![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Numb3rs 5.17: First Law
Steel Cave robotics: O I SEE WHUT U DID THAR, with your Asimov reference. I love it when the writers are nerdy like that.
I guessed that the AI was not real from the start, because that would be moving into science fiction territory. It's still in advance of what we can do in the line of chatbots, although a chatbot plugged into Google might manage fairly well (Wolfram are talking about something like this for the next generation of search engines.)
People seem to assume that AI is much closer than it really is; in fact they already half-think that their computers are sentient, and malicious. Your computer is very, very dumb; it does exactly what you tell it to do, no more and no less. The only difficulty is in knowing what you're telling it, because there are so many layers of abstraction between the user and the metal. Your computer didn't eat your documents because it doesn't like you; it eats your documents because some programmer ten years ago forgot to free up memory and consequently the program has just malloced your entire memory. My parents half-suspect that their computer 'behaves itself' in the presence of a software engineer, but really it's just because I am not scared by error messages and have the bug-reproducing instinct.
Anyway, the ability to hold a human-realistic conversation is not the same as the ability to plan strategy. The Turing test is a sideline to the task the computer was built for. As Charlie points out, it's all just flash and window testing anyway. A chatbot is a long way from being able to intuitively solve problems, or have a human-like consciousness, which was what the fact that it told Charlie to get out of the room was supposed to prove. But you wouldn't want your strategy-AI to have human-realistic dislikes. Besides, even if you replace the officers with AIs, someone's still got to fix the hardware, so it won't take all American soldiers out of harm's way as Creepy Woman said. Creepy Woman hopes that the robot killed Daniel. Sorry, but if the robot just murdered its only human contact, what you've ended up with is not a great general, but a sociopath.
You can tell how the computer nerds are by the fact they're all wearing Converse. *checks own feet* Yeah.
Oh, that 'Fleinie!' was hilarious, as was Charlie's and Amita's reaction. It reminds me of Charlie's incredulous "Beautiful?" when Don told him what Megan thought of Larry. And we're never going to get a Megan mention, are we? *clings to denial of Larry/Megan having broken up*
Jane: "Larry was a great moral centre...and a fantastic lover."
Charlie: ....
Charlie's face: I COULD HAVE LIVED AND DIED WITHOUT KNOWING THAT, KTHNXBAI
I also like Larry and Jane fighting and Charlie giving up on the whole social skills thing and just going "I'm leaving now, bye."
Ouch, Jane telling Don that Charlie's running out of time has got to make Don uncomfortable. But I wouldn't blame a decrease in publication entirely on Don; what else happened five years ago? I don't imagine Charlie was publishing much when he was living in the garage for three months because his mother was dying.
Don't do it, Charlie, it'll not work out like that! It's a government contract! Nice to see the Cognitive Emergence theory mentioned again. Continuity is always good.
What has happened to Alan? First "it's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose", and then his mild reaction to the job offer? I would have expected him to be "No WAY are you working for the DOD, kiddo." Perhaps he guessed it would come better from Don?
"Today's FBI." Don Eppes, you might not talk much, but you can say a lot in two words when you put your mind to it. Love the brother conversation.
Charlie and Amita are adorably cute together. From "Wanna go check out a supercomputer?" "Be still my beating heart!" to Charlie quoting Shakespeare, and him trying to calm her down over the phone ("That's what we do"). And Don getting nearly as shaky as Charlie when he can't get the schematics.
Loved the hugging in Charlie's office, and the two of them geeking out over what they think is the Singularity. And Charlie comforting her when Baley's being taken apart.
Don has been hanging out with the geeks for too long, when even he's disappointed that it's nothing but jealousy. Well, that and money, Donnie; your cynical LEO attitude was half right in the first place.
I loved Don and Larry defending Charlie from Jane. Yes, if you want to get to Charlie you'll have to go through Don, and he packs heat. And I liked Larry trumping the Oppenheimer example, and Don's appreciation of it.
Coach Eppes, hee. The preview for next week was hilarious. Hee at Rob and DK, they do the comedy bits so well together.
I guessed that the AI was not real from the start, because that would be moving into science fiction territory. It's still in advance of what we can do in the line of chatbots, although a chatbot plugged into Google might manage fairly well (Wolfram are talking about something like this for the next generation of search engines.)
People seem to assume that AI is much closer than it really is; in fact they already half-think that their computers are sentient, and malicious. Your computer is very, very dumb; it does exactly what you tell it to do, no more and no less. The only difficulty is in knowing what you're telling it, because there are so many layers of abstraction between the user and the metal. Your computer didn't eat your documents because it doesn't like you; it eats your documents because some programmer ten years ago forgot to free up memory and consequently the program has just malloced your entire memory. My parents half-suspect that their computer 'behaves itself' in the presence of a software engineer, but really it's just because I am not scared by error messages and have the bug-reproducing instinct.
Anyway, the ability to hold a human-realistic conversation is not the same as the ability to plan strategy. The Turing test is a sideline to the task the computer was built for. As Charlie points out, it's all just flash and window testing anyway. A chatbot is a long way from being able to intuitively solve problems, or have a human-like consciousness, which was what the fact that it told Charlie to get out of the room was supposed to prove. But you wouldn't want your strategy-AI to have human-realistic dislikes. Besides, even if you replace the officers with AIs, someone's still got to fix the hardware, so it won't take all American soldiers out of harm's way as Creepy Woman said. Creepy Woman hopes that the robot killed Daniel. Sorry, but if the robot just murdered its only human contact, what you've ended up with is not a great general, but a sociopath.
You can tell how the computer nerds are by the fact they're all wearing Converse. *checks own feet* Yeah.
Oh, that 'Fleinie!' was hilarious, as was Charlie's and Amita's reaction. It reminds me of Charlie's incredulous "Beautiful?" when Don told him what Megan thought of Larry. And we're never going to get a Megan mention, are we? *clings to denial of Larry/Megan having broken up*
Jane: "Larry was a great moral centre...and a fantastic lover."
Charlie: ....
Charlie's face: I COULD HAVE LIVED AND DIED WITHOUT KNOWING THAT, KTHNXBAI
I also like Larry and Jane fighting and Charlie giving up on the whole social skills thing and just going "I'm leaving now, bye."
Ouch, Jane telling Don that Charlie's running out of time has got to make Don uncomfortable. But I wouldn't blame a decrease in publication entirely on Don; what else happened five years ago? I don't imagine Charlie was publishing much when he was living in the garage for three months because his mother was dying.
Don't do it, Charlie, it'll not work out like that! It's a government contract! Nice to see the Cognitive Emergence theory mentioned again. Continuity is always good.
What has happened to Alan? First "it's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose", and then his mild reaction to the job offer? I would have expected him to be "No WAY are you working for the DOD, kiddo." Perhaps he guessed it would come better from Don?
"Today's FBI." Don Eppes, you might not talk much, but you can say a lot in two words when you put your mind to it. Love the brother conversation.
Charlie and Amita are adorably cute together. From "Wanna go check out a supercomputer?" "Be still my beating heart!" to Charlie quoting Shakespeare, and him trying to calm her down over the phone ("That's what we do"). And Don getting nearly as shaky as Charlie when he can't get the schematics.
Loved the hugging in Charlie's office, and the two of them geeking out over what they think is the Singularity. And Charlie comforting her when Baley's being taken apart.
Don has been hanging out with the geeks for too long, when even he's disappointed that it's nothing but jealousy. Well, that and money, Donnie; your cynical LEO attitude was half right in the first place.
I loved Don and Larry defending Charlie from Jane. Yes, if you want to get to Charlie you'll have to go through Don, and he packs heat. And I liked Larry trumping the Oppenheimer example, and Don's appreciation of it.
Coach Eppes, hee. The preview for next week was hilarious. Hee at Rob and DK, they do the comedy bits so well together.