Watergun?
Two questions. I wonder if weāre going to see these things spraying mace and terrifying people at protests soon. Second, it seems like youād shoot one if it was coming at you. Are there going to be very stiff penalties for shooting a drone or robot? What if you claim self-defense? Will the penalties for shooting a robot in self-defense be greater than the penalty for shooting a person, especially if the person is poor and/or a minority? Then weāll see exactly how human lives are valued.
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Jibe with, not jive, unless youāre deliberately using the altered idiom.
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Itās hard to argue that basic robotics research, even if the military is funding it, is inherently āevilā.
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As I understand it, āDonāt be evilā may not actually mean what folks assume it means. According to the news report I heard, Google invented the phrase as a formal conversation-stopper in brainstorming sessions; if a participant felt something was an extremely bad idea, they could simply say āThatās Evilā and the idea would be abandoned without the objection having to be explained or defended, whether the idea was stupid, unprofitable, impractical, or evil in any usual sense. I have to emphasize that I may be wrong hereā¦ but I think itās worth emphasizing that we should not be putting too much reliance on that catchphrase. Itās a tool, and perhaps a statement of how they want to approach the world, not a guarantee that itās always going to be the highest priority or indeed that it will always be followed.
Frankly, I prefer IBMās catchphrase: THINK.
I afraid I have some bad news for youā¦
@technogeekagain (1)
Nailed it. Itās a catchphrase, nothing more.
Coined by the guy who accepted a medal from Hitlerā¦
ā[ā¦] The most recent study of the matter, however, argues that Watson believed, perhaps naively, that the medal was in recognition of his years of labor on behalf of global commerce and international peace.[5] Watson soon began second-guessing himself for accepting the medal, and eventually returned the medal to the German government in June 1940. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was furious at the slight, and he declared that Watson would never step on German-controlled soil again.ā (quoth Wikipedia)
There are some valid questions around IBMās actions in that period, but this really isnāt one of them.
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And yes, Iāve actually read it.
My point is: donāt expect ethical behaviour from very large corporations.
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Thatās one authorās conclusions, with an axe to grind. There are others, You can find them as easily as I, and itās offtopic, so Iām going to leave it at that.
Fair enough.
Both in terms of sound effects and appearance, was no one else reminded of this:
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Iād like to say it was a typo considering that v & b are neighbors on QWERTY but I must admit, Iāve never seen the expression in writing. I thought the expression had musical roots, I take it the expression is rooted in fighting (that in a fight the one wouldnāt hold up against the other) and not nautical (the boom just whacked the crew on the head or something).
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Itās hard to argue that the military has humanitarian intentions in mind, but then again they might have Richard Gatling on the staff. I just hope they have the conscience to know when to say āNow I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.ā meh. Iām being overly dramatic.
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That makes sense.
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It would make far more sense to stash it deep in a bunker, with multiple backups, and operate a variety of mobile units remotely.
Gybe is the nautical term, but it is hard to gybe with something. Iāve always thought it was ājive withā.
Google has said they will honor existing contracts but do not intent to be a military supplier. As I said above, I much prefer Google owning them than Lockheed or (much worse) Blackwater or something.
I can think of hundreds, thousands of ideas for autonomous robots that donāt involve killing people. I can also think of a number of ideas that would render most militaries obsolete and/or inneffective, which are also somewhat appealing. It amazes me that in an age of drones our governments are spending any money at all on fighter plane development meant to have people inside them. The military with 1 million, or 20 million, cheap drones in the air will vaporize any F35s that wander in. The country with 10 million cheap underwater drones will vaporize any sub or navy that gets pushy.
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No, Iād keep the backups in several bunkers and take a mobile unit to explore far away places. Communication delay at a distance earth - moon is 1.3 seconds already. You see where Iām going here.
However, an other idea just struck me - the legal problems of all this.
Picture this: you bulid a multi-billion technological empire and use itās resources for making you (your mind, that is) immortal by downloading your memories, your conciousness, your personality - in short, your self into a computer or whatever.
Would you still be the owner of your worldly assets?
Could a backup of your self sue you for divorce and/or custody?
And so on and so on.
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Science fiction has plumbed these depths with some truly amazing books. BBs own Doctorow has gone into it a bit - Rapture of the Nerds has a scene in which the main character duplicates himself multiply to battle another traitorous copy of himself in court (then gets outmaneuvered). Mindbendingly fun.
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Iām not sure the answers to any of those questions are gonna cheer me upā¦
āJibeā is an accepted spelling of the nautical term, according to the dictionary. Preferred, in the US. The dictionary also gives āagreeā as a definition of ājibeā; there is no such definition for ājiveā.
(You may be thinking of another term, or this may be regional spellings.)
As some one who has sailed, Iād say that to jibe with is to maneuver on/onto a parallel courseā¦ and that it isnāt all that hard to jibe with another ship in that sense.
Can someone remind me, whatās wrong with horses again?
Obligatory Futurama:
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No brake, no clutch, no off-switchā¦
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Huh. Learn something new everyday.
Iāve always heard it expressed as āto jiveā with something is to be in agreement.
Iāve always assumed it had to do with dancing, (jump jive and wail etc.) where two people dancing well together are in agreement.
