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Genius by Stephen Hawking
#1
A heads-up to those interested.

Although not directly Puna or Hawaii related, given the enormous contribution made by the observatories and staff on this island to the science that this series explores, I thought I'd post this here.

Tomorrow evening (May 18th) PBS will show the first two episodes of "Genius by Stephen Hawking". The first episode is at 9pm and is about the possibility of time travel. The second, starting at 10pm, is about the likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe.

The PBS homepage for the show is here:

http://www.pbs.org/genius-by-stephen-hawking/home/
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#2
Hawkings lost all credibility with me when he warned about AI taking over the world. Pffft. As for space... Yeah, I guess he can talk about that all he wants, but being a prophet to AI, he should keep that to himself.
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#3
Hawkings lost all credibility with me when he warned about AI taking over the world.

Thanks Tom. I'm gonna run it by my Windows 10 operating system & Roomba, & if it's ok with them, I'll be watching. We'll be watching, I mean.

Oscar Wilde's Last Words: "Either this wallpaper goes, or I do."
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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#4
My AI computer crashed when I asked it to show "Hawkings", AI and Taking Over The World.
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#5
As for time travel, you do this with black holes or (hypothetical) wormholes. The problem with black/wormholes is that using one for time travel is like flying a hang glider into a tornado. Looks good on paper, but it is gnarly inside black holes and wormholes. You might certainly arrive in another time, but you would arrive as a cloud of radiation and subatomic particles.

As for life elsewhere in the Universe, use the Universe as a computer for the answer. To do this take a rock and hold it in your hand. Let it go. If it falls and hits the ground, there is life elsewhere in the Universe. This is because the Universe is designed out to 30 or more decimal places to make life possible (google 'anthropic cosmological principle'). Change any physical constant of nature by quadrillionths of a percent, and life is impossible. The rock experiment demonstrates that the universe is functioning correctly and, therefore, life exists elsewhere with Probability-1.

Hawking is a real smart guy, but he is a bit of a showman and it is no longer the 1990s. There are other smart guys out there.

---------------------------

You can't fix Samsara.
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#6
It's not just Hawkings who is concerned..
Look up Bill Gates opinion on AI,
And also Elon Musk.

..What would King Kamehameha do..
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#7
I'm sorry, but can't help to post this classic. http://youtu.be/ARJ8cAGm6JE

Community begins with Aloha
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#8
Hawkings lost all credibility with me when he adopted that pretentious American accent.
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#9
This is pretty genius. Good intro to quantum mechanics. BTW, binary logic is becoming like the abacus, not wrong but falling by the wayside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi0BzqV_b44

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
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#10
A good read on machine learning..and training computers..instead of writing programs. That they run.

http://www.wired.com/2016/05/the-end-of-code/

Just the beginning of the AI explosion.

..What would King Kamehameha do..
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