Technology
AI => Humanity++
Google CEO Sundar Pichai proclaims that AI is “more profound” than the harnessing of fire and electricity, according to The Verge article here. It is, he says in an upcoming interview, “one of the most important things that humanity is working on,” since it might solve climate change, and cure cancer.
Still no cure for hyperbole, though. Poor kitty.
Sticks and stones
Wood decays, so sticks haven’t reached through the archaeological record quite as successfully as stones have to tell us how they were fashioned, and how used, by our early ancestors. There must have been sharp sticks for poking stuff, clubby sticks for bashing things, hooked sticks for back scratching — or indeed pulling a fruit-laden branch within the easy orbit of a languorous arm.
ALEXANDER LANGLANDS provides a whistle-stop tour of the Stone Age from the Paleo- to-Neolithic in The Stick Is an Unsung Hero of Human Evolution: Stone’s silent sister in the archaeological record. Not only does he lament the absence of the stick, but also the fading knowledge and skills needed to hand-craft stick-oriented tooling, such as fishing rods and flint-tipped spears.
We shouldn’t fix everything (even if we could)
“In evolution everything is grasping for its purpose.”
In a recent Aeon article (Billionaires say they’ll end disease: evolution says otherwise) he points out that humans are not machines to be bug fixed and optimised. Genetic variation is important and brings long term benefits.
“In evolution, everything is grasping for its purpose. Parts that break down can become the next best thing.” Jim Kozubek
Missing ingredient of Machine Intelligence: Human Intelligence
Human intelligence is the required agenda-setter for machine intelligence according to Katherine Bailey in this article on TechCrunch.
It’s reassuring to know that we are to have a role in our technological future.
After mothballing Comma One, George Hotz releases free autonomous car software
Highway safety regulators called, so Hotz opted to offer a product with less liability.
Source: After mothballing Comma One, George Hotz releases free autonomous car software | Ars Technica
You couldn’t make this stuff up! Oh, hang on . . . I already did.
A smart car is just a big computer you sit in
“Car companies are finally realising that what they sell is just a big computer you sit in.”
So says Kevin Tighe, a senior systems engineer at security testing firm Bugcrowd according to this Guardian article, reporting from the “car-hacking village” at this year’s Defcon, the hacker conference.