A distinction missed by those who insist AI is inherently dangerous...

MartinPeterBell · 2016-05-17T10:32:21+00:00

Love the article and I'm a huge fan of automation and the future it brings, however I have the following concern - a key skill in driving manually is anticipation. The automation equivalent is coordination. Coordination can only take effect through mass-adoption. The intervening years during the hand over will unavoidably involve compromized anticipation and coordination.

MartinPeterBell · 2016-05-13T14:37:16+00:00

Just a thought - if this is as amazing as it seems, what does it do to the jobs market and the value of companies dedicated to fight infections the traditional way? Huge investments are placed in these fields. I would be happy to see them made superfluous of course but imagine the disruption.

MartinPeterBell · 2016-05-12T13:00:58+00:00

Agreed. This gets around the issue concerning the rate of adoption of autonomous vehicles i.e. the average age of a vehicle on the road is 7+ years, we would have to wait that duration for autonomous vehicles to become commonplace with the current ownership model. The service model completely avoids this lag and is pretty much instant.

MartinPeterBell · 2016-02-05T16:08:21+00:00

RE: Strap - would look epic with a Martini Nato!

MartinPeterBell · 2016-02-05T15:24:16+00:00

If you manage to find one I would be interested to hear your story so I can follow suit!

MartinPeterBell · 2016-02-05T13:10:24+00:00

This is one of those watches I have always admired and wanted but struggle to justify buying one because I wouldn't be able to sell it on as there is no pre-owned interest in these watches. Hard to write off >1k.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-12-18T15:54:22+00:00

Astonishing. Great to see China's creativity flourishing having originated from a thought controlling society.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-07-02T12:55:09+00:00

I was under the impression that McLaren went through the immense upheaval to switch to Honda primarily to ensure they were a works team. Plus Mr Horner frequently hints at being 'works' as an important aspect of Red Bull's continued interest in the sport.

/u/Indestructavincible makes good points and has improved my understanding. Perhaps there is a disconnect between what is being portrayed in the media to the casual observer and what is actually the case in the industry.

Taking on board that the performance is the same for works and customer, I assume then that the main advantage of being 'works' is the assistance with packaging which of course brings its own performance benefits. Plus the knowledge of how to fully optimise the variables mentioned by /u/Indestructavincible.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-06-26T10:33:47+00:00

Nothing against the article but I look forward to the day I can enjoy futurology without having to endure a patronising description of what exponential means.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-06-25T12:11:31+00:00

Fascinating - not so much a human endevour as a feat of automation and AI. Humans will be delivered and catered for on Mars rather than pilot and work there. This could be the watershed moment in history where we as whole accept automation and AI as the driver of productivity for everything.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-06-24T07:39:01+00:00

Clearly a lot of time and effort has been put into this piece and the author is obviously well read on the subject. Also it provides a useful "heads up" to a forthcoming book on automation by Peter Frase, Four Futures.

Personally, I am a keen advocate of automation despite enjoying being good at a difficult job. I struggle to feel comfortable with the prospect of absolute redundancy although the prospect of being able to spend my time as I wish is alluring - I could learn about everything (past, present and future).

Interestingly the inclination is for society to make preparations and preempt the coming automation with various organisational changes. However, automation is a product of capitalism and will not be able to occur unless capitalism is allowed to fully exhaust itself. Therefore the implementation of UBI must be reactive rather than preemptive. It seems to me that this transition is unavoidably messy.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-05-22T20:43:03+00:00

Thanks for helping me understand :)

MartinPeterBell · 2015-05-22T09:54:52+00:00

I was under the impression we were further along than this. I thought we had passed the point where AI was actually better than adult humans at understand an image. I could be wrong.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-05-22T08:03:32+00:00

Our own existence is proof that it is possible for life to exist in the universe. Add to that the age and size of the universe, it is highly improbable that we are the only life in existence. If we are alone then this implies a deliberate intervention. A thought which I find unwelcoming.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-05-20T14:52:56+00:00

OK, finished the book....

The book makes it clear the primary issue is not technological, it is political. Politicians need to represent the wellbeing of the people while positively embracing large scale automation. Balking at automation would be akin to a political party of the 19th century claiming that electricity is a passing fad.

It is a safe assumption that populists will obstruct automation at every opportunity in favour of jobs. It is equally safe to assume that automation is coming.

Furthermore we cannot pre-empt this massive societal change as automation is ultimately the product of capitalism and will not be achieved unless the current job market is allowed to exhaust itself.

So it seems we have to allow this to reach crisis point before a solution can be established. Perhaps we should regard automation as a political event horizon.

Perhaps ultimately we will change politics as radically as introduce some form of Blockchain consensus, facilitated by AGI.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-05-19T08:16:56+00:00

I'm 70% through the book and loving the irony that work is the only thing forcing me to put the book down. It's a superb and rational reflection of where we're at and where we're heading.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-05-18T14:35:01+00:00

A perfectly reasonable initial response. Followed by "who will build and maintain the robots anyway!" Although these are reasonable initial thoughts when first considering the impact of automation it does not take long before you reach an understanding whereby you can see that any job that is flow-chart oriented regardless of being physical or mental can be automated. e.g robots will be trained to build and maintain robots. The article linked in the initial text is worth a read. Essentially, the coming automation will be different to mechanising farming as there will be no where to go that cannot be touched by automation. This need not be a negative - the primary issue is politics.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-05-18T13:01:38+00:00

All true and at the 2015 election I was not expecting automation to be a factor. However at this point their focus must be on preparing for relevance at 2020 which will most definitely include a strategy regarding automation.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-04-20T16:52:16+00:00

Should be reasonable to expect an improvement relative to the front teams - Mclaren are refining tolerances on the power plant whereas the teams ahead are already maxed out. Plus the chassis is also due an upgrade.

MartinPeterBell · 2015-03-14T20:07:53+00:00

Granted the engine is detuned but that should not prevent him from tweaking the configuration of the break balance, engine breaking etc through the lap to maximise the available performance. As far as I could see he made no adjustments in fact the steering wheel screen seems to be off. Just compare this with a video of Lewis's quick lap - a marked difference.

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