Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[WT Sharpe]

In advertising there is a saying that if you can keep your head while all those around you are losing theirs—then you just don’t understand the problem.

— Hugh M. Beville, Jr. (1908-1988); U.S. broadcasting executive. National Broadcasting Corporation brochure, 18 Nov. 1954.

[kennyc]

Ha! So true!

[WT Sharpe]

We’re told to go on living our lives as usual, because to do otherwise is to let the terrorists win, and really, what would upset the Taliban more than a gay woman wearing a suit in front of a room full of Jews?
— Ellen DeGeneres (Ellen Lee DeGeneres, born January 26, 1958); American comedian, actress, writer, and producer. Spoken as host at the Emmy Awards months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and quoted in Make 'Em Laugh (2008) by Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon.

[WT Sharpe]

For certain is death for the born, and certain is birth for the dead; therefore over the inevitable, thou shouldst not grieve.
—The Bhagavad Gita, or The Lord's Song, translated by Annie Besant (1895). Gita II: 27.

[WT Sharpe]

Nothing is less assured than the future, but it will be interesting to see just how these predictions of artificial intelligence play out. The following selection is from In Search of Time: The Science of a Curious Dimension by Dan Falk:

Clarke also predicted that artificial intelligence will reach human levels by 2020, after which there will be "two intelligent species on Planet Earth," one evolving much more rapidly than the other.

Stephen Hawking seems to agree that we should he cautious in the face of accelerating computer technology. In an interview in 2001, Hawking said that human beings should change their DNA through genetic manipulation in order to keep ahead of our electronic rivals and stop intelligent machines from gaining the upper hand. "The danger is real," he said, that this [computer] intelligence will develop and take over the world."

Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil agrees that a human-computer "merger" is inevitable. He predicts that by 2019, $1,000 worth of computing power will have capabilities similar to those of a human brain; by 2029, machines will claim to he conscious; and by 2099 there will no longer be any clear distinction between humans and computers."

— Dan Falk (1966 - ); Canadian science journalist, broadcaster, and author. In Search of Time: The Science of a Curious Dimension (2008, AKA In Search of Time: Journeys Along a Curious Dimension and In Search of Time: The History, Physics, and Philosophy of Time).

[kennyc]

Nice!

[WT Sharpe]

Maya Angelou (Marguerite Annie Johnson, April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014); American poet, author, and civil rights activist.

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.
— “On the Pulse of Morning,” a poem written for the first presidential inauguration of William Jefferson Clinton (January 20, 1993).

[Barty]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Nothing is less assured than the future, but it will be interesting to see just how these predictions predictions of artificial intelligence play out. The following selection is from In Search of Time: The Science of a Curious Dimension by Dan Falk:

Clarke also predicted that artificial intelligence will reach human levels by 2020, after which there will be "two intelligent species on Planet Earth," one evolving much more rapidly than the other.

Stephen Hawking seems to agree that we should he cautious in the face of accelerating computer technology. In an interview in 2001, Hawking said that human beings should change their DNA through genetic manipulation in order to keep ahead of our electronic rivals and stop intelligent machines from gaining the upper hand. "The danger is real," he said, that this [computer] intelligence will develop and take over the world."

Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil agrees that a human-computer "merger" is inevitable. He predicts that by 2019, $1,000 worth of computing power will have capabilities similar to those of a human brain; by 2029, machines will claim to he conscious; and by 2099 there will no longer be any clear distinction between humans and computers."

— Dan Falk (1966 - ); Canadian science journalist, broadcaster, and author. In Search of Time: The Science of a Curious Dimension (2008, AKA In Search of Time: Journeys Along a Curious Dimension and In Search of Time: The History, Physics, and Philosophy of Time).

I note that the many brilliant people who predict strong AI in near or foreseeable future tend not to be people who are actually /working/ in AI. It doesn't mean they are wrong; I think more likely they underestimate the difficulty of the problem.

Strong AI refers to a general artificial intelligence, (as opposed to domain specific AI like a chess playing or cancer diagnosing machine), something that can reason, acquire knowledge about the world, communicate with humans and other AI, plan and work toward some goal. It doesn't even have to be conscious in a way that a person or a dog appears to be conscious. It can be just a zombie that behaves in a way that if it were human we would say it is a reasonably intelligent person.

Seems to me we are still far away from that, let alone the HAL9000 type of AI of popular imagination.

[covingtoncat73]

"It's one of your stories, isn't it? In the reunion of time and night, the mad stars will become sane, and peace and wisdom and joy and beauty will reign for ever and aye..."

Neil Gaiman, Sandman: Overture

[WT Sharpe]

It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every 12 minutes one is interrupted by 12 dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.

— Rod Serling (Rodman Edward Serling, 25 December 1924 – 28 June 1975); America writer and television host. From the documentary Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval.

[WT Sharpe]

In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.

— Benjamin Franklin (1706 [O.S. 1705] – 1790); printer, politician, scientist, inventor, and diplomat. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791).

[WT Sharpe]

The wisdom of the ancientest and best times always complained that states were too busy with laws, and too remiss in point of education.

— Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam, 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626); English essayist, philosopher, and scientist. The Advancement of Learning, (1605).

[WT Sharpe]

Demander un conseil, c'est presque toujours chercher un complice.
When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
— Adélaïde-Édouard le Lièvre, marquis de Lagrange et de Fourilles (1796 - 1876); French statesman, writer. Pensées (1872).

Note: This quotation is often falsely attributed to Saul Bellow (1915 – 2005) by those ubiquitous Internet Quotations sites whose “research” consists in cutting and pasting quotations found elsewhere on the web with no real concern as to their accuracy. I won't name any one particular site, let's just say I think of them all as "Brain-dead-quote.com".

[kennyc]

Great Quote!

[BenG]

"What am I supposed to do," she says. "Wait?" She wants him to say, Yes, wait. I will be home as soon as I run this one errand. Ben perceives disgust in her tone. Why would anyone wait for him? A boy who didn't know how to be a prom date, a man who knows what he needs, but too late.
He releases her arm. His voice is professional with sorrow. "You certainly couldn't do that." He means because she is precious. Sarina hears that she is snotty and unkind. He means because he is not that lucky; she hears: he is bored.
No one says "I want you to wait," and no one says "I'll wait."

Marie-Helene Bertino, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas