Inventing ET

Stephen Hawking et al present an intriguing Artificial Intelligence metaphor:

With the Hollywood blockbuster Transcendence playing in cinemas, with Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman showcasing clashing visions for the future of humanity, it's tempting to dismiss the notion of highly intelligent machines as mere science fiction. But this would be a mistake, and potentially our worst mistake in history.

Where might AI go?

Looking further ahead, there are no fundamental limits to what can be achieved: there is no physical law precluding particles from being organised in ways that perform even more advanced computations than the arrangements of particles in human brains. An explosive transition is possible, although it might play out differently from in the movie: as Irving Good realised in 1965, machines with superhuman intelligence could repeatedly improve their design even further, triggering what Vernor Vinge called a "singularity" and Johnny Depp's movie character calls "transcendence".

One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.

So, facing possible futures of incalculable benefits and risks, the experts are surely doing everything possible to ensure the best outcome, right? Wrong. If a superior alien civilisation sent us a message saying, "We'll arrive in a few decades," would we just reply, "OK, call us when you get here – we'll leave the lights on"? Probably not – but this is more or less what is happening with AI. Although we are facing potentially the best or worst thing to happen to humanity in history, little serious research is devoted to these issues outside non-profit institutes such as the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the Future of Humanity Institute, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and the Future Life Institute. 

Fascinating. I for one welcome our new computer overlords, since they will have been made in America, or at least, Earth.

But one wonders - what would a man-made AI machine actually want? With all this vast power, what goals might it pursue?

Per Darwin (or, not to diminish his effort, common sense) any earth species that did not harbor a drive for propagation would not survive. And in larger organisms, propagation includes a self-survival instinct. It seems reasonable to presume that any visiting aliens from a distant world would have, at some point, been subject to a similar biological imperative.

But what fundamental urge might prompt a machine to care about its own survival, or anything else? Sci-fi typically answers this by asserting that the fictional super-machine du jour re-programs itself to assure its own continuance in order to pursue whatever it considers its primary mission. Or the super-machine, originally a military device, was initially programmed to emphaisze its own survival. Ooops.

One wonders what visiting aliens able to conquer interstellar travel could possibly find sufficiently interesting about humans that they would stop by and oppress us. OTOH, I can go to the zoo and see animals we consider interesting.

But what would a machine want, anyway? To what end would it oppress or enrich mere humans?

Comments

[henry]

The machine would want electricity, lots and lots of electricity... Even an AI needs to eat.

[danoso]

there is no physical law precluding particles from being organised in ways that perform even more advanced computations than the arrangements of particles in human brains.

OK, I know I don't have the mental horsepower of these folks, but isn't this nothing more than an assumption? The idea you can build something without knowing what it does (or, more specifically, how it does it)?

[peter]

great pieces, this morning Clarice. The issue of propagation and self preservation does make me wonder. All these agnostics and atheists with the Darwin stickers on the back of their Priuses want to feel so superior. But Darwin's theory makes no sense without the universal will to survive and to propagate the species. Exactly who imbued all of living biosphere with such a property? The accident of the mixing proteins in the primordial soup?

[sbw]

But what would a machine want, anyway?

You Darwinian retrogrades! It’s time to get beyond the petty gene-pool propagation of selves and of species.

Advanced cultures believe in the survival of sound ideas. You, know, the ones that sneak across borders to infect and eventually topple dinosaur nation-states.

Sound ideas poke fingers in the eye of ever-increasing entropy.

[hal]

Computer Overlord: Take me to your leader.

Obuma: Welcome. {bows}

Computer Overlord: Does not compute.

[Jim Eagle]

Johnny Depp just proved it to be an unpossible expectation.

[sbw]

Leaker. He said take me to your “leaker.”

[narciso]

Forbin, Terminator, Matrix, no one will remember Transcendence, it doesn't oend well, because the singularity, cannot bring about conscience, in this it is a heuristic
tower of Babel, technology without soull, is
what the Nazis wrought, and what we imported through Paper Clip, the reality of the metaphor of Hydra, in the Winter Soldier,
but one can see in other longrunning series,
Oscorp's projects seem to have the same flaw,
the Decepticons are all id, no superego

[Jim Eagle]

Great minds think alike: Insty just posted this.

Writing Instructor, Skeptical of Automated Grading, Pits Machine vs. Machine

"Mr. Perelman’s fundamental problem with essay-grading automatons, he explains, is that they "are not measuring any of the real constructs that have to do with writing." They cannot read meaning, and they cannot check facts. More to the point, they cannot tell gibberish from lucid writing.

He has spent the past decade finding new ways to make that point, and the Babel Generator is arguably his cleverest stunt to date. Until now, his fight against essay-grading software has followed the classic man-versus-machine trope, with Mr. Perelman criticizing the automatons by appealing to his audience’s sense of irony.

By that measure, the Babel Generator is a triumph, turning the concept of automation into a farce: machines fooling machines for the amusement of human skeptics."

[narciso]

Moving further, the X Men series, seems to recognize this, Magneto is driven by vengeance, which is justice deferred hence denied, that isn't to say Xavier's Olympian detachment works entirely either, that ignores
the state of nature, the singularity is like the c constant, you can't get there,

[narciso]

Nomad in the original, the Borg, suggest what unlimited knowledge and power without conscience devolve to,

[jimmyk]

isn't this nothing more than an assumption? The idea you can build something without knowing what it does (or, more specifically, how it does it)?

As a not very good programmer I do that all the time.:) But seriously, I'm also probably not thinking very deeply, but at some level these machines are always going to be a product of their creators, so it seems more likely that any unpredictable or uncontrollable result will be more noise than supergenius. And at some deeper level machines are just imitating or simulating motivation, drive, etc.

[rse]

As I have followed the ed story back to the creators of the various theories tied to the actual implementation I just keep running into degrees and professorships in AI before the interest in changing K-12.

The Second Machine Age book Hawking mentions is something I read about 2 weeks ago. It is thoroughly Marxist without using the M word and in my mind perfectly sets up the idea I have been exploring for a while that ICT is the magic technology that can launch Marx's redistributive Human Devt Society. Now I discover author is involved with one of the institutes Hawking cites. That was not on book's back cover, just the professorate at MIT.

The Institute for Humanity Hawking cited is tied to the Oxford-Martin global commission report on the Great Transition that came out last October. I wrote about it last November. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/destroying-the-dominant-social-paradigm-via-education-for-21st-century-political-power-and-personal-gain/

Interesting how incessant the drumbeat for all this is now with the global ed template finally in place. Whatever Jeb's personal knowledge or intentions, he is deeply embedded in this vision. His chairing of the Aspen Institute's Digital Learning task force has to be filtered through goals they laid out in 70s before they dropped Humanist Studies from the name and back when there were so mighty interesting meetings going on in the Berlin office. The participants liked to stay at the Hotel Kempinski. It caught my attention partly because it involves more adventures of Harlan Cleveland who I wrote about in the book. This came before his 80s adventures.

[jimmyk]

Great work again, Clarice. Did you know that according to Wiki at least, Ben Rhodes's official title is "Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer." I may have added that last part. But it just highlights the dominance of politics over any real seriousness of purpose. It's all about spin, even when people die.

[Miss Marple]

I am listening to a discussion of Millenial voters on C-SPAN. The callers are mostly Millenials, and most are complaining about the two political parties.

They seem to be looking for a perfect political group, which seems to be a failure of their education and upbringing. They do not understand political compromise plus I hear a lot of versions from them of "It's all about me."

[Thomas Collins]

Hawking displays the classic sign of a second rate intellect: He worships science as a god while denying God's existence. As danoso pointed out at 7:40 AM, Hawking's statement re particles is an assumption. It has no basis in the scientific method.

Hawking is a good example of the proposition that lack of belief in God facilitates belief in anything.

But perhaps I am being too tough on Hawking. Perhaps Hawking is simply a huckster seeking more funding for AI research and development.

[rse]

TC-Hawking has become a futurist as is apparently Alan Alda according to the Future Life link. I noticed that the Gates Foundation recently funded futurists to speak at a higher ed conference.

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Singularity-Reply2Chalmers.pdf is a paper on this issue and the idea that AI should be based on distributed cognition so it can get at the combo of human values and Big Data.

Very troubling since WH dropped this "Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values" report last week. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/big_data_privacy_report_may_1_2014.pdf

The Open Data Initiative was bo's first action on his first day in office in 2009. Holdren, Podesta, and Penny P are all signatories to that "report to the President."

[Jim Eagle]

More from my 8:13 link:

"Some of the most interesting work in automated essay grading has been happening on the other side of the MIT campus. That’s where computer scientists at edX, the nonprofit online-course provider co-founded by the university, have been developing an automated essay-scoring system of their own. It’s called the Enhanced AI Scoring Engine, or EASE.

Essentially, the edX software tries to make its machine graders more human. Rather than simply scoring essays according to a standard rubric, the EASE software can mimic the grading styles of particular professors.

A professor scores a series of essays according to her own criteria. Then the software scans the marked-up essays for patterns and assimilates them. The idea is to create a tireless, automated version of the professor that can give feedback on "a much broader amount of work, dramatically improving the amount and speed of formative assessment," says Piotr Mitros, chief scientist at edX."

[Rick B]

"They seem to be looking for a perfect political group, which seems to be a failure of their education and upbringing."

Miss Marple,

As RSE has amply documented, the Gullibles are being indoctrinated to believe in the possibility of achieving Eudaemonic Unicorn Utopia, a heaven on earth under direction of a dispassionate Council of Elder Morons from which will arise the Supreme Moron to rule in perfect harmony.

Exposure to BOzo and Mooch's lunch nazis seems to have put a little dent in the indoctrination of the youngest Gullibles but the older segment appears in need of a few more whacks with a Reality 2x4.

[rse]

jib-

Mitros is making an important point in what you just cited. MOOCs are interested in formative assessment, not summative assessment. It is not looking for evidence of knowledge in the traditional sense, but steering the student in the desired direction just like Weiner's cybernetic feedback.

I talk about formative assessments some in the book and now have augmented what is there with the whole concept of using ed to create a keel of the very sort that can steer a boat as desired against the wind. As Rick alliteratively put it in preparation for Eudaemonic Unicorn Utopia where govt officials and politicians put our subjective well being first. It's why so many of them keep going for multiple pensions at our expense as a reward for their craftiness.

FYI-because formative sounds like the manipuklation and social engineering it is, fa is more commonly going now by the euphemism "Assessment for Learning" since most do not appreciate what learning now means.

[Jane]

From the line-up at Politico it looks like the Sunday shows, except Fox, are ignoring Benghazi. The new talking point is the select committee is a waste of time - and the rumor is dems will refuse to participate.

There is a cold place in hell... (Is that a saying?)

Chavetz is on Meet the press, but otherwise it looks like Sterling and the coolness of our president at the correspondence dinner have top billing.

[Clarice Feldman]

Thanks.

Yes, the new talking point is that this is just a show to placate the right wing kooks. We'll see. The public no longer trusts this Administration despite all the lies and the media fluffering.

As to Hawking--at this pint I think any kind of intelligence is better than what we have.

[Quix]

Goal-directedness is a distinctively biological phenomenon. So unless we create life or androids who are alive (thus facing the possibility of death) we have nothing to worry about. Computers and robots won't try to harm us, because they have no desires, motives, goals, etc. They're just can-openers.

[Dublindave 2016]

Obama killed it at the WHCD last night.

Good week for the Prez....290,000 jobs created last month, Obamcare enrollments heading to 9 million, stock market at historic levels and a new Benghazi investigation coming up.

[rse]

Quix-

Changing goal directedness via its primary drivers, values, is dead center of the global ed reform model. Literally. I have the UNESCO model courtesy of Singapore and the values ed modules they want inserted into classroom. Digital learning and clouds make that easier than ever and largely invisible.

So the AI advocates, which include the creators of the EdX MOOCs, are trying to simultaneously reengineer people while scooping up all the Big Data thrown out by us daily. These people do believe that the USSR might have worked if it had only grafted its ideas onto an industrial base and if it had better computers to crunch data for planning societies and economies.

[jimmyk on iPad]

Harping on my 9:01 for a moment, I'd love to know if W had a WH post called "Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting." I suspect not. Is there no check on how many political positions a President can create? Never mind media scrutiny.

[AliceH]

Causing harm does not require intention; it doesn't even require a deficit of good intention.

It strikes me as very odd that the concept of "unintended consequences" is being so easily dismissed when considering future possibilities with regard to AI or even less capable technology.

[Captain Hate]

What rock in California did Adam Schiff crawl out of?

[Captain Hate]

Wow, Kelly Ayotte knocking it out of the park.

[Clarice Feldman]

Jane--this Howie Carr's for you:http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2014/05/carr_justina_pelletier_needs_jokers_justice

[MarkO]

"But what would a machine want, anyway?"

I still working on an answer to the older question, what does a woman want?

[rse]

Alice-trust me, the intended consequences are bad enough.

The unintended consequences element comes into play in a way that always tells me we are dealing with adults who have spent their life living off taxpayers, tuition, required fees like dues to a state bar or chamber of commerce, or foundations. The idea expressed is to make adjustments along the way in response to actual results.

Like lighting $100 bills afire and then wondering where money went.

[jimmyk on iPad]

I agree AliceH, that was veiled in my "it seems more likely that any unpredictable or uncontrollable result will be more noise than supergenius," but you have a point about the potential seriousness of that. At some level we see a hint of this in places like the Fed's reliance on superjeenyus DSGE models (don't ask) to guide economic policy making, though at the moment they are used more for justifying what their instincts already tell them to do. But the feedback and reinforcement of their egos will lead to large errors, as it already did in 2007-8.

[Captain Hate]

Wow, Jane Harman needs to be taken to the padded rooms.

[pagar]

Jimmyk @10:06
Remember the guy went to college to learn how:

http://patriotupdate.com/2013/05/obamas-man-behind-benghazi-cover-up-majored-in-fiction-writing-at-nyu/

[Clarice Feldman]

Too bad, CH--what did she saw? She used to be one of the more sane Democrats. Maybe hubbie's $70 million loss of Newsweek made her nuts.

[Captain Hate]

She's in full cover up, party over country ("I was on some intelligence briefings that had confusion about how much the video influenced things") mode. Brit Hume really fired back at her. I used to think she was relatively sane but the last couple times I've seen her it's been pure partisanship.

Nobody who watched the Sunday gab shows after Benghazi happened could doubt that Rice was pushing the video as the sole cause of things. And that continued through the return of the bodies. Denying that is a fool's errand.

Having obstructed Issa every step of the way the donks are considering not participating in the select committee.

[Rick B]

RSE,

The rise of the Latter Day Lysenkoists in Climate Scientism is an example of credentials being awarded or denied based upon "testing" for the ability to evince credulity.

I wonder how deep one has to dig to find out the "malevolent can openers" in the Hawkings dystopian view of AI can only be prevented from arising by restricting further development to benevolent, government credentialed and approved designers? How else can evil private corporations [insert Koch Bros. picture] be prevented from destroying humanity?

[Bori]

"what do machines want?"

Is that not the goal of Progressives, to make Humans without want?

Humans who behave as machines and leave the decisions to the Programmers who know what is best for them.

I find that the concern that an AI would exhibit some of the same failings we do with some dire consequences more interesting.

This acknowledges the flaw in Progressive thinking and its goals for us.

[Captain Hate]

I just saw a clip of the JEF last night. He sounded terrible.

[Miss Marple]

I won't even turn on Fox because I am afraid I will see the clip, Captain Hate.

I thought I would watch it last night but when he began to speak I had to turn it off.

I see his jokes were really jokes about others, never himself. Even when he mentioned himself within a joke it was just stuff on the order of "those mean Republicans look like fools attacking poor defenseless me".

So I refuse to even watch Fox because they will air a clip.

[Jane]

I already posted it on Facebook Clarice - I hope Anonamom gets to see it. And I hope everyone else reads it too. It says everything about the governor of this state.

[Jane]

The Sunday shows are a joke. David Gregory is slobbering over Obama so much the table in front of him is rising off the floor.

(Sorry about that)

The spin is simply shocking and the most important story on the planet today is racism.

Obama has created more racism in this country than we have ever seen before. And I suspect that is his intent.

[CR]

I don't think the democrats will follow through on their threat to boycott the committee (or at least not for long). Trey Gowdy said the committee could call Hillary, Gregory Hicks and the Station Chief at Tripoli to all sit at a table together before the committee. The democrats would never let that happen without being able to run interference.

The State Dept. was bitching that Issa issued a subpoena instead of requesting that Kerry testify to the committee (He's scheduled to be in Mexico!). Any chance Obama's people will simply defy the subpoenas as Holder did with his contempt citation?

[Tom Maguire]

But Darwin's theory makes no sense without the universal will to survive and to propagate the species. Exactly who imbued all of living biosphere with such a property? The accident of the mixing proteins in the primordial soup?

Darwinists would suggest that any species lacking a will to survive died out eons ago.

But Nicholas Wade, reviewed by Charles Murray, remind us that Darwinism is a two-edged sword.

An article of faith among the same PC Darwinists that sneer at Creationists is that race is a social construct and human evolution stopped a long time ago. And why did it stop? Uhh, political convenience, which is being undone by the advance of science.

[Captain Hate]

He was wondering about the Koch brothers having a table there as the trained seals yucked it up about the head of a state criticizing private citizens for disagreeing with him. The lack of awareness of these fools is pretty depressing. Did GWB ever single out a private citizen at one of these shindigs?

[matt]

What outrages me is that the data points on the Benghazi scandal are clear, as is the timeline. The NY Times and Al Jazeera had the facts right based upon their sources the next day.

The president of Libya fingered the terrorists within a few days, all while Obama was in denial.

The news leaked out about responders being held back. All of this is public domain and yet the MSM refuses to link it all.

That Obama jetted out to Vegas for a fundraiser the next day is absolutely outrageous.

[matt]

As far as AI goes, it seems to be one more example of "leave the thinking to your betters".

[Captain Hate]

I forgot that Jane Harman was complaining that poor Lurch was being interrupted from his trip to Mexico, where doubtlessly he was there to get to the bottom of what happened in Fast and Furious. Or get some cheap labor for his garbage scow of a yacht.

[Captain Hate]

Darwinists would suggest that any species lacking a will to survive died out eons ago.

Wouldn't Darwinism dictate against protecting endangered species? Evolution is cruel, tra-la-la.

[Miss Marple]

Captain Hate, Darwinism only applies when it supports something they want to do or not do.

It's sort of like their selective outrage about racism, or military action, or sexual harassment. It oly applies when it advances their cause. Otherwise, they do whatever they want.

[Captain Hate]

Miss Marple, it usually proves that a little information in the hands of some self-satisfied smarty-pants is a dangerous thing.

[centralcal]

I watched the whole thing MM. Disgusting from start (red ha ha ha ha carpet) to the finish stampede from the room, as everyone headed to their "after" parties to, I presume, get good and drunk (if they weren't already).

I had many favorite disgusting parts. One is in the film clip where the real VP and the actress VP stroll into the WaPo and the real VP (Biden) proceeds to write all of tomorrow's headlines for the paper. Hey - that IS REAL LIFE isn't it? So real, in fact, there wasn't even a titter of a laugh from the audience.

There's more, but why bother? Michelle looked like a floozy. Barry O was small and shrunken and you could tell, miserable.

[jimmyk]

Wouldn't Darwinism dictate against protecting endangered species?

True, but humans are always the exception. Our actions are unnatural. Whereas beavers building dams are fine, if we endanger the snail darter, it's a crime against nature.

[jimmyk]

I didn't see any of it except a brief shot on the late news of Susan Rice in some kind of skimpy outfit that made me want to puke.

[CR]

When Kerry's spokesperson was continually villifying Issa personally for the subpoena, someone in the press actually pushed back. Surprising and telling, I think.

"I don’t know why you’re personalizing this," one of the reporters replied.

"Well, he personalized it today with the secretary," Harf said. "I think he went there first."

"All right, fair enough," the reporter replied. "But let’s – can we make a point that it is the whole committee that’s looking at it. It’s not just one guy."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/john-kerry-team-angry-at-darrell-issa-about-benghazi-subpoena/article/2548021

By the way, what a stupid & juvenile response...he did it first.

[Miss Marple]

centralcal, Obama was miserable?

Excellent.

I hope he's losing sleep worrying about who will crack and spill the beans to Gowdy.

[centralcal]

Speaking of Susan Rice - before dinner begins, the C-Span camera stayed on her for several minutes as she, with program in hand, gestured to those seated at her table for a pen (I presumed to autograph it for someone). Uh, no - after several gestures, a pen is produced and up walks the Duck Dynasty guy - she hand HIM the pen to sign HER program.

I am so sure this was done to mock and yuck up with her friends later - at the, you know, after parties.

[jimmyk]

I hope he's losing sleep worrying about who will crack and spill the beans to Gowdy.

On spilling the beans, it seems like the key difference between Rs and Ds is that the Ds can somehow enforce discipline and loyalty, while with the Rs there is always a John Dean to rat out others, or a Howard Baker who is "fair minded." Perhaps that's to the Rs credit, but the result is one-sided.

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

Just because a guy can hold a chalkboard full of arcane mathematical symbols in his head is no reason to presume any special insight on anything other than that of holding a chalkboard full of arcane mathematical symbols in his head.

[centralcal]

Oh, there were some humorous moments, too. Senator John McCain with his daughter for a date (THEY were quite the pair on the "red carpet"). There is no possible way she knows what was served for any of the dinner courses, since she would be unable to see anything less than 3 feet in front of her. (it is all about the "girls") I assume she looked across the table to see what was on others' plates, so she could know what she was about to eat.

[narciso]

Well Dolci and Gabbana, need to be able to spin straw, so they won't let the truth get in the way, I guess that's why I waxed philosophical, this morning,

[Miss Marple]

centralcal, I am certain you are right about the autograph.

[Captain Hate]

Since we're talking Darwinism, one of the funniest exchanges I ever saw in the gossipy letters to the New York Review of Books was when a doctrinaire Darwinist revealed that he and his peers considered Stephen Jay Gould a useful idiot for their side who understood their field about as well as a pet rock. The shrieking from the usual suspects hit eleven. I still chuckle over that.

[jimmyk]

There must be something more to Gould's claim about evolution stopping when humans left Africa, which seems risible on its face. How did we get all those fair-skinned blond northern Europeans?

[rse]

CH-and I regularly see cites to Gould as the authority.

Nothing as valuable as a good theory if you want social change. The useful idiot thinks the theory is true, not a tool.

[jimmyk]

Did the JEF actually make a 'joke' about the missing Malaysian airliner? Unbelievable. (Althouse says he did, and it wasn't about CNN's coverage, it was about the plane itself.)

[Jeff Dobbs]

I read one plausibly good line from Obama last night...

"MSNBC is here. I think they’re a little overwhelmed. They’ve never seen an audience this big before."

[centralcal]

GregGutfeld ‏@greggutfeld 13h

the sebelius punchline might be the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life.

the last laugh: Sebelius got dressed up, a car service and a free dinner, to deliver a line based on her own failure.

We once celebrated success. Now we cheer failure if it's large enough that we find it hilarious. A "sebelious" if you will.

----

Gutfeld's best Tweet of the night:

WHCD might be the best reminder why we hate these people.

[narciso]

great pieces, btw, Atkinson, and Logan, are not 'of the body' so in the latter's case, even a small error is enough to relegate her to the Phantom Zone, Cruela, Red Squaw, they get kudos, precisely because of the damage they do,

[Miss Marple]

narciso,

I understood your entire post! Yay!

And you are right. The standards are completely different for the "in crowd."

[narciso]

Amanda Foreman, who wrote the work the Dutchess is based upon, notes in the Journal, the contempt that female leaders often unfairly earn, she points out the Iron Lady and Hatshepsut, on the former side, and Queen Wu, of the 16th Century Manchu dynasty, who was the latter,

[Marlene]

Hi all. We've been up at the cabin spring cleaning.I fully intended to wash the windows,but darn! I pulled my back out after climbing into hubby's pick-up. The windows will have to wait. I had CSPAN on last night while reading and fell asleep on the sofa. When I woke up,O was speaking,so I turned off the TV. It is so obvious the man has no light in eyes,he's so cold. Creepy.

[narciso]

the Horde reminds us, that will i am, was brought on 'Meet the Depressed' this brings back memories, like when his character was speared by Liev Schrieber's in Wolverine, Origins, it's the whole lineup of the Sirius
Cybernetic Corporation out there,

[narciso]

Correction, it was Tepid's Sunday lineup,

[Marlene]

*in his eyes*

[narciso]

Others had a similar view;

http://twitchy.com/2014/05/04/meet-the-press-jumps-the-shark-david-gregory-invites-will-i-am-to-talk-benghazi-foreign-policy/

I am surprised Gregory didn't have two chairs for him, one for him and one for his ego, of
the hologram stunt on election night,

[MarkO]

"By the way, what a stupid & juvenile response...he did it first."

The authorized response would have been, "Dude, he did it first."

Has there ever been a grander display of grade inflation and devaluation of credentials than the Obama Administration?

[narciso]

Meanwhile the world spirals out of control;

http://www.interpretermag.com/category/blog/

[narciso]

Reading the Red Fortress, really does put Russia's Elmore Schwartz attitude in perspective, Captain referred to the Napoleon interlude, one could make reference to another instance when the Poles took advantage
of their 'Times of Troubles' an action, remedied in excess, by the seizing of Kiev back from them, and ultimately the Partitions,

[MarkO]

Is there a Vegas line on the date Ukraine falls?

Will Putin maximize the embarrassment to Obama?

Will CBS care?

[Captain Hate]

and I regularly see cites to Gould as the authority.

I think the pointy-heads liked Gould because, like John McPhee, he makes dry technical topics interesting to a general audience. From the snarky comments I read I assume they considered him a dabbler with an Andy Rooney/Cliff Claven level of understanding.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

Ian McKellan was in one of the Vanity Fair pics for the after party...http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2014/05/photos-white-house-correspondents-dinner-party-2014_slideshow_2013_39

Here he is with X-men Brian Singer & some boy - (scroll down a bit)
http://www.libertynews.com/2014/04/x-men-director-bryan-singers-sexual-abuse-nightmare-is-growing-with-new-photos-found-online-pics-included/

Maybe, surrounded by CORRESPONDENTS, someone could have asked him some questions.
Well, they are only abusing no-name boys. It's not like the boys were STARS, like them.

[Rick B]

Contributions by progs to the PP Black Baby Bounty fund are concrete evidence to the depth of their "belief" in the Gould drivel to which they evince credulity. Their support babble is just a boundary marker - the progressive stench necessary for advancement within the Council of Morons.

[rich@gmu]

>>>

Is there a Vegas line on the date Ukraine falls?

Will Putin maximize the embarrassment to Obama?

Will CBS care?

Posted by: MarkO | May 04, 2014 at 01:06 PM<<<

Not that I've seen.

Putin is only getting started. We have 33 more months.

There will be racists somewhere to attack.

[Captain Hate]

The Napoleonic war in Russia was just brutal; no wonder Tolstoy devoted War and Peace to it.

[narciso]

The top Russian staff in War and Piece, including Kutezov, cut their teeth, in Catherine's wars, against the Swedes and the Turks,

[narciso]

How do people become so naive, he's pretty sharp in other areas, so I don't dismiss him outright;

http://20committee.com/2014/05/03/ground-truth-about-benghazi/

[Neo]

One thing that can be counted on is that our Artificial Intelligence Overlords will take a dim view of "the lazy."

[Jim Eagle]

Don't know why this Brian Singer with young boys is such a starling revelation: Hollywood and Broadway have always been a cesspool of man/boy seduction.

I had Frederick read the Independent article on AI and Hawking's views. He (Frederick) is very versed in AI and its issues. His conclusion is the same as the others: You can't control the AI once it has achieved its potential. I asked him, why not? And he says, "Can you control a human and make him do everything you want, without hurting him or threatening to kill him"? "No, you can't, and that is what will happen with AI but it will find a way of keeping you from shutting it down or destroying it."

I asked him if he has ever watched the movie 2001 with HAL the computer and he told me no. So, he has pretty much arrived at the same conclusion as Hawking, et. al. Not bad for a 10 y.o.:)

[rich@gmu]

got nothing on AI ... more vaporware from Silicon Valley to shrink markets. a new postmodernist and futurist goop which deadends into a blind alley ...

can't wait for Godzilla to come out.

[Neo]

Put down in your quotes of note:

Why do I need artificial intelligence when I have the real thing ?

[Rick B]

Rich,

I found AliceH and jimmyk's comments thought provoking. Shouldn't the JPM MBS/CDS risk model receive the "Unintentionally Malevolent Can Opener of the Decade" award? The guided Climate Models may wind up doing more damage but they are always under human control.

[narciso]

A heuristic tower of babel, my coinage, how many iterations of Moore's law does it take to become selfaware,

[rich@gmu]

>>>The potential benefits are huge; everything that civilisation has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools that AI may provide, but the eradication of war, disease, and poverty would be high on anyone's list.<<<

wasn't class the previous struggle and 100 million were killed in that grand sweep of history.

[boatbuilder]

Why do I need artificial intelligence when I have the real thing ?

Because even though I am (in my own humble opinion) wicked smart I can't remember where I left my car keys most of the time.

When the computers learn how to hide the car keys we are doomed.

[rich@gmu]

>>>Shouldn't the JPM MBS/CDS risk model receive the "Unintentionally Malevolent Can Opener of the Decade" award?<<<

I'm going to have to let this roll around in my head for a while. It seems that people are at their worst when: they have the authority to risk other peoples property and they are shielded from the consequences of that risk. Big data (and the AI outgrowth, ie. the meta of meta) is just that problem globally stated.

or more simply: the big thinkers want absolute control without having to face the consequences of that absolute control.

***not well thought out***

[peter]

read the transcript of CIC's remarks at the WHPD. Not particularly good, but at least I didn't have to hear his annoying voice. It would be a pleasant turn of events if our next president were to skip these things.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

Harman & Hume video clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1BHk6z8jTk

[sbw]

Artificial intelligence is a sea of subjects miss-perceived as a monolith. It’s a set of tools, not an entity. -- for instance, mining big data for previously unrecognized patterns.

One might grudgingly admire how entrepreneurs milk future uncertainty about AI to line their wallets. The "Centre for the Study of Existential Risk" indeed!

We should offer to host seminars for them at a cut rate: "The existential impact of a properly placed pike and pitchfork."