tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5041624883246722973.post3422633083699698929..comments2022-11-11T04:13:56.292-08:00Comments on In a Strange Land: Philip Rosedale's AI Project: Academic MusingsIggy Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10834075825456226770noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5041624883246722973.post-5798564979062019882010-02-08T14:34:34.070-08:002010-02-08T14:34:34.070-08:00Lalo, I shook Gene Cernan's hand shortly after...Lalo, I shook Gene Cernan's hand shortly after he returned from the moon. Those men remain larger than life to me, if not quite the gods they seemed to a geeky 12-year-old boy.<br /><br />Even then, it was bittersweet. It was hard, in 1973, to fill a hall with people eager to see Apollo astronauts. Interest fell off a cliff after Apollo 11.<br /><br />I fear it will take a civilization with more of a sense of wonder, and mission, than ours to pick up where Apollo 17 left off.Iggy Ohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10834075825456226770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5041624883246722973.post-9950258165572159252010-02-08T10:36:05.350-08:002010-02-08T10:36:05.350-08:00Meant to come back to this sooner...
The last lin...<i>Meant to come back to this sooner...</i><br /><br />The last line in your blog reminded me of HAL9000 in the second novel of that series by Sir Arthur Clarke. Its title? Look at the calendar.<br /><br />And yes, I'm just as saddened by the loss of those dreams, which for me began even earlier, with Willy Ley, von Braun's articles in <i>Collier's</i>, and Chesley Bonestell's iconic illustrations. I was 6 years old when Sputnik 1 launched.Lalo Tellinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07711076861284942835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5041624883246722973.post-90090862460327860752010-02-04T14:48:48.745-08:002010-02-04T14:48:48.745-08:00There you go again, Lalo--I *still* want my flying...There you go again, Lalo--I *still* want my flying car.<br /><br />I would not be sad if a true AI never emerged. I am sad about the lack of "reach" in space, however. My Apollo-era dream has died very, very hard.Iggy Ohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10834075825456226770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5041624883246722973.post-63803985733618454932010-02-04T08:33:12.213-08:002010-02-04T08:33:12.213-08:0010 thousand computers? Can they reproduce Hamlet ...10 thousand computers? Can they reproduce <i>Hamlet</i> (the play, not the blogger) any faster than the proverbial monkeys?<br /><br />Ray Bradbury wrote a short story (can't recall the title just now...) about the telephone system becoming self-aware, in his early career when the system was still electro-mechanical. [He also wrote "The Veldt", which, if you squinted at it just right, could look like a virtual world finding an interface with the physical. And don't forget "There Will Come Soft Rains", in which semi-sentient labor-saving devices are all that survive a nuclear war.]<br /><br />David Brin's 1990 novel <i>Earth</i> presaged something that strongly resembles what the <i>current</i> WWW might evolve into. Then it concludes with a "singularity" event made possible by nothing less than a singularity -- a micro black hole orbiting <i>inside</i> the Earth, creating millions of loops of superconductivity in the mantle.<br /><br />The point of this literary musing is that mere physical complexity of systems is insufficient.<br /><br />Personally, I feel that the kind of AI imagined in SF will take its place next to the iconic flying cars the 1950s told us we'd all have by now... or self-sustained nuclear fusion (always a mere 20 years away, no matter when you ask)... or human colonies on the Moon and Mars: one more chagrin-inducing example of "The Future ain't what it used to be."Lalo Tellinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07711076861284942835noreply@blogger.com