiler lit than having to reignite every day....