Stormcrow, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about this. Please advise.
The multi planetary is the "one of these things is not like the others" for me.
I guess I don't really have an opinion on most of this stuff. I am in favor of sustainable energy. And the Internet, of course.
3: Really? I would have thought a Mars colony was a pretty obvious extension of cheap space launch. And he does kind of run a rocket company.
I think AI is harder. Maybe even less desirable.
I would have thought a Mars colony was a pretty obvious extension of cheap space launch. And he does kind of run a rocket company.
Right, it seems like the rocket company has a lot to do with his interest in planetary colonization. I think what JP was saying, though, is that that's a goal on a very different scale from the other ones he lists.
Although as has been noted many times, I'm not the best judge of what JP means by stuff he says.
I think we know Mars colonization is going to be crazy hard; I think we don't know how hard AI is going to be.
I'd pick rewriting human genetics as the one unlike the others -- though it might be necessary for multi planetary humanity, and heck, if we change the meat enough and it still seems sentient, does that count as AI?
I don't get why it wouldn't be all right to say the quoted sentence. Do I actually have to click through?
I would have thought a Mars colony was a pretty obvious extension of cheap space launch.
Hah, no. *Getting* to Mars is an extension of cheap space launch. *Colonizing* Mars will be a whole nother thing. The current book _The Martian_ is excellent.
Can we just put an ant colony on Mars and then declare victory?
We've already sent microbes to Mars. We can declare victory right now.
I don't get why it wouldn't be all right to say the quoted sentence. Do I actually have to click through?
Nah. The article is mostly about one of his rockets blowing up. The quoted line is a bit of a throwaway.
if we change the meat enough and it still seems sentient, does that count as AI?
Nope.
The article seems to suggest he delayed launch because of his nightmares.
14: Yes, the sentence itself was a bit of a non sequitur that just caught my eye. If you watch the video he is responding to a question from the interviewer on how chose what to pursue. He does allow the list came out of "sophomoric: discussions."
8: I think what JP was saying, though, is that that's a goal on a very different scale from the other ones he lists.
Yes. Although "rewriting human genetics" is somewhat similar, but I think that one has the potential to quite significantly "affect humanity" long before you get anywhere near to a "rewrite" (and you will note he did not say anything about any of them being "desirable"--but I guess that is implied).
18: Now don't be a carbon-based chauvinist, teo.
The Mars colony is a natural extension of Musk's secret plot to terraform the Earth.
20: Musk is on record that AI is not necessarily desirable.
I'm 60% sure Musk pretends to be worried about AI as a fundraising tool.
I'm 60% sure Musk pretends to be worried about AI as a fundraising tool.
Funding his project to design an AI that is always a few steps ahead of all the other AIs. [demonic cackle.]
I think what JP was saying, though, is that that's a goal on a very different scale from the other ones he lists.
It is? I'd bet that we have a permanent station on the Moon or Mars before we have a human-like AI.
It is? I'd bet that we have a permanent station on the Moon or Mars before we have a human-like AI.
I would strongly argue that the difference is that work in AI will have a significant affect on humanity long before one gets to "human-like AI" in a way that is not true for putting a permanent station on Mars.
28. AI has been having a significant affect on humanity for twenty years- medical diagnostic systems for example. If you're still using the term AI to mean something that's way in the future, then either you're using it to describe Marvin Minsky's wet dreams from circa 1960 or you don't understand it. In the case of Elon Musk, I'm pretty sure he understands it, so I think I'm with GY on this.
29 is a big time excluded middle fail. And it most certainly has not been having a "top 5" affect on humanity for the past twenty years.
For instance, space exploration* has had a similar level of affect, I would say.
*Eliding that space exploration should not necessarily be viewed as part of a program of making humanity "multi planetary."
||
Megan, objectively pro-Chinese government."China bans wordplay in attempt at pun control."
The casual alteration of idioms risks nothing less than "cultural and linguistic chaos", it warns.
|>
OPINIONATED CHINESE GOVERNMENT that is.
They don't go into enough detail about the punishment for violating the new law. One assumes that it is immediate death, but by beheading? Dismemberment? I'd like to read more about that.
Speaking of things that affect humanity, a good long interview with Sean Carroll (the biology one) on mass extinctions. (Despite their reversing the order of the K-T and the "Great Dying" in the first paragraph of their write-up.) He is hosting a documentary on the Smithsonian Channel this evening (8 PM ET).
Colonization has to rank at the bottom of both feasibility and importance. The internet, sustainable energy, and genetic engineering are already possible, to some extent.
Also, Unfogged doesn't support tables in HTML.
Have any of you asked Siri to make love to you? She took it in good humor, but depending on whether she belongs to me, or merely provides me a service under the terms of my contract with AT&T, she might well have had grounds for a lawsuit.
I bet you could find a divorce case where Siri was named as a co-respondent.
Also speaking of things that affect humanity, a book recommendation that I may recall seeing here before: Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese.
I guess it was inevitable that the Commodity: How It Changed the World publishing trend would eventually hit upon a commodity that really did change the world in important ways.
Published in 2004. My wife got it from a used book pile almost as lark for my daughter (who is working in a coal-related activity), and then it turned out to be pretty great.
my daughter (who is working in a coal-related activity)
Straw boss? Clerk at the company store?
I have actually seen that book in bookstores from time to time, and I am interested in the topic, so I'm glad to hear it's good.
44: After the fact. Lingering effects.
18, 21 - you're asking me to believe in silicon-based meat.
Nice. The story's online here. And addresses another item on the list.
"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."
48: That is the greatest science fiction story ever written.
Tjipetir--another "connected world" phenomenon. Gutta-percha is semi-forever.
Straw boss? Clerk at the company store?
Old-timey train driver.
re: 51
With one of those hats.
47-49: Mentioned here before, but Poul Anderson's short story," Epilogue" is a very nice early exploration of a variant of that theme in a more classic sci-fi format. Annoted that still cannot find it online, but a detailed synopsis and review here.
The "multiplanetary" thing is part of a very widespread (among space enthusiasts, etc.) belief that permanent, sustainable human settlements on Mars would be an insurance policy against human extinction. Some of the other items on Musk's list are similar.
Quite dead thread, but will note that Stephen Hawking has thrown out some juicy fear-the-computers bait: "Stephen Hawking: Artificial Intelligence could spell end of human race". (It seems like I've heard that before from him, but this is a recent interview.)