Personally I can’t wait for advertising subsidised travel. “Sir, in a moment we’ll be passing your local supermarket, and for a short time I’m authorised to offer you, at an incredible %25 off … SIR! If you don’t take those earbuds out in five seconds I will be charging you the full price for this trip, and a $10 contract dishonorment fee.”
On 10 June 2016 at 15:00, Karl Auer <ka...@biplane.com.au> wrote: > On Fri, 2016-06-10 at 11:38 +1000, David Lochrin wrote: >> Way back in the 60's artificial intelligence comparable with human >> intelligence was confidently forecast to be a reality in 10 or 15 >> years. Ten years later it was another decade or so away. We're now >> half a century further on and there are still no AI systems >> comparable with the human mind. > > All true. But this discussion has little to do with AI. We are talking > driverless cars. There are many things that we once took to be the > epitome of intelligence which have turned out to be perfectly doable > using nothing but a metric shedload of data and blind processing speed. > I don't expect driverless cars to be "intelligent" except in the > marketing blurbs. Any more than a factory robot or Big Blue is > "intelligent" (though it has to be said that we do keep moving the > goalposts on our hapless candidates for machine "intelligence"). > >> Eventually rule-based systems were produced, but they're a >> different thing altogether. Games such as GO and chess are also in a >> different class because the rules are highly defined and finite, even >> though the combinatorial complexity is very high. > > I used these games only as examples of things we said, with great > confidence, would never be done by computers, yet here we are. And IMHO > there is a very great deal of overlap between how those challenges were > met and the requirements for driverless cars. > >> And with any road system like the one we have now, no amount of on >> -board AI is going to get around the necessity for real-world >> information outside the immediate road environment and the ability to >> understand its significance. > > No, of course not (leaving aside the gratuitous use of "AI"). So that > information will be acquired, in real time, by the vehicle. Unless you > are postulating types of information that "will never be able to be > processed by computers" in which case I refer you to my first paragraph > above. > > Again, look at the rain of bodies caused by human drivers on the > world's roads. I don't think humans do that good a job of dealing with > unpredictable events while driving. Or even with predictable events, > for that matter, for some value of "predictable". > >> However driverless technology might be useful in certain highly >> controlled environments. > > It's been there for years - in warehouses, hospitals, factories. > Warehouses, hospitals and factories full of unpredictable humans, even. > They don't transport humans, but there's no reason we couldn't have a > driverless hospital gurney, and I'm sure the odd warehouse employee > hitches a ride every now and then down to the far end of the shed. > > Heck, a tape silo is pretty much "driverless technology" for tapes. But > I don't think "tightly controlled" is the point here. > >> And finally, any such technology has to work in the messy legal, >> political, economic, and social environment of the real world. > > Absolutely. Like all the other things we now use computers for and that > have transformed and are transforming our legal, political, economic > and social environments. > > Regards, K. > > -- > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) > http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer > http://twitter.com/kauer389 > > GPG fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B > Old fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4 > > > > _______________________________________________ > Link mailing list > Link@mailman.anu.edu.au > http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link _______________________________________________ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
