Voder-Vocoder

Google employee: “We are not scanning all those books to be read by people; we are scanning them to be read by an AI.”

George Dyson: “For 30 years I have been wondering, what indication of its existence might we expect from a true AI? Certainly not any explicit revelation, which might spark a movement to pull the plug. Anomalous accumulation or creation of wealth might be a sign, or an unquenchable thirst for raw information, storage space, and processing cycles, or a concerted attempt to secure an uninterrupted, autonomous power supply. But the real sign, I suspect, would be a circle of cheerful, contented, intellectually and physically well-nourished people surrounding the AI. There wouldn't be any need for True Believers, or the downloading of human brains or anything sinister like that: just a gradual, gentle, pervasive and mutually beneficial contact between us and a growing something else.“

(Source)

The way I drive...

...I need a u-turn signal.

...and a double-parking brake.

Though I never met the man. Edgar T once told me that the Prince gave him a cookie when Ed was young.

“...The parties were mind-bending. I have a photo of his front yard and its slackful contents: coffins, stacks of tires, dismembered mannequins, etc. I was told he made his millions by taking out an insurance policy against going insane, and then going insane, though I've never been able to verify this....”

Last week I was reading an article about Miers' main qualification as a Supreme Court nominee being, as it is with all Bush appointees, personal loyalty to the president. This criteria makes a Machiavellian sort of sense when applied to cronies you're going to make cabinet secretaries or bureau chiefs, but I couldn't figure out why you'd require personal loyalty from someone you were selecting for a lifetime appointment... unless, I realized, you also intended to be in office for life. That's when I realized: they have no intention of leaving office. No way in hell are they taking any chance of losing an election with some other candidate. They are entrenched in the White House for good.

(source)

Back when I lived in Mempho, if I wanted to see a show, I'd wait til the night of and wander downtown until I find a scalper. If you wait until the show is starting, you can usually buy the tickets at or below cost. I wonder if we have street-scalpers here.

“Temper tantrums are typically frowned upon at the office, but they are still considered more acceptable than crying.” (source)

I picked up Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper's Building Harlequin's Moon. I'm only a third of the way through it.

Impressions:

1. It reminds me a bit of the brainstorming I was doing the other week, without the aliens.
2. It sets up a situation where you can almost understand why people create an abomination: slavery. Until, of cource, the protagonist gets sold down the river.
3. It also has a theme of a society that has found that it can not safely advance its technology anymore. If the technological singularity exists and is to be feared, then this is a theme we need to think on.

Happy Día de la Resistencia Indígena!

1. Someone has made a danceable version of "the Immigrant Song." I like.
2. Some say I should lose the beard.
3. Scotch.
4. After a while, everyone expects me to wear the same clothes every L+L.
5. I didn't talk to nearly enough people. I never do.
6. What is Egwene's defining characteristic? Her primary motivation? Ted doesn't know either.
7. Tomorrow might be a fun day.