Having skimmed the patent, it's basically bullshit.
It is simply describing a possibly wireless device with an accelerometer, running some program. This is, in 1999, exactly as any engineer would design a fall detection thing. It adds nothing to the knowledge of mankind, and in no way deserves protection. It should not have passed the novelty test.
There pretty much aren't. Making it from mushrooms, in an industrial setting is almost free per dose. http://www.growmagicmushrooms.co.uk/grow_mushrooms.htm as an example, was a kit for making magic mushrooms that would do around a kilo (125 doses) for $40. ($0.30)
In an industrial setting, growing them, they are a tiny fraction of this price.
It's not being done so they can be sold for 0.1 cent, not 3 cents per dose. It's being done so they can be sold for >>$100, not 3 cents per dose.
Humans want to do things to other humans. Even if that is very reprehensible - torturing humans, forcing them to bear children, raping them, subjugating them - requires you to have other humans, and to value their continued existence as a group.
There is no especial reason that AI would do this.
At some point, in principle, you can setup regulations, and treat AI research beyond a specific level as precisely equal (or worse than) manufacturing a nuclear weapon. It would need very concerted global action - or actual willingness to invade and change governments though.
The point in making it genetically, not via extraction from mushrooms (which is very, very very cheap) is so that you can tweak the molecule a little, and then get a patent approved for it, and then put it through FDA licencing, in order to get an exclusivity period while the patent is valid. Purely political alas.
And that emergent AI is utterly impossible. It doesn't have to be perfect at first, it just has to be fast, with the ability to self-modify.
The risk is not (in my opinion) so much someone intending to create a general AI. It's someone accidentally creating an AI that is very good in a narrow aspect, and not bad enough in other aspects that, driven by unintended goals of its programming exponentially improves itself without the creators noticing until it decides that it'd be better off if it was hidden, as there is a risk to itself.
Then there are any number of scenarios that don't end well. From intentional extermination, to simply mining the environment for resources without caring about humans other than a nuiscance.
But, it's one of the few things that could actually kill us all. This wouldn't even have to be intentional extermination, it could simply be competition with, and lack of regard for humans by a growing system.
The notion that a AI can form an existential threat today is ridiculous. Many notions that would have been ridiculous 100 years ago, now are used in daily life.
It is vital to have people thinking about the worst case, because in principle otherwise someone on a friday makes a typo allowing their AI access to a hundred thousand times the expected resources, and on monday, it's ineradicable.
This does assume that extra import taxes would not apply against factories in china. In the face of import taxes for finished goods, factories in country can be less expensive.
Now consider that for 54K average wage, perhaps 90K all-in employee cost, for a station with three shifts, that's 270K a year, or a cool million you can spend on a robot, per employee you might otherwise employ, who will pay back after four years.
US governments treatment of online gambling software. https://slashdot.org/story/06/09/07/2017201/us-arrests-online-gambling-company-chairman for example.
Jobs in renewable energy generation is unfortunately a tiny fraction. The other issue is where does it land. 'All are capable of being suppliers and even if there is a conflict in one, the others are still operating. ' implies a EU wide energy network - which doesn't really exist.
Many of those aren't actually improvements that are meaningful (if you're not using 'all-in-view' when designing a new reciever you're not trying).
However, these are all irrelevant in that all of the transmitters and antennas are now shut down, and presumably a large fraction of them have been hauled away as scrap.
The possibility of advances is limited. The wavelength the signal is transmitted on (to gain the above benefits of being long range and hard to jam) has various problems with the fundamental transmission that mean high data-rate or 'modern' services have real problems. In principle, you might add a really low bandwidth data channel that would over the course of a few hours inform a receiver where the new transmitters are, but they will normally be created at such a rate that stored in firmware, rarely updated is fine. There is little to 'improve' very much.
As I understand it, all transmitters, globally have been shut down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loran-C#Loran-C_in_the_21st_century
Hence the need for new ones.
"The European Union had decided that the potential security advantages of Loran are worthy not only of keeping the system operational, but upgrading it and adding new stations. This is part of the wider Eurofix system which combines GPS, Galileo and nine Loran stations into a single integrated system.
However, in 2014, Norway and France both announced that all of their remaining transmitters, which make up a significant part of the Eurofix system, will be shut down on 31 December 2015.[32] The two remaining transmitters in Europe (Anthorn, UK and Sylt, Germany) will no longer be able to sustain a positioning and navigation Loran service, with the result that the UK announced its trial eLoran service would be discontinued from the same date."
The above has little or nothing to do with open hardware. Almost none of the issues with OM were due to the hardware side, the problems were due to the poor communication of what software was not being worked on by the very small team at OM.
http://www.add-resources.org/half-the-worlds-adults-do-not-drink-alcohol-what-should-the-policy-implications-be.5325474-315773.html Past year abstainers (lifetime isn't so relevant as you can come off the drug in a day or two).
Doing more digging comes up with the figure of 28% of of-age males had been alcohol abstinent in the previous year in the united states. That's a damn large market.
Slashdot Mirror
Having skimmed the patent, it's basically bullshit.
It is simply describing a possibly wireless device with an accelerometer, running some program.
This is, in 1999, exactly as any engineer would design a fall detection thing. It adds nothing to the knowledge of mankind, and in no way deserves protection.
It should not have passed the novelty test.
Which doesn't mean they aren't a good source of lithium
The batteries are really high grade lithium ore. They are very, very recyclable.
Almost certainly without permission of the girls involved, and violating the T&Cs of the sites in question.
Not disagreeing with the autocad comment.
That too, even trivial changes that do not meaningfully affect psychoactivity can be spun as being a significantly novel compound.
There pretty much aren't.
Making it from mushrooms, in an industrial setting is almost free per dose.
http://www.growmagicmushrooms.co.uk/grow_mushrooms.htm as an example, was a kit for making magic mushrooms that would do around a kilo (125 doses) for $40. ($0.30)
In an industrial setting, growing them, they are a tiny fraction of this price.
It's not being done so they can be sold for 0.1 cent, not 3 cents per dose.
It's being done so they can be sold for >>$100, not 3 cents per dose.
Humans want to do things to other humans.
Even if that is very reprehensible - torturing humans, forcing them to bear children, raping them, subjugating them - requires you to have other humans, and to value their continued existence as a group.
There is no especial reason that AI would do this.
At some point, in principle, you can setup regulations, and treat AI research beyond a specific level as precisely equal (or worse than) manufacturing a nuclear weapon.
It would need very concerted global action - or actual willingness to invade and change governments though.
The point in making it genetically, not via extraction from mushrooms (which is very, very very cheap) is so that you can tweak the molecule a little, and then get a patent approved for it, and then put it through FDA licencing, in order to get an exclusivity period while the patent is valid.
Purely political alas.
They don't want to.
Anti-trust laws.
This assumes that this is the only way to AI.
And that emergent AI is utterly impossible.
It doesn't have to be perfect at first, it just has to be fast, with the ability to self-modify.
The risk is not (in my opinion) so much someone intending to create a general AI.
It's someone accidentally creating an AI that is very good in a narrow aspect, and not bad enough in other aspects that, driven by unintended goals of its programming exponentially improves itself without the creators noticing until it decides that it'd be better off if it was hidden, as there is a risk to itself.
Then there are any number of scenarios that don't end well.
From intentional extermination, to simply mining the environment for resources without caring about humans other than a nuiscance.
But, it's one of the few things that could actually kill us all.
This wouldn't even have to be intentional extermination, it could simply be competition with, and lack of regard for humans by a growing system.
The notion that a AI can form an existential threat today is ridiculous.
Many notions that would have been ridiculous 100 years ago, now are used in daily life.
It is vital to have people thinking about the worst case, because in principle otherwise someone on a friday makes a typo allowing their AI access to a hundred thousand times the expected resources, and on monday, it's ineradicable.
This does assume that extra import taxes would not apply against factories in china.
In the face of import taxes for finished goods, factories in country can be less expensive.
Now consider that for 54K average wage, perhaps 90K all-in employee cost, for a station with three shifts, that's 270K a year, or a cool million you can spend on a robot, per employee you might otherwise employ, who will pay back after four years.
US governments treatment of online gambling software.
https://slashdot.org/story/06/09/07/2017201/us-arrests-online-gambling-company-chairman for example.
Jobs in renewable energy generation is unfortunately a tiny fraction.
The other issue is where does it land.
'All are capable of being suppliers and even if there is a conflict in one, the others are still operating. ' implies a EU wide energy network - which doesn't really exist.
I was actually developing a LORAN receiver for high-altitude balloons at the time it got scrapped, rather annoying.
Many of those aren't actually improvements that are meaningful (if you're not using 'all-in-view' when designing a new reciever you're not trying).
However, these are all irrelevant in that all of the transmitters and antennas are now shut down, and presumably a large fraction of them have been hauled away as scrap.
The possibility of advances is limited. The wavelength the signal is transmitted on (to gain the above benefits of being long range and hard to jam) has various problems with the fundamental transmission that mean high data-rate or 'modern' services have real problems.
In principle, you might add a really low bandwidth data channel that would over the course of a few hours inform a receiver where the new transmitters are, but they will normally be created at such a rate that stored in firmware, rarely updated is fine.
There is little to 'improve' very much.
As I understand it, all transmitters, globally have been shut down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loran-C#Loran-C_in_the_21st_century
Hence the need for new ones.
"The European Union had decided that the potential security advantages of Loran are worthy not only of keeping the system operational, but upgrading it and adding new stations. This is part of the wider Eurofix system which combines GPS, Galileo and nine Loran stations into a single integrated system.
However, in 2014, Norway and France both announced that all of their remaining transmitters, which make up a significant part of the Eurofix system, will be shut down on 31 December 2015.[32] The two remaining transmitters in Europe (Anthorn, UK and Sylt, Germany) will no longer be able to sustain a positioning and navigation Loran service, with the result that the UK announced its trial eLoran service would be discontinued from the same date."
Look at the map.
...
Tunisia -> italy via submarine cable is perhaps as stable as it gets.
Jobs are limited - a thousand or two during construction, but well under a hundred, operating.
Algeria has had an actual shooting civil war in the last 20 years, Libya,
The employment in even quite large solar plants is small.
The above has little or nothing to do with open hardware.
Almost none of the issues with OM were due to the hardware side, the problems were due to the poor communication of what software was not being worked on by the very small team at OM.
My limited understanding is it attacked specific enzymatic pathways - not a general 'liver weakening' effect.
Way, way higher than 2%.
http://www.add-resources.org/half-the-worlds-adults-do-not-drink-alcohol-what-should-the-policy-implications-be.5325474-315773.html
Past year abstainers (lifetime isn't so relevant as you can come off the drug in a day or two).
Doing more digging comes up with the figure of 28% of of-age males had been alcohol abstinent in the previous year in the united states. That's a damn large market.