Comments on: The coming civil war over general purpose computing http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-coming-civil-war-over-general-purpose-computing Accelerating Intelligence Sun, 19 May 2013 01:28:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Jonathan Cole http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-coming-civil-war-over-general-purpose-computing/comment-page-1#comment-29904 Jonathan Cole Wed, 29 Aug 2012 03:55:11 +0000 http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=160902#comment-29904 Great point Ralph. Do you think that the speed of data transfer, versus the speed of biological transfer could imply a meaningful difference in the 'staus quo' for technological matters? Great point Ralph. Do you think that the speed of data transfer, versus the speed of biological transfer could imply a meaningful difference in the ‘staus quo’ for technological matters?

]]> By: Ralph Dratman http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-coming-civil-war-over-general-purpose-computing/comment-page-1#comment-29708 Ralph Dratman Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:18:52 +0000 http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=160902#comment-29708 It is worthwhile to look at biology's solution to problems of this nature, and there are reasons to believe that any other kind of solution cannot survive in the long term. Unfortunately for all our intellectual schemes, biology's solution seems to be a free-for-all at every level. In is not known how we ever evolved to survive as long as we often do under attack by other organisms whose way of life can cause our destruction. Clearly any such successful arrangement is temporary on both short and long time scales. More specifically, we have immune systems that sometimes protect us from tiny organisms, and nervous systems that sometimes protect us from anything big enough to see. We also have technological extensions that sometimes protect us, and also sometimes allow us to defeat the protective schemes of other biological entities, large or small. I cannot see how any of our cogitation (Doctorow is one of the wisest cogitators) can ever change the effective status quo in all these matters, which, as I suggested above, consists of a free-for-all development of the latest attack versus the latest defense. It is worthwhile to look at biology’s solution to problems of this nature, and there are reasons to believe that any other kind of solution cannot survive in the long term. Unfortunately for all our intellectual schemes, biology’s solution seems to be a free-for-all at every level.

In is not known how we ever evolved to survive as long as we often do under attack by other organisms whose way of life can cause our destruction. Clearly any such successful arrangement is temporary on both short and long time scales. More specifically, we have immune systems that sometimes protect us from tiny organisms, and nervous systems that sometimes protect us from anything big enough to see. We also have technological extensions that sometimes protect us, and also sometimes allow us to defeat the protective schemes of other biological entities, large or small.

I cannot see how any of our cogitation (Doctorow is one of the wisest cogitators) can ever change the effective status quo in all these matters, which, as I suggested above, consists of a free-for-all development of the latest attack versus the latest defense.

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