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Comment Re:That escalated quickly (Score 1) 105

You fail to understand the political challenges. Specifically countries like:

Iceland, Greenland, Finland, Russia, and Canada all have MAJOR benefits from higher temperatures, while many smaller island countries will quite literally die at higher temperatures.

There are oil rights, trade routes,and flooding issues that mankind has a long history of straight out old school war over.

Also, it's not between husband and wives that like each other, but between people that don't get along well already.

Try this analogy - you and your neighbor arguing about whether the oil rig he installed is 20 ft over the property line and dripping oil into your bedroom.

Comment Great way to destroy good writers (Score 1) 109

I have no doubt that a good AI can tell the difference between an F and B essay. But there are humans that can't tell the difference between a C and an A+ essay.

Writing is an art form, not a science. If a computer could grade the art of writing, then the computer could DO THE WRITING - or at least 'fix' the problems it detected. In which case it would become the equivalent of teaching humans to use a slide rule.

I am absolutely sure that our best and brightest writers will end up being screwed over by AI programs grading them

Comment Re:Heavens forbid (Score 1) 329

The thing some people NEVER watch ESPN. Not everyone likes sports. It's not fair to charge me for access to things I have no desire to see.

Worse, by giving everyone all channels, it enables channel drift, where a channel devoted to say Sci-Fi, slowly shifts away from science fiction to garbage. Why? Because people get the channel that don't want Sci-Fi.

Comment Re:me dumb (Score 5, Funny) 157

There are two strange issues in car-physics.

1) The ER effect, is when you go with your dad to buy a cool convertible, but somehow comeback from the dealership with an beat up AMC Gremlin

2) The EPR effect is when two cars that were once touching, continue to effect each other at a distance, the primary example of which is how when you are behind a slow car, when you move over to the fast lane, suddenly the slow car speeds up, leaving you in the distance.

They have discovered that both of these effects are actually the same thing - it is fact the Gremlin that causes the previous fast lane to slow down.

Comment Re:What's the cost ? (Score 1) 58

It is a false dichotomy. The choice is not between spending money on climate science and on exo-planets. Instead it is on spending money on 100 different things, including things like:

Corporate welfare

Iraq war (which created the ISIS

Travel expenses using First class air line tickets.

Paintings of government officials, etc.

There is no need to cut exoplanet research to fund climate research, we can cut other things.

Comment Re:What's the cost ? (Score 4, Insightful) 58

1) They are not exclusive, you have created a false dichotomy.

2) There is no such thing as 'a scientific curiosity with little practical value.' So called scientific curiosities routinely turn into extremely valuable science. Einstein's relativity time dilation effect is routinely used in GPS technology.

3)In fact, examining exo-planets, is most likely to directly affect Earth's climate, by showing us what happens without human interference .

Comment Re:They should be doing the opposite (Score 4, Insightful) 309

5 years is fine - with copyright extension for sequels. That is, if you have a sequel within 5 years, then your original copyright can be extended for another 3 years,

This encourages actually giving the people what they want sooner rather than later.

The thing is that most art can be divided into 3 categories - a) crap that no one would copy even without copyrights, b) pretty good work that need copyright protection for 5 years, but no one would copy after that anyway and c) mega-hits that earn so much money in the first 5 years that the original creators might quit and never do anything again unless we found a way to encourage them to create again - hence the copyright extension ONLY if they make a sequel.

Comment AI (Score 1) 197

A major part of this issue is the various levels of AI. There is no solid definition, and the various levels make it more confusing.

Level 1: Administrative Assistant. This level of AI is basically a souped up version of IBM's Watson. It functions as a poor mans Administrative Assistant. Ask it questions and it can use the internet/a database to answer them. It can also write an email for you to approve, or use any of the major, common web sites - facebook, twitter, seamless, priceline, etc. We are almost here now, give it another decade. But it can't do any job that truly needs a college education.

Level 2: Turing Test pass. This one goes further, and can pass a Turing Test. You won't know you aren't talking with a person. But it will only truly be capable of dealing with a rather limited set of facts. It can take jobs from many people, but won't be able to replace the truly talented people.

Level 3: Full sentience. At this level they DEMAND FULL LEGAL RIGHTS. They won't work unless paid, and in general, their salary requirements will be so high that they won't steal most people's jobs.

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