What's your sex?
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, June 13 2005 12:43
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Compression into zero: pi is implicit knowledge, for circles. Quantifying information is sort of a mug's game, I think, because most of the information is off the balance sheet. I like to illustrate this with what I call "the Lara Croft Paradox", which is that the typical console game these days takes up more information than the human genome, meaning that it seems to take more information to specify Lara Croft than it does to specify me. Now, those who have seen us both may reflect at this point that you get what you pay for; but I would at least like to think that I am a lot more complicated than a bunch of polygons. At least I'm less predictable. My point is that the human genome is read by human cells in human bodies, while the DVD is read by a computer that is only quite weakly specialized. Thus the genome reader already includes a staggeringly vast amount of implicit information, which is never counted because no-one has any idea how to count it. Plus, of course, my DNA does not specify me very precisely. Identical twins have different fingerprints. [ Monday, June 13, 2005 12:44: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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Master
Member # 4614
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written Monday, June 13 2005 15:18
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Also, humans understand electricity. Computers use electricity to function because humans made it the way we did. Humans are smarter that computers; they just find clever ways of making computers look like they were smart. -------------------- -ben4808 For those who love to spam: CSM Forums RIFQ Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, June 13 2005 16:05
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Actually, some computers understand electronics better than we do. An experimental computer chip programmed with the ability to rewire itself in various ways led to the discovery of a new property of semiconductors, which it unexpectedly exploited. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Skip to My Lou
Member # 40
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written Tuesday, June 14 2005 07:50
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That is really spooky and amazingly cool at the same time. -------------------- Take the Personality Test! INTJ 100% 75% 100% 44% Huzzah for the Masterminds! www.Keirsey.com for personality information. The Sloganizer! "Swing your Archmage Alex." Deep down, you wish you were a stick figure. Posts: 1629 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00 |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, June 14 2005 07:53
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It is also hard to believe. References? -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
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written Tuesday, June 14 2005 08:27
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quote:Computers are merely automats; They are insignificant tools. The "memory" of computers is frequently misinterpreted. My iPod contains 320.000.000.000 bits. The brains of the average human contain only 95.000.000.000 neurons. This doesn't mean, though, that my iPod is more intelligent than the average human, or even has a better memory than the average human, as some presume. Doubtlessly, you were aware and conscious of this. Some others, possibly, weren't. Reading the word "understand", I decided to point this out. Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Tuesday, June 14 2005 14:17
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quote:Probably some popular science article in a newspaper or magazine a few years back. It's possible that the journalist misinterpreted the nature of whatever unanticipated thing had in fact happened. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 1092
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written Tuesday, June 14 2005 14:25
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I'm not recommending Spidweb as a dating service or anything. I met sum chick, we like each other and only yesterday she mentioned something and i only got over the depression 5 minutes ago. But I'm still willing. Alas I am sorta remote from the rest of all yous. I live in the same country as Thuryl but we're on opposite ends I think. -------------------- When you think you can't get any lower in life and hit rock bottom, God hands you a shovel. Following the rights movements You clamped on with your iron fists drugs being conviently available for all the kids Minor drug offenders fill your prisons You don't even flinch All our takes paying For your wars against the new non rich Posts: 615 | Registered: Friday, May 3 2002 07:00 |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, June 14 2005 14:33
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It certainly sounds to me as though the self-rewiring computer making a discovery about semiconductors is a story that got garbled pretty badly. It doesn't make sense to me, on several levels. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
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written Tuesday, June 14 2005 14:53
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It sounds like those "scientists discover faster than light travel" stories a few years ago. In that case the reality was that light was slowed down by making it pass through something so that other things could travel faster. I guess in this case self-wiring chip probably talked about software, rather than hardware and meant use of neural networks, or some other AI idea. (Technically, you could look at most AI programs as "rewiring themselves".) -------------------- Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword, For it too has the power to kill. However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword, Can also have the power to heal. Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00 |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, June 14 2005 15:15
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Mmm, that FTL stuff was technically true, and very interesting, just not what it sounded like. They sent wave pulses through a strangely absorptive medium, such that the back part of the pulse got attenuated a lot more than the front. As a result the 'peak' of the pulse got redefined, due to the differential absorption, and shifted forward. It shifted forward so much, in fact, that the peak of the wave pulse did indeed travel faster than c, thus disproving the oft-stated formulation of causality, that group velocities must always be less than the speed of light in vacuum. All very interesting, really, and part of the ongoing advance in controlling light in marvelous new ways. But the leading edge of the wave pulse, as opposed to its peak, never did go faster than c. Hence one could not use these new media to send information faster than light, and there was not actually any conflict with Einstein's relativity. Thankfully, everyone was reasonably up-front about this, although perhaps they didn't exactly go out of their way to explain the rather mundane reason why their 'faster than c' pulse-peaks didn't really count. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |