Think For Yourself... Or Let Machines Do It For You?

From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sun Sep 02 2001 - 12:00:48 MDT


From: "Greg Burch" <gregburch@gregburch.net>
> when he asked
> why it was that few on the list would jump into a highly technical
> scientific or engineering discussion to offer strong opinions when they
> hadn't done their homework or engaged in the kind of basic background study
> that would allow them to have an informed opinion, but in his area of deep
> expertise -- economics and institutional design -- every "Tom, Dick and
> Harry" feels like they have a perfect right to pop off with opinions about
> the most fundamental concepts without studying the basic literature or
> familiarizing themselves with the background material in the area

That's because in a democratic social order people vote on issues concerning
economics and institutional design, but highly technical scientific or
engineering issues are decided by empirical applications, direct observation
and hard science, not by voting.
Relying on authority and other templates of conformity works with history,
law, politics and culture, but in the real world where the rubber meets the
road, it's best to directly engage the dynamic changes that constitute
reality. IOW, you can go by the book when you're writing one, but real life
requires real immediacy, which means figuring things out for yourself in the
here and now instead of relying on the literature. This is why the evolution
of machines that can think for themselves augers to supercede humans (most of
whom do not think for themselves, but rather rely on the literature).

Autonomous thinking
http://www.beyond2000.com/news/Aug_01/story_1264.html
The "Three-Dimensional Artificial Neural Network" processor is capable of
recognising objects in real time and in highly cluttered background scenes. It
can process an image and is capable of a certain degree of judgment about the
objects, in the same way as a person looks at a variety of objects and makes
judgments about their nature.

Two technologies give the compact processor this ability to process a stream
of images in a way similar to that used by the human eye-brain combination.
One is interconnected networks of ultra-low-power electronic synapses on very-
large-scale-integrated chips that mimic the core of a brain. The other is the
three- dimensional stacking of those chips in a sugar-cube sized package.

The device achieves a computing speed of more than a trillion operations per
second but using only 8 watts of power. That is more than a thousand times
faster than a typical commercially available desktop computer that consumes
more than 100 watts. Engineers believe potential commercial benefits for the
new technology may be found in public safety and in creating a personal
computer that can respond to the users emotional state by simply responding to
facial expressions. The development may also be useful to the video game
industry in improving interactive technologies.

Creating devices that can exist autonomously and 'think' for themselves will
make space travel and exploration easier. B2K recently reported on NASA's
Hyperion, which has been engineered to follow the sun to maintain its energy
supplies.

I see the light
US Carnegie Mellon University and NASA developed Hyperion, a solar-powered
robot to first traverse Earth and then move on to other planets.

The robot has been designed to be as self-sufficient as possible, powered by
the sun and able to track to the whereabouts of our star for optimum
sustainability.

It will do this by traveling against Earth's rotation in synchrony with the
sun. It must determine its position and orientation with respect to the sun
while exploring its surroundings. It must navigate to capture enough sunlight
to power itself while traveling and trying to achieve its objectives. Whilst
solar-powered robots aren't new, being able to track the sun to obtain maximum
energy is. With this in mind, the robot's name, which comes from Greek
mythology, roughly translates to "He who follows the sun".

Robotic exploration of planetary surfaces is restricted by the availability of
solar power and by temperature extremes. With a constant energy source and
moderate temperatures, surface exploration missions could last for months or
years. These requirements can be met by sun-synchronous circumnavigation. By
setting their speed appropriate to their latitude and navigating to avoid
shadows cast by local terrain, these solar-powered robots will be able to
operate continuously. Also, by following the dawn, these rovers may be able to
regulate their climate by remaining in the transient temperature region
between night-time cold and daytime hot.

©¿©¬

Stay hungry,

--J. R.

Useless hypotheses, etc.:
 consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego

     Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
     but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
     (Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)

We won't move into a better future until we debunk religiosity, the most
regressive force now operating in society.



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