TD

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Posts by TD

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  83

  Do You Think Trump Is Done?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  certain forces appear to be trying to make sure donald trump never runs for president again.

  some republicans are clearly abandoning trump and of course the democratic press has been saying trump is done!

  is trump’s goose cooked?

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  TD

  As an old school conservative, I'd point out that there was a time when we were strict constructionists when it came to the rule of law and most especially, the Constitution.

  Trump, who didn't know the difference between articles and amendments and who struggled to even read the document in public, came along and that all went out the window.

  Okay, fine. You don't necessarily need a good grasp of law to be President, but if you don't then you need to listen to those who do.

  In Trump's case this would have been people like Mike Pence, Bill Barr and others. Instead, he chose to listen to crackpots.

  There's nothing trivial or circumstantial about the criminal indictments against Trump and those who believe that are listening to some of the same crackpots that Trump did.

  This is a very low hanging piece of fruit at this point.
  
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  4

  My favourite female protagonists: Ellen Ripley

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  next is ellen ripley, played by sigourney weaver, of the alien franchise.. ripley only just beat the xenomorph in ridley scott's alien (1979).. she spends most of james cameron's aliens (1986) dealing with and overcoming her trauma.

  eventually, she seriously kicks ass.. she also becomes a surrogate mommy to newt, the abandoned girl who the space marines find on lv-426.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qssrxuhfawy.

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  TD

  Don't need to tell me twice

  

  I was smitten here, but seeing her as Ripley a couple of years later was the icing on the cake
  
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  8

  A little bit of biblical Math

  by psyco in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  jacob had 13 children (am i wrong?

  ): 12 boys and 1 girl.. if you flip a coin 13 times, the probability to have 12 heads is about 0.002!.

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  TD

  Not completely unheard of
  

  14 Consecutive sons:

  

  14 consecutive daughters:

  
  
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  54

  Is AI going to change the world?

  by Reasonfirst in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  had lunch with a friend, whose a lecturer in the accounting dept.

  of one of australia's best universities.

  he told me he expects to lose his job at some point in the next 5 years, as the accounting dept, will disappear, as all accounting will be done by ai programs, so why teach it.. if his fears are correct, that means that any profession that involves the mind, may one day face the same future.

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  TD

  I do understand what you are saying, Slim.

  The manner in which a CPU actually performs mathematical functions is not even remotely like a human would, or even within the realm of what would occur to the average person. (Everything is derived from simple binary addition and logical operators)
  

  But if the computational ability of a computer completely eclipses that of a human being (And there's absolutely no question on that point) then it really doesn't matter what's going on inside a CPU as long as it is giving correct answers.

  As you said, "..it really does not matter that AI is stupid in how it goes about producing its outcome from our perspective. What matters are the results it produces."

  Or as Jeffrey Hawkins, neuroscientist and AI researcher himself observed:
  

  "...most people aren’t trying to replicate the brain. It’s just whatever works, works. And today’s neural networks are working well enough."

  But as Hawkins goes on to point out, that approach has made AI utterly dependent upon human knowledge (And by extension human error) on a wide variety of topics.

  Excerpts from a session with ChatGPT:

  

  Incorrect

  
  

  Incorrect - Song with the same title by a different artist
  

  
  

  Not surprising, I guess.
  

  
  

  Swing and a miss. --Common Engineering/Mathematical term

  

  Still no answer (Other than 'splaining to me in my own field)

  The AI is simply regurgitating the tribal wisdom of the internet.
  
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  54

  Is AI going to change the world?

  by Reasonfirst in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  had lunch with a friend, whose a lecturer in the accounting dept.

  of one of australia's best universities.

  he told me he expects to lose his job at some point in the next 5 years, as the accounting dept, will disappear, as all accounting will be done by ai programs, so why teach it.. if his fears are correct, that means that any profession that involves the mind, may one day face the same future.

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  TD

  I think there's an important difference between the infancy of flight and the infancy of what we're calling AI.

  Unlike many of their predecessors, the Wright brothers were not simply mimicking the actions of birds with little to no understanding of power to weight ratios. They were truly, actually flying. --Not exactly like birds do, but via a mechanical application of the same principles.
  

  AI, as we use the term today is a mimicry of the human mind via clever algorithms and vast repositories of facts, but it is not truly intelligent in the sense that humans are. Unless and until we actually understand how the human mind works, we are not likely to be able to build a machine that works along similar principles.

  It's not that I'm not impressed with what's been accomplished so far. I was enthusiastic enough to participate in a test program for what is still the most advanced driverless system around. My first hand observation is that it's not enough to be able to interpret the intentions of another driver. In the example I gave, the AI must possess the judgment to know when a traffic law can be broken and why.
  
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  54

  Is AI going to change the world?

  by Reasonfirst in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  had lunch with a friend, whose a lecturer in the accounting dept.

  of one of australia's best universities.

  he told me he expects to lose his job at some point in the next 5 years, as the accounting dept, will disappear, as all accounting will be done by ai programs, so why teach it.. if his fears are correct, that means that any profession that involves the mind, may one day face the same future.

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  TD

  AI is still stumped by even the most basic human interactions.

  Even the simple act of a driver, who legally has the right of way, yielding it to you via a hand gesture (Say for example, traffic has backed up to the point where you are unable to exit a parking lot) completely stumps the most advanced, AI powered driverless vehicle.
  

  Human writers, both male and female struggle to create believable characters of the opposite gender. There are entire books on the subject, because the average person is simply not aware of the nuances. Sorry to be a pessimist, but I don't see AI reaching this level of sophistication anytime soon.
  
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  11

  Do You Remember This Speaker?

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you remember this speaker?.

  https://imgbox.com/no37wjiy.

  how many people remember the old laurel race track where we had conventions back in the 60's?

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  TD

  I remember Laurel...

  Facility was designed around the horse racing schedule, which made it a genuine glass oven in Summer.
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  54

  Is AI going to change the world?

  by Reasonfirst in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  had lunch with a friend, whose a lecturer in the accounting dept.

  of one of australia's best universities.

  he told me he expects to lose his job at some point in the next 5 years, as the accounting dept, will disappear, as all accounting will be done by ai programs, so why teach it.. if his fears are correct, that means that any profession that involves the mind, may one day face the same future.

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  TD

  If his fears are correct, that means that any profession that involves the mind, may one day face the same future.

  One day perhaps.

  In the near future, only jobs that can be distilled into algorithims are likely to be replaced.

  AI is not likely to replace Archtitects, Graphic Designers, Engineers, Surgeons, Attorneys, First Responders, Social Works, Chefs, Mechanics, etc., because despite the advances, AI is still not capable of analytical thinking, judgement, creativity, and innovation.
  
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  40

  Lots of empty seats at Jehovah's Witnesses Convention in Tucson, Arizona

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://youtu.be/5926nhzyz90.

  the jehovah's witness 2023 convention theme is, ''exercise patience''...by looking at the attendance at this tucson, arizona convention, it should be changed to, '' jehovah's witnesses...running out of patience''.

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  TD

  Makes you wonder though.

  The JW's have a nice, nearly new assembly hall right off of McCartney Road in Casa Grande, about midway between Phoenix and Tucson.

  
  

  Why not use that? I don't know what the rent on the Tucson Convention Center Arena is, but I'm pretty sure it's not free.
  
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  14

  Why didn't God create us to be obviously different?

  by SydBarrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a silly question since i'm an atheist but one i thought of as a kid jw.

  why weren't human's created to be obviously different from animals?

  among believers there is some sort of universal hierarchy.

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  TD

  It's just a rhetorical question that I wondered if anyone else ever had as a JW

  Yes. In the context of the JW worldview I wondered (as an adolescent) why, if we were not intended to get sick, do we have the mechanisms for coping with it when we are.

  A fever, a runny nose, coughing, sneezing, etc., might make us miserable, but it is our immune system at work.