A new order of intelligence

Robot Theorizes, Proves Own Scientific Discoveries:

Scientists at the United Kingdom's Cambridge and Aberystwyth universities have created a "robot scientist" that they believe is the first automaton to make its own scientific discoveries.

The robotic computer system, named Adam [...] used artificial intelligence to hypothesize that some genes in baker's yeast code for specific enzymes cause biochemical reactions in yeast. The robot came up with experiments to test the hypothesis, ran the experiments using laboratory robotics, interpreted the results, and repeated the cycle.

Hypothesis: all people are a threat, not just the ones on the other side.  Centuries' worth of conclusive empirical data render controlled experimentation unnecessary.  Suggested course of action: extermination.

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Comments

[Thomas Daulton]

You haven't yet mentioned Battlestar Galactica on this blog, to the best of my recollection.

[John Caruso]

Nope (and won't, because I hate it with a passion) (assuming you mean the new one). But I had a different reference in mind....

[Catherine]

Nope (and won't, because I hate it with a passion) (assuming you mean the new one). But I had a different reference in mind....

I'd really be interested in knowing why, briefly, unless you hate it so much you don't want to do even that. I've been wondering why so many people love it and have tried it off and on but have never "gotten" it, either dramatically, or in terms of ideas.

[John Caruso]

In brief: 1) Starbuck—can't stand her, 2) "human" Cylons? gimme a break, 3) lame current events-aping scripts apparently intended to offer some kind of grand social commentary, but which mainly serve to illustrate the blinkered mainstream mentality of the writers. And above all, above everything, towering over all the rest of it, 4) THE CAMERA. The nausea-inducing, sudden-zoom-in-zoom-out, held-by-an-epilectic-during-an-earthquake camera. They're so dedicated to this pretentious affectation that they even made the camera look shaky during effects shots, as though there's some space-jackass holding a handycam a few thousands meters from the ship. In fact I heard they add the shakiness to some of the scenes (internal and external) digitally, after the fact, because it just looks so darn cool.

Also, I loved the old show as a kid—and if you're going to profane my memory with a new version that has practically nothing to do with the original, have the decency to call it something else.

So yeah, I'm with you. I definitely don't get why so many people are so ecstatic about it.

[Harold M]

If we could gain self-awareness, we might be able to cope with that (as yet hypothetical) robot. It would be a tremendous struggle and the backlog of empirical data didn't get there without a lot of stupidity to the point of mindlessness. But we could, all of us, become self-aware. Then the robot would be our friend.

Right?

Hey, I like to keep things positive.

[Save the Oocytes]

Is the robot named "Skynet" perchance? I may have heard this story somewhere before...

[John Caruso]

Yes, that'd be the one.

[Donald Johnson]

I liked BSG for the first three seasons, roughly, and then got disgusted with it when it was clear they had no (good) idea how to end it and in fact the final episode was a train wreck. But the Iraq War allegory was pretty good, IMO--it was nice seeing a show where the supposed good guys were using suicide bombers against occupiers who insisted they just wanted to civilize them (and also using torture in the process). And then some of the humans who collaborated with the Cylons were portrayed sympathetically and one felt sorry for them when they were murdered by human death squads later, while understanding why the people doing it felt justified. Most lefties don't need to watch BSG to understand that guerilla wars are morally murky, ugly things, but this was pretty daring stuff by mainstream American standards. So I don't think it was blinkered and mainstream at all. Conservative fans of the show were upset that the "good guys" used suicide bombers, and not just against Cylons, but their human collaborators.

The last season really stunk, for all sorts of reasons--for instance, there was a brief civil war between the humans and unlike the occupation episodes, they made it pretty much "good guys vs. bad guys". I watched the last season out of loyalty, hoping they'd salvage something, but as the end drew near it was clear they wouldn't.

Some of the characters (Colonel Tigh in particular) were pretty fascinating. I enjoyed every minute Baltar was on the screen. Others (Starbuck among them) were both unlikable and uninteresting--I agree with you on her.

[John Caruso]

I didn't mean mainstream so much in terms of the judgments (since I didn't see enough of the show to know what those were), but the fact that the writers lifted their plot points from the morning newspaper and their perspective on those events didn't seem to go beyond the norm. Basically I didn't feel like watching allegorical musings on the Iraq war from Hollywood writers with mainstream (and presumably Democratic, at least based on what I saw) viewpoints.

[Donald Johnson]

Well, some of the episodes were well outside the mainstream. They were dangerously close to a fairminded depiction of all sides of the Cylon occupation of New Caprica (which was the Iraq War allegory) and it was the humans fighting Cylon occupation and their human collaborators who were acting like the Iraqi insurgents using suicide bombers against Iraqi police recruits. And some of the humans start executing collaborators after the war, even collaborators that the viewer knew had saved innocent people. And remember that these were the people the viewer would be rooting for--the man who ran the suicide bombing campaign was Colonel Tigh and while some of the humans disapproved, he wasn't punished for it and was treated as a hero when it was all over. It was a morally complex show, at least for the first two and a half seasons or so.

[Thomas Daulton]

it was clear they had no (good) idea how to end it and in fact the final episode was a train wreck

You must admit that an excellent way to prevent your scripts and plot twists from being leaked onto the Internet, is: not to have the faintest clue where the hell you're going with the story in the first place.

:)

[Donald Johnson]

"You must admit that an excellent way to prevent your scripts and plot twists from being leaked onto the Internet, is: not to have the faintest clue where the hell you're going with the story in the first place."

True. From that perspective they did a masterful job.

[NomadUK]

Is the robot named "Skynet" perchance? I may have heard this story somewhere before...

There is, of course, an alternative scenario.

[John Caruso]

True. I read the books years ago but never did get around to seeing the movie.

[NomadUK]

The movie is actually pretty good; probably the best thing Eric Braeden ever did. You have to ignore all those spinning magtape reels, and the occasional flesh-coloured underwear during the brief and highly discreet 'nude' scenes, but, those aside, it's good.

I read the books, too, but, as I recall, only the first was worthwhile.