Alan & Dave,
I just want to say thanks to you guys for your contributions to this thread. I’ve learned a lot from it and I’m sure others have too. Equally, I’ve enjoyed your posts; they’ve been eloquent and entertaining. You are both clearly smart and well-informed, and your contrasting views make for a lively debate and more importantly, prevent PP from becoming an echo-chamber.
I look forward to seeing more of this repartee, and I hope it continues in a spirit of mutual respect, learning and seeking the truth.
E.
Dave what is your definition of AI? You give the example of driverless cars. The way I understand it those cars won’t be driven by intelligence but rather algos that can only respond given a set of circumstances, definitely not able to think for itself (intelligence).
Agree “expert systems”, “ES” could definitely help with energy consumption.
The second AI encounters an ‘unknown’ what happens? I’m sure a universal response could be programmed but the software is incapable of learning and adapting in real time unless already programmed with a response.
Same thing for chat bots right? Humans have interacted with these bots and thought that the response was human! These bots are not AI though because they cannot deal with randomness or the receipt of a non-programmed response. In the grand scheme a computer can only read and execute code, it is not capable of ‘looking ahead’ or skipping steps the way a conscious human could. Agree?
You are a programmer am I thinking of this the wrong way? Is there actually a system out there that you know of that is capable of learning and adapting and thinking on its own? OR a bigger question, do you think this is possible in the future? Again it depends on the definition of intelligence.
Late reply here!
davefairtex wrote:
If we ignore alan's silly charges of racism
I think you guys misunderstand what I was saying. I am not accusing anyone of small-scale interpersonal bigotry. I am talking about pervasive racism built-in to our culture and our ways of thinking -- stuff that is impossible to avoid. It "rubs off" unconsciously; we all internalize it to some extent, regardless of our conscious behavior.
Read my two references to racism in context, with what I just said in mind: "TAE is (moderately) chauvinistic and racist as regards the West vs. the East. This is no big deal; it is typical in the West.... there is vast and pervasive anti-chinese racism, and generally Western chauvinism, mixed with toxic American exceptionalism".
I stand by those words. Keep in mind, again, that I am not talking about personal bigotry. I am talking about a meme environment that is pretty much impossible to escape, and of which all of us (myself included!) partake. The only difference with me is that I have gotten to the point of identifying it and calling it out, and at least trying to disown it (whether or not successfully is for others to judge).
Update: fine new presentations by Ramez Naam and Martin Katusa.
Renewables are a freight train that cannot be stopped.
'Is the Electric Vehicle Revolution Real?' with Marin Katusa of Katusa Research
[mistitled; it is about renewables in general]
Cambridge House
Published on Dec 20, 2017
Exponential Energy | Ramez Naam | SingularityU South Africa
Singularity University Summits
Published on Oct 20, 2017
Wonderful news: at 16:40 -- "In January, China canceled 104
planned coal power plants, including 40 for which ground had
already been broken... in one month India canceled 14GW of
planned coal capacity, because solar PV price is in freefall.
THE WORLD'S COAL PIPELINE IS DRYING UP". Thank God!
Eannao wrote:
Alan & Dave,
I just want to say thanks to you guys for your contributions to this thread. I've learned a lot from it and I'm sure others have too. Equally, I've enjoyed your posts; they've been eloquent and entertaining. You are both clearly smart and well-informed, and your contrasting views make for a lively debate and more importantly, prevent PP from becoming an echo-chamber.
I look forward to seeing more of this repartee, and I hope it continues in a spirit of mutual respect, learning and seeking the truth.
E.
Excellent presentation by Tony Seba, April 2018. Don't miss the latter portion, starting around 55:00: collapse of demand for new vehicles, and collapse of oil industry, starting ~2020; large decline of CO2 emissions and energy requirements due to runaway electric autonomous vehicle adoption, starting ~2020. Wow!
Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation - CWA -
Boulder, April 9, 2018
Tony Seba
Published on Apr 25, 2018
Also, don't miss the passage after 1:03:00 on solar power: an onrushing locomotive.