EPIC

[magical pig]

this might be an oldie, but it's a goody

http://idorosen.com/mirrors/robinsloan.com/epic/


discuss...

[X'tyfe]

not bad that would never happen though of course
they could never get away with it. it would be abused to spy and control people

[quadz]

Hmm... as the alien says to the recently cryogenically-thawed traveller, "Take my advice and go back to the time you came from. . . The future isn't what it used to be."


Things are REALLY going to get weird, if ever a true computer AI is developed, that can build a better version of itself.

[X'tyfe]

sounds like the matrix that would be scary living if that was the future

[magical pig]

the whole thing really got me thinking - I currently own a weekly newspaper so it *really* got me thinking...  pretty scary stuff but totally intriguing.

I remember in grade school waaaay waaay waaay back when, I saw an educational movie called "1999" - it was prettycorny but cool just the same-

we used to laugh at the food prep depicted- now we have microwaves
we laughed at the remote control aspect of life depicted - bow we have  clappers and smart houses
electric cars - hybrids... shopping by computers - paypal - vpns, vonage, etc etc etc...
this was back in 1974, and they all came true -

 I remember the computer they brought in in 6th grade - it was the size of a large fridge and all it could do was simple addition...

 LOL

[DWxchzrles]

this is scary

they know everything about you

instead of 1984 it is 2014

best to stay off the grid

give as little information as possible about yourself

[[BTF]DeathStalker]

I remember not so long ago, Console putting people on "the Grid". 

[[BTF]Defiant!]

Things are REALLY going to get weird, if ever a true computer AI is developed, that can build a better version of itself.

Arguably genetic algorthims can build better versions of themselves.  I know that at least one of the frameworks allows the framework itself to be branched, seeded, and competed.

Expert systems (AI) are successful at performing better than humans in smaller domains like chess, finding oil deposits, and others.  It is, however, surprising how little progress has been made in generalized AI.  But with say, five orders of magnitude computing power, maybe even current techniques could find some success.

Def