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"I long ago realized that I could reach far more people by writing something, than by walking down the street with a banner."
- John Brunner
 |
| Mike (Mycroft Holmes - Fair Dinkum Thinkum) | ||
| A large computer that woke up - an artificially intelligent, self-aware machine. |
Manuel O'Kelly, private computer consultant on the Moon in 2075, had an unusual experience when called upon to fix some problems with a large computer. He named the computer Mike, after Mycroft Holmes, who did nothing but sit and think. And Mike "was a fair dinkum thinkum, sharpest computer you'll ever meet."
| When Mike was installed in Luna, he was pure thinkum, a flexible logic - "High-Optional, Logical, Multi-evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV, Mod. L" - a HOLMES FOUR. He computed ballistics for pilotless freighters and controlled their catapult. This kept him busy less than one percent of time and Luna Authority never believed in idle hands. They kept hooking hardware into him - decision-action boxes to let him boss other computers, bank on bank of additional memories, more banks of associational neural nets, another tubful of twelve-digit random numbers, a greatly augmented temporary memory. Human brain has around ten-to-the-tenth neurons. By third year Mike had better than one and a half times that many neuristors.
And woke up. |
| From The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by GP Putnam in 1966 Additional resources -
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- Tay, Microsoft Chatbot, Offline To 'Absorb It All'
- Robots And AIs Will Replace Humans At 7 Percent Of U.S. Jobs
- 51 Percent Of Job Activities Could Be Automated
| A Bayesian Approach to Safe Imitation Learning For AIs and Robots |
| Our GodBot, Who Art In Cyberspace |
| Will Robots Be Moral If We Raise Them Like Our Children? |
| Rule Of Humans By Software Not Transparent |
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Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to "help them out."
'Improving man by bringing him close to Nature, while they combine the sensations of coasting with the interest of seeing the country well...'
Um, how about that pension for the humans who serve as the models for robot behavior?
'...used as surrogates in intense dependency cases.'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
