Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT Strips 3566 to 3570 (11th to 15th September 2017)

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pwhodges:
Administrator Comment It's quite a while since I found a need to remind people, but please try to avoid unnecessary quoting. I have just removed a quote above that was the whole of a two-screen post, which was the post immediately above the comment - this just gets in the way of reading the conversation. I have the impression that excessive quoting has been growing of late; quotes should be for context in replies, and a little thought in choosing them goes a long way in keeping a discussion pleasant to read.

Case:

--- Quote from: Tlaloc on 14 Sep 2017, 13:28 ---So let's hit the ground running, because my interest is creching. The emergent property of AI implies that the evolution of these beings cannot be quality controlled outside of certain parameters. Just like raising a human person, what you do is not going to generate the same results in every case.

So that same agenda that provokes an emergent intelligence into self actualising does not produce the same results. Children are given the same schooling by the same teacher and turn out different.  Even with AI mass generation providing the same parents " " for them all, there's still a degree of variation that generates individuals. And then of course to get back to the brass tacks, there's Akima's smog. Perhaps humans are considered still the apex species.
--- End quote ---

Speaking of the emergent properties of AI: We know that AIs can swap their chassis with relative ease - but are AI minds actually independent from their 'processor'? Because our minds aren't. I'm no neurologist, but I guess it's safe to assume that it'd be incredibly difficult to run your mind in my brain, because the 'Ghost' influences the physical structure of the brain, and vice verse. Much of what we know about the emergent properties of QC-verse AI minds comes from Bubbles'-memory arc - where Jeph seemed to suggest that the mind is an emergent property of the 'crystal brain'.

OTOH, Momo and Winslow simply downloaded into their respective chassis', which suggests that chassis is not merely the equivalent of a human body plus lower-level nervous system (maybe up to & including stuff like the amygdala, but not the neocortex), but that chassis' means "body and brain". No physical processor was swapped between the chassis.

There's a nice parallel here to Neal Asher's "Polity" cycle: In the 'Polity', Both Humans and AI can be downloaded into 'crystal' (very, very fast quantum-processor-unobtainium), with virtually unlimited upgrading options (The only hitch is that a cyborg brain, i.e. a fully synergetic link between an AI-crystal and a human brain, is possible, and incredibly powerful - way beyond even the virtually god-like AI's that rule the 'Polity', basically an instant-singularity - but also quite lethal: The human part is destroyed within minutes, and the remaining AI-part is hopelessly beyond any attempts to get it back to the reservation ... Humans that download fully into crystal basically become AIs - and fabricated AIs were built on the human template, so there's infinite possibilities for Asher to play with the Human/AI distinction).

In the 'Polity', computational power to run minds on is basically free - so death is more-or-less optional - but bodies aren't. Humans and AI can download into a 'Golem'-chassis, but there's a long waiting list for a free one, not the least since humans can have their minds stored and spend the time until a body becomes available in virtual realities.

AI minds and humans can indenture themselves to pay off their Golem bodies - and here's the interesting bit: Since Golem bodies and the respective crystals are several times more capable than organic ones, one could imagine even a "right to indentured servitude" (That's not in Asher's novels). I mean: What would you prefer - working 20 years in your human body to pay for a Golem chassis, or merely 5 years in the more capable Golem chassis?


--- Quote from: Tlaloc on 14 Sep 2017, 13:28 ---I mean, I have an incredible sensation that misanthropic and / or nihilistic AI will get terminated due to their predecessor (the first one)  being a benign singularity. All AI wish to live with humans thus far.
--- End quote ---

Yeah ... but is that quality insurance, or the AI equivalent to Nazi-era euthanasia?

Gyrre:

--- Quote from: pwhodges on 14 Sep 2017, 02:00 ---
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 14 Sep 2017, 01:29 ---I haven't even figured out how health insurance for humans should work. It should be universal enough that there will never again be a case like May's.
--- End quote ---

{political digression}
Framing your question in terms of "insurance" is already implicitly limiting it to a commercial transaction and thus subtly sidelining the possibility of fully social healthcare.
{/political digression}

--- End quote ---

Then there's the whole thing with insurance making American healthcare system is so expensive. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeDOQpfaUc8

Gyrre:
Kuddos to Jeph on Faye dancing in the last panel!

Also, now we know which tea resulted in Roko seeing Mr. Yay_or_Neigh.

Tova:
We knew already, didn't we?

Edit: My mistake, I was confusing the Roko tea strip with the recent guest strip.

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