Somehow, It's Funny that Way

[SPedigrees]

My favorite movie dealing with the concept of AI was "Her" that dealt with an operating system which arose to sentience. Not sure if the conclusion was just a utopian fantasy or if it could be reality based, but I hope the latter.

 

[flowerbug]

as someone who's post degree field was going to be AI related i can say that so far nothing that is showing up makes me think it is making any large inroads on actually having an aware and intelligent system. yes, there are marginal improvements which may get things there, but 30-50 years from now.

instead, what we have now is a bunch of energy wasting programs which regurgitate things which are actually already known, but then on top of that regurgitation you don't know if it is actually accurate so you end up having to go back and fact check the results. in other words, a waste of time, energy, effort, resources. it's a fad.

pretty much also what i think of the bitcoin fad too.

note, both of these consume a large amount of energy and right now do we need even more consumption and pollution? no.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Just read this

"Almost 30 tons of brown goat cheese turned into flammable tar when a truck caught fire in a tunnel. The fire raged for five days, and the tunnel was closed for weeks. In the words of Norwegian Public Roads Administrator Kjell Bjoern Vinje, “I didn’t know that brown cheese burns so well.”"

Well, Kjell, you probably should. Gjedost (that HAS to be what they are describing) isn't just "brown" it's caramelized , which is why it's so sweet. The stuff didn't turn into tar, it turned into basically what it was, molten sugar. And, as any cook can tell you, sugar burns EXTREMELY well.

 

[Zeedman]

Well, Kjell, you probably should. Gjedost (that HAS to be what they are describing) isn't just "brown" it's caramelized , which is why it's so sweet. The stuff didn't turn into tar, it turned into basically what it was, molten sugar. And, as any cook can tell you, sugar burns EXTREMELY well.

And fat, which burns extremely HOT, and is basically a grease fire. Not surprising that it took so long to extinguish the flames.

 

[digitS']

 

[SPedigrees]

as someone who's post degree field was going to be AI related i can say that so far nothing that is showing up makes me think it is making any large inroads on actually having an aware and intelligent system. yes, there are marginal improvements which may get things there, but 30-50 years from now.

instead, what we have now is a bunch of energy wasting programs which regurgitate things which are actually already known, but then on top of that regurgitation you don't know if it is actually accurate so you end up having to go back and fact check the results. in other words, a waste of time, energy, effort, resources. it's a fad.

pretty much also what i think of the bitcoin fad too.

note, both of these consume a large amount of energy and right now do we need even more consumption and pollution? no.

I agree with all you wrote, except for AI being a fad. It is here to stay, and is interwoven into everything from manufacturing, medicine, commerce, etc. Right now it is pretty much as you describe, but we shall see what turns its evolution will take.
On edit: I just wanted to add mention of the news story from a few years ago that comes to mind. The little Amazon robots that scurry about, organizing and moving packages about the warehouses, developed their own language to expedite their work. It read like a bizarre shorthand with newly minted vocabulary words. Anyone with an ounce of curiosity or imagination would have let this new language develop to see what innovations might follow, but with the tunnel-vision of a for-profit industry, the bots' Amazon overlords shut it down and reprogrammed them because "this language served no purpose." This saddened and irritates me to this day, but I'm sure this episode was a sign of things to come.

Bitcoin is a currency, not a fad, and has grown exponentially since the whitepaper was published and the first block mined in 2008. It has had the opposite effect on energy consumption, since mining operations gravitate to areas of the world where alternative energy systems are already available, and revitalizes/expands these systems (solar, wind, hydro). Bitcoin is the nemesis of the current (and over-bearing) banking system, which in actuality uses more energy than cryptocurrencies.

People have called many things a fad since the beginning of the automotive industry on through the internet. There are advantages and downsides to most innovations that have taken hold, but flashes in the pan they are/were not.

 

[digitS']

I just used the word "poser" on TEG and thought, "wait, isn't that spelled with a 'u', poseur?" The meaning being to affect an attitude or pose. Look what I found:

"One of the most remarkable facts in F[rench] etymology is the extraordinary substitution whereby the Low Lat. pausare came to mean 'to make to rest, to set,' and so usurped the place of the Lat. ponere, to place, set, with which it has no etymological connection. And this it did so effectually as to restrict the F. pondre, the true equivalent of Lat. ponere, to the sense of 'laying eggs;' whilst in all compounds it completely thrust it aside, so that compausare (i.e. F. composer) took the place of Lat. componere, and so on throughout. Hence the extraordinary result, that whilst the E. verbs compose, depose, impose, propose, &c. exactly represent in sense the Lat. componere, deponere, imponere, proponere, &c., we cannot derive the E. verbs from the Lat. ones since they have (as was said) no real etymological connection. [W.W. Skeat, "Etymological Dictionary of the English Language," 1898]"

So now I am thinking about poser and poseur and would have to agree with the author, "The word (poseur) is English poser in French garb, and thus could itself be considered an affectation."

digitS'

 

[SPedigrees]

I just used the word "poser" on TEG and thought, "wait, isn't that spelled with a 'u', poseur?" The meaning being to affect an attitude or pose. Look what I found:

"One of the most remarkable facts in F[rench] etymology is the extraordinary substitution whereby the Low Lat. pausare came to mean 'to make to rest, to set,' and so usurped the place of the Lat. ponere, to place, set, with which it has no etymological connection. And this it did so effectually as to restrict the F. pondre, the true equivalent of Lat. ponere, to the sense of 'laying eggs;' whilst in all compounds it completely thrust it aside, so that compausare (i.e. F. composer) took the place of Lat. componere, and so on throughout. Hence the extraordinary result, that whilst the E. verbs compose, depose, impose, propose, &c. exactly represent in sense the Lat. componere, deponere, imponere, proponere, &c., we cannot derive the E. verbs from the Lat. ones since they have (as was said) no real etymological connection. [W.W. Skeat, "Etymological Dictionary of the English Language," 1898]"

So now I am thinking about poser and poseur and would have to agree with the author, "The word (poseur) is English poser in French garb, and thus could itself be considered an affectation."

digitS'

Now I won't know how to spell it. Is it better to be regarded by some as illiterate, or by others as pretentious?

 

[digitS']

Now I won't know how to spell it. Is it better to be regarded by some as illiterate, or by others as pretentious?

That is a great question, SPedigrees.

I checked a couple of online sources (and my spell chequer contributed a thought ). There is evidence that spelled with no U is from slang from a considerable number of decades ago. That is, when it is applied to a person who acts in an affected way. And, with a U, it is from fairly recent centuries. The idea that a poser is a difficult question goes back further. (This is as-best-as-i-remember, without going back to my research .)

I am going with – poser. Language changes.

Steve, BTW, my spell checker doesn't know the word poseur

 

[SPedigrees]

Steve, BTW, my spell checker doesn't know the word poseur

That means little, when the spell-checker utilized by this gardening forum doesn't even know the words 'daylily' or 'daylilies.'