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I wonder what world would we be living in if people like this fellow were actually focusing on automation and not on making business cards that run Linux. Mayb

I wonder what world would we be living in if people like this fellow were actually focusing on automation and not on making business cards that run Linux. Maybe we wouldn't be living in such a lowly automated reality, using concepts from the previous centuries. Robotics might even make sense...

9HZZRfNlpR 7y ago
Well probably he does since it's his job? This is more like his art project, nothing wrong with that.
micheljansen 7y ago
It seems that's literally his job and this is a hobby. Some people paint, others make business cards that run Linux :)
macintux 7y ago
I read a story once about a fellow in, I believe, St. Louis who devotes all of his energy to rescuing stray dogs. It’s an obsession. People ask him why he doesn’t apply that energy to helping the homeless instead. As he says, there are plenty of people tackling that problem (debatable), this is his passion, and I imagine he asks, or should ask, the questioner what they’ve done to help the homeless recently. Follow your passions. (Plus, as others have pointed out, this is a personal project and he does this stuff full-time, so yours is a particularly odd complaint.)
thenewnewguy 7y ago
I wonder what the world would we be living in if people like you were actually focusing on automation and not wasting time reading and commenting on HN posts. Maybe we wouldn't be living in such a lowly automated reality, using concepts from the previous centuries. Robotics might even make sense...
ufmace 7y ago
I have worked on some industrial automation stuff. In my experience, it's genuinely really hard to do in a way that's actually better than manual systems, or very narrowly-scoped and simple automation. The number of edge cases and failure modes is mind-boggling. I'm skeptical that there's much room for effective solutions between extremely simple and dumb automation, and near-human level AI.
- erichocean 7y ago
  > I'm skeptical that there's much room for effective solutions between extremely simple and dumb automation, and near-human level AI. That's literally my job, and there's a ton of room actually. You just have to be able (and willing) to have the ability to fall back to humans at any point in the process. Like real world "fix-and-continue" debugging...

9HZZRfNlpR 7y ago

Well probably he does since it's his job? This is more like his art project, nothing wrong with that.

micheljansen 7y ago

It seems that's literally his job and this is a hobby. Some people paint, others make business cards that run Linux :)

macintux 7y ago

I read a story once about a fellow in, I believe, St. Louis who devotes all of his energy to rescuing stray dogs. It’s an obsession. People ask him why he doesn’t apply that energy to helping the homeless instead. As he says, there are plenty of people tackling that problem (debatable), this is his passion, and I imagine he asks, or should ask, the questioner what they’ve done to help the homeless recently. Follow your passions. (Plus, as others have pointed out, this is a personal project and he does this stuff full-time, so yours is a particularly odd complaint.)

thenewnewguy 7y ago

I wonder what the world would we be living in if people like you were actually focusing on automation and not wasting time reading and commenting on HN posts. Maybe we wouldn't be living in such a lowly automated reality, using concepts from the previous centuries. Robotics might even make sense...

ufmace 7y ago

I have worked on some industrial automation stuff. In my experience, it's genuinely really hard to do in a way that's actually better than manual systems, or very narrowly-scoped and simple automation. The number of edge cases and failure modes is mind-boggling. I'm skeptical that there's much room for effective solutions between extremely simple and dumb automation, and near-human level AI.

erichocean 7y ago
> I'm skeptical that there's much room for effective solutions between extremely simple and dumb automation, and near-human level AI. That's literally my job, and there's a ton of room actually. You just have to be able (and willing) to have the ability to fall back to humans at any point in the process. Like real world "fix-and-continue" debugging...