tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post4389829522036157716..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Learning from Lanier's Inverse Moore's LawDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-80960235503447690112011-09-29T14:08:06.704-07:002011-09-29T14:08:06.704-07:00> . . .speech recognition has been a stagnant f...> . . .speech recognition has been a stagnant field for a decade now. . .<br />><br />> . . .No computer can explain what it means to be revved up like a douche, either. . .<br /><br />Apropos of which, a friend of mine commented:<br /><br />"When context is limited, even humans have trouble. A good example,<br />extensively documented on the Net, is misheard song lyrics,<br />collectively called mondegreens, in honor of the pupil who transcribed<br /><br /> They have killed the Earl of Moray and laid him on the green<br /><br />as<br /><br /> They have killed the Earl of Moray and Lady Mondegreen.<br /><br />No machine would make that mistake; but our ability to make such a<br />mistake seems likely to be related to our ability to be right more<br />often than machines. The hearer knew nothing of the story except that<br />it had been made into a ballad; it is a fair strategy in such a<br />situation to thicken the plot by inventing a lady."jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-7440084047289252622011-09-28T15:14:03.771-07:002011-09-28T15:14:03.771-07:00> . . .he said that cryonics was not possible b...> . . .he said that cryonics was not possible because of freeze fracturing. . .<br /><br />Now here's a kind of "cryonics" I can believe in, that **depends**<br />on freeze fracturing:<br /><br />http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article3780207.ece<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIwEf8J2b34<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HD5Gt80H6s<br /><br />Don't know how soon it's likely to become available in the<br />U.S., though.jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-9522488156804228892011-09-28T12:16:15.737-07:002011-09-28T12:16:15.737-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.adminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01020701980607126113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-77427535223323752732011-09-28T12:10:14.458-07:002011-09-28T12:10:14.458-07:00Hasn't SS run exposes of cryonics and drextech...Hasn't SS run exposes of cryonics and drextechians and other Robot Cult flavored futurological flim flammery in the past?Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-72033775779011851802011-09-28T11:55:17.272-07:002011-09-28T11:55:17.272-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.adminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01020701980607126113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-79020145045277538702011-09-28T11:29:01.971-07:002011-09-28T11:29:01.971-07:00So true! And, also, too: poop!So true! And, also, too: <a href="http://youtu.be/kQTW7Pd1vqc" rel="nofollow">poop!</a>Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-52185833388061927882011-09-28T11:17:49.029-07:002011-09-28T11:17:49.029-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.adminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01020701980607126113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-28869900107665314262011-09-28T11:12:47.245-07:002011-09-28T11:12:47.245-07:00> Of course, Kurzweil should know better. . .
...> Of course, Kurzweil should know better. . .<br /><br />The Singularity bandwagon has swept up other folks you might<br />think should know better. Douglas Hofstadter has flirted with them<br />(and even hosted seminars for them), but has also kept a sensible<br />distance.<br /><br />But this guy has an impressive resume and yet spends time<br />serving as an "advisor" to SIAI. (OTOH, his pal Stephen Wolfram<br />also has a bit of a reputation as being a. . .<br />well, you know -- a slightly flawed piece of earthenware,<br />also somewhat too wide at the top.):<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Omohundro<br /><br />(Cute, too:<br />http://steveomohundro.com/<br />http://www.flickr.com/photos/29246236@N02/2748347698/ )jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-41069253190038259692011-09-28T10:41:22.046-07:002011-09-28T10:41:22.046-07:00> . . .speech recognition has been a stagnant f...> . . .speech recognition has been a stagnant field for a decade now. , .<br /><br />You mean, no computer has yet unravelled the mystery of<br />the Pompatus of Love?jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-40588736398241474182011-09-26T15:55:21.267-07:002011-09-26T15:55:21.267-07:00And Kurzweil's even more hyperbolic Law of Acc...And Kurzweil's even more hyperbolic Law of Accelerating Returns is completely bagged for disposal -- tho' sensible people found it a laugh out loud shell game from the start. Watching tee vee shows from a decade ago or more one finds the computational/multimedia furniture of their world completely familiar. Going back two decades that isn't quite so true. But clearly the accelerating acceleration of acceleration promoted and marketed in the belly of the irrationally exuberant beast is exposed in retrospect as arrant nonsense. Dot eyed futurological True Believers still foam at the mouth about racing upward ever quicker into Robo-Heaven, but everybody else sees we're stuck in the deep muddy.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-62674901051364504922011-09-26T15:45:24.445-07:002011-09-26T15:45:24.445-07:00Not sure if Moore's Law is still chugging alon...Not sure if Moore's Law is still chugging along anymore. Compare a top end Desktop PC from two years ago with what you would get for the same money today.jollyspaniardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10999141103840765243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-85189724958931947402011-09-26T13:48:31.994-07:002011-09-26T13:48:31.994-07:00You're one of the good guys Martin, but look h...You're one of the good guys Martin, but look how language wants to make you vulnerable to techno-transcendentalzing razzle-dazzle even though you aren't...<br /><br />To wit, "supporters of the Singularity" -- just spend a few moments contemplating that string of words. "Supporters" of what, exactly, of what does there support presumably consist?<br /><br />"Kurzweil's description of genome sequencing improvements is accurate: it kinda followed an exponential increase from 1990 to the early 2000s, even beating the early estimates of how long it would take to fully sequence the human genome. But 10 years later, we still don't have personalized genomic medicine. We still don't understand a lot about the genome." The fudge is signaled by "kinda" -- even before the evidence of "10 years later" came in we had plenty of reason to dismiss the framing as "exponential increase" as a perspectival effect mobilizing transcendental literary frames for their intuitive plausibility and peddling this as "sciency." To retroactively re-write this in the image of hypothesis failing the test is actually to give it far more than its due -- Kurzweil was always indulging rhetorical fun and games more appropraitely responded to on rhetorical than "technical" terms -- he was framing data in the service of a scam not contributing foresight via analysis.<br /><br />"we already have supercomputers with the computational capacity of the brain" -- I'm not sure that word "capacity" means what it seems to want to mean in that sentence! You actually make the substance of that point later, but look what you concede at the level of framing.<br /><br />Futurology is a discourse making normative claims not factual ones, its effects are promotional and subcultural not scientific. It is crucial to grasp this else even sensible skepticism can be mulched back into the futurological framework to fertilize the next crop of weeds.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-53424352610495679712011-09-26T13:22:29.652-07:002011-09-26T13:22:29.652-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.adminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01020701980607126113noreply@blogger.com