SkyNet Lives

[smoking since 1879]

there are machines running trades in the markets, algorithms are running the show already.

yes, so i heard. tho it's tempting to suggest they're playing out in a different financial universe now, one that budded off from base reality sometime last century

[elfismiles]

What an amazing development... androids dream of psychedelic memes

[Iamwhomiam]

Do androids dream of power surges?

If they do, would those dreams be ecstatic or nightmares?

[Luther Blissett]

Some of those skies that the androids dream of look remarkably like the visual hallucinations I received in the sky on my psylocybin trip. I'm actually puzzling through that.

[Elvis]

Some of those skies that the androids dream of look remarkably like the visual hallucinations I received in the sky on my psylocybin trip. I'm actually puzzling through that.

My first thoughts exactly.

Also, this came to mind: One night in the early 1970s a friend and I ingested a psychedelic and for awhile we watched TV. We found that we preferred a "blank" channel of static "snow"; images emerged from the noise: faces, scenes, objects. A curious thing was, we'd occasionally look at each other -- "Did you see THAT?" Of course we couldn't be sure that we were seeing the same things, but it sure seemed like it.

[DrEvil]

^^That sounds pretty close to what Google did. The mind/AI starts looking for patterns in random noise and "forces" the noise to become something comprehensible and you see strange shit.
It's literally pattern-matching on acid.

[zangtang]

yeah er hmmn - you sure you want to do that?

[DrEvil]

Here's a Google gallery with lots more trippy images:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP ... 05bUdEMnhB

[Grizzly]

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comm ... ners_onto/

Security:
Google was downloading audio listeners onto computers without consent, say Chromium users - "We don’t know and can’t know what this black box does. But we see reports that the microphone has been activated, and that Chromium considers audio capture permitted"

wtf?!

[coffin_dodger]

^^ not so much skynet, more like humans gathering the data of future currency.

[FourthBase]

Let's say for the sake of argument that it'd be possible to roll back advances in computer technology to a certain year from the past and freeze it there. What essential functions in our society actually depend on computer technology developed since, say, 1996, or 1986, or 1976? What wouldn't be possible anymore? Is there anything useful that couldn't still be transported, calculated, communicated, manufactured, purchased, etc.? Perhaps a few humane scientific discoveries would become impossible -- okay, if so, then stipulate that the top scientists in their field get access to a smattering of communal computers a la telescopes. Anything else?

[82_28]

I work with software, intrinsic software in the telco industry that the last time it was updated was 1986. Apparently that's all about to change come fall and we're going to roll with something else. In a term, it is definitely rustic. But I agree with you and have long thought the same. There should be a point where you can "pause" what tech you want to run.

[82_28]

I never use it any more but this still exists and works:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29

[smoking since 1879]

[Iamwhomiam]

I like that, smokey! So true!