Memtech has been doing this sort of thing for a while now.
Still, this is great news...the more companies that switch to flash technology, the more the technology itself will become mainstream. It's about time we did away with platter-based HDDs.
I thought this was supposed to be 'News for Nerds', not 'Speculation for Halfwits'...
From TFA:
He thinks that today's younger generation will benefit from the advances in technology to the point that death will be effectively eliminated. He explains his logic with a simple example. "The new PlayStation is 1 per cent as powerful as a human brain," he said. "It is into supercomputer status compared to 10 years ago. PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain."
OK...so where does that put the Xbox? Seriously, this 'explanation' of his 'logic' leaves much to be desired...but there's more. Also from TFA:
It [Pearson's AI] would definitely have emotions - that's one of the primary reasons for doing it. If I'm on an airplane I want the computer to be more terrified of crashing than I am so it does everything to stay in the air until it's supposed to be on the ground.
Hmm...but what if the AI is a thrillseeker? Suicidal? Psychotic? What if it suddenly develops acrophobia? If we're going to have a true AI with emotions, these are issues that need to be addressed, don't you think? Here's another few nuggets from TFA:
"You need a completely global debate. Whether we should be building machines as smart as people is a really big one. Whether we should be allowed to modify bacteria to assemble electronic circuitry and make themselves smart is already being researched."
Well, that 'completely global debate' should be ready by the release of PlayStation 5...
'We can already use DNA, for example, to make electronic circuits so it's possible to think of a smart yoghurt some time after 2020 or 2025, where the yoghurt has got a whole stack of electronics in every single bacterium. You could have a conversation with your strawberry yogurt before you eat it.'
'Smart yoghurt'? Sure I guess it's possible to think of that...about as possible as it is to think of magical elves, unicorn-riding gnomes, and smart futurologists.
One thing conspicuously missing from this article is speculation over the possible legal status of either a true AI or a downloaded brain. Apparently, that paragraph got bumped in favor of 'smart yoghurt'.
In short, this is the dumbest thing I've heard all day (and I work in IT support). I'm sure that if Dr. Pearson didn't already have such a sweet position as 'head of the Futurology unit at BT', he could make good money writing speculative fiction...or reading palms.
And just what makes you think that the blame that hits the aformentioned sysadmin will be in any way a function of fault?
where are my moderator points when I need them.
I think you may have failed to notice my ^_^ that I tacked onto the bottom of my original post. See what it says after 'Score:' up there? That's pretty much what I was going for.
The financial giant Morgan Stanley lost a $1.45 billion judgement yesterday due, in part, to their failure to retain old email.
I'd sure hate to be the system administrator who dropped the ball there...
"What do you mean we don't have them archived??? You just cost us 1.45 billion dollars!" "Don't worry though...you can pay it back....we'll just dock your paychecks by...say...$1000 per pay period. At that rate you can have it all paid back in a little over 55,769 YEARS!!!
"Confidentiality and privacy [are] my middle name," [Library Deputy Director Mark] West said.
Hi! My name is Mark Confidentiality Privacy West. Pleased to meet you. I'm one of the hundreds of millions of people who have more than one middle name....and yet I'm rather unique in that I refer to them in the singular.
Initially, I was against this development, but after reading TFA, I actually feel al lot better aboout it, for a few reasons:
From TFA:
Last May, when Naperville police demanded the account information of a man who had fondled himself in front of teenagers while viewing pornography in the computer lab at Nichols Library, the library refused to release the information without a subpoena, citing the Illinois Library Records Confidentiality Act.
The library taking a stand like this gives me slightly more confidence in trusting them with biometric data...at least they won't give it up without the proper authorization, but this doesn't address the issue of data theft. The following quote, however...
Also from TFA:
The stored numeric data cannot be used to reconstruct a fingerprint, West said, nor can it be cross-referenced with other fingerprint databases such as those kept by the FBI or the Illinois State Police.
It's important to note that most biometric systems work in this fashion. If each organization who wished to use biometrics were required to use their own, distinctive algorithm, the danger of other organizations using that biometric data for its own purposes would be greatly reduced.
Actually, there's just one thing in TFA that troubles me:
"Confidentiality and privacy [are] my middle name," [Library Deputy Director Mark] West said.
Come now, Mark...which is it...confidentiality or privacy? They can't both be your middle name...
I mentioned Christopher Reeve because he was a celebrity, and by definition, was known of by many people. Yes, I could have mentioned my high-school friend, who hit his head on the bottom of the school swimming pool and broke his neck, paralyzing him for life (true story), but then I would have had to go into his whole back story, and then have to put up with ignorant assholes who would accuse me of making up this guy to support my point. No one can argue that Christoppher Reeve din't exist, and it's also a lot fewer keystrokes.
Actually, perhaps you should re-RTFA. The cells actually used in this procedure are unfertilized egg cells...the reference to skin cells was just an example of where the genetic material for the clone could be obtained.
The Creationism debate is in a few isloated backward areas.
So because the scientists in private companies don't get to suck off the teet[sic] of government tax money they simply won't innovate?
How wonderfully simple you make things...simply wrong, that is.
Look...you have two teams of researchers, both trying to be the first to spearhead innovations in the field. One team gets funding from their government. The other does not. All other things being equal, which team do you think is going to cross the finish line first?
Another striking aspect of the study, researchers said, is that Hwang was able to significantly increase the efficiency of his technique. Last year, when Hwang derived the first human stem-cell line from a cloned embryo, he failed more than 200 times before he succeeded -- meaning he had to use more than 200 eggs donated from women to create embryos. In his latest study, he brought the average number of tries down to just 20. That means in most cases one woman taking super-ovulating drugs in one menstrual cycle could donate enough eggs to create a stem-cell therapy for one patient.
This is certainly good news, but human eggs are still needed, and from what I understand, harvesting them is still time-consuming, painful, and risky.
Egg harvesting: Doctors commonly use an ultrasound-guided technique to harvest eggs. A laparoscopic method, which involves inserting a long, thin instrument with a light and lens through the abdomen, may be used if a diagnostic assessment of the pelvic organs is needed. However, ultrasound is faster, easier on the patient and as effective as laparoscopic retrieval.
The doctor inserts the ultrasound probe with an attached needle into the vagina. Using the needle, the doctor punctures egg follicles and removes the fluid. The fluid is inspected and immediately placed in a sterile, nutritive culture material kept in an incubator.
Ouch.
A truly significant advance would be to use these stem cells to grow a human ovary in the lab, and harvest eggs from that. Such an advance would dramaatically decrease the need for additional female donors.
I threw in the towel for good on that site when one of their recurring flamewars about the Middle East devolved into a dispute about whether Israel is or isn't in Africa.
Puts me in mind of Peter's conversation with Dr. Swanson in Office Space:
Peter Gibbons: So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life.
Dr. Swanson: What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?
Slashdot Mirror
That was weird...my link disappeared.
Let's try again.
Wake up!
^_^
Memtech has been doing this sort of thing for a while now.
Still, this is great news...the more companies that switch to flash technology, the more the technology itself will become mainstream. It's about time we did away with platter-based HDDs.
To travel safely, I would like to drop those people off.
The plane could just depressurize at 30,000 feet...the meat sacks need a steady oxygen supply...cutting that off takes the fight right outta 'em.
There's a big difference between reading media and writing to it.
I thought this was supposed to be 'News for Nerds', not 'Speculation for Halfwits'...
From TFA:
OK...so where does that put the Xbox?
Seriously, this 'explanation' of his 'logic' leaves much to be desired...but there's more.
Also from TFA:
Hmm...but what if the AI is a thrillseeker? Suicidal? Psychotic? What if it suddenly develops acrophobia? If we're going to have a true AI with emotions, these are issues that need to be addressed, don't you think?
Here's another few nuggets from TFA:
Well, that 'completely global debate' should be ready by the release of PlayStation 5...
'Smart yoghurt'? Sure I guess it's possible to think of that...about as possible as it is to think of magical elves, unicorn-riding gnomes, and smart futurologists.
One thing conspicuously missing from this article is speculation over the possible legal status of either a true AI or a downloaded brain. Apparently, that paragraph got bumped in favor of 'smart yoghurt'.
In short, this is the dumbest thing I've heard all day (and I work in IT support). I'm sure that if Dr. Pearson didn't already have such a sweet position as 'head of the Futurology unit at BT', he could make good money writing speculative fiction...or reading palms.
Yes but he predicts so much crap of course he'll be right eventually.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
it isn't a sysadmin's fault.
And just what makes you think that the blame that hits the aformentioned sysadmin will be in any way a function of fault?
where are my moderator points when I need them.
I think you may have failed to notice my ^_^ that I tacked onto the bottom of my original post. See what it says after 'Score:' up there? That's pretty much what I was going for.
Try to take yourself a little less seriously.
From TFS:
I'd sure hate to be the system administrator who dropped the ball there...
"What do you mean we don't have them archived??? You just cost us 1.45 billion dollars!"
"Don't worry though...you can pay it back....we'll just dock your paychecks by...say...$1000 per pay period. At that rate you can have it all paid back in a little over 55,769 YEARS!!!
^_^
And why is this bad?
I think you misread my post...I was praising the library for sticking to their guns.
Initially, I was against this development, but after reading TFA, I actually feel al lot better aboout it, for a few reasons:
From TFA:
The library taking a stand like this gives me slightly more confidence in trusting them with biometric data...at least they won't give it up without the proper authorization, but this doesn't address the issue of data theft. The following quote, however...
Also from TFA:
It's important to note that most biometric systems work in this fashion. If each organization who wished to use biometrics were required to use their own, distinctive algorithm, the danger of other organizations using that biometric data for its own purposes would be greatly reduced.
Actually, there's just one thing in TFA that troubles me:
Come now, Mark...which is it...confidentiality or privacy? They can't both be your middle name...
^_^
I mentioned Christopher Reeve because he was a celebrity, and by definition, was known of by many people. Yes, I could have mentioned my high-school friend, who hit his head on the bottom of the school swimming pool and broke his neck, paralyzing him for life (true story), but then I would have had to go into his whole back story, and then have to put up with ignorant assholes who would accuse me of making up this guy to support my point. No one can argue that Christoppher Reeve din't exist, and it's also a lot fewer keystrokes.
Hope this clears things up for you.
Actually, perhaps you should re-RTFA. The cells actually used in this procedure are unfertilized egg cells...the reference to skin cells was just an example of where the genetic material for the clone could be obtained.
The Creationism debate is in a few isloated backward areas.
Like the White House? (Sorry...couldn't resist.)
"Communism"?
For a while there you were actually making some kind of sense. Too bad it couldn't last.
Happy trolling to you.
Gay women can indeed get married in the church... to a man.
Oscast need never worry about being stabbed to death, as he possesses an almost supernatural ability to miss the point.
So because the scientists in private companies don't get to suck off the teet[sic] of government tax money they simply won't innovate?
How wonderfully simple you make things...simply wrong, that is.
Look...you have two teams of researchers, both trying to be the first to spearhead innovations in the field. One team gets funding from their government. The other does not. All other things being equal, which team do you think is going to cross the finish line first?
Hope this makes things clearer for you.
Exactly. This could have been us...but now we get to play catch-up.
Thank you so very much, neoconservatives.
I know Christopher Reeve would like to thank you too...unfortunately he's feeling rather dead at the moment.
From TFA:
This is certainly good news, but human eggs are still needed, and from what I understand, harvesting them is still time-consuming, painful, and risky.
From Aurora Health Care:
Ouch.
A truly significant advance would be to use these stem cells to grow a human ovary in the lab, and harvest eggs from that. Such an advance would dramaatically decrease the need for additional female donors.
Amazing...we send probes all the way to Mars to they can photograph...each other.
Kinda like when Americans visit other countries...all they want to do is talk to other/i> Americans.
Wow...I'd hate to be head of that project...
No, I think he was actually recommending that you ingest lead.
If your house is old enough, you can ingest your lead in convenient chip form.
^_^
I threw in the towel for good on that site when one of their recurring flamewars about the Middle East devolved into a dispute about whether Israel is or isn't in Africa.
And yet you frequent Slashdot. Odd, that...
Puts me in mind of Peter's conversation with Dr. Swanson in Office Space:
I'd be even more depresed if I responded to the response.