This one is on the genetic basis of intelligence, and how environmental defecits, like crappy schools overwhelm genetic effects (now shown in statistical correlations). Previously, it was ‘shown’ that the prime determiner of IQ was genetics (and of course IQ = intelligence, but that’s a separate story). This argument was used to say that head start programs were a waste of money, etc. But you can read the article for yourself.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/infojunkies/984883.html
Ticket Master is going to start auctioning the tickets to shows, with no price cap. Should reduce scalping, and may well price the less than well off out of shows completely.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/infojunkies/985508.html
So, nut job anti-abortion killer believes Jehova will give him a pat on the back for what he’s done. Similar nut jobs threaten those associated with case for letting him get executed. Gotta love extremist fundamentalists.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/infojunkies/986529.html
Discussing cognitive prostheses as the basis for AI rather than the turing test. Basically, says, the real leaps in AI are to be made in HCI. Talks about a rather neat system for pilots to replace the traditional display systems. My personal opinion is that he’s right that these are more significant/important than turing testish stuff, but that it’s not AI.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/infojunkies/986912.html
Training vermin to track down explosives. Pity it doesn’t work in the desert, and it didn’t say anything about uranium specifically, but they talk about nuclear weapons. Hmmmmm.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/infojunkies/988064.html
maryland resident whose car was being stolen by joyriding teens, shoots and kills one and hospitalizes another. Car still stolen. See also, high crime rates in the area. Also, close to where my sister lives, and where my mother’s car was previously stolen a few years ago. Police/Crime prevention neglect v excessive use of force.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/infojunkies/987834.html
I think Jaron Lanier had an interesting aside on how the Turing test as its given has nothing to do with what turing meant.
The turing test as given simply means that the machine can fool some people in a limited chat-room domain into statistically thinking its a human. I think what turing actually meant was more along the lines of “If you can’t come up with a mathematical proof that what your talking to is a machine, rather then human, intelligence, then you should consider it to be as good as human”
Very subtly different. All the modern hyped-up loebner-prize style turing tests strike me as bogus, and this is the reason why.