It seemed to me that everytime the system got "infected" it had to be reformated & rebooted, then the whole thing started all over again. Maybe they were trying to get it right.
Makes me wonder if when we stop existing as humans if it means we are being "reformatted" (since we don't remember being alive before) and when we are born, we've "rebooted"? Hmmm....
Whatever the case may be I think you're right that perhaps we are just getting confused by language. The fact is Ai is here and is a reality.
I can agree there. And if we get confused by language, how do we get an AI NOT to be confused by language?
What also strikes me funny are those folks who claim they want nothing to do with computers or programming, yet they key in and activate a wireless garage door opener, set instructions for the microwave, program the VCR to record, program the thermostat to go on and off at specified times, etc. They're really programming a mini computer and don't realize it!
I remember an old saying we had when we first got VCRs in the homes for the first time and my dad got one. By then shortly after we also got a TRS-80 Model III computer. I of course was learning to program (age 14). I would have the darndest time though, trying to work the VCR. So the joke was that I could program a computer but I couldn't program a VCR!
Now, if it would only talk back and scare them!!! :shocked1:
Actually, some DO!
How many times have those very same people had to navigate through automated phone menu systems! Some of which are even voice-activated to begin with! Or when a telemarketer computer calls you at meal time.
we are giving nothing back to the never endinbg cycle...we take take take and return nothing.
I'm not so sure about that. We poo, that is biodegradable and eventually somehow gets filtered out of the flushwater and into the earth or somewhere like that. When our bodies sweat, we put out water into the air, which may be helping the environment somehow. When we die, even if we are in a casket, it all biodegrades into the soil. Some unfortunate folks have become snacks and meals for other animals and fish. Or even bacteria - they feed off us too at times, and I'm sure many of us have supported their lives for a spell, if not maybe a whole lifetime of a bacteria (I hear some don't live long anyway and that some medications basically sterilize them? Or something?) And don't forget us being a catalyst to the destruction of some life forms which allow others to live because if we didn't kill off one time the others wouldn't have thrived.
I agree we sure are, as humans, spreading the earth like a cancer. But who knows if this was
supposed to happen. Well either way it
has happened and maybe for a reason. Maybe it's just all part of the whole cycle of stuff.
As for the technology Art described.....we live our lives ruled by technology, everything we do has its roots in programing od sorts. Even switching on a light...as simple as it seems...is controlled by a computer somewhere. What we all do (having our simple lives) if all this was to vanish and we were forced back 500 years ?
Interesting point!
Right now the phone company is outside doing something with the lines at the pole that feeds my apartment. I hope I'll be even able to post this! My work depends on internet connection, which is controlled at a switching station at a phone center. We depend on electricity to keep our appliances running so we can preserve and cook meals to survive. We depend on the water treatment plants to remove our waste and provide water to drink and wash with. And let's not forget our ever-faithful robotic iron horses (cars - esp. now days with computers to run their engines or they aren't going anywhere and Auto Cruise so we let the car keep the speed and we just steer instead) who get us to where we'd like to go, and back again.
If we lost all that? Well, I remember the "Black Thursday" we had in August one year when the whole NorthEast lost power for around 6 hours or some areas even longer. Hot summer day, no fan, there WAS phone and cell service, and for the first time ever, I could get the next COUNTRY's radio station (ok, ot be fair, I'm in Rochester, NY, just across the river from Canada
) It wasn't all chaos. People were helping one another, taking extra time and letting people go first in rush hour traffic (outtage happened around 4pm - 5pm, I think it was), some people even got out of their cars and started directing traffic to help out, until an officer could arrive to take over. These people were commemorated as heros of sorts (and rightfully so). People suddenly were nice to one another. Checking in on their neighbors, getting things for people that need help, etc. Then when technology came back "on". It was business as usual. You know, selfishness, road rage, "I gotta get there NOW", "I don't have time to help you..." etc. Odd lesson that day gave, I tell you!
WOULD we be forced back 500 years or would it be a wake-up call for some?
Also, I remember reading about the Ark of the Covenant and some scientific theories, and also discoveries of other artifacts in the Mid-East. It seems batteries and portable power WAS possible and in some use even way back then! And they think the Ark was some kind of power-generated tesla-coil type thing that shot arcs of electricity at their enemies, and that is why people were instructed not to open it or anything. It was unstable power and could shoot out at random if not handled properly. They I think enclosed it in wood and gold.
Then there's the theories of the supposedly high-tech lost world of "Atlantis". And other civilizations like "Myans" and others that are believed to have possessed higher "technological advances" than most of the rest of their immediate region if not the world.
So, ARE we any different? Perhaps some of that information these ancient people found out about, they shared with some and after they were extinct or destroyed, etc. others that heard about it passed it on, others studied it and we may be reeping the benefits of ancient civilizations' studies in Technology.
Though I don't think they had Computers way back. I hear the first "computer" as an abacus, or ancient calculator. But I don't "count" it (pun kinda intended
) because a human still has to manipulate the stones on it and I see it more as a tool. They could have used their fingers or pepples. The closest first computer I think was invented by Babbage.
However, we may have had AI robots in the victorian era. Some believe this actually is true (though I think it's a Sci-Fi story, anyone know?)
http://www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/And, Pen and Paper is considered "technology" as compared to stick and dirt.
Yes barbers would often cut a person so they could let off some blood as too much blood was thought to be bad for a person. (thus the red and white striped barber poles).
That's because some were too wimpy and yet too proud to admit they had queeziness about going to the local lake/river and letting the leaches do the work.
