I was watching a short video on “TerraPower” and there was a really good quote from Bill Gates which I liked.
“if it’s not economic it is just theory”
In fact after reading up a bit more about TerraPower, I really hope that they are successful.
Read this interview with Bill Gates about the future of R&D and the energy future. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/11/we-need-an-energy-miracle/407881/
So I’ve been reading up on AI and what it will mean for humanity, and it is amazing. To put it bluntly, the reason why AI is such a hot topic right now is that we are getting very close to achieving it. Now I don’t mean that it will be here next week, but rather, the “general” consensus is that General AI will be here by 2040-2045.
for an excellent post on the whole AI topic read this:
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html ; and http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html
Anyway, after all this reading, all I can think is “How does it feel to be the last generation of humans who are the smartest creatures on this planet.” and also by extension “How does it feel to be the LAST generation of humans on the planet”
I say this because Artificial Super Intelligence is near. When it does arrive, it will look at humans like we look at the animal kingdom. As pets or as things that need to be looked after / protected / kept in a cage. And we won’t even know. We will think that we are the masters of our own destiny but we won’t. We will be in a cage and not even know that we are in it.
If the AI looks at humanity as generally harmless it will treat us like cats. If the AI looks at humanity and thinks it is a threat, it will treat us the same way as we treat sharks. The only difference is that when it starts to take humanity down, we won’t understand that it is the AI doing it. It will be a bit like how a elephant can understand life and death, but not the fact that the real reason why it is hunted is just for it’s ivory.
So right now we are living in the greatest time in human history and most likely the future of human history as well. So there is no point in being un-happy and doing a job you hate. The time is now to live your dreams because there may not be a tomorrow to do it.
Developer: Expected to be an expert level at one programming language (Java, PHP, etc.)
Programmer: Expect to be an expert at several different languages.
Programmer Analyst: Expected to be able to program applications that integrate between different systems.
Systems Analyst: Expected to Design Information Architecture to improve business information systems
Software Engineer: Expected to design core components that Developers & Programmers can use. As per US law, you need to have a professional engineering degree/license to add the title engineer.
Computer Scientist: They write code, but they do it prove something. They are not bothered about design or good practices.
I heard a comment today which I thought was amusing.
I cannot brain today, I has the dumb
This led into the person stating that they had
The Derp
The Derp – Your brain has checked out and you can’t think properly.
Elon Musk’s first attempt to land a SpaceX stage 1 rocket booster on to a boat didn’t go so well. Here is a video
https://vine.co/v/OjqeYWWpVWK
The problem was the hypersonic fins (the things that steer the landing rocket) ran out of hydraulic fluid so it couldn’t manoeuvre properly.
But you know what, for a first attempt to actually hit the thing is impressive, especially with out steering for the last part.
All I can say is that Elon Musk is a visionary, he doesn’t fear failure, but learns from it so the next attempt can go better.
I am waiting for the day to see him succeed with a landing, this will be one of those events where it changes space flight forever.
I tip my hat to you sir, onwards and upwards.
I recently update Notepad++ and upon first load, this is displayed.
Freedom of expression is like the air we breathe, we don’t feel it, until people take it away from us.
For this reason, Je suis Charlie, not because I endorse everything they published, but because I cherish the right to speak out freely without risk even when it offends others.
And no, you cannot just take someone’s life for whatever he/she expressed.
Hence this “Je suis Charlie” edition.
– #JeSuisCharlie
I thought it was very eloquent and worthy of a repost.
So I’ve finally thrown in the towel with Cookie Clicker (http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/). I have all but 7 achievements (version 1.0466) and now it is just a grind that will take so much time that I no longer care for it.
This is my last save game if you are interested at all.
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%21END%21
Farewell Cookie Clicker, Thanks for wasting a large amount of time in my life.
Next Up
Nethack – telnet nethack.alt.org
So I just stumbled across this company called Vicarious and they are working on some crazy cool shit. Basically they are working on AI
We are building a unified algorithmic architecture to achieve human-level intelligence in vision, language, and motor control.
http://vicarious.com/about.html
Just reading the descriptions of the people that work there is amazing. This is possibly the most powerful think tank around at the moment (apart from those crazy nutters at Google X). They have 17 PhDs working on the problems and with $70 Million in funding and without the handcuffs of product development and publications they are going to do amazing things.
We have raised ~$70M in funding and are not constrained by publication, grant applications, or product development cycles. At Vicarious, there is room to develop new approaches that would otherwise not be supported in academia or industry
So watch out world, Skynet is coming.
You know the problem with space sims and space movies is that they paint their ships white or grey. Then they get shitty that they can be seen like lights on a Christmas tree.
I have an idea. How about you paint the space ship black. See, space is black, and if your ship is black, it is going to be much harder to be seen.
Just Say’n
How cool is this massive rabbit
I want one of them to mow my lawn.