Department of Information Systems Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (+27)-(0)21-6504256 Fax: (+27)-(0)21-6502280 Office: Leslie Commerce 4.21 >>> kevin.osborne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2007/03/28 15:57 >>> > as a techie: scepticism. I think the 'small code' and 'small hardware' > people are kidding themselves. Kevin, you're most probably right there. But remember that us small code people *have* to have this belief in order to justify ourselves working as individuals / tiny teams often during spare time and snatched moments. As a small code person I think the chance of a small code project achieving AGI is probably <1% (still probably an optimistic estimate) that that of a larger, coordinated, well-funded and focussed research group. But some of us are loners, like it that way, keep dreaming and thinking away. Some of us have also seen how some really innovative ideas tend to get lost in larger groups due to the normalisation/group pressure. And we take heart in the fact that many of the big advances in history (i.e. the big ideas) were typically produced by single individuals or tiny teams. Not so sure about the small hardware bit. Singularity software will require massive distributed hardware IMHO but prototypes should run fine on "tomorrow's" PCs. When I get technical enough, I'll plan my nebulous design/architecture around ~2012 hardware: i.e. a couple of 64-processor 256GB RAM machines - gives me a realistic time horizon and something concrete. >as a person: nihilism & the human condition. crime, drugs, debauchery. >self-destructive and life-endangering behaviour; rejection of social >norms. the world as I know it is a rather petty, woeful place [...] hey i liked that bit ;-) most of the time i think the world is a great place tho. But that's probably because I'm living in paradise^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HCape Town ;-) Jean-Paul
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