From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sat Jan 20 2001 - 18:12:18 MST
Amara Graps hauled off and wrote,
> Until last summer there were two dust accelerators in the world:
> one in Canterbury (University of Kent), and one here in this
> institute (MPI-K, Heidelberg). Then the Canterbury group split and
> moved, and I'm not sure anymore if that lab is finished.
> So then, let's say for the moment, I'm working at the place that
> has the last remaining dust accelerator in the world.
Fascinating. One suspects dust accelerators function in a different way
than cosmic accelerators. τΏτ
--J. R.
Twelfth Question About The Universe
http://www.observer.co.uk/life/story/0,6903,416413,00.html
Can Moravec understand the rest of the world's dismay at his own lack of
panic? 'I have no reason to panic. I've accepted the possibility of
intelligent, mobile machines for 40 years. I see it as a major transition
in the nature of human life. For me, robots are extensions of humanity.
Something I'm always pointing out is that we're 99.9 per cent cultural
beings now: the information that's passed from generation to generation in
our genome consists of a few billion bits, but there are trillions of bits
in our libraries. And we would not be who we are if it wasn't for this
cultural information. The robots are simply the point when that cultural
information takes over from strict biology. Eventually they might develop
in their own directions, but that's the normal situation for descendants.
They have their own lives.'
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