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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> spike [mailto:spike66@att.net] <br></span><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>…</span></b><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I fooled around with Google Images doing stuff like giving it only this jpg:</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> And it came back with this:<o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>Best guess for this image: <a href="https://encrypted.google.com/search?sa=G&q=drunk+cow&ei=cdWoUoWwFZWFoQS6kIHYBA&ved=0CCYQvQ4oAA"><b><i><span style='color:#660099'>drunk cow</span></i></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#444444'>spike</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'>OK this really has my wheels spinning. Think about this, you guys who have been hanging around here for a long time. Remember when we were discussing someone secretly using a computer hidden on their body somehow to cheat in a chess tournament? OK well that has been done now, but it was lower tech than we thought. The player is Bulgarian Borislav Ivanov. He had an iPhone in his shoe and was tapping out the moves with his toe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'>But this whole cow image bit really has me thinking about another topic we were discussing perhaps a decade ago: alternative models for the hard takeoff singularity, or lower case s singularity some were calling it. The notion is that software would gradually just get better at human-like stuff gradually, and be better than humans at some things a long time before other things. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'>This is analogous to computer chess in a way. A long time ago, computers could play a good game at the really fast speeds and in open positions. So a human could beat a computer for a long time if the human would play into super-closed positions with lots of blocked pawns and long pawn chains. So computers gradually got better, but for a long time, you could beat one if you knew how to play its weaknesses, but if it managed to tear open the position, forget it, you might as well climb in the coffin and pull the lid shut behind you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'>OK then. We have software that recognizes a cow and that it is an odd perspective. I found that response of Drunk Cow as hilarious, but it makes sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'>I gave Google Images a photo of world fourth ranked chess player Kramnik, Google figured out it was a chess player and found other pictures of him including the one I pasted in, but didn’t actually figure out who it was. Remarkable!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'>This is a form of artificial intelligence we might suppose, even though it is code that we can comprehend.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'>This whole thing again has me thinking about singularity scenarios where software surpasses human abilities in a lot of areas but the big S Singularity still doesn’t happen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'>Is this a great time to be alive or what?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#444444'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#444444'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:4.5pt;margin-bottom:4.5pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo4;background:white;vertical-align:top'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#222222'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:4.5pt;margin-bottom:4.5pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo4;background:white;vertical-align:top'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#222222'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:4.5pt;margin-bottom:4.5pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo4;background:white;vertical-align:top'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#222222'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:4.5pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo4;background:white;vertical-align:top'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#222222'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:4.5pt;margin-bottom:4.5pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo6;background:white;vertical-align:top'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#222222'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:4.5pt;margin-bottom:4.5pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo6;background:white;vertical-align:top'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#222222'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:4.5pt;margin-bottom:4.5pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo6;background:white;vertical-align:top'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#222222'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:4.5pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo6;background:white;vertical-align:top'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#222222'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre></div></body></html>