Come with me if you want to live

Drat! Its Wednesday, April 27, 2011, I've dropped the ball, and this is The Side. I've been doing Ask Nozz Day on the last Wednesday of the month for a couple of months now. Well I completely forgot this time. I've been planning a beach workout, and my mind has been on that. That and being distracted by Easter goings one. Oh and my neighbor's house burning down.

Y'know, little things like that.

I'll try again next month.

SCIENCE!!!

I really wonder about computer programmers sometimes. I see these stories about programmers trying to teach computers regret and hindsight. And then there's the stuff going down with genetic programming. I have to wonder at what point is this all going to go horribly wrong.

Seriously, sometimes I think these guys sit around sometimes over coffee and discuss how cool the TERMINATOR movies are, but that'll never happen with the stuff they're doing. Oh no, they're so much smarter than those fools in the movie that created an AI. Their AI will be so much better and never ever turn against them.

Cripes.

Obviously, computer systems will continue to advance and computers are everywhere now. My crappy little cell phone probably has more processing power than my old Commodore 128. And there's problems and extrapolations that are so insanely difficult that we need more advanced tools to figure them out. But there seems to be that imp or the perverse in some programmers that just has to fuck with things just to see what happens.

Let's take those guys in Tel Aviv trying to teach a computer regret. They say that'll help the computer's performance, because it'll feel bad about not performing well previously. That's dumb. Its a tool. I don't want my tools to feel bad. I don't want my tools to feel anything. Can you imagine what my hammer (Gussie Manlove) could possibly be feeling? I can't imagine she enjoys the stuff I make her do. Or worse... what if she does enjoy it? Gussie Manlove is one kinky hammer.

I cuss at my computer a lot. Its not because the computer is some horrible piece of crap. Sure its older, but it'll still do stuff. Its because I don't know how to fully operate the machine. Its me, not it, and if I go cussing the computer and the computer starts feeling bad, what kind of monster does that make me? I don't even like keeping virtual pets because I'd feel bad about forgetting to feed them. Forget it. I cuss out my comp because it doesn't feel anything. I don't want to go emotionally abusing an AI.

Sure there's a part of my nerdom which would love to live out a sci-fi story, but I don't really want it to be a robot uprising one. It seems like whenever I find a different story about crazy advancements or stunts like the programmed regret there'll always be a comment from some reader about this is how "Skynet" got started.

I'll stick to my cold emotionless, non-poltting-against-me technology, thankyewverymuch.

MUSIC!!!

For some reason I couldn't find the official video to this on YouTube, with stinks because the cat on the hamster wheel was pretty cool.



End program for today. I'll see y'all Sunday.