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Star Wars takes place in the distant past, not in the future. Also, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a great movie about a great example why you do not pilot your ship

Star Wars takes place in the distant past, not in the future. Also, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a great movie about a great example why you do not pilot your ships with computers all the time. Also, you do not know what the future holds. You are living in the present, not the future, where we very well may have pilots piloting ships. Star Wars is not science fiction and it does not take place in the future. We are not living in the future either.

jacquesm 9y ago
> Also, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a great movie about a great example why you do not pilot your ships with computers all the time. No, it merely illustrates why you want your AI properly bottled up and airgapped that way the flight computer will follow your instructions after you consult with the AI (assuming an AI is ever built...). Computers can control spacecraft just fine in the present without AI so really there does not seem to be a pressing need for this.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
  HAL is merely an expression of the 20th century trope of the computer run amok. Same as the IBM system from "Desk Set" and the "War Games" WOPR. It's a product of ignorant naivete of what computers are capable of and what their true weaknesses are. It has no basis in reality. Just a way for writers to personify a machine with flaws to drive the plot forward.
- robotresearcher 9y ago
  Since 2012 the SpaceX Dragon capsule has been under AI control for rendezvous with the International Space Station for grasping and docking. It uses computer vision to estimate its pose relative to the ISS and steers accordingly. Source: Andrew Howard of SpaceX, who is in charge of this software and has to endure the stress of each rendezvous. Screwing up could kill the ISS crew.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Between 'HAL' and auto-dock I can see some differences. Unless your connection confirmed that the onboard computer of the SpaceX Dragon capsule is sentient.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - robotresearcher 9y ago
      I’m absolutely not taking a position on what is _real_ AI and was isn’t. I was just providing evidence against the claim of the last paragraph of your previous message. While you are waiting for AI that meets your specs, the world is flying real spacecraft with software that most people are happy to call AI right now.
- stcredzero 9y ago
  No, it merely illustrates why you want your AI properly bottled up Instead of a daemon, call it a djinn?
pbhjpbhj 9y ago
Isn't the key part of Sci-fi that it contains a society that has in some way advanced beyond our own? Saying it's not sci-fi because the fictional advance is set in our past (but at a development technologically beyond our own) seems quite a strange distinction.
- cryptoz 9y ago
  > Saying it's not sci-fi because the fictional advance is set in our past (but at a development technologically beyond our own) seems quite a strange distinction. I didn't say that at all. It is in the past, and also, it is not science fiction. Star Wars is quite fantasy, offering no explanation in science for the force, hyperspace, lightsabers, etc. I love Star Wars with all my heart. But it is not about the future and it is not science fiction. It takes place "a long time ago" and it centers around magical, unexplained powers. Edit: And, > Isn't the key part of Sci-fi that it contains a society that has in some way advanced beyond our own? No, I don't agree with this at all. I would even say that in nearly all science fiction published, the societies have not advanced beyond our own that much - or if they have, they are also demonstrated to be far behind us in other ways. Science fiction is a lot of things, but certainly there is no requirement for it to show a more advanced society than ours.
- tialaramex 9y ago
  No. The key part of SF is the "What if...?" question. A Science Fiction story should posit a difference about the setting from our own world and this difference should have consequences. Alternate history stories like "The Man in the High Castle" are Science Fiction. "What if the Nazis won?". Likewise the key part of Romance genre fiction is the Happy Ending. It doesn't matter whether they sleep together (a lot of Romance aimed at older and Christian readers doesn't have any sex at all), or get married, but there must be a Happy Ending.

jacquesm 9y ago

> Also, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a great movie about a great example why you do not pilot your ships with computers all the time. No, it merely illustrates why you want your AI properly bottled up and airgapped that way the flight computer will follow your instructions after you consult with the AI (assuming an AI is ever built...). Computers can control spacecraft just fine in the present without AI so really there does not seem to be a pressing need for this.

kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
HAL is merely an expression of the 20th century trope of the computer run amok. Same as the IBM system from "Desk Set" and the "War Games" WOPR. It's a product of ignorant naivete of what computers are capable of and what their true weaknesses are. It has no basis in reality. Just a way for writers to personify a machine with flaws to drive the plot forward.
robotresearcher 9y ago
Since 2012 the SpaceX Dragon capsule has been under AI control for rendezvous with the International Space Station for grasping and docking. It uses computer vision to estimate its pose relative to the ISS and steers accordingly. Source: Andrew Howard of SpaceX, who is in charge of this software and has to endure the stress of each rendezvous. Screwing up could kill the ISS crew.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Between 'HAL' and auto-dock I can see some differences. Unless your connection confirmed that the onboard computer of the SpaceX Dragon capsule is sentient.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - robotresearcher 9y ago
    I’m absolutely not taking a position on what is _real_ AI and was isn’t. I was just providing evidence against the claim of the last paragraph of your previous message. While you are waiting for AI that meets your specs, the world is flying real spacecraft with software that most people are happy to call AI right now.
stcredzero 9y ago
No, it merely illustrates why you want your AI properly bottled up Instead of a daemon, call it a djinn?

pbhjpbhj 9y ago

Isn't the key part of Sci-fi that it contains a society that has in some way advanced beyond our own? Saying it's not sci-fi because the fictional advance is set in our past (but at a development technologically beyond our own) seems quite a strange distinction.

cryptoz 9y ago
> Saying it's not sci-fi because the fictional advance is set in our past (but at a development technologically beyond our own) seems quite a strange distinction. I didn't say that at all. It is in the past, and also, it is not science fiction. Star Wars is quite fantasy, offering no explanation in science for the force, hyperspace, lightsabers, etc. I love Star Wars with all my heart. But it is not about the future and it is not science fiction. It takes place "a long time ago" and it centers around magical, unexplained powers. Edit: And, > Isn't the key part of Sci-fi that it contains a society that has in some way advanced beyond our own? No, I don't agree with this at all. I would even say that in nearly all science fiction published, the societies have not advanced beyond our own that much - or if they have, they are also demonstrated to be far behind us in other ways. Science fiction is a lot of things, but certainly there is no requirement for it to show a more advanced society than ours.
tialaramex 9y ago
No. The key part of SF is the "What if...?" question. A Science Fiction story should posit a difference about the setting from our own world and this difference should have consequences. Alternate history stories like "The Man in the High Castle" are Science Fiction. "What if the Nazis won?". Likewise the key part of Romance genre fiction is the Happy Ending. It doesn't matter whether they sleep together (a lot of Romance aimed at older and Christian readers doesn't have any sex at all), or get married, but there must be a Happy Ending.