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Old September 12th 08, 10:02 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Boltar Boltar is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,346
Default Accident in Croydon

On Sep 12, 10:38 am, MIG wrote:
It's yet another attempt at trying to get computers to do things that
people do well. Computers are best used for things that people don't
do well.


I think its just paranoid politicians clutching at any techno straw
thats dangled in front of them. If they seriously think people can't
change their way of walking to avoid being spotted perhaps they should
go and find out about this novel thing known as "acting". Actors do it
all the time in different roles. Theres no reason to believe Mr
Terrorist (or more likely Mr Expired Parking Ticket Man) can't do it
as well.

People, on the other hand, can recognise each other and understand
speech. Trying to get a computer to do this is like trying to get a
car to walk upstairs, just because it's better than a person at doing
70 mph and therefore supposedly faster in all contexts.


Computers will get there in the end , though I'm not convinced this
Brave New World will be as wonderful as all the techno evengelists
want us to believe. Machines might have done a lot of physical donkey
work for us for 2 centuries but then horses did it before that , and
its not our physicality that makes us human - its our brains and
minds. If you replace human thinking with machine thinking you're
taking away everything.

B2003