|
|
Post by Little Jack Horner on Apr 30, 2023 15:06:01 GMT
I had been wondering how to start the thread for this month and came across the lyric from Camelot by Alan Jay Lerner.
“It’s May, the lusty month of May, that darling month when everyone throws self-control away.” I think there is nothing very original in quoting that but I was struck by how frequently the month of May is mentioned with positive thoughts in literature. I could find almost nothing negative other than one quotation describing the onset of the (northern) season of hayfever. The literature is (almost?) exclusively European and North American in origin and I could find nothing (either positive or negative) originating in Australia or New Zealand. Surely there must be something worth mentioning from down under?
|
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Apr 30, 2023 21:01:22 GMT
[…] the month of May is mentioned with positive thoughts in literature. […] I could find nothing (either positive or negative) originating in Australia or New Zealand. Surely there must be something worth mentioning from down under? About all I can think of is that it’s Labour Day in Queensland, and the beginning of cooler weather leading up to winter. Nothing lyrical. |
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on May 3, 2023 3:21:32 GMT
Geoff Lindsay on gotten v got
While got is unarguably a very useful word, I do find it grossly over-used when other, perhaps more specific, words might serve the purpose as well or better.
|
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on May 3, 2023 6:09:56 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on May 3, 2023 7:17:09 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Little Jack Horner on May 3, 2023 18:52:16 GMT
>>'Godfather of AI' Geoffrey Hinton quits Google, warning of AI's capacity to create false images and text<<
I have no concerns about AI’s capacity to create false images and text. Every blogger and “influencer” does the same thing and there are thousands of examples of this online every day. This is the least of my worries about AI. My concern is more fundamental and concerns sentience.
It is difficult to say precisely what is sentience but we say an octopus is sentient. In principle, and bearing in mind the astonishing recent achievements, why might not artificially intelligent devices eventually become sentient, and how would we know? Might such a device have moral attitudes and ambitions? What if the device has the moral values of Pol Pot or Adolf Hitler? What if it has agency, such as the ability to control a life support system? Even a non-sentient refrigerator has a thermostat.
My concern is increased by the apparent inability of anyone directly concerned with AI to understand that there might be a problem. I frequently attend online webinars and ask the question. The best answer I have so far had is that what we don’t know and that it will be a long time before an AI device will become sentient. Hmmm!
Quote from “2001, A Space Odyssey”: I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”.
|
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on May 3, 2023 21:18:29 GMT
[…] why might not artificially intelligent devices eventually become sentient, and how would we know? […]
I can’t recall his name, but not many weeks ago a Google/Alphabet employee claimed that their AI was sentient. He was sacked. |
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on May 4, 2023 11:18:10 GMT
The programmer for AutoFill/AutoCorrect has died.
The funnel will be held tomato.
|
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on May 5, 2023 0:00:14 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on May 5, 2023 11:36:18 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Miller on May 5, 2023 14:12:20 GMT
Good to see, though, that their hard hats do stop them swooping. |
|
|
|
Post by Little Jack Horner on May 5, 2023 20:11:08 GMT
The Queens English. I am an admirer of David and Ben Crystal. I don’t know whether everybody has heard this talk given by Ben about accents and Shakespeare, but I think it is worth the listening. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqmgeth4tFY |
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on May 5, 2023 22:07:21 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Miller on May 6, 2023 6:45:49 GMT
I suspect that the artist has caught the American disease of adding an of where it’s completely unnecessary, as in “It’s not that big of a concern”. And yet it can be the other way round with “out”: US English: He jumped out the window British: He jumped out of the window. |
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on May 6, 2023 12:30:17 GMT
I suspect that the artist has caught the American disease of adding an of where it’s completely unnecessary, as in “It’s not that big of a concern”. And yet it can be the other way round with “out”: US English: He jumped out the window British: He jumped out of the window.Indeed, Dave. Or he autodefenestrated. At least he didn’t jump in the car (or the river etc.). Jumps in a river, to me, implies that the jumper is already in the river, then jumps in that spot; if s/he is still on land and about to enter the stream, s/he jumps in TO the river. As for people who “jump in the car”; if they tried that in my car, I’d eject them until they learned to wear a seatbelt and be still. If they hurriedly enter my vehicle they jump in TO it. |
|
