"Kurzweil will probably die"
John Markoff on artificial intelligence and the Singularity (It's back! Run for $yourlives):
Nevertheless, this generation of humans, at least, is perhaps unlikely to need to rush to the barricades. The artificial-intelligence industry has advanced in fits and starts over the past half-century, since the term "artificial intelligence" was coined by the Stanford University computer scientist John McCarthy in 1956. In 1964, when Mr. McCarthy established the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the researchers informed their Pentagon backers that the construction of an artificially intelligent machine would take about a decade. Two decades later, in 1984, that original optimism hit a rough patch, leading to the collapse of a crop of A.I. start-up companies in Silicon Valley, a time known as "the A.I. winter."Image: Barrie Sutcliffe
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Brainspore on "Kurzweil will probably die"...
"Comparing a computer to a brain is a bit like comparing an automobile to a horse..."
seanpatgallagher on "Kurzweil will probably die"...
"It just goes to show that even very intelligent, rational people can have their ..."
schwal on "Kurzweil will probably die"...
"I think he will end up dying of liver damage. he takes over 100 vitamin suppleme..."
The Raven on "Kurzweil will probably die"...
"Y'know, AI is starting to seem like the modern version of the philosopher's ston..."
Matt Katz on "Kurzweil will probably die"...
"This particular religion is useful, as it is getting people to build cathedrals...."
Anonymous on "Kurzweil will probably die"...
"Personally, I blame Minsky and his fanboizen, whose bad ideas have dominated the..."
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Anonymous Anonymous
#1 – 10:13 AM May 26, 2009
Personally, I blame Minsky and his fanboizen, whose bad ideas have dominated the field to exclusion of all others.
Re-purposing the failed AI work of the MIT AI lab has given us "expert systems" and other lamely heuristic dbs that enable surly high school students to ask us if our computers are plugged in when we call tech support because the DHCP server's giving out the wrong gateway. Yay. Yay.
Matt Katz
#2 – 10:47 AM May 26, 2009
This particular religion is useful, as it is getting people to build cathedrals.
An afterlife has historically proven to be a powerful motivator. In this case it is motivating few atrocities and many good works.
The Raven
#3 – 6:59 PM May 26, 2009
Y'know, AI is starting to seem like the modern version of the philosopher's stone. And people have broken their hearts looking for AI, too!
schwal
#4 – 10:02 PM May 26, 2009
I think he will end up dying of liver damage. he takes over 100 vitamin supplements a day.
seanpatgallagher
#5 – 12:40 PM May 27, 2009
It just goes to show that even very intelligent, rational people can have their sacred cows...
and Kurzweil is up to his neck in sacred cow poo.
Eventually, the poo will get him, possibly as Schwal describes: through his use of pseudo-scientific vitamin therapy.
-S
Brainspore
#6 – 3:06 PM May 27, 2009
Comparing a computer to a brain is a bit like comparing an automobile to a horse. As long as you think of a horse as nothing more than a form of transportation the car seems pretty damn impressive, but beyond that the metaphor is a pretty flimsy one.
Sorry Ray, your brain is going to become worm food long before anyone comes up with another receptacle for the human consciousness.