1. I read something on a blog a few days ago (I KNOW, I’m sorry, I can’t find it now) where a technology think-tank person was complaining about the limited bandwidth of the human brain. This person hoped that we would someday come up with ways of analyzing data that surpass what the human mind can do on its own. But this is literally just what computers are supposed to do, right? Perform analytical tasks that the human mind can’t do on its own? I don’t understand what innovation this person was hoping for.
2. Marissa Mayer, the Vice President of Google, described “human computation” as “harnessing the human brain to collectively perform tasks that digital computers have yet to master.” That one was here. Same problem. Why are we just calling stuff the brain does “human computation”?
I also have no idea how to work through that news about the South Korean couple whose real kid literally starved to death because they spent too much time taking care of their virtual kid.
If I had been a science fiction writer at any point in the last fifty years I would just be asking everyone “OK so NOW are you going to start listening to me?” Maybe there can be an advisory panel of sci-fi writers that Congress talks to sometimes.
