Comment Re: I really hope... (Score 1) 544
That would be awesome. Then we could bring it back to search for intelligent life on THIS planet!
That would be awesome. Then we could bring it back to search for intelligent life on THIS planet!
I guess it must be some sort of "air mass" control system. Let me explain:
Considering that low pressure will make the tire wall bend more, the natural irregularities of the road and the suspension system will make it bounce significantly more. The problem for the tire is that the temperature of the air inside rises (I remember how hot the air came out of the pump after inflating bike tires...), and so does the pressure. So if you check the pressure while on the road, it may appear as if it has too much pressure. A common mistake is to let some air out until the pressure reaches the recommended setting, which is really for "rested" tires. This action makes the problem worse and it may become a vicious circle if the driver checks that same tire repeatedly... it is not uncommon to get a tire blown up like this.
Therefore, the only robust option is to measure pressure and temperature and obtain the amount of air that is inside. If it's lower than the recommended setting, then it should allow air to get in.
PS: It may be more convenient though to just set a "hot" referential pressure and let the system work only by pressure after some time on the road. If the technology Goodyear developed works on the road and only uses pressure, this might be the way it works, but TFA does not go into details over this.
PS2: I'm not a native english speaker, please excuse my spelling/grammar mistakes.
These guys existed well before us...
Have you read Winograd and Flores book "Understanding Computers and Cognition"? (yes, the same Winograd that was Larry Page's PhD advisor)
It is a really revolutionary book written in 1986 about how AI wouldn't ever be able to do all the things that were implicitly (and explicitly) promised. It relies in sound biological and philosophical arguments that show how foolish the present ideas are.
No I'm not saying we will never have intelligent machines. What I do say is that they are not going to be created by any of the current approaches.
It seems to me that the problem here lies in the incentives for the employees. If they are measured by how many records are entered, then they'll figure out ways to enter them faster...
I've seen this too many times in different industries and job types. How to change it? Evaluate them by the contactability of the records they enter. Take a sample and call the hotels. The percentage of correct numbers should be linked to some sort of variable pay, which must also take the total records into account (It is way too easy to have 100% if you enter only one...)
The key concept here is to link their evaluation to the actual impact their actions have for your business. Did Sally enter a lot of good records and this means more business? Then she should earn more than those who give you a lot of bad records.
Now, if you could really identify a correlation between genes and poverty (or slashdot addiction), that would be an extraordinary achievement, albeit controversial...
Please excuse me if my language seems rude, I'm not a native english speaker. I normally don't care, but the subject may be controversial and I might miss some subtleties.
Or maybe it didn't evolve that way for any particular reason.
These sort of studies assume we have now evolved to perfection. But that suggests there will be no further evolution, which I don't think is the case.
I agree, to assume that evolution is heading somewhere is nonsense. To say we have reached a state of "perfection" is absurd...
However, I think there will be no more evolution for human beings, at least in the traditional sense. Evolution of a species involves domination of the new individuals over the rest and probably replacement (or displacement). For this to happen, the "evolved" must reproduce themselves at a faster rate than the others, but this behavior does not appear in humans in present times. If you are smarter, taller, faster, wealthier, etc. it doesn't translate into a more numerous offspring.
What does happen is that people with traits that would have prevented them from procreating in the past, do get to have children today. Therefore, instead of evolution we have something more similar to dissemination (of genes) that would not have happened earlier...
Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty without taking off your shoes. -- Mickey Mouse