Amazon Set to Produce AI Generated Novels

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

The thing is, 99.9% of the time, when computers "make mistakes" it's actually a programmer who made it.
[...]
My guess is that's where your adage comes from - a computer with no such "unexpected situation" failsafes will happily go on doing whatever it was doing, increasing the damage tenfold)

Yes, humans use tools to magnify their influence (whether it be strength, endurance, calculation speed and so on). When a human makes a mistake on their own the impact is limited, when they are using tools the impact of their mistakes is magnified too. You can't have one without the other.

But it achieves little to blame computer errors on programmers. It may be strictly true, but it doesn't help. (Remember the first part of that adage: to err is human. The errors are going to happen, accept it.) Even if/when we get AIs writing smarter AIs it should be feasible to trace an error back to a human programmer that should have foreseen a problem and put something in place to prevent it. But programming doesn't really work like that, and I doubt if it will even when AIs take over. We write little modules that our little brains can get their minds around, and then we put these modules together into larger and larger conglomerations. We have long since passed the point where a single human brain can contort its mind around how all the modules in a modern computer will interact. We now see errors showing up in code written decades ago - but they weren't all errors then, sometimes its just that the environment changed. So we are now down to test like mad and then suck it and see ... and sometimes it really sucks!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

(What humans have, and computers only have when they have been explicitly programmed for, is "oh sh**" reflexes: when something that should never happen, happens, they try to improvise an emergency response. My guess is that's where your adage comes from - a computer with no such "unexpected situation" failsafes will happily go on doing whatever it was doing, increasing the damage tenfold)

Which is why the first generation robotrucks will have human monitors and will be limited to the interstates, where there is more room to look ahead and avoid idiots. People keep visualizing driverless sixteen wheelers in urban rush hour settings they will never be allowed to enter.

As the Volvo exec quoted above said, nobody wants to risk ruining it for everybody.

Naysayers also neglect to consider that where human drivers are limited to visual cues and tactile feedback, robotrucks are loaded with a full range of sensors with greater range than anybody not named Matt Murdock. Radar, lidar, infrared, precision accelerometers, night vision cameras for the human monitors...

One thing robotrucks will most assuredly be is defensive drivers, always looking out for crazy human drivers down the road.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Continuing with roundabouts, I "love" some of the new roundabouts in my area. The city didn't get rid of the 4 way stop signs, they just added an island in the middle of the intersection making it near impossible for any vehicle larger than a Scion IQ to go around the roundabout without clipping a curb thus yielding the worst of both worlds -- a scenario dear to a city planner's heart.

Anyone else remember the Mythbuster's episode MythBusters: Four-way stop vs. Roundabout? They at least had the common sense to build their roundabout large enough to be useful.

I hate roundabouts. I keep encountering them on through roads, and they slow me down.They're even worse when I am in an area for the first time, and I don't know exactly where my destination is. Then the roundabouts keep me from finding the house I am looking for.

[meeera]

Roundabouts are perfectly fine for motorists, but they can be absolutely terrible for pedestrians.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by meeera

Roundabouts are perfectly fine for motorists, but they can be absolutely terrible for pedestrians.

In the UK, most roundabouts aren't in places that pedestrians go, but for the few that are (those in cities, mainly) a pedestrian underpass is the usual solution.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

They're even worse when I am in an area for the first time, and I don't know exactly where my destination is. Then the roundabouts keep me from finding the house I am looking for.

That's where the "beauty" of the roundabout falls flat. There's two levels of familiarity required for them to be navigated effortlessly. One first has to be familiar with roundabouts in general (a problem in many areas of the US where drivers can live their entire lives without ever encountering one). And one needs to be familiar with THAT roundabout in order to sufficiently anticipate your exit from it (it also helps if one uses that same roundabout regularly). In busy areas with lots of non-local traffic, this means the roundabout is a stressful, hectic, and unfamiliar hurdle for everyone except the folks who have already become accustomed to them (and to that one in particular).

Intersections may be bad for the flow of traffic in general, but their navigation is exactly the same the world over. There is no familiarity requirement. "When the light turns green, I'm going THAT way." The same cannot be said for roundabouts. Even if you're familiar with them in general, the new one you encounter may have intricacies that can't be anticipated. In my opinion, roundabouts over-complicate the decision-making process for minimal gains in traffic-flow efficiency.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's where the "beauty" of the roundabout falls flat. There's two levels of familiarity required for them to be navigated effortlessly. One first has to be familiar with roundabouts in general (a problem in many areas of the US where drivers can live their entire lives without ever encountering one). And one needs to be familiar with THAT roundabout in order to sufficiently anticipate your exit from it

Why is that? In the UK at least, roundabouts are well sign-posted on their approach. Eg:



Then when you're actually on the roundabout, each exit is separately signed to its destination. So you look at the sign as you approach and note which exit you need, and then look for that destination again as you exit.

Is the signage not similar in the US?

[DiapDealer]

No, it's not similar (in my corner of the world anyway). To me, that sign looks like the symbol Prince changed his name for a while. It wouldn't help me unless I could stop and study it first.

For the record: I think roundabouts would make perfect sense in an AI controlled traffic pattern; just not a human one. They're not intuitive to a lot of people. Perhaps if we were all born somewhere they were commonplace it would be different. *shrug*

[Apache]

I don't recall ever seeing signs like that in any roundabout I have traversed.
The first time I encountered roundabouts was when I had to drive in New Jersey. I drove for miles, in the left lane, trying to make a U turn. Every intersection had a no U turn sign. I happened to look left and saw a roundabout with a small sign with an arrow that looped around. At the time I remember thinking "only in New Jersey do you have to turn right to turn left".
Apache

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

No, it's not similar (in my corner of the world anyway). To me, that sign looks like the symbol Prince changed his name for a while. It wouldn't help me unless I could stop and study it first.

The sign shows you the "angle" of each exit relative to the road you're entering the roundabout from. So if you wanted to go to Ilford, you'd know you need to drive three quarters of the way around the roundabout to reach the exit you need. It ain't rocket science, but I'm sure you're right in saying that familiarity has a part to play. Everybody who learns to drive in Britain gets taught about roundabouts as a part of learning to drive.

What do roundabout signs look like in the US? Ie how do you know which exit you need?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why is that? In the UK at least, roundabouts are well sign-posted on their approach. Eg:

Attachment 167870

Then when you're actually on the roundabout, each exit is separately signed to its destination. So you look at the sign as you approach and note which exit you need, and then look for that destination again as you exit.

Is the signage not similar in the US?

The roundabouts on through roads are often labeled, but not the ones in residential developments. Then they just assume you are going to know where everything is.

What's especially annoying is when two of the roads coming up to the roundabout have different names. If the road you need is on the left, you might go right past it without realizing that this was it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

The roundabouts on through roads are often labeled, but not the ones in residential developments. Then they just assume you are going to know where everything is.

What's especially annoying is when two of the roads coming up to the roundabout have different names. If the road you need is on the left, you might go right past it without realizing that this was it.

There does seem little benefit to roundabouts in that sort of area, I agree. Their benefit is in maintaining smooth traffic flow on busy roads. They're pointless on quiet roads.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There does seem little benefit to roundabouts in that sort of area, I agree. Their benefit is in maintaining smooth traffic flow on busy roads. They're pointless on quiet roads.

I think they put them in because they look pretty.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

No, it's not similar (in my corner of the world anyway). To me, that sign looks like the symbol Prince changed his name for a while. It wouldn't help me unless I could stop and study it first.

For the record: I think roundabouts would make perfect sense in an AI controlled traffic pattern; just not a human one. They're not intuitive to a lot of people. Perhaps if we were all born somewhere they were commonplace it would be different. *shrug*

I would have to do the same and than creep around it until I found the right exit.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I would have to do the same and than creep around it until I found the right exit.

And then, of course, the people who ARE familiar with it, have zero patience for the folks who aren't. Thus compounding the problem..