Re: The Future

On 17 Apr, 02:23, "Charles Hottel" <chot...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My responses are interspered below.

example a guy had a pond with fish and he wished to prevent the water plants
from covering the pond and killing his fish. The plants grew so as to
double the area they covered in two to three days. He watch the growth of
the plants for several weeks and the progress seemed not so bad so he went
on a two week vactaion. When he came back the pond was covered with plants
and the fish were dead. The last seven doublings increased the area coverd
by a factor of 128. Most of the progress occurs after the knee of the curve.

As a former marine biologist I should point out that the analogy used
is week as the plant growth rate will depend upon such factors as
temperature, nutrient levels, light levels (aquatic plants, from
microbes upwards, do best in spring and autumn when light and nutrient
levels are optimal and when temperatures are not a limiting factor).



I believe Penrose and someone else whose name escapes me at the moment
speculate that tubules (not certain if that is the correct spelling) in the
nerons may perform quatum computation. Kurzweil says that there is as yet no
proof of that and even if such computation goes on in the brain there is
nothing that prevents a machine from functioning as a quantum computer and
duplicating it. I thought his explaination of quantum computers, how they
work and what their limitations were the clearest and easiest to understand
that I have read to date. Having to figure out and duplicate these quantum
processes will delay the time table, but we already see computers increasing
their intellegence rapidly without quantum computing. We can probably have
very intelligent computers without it although it would be required for
uploading minds. In 1990 compter were scoffed at by champion human chess
players but compter kept getting smarter while the humans remained about the
same. By 1995 (I think that is the year) the computes caught up and passed
the humans.



He says we evolved from bacteria and we did not exterminate them so super
intelligent computers will not wipe us out.

Their is no possible comparison here. Bacteria are non-sentient
whereas humans are and computers may well become so. How about the
fact that humans have evolved from apes and have been busy wiping them
out over the past 7 million years?



.

Relevant Pages

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  • My aquarium observations and experiences
    ... Plants usually the garden variety cheapo pond plants... ... Fish currently a medium sized Oscar, ... needed serious rinsing before putting in the tank). ... have a Fluval filter pump used primarily to move the water around. ...
    (rec.aquaria.freshwater.misc)
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  • Re: My aquarium observations and experiences
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