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A lot of revolutionary technologies begin as toys. In the 9th century two brothers created a machine called, "the instrument which plays by itself." It uses a r
by ryoshu 10y ago
A lot of revolutionary technologies begin as toys. In the 9th century two brothers created a machine called, "the instrument which plays by itself." It uses a rotating cylinder with "teeth" that triggers keys which were encoded to play music. One can say it's a programmable music machine.
Fast forward to the 1700s and artisan engineers in France were creating similar devices that automatically played music. Toys for the entertainment of the aristocracy. Some insightful engineer noticed the use of pinned cylinders to recreate music, and realized the device might also be used to create textiles with a loom. You could program a machine to create textile patterns. While the initial implementations didn't work very well, eventually Joseph-Marie Jacquard created a version that revolutionized textile manufacturing in the early 1800s, relying on punch cards instead of expensive-to-create cylinders.
By the mid-1800s Charles Babbage became interested in Jacquard's work using punch cards to create complex textile patterns. "The major innovation was that the Analytical Engine was to be programmed using punched cards: the Engine was intended to use loops of Jacquard's punched cards to control a mechanical calculator, which could use as input the results of preceding computations." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage#Analytical_Engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage#Analytical_Eng...
Toys are amazing for inspiration and innovation.
- bunderbunder 10y agoI think your story does more to reinforce the parent post's point. The chain of events you outline spans an entire millennium. Over that time, yes, a lot of technology developed, and eventually we got to computers, and there was even the movement that gives us the term Luddite. But it was still one long chain of gradual, evolutionary developments over the course of a very long expanse of time. At no point was there anything like the kind of sudden turmoil that futurists like to claim that deep learning will produce.
- murukesh_s 10y agoWe never know, that is what the original parent comment was about. Regarding gradual progression, remember - we are now in a highly connected world, where things move at tremendous pace. And a lot more population have access to the latest information. Just like the invention of the wheel, or the invention of steam engines, or the computers, transistors etc, there could be a tipping point, which could happen today as I write or tomorrow or even after a decade. We can only guess. But looking at the speed of things, I would say the probability of it happening very near is very high and is worth the hype.
- Aeolos 10y agoIf the world evolved in linear terms, you would be right. However, the rate of scientific advancement has multiplied exponentially over the history of mankind: our scientific understanding has advanced more in the last 100 years than it has in the previous 10000 combined (nuclear physics, quantum physics, molecular biology, information technology, astronomy/cosmology - you name it.) Remember, 10 years ago smartphones were in the realm of science fiction. Now, everyone has one in their pockets. Today we can train a computer for a week to generate a cute little christmas jingle. How many years do we need to train a human child to do the same? AGI won't happen overnight, sure, but its effects of that research will be felt continuously along the way.