tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829836469690492751.post6777743818104154712..comments2024-02-01T20:22:59.199-05:00Comments on Random Brain Droppings: Falling Down Short of the SingularityCommander Zaiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11000824454124236774noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829836469690492751.post-85615496257828779652016-07-12T11:11:49.357-04:002016-07-12T11:11:49.357-04:00This made me think about a couple things that old ...This made me think about a couple things that old hippies have said.<br /><br />The first was a drug guru named Terrence McKenna, who died about 15 years ago. He talked about the "rate of novelty," which was a little like the singularity thing. Basically, he claimed to be able to figure out the rate at which the amount of new information in a culture doubled (keep in mind, he was probably always on drugs). It used to take a thousand years, then 400, and the time needed for a doubling of information was going down quickly. <br /><br />He was convinced that by 2012 (December 21, I suspect), that this doubling was going to be coming at such a fast rate that it would basically reach a critical threshold where it would be a constant doubling, or... I don't know. Singularity. <br /><br />The other thought was one that Alan Watts had in the Sixties. he was convinced we were unnecessarily hurting our people through automation. He believed that when automation took a job off the table, there ought to be some kind of social credit set up wherein we'd all get the benefits. That would be money, I guess. He was probably on drugs, too.<br /><br />I'm more skeptical. I was in Houston a few years back when a hurricane knocked everything out. Electricity, phones, internet. People were helpless. They went and stood in front of closed grocery stores hoping that the stores would open eventually. We're one hacker, storm, or terrorist away from having everything fall apart.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06856160423100846727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829836469690492751.post-38532368519993346892016-07-03T19:02:07.036-04:002016-07-03T19:02:07.036-04:00This is an excellent posting for your readers Bum ...This is an excellent posting for your readers Bum and good food for thought. As far as our leaders coming up anything/ ideas of what to do? ... well, I dont know that they care about nothing more than appeasing and kissing the asses of those who line their pockets, or even have anything of value to people for most of them, we can start with displacing them ... since many are nothing but well educated mouthpieces that are worthless to us. Buy yes, I am counting on real big changes to come, and that is one of the reasons that I say the very top of the wealth is draining us financially in all you see currently happening, they know that they even are obsolete, and only accumulating/ ratholing all they can, because they expect what we have now as far as capitalism, economy, etc, etc ... will soon collapse, the same reason they dont care about climate change or the ecosystem, or use all our tax money and labour to explore new horizons in space. This system of capitalism even will change and be worthless in time, and the need to populate at the rate we do now will be pointless, but I also see the new technologies as a positive for near future humanity and a co- existence ... I cant find words to explain what I think, because I dont have those literary skills ... but I'll leave it there ... hope you and your familia have a nice 4th of July.Ranch Chimphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14086251248546955720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829836469690492751.post-54700072154869303922016-07-03T18:11:15.269-04:002016-07-03T18:11:15.269-04:00OK, so I watched the video. Now I'm not sure i...OK, so I watched the video. Now I'm not sure if I should be excited, curious, scared, or depressed.<br /><br />Coincidentally, our local paper has a column in Saturday's paper about computer gadgets and related stuff. Yesterday's topic touched a bit on this...and mentioned that <i>Maybe computers can't do it all</i>. Humans still do better at writing poetry.<br /><br />http://www.theledger.com/article/20160701/COLUMNISTS0210/160709966/0/search<br /><br />Not sure if the link will work; newspapers these days are notorious for not letting you get to the article in the link. If so, apologies.<br /><br />So I considered becoming a poet...LOL. And then, towards the end of your video clip, I got the reminder that, of course, we can't be a society of creative artists. Dangit.Pixel Peeperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17553862902461169270noreply@blogger.com