Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 22-26 August 2011 (1996-2000)
Boradis:
--- Quote from: DSL on 25 Aug 2011, 08:39 ---You left out the et al.
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Also covered by physics.
Look, I'm not trying to be a naysayer or a dick, but reaching escape velocity is freakin' hard and requires a LOT of power. Fuels that combine liquid oxygen with liquid hydrogen or kerosene are the best/safest means of achieving these speeds and you still need a skyscraper's worth to go anywhere. The rubber-burning rockets of Virgin Galactic/Scaled Composites are fine for suborbital joyrides but that's it.
My point is that it's not a simple lack of desire on the part of the U.S. or the Russians which has slowed space exploration to a crawl, it's the propulsion hurdle of getting up to 11.2 km/sec without exploding or irradiating the launch site.
--- Quote from: Throg on 25 Aug 2011, 12:08 ---
Personally, I can't quite buy into the whole 'strong AI' concept, no matter what. All I can conceive of is a 'chinese wall' type AI -- good enough to fool us, but the computer has no 'soul' / 'spark' / 'ghost' / what-have-you.
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I think it's fair to acknowledge though that your requirement for the "reality" of these proposed beings is cultural, religious or superstitious. I for one don't believe anyone or anything has a "soul" in the sense that you mean, and yet I believe that you are completely real.
Yet those who follow animistic religions such as Japan's Shinto believe everything has a soul -- you, me, pets, furniture, rocks, the planet, atoms, the galaxy, you name it. I suspect that may be why their culture has such a fondness for robots. Looked at that way, an intelligent device that looks and acts like a human being is a human being.
Arancaytar:
--- Quote from: snubnose on 25 Aug 2011, 06:08 ---
--- Quote from: akronnick on 25 Aug 2011, 03:59 --- This is a sentient, intelligent being we're talking about here, and you think it's appropriate to snuff her out of existence because... she doesn't take her job seriously?
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Robots arent sentient, though. Jephs robots act like no reallife robot would act. Computers are mathematical machines, if they "show feelings" then its because an algorithm tells them to, not because there is the slightest hint of feeling in the machine. Just as an example, reallife robots do not get bored. Ever. They compute pi to the ten power n number of digits just fine, without ever wondering why they're doing it.
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If an artificial intelligence gains the capacity for introspection, it also gains the capacity for boredom (which is the realization you could be doing something better with your time). Of course it would only act sad because its brain tells it to do that when it recognizes a situation that would make a human in their place sad, but that's pretty much what humans do as well.
Anyway, if Charlotte's job is to help potential customers see robots as fun pals to hang out with rather than machines or a menace, then there is no possible way she could do that job more effectively.
cesariojpn:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 25 Aug 2011, 19:59 ---EDIT: Spider Robinson said that in his view anyone who says "Excuse me" is human.
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Excuse me, thats bullshit.
So, does that make me a spiteful human being?
--- Quote from: Arancaytar on 25 Aug 2011, 22:29 ---Anyway, if Charlotte's job is to help potential customers see robots as fun pals to hang out with rather than machines or a menace, then there is no possible way she could do that job more effectively.
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http://youtu.be/j6eFNRKEROw?t=1m
idontunderstand:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 25 Aug 2011, 16:17 ---We know that Pintsize wants to play or be an instrument, so AnthroPC bands are imaginable.
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*Starts imagining* The more I think of it, the more it seems like a GREAT idea. :roll: and I'm imagining the band would something like Battles. But I guess I'm derailing from the current discussion. Sorry everybody, I'll leave right about now.
MightionNY:
Oh lord... the "empty" Momo body just makes me sad.
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