The GDP formula equates wasting (consuming) with reinvesting.
If there were no consumers there would be no need for producers would there?
Most private consumption is arguably waste but, absent forced redistribution, it is at least consumption by producers. Government consumption -- and, if one is being honest, virtually everything given to government is CONSUMED -- is profit which is first stolen, at the point of a gun, and then mostly squandered by non producers (bureaucrats) and destroyers (warmongers).
What difference does it make whether "the government" spends X billion on building roads and houses or a private company does? Whatever "the government" wastes (i.e. spends) is economic activity just the same.
Also, you can stuff your libertarian "taxation is theft at the point of a gun" meme up your arse. Taxation is a way of getting the rich (who have earned their wealth by exploiting the advantages of living in a stable, civilised society) to contribute back into society, since most people agree that relying on the charitable whims of ultra-wealthy psychopaths is not a sensible way of organising things.
Which programming languages will be the most influential for progress towards the singularity? Will there be particularly important methodologies? (i.e. object-oriented, functional, asynchronous, whatever you call Lisp, strongly (or not) typed, etc. )
That's easy: the singularity will use the "programming language" that's already in people's brainsand has developed over billions of years. So there will be no need for "computer programmers" at all.
Do you really think that you're going to get AI by writing code for computers to follow along to?
Something that bothers me about the singularity is the complete removal of conflict. Okay, we've cheated death eternally, we are merged with machines, nationality is a distant memory and Earth is completely terraformed to be computing space for our vast artificial intelligences. There will no longer be man vs man or man vs environment. Where is the conflict? What causes us to strive for anything? It sounds like a veritable utopia and I should just kick back and let it happen. How will progress be made without conflict?
Of all the things to worry about, life suddenly becoming too perfect is not one that I would worry too much about.
Anyway, in this supposed utopia, wouldn't you just play incredibly elaborate games if you got bored, with as much conflict as you felt like? With infinite computing power (which always seems to be assumed as a given) you could play god-games with entire model universes over billions of years.
Why does the development of language not constitute a singularity? It allows us to do everything commonly associated with the technological singularity: compared to the rest of the animal kingdom it has created an intelligence explosion, through education it allows each successive generation of superintelligences (that is, us) to
create more and more intelligent beings
Unless you are a bright twelve year old with no experience of life outside your own head, you cannot possibly believe that each generation has been getting more and more intelligent ever since language developed in humans.
Pattern recognition can be learned by info. networks, and genetic programming can be used to produce better pattern recognition, and that's all the understanding we need to create strong AI
Fine, you just build/grow an AI and let us see it.
But if you think that a glorified OCR system amounts to anything like sentience, you're living in the same fantasy world as Mr Kurzweil.
Once you know a bit of information theory it's ridiculous to be so Chauvinistic about your own Sentience -- You're not special!
A lot of philosophers would argue that many animals have sentience, and it is indeed nothing special. That is not the same thing as being a fully intelligent, self-aware organism like a human being.
The argument that sentience is purely a matter of the quantity of information processing power available (whether to an amoeba, human or computer) is unhelpful as it does not explain why humans are different from animals, when we clearly are in terms of intelligence, self-consciousness and so on.
Ah, another American who thinks that "capitalism" is the only way society can organise itself. Here's a clue: with the increase in technological development, AI and so on, fairly soon the vast mass of humanity won't have jobs. The 1% (or less) with the money will be relieved of it by our new AI overlords and forced to distribute it for the good of humanity.
Exist all you want, but if you want to buy a loaf of bread that my robots made, well... what have you done for me? What have you got to trade?
What do you mean by "your" robots exactly? If you end up with half a dozen people owning all the robots, there will clearly be a violent redistribution of wealth.
Siri? Google Glass and the apps that run on it? Google Voice turning your voicemails into emails as fast as you receive them? Turn-by-turn directions developed independently by several companies? This stuff used to be called AI.
Only by people who are unable to differentiate between human consciousness and intelligence, and machines doing a lot of individually easy things very quickly.
That's a bit harsh. Jon Katz was (and I assume is) profoundly annoying, over-emotional and an egregiously poor writer; but at least he wasn't barking mad.
Oopsie, I probably won't get invited to the Great "We're Gonna Live Forever" Singularity Party in 20 years' time. It is always in 20 years' time isn't it?
I'm trying to figure out how to get Phantasmagoria working at the moment
I remember playing that game and getting really frustrated when it suddenly launched you into a 30 second timed sequence (or something) where you had to finish or be killed, and if you hadn't already collected all the clues/items you were fucked. It was so annoying that I threw the box and discs away.
I'm sure now with internet walkthroughs/cheats I would be able to work out how to go back and not have to replay the whole game, but at the time, I'm sure you could only go back one save point or something equally unhelpful. And the memory still rankles.
Without even trying I know it wouldn't be a problem, but I'm one of these people that don't try to treat a word processor like a DTP package.
Word perfect may be worth it for the "reveal codes" alone. The location of formatting errors is obvious with such a thing instead of a painful process like in others. The braindead image placement handling that still exists in MS Word even after all these years keeps reminding me how in Word Perfect images would remain where they were placed.
For my money, once you start placing images in a document you are already in DTP territory. You're right about WordPerfect being better than MS Word, of course.
Since I have a paying job in the software industry, I buy the latest version of what I need. If you're making due on minimum wage and a diet of Ramen noodles and Mountain Dew, this kind of cost-saving exercise might make sense, I guess.
That's pretty good going for a twelve year old. Well done!
microsoft does this on purpose to make you buy more shit you don't need, and use things you don't want.
I think you meant to say that all commercial companies do this. Ford ideally wants you to buy a new Fiesta every 3 years, or whatever. Hotpoint build dishwashers that you can't get parts for when they're more than 5 years old (he said bitterly). And so on.
Anyone was/is perfectly free to write Windows software that never needs to be updated, and give it away for nothing. Microsoft wouldn't care.
But none of the patiently waiting fellas will chip in a little cash to provide a purse for someone to find the time and spend the energy. But will pay whatever the comerical software company asks. And it will ask (your_switching_costs - epsilon), epsilon tending to zero. But don't let that stop from ranting on slashdot.
Unless you are ideologically driven, risking X amount of cash on a project which may or may not end up with something you like is no improvement on spending Y amount of cash on something you know works, even if X is a lot less than Y.
Not everyone who uses software is interested in the philosophy of FOSS.
I've also heard of people running Microsoft Works for Windows using this method, but it's kind of redundant when you have Open Office and Libre Office floating around.
Are there some files with weird proprietary formats created by MS Works for Windows that simply can't be read any other way? I have no idea why anyone would want to run MS Works for Windows otherwise.
So, let me get this straight... Instead of running an NES emulator directly on your Android tablet (and there are plenty such emulators available), you're going to run an NES emulator on top of Windows 3.1 on top of DOS inside of an x86 emulator on top of Android?
Whilst it is not stealing it is not the same as non-commercial piracy either. It is a lot worse than that because of the fact that it is plagiarism and because of the fact that it is being used commercially.
You're missing the point: why is plagiarism so much worse than straight copying? At least with plagiarism there is some original work going on. And what difference does it make whether copying is for personal or commercial use? You're still using material without permission.
It is illogical to oppose copyright, then moan when people copy things in ways that do not benefit the original artist.
Say some crackpot racist bigot got his crappy song copied by a big corporation, the words changed and they made a million dollars out of it, would I feel any sympathy for the crackpot racist bigot?
For the record, I'm as straight as they come and have no confusion issues at all.
Yeah, absolutely. You're straight as they come. You're so straight you won't even touch your own cock when you go pee pee in case you get a hard on, so you have to get a buddy to do it for you. Oh, wait...
I want it out of my face.
LOL. I bet you don't really.
What you do in the bedroom is your business. When you go promoting it, it becomes my business.
Yup, Glee is full of hardcore gay sex. I can't believe our kids are exposed to that filth.
Slashdot Mirror
The GDP formula equates wasting (consuming) with reinvesting.
If there were no consumers there would be no need for producers would there?
Most private consumption is arguably waste but, absent forced redistribution, it is at least consumption by producers. Government consumption -- and, if one is being honest, virtually everything given to government is CONSUMED -- is profit which is first stolen, at the point of a gun, and then mostly squandered by non producers (bureaucrats) and destroyers (warmongers).
What difference does it make whether "the government" spends X billion on building roads and houses or a private company does? Whatever "the government" wastes (i.e. spends) is economic activity just the same.
Also, you can stuff your libertarian "taxation is theft at the point of a gun" meme up your arse. Taxation is a way of getting the rich (who have earned their wealth by exploiting the advantages of living in a stable, civilised society) to contribute back into society, since most people agree that relying on the charitable whims of ultra-wealthy psychopaths is not a sensible way of organising things.
Which programming languages will be the most influential for progress towards the singularity? Will there be particularly important methodologies? (i.e. object-oriented, functional, asynchronous, whatever you call Lisp, strongly (or not) typed, etc. )
That's easy: the singularity will use the "programming language" that's already in people's brainsand has developed over billions of years. So there will be no need for "computer programmers" at all.
Do you really think that you're going to get AI by writing code for computers to follow along to?
You are completely correct.
There will always be something that is not available in unlimited quantities
Like attention
Or, in Kurzweil's case, common sense and sanity.
CEOs who have hundreds of millions of dollars still keep working instead of heading to the beach each day with blackjack and hookers.
In fact, forget the blackjack.
Something that bothers me about the singularity is the complete removal of conflict. Okay, we've cheated death eternally, we are merged with machines, nationality is a distant memory and Earth is completely terraformed to be computing space for our vast artificial intelligences. There will no longer be man vs man or man vs environment. Where is the conflict? What causes us to strive for anything? It sounds like a veritable utopia and I should just kick back and let it happen. How will progress be made without conflict?
Of all the things to worry about, life suddenly becoming too perfect is not one that I would worry too much about.
Anyway, in this supposed utopia, wouldn't you just play incredibly elaborate games if you got bored, with as much conflict as you felt like? With infinite computing power (which always seems to be assumed as a given) you could play god-games with entire model universes over billions of years.
Why does the development of language not constitute a singularity? It allows us to do everything commonly associated with the technological singularity: compared to the rest of the animal kingdom it has created an intelligence explosion, through education it allows each successive generation of superintelligences (that is, us) to create more and more intelligent beings
Unless you are a bright twelve year old with no experience of life outside your own head, you cannot possibly believe that each generation has been getting more and more intelligent ever since language developed in humans.
Pattern recognition can be learned by info. networks, and genetic programming can be used to produce better pattern recognition, and that's all the understanding we need to create strong AI
Fine, you just build/grow an AI and let us see it.
But if you think that a glorified OCR system amounts to anything like sentience, you're living in the same fantasy world as Mr Kurzweil.
Once you know a bit of information theory it's ridiculous to be so Chauvinistic about your own Sentience -- You're not special!
A lot of philosophers would argue that many animals have sentience, and it is indeed nothing special. That is not the same thing as being a fully intelligent, self-aware organism like a human being.
The argument that sentience is purely a matter of the quantity of information processing power available (whether to an amoeba, human or computer) is unhelpful as it does not explain why humans are different from animals, when we clearly are in terms of intelligence, self-consciousness and so on.
I know the age of superintelligence is near...
You "know" this? Do you have some powers of pre-cognition you would like to share with the rest of the class?
He knows it because Mr Kurzweil says so.
Ah, another American who thinks that "capitalism" is the only way society can organise itself. Here's a clue: with the increase in technological development, AI and so on, fairly soon the vast mass of humanity won't have jobs. The 1% (or less) with the money will be relieved of it by our new AI overlords and forced to distribute it for the good of humanity.
Exist all you want, but if you want to buy a loaf of bread that my robots made, well... what have you done for me? What have you got to trade?
What do you mean by "your" robots exactly? If you end up with half a dozen people owning all the robots, there will clearly be a violent redistribution of wealth.
Siri? Google Glass and the apps that run on it? Google Voice turning your voicemails into emails as fast as you receive them? Turn-by-turn directions developed independently by several companies? This stuff used to be called AI.
Only by people who are unable to differentiate between human consciousness and intelligence, and machines doing a lot of individually easy things very quickly.
Is creating a singularity a goal (immediate or long term) at Google?
Why would they want that? A post-human artificial intelligence would start up in "business" on its own and put Google on the scrapheap.
Is Ray Kurzweil the new Jon Katz?
That's a bit harsh. Jon Katz was (and I assume is) profoundly annoying, over-emotional and an egregiously poor writer; but at least he wasn't barking mad.
Oopsie, I probably won't get invited to the Great "We're Gonna Live Forever" Singularity Party in 20 years' time. It is always in 20 years' time isn't it?
I'm trying to figure out how to get Phantasmagoria working at the moment
I remember playing that game and getting really frustrated when it suddenly launched you into a 30 second timed sequence (or something) where you had to finish or be killed, and if you hadn't already collected all the clues/items you were fucked. It was so annoying that I threw the box and discs away.
I'm sure now with internet walkthroughs/cheats I would be able to work out how to go back and not have to replay the whole game, but at the time, I'm sure you could only go back one save point or something equally unhelpful. And the memory still rankles.
Without even trying I know it wouldn't be a problem, but I'm one of these people that don't try to treat a word processor like a DTP package.
Word perfect may be worth it for the "reveal codes" alone. The location of formatting errors is obvious with such a thing instead of a painful process like in others. The braindead image placement handling that still exists in MS Word even after all these years keeps reminding me how in Word Perfect images would remain where they were placed.
For my money, once you start placing images in a document you are already in DTP territory. You're right about WordPerfect being better than MS Word, of course.
Since I have a paying job in the software industry, I buy the latest version of what I need. If you're making due on minimum wage and a diet of Ramen noodles and Mountain Dew, this kind of cost-saving exercise might make sense, I guess.
That's pretty good going for a twelve year old. Well done!
microsoft does this on purpose to make you buy more shit you don't need, and use things you don't want.
I think you meant to say that all commercial companies do this. Ford ideally wants you to buy a new Fiesta every 3 years, or whatever. Hotpoint build dishwashers that you can't get parts for when they're more than 5 years old (he said bitterly). And so on.
Anyone was/is perfectly free to write Windows software that never needs to be updated, and give it away for nothing. Microsoft wouldn't care.
Learn 2 pirate
Who the fuck would bother pirating Windows 3.1 and some ancient version of Photoshop?
Seriously, whether you're pro- or anti-piracy it makes no sense.
You might think it's cute, or stupid or amusing that someone wants to do this 100% legally, but that's irrelevant.
The answer to "I want to run Windows and Photoshop legally" logically excludes the answer "just pirate them".
But none of the patiently waiting fellas will chip in a little cash to provide a purse for someone to find the time and spend the energy. But will pay whatever the comerical software company asks. And it will ask (your_switching_costs - epsilon), epsilon tending to zero. But don't let that stop from ranting on slashdot.
Unless you are ideologically driven, risking X amount of cash on a project which may or may not end up with something you like is no improvement on spending Y amount of cash on something you know works, even if X is a lot less than Y.
Not everyone who uses software is interested in the philosophy of FOSS.
I've also heard of people running Microsoft Works for Windows using this method, but it's kind of redundant when you have Open Office and Libre Office floating around.
Are there some files with weird proprietary formats created by MS Works for Windows that simply can't be read any other way? I have no idea why anyone would want to run MS Works for Windows otherwise.
So, let me get this straight... Instead of running an NES emulator directly on your Android tablet (and there are plenty such emulators available), you're going to run an NES emulator on top of Windows 3.1 on top of DOS inside of an x86 emulator on top of Android?
You can never have too much awesome.
For instance, who actually needs to run Linux on a Playstation? Who actually needs to root their phone when it works already?
For that matter, how many people need to run marathons or climb mountains? (Sorry, I forgot I was on slashdot there).
The point is that challenges are interesting and good for you.
Whilst it is not stealing it is not the same as non-commercial piracy either. It is a lot worse than that because of the fact that it is plagiarism and because of the fact that it is being used commercially.
You're missing the point: why is plagiarism so much worse than straight copying? At least with plagiarism there is some original work going on. And what difference does it make whether copying is for personal or commercial use? You're still using material without permission.
It is illogical to oppose copyright, then moan when people copy things in ways that do not benefit the original artist.
Nope.
For the record, I'm as straight as they come and have no confusion issues at all.
Yeah, absolutely. You're straight as they come. You're so straight you won't even touch your own cock when you go pee pee in case you get a hard on, so you have to get a buddy to do it for you. Oh, wait...
I want it out of my face.
LOL. I bet you don't really.
What you do in the bedroom is your business. When you go promoting it, it becomes my business.
Yup, Glee is full of hardcore gay sex. I can't believe our kids are exposed to that filth.