lurquer

44 ms·

421.
by lurquer 6y ago
Good ol' Neal Stephenson... I found HackerNews due to an offhand response made in an interview when asked what message boards he frequents.
422.
by lurquer 6y ago
>Doesn't it though. Someone from the 1800s would probably absolutely think it does. Convolutional networks and neural nets in general are cool, but hardly magical. It’s just glorified curve-fitting. A person from the 1800’s would no
423.
by lurquer 6y ago
It is worthwhile to pursue artificial cognition. Just as it was worthwhile to pursue manned flight. The difference, though, is that the Wright Brothers were never foolish enough to arrogantly say a bird is actually a type of airplane...
424.
by lurquer 6y ago
You can prove that 2+2!=5. You could even say that, given the rules governing math, it is ‘impossible’ that 2+2=5. The domain, however, is synthetic and composed of a system of axioms and rules. If I change the underlying axioms and rules,
425.
by lurquer 6y ago
Everything is impossible until proven otherwise. You imagine a 'thinking' machine all you want. Doesn't change to reality of the situation that no digital device comes close to thinking. Some find this frustrating. So, they r
426.
by lurquer 6y ago
I'm not arguing that it can't. I was merely pointing out the proper 'burden of proof.' The article was criticized for failing to demonstrate that something can't be done... that's not fair. The burden would be
427.
by lurquer 6y ago
> do not accept that there is a difference between computation and thought without some meaningful definition of thought. If I know everything about the nature of X, yet I know very little about the nature of Y, it would be illogical to
428.
by lurquer 6y ago
>Surely the burden of proof is on someone claiming something is impossible? You can't prove a negative in this sense. In general, we know things are possible... but we never know if things are impossible. And, don't call me sur
429.
by lurquer 6y ago
'>I contend the brain by definition is a computer, I contend the brain is by definition a duck. It's easy to redefine words.
430.
by lurquer 6y ago
That's a tautology. It reduces to the following: Given X, if I could create a Y such that Y=X, then X would equal Y! That adds nothing. It isn't a given that it is even possible to 'copy' a brain. Why would one think it
431.
by lurquer 6y ago
>Any article making such a claim need to start with explaining what evidence they have that human brains are not computing devices that can be replicated or simulated. If X and Y appear dissimilar, the burden of proof is on he who would
432.
by lurquer 6y ago
An assertion that X happened in the past is fundamentally different from an assertion that X exists. The certitude one can achieve through evidence for (or against) the claim that the Earth is presently flat, can never be obtained for an as
433.
by lurquer 6y ago
The best design, of course,is and will always be LCARS. Regrettably, nobody knows how it works or which buttons do what... but it makes up for it with soothing beeps and clicks.
434.
by lurquer 6y ago
Every once in a while you see some high school science fair project where a kid has the brilliant idea of making 3D solar cells... maybe little pyramids or ridges instead if a flat plane, to capture light from all angles. The kid gets patte
435.
by lurquer 6y ago
You give me a law, I'll give you a way to legally avoid it. It's difficult to legislate this stuff. Indeed, I would contend it is impossible. Unless -- like we did with income -- we implement incredibly invasive procedures (such a
436.
by lurquer 6y ago
I don't know what you mean by functioning. The US had an estate tax systems. It functions. The issue is whether it serves the purpose for which it was created. I suspect that European billionaires find it just as trivial to legally av
437.
by lurquer 6y ago
It is unfixable. This isn't a political issue. It's just a fact. Absent a complete totalitarian economy where every transaction is acrurinized, it will always be an easy tax to avoid. Consider income tax... consider the massive in
438.
by lurquer 6y ago
its a hit more convoluted than that. One example I have personal knowledge of... The foundation leases an office building owned by ABC, Inc. ABC is owned by child of foundations grantor. The lease payments are double the mortgage payments.
439.
by lurquer 6y ago
The rates vary depending on who is in power. They've been low, they've been high. You have no idea what the rate will be when you die. The point is, regardless of the rate, the rich -- people with access to good lawyers and accoun
440.
by lurquer 6y ago
Rich people don't pay inheritance taxes. There are a gazillion ways to pass on money without falling prey to estate taxes. The only people effected are middle-class folks not savvy enough to avoid the tax. The richest of the rich simp
441.
by lurquer 6y ago
>An emotion we are all used to living with every day, these days. “It’s fear. Fear of the unknown.” The article sucked. As mentioned. But, the trope set forth above -- about 'fear' -- is trite and, in my experience, rarely true
442.
by lurquer 6y ago
Well, some technology can't be replicated by living creatures... I could hire 10,000 book-keepers and they still wouldn't be as fast or as accurate at handling my company's finances than an old pirated copy of Quickbooks. On
443.
by lurquer 6y ago
I'm with you on the tails. Tails would be cool. But, I think the double use of orifices (air, food, urine, semen) is a good idea. Minimizing orifices seems to be an advantage... fewer avenues for outside stuff getting in. (And I don&#x
444.
by lurquer 6y ago
The technology is great. But, real honestly, can it do anything that a well-trained German shepherd can't? Granted it's a hassle maintaining a kennel of well-trained dogs, plus medical, food, etc. But, for $75k if I had some speci
445.
by lurquer 6y ago
Better to apologize than ask permission, as the saying goes... The principle st play is everywhere in the legal system: the penalty for lying on a tax return is much higher than not filing returns; the penalty for buying something with coun
446.
by lurquer 6y ago
At the library. Microfiche. I'd get a bagel and coffee, walk across courtyard to the library, and read through that days paper (100 years back.) Very depressing comparing the news then to now... if there was a bill at issue, the text o
447.
by lurquer 6y ago
> I’m gonna stop reading the news, it’s too much stress for me. While in college, I read the newspaper each and every day, cover to cover... from 100 years ago. (Microfiche... those were the days.) Anyway, I found that all the same issue
448.
by lurquer 6y ago
I've been trying to get a FPV drone camera feed into my Windows 10 computer so OpenCV can muck around with it. OpenCV easily recognizes Webcams, but sucks at picking up 'video adapter' kinda stuff. (That is, I'm going to
449.
by lurquer 6y ago
How much time should the police give him to decide whether to walk 10 feet to the left, or 10 feet to the right? Three minutes? Five minutes? An hour? The cameraman was literally STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET while stating that they
450.
by lurquer 6y ago
Whether they are charged with a crime is up to the governor, ultimately. But, the state police -- if they order a street closed -- are well within their rights to CLEAR the street. If the person won't budge, they can forcibly remove th

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