He was also the originator of the term singularity in the accelerating progress of technology sense. Interesting to see how that one pans out.
The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
241–250 of 324 posts
Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
Von Nueman is on the record as saying he believed computers were a sub field of self replicating machines. I believe they will be very important in the future and will have many applications. Not really, unfortunately. I think it would be fun to build a 3d printer that can replicate itself, but have not tried building any prototypes because besides being too expensive I also havent taken my research into that far eno…
You may want to check out https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap which is exactly this type of 3D printer. I don’t think it’s 100% though.
Well, RepRap has the philosophy that self-replicating systems such as hedgehogs and raspberries need some definite set of “vitamins” available prefabricated in their environment for self-replication, and RepRap chose things like threaded rod, NEMA motors, hotends, and Arduinos as their vitamins. This was extremely successful at making 3-D printers mainstream — every popular 3-D printer out there derives from RepRap designs — but not at producing an exponentially growing quantity of 3-D printers printed by 3-D printers.
Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
He died of cancer, probably a result of nuclear testing. They didn’t fully realize how dangerous it was until later.
That's not a valid inference. Even during the era of nuclear testing, the great majority of cancers were not caused by radiation. Now, SMOKING...
Folks nearest to nuclear testing died early of cancer. VN didn’t smoke. Look up the movie the Conqueror.
I grew up near SSFL so have some stories too.
Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not a valid inference. Even during the era of nuclear testing, the great majority of cancers were not caused by radiation. Now, SMOKING...
Folks nearest to nuclear testing died early of cancer. VN didn’t smoke. Look up the movie the Conqueror. I grew up near SSFL so have some stories too.
That's nice. It remains the case that fallout will have caused only a small increase in the national background cancer rate.
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/r...
Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're stunning me here. It's like you're objecting to someone saying gymnasts are coordinated or air traffic controllers can handle a lot of stress. Intelligence is a core qualification for programming, like height for basketball. You can't say "I play basketball, so I'm taller than others", but you can say "We're all basketball players, so we're likely taller than most". We're _selected_ for intelligence.
Citing Kathy Sierra’s book, Badass (pp 91–92) > Evidence has been mounting for decades that for most non-sport domains and for most people,“natural talent” is not an absolute requirement for reaching high levels of expertise. > Other than the sports that depend on specific physical prerequisites, few domains have hard genetic limits for expertise.There is a way in which natural ability might contribute to high expert…
One Muggsy Bogues proves natural height is not an absolute requirement for playing in the NBA, but does not prove that basketball players are not taller than average.
Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay we get it, you blaze.
My word choice is more driven by exposure to the dataset that I'm working with. There's been some recent successes with autoencoders trained on virtual sensory input (i.e., video games) with surprising results, e.g., neural networks that can simulate the dynamics of these environments with surprising fidelity. Of course, learning to play video games at a high level is trivially easy, as everyone in the field now know…
Okay we get it, you blaze.
Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its not talked about alot, but basically ashkenazis are the genesis of alot of modern intellectual ideas and companies. both FB and Google are ashkenazi creations
Uber too, Adam Neumann is Ashkenazi Jewish.
You mean wework? Was there someone at Uber as well?
Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
This quote perfectly illustrates the unparalleled absurdity of contemplating nuclear warfare.
He was hardly alone if favouring a "preventative war" - Curtis LeMay was another advocate - they thought it was the rational thing to do. How someone can rationally advocate the cold blooded killing of millions is, frankly, completely beyond me.
To build on what you are saying, let it be known that LeMay's nickname was "The Demon" and he participated in numerous war crimes involving terror bombing and civilian destruction in Japan and Korea.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/21/we-burned-down-every...
Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
#249It must have been so much harder to be brilliant back then. Now we Just have Google for everything. Imagine what these guys could have accomplished with the computing power/tools of today.