This was in the unabomber manifesto, I think. Pretty prescient, eh? Nobody said the guy wasn't smart.
Bill Scott >>> "Mike Palij" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 10/12/08 12:52 PM >>> In an article today on the mathematical wizardy that unlies the derivatives that have caused the recent financial unpleasantness and their opaqueness to almost everyone who isn't a math wizard, the following quote was provided because it is an analogy to the electronic trading that appears to have enabled the unpleasantness: |But we are suggesting neither that the human race would |voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the |machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest |is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into |a position of such dependence on the machines that it would |have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines' |decisions. ... Eventually a stage may be reached at which the |decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so |complex that human beings will be incapable of making them |intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective |control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, |because they will be so dependent on them that turning them |off would amount to suicide. Who said/wrote this? Was it: (a) Ray Kurzweil (b) Alan Turing (c) Norbert Wiener (d) George Dyson (e) None of the above (No fair if you read Richard Dooling's Op-Ed in the today's Sunday NY Times "Week in Review"). -Mike Palij New York University [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
