> -----Original Message----- > From: Ian Skinner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 1:34 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Supercomputers on our desks? (was RE: Like Big Stuff?) > > Jim Davis wrote: > > What do you think? Have we hit a wall in user expectations/needs? > What > > tasks will be driving the need for more raw processing power in the > next > > decades? > > be voice recognition, image/video recognition, AI, stuff like that. > I.E. the futuristic idea that we talk to our home computer systems, it > could recognize visitors at the door, integrated household computer > butlers, cooks, domestic systems.
I only mention some of this as being too big a task for even "supercomputers"... things like "real" AI, real-time, free-voice (anybody/anything) speech recognition, etc is far beyond even our supercomputers. Some other things are actually well-within reach of our desktops. Your desktop could pretty easily do facial recognition (at least for a known group of people) and pretty much any domestic systems I can think of are well within current capabilities (climate control, security systems, pet care, cleaning, etc) - there are all sorts of "gotchas" and unexpected situations but running a house is really a collection of small, simple tasks that pretty much any PC could handle (given the right interfaces and sensors). > One of the thoughts of this show, I wish I could recall what it was - a > NOVA episode I think, was that if systems like this become common and > keep does it start becoming possible to copy a person's memory, > personality, self into a digital format. What could that mean. That's another one of those things that isn't possible with anything we have - or anything that we have planned. We just don't know how we'd "store" a personality or memories (yet!) So we've got this huge gap between what we need (manage our homes and information) and what we want to do (store our consciousness or have an intelligent computer friend) - I'm just not sure what's "in the middle" there. There needs to be something interim to drive consumer adoption of "faster/better", I think. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:261693 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
