Today's Topics:
Todd Rundgren
Channeled from R.I.S.K.S.
suntools or NeWS bob items wanted
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Message-Id: <8906010903.AA10368@hplnpm.HPL.HP.COM>
Subject: Re: Todd Rundgren
Date: Thu, 01 Jun 89 02:03:10 PDT
From: "Niels P. Mayer" <mayer%hplnpm@hplabs.hp.com>
Ahhh... alas I was too embroiled in the sin of the nonslacker and got too
busy to write up a "trip report" on Todd Rungren's recent speech at the Bay
Area SIGGRAPH meeting held at Xerox PARC in Shallow Alto. The title was
something like "Musings on the Bronze Age of Computing". He never once
mentioned the Church of the Subgenius, but his entire talk was essentially
a rant with no perceptible logical structure, yet a talk that led to many
remarkable & epiphanous insights. The man reeled of some nice off-color
jokes that are not normally heard amongst the seemingly-conservative though
trendy-hipster-looking BA Siggraph crowd.
A few of the funny statements made by Mr. Rundgren (paraphrased at best):
"I don't buy all this drug control shit... if they got rid of all the dope
in silicon valley, this place would shut down"
"If anyone ever invented a dataglove with sensory feedback on just one
finger, you know the first place that glove goes wouldn't be on their
hand!"
.... there were more, but I can't remember them well enough....
GO SEE THIS MAN TALK IF YOU CAN!
-- Niels.
PS: the other talk on the "Waldo" computer animation character was pretty
neat too. "Goop Factor" is now a technical term!
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Message-Id: <8906011613.AA09885@retina.cs.ucla.edu>
Reply-To: trainor@cs.ucla.edu
Subject: Channeled from R.I.S.K.S.
Date: Thu, 01 Jun 89 09:13:34 PDT
From: Vulture of Light <trainor@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: Mon, 29 May 89 12:50:22 -0500
From: spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)
Subject: Computer electrocutes chess player who beat it!
14 March 1989 issue of "Weekly World News" [one of those supermarket
tabloids]
Computer Charged with Murder After Frying Chess Champ, by Ragan Dunn
A Soviet super-computer has been ordered to stand trial for the murder
of chess champion Nikolai Gudkov -- who was electrocuted when he touched
the metal board that he and the machine were playing on! "This was no
accident -- it was cold-blooded murder," Soviet police investigator
Alexei Shainev told reporters in Moscow. "Niko Gudkov won three straight
games and the computer couldn't stand it. When the chess master reached
for his knight to begin play in the fourth game, the computer sent a
lethal surge of electricity to the board surface. The computer had been
programmed to move its chess pieces by producing a low-level electric
current. "Gudkov was electrocuted while a gallery of hundreds watched."
The decision to put the computer on trial stunned legal experts around
the world. [I hope computer experts are also shocked, so to speak.
--spaf] But the Soviets are convinced that the computer had the pride
and intelligence to develop a hatred for Gudkov -- and the motive and
means to kill him. The mind-boggling murder drama unfolded during a
six-day chess marathon between the M2-11 supercomputer and Gudkov, a
world class chess player.
According to reports, Gudkov defied all odds [Calculated by the same
supercomputer, no doubt. --spaf] and beat the machine in three
consecutive games. And when they prepared to begin their fourth, a
deadly dose of electricity flowed up into the electronic board and
zapped Gudkov dead. Soviet authorities initially thought that the surge
of electricity was caused by a short-circuit. But an examination of the
computer revealed no problems.
It was later determined that the machine diverted the flow of
electricity from its brain to the chess board to ensure a victory over
Gudkov. [This implies that Soviet semiconductors work at voltages of a
few hundred volts, or maybe their supercomputers are tube-based?
--spaf]
"The computer was programmed to win at chess and when it couldn't do
that legitimately, it killed its opponent," said investigator Shalnev.
"It might sound ridiculous to bring a machine to trial for murder. [!!]
But a machine that can solve problems and think [sic] faster than any
human must be held accountable for its actions."
Rudi Hagemann, the Swiss legal scholar, agreed with the Soviet cop. He
said that the development of artificial intelligence has come so far in
recent years that certain computers and some robots "must be considered
human."
It isn't clear how the Soviets will punish the computer if it is found
guilty when it goes to court this spring. [Send it to a Gulag for
reprogramming? --spaf]
But Hagermann says the machine will probably be reprogrammed or
dismantled altogether.
[I don't think there's much to say here, except in the way of warning:
next time you accuse the system of cheating at rogue, don't say it too
loudly! -spaf]
[This reminds me of the WWN story from 10 July 1984 about the 58-year-old
Chinese man, Chin Soo Ying, who had designed a computer system in 1950
(based on the British Colossus) to express words of love and emotions.
The article related how after he had built a new machine in the 80s,
he was electrocuted by the old machine. His wife was convinced that
Chin was murdered by the old machine, which then committed suicide. (The
WWN hadline was "Jealous Computer Zaps its Creator".) I recall this in
the interest of perspective on the current story, and its source. PGN]
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Date: Thu, 1 Jun 89 11:57:01 PDT
From: Andrew Scott Beals <bandy@mica.berkeley.edu>
Message-Id: <8906011857.AA20062@mica.berkeley.edu>
Subject: suntools or NeWS bob items wanted
Ok, I'm finally working at a place where I have a sun instead of a mac..
Please mail me if you have publically ftp'able stuff that I can
grab or just drop it in [lll-crg.llnl.gov]~ftp/pub and tell me it's
there and I'll grab it from there.
thanks
andy
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End of SubGenius Digest
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