Stargazer Posted February 12, 2018 Posted February 12, 2018 12 hours ago, SteveO said: I work in semi conductors...we literally can’t make the pathways for the electrons any smaller, so either the hardware has to be bigger, which is always a no, no in tech, or they make the technology more “3D”. Something we’re specializing in doing about 5 years ahead of the competition in Lehi, Utah. Eventually we will have quantum computers, and possibly the bottleneck with regard to electron pathways will be overcome. On that subject, I don't know if you're a science fiction fan, but there is a recent series of novels (called the "Bobiverse") which posits the ability to eventually downloading human intelligence and placing it in hardware. The author has written a trilogy with this in mind, and I've found it lots of fun. The author is a computer programmer by trade, so he treats the software issues sort of realistically. Bobiverse book 1: https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ Here's the blurb from Amazon: Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty. The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.
Robert F. Smith Posted February 12, 2018 Posted February 12, 2018 34 minutes ago, Stargazer said: If they don't care about us, wouldn't want to visit, then we are wasting our energy worrying about it. Keep listening, sure, why not, it staves off the boredom perhaps, but what difference does it make? Then what are we worried about? This is what I don't understand. If they don't exist, or are primitive enough that they can't come visit, we need not worry about it, and Hawking and others who are raising an alarm are wasting their time and energy -- and looking silly in the meantime. If they do exist, and if they can come here, they are so far above us that we don't have a snowball's chance in hell, then again, we are wasting our energy worrying about it. In short, we have nothing to worry about, unless they showed up like a Vogon Destructor Fleet to eliminate the Earth to make way for a Cosmic Bypass. And in that event we don't have a defense, and are wasting our time and energy worrying about it. Maybe in 1,000 to 10,000 years we'll have a defense. But not now. In short, I laugh at the idea that we need to worry about superintelligent aliens showing up to knock over our applecart. Even if I happen to be in the process of writing a science fiction novel that tells the story of just exactly that -- humans working to prevent being taken over or destroyed by aliens. I generally agree with you here, but only because of my bias in favor of the superintelligent beings who came here billions of years ago, and continue to come here, and who are our older brothers and sisters among the heavenly host. They care deeply about us, and they want us to succeed and to join them. When we reach our "childhood's end," it will be glorious to discover that all the conventional scientific poppycock we have been fed by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, and their colleagues (I love them all), has nothing to do with reality, and that reality supersedes the Fermi Paradox in ways he could never imagine. 1
Robert F. Smith Posted February 12, 2018 Posted February 12, 2018 54 minutes ago, Stargazer said: Not belittling Hawking. I have a great of admiration and respect for him. I've read A Brief History of Time, enjoyed it, and learned from it. I find it ironic that Hawking and others like him can simultaneously proclaim there is no Creator, because they can't see evidence of such a being, and at the same time warn about the possibility of intelligent aliens, which they also cannot see evidence of. And I think I am justified in disrespecting arguments such as these. I can easily respect the idea that there is no objective scientific evidence for the Creator -- aside from the existence of the Creation. It's a reasonable argument. But warning about unprovable LGMs while denying the Creator is ludicrous and they obviously need a mirror so they can see how silly they look. Yes, a tremendous irony. 1
Stargazer Posted February 12, 2018 Posted February 12, 2018 3 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said: I generally agree with you here, but only because of my bias in favor of the superintelligent beings who came here billions of years ago, and continue to come here, and who are our older brothers and sisters among the heavenly host. They care deeply about us, and they want us to succeed and to join them. When we reach our "childhood's end," it will be glorious to discover that all the conventional scientific poppycock we have been fed by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, and their colleagues (I love them all), has nothing to do with reality, and that reality supersedes the Fermi Paradox in ways he could never imagine. Amen, brother. I once wrote a very short story about Isaac Asimov arriving in the Spirit World and being blown away by his survival into a "next life". It was a long time ago, and I don't remember much of what I wrote, but it was fun writing it. Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein were my very favoritest writers, ever. And I caught the reference to "Childhood's End", all right. I always thought that Heinlein's character "Lazarus Long", who was immortal, was semi-autobiographical in that he wished he could go on like that. I found his novel "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" to be very revealing of that (which made me wonder about the Oedipal theme he described as part of the story)! 1
Stargazer Posted February 12, 2018 Posted February 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Robert F. Smith said: Yes, a tremendous irony. By the way, you might enjoy this TEDx Talk. It was given in Vienna by Matt O'Dowd, astrophysicist and host of PBS Space Time. He explains why Fermi's paradox really is so surprising, and he offers a new piece of evidence that may point towards the solution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lTvVTnjU5U 1
Guest Posted February 14, 2018 Posted February 14, 2018 On February 11, 2018 at 8:27 PM, Calm said: Could concentrate more on learning higher concepts and reasoning, however. The questions is how much of the basics one needs to understand concepts. That is a question from someone with a much higher intellect.
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