Plastic or Paper or None of the Above ?

Now here's a good idea.

Telluride Daily Planet > Archives > News > Bag ban goes into effect Tuesday

Plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which is derived mostly from oil and natural gas, and although some bags are recycled, most of them end up in landfills. In our household, we tend to accumulate these plastic grocery bags, and sometimes recycle them by taking them back to the grocery store. We sometimes use them as trash bags (to the landfill), and sometimes just throw them away (landfill again) . It would be useful if our local trash pickup allowed us to recycle plastic bags. Even though we have enough reusable cloth bags, we seem to frequently forget them. If plastic was not an option, or if we had to pay extra for plastic bags, then we would have more incentive to break this convenient habit.

Like Cats ?

Darpa’s Cheetah-Bot Designed to Chase Human Prey | Danger Room | Wired.com

Regardless of my last post, it looks as if, even near term, DARPA may unleash feline and canine terminators. Hope they are targeted precisely on terrorists and lobbyists, and not visiting Senators. The Big Dog robot in action looks really creepy indeed. The videos are worth a look despite the propaganda.

Welcome our new overlords ? Not yet

Watson's convincing victory on Jeopardy last week resurrected the public debate about the danger of Arnold coming back from the future and messing with us. In fact there is some small concern that computers which control so many transactions now, will eventually control most human activity, and even surpass human intellectual capacity. That scenario could happen, but there are a number of very large technical hurdles barring that outcome. So what is required of technology for computers like HAL 9000 to take over ? Firstly, computers would need much better sensory capability, especially vision. Except in controlled lab environments, and the movies, HAL currently cannot accurately interpret what it is able to see via video cam or any other device. There are recent advances in interpreting visual information, like results of the autonomous vehicle competition sponsored by DARPA, where unmanned vehicles were required to navigate a closed obstacle course, however, these incremental advances do not represent any real technological breakthrough, but merely refining and applying existing technology. We are probably at least a generation away from safe, affordable, autonomous vehicles. One of the major hurdles for HALs emergence remains the development of effective artificial intelligence. AI includes learning ability, reasoning ability to apply logic, deduction, induction, and original thought. AI, once thought to be a near reality, has remained an elusive and receding goal. It seems that we just did not know how much we did not know in the area of AI requirements. We have succeeded in building expert systems, which mainly organize and repeat information previously loaded, along with some rudimentary learning capability. Development of computer sensory perception, visual processing, language skills, and learning ability will advance in the foreseeable future, but these technologies all require unpredictable hardware and software major innovation to make AI practical. . The key ingredient that will probably not be seen for hundreds of years is computer capacity for original thought. When that occurs, if we allow it, Arnold may indeed be back.

PBS - Mark Twain: Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses

A Classic 15 minute read

PBS - Mark Twain: Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses

Whenever I start to believe I am a good writer, a dose of Mark Twain restores my literary humility.

 

Church of the Twilight Zone

The more I see of organized religion, especially the TV evangelist version, the more it seems to be no more than superstition as entertainment. From the clerical antics on-screen, and the off-screen peccadilloes of the performers, it is difficult to credit that there is a god in the sense that commercialized religion promotes. Or heaven or hell; or after-life for that matter. It is much more rational that this life is the extent of our consciousness - when you're done, you're done. So do the best you can, take joy where you can find it, give joy whenever you can. Do the things that give you joy and satisfaction, and that make others feel good. Love your family and leave them a habitable home and the ability to have full lives for themselves. So if there is no god but what we find in ourselves, let's just do the best we can with what we have. Of course, there are other possibilities:

Where are we heading ?

Another thing to consider is that humans are still evolving. While evolutionary physical changes are almost imperceptible generation to generation, cultural behavior changes markedly in the same period. Behavior changes coupled with advances in technology may tend to accelerate the pace of human evolution without much outward change in basic appearance. With the constant push for smaller, cheaper, faster electronic devices, and the changes in medical technology, and the sociological drive to be in constant communication via the Internet and cellphone, it is quite conceivable that within a few hundred years, people will be hardwired into the Web with implanted always-on communication devices that also serve as personal digital assistants, data storage, and sense augmentation. Genetic engineering may also have an impact on the population, to make people live longer, healthier lives. Homo sapiens may be only 100,000 years old, but we have only very recently developed technology capable of beginning to understand the physical universe we find ourselves inhabiting. Our civilization has had powered flight for only four generations, nuclear power for only two generations, and only in the current generation have we developed powerful computing and communication capabilities.