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Google hires Kurzweil

R

RSL

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
124
0
boss.king said:
Crackpot? How so? His predictions were fairly accurate.
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Yeah I guess his predictions about computers getting smaller are quite accurate. But anyone making predictions about life itself, like living forever, AI in 20 years, writing all of your brain's data (if that even makes sense) to a computer, etc., especially someone with no scientific background in the field in question, sounds like a crank.
 
boss.king

boss.king

macrumors 603
Apr 8, 2009
6,139
6,876
RSL said:
Yeah I guess his predictions about computers getting smaller are quite accurate. But anyone making predictions about life itself, like living forever, AI in 20 years, writing all of your brain's data (if that even makes sense) to a computer, etc., especially someone with no scientific background in the field in question, sounds like a crank.
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What about the predictions such as being able to ask your phone questions and self driving cars (from your article no less). What would this guy actually have to do to impress you?
 
R

RSL

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
124
0
boss.king said:
What about the predictions such as being able to ask your phone questions and self driving cars (from your article no less). What would this guy actually have to do to impress you?
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Sorry for the misunderstanding. I am impressed with his computer predictions/tech work. But his claims about AI are definitely crackpotish. For one thing, he doesn't seem to understand how the brain works, see http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/08/17/ray-kurzweil-does-not-understa/.

I'm a scientist and know how difficult science is. In my field nobody (even the greatest geniuses) makes predictions, for the simple reason that you cannot know what obstacles lie in the path to realizing an idea until you actually can prove that it works.
 
boss.king

boss.king

macrumors 603
Apr 8, 2009
6,139
6,876
RSL said:
Sorry for the misunderstanding. I am impressed with his computer predictions/tech work. But his claims about AI are definitely crackpotish. For one thing, he doesn't seem to understand how the brain works, see http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/08/17/ray-kurzweil-does-not-understa/.

I'm a scientist and know how difficult science is. In my field nobody (even the greatest geniuses) makes predictions, for the simple reason that you cannot know what obstacles lie in the path to realizing an idea until you actually can prove that it works.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, you make a good point.
 
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