tuppy

I'm not seeing how your solution is "far better" considering that the "iPhone of similar vintage" is the iPhone 3GS (released June 2009) which still continues to receive updates.

How does a human-operated ship mitigate anti-missile counter-measures better than an AI operated ship, assuming the same munitions? You have yet to give a single concrete example. If anything, a human-operated vessel would have a worse reaction time than a machine-operated vessel (or AI-operated if you want to be romantic). This is simply due to the physics of operating a biological construct to mechanically manipulate things instead of an electronic construct to manipulate much smaller things on a much smaller level.

And to sum up, you've used these as synonyms in the argument:

strong AI

general-purpose AI

human-like AI

These are completely different things. What, exactly, are you referring to?

Perhaps argument was the wrong word.

As a personal note, disagree about what you think we learn more from. I find differences far more interesting. If the universe was all the same it would be immensely boring. It's the differences that make us question everything else that has been the same before.

Metaphysics and all, and quite useless practically. But it's fun to discuss :)

This argument doesn't make sense since Craigslist is already a vehicle for advertisement. People pay for advertisements placed on Craigslist. They don't pay their operating costs through donations, they pay by having people give them money to provide a service (in this case, advertising).

Again, why does it require general purpose AI?

The two examples you cherry-picked are the furthest objects in our solar system. You've literally picked the outlying examples and made them the rule.

The same "problem" could be solved by sending a bunch of what are essentially missiles-carrying-missiles with algorithms that boil down to orders to shoot at any objects that are hot or fast moving or match certain radar signatures. This technology has been in place since the first heat-seeking missile... 1956! There are plenty of other solutions that do not require a general AI (such as sending command ships out).

Where is anyone talking about conflicts light-years away? I think we may be discussing different things. The article itself concentrates on intra-system conflicts, primarily because it is trying to deal with realistic space combat using current technology. FTL drives are not part of that paradigm.

Yes, obviously if something is light-years away you would need to develop general purpose AI to make those decisions or send a command ship with a human crew to the location, but the post you are replying to was discussing 10s to 20s delays associated with local space combat.

Huh, why do you require human-like AI to control a bunch of high-velocity objects, calculate intercepts, and release other high-velocity objects on those intercepts?

The only human-level decision that needs to be made is simply confirming the object is a target and should be attacked.

Don't these guys take an oath to uphold the Constitution when they are sworn into office? How is attempting to pass a law to subvert free speech not breaking what they swore to protect?

I really haven't seen any evidence to back up your claims outside of fear-mongering news articles and general whining from the big box brick-and-mortars.

"Maybe Amazon's plan is to drive these stores out of business and then open its own display stores where people can go to inspect merchandise before ordering it online."

This cannot be a serious conjecture. Opening up quasi-retail locations with all the expenses of retail but no ability to actually making a sale? Didn't Gateway do this in the late 90s?

"Amazon [...] is taking business from local stores."

Why is this complaint even taken seriously? If your business model is superseded by someone else who can deliver a product in a manner that customers prefer (in this case, cheaper and delivered to their doorstep) then you either compete or you die. Because that's what competition is.

The Misc is probably my favorite general forum on the internet. Suprisingly-high level of discourse and genial atmosphere for a forum dedicated to lifting weights. HN would be pretty impressed with the number of engineers and entrepreneurs there as well :)

That diet is godawful, but it's probably a staple to a lot of Americans. Ugh.

I'm baffled because historically, Japan is all about using limitation to great effect. In terms of food, art, language (is there a more contextual language?), and engineering, Japan very much has an island-nation use-limited-resources-and-achieve-great-things approach.

The website thing that you mentioned is true. .jp websites are TERRIBLE in UX. I wonder if there is some part of Japanese culture that wants to embrace complexity for it's own sake.

And, let's be honest, the US/EU/Everywhere-Else designs for phones weren't very good pre-iPhone either. It had the same complexity problems and close to the same UX ridiculousness that the Japanese phones had. Perhaps it's a human thing, to marvel at too much to comprehend and consider it a good thing.

That being said, if any company were to come up with an iPhone, I would think it would be a Japanese one. But Japan is very traditional and Apple is unique in that it disregards a lot of conventions. I think this might be to Japan's detriment. I don't feel that they've embraced the current approach to UX, they are still stuck in the "complexity = more features = better" days of the Web during the dot-com-boom days (aka ancient history).

I hope there are some Japanese entrepreneurs out there ready to shake things up, the cultural seeds are already there for beautiful and elegant products.

>The problem which many have mentioned here and elsewhere is that while Japan is unrivalled in craftsmanship ("monozukuri") -- making physical things -- exactly the opposite is true when it comes to "unphysical" things like software.

This is something I do not understand. Why is there a cultural aversion to creating beautiful software? As an example, Honda has some of the most beautifully designed interiors in the automotive world. Simple, elegant, functional, with quality materials. The design is often very Apple-like (at least relative to other manufacturers, though they are improving). I would think that the culture that gave us wonderful interaction with a vehicle would be able to provide a similar sort of experience with a phone. What's bizarre is that most pre-iPhone Japanese phones have the UX of a mid-90s Buick: lots of buttons, nothing really arranged properly.

To me it's just strange that they were unable to produce it, but I am not surprised at all that the iPhone is so popular. I feel like the iPhone should have come out of Japan, but didn't.

I'm a student and the Khan Academy is saving my ass because a) he's a better instructor than my professor and b) the rewards and achievements make it really fun to "play the game" (read: learn high level mathematics). Of all the textbooks I've had over the years, I cannot think of one that has presented the information as clearly and practically as Mr. Khan has.

Sorry, but I don't agree. Life is a balancing act. Maybe socialization is taking up valuable time, but cutting yourself off completely may also be destroying future opportunities and inspiration.

The author seems to concentrate on the link between computer science and software/development, but I do think that CS helps in a couple non-tech areas as well. The ones I can think off the top of my head are being able to break large problems down to their component processes, being able to foresee the effects manipulating those processes can have, and being able to effectively communicate with others (both technical and non-technical) about your work. Those characteristics and thought models aren't unique to CS, but play a key role in the science and engineering fields in general. A field that requires the application of mathematics and logic will tend to produce or attract people that value rational and procedural thought.

The vegan and vegetarian sections made me cringe, not nearly enough protein. They neglected to include the cost of supplements that you need to take if you plan on being a vegan or vegetarian while maintaining an active lifestyle.

Also, it likely matters what's in season and what is available cheaply in your locale. Someone near the coasts is going to have access to much cheaper seafood than someone in the Rockies and Plains. If you have access to markets where you can buy directly from fishers, farmers, or butchers you can usually see a pretty significant cost savings.

I am very curious where they found a $0.25 serving of salmon and cheese for the pescetarian breakfast. A serving size of smoked salmon is usually 1/2 - 1/4 of a package that goes for 5 or more dollars in the grocers in my area. Some of the other prices were questionable as well ($7.30 for a fish/chicken fajita??).