remek

remek t1_j8jvopm wrote

Reply to comment by allenout in 7 international companies have teamed with the EU to form the International Hyperloop Association, the industry's first trade body. by lughnasadh

I am no expert on the topic nor do I defend Hyperloop but having a train going over 500km/h not enclosed in a metal tube makes me feel very uncomfortable for some reason. Perhaps if thing is supposed to go this fast I'd rather have it enclosed (or 10km above my head)

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remek t1_j20gn1b wrote

Reply to comment by Surur in UIUC Researchers propose a new way to get fresh water from seawater, without the disadvantages of traditional desalination. They say that a vertical “capture surface” that is 210 m wide and 100 m tall, could extract enough vapor floating above warm oceans to supply 500,000 people with freshwater by lughnasadh

I didn't know that desalinization of water is in price range of $2-$5/1000L. It kinda sounds cheap/reasonable. Why it is often claimed that desalinization of water is not a good solution for world's fresh water shortage?

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remek t1_ivxwiq4 wrote

Reply to comment by third0burns in IBM says its future is in quantum-centered supercomputing and plans to have the 4,000 qubit 'System Two' online by 2025, stitching three together for a 16,000 qubit machine soon after. It uses chip to chip communication to allow them to work in concert for more rapid scale-up. by upyourego

I'd say there is a big difference between IBM's attempt to win the AI and their attempt to win Quantum. If you consider Watson, it really was primarily a software thing - there is no leapfrog innovation when it comes to hardware. This means IBM had to compete with other software companies and frankly - software never was in IBM's DNA. Software game is different than the hardware game. It requires different speed, different agility, different mindset and culture.

On the other developing a quantum computer is primarily a hardware innovation. And when it comes to hardware, especially if it is big, complex and expensive appliances now we are talking about something that IBM was good at for past 100 years.

So I believe IBM's chances are much higher to win Quantum then chances it had to win AI.

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remek t1_ituwlow wrote

Reply to comment by kneedeepco in The philosophy of Martin Heidegger who argued that the Technological mindset has destroyed our relationship to the world so that Nature is seen as so many resources to exploit. He presents an alternative: a poetic relationship to the world by thelivingphilosophy

I actually did mean it quite literally what I said and in no sensationist sense. Also I don't agree with your explanation of how nature and species behave but I do agree with some of your conclusions about humaninty. So let me explain myself in more detail:

Life in general spreads and consumes resources without any intelligent plan or design. It just spreads and consumes. I can agree with you that most living organisms and animals take what they only need but this is true only for individual creatures/entities. But when taken from the perspective of the whole species, any life form just spread until they hit a wall of what environment can sustain - in complex ecosystems there is an equilibrium of various factors and species which define these walls and balances out among each other.

I do agree however that humanity has capabilities that are unprecedented among Earth's life forms. It is this consiousness which you are talking about. It is the neocortex ability to visualize future and reason about it. So we can plan and organize the very aspect of life like the reproduction or resource consumtion. We can have intelligent plan and intelligent design instead of being mere game of life cells.

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