Re: Hawking on AI dominance

From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Wed Sep 05 2001 - 00:47:22 MDT


On 9/4/01 11:34 PM, "Zero Powers" <zero_powers@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Silicon, for all its good properties, does have some drawbacks. When a
> computer crashes, all is lost unless there has been a recent save to
> "non-volitile" memory. Our memories are a seemless integration between RAM
> and ROM. Not to mention the built-in multiple redundant redundancies which
> let you keep going even after something so disruptive as a stroke. Although
> these advantages will increasingly be replicated in computers and, at some
> point, I imagine that the only thing the bio-brain would add to the
> synth-brain would be slowness.

I don't suppose you remember the Tandem Non-Stop systems and similar devices
from well over a decade ago. Extreme fault tolerance. On some of those
systems, essentially every transient action was in persistent memory. Of
course, the occasional crash is usually much, much cheaper than buying an
unstoppable computer for most businesses/people.

-James Rogers
 jamesr@best.com



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