annejohn

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• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Not fiction, but taxonomy for the behaviour of Artificial General Intelligence (Google DeepMind) "The highest level in our matrix in terms of combined performance and generality is ASI (Artificial Superintelligence). We define "Superhuman" performance as outperforming 100% of humans. For...
• Commented on Shrinking the world
  @214, @225 Both true I have a modern crinoline petticoat for Victorian era social ballroom dancing. Toilets are one thing; driving or being a car passenger is another. People put on the corset and the skirt(s), and carry the hoops...
• Commented on Place your bets
  For a 2002 exploration of this identity confirmation problem, see David Brin 'Kil'n People'. Computing capabilities have evolved since, but it holds up well....
• Commented on Place your bets
  Emily Bender quote “We call on the field to recognize that applications that aim to believably mimic humans bring risk of extreme harms,” she co-wrote in 2021. “Work on synthetic human behavior is a bright line in ethical Al development,...
• Commented on London Bridge
  Posting briefly: reader here since Marc Andreesen recommended Charlie's writing in about 2007. Grateful for the moderators keeping this place civil. Reading for the in depth content in areas mostly different from my own areas of expertise, and because it's...
• Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
  Near future fiction on this topic, Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future is worth reading. Spoiler : ultimately optimistic .....
• Commented on Crawling from the wreckage
  For more review, there's the long discussion at The WELL - Bruce Sterling, James Bridle, Tiffany Lee Brown, Jake Dunagan https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/506/State-of-the-World-2019-page01.html Bruce starts with "We do this State of the World every year out of sheer glee. It's a mental...
• Commented on Dude, you broke the future!
  "It reads like the plot of a sci-fi novel: a technology celebrated for bringing people together is exploited by a hostile power to drive people apart, undermine democracy, and create misery. " Roger McNamee. Reasonable suggestions about how to fix...
• Commented on PSA: Please don't nominate the Laundry Files for a Best Series Hugo Award (this year)
  OGH's CCC talk https://boingboing.net/2017/12/29/llcs-are-slow-ais.html Cory Doctorow "Stross's overall point, though, is an excellent one. The artificial lifeforms birthed by finance capitalism and technology are taking over, and they are consuming our political and deliberative processes."...
• Commented on What can possibly go wrong?
  Text to speech, with various accents and emotions - Edinburgh company https://www.cereproc.com/en/products/voices...
• Commented on Are VR esports going to become a thing?
  Not arcades, but cafes in Seoul https://www.10mag.com/virtual-reality-cafes-in-seoul/...
• Commented on Trapped in the wrong trouser-leg of time
  Here is the view from the back of Queen St onto Hill Street ... not the most challenging of windows scapes .. those are in the Old Town. https://goo.gl/photos/ENFv6ZaLLvWX1gUy5...
• Commented on Trapped in the wrong trouser-leg of time
  Edinburgh windows in old buildings are interesting. Sash windows, designed so that each section can be transferred to weight bearing hinges, which swing inward .. so that the windows could be cleaned from inside the flat without scaffolding in the...
• Commented on Trapped in the wrong trouser-leg of time
  Regarding tanstaafl http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/tanstaafl.html Didn't originate with Heinlein, either, though he used it long prior to Milton Friedman....
• Commented on Facts of Life and Death
  No one has yet mentioned https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250693.How_to_Cook_a_Wolf? by MFK Fisher about how to feed oneself adequately when in severely reduced circumstances....