10 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Automation Improves Safety
The airports with their self-check-in kiosks and restaurants full of iPads are staffed by thousands of human workers (most using mano machine can do? Or, like operating an elevator and driving a car, is it because at first we don't trust machines to do a job where lives are at risk? Elevators became much safer as soon as the human operators were replaced. The human-hating Skynet from the Terminator movies could hardly do a better job of killing people than we do killing ourselves with cars. H...Folksonomies: automation
Folksonomies: automation
1 
notes
notes10 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Kasparov was the John Henry of Chess
HE NINETEENTH-CENTURY African American folk legend of John Henry I pits the "steel-driving man" in a race against a new invention, a steam-powered hammer, bashing a tunnel through a mountain of rock. It was my blessing and my curse to be the John Henry of chess and artificial intelligence, as chess computers went from laughably weak to nearly unbeatable during my twenty years as the world's top chess player.
As we will see, this is a pattern that has repeated over and over for centuries. Pe...Folksonomies: automation
Folksonomies: automation
1 notes
notes04 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Exodus to the Virtual World
Anyone who sees a hurricane coming should warn others. I see a hurricane coming.
Over the next generation or two, ever larger numbers of
people, hundreds of millions, will become immersed in virtual
worlds and online games. While we are playing, things
we used to do on the outside, in “reality,” won’t be happening
anymore, or won’t be happening in the same way. You
can’t pull millions of person-hours out of a society without
creating an atmospheric-level event.
If it happens in a ...Folksonomies: virtual reality gaming
Folksonomies: virtual reality gaming
1 notes
notesPeople are leaving the real world for the virtual. This will impact society in unanticipated ways.
31 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Science Manipulates Language to Make it More Precise
Let us consider two spheres moving in different di-
rections on a smooth table. So as to have a definite
picture, we may assume the two directions perpendicu-
lar to each other. Since there are no external forces
acting, the motions are perfectly uniform. Suppose,
further, that the speeds are equal, that is, both cover
the same distance in the same interval of time. But
is it correct to say that the two spheres have the same
velocity? The answer can be yes or no ! If the speedo-
mete...
1 The example is "velocity" which in common parlance is the same as "speed," but in science it means "speed and direction."
12 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Hackers Hate Driving Cars
Imperfect systems infuriate hackers, whose primal instinct is to debug them. This is one reason why hackers generally hate driving cars—the system of randomly programmed red lights and oddly laid out one-way streets cause delays that are so goddamned unnecessary that the impulse is to rearrange signs, open up traffic-light control boxes . . . redesign the entire system. 1 notes
notesThe imperfect traffic systems infuriate them.
26 DEC 2010 by ideonexus
Watching Cars Merge on the Freeway as an Example of Civil...
Look on the screen. This is where we are. This is who we are. (points to the Jumbotron screen which show traffic merging into a tunnel). These cars—that’s a schoolteacher who probably thinks his taxes are too high. He’s going to work. There’s another car-a woman with two small kids who can’t really think about anything else right now. There’s another car, swinging, I don’t even know if you can see it—the lady’s in the NRA and she loves O...Folksonomies: centrism
Folksonomies: centrism
Jon Stewart uses the example of traffic merging on the freeway as an example of the "we're all in it together" spirit of civilization, and how we all have each other's best interests at heart despite what extreme political pundits may say.
