On 1/12/07, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Philip Goetz wrote: > > Haven't been googling. But the fact is that I've never actually > /seen/ one in the wild. My point is that the market demand for such > simple and useful and cheap items is low enough that I've never > actually seen one.
The term for this type of thermostat is a 'set-back' thermostat, and they were originally designed to save energy and heating/cooling bills by having programmable periods. They have become increasingly complex. All my most recent houses had essentially little calendar computers in them. They are extremely common in new construction, as this link shows: http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=1354170&g=1 "STUDY HIGHLIGHTS - Honeywell/Magicstat was the top brand of thermostat bought in 2003. - Two-thirds of the thermostats purchased in 2003 were set-back models. - The average price paid for the electronic set-back thermostats was $70. - Thermostats were purchased mostly from builders/contractors and home centers. "
Check any hardware store, there's a whole shelf. I bought one for my last apartment. I see them all over the place. They're really not rare. Moral: in AI, the state of the art is often advanced far beyond what people think it is.
There are really two things being talked about here. One is SOTA, which almost by definition, is beyond what people think it is, and the other is market availability, or practical availability, which is very different than SOTA technology. SOTA AI technology is essentially that which you, knowing the latest theories, build yourself. There is no such thing as a SOTA AI system, the way there are SOTA stereo systems, or SOTA crypto systems available, because the market availability of the technology does not have the same characteristics. -- Justin Corwin [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://outlawpoet.blogspot.com http://www.adaptiveai.com ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=303
