Doubling Knowledge

Posted by Herb7734 7 years ago to Education
88 comments | Share | Best of... | Flag

At the University of Gronigen in the Netherlands, they have Cray AT3 computers hooked up in clusters that can execute hundreds of teraflops per second, that translates into hundreds of trillions of calculations. This cluster can do more in an hour than the whole first century of modern computing.Rather than working on the various problems of quantum physics, it is being devoted to modeling event horizons and event cascades affecting the seven billion inhabitants of our planet. In other words,this massive array is doing the calculus of felicity. The greatest good for the greatest number.They are attempting to turn morality into math.As far as we can tell, at first, human knowledge was doubling every 1500 years or so, today it is doubling every two years.Their argument is that at the same time, our moral faculties remain unevollved. The technical prowess of our species has vastly outstripped our ethical prowess. They have, in effect, created a sort of moral prosthesis in order to extend our
intellectual capacities by artificial means.It is my opinion that this powerful facility is being wasted on not the complex problems of the quantum universe, but on morality problems that are unsolvable, because the human race has seven billion variables that change from moment to moment . We know what computers can do with science.But are they of any use when dealing with philosophical ideas like morality and worse yet, as a basic goal the foundation of socialism.


All Comments


Previous comments...   You are currently on page 3.
  • Posted by wiggys 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    we will not be around when the sun dies because Yellowstone is going to blow i am told, so "what me worry." according to Alfred E. Newman!
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    I'm sure responsibility would also be deferred....tag, your it...your turn to fix the problem or take the heat!
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Any disguise that works. And, as the puppeteers are unmasked, they simply put on new, better sounding, better looking masks. You'd think people would have caught on by now.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by DrZarkov99 7 years ago
    The flaw in this is obvious: it assumes that altruism is the ultimate goal of human existence. The paradox is that if we acted in concert with the outcomes expected, and if we were all inherently altruistic, it would be an immense "Alphonse and Gaston" problem, with everyone trying to defer to each other, rather than trying to improve our own condition.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    As the human race becomes more and more dependent, it needs servants to service its needs. In so doing, the servants become the masters.
    Isn't that right, Alexa or Siri?
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    It is a matter of survival. Machines have a better survival outlook than humans and require less http://maintenence. As our sun dies, the humans will be long gone, but the machines will still be functioning. Perhaps after the big suck when the universe diminishes back into nothing, they set things up so that a planet is created that fosters life. So, that the life will eventually create computers. Time means nothing to a machine, and wouldn't mean a thing if it weren't for death.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by Solver 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Is 42 the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything?
    I wonder if 42 is the maximum number of live humans the future machines will allow in their zoo?
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    One of the things that puzzles machines is that humans can go against their ability to survive. No other life form can or will do such a thing. Run back into a fire to save a child and the odds are you lose two people instead of one. Yet, ask almost anyone, especially parents and they'll all say, try to save the child. Try to imagine a horse and its colt doing that. No way -- ever.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ puzzlelady 7 years ago
    The question is, who defines what is moral? Religion tried to monopolize that, usually rooted in some sex-related foibles. Governments make their own rules, calling it legal instead of moral. How humans are to behave in groups is set by the leaders, the power holders, as long as they have the force to make people obey. As for each of 7 billion variables being free to do whatever they want, how do those particles choose what they want, what is right or good for themselves? The same way as other animals--learning what it takes to survive, whether as predator or prey. Those memes still dominate, no matter how big a computer we can build. Right. 42.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by wiggys 7 years ago
    maybe the people working in academia should concentrate on educating people who may be able to do something versus writing programs for computers that can not do anything !
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by term2 7 years ago
    So now, my life will be regulated by the results of a program, and not by my own decisions. Nice !! So whoever controls the computer, controls all of us, and of course the computers would be government controlled. I get it.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by Stormi 7 years ago
    Is this not the home of Price Bernhard who started the w hole secretive one world order stuff? This is one of the countries we now borrow from for our natl debt. They have been controlling socialists at best for some time.How can human knowledge double every two years when IQ is dropping. Certainly is not showing up in US students. They are growing up barely able to function, except to protest, wait for handouts, and play the victim card.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ blarman 7 years ago
    Morality is so easy it doesn't take a super-computer. The only people who try to get around it are those trying to justify their own bad behavior. This is another example. They're looking for any way in which they can justify socialism despite knowing that real freedom is the answer. They're just using new tools to approach an ages-old problem.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    You got me thinking of various ways to other than the guillotine but then it got too morbid, so I decided on TV and the recliner, turning my brain to neutral.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    I've met more dogs with souls than I have observed in people of governments and politics lately...even if it's just an imitation consciousness.

    You have to go...where else are the living going to get their ration of insights from? You little quantum particle you...laughing
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Boy, can you paint a scene or what!...the band would certainly drown out the slam and crunch sounds of the guillotine though.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    My Catholic friends tell me that dogs cannot go to heaven because they have no souls (consciousness). Now, I'm sure I'm not going.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 7 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Great Idea. We'll have a 1,000 piece orchestra play Stravinsky's"Rite of Spring" as a Minister of Love carries out death sentences.
    Reply | Permalink  

  • Comment hidden. Undo