Much talked about by pundits. Understood by practically nobody. Many benefits suggested. Very little experience or facts to back up any claims. Suggested as a panacea (but without anyone saying for what problems).
And then, some years later
After the "bust", many companies discover it isn't all it's cracked up to be. Has many "I told you so" disadvantages. Doesn't deliver as promised. Companies dislike the loss of control. Turns out to be costly and unreliable.
And is this the same direction as cloud computing is going now?
The problem with this guy's guess is that pizza delivery is time-critical (while it's still warm - measured in minutes) whereas all the other stuff can take an hour, two or all day. It is very unlikely to matter. And since a ground based vehicle can carry a hundred times as much weight as a drone, it only needs to "fill up" once and then do its rounds.
But the density of pizza deliveries is the limiting factor. At any given time there are not likely to be more than 1 pizza per square mile (as different people will order at different times) so what takes the greatest amount of time is getting the delivery van to the correct location. Whether to deliver the pizza directly or simply to receive it from the drone.
At first, their charge lasted five hours, but now they sometimes last only half an hour. He frequently listens to one while charging the other -- not optimal conditions for expensive headphones. He's now gearing up to plunk down more money on another pair
... and in a couple of years they will be reduced to just more useless, overpriced, junk. How many more pairs will be bought until the truth dawns?
Coders might have different backgrounds and political opinions, but nearly every one I've ever met found deep, almost soulful pleasure in taking something inefficient -- even just a little bit slow -- and tightening it up a notch.
Garbage!
What gives coders pleasure is a combination of going home early, finding someone else to blame a bug on and getting stuff through acceptance testing.
As for wanting to improve efficiency? There is no evidence for this. Nearly 25 years ago we were enlightened by Wirth's Law which addressed the question why does software get slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster? and nothing in the intervening quarter century has improved the matter.
And if someone was intent on getting personal details off sold hardware to defraud the previous owners, I am not at all convinced that people who had to pawn their stuff would be a sensible group to target.
They have less and less content on there, and yet they keep raising their prices?
Sure, but if their marketing improves even faster than their quality drops, why would they care. While there is a finite number of suckers on the planet, they aren't going to run out soon. Finding new ones, or persuading old ones to come back - that's what their marketing department is for.
enough backups in enough places around the solar system, on an ongoing basis, that our precious knowledge and biological heritage can never be lost
So if civilisation does crash, the sum total of human knowledge won't be lost. We will know where it is: on the Moon. But until we regain that knowledge we will not be able to get back to the Moon to read it.
And by that time, it will be rather irrelevant as we will have already rediscovered it!
All that an objects needs in order to be art is for someone to call it "art". There is no deliberation regarding its merit, form, method of production or relationship with anything else. Just look at any of the abstract stuff - especially the trivial, like Rothko or the semi-random like Pollock.
So if we apply an artistic Turing test and it would be impossible to tell whether something came from a human mind, a random event or a computer's action.
So on that basis, computers - like nature - are capable of producing art.
So if people are more productive and happier working 4 days instead of 5, just think how much better it would be if they only worked for 3 days. And if three, why not 2.
And if they get the same amount of work done in 2 days, then it sounds like the best move would be to fire the 60% of staff who apparently weren't doing anything worthwhile and get the rest working 5 (or maybe 6) days.
It seems to me that you can re-work these statistics any way you like. Draw whatever conclusions suits the current fashion and find an example of pretty much any working practice if you scour the world. There's bound to be 1 example of anything.
It would be rude to ignore emails from someone I have a close connection with - I would not want them ignoring my emails. Quid pro quo.. It is not rude to ignore emails that come from (for example) a mailing list or a cc: ALL.
In the workplace I have clearly defined reporting lines: up and down. Those individuals have my attention. For the rest, I don't work for them. Their issues are not my concern.
As for phone calls, the same applies. In the late 80's I was one of the few techies in what was the national branch of a computer manufacturer. Most of the other people in the office were S&M - sales and marketing. When I started, if they wished to ask a question they would have to call (although individuals were frequently away from their desks or out of the office), or walk a floor or two to our office to find someone to talk to face-to-face. In 1989 we were all given mobile phones. After that we were bombarded with calls, directly from sales people, no matter where they or we were. The working day went from being (largely) productive to a constant stream of trivial interruptions from people who found it was easier to make a call, than to find the answer for themselves.
The same applies to email and smartphones. Easier modes of communication "dumb down" many people and dump pressure on others.
As for running W10 on a board with 1GB of memory and a micro-SD card, is there really any point?
It should also be remembered that the only reason to run any version of Windows is to get access to the applications available. What apps are there for an ARM board running Windows. And what drivers, too?
It only has to "beat" (i.e. persuade) the average voter. Then it - or whoever controls it - will become our overlord.
Or, if it wants to truly show its worth, it has to be able to put up a convincing argument with the accounts committee as to why it should receive future funding. Once it can do that, then it will be able to take over the world. The only remaining problem might occur if it encountered a better version of itself on the budget-holder's side - arguing that IT should get the financing, not IBM Debater.
Luckily for the human race, these are points of emotion, not logic. So a machine is doomed to fail.
So the islanders would prefer to have their beaches contain hidden shards of glass from broken bottles, than to have to pick up a few discarded pieces of plastic.
A (anti)social media system like this will be attractive to people who by nature are suspicious, hair-trigger, types already. This just gives them an outlet for their fears and paranoia. One that will support and magnify their already jittery emotional state. It will make them feel normalised and validated: look! there are loads of people reporting the same crimes that I see every day.
So yes, this encourages extreme behaviour. Unless normal people go onto the site too, and tell them all to calm down, stop seeing evil where ever they look and to keep taking the tablets.
This is very, very far from being able to interpret actual thoughts - they attach themselves to very early stage of hearing process, where things are still looking very much like sound waves.
Yes. My first thought when I read the headline was: what language is the speech in?
But it seems that this work, while interesting in an academic sense, is far from what the headline indicates.
I haven't had my computer disk wiped by a virus for a while and the lights come on when I flick the switch - most times, at least.
I'd say things are pretty good.
Although it is impossible, since Mars missions are only feasible every 2 years due to orbital mechanics, the guy should have committed to it. With a huge cash injection, NASA could have made 10 years of progress in every aspect of space exploration. Hell, they might even have caught up with SpaceX in terms of rocketry.
And after Trump's term is up... what's the worst that could have happened? The guy gets fired and nobody is on Mars. But there would have been a lot of progress made. Maybe it would have then been possible by the end of Trump's second term?
That is the problem with bureaucrats: they are too honest. Nobody expects politicians to tell the truth - the people they deal with should be self-serving for their causes, too.
they cannot find enough uses for the emission-free power they create
How about using all their excess electricity to make the next generation of wind turbines to replace the ones they bought from an industrialised country?
Generating their own electricity is nice, but it doesn't make them self-sufficient. They are completely dependent on places with mines, steel plants, manufacturing and development to send them the equipment to generate electricity and to maintain it. If they wanted properly sustainable energy, they would have produce the wind turbines on their islands.
But that would require a fully industrial society which their small population could not support.
The key thing here isn't the AI component it is the implied brain - internet link. All I can see the AI doing is being a host for more invasive (can you get any more invasive than this?) advertising, tracking - not just your location, but what you're thinking - and "status" information.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it would be possible to get imaging data from a person's eyes, through their brain out to the AI chip and then to the world. Stuff that a person would have no control over and no ability to disable.
It sounds like a cute idea on the surface, but if the history of the internet teaches us anything it would be that control passes to third parties and that monetising a feature is the primary driver. At least with an invasive phone, you have a a last resort of flushing it!
This could end up saving countless lives as skilled surgeons will be able to operate on patients in remote locations in a safe manner.
Only if there is currently a surplus of skilled surgeons, sitting around all day waiting for someone who needs an operation.
Otherwise they will already have their time fully booked, operating on people who are at their local hospitals. And given that most medical procedures have waiting times, the limiting resource would appear to be availability of surgeons, not lack of low latency internet.
Plus, this still requires an even rarer resource: robotic surgeons, to be present in each and every "remote location", as nobody will be able to predict just where the next emergency operation will be.
Slashdot Mirror
Much talked about by pundits. Understood by practically nobody. Many benefits suggested. Very little experience or facts to back up any claims. Suggested as a panacea (but without anyone saying for what problems).
And then, some years later
After the "bust", many companies discover it isn't all it's cracked up to be. Has many "I told you so" disadvantages. Doesn't deliver as promised. Companies dislike the loss of control. Turns out to be costly and unreliable.
And is this the same direction as cloud computing is going now?
But the density of pizza deliveries is the limiting factor. At any given time there are not likely to be more than 1 pizza per square mile (as different people will order at different times) so what takes the greatest amount of time is getting the delivery van to the correct location. Whether to deliver the pizza directly or simply to receive it from the drone.
The scheme fails.
If you were going to wave a rag in front of the hacker "bull" then claiming some code was proven secure is just the way to do it.
At first, their charge lasted five hours, but now they sometimes last only half an hour. He frequently listens to one while charging the other -- not optimal conditions for expensive headphones. He's now gearing up to plunk down more money on another pair
Coders might have different backgrounds and political opinions, but nearly every one I've ever met found deep, almost soulful pleasure in taking something inefficient -- even just a little bit slow -- and tightening it up a notch.
Garbage!
What gives coders pleasure is a combination of going home early, finding someone else to blame a bug on and getting stuff through acceptance testing.
As for wanting to improve efficiency? There is no evidence for this. Nearly 25 years ago we were enlightened by Wirth's Law which addressed the question why does software get slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster? and nothing in the intervening quarter century has improved the matter.
And if someone was intent on getting personal details off sold hardware to defraud the previous owners, I am not at all convinced that people who had to pawn their stuff would be a sensible group to target.
....they're gonna start really losing people.
They have less and less content on there, and yet they keep raising their prices?
Sure, but if their marketing improves even faster than their quality drops, why would they care. While there is a finite number of suckers on the planet, they aren't going to run out soon. Finding new ones, or persuading old ones to come back - that's what their marketing department is for.
enough backups in enough places around the solar system, on an ongoing basis, that our precious knowledge and biological heritage can never be lost
So if civilisation does crash, the sum total of human knowledge won't be lost. We will know where it is: on the Moon. But until we regain that knowledge we will not be able to get back to the Moon to read it.
And by that time, it will be rather irrelevant as we will have already rediscovered it!
So if we apply an artistic Turing test and it would be impossible to tell whether something came from a human mind, a random event or a computer's action.
So on that basis, computers - like nature - are capable of producing art.
.... stay out of the kitchen.
Although this article seems to be more about making an impact than providing level-headed information.
And if they get the same amount of work done in 2 days, then it sounds like the best move would be to fire the 60% of staff who apparently weren't doing anything worthwhile and get the rest working 5 (or maybe 6) days.
It seems to me that you can re-work these statistics any way you like. Draw whatever conclusions suits the current fashion and find an example of pretty much any working practice if you scour the world. There's bound to be 1 example of anything.
It would be rude to ignore emails from someone I have a close connection with - I would not want them ignoring my emails. Quid pro quo.. It is not rude to ignore emails that come from (for example) a mailing list or a cc: ALL.
In the workplace I have clearly defined reporting lines: up and down. Those individuals have my attention. For the rest, I don't work for them. Their issues are not my concern.
As for phone calls, the same applies. In the late 80's I was one of the few techies in what was the national branch of a computer manufacturer. Most of the other people in the office were S&M - sales and marketing. When I started, if they wished to ask a question they would have to call (although individuals were frequently away from their desks or out of the office), or walk a floor or two to our office to find someone to talk to face-to-face. In 1989 we were all given mobile phones. After that we were bombarded with calls, directly from sales people, no matter where they or we were. The working day went from being (largely) productive to a constant stream of trivial interruptions from people who found it was easier to make a call, than to find the answer for themselves.
The same applies to email and smartphones. Easier modes of communication "dumb down" many people and dump pressure on others.
As for running W10 on a board with 1GB of memory and a micro-SD card, is there really any point?
It should also be remembered that the only reason to run any version of Windows is to get access to the applications available. What apps are there for an ARM board running Windows. And what drivers, too?
It only has to "beat" (i.e. persuade) the average voter. Then it - or whoever controls it - will become our overlord.
Or, if it wants to truly show its worth, it has to be able to put up a convincing argument with the accounts committee as to why it should receive future funding. Once it can do that, then it will be able to take over the world. The only remaining problem might occur if it encountered a better version of itself on the budget-holder's side - arguing that IT should get the financing, not IBM Debater.
Luckily for the human race, these are points of emotion, not logic. So a machine is doomed to fail.
So the islanders would prefer to have their beaches contain hidden shards of glass from broken bottles, than to have to pick up a few discarded pieces of plastic.
A (anti)social media system like this will be attractive to people who by nature are suspicious, hair-trigger, types already. This just gives them an outlet for their fears and paranoia. One that will support and magnify their already jittery emotional state. It will make them feel normalised and validated: look! there are loads of people reporting the same crimes that I see every day.
So yes, this encourages extreme behaviour. Unless normal people go onto the site too, and tell them all to calm down, stop seeing evil where ever they look and to keep taking the tablets.
>I've seen no compelling objective modeling either way.
Then try taking money out of the equation and replacing it with "value".
This is very, very far from being able to interpret actual thoughts - they attach themselves to very early stage of hearing process, where things are still looking very much like sound waves.
Yes. My first thought when I read the headline was: what language is the speech in?
But it seems that this work, while interesting in an academic sense, is far from what the headline indicates.
The tool has limits -- it doesn't work on Android devices
So now we know what the Android marketing department has been doing recently
I'd say things are pretty good.
Cheer up!
And after Trump's term is up ... what's the worst that could have happened? The guy gets fired and nobody is on Mars. But there would have been a lot of progress made. Maybe it would have then been possible by the end of Trump's second term?
That is the problem with bureaucrats: they are too honest. Nobody expects politicians to tell the truth - the people they deal with should be self-serving for their causes, too.
they cannot find enough uses for the emission-free power they create
How about using all their excess electricity to make the next generation of wind turbines to replace the ones they bought from an industrialised country?
Generating their own electricity is nice, but it doesn't make them self-sufficient. They are completely dependent on places with mines, steel plants, manufacturing and development to send them the equipment to generate electricity and to maintain it. If they wanted properly sustainable energy, they would have produce the wind turbines on their islands.
But that would require a fully industrial society which their small population could not support.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it would be possible to get imaging data from a person's eyes, through their brain out to the AI chip and then to the world. Stuff that a person would have no control over and no ability to disable.
It sounds like a cute idea on the surface, but if the history of the internet teaches us anything it would be that control passes to third parties and that monetising a feature is the primary driver. At least with an invasive phone, you have a a last resort of flushing it!
This might be just about the only real job that Musk's Boring Company ever gets to do.
This could end up saving countless lives as skilled surgeons will be able to operate on patients in remote locations in a safe manner.
Only if there is currently a surplus of skilled surgeons, sitting around all day waiting for someone who needs an operation.
Otherwise they will already have their time fully booked, operating on people who are at their local hospitals. And given that most medical procedures have waiting times, the limiting resource would appear to be availability of surgeons, not lack of low latency internet.
Plus, this still requires an even rarer resource: robotic surgeons, to be present in each and every "remote location", as nobody will be able to predict just where the next emergency operation will be.