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Google Will Become an AI Company
151–160 of 168 posts
Re: Google Will Become an AI Company
#152> The map will shrink greatly. Right now I live about 30 miles from my office and the commute is on the very edge of what I can stand. Make my car driverless (freeing me up to watch TV, read a book, catch up on emails, etc.) and able to travel at twice the speed, and spend the entire trip at top speed (rather than slowing down and speeding up on the highway) and I could feasibly live as far as 100 mph away.
The metro already does that for me pretty well. Granted, I live in an European city.
Re: Google Will Become an AI Company
#153Did no one stop to think about this? It is extremely far-fetched at best. >safety regulations could be greatly relaxed. No, at least not if the author's vision of 200mph average speeds is to be taken. When a mistake or malfunction happens at that speed, safety mechanisms will be imperative. Furthermore, having a mechanical car does not prevent: someone else running into you, a deer running in front of the car, etc. >…
Some or all of it may end up being B.S. After all, where's my flying car. But much of it may end up being true. In 1975, someone told me that everyone would some day have their own, personal phone number, that was just for that person , and I thought that was pretty far fetched. Who really knows? Remember that people mocked the Wright brothers. The ideas in this link may be very relevant to this discussion: http://am…
> Remember that people mocked the Wright brothers
Yeah, but how would you drive a driver-less car on a Somalian road, for example? Or through Cairo, or Istanbul, cities not known for their tight traffic regulations? After all we've had the Prius for ~10 years and it has failed to take over the world.
Re: Google Will Become an AI Company
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
If we can make food, medicine, and shelter almost free with the help of automation, then people would no longer need jobs to meet their survival needs.
I agree. What I have trouble seeing is how we will transition from a society where most people's share of economic production is based on employment to one that really doesn't need many humans to produce goods.
Humans will produce culture and luxury instead. We're already halfway there: Think of the percentage of people directly involved in producing first necessities compared to a thousand years ago.
Re: Google Will Become an AI Company
#155Re: Google Will Become an AI Company
#156Trains, buses and taxis do much of this already. I met people in Japan 5 years ago that were do daily commutes of 30-45mins of much bigger distances than a car could in that time. London to Paris is quicker and easier by train than by plane already.
Public transport has long been used by the young and/or intoxicated.
Re: Google Will Become an AI Company
#157Traffic is caused by human error? I suppose flooding is caused by "water error", then? Traffic is caused by too many vehicles attempting to use a limited resource at the same time. Driverless cars may make this more tolerable (certainly riding the bus does) but the idea that this will make traffic obsolete is laughable.
In my experience most traffic jams are caused by bad merging, not lack of capacity. A few years ago I regularly drove a stretch of road that went from 2 lanes to 3 for a few miles and then back again, without gaining a significant amount of traffic in between (I have no idea why the road was designed that way, maybe one of the side roads feeding into it got a lot of traffic at a different time of day or something). E…
And this can vary based on driving culture.
I commuted from NYC to NJ for a while (by circumstance, not choice) and traffic wouldn't slow much at all at merge points.
Driving back in Pennsylvania, state of my birth, I was gob-smacked when people all tried to merge into one lane a mile before the merge point, bringing traffic to almost a complete halt. Of course, I was probably one of those people before driving in New York, and never thought much of it.
Re: Google Will Become an AI Company
#158After reading through much of the discussion regarding Matt's many interesting points, it's somewhat troubling that nobody addresses the most obvious problem with the realization of sufficiently good AI. In both cases mentioned, in regards to cars, taxis, buses, and call centers, you displace thousands to millions of human workers. While this is all very nice in our tech fantasy lands if these scenarios come to pass…
I don't see the problem; lowering scarcity lowers the need for employment. A king's feast from the 1800s can be bought today with welfare money. When we eliminate the need for all jobs, we can just relabel ourselves "socialist" and call it a day.
This is not the state today. the basics (housing, healthcare , education ) are pretty expensive. add to that the stigma of not working , and being unemployed is quite bad.
I think disruptive innovation for the needs of the unemployed in those fields , could be a huge and important field in the next decade.but this would probably need suport from government , because there are heavy regulations around those fields.
Re: Google Will Become an AI Company
#159Self-driving cars will be important in 10-20 years that is obvious. You can look into that certain future by watching how far R&D has come in recent years.
But I strongly doubt that cars as we know them today will still be around. Todays car design - fast & heavy - is absurd and only serves to satisfy the image we have of a car. 'Sensible cars' are often not perceived as cars at all " rel="nofollow">http://www.google.at/images?q=smart>.
Making cars slower triggers a positive cycle of being more efficient (half speed = 1/4 energy), safer and allowing for lighter designs.
The problem of efficiency is not somehow magically solved by making cars 'electric' but only by making cars slower and lighter.
Re: Google Will Become an AI Company
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
> almost all manual occupations will be replaced with automation during that decade Unions will just go quietly into the night?
If we can make food, medicine, and shelter almost free with the help of automation, then people would no longer need jobs to meet their survival needs.
Energy isn't free.
Well, at least not yet.