Rollfast

That's because Sulu is just righteous BAD...

Rollfast

When good records are sold, I am THERE.

Leisesturm

It isn't good enough for me either. It shouldn't be good enough for you either! Diseases we conquered are coming back and this time around Pfizer isn't interested in coming up with the 2nd generation antibiotics we desperately need, because Viagra makes more money for them than everything else they sell, combined. You really are hopeful about our chances with that kind of paradigm at work?!

Leisesturm

Actually Sulu was an actor and wouldn't know which end of a warp core did what...

Rollfast

Oh, Takei knows...still, isn't that personal?

CB HI

Sounds like an opening for you to start a drug company and solve such problems.

And blaming the drug companies when much of the problems belong to the patients. Such as demanding drugs when they are not really needed. Or not finishing a prescription, leading to the drug resistant strains.

Many diseases are spread and become stronger in hospitals. Would you be willing to walk into a locker room in the hospital entrance, disrobe, shower, walk into a clean sterile room on the other side of the shower, put a sterile gown on before going into the main area of the hospital. Then reverse the process when leaving. That is close to what I and my workers did/do when working with sites that contain hazardous contamination. That process would eliminate half of the spread of bacteria and viruses. Not likely since you have probably gone to work or school sick.

unterhausen

this seems to be getting pretty personal. I am inclined to close it if this avenue of discussion is continued

mr_bill

I'll let others tackle the other "quotes" out of context, but I knew this guy. His company co-invented Ethernet 802.3, which frankly revolutionized the PC. He always believed in *networked* personal computing in the era of sneaker-net. (We were telecommuting circa 1980.)

802.3 was created by 3Com, Digital, Intel and Xerox, but since then tech's Engulf Devour has only managed to consume 3Com and most of Digital. Intel and Oracle swallowed the rest of Digital, with Compaq as a footnote in the process.

Anyhow, what Snopes says about your out of context quote.

I know I know, you read it on the Internut - good for a few thoughtless laughs.

ps. Look up SA-110, SA-1100 and Itsy. (Depth was constrained by AAA cells, otherwise the form factor and architecture is quite common these days.)

-mr. bill

genec

And yet we now have the IOT, among them, networked thermostats, refrigerators, doorbells and even "smart" lightbulbs.

In my home alone I have 2 PCs, 2 ipads, 2 smartphones and a smart tv, all networked together... and each with more prcessing power than a computer of the 70s. (Not the i/o, but vastly more mips and memory)

Yeah, I knew they were cheesy quotes... but I did not want to refer to buggywhips when trying to make a point about how technology tends to progress beyond shortsighted visions.

On the otherhand, there are unintended consequences...

genec

Apparently the technology available in the newer Teslas is getting damn close to being "that good."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/watch-tes...211306090.html

go to the text "Tesla Model S acknowledging a potential hazard" To access the actual twitter video

In this twitter attachment, there is video showing a Tesla predicting a collision before it happens... apparently the Tesla then hit the brakes, followed by the human doing the same...

The technology is almost ready... closer than some may believe.

mr_bill

A challenge for Tesla.
Helping a M******* in a Caddy not crash.

This morning. Speed limit is 40 mph in a national park. It's a NO PASSING ZONE throughout the park.

If you are wondering how I saw the oncoming traffic before they were visible over the rise, I saw the specular highlights from their headlamps on the overhead wires.

Leisesturm

I doubt the technology is almost ready. It can't possibly be. But... how good does it have to be to be better than 85% of human beings? That's probably where they are aiming. Computers have LONG been past the point at which they could demolish 85% of human chess players. The remaining 14% was a lot tougher but the last 1%...? Well, I think they are finally there but it takes millions of dollars of supercomputer to do it. That is the difference between artificial intelligence and human consciousness. It is still a CHASM of ability. The hardware that runs our intelligence is pitiful in machine terms. Computer hardware operates in Gigahertz, completing billions of operations in far less than a second. And they need to, because they must still handle data one bit at a time! Human consciousness manipulates data in a way that we still don't understand, and that's probably a good thing because if we could ever replicate human consciousness and superpose that on the quad core multi-gigahertz processors available the results would not be controllable. Humanity would be writing its epitaph. I'm hardly imagining the horrors of human enslavement to machine authoritarians, I'm imagining something much worse: the complete irrelevance of humanity, and a very strong argument for its complete and utter annihilation. Machine intelligence can guide a car safely through a snowstorm, but human consciousness can process a five day forecast and decide not to take in a three day skiing weekend.

Leisesturm

Meh. But I'll give you points for being an NPR listener...

CB HI

Most here are concerned with how well they avoid killing cyclist. Does not seem that they are almost there in that respect.

genec

As Leisesturm says: "it only has to be better than 85% of the drivers out there now... "

I had not really thought that, but I do think the tech will be much better.

Rollfast

We'll all be gone by then, thank goodness.

Leisesturm

I don't understand your comment. Gone by then? Next year? Because that's when they hit the streets in numbers. They're out there now! I very much doubt human driven passenger cars will be allowed to exist without special permitting, past ~2020. I suspect that I'm way older than you are and I sure hope to be around in 2020.

Rollfast

Ummm...I sold my car in early 2007. Owned it outright, couldn't afford to drive and other people were constantly following too closely.


My mom sold me her Pontiac for a dollar and her state's sales tax as advised by her lawyer and it halfway drove me nuts keeping the thing in one piece vs. others. I was rear ended by a woman with no license or insurance at a light in the center turn lane in a previous car and I wasn't even NEAR my Chevy when it was hit by a drunk driver who came out of the bar next door and decided he didn't like blue cars. He's no longer a lawyer at least.


My grandma had to drive backwards up hills in a Model T, and I have to grin and bear people doing 80 on a road that was icy the day before Christmas and it just happened to be clear because nobody lets the interstate rest.


At least they weren't breaking the 80 MPH limit, illogical as that seems.


I simply don't see the roads being taken over by autonomous vehicles in 3 years any more than a billion radios in the US being made obsolete and replaced by digital. I'm not a pessimist, you are just missing the point entirely. Unless they are replaced all at once, which nobody can afford when they are trying not to starve, lose a house or die, with no Crackerjack free prizes in the boxes...it remains fantasy.


Cars today are bad enough in that they could in theory be taken over by a rogue actor. For some of us, cars and bikes are all we have. My last girlfriend was 17 years ago and she died from cancer in March.


The way to make more bicyclists is NOT by bashing other people over the head. We are all here because we are bike enthusiasts. Why are we trying to punish the rest of the world?


Let's get rid of science fiction. I don't care about 2020. You and I both have absolutely no idea if we'll be alive or what will be. In my shape I don't expect to be here and wonder somedaze why I am, yet, I've no intent to go voluntarily.


I ride a bike. I have to get a ride from mom to have Christmas dinner. I'm shy of 51. I haven't gotten of a bike in over two weeks due to the weather and my winter bike being in the shop for a new tire and bearings being checked. He is out until January 3rd, which I always forget each year and I have a messed up hip right now. I'm just not going anywhere for another week and hopefully I have transportation to help pay the bills and buy food Friday through Tuesday.


My street is a hockey rink and even though I've shoveled all I can the snow on the sidewalk to my door is still packed but almost flush with the bottom step. I scraped a path to the shelter I made for my other cats to feed them and I'm short on canned food to mix with the kibbles so that they have the energy to burn and keep warm.


At least my ride showed up for today...I'm out of here a bit.

Rollfast

Sorry, and /rant. It's no fun being in pain and alone.

mconlonx

Apparently, autonomous cars are not that good at dealing with bicycles...

The Self-Driving Car's Bicycle Problem

Which makes me wonder -- will this delay implementation? Will streets become more dangerous with autonomous cars? Will cycling be outlawed from "some streets, for their own safety"?

jon c. 

I'd take that bet. 10 years would, IMO, be exceedingly optimistic. Even if the technology was perfected already, it would take longer than that to replace the fleet of existing human driver cars. A decade ago, I thought the majority of new cars would be electric by now. Progress is slow and radical progress is likely to be much slower.

Chris0516

I didn't see this, until now. I already knew this about Uber. Not like I had some inside info. But I knew that Uber's only focus was on automobiles.

Leisesturm

Use your imagination and apply this article to the problem of effecting a rapid change-over to self driving vehicles: Why the Cars In Japan Look Just Like New - NYTimes.com

jon c. 

Still not seeing it as really possible in this society. But of course, I could be wrong. I never though CDs would replace vinyl records as quickly as they did.

genec

Just as airbags became mandatory, and initially caused some deaths, the technology improved to the point that we would not want cars without the safety of airbags.

So too will be the same situation w self driving cars as soon as they statistically save more lives than human drivers manage to kill.