3 ms·

Your analogy made me laugh, but also made me think about how common fatal mental illness is among humans, and contrast that rate with the fatal plane crashes at

Your analogy made me laugh, but also made me think about how common fatal mental illness is among humans, and contrast that rate with the fatal plane crashes attributable to computing errors. It's a pretty amazing accomplishment for humanity to have developed systems as complex as modern jumbo jets with "brains" that are essentially more reliable than the ones that created them.

jstarfish 4y ago
> It's a pretty amazing accomplishment for humanity to have developed systems as complex as modern jumbo jets with "brains" that are essentially more reliable than the ones that created them. Load the airplane's "brain" with algorithms for how to survive, cooperate, adapt and replicate under every conceivable condition and you'll end up with a comparable system more complicated and worse-performing than ourselves. Not really a fair comparison. Self-driving cars (and robotics) would be better examples, since they attempt to emulate a broader swath of our sensory capabilities.
masklinn 4y ago
That development was built up over time and very much in blood though. Channels like Mentour are quite illuminating on that subject. And in fairness, reliability is a major point of automation.
akiselev 4y ago
You need more scare quotes around “reliable” than brain. The airplane requires constant almost daily maintenance by dozens of highly trained professionals and yet none of its chips will survive decades save for a few lucky passive components. Whereas going decades without seeing a qualified doctor has been the default state since the dawn of homo sapiens with nothing more than a good night’s sleep.
nashashmi 4y ago
> humanity to have developed systems as complex as modern jumbo jets with "brains" that are essentially more reliable than the ones that created them I would not compare human brains to tech. Maybe you can call them simpler and thus more reliable. The human brain is processing far more data than any processor humanity has made. The only comparison is humans handle various types of data whereas computers are designed to handle just a small batch.
bmitc 4y ago
> It's a pretty amazing accomplishment for humanity to have developed systems as complex as modern jumbo jets with "brains" that are essentially more reliable than the ones that created them. Airplanes are not reliable. That's why they require frequent and regular maintenance. Ignoring the poor analogy linking brains/humans to human built systems, if every human maintained their mental and physical health as much as airplanes get, then they'd all be much better off.
WalterBright 4y ago
You can also use simple tools to create incredibly accurate telescope mirrors.

jstarfish 4y ago

> It's a pretty amazing accomplishment for humanity to have developed systems as complex as modern jumbo jets with "brains" that are essentially more reliable than the ones that created them. Load the airplane's "brain" with algorithms for how to survive, cooperate, adapt and replicate under every conceivable condition and you'll end up with a comparable system more complicated and worse-performing than ourselves. Not really a fair comparison. Self-driving cars (and robotics) would be better examples, since they attempt to emulate a broader swath of our sensory capabilities.

masklinn 4y ago

That development was built up over time and very much in blood though. Channels like Mentour are quite illuminating on that subject. And in fairness, reliability is a major point of automation.

akiselev 4y ago

You need more scare quotes around “reliable” than brain. The airplane requires constant almost daily maintenance by dozens of highly trained professionals and yet none of its chips will survive decades save for a few lucky passive components. Whereas going decades without seeing a qualified doctor has been the default state since the dawn of homo sapiens with nothing more than a good night’s sleep.

nashashmi 4y ago

> humanity to have developed systems as complex as modern jumbo jets with "brains" that are essentially more reliable than the ones that created them I would not compare human brains to tech. Maybe you can call them simpler and thus more reliable. The human brain is processing far more data than any processor humanity has made. The only comparison is humans handle various types of data whereas computers are designed to handle just a small batch.

bmitc 4y ago

> It's a pretty amazing accomplishment for humanity to have developed systems as complex as modern jumbo jets with "brains" that are essentially more reliable than the ones that created them. Airplanes are not reliable. That's why they require frequent and regular maintenance. Ignoring the poor analogy linking brains/humans to human built systems, if every human maintained their mental and physical health as much as airplanes get, then they'd all be much better off.

WalterBright 4y ago

You can also use simple tools to create incredibly accurate telescope mirrors.