[DF] "But I'm a (half) angel!"

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by robkelk

(Just because we have it now doesn't mean anybody expected it then.)

We have A.I now? I see much more evidence of Artificial stupidity than Artificial Intelligence. :)

Take Amazon recommendations for example.. It recently discovered that I had read and liked a Conan the Barbarian book. It therefore recommend to me a book of Christopher Hitchens essays.

I see a _lot_ of stuff like that.

[Ashtagon]

Originally Posted by Bruno

We're only "allowed" one improbable assumption? What, are the Sci-Fi police going to come and burn all my Asimov novels now?

This side-conversation started with the discussion of a world-spanning AI system.

But if you decide to ignore the AI system part, it's even more ludicrous that the computer would catch fire/implode/whatever from being presented something outside its parameters.

What actually happens when dumb computers get nonsensical input is one of
a) validation routines reject the input (I refuse to believe!/You must be mistaken, Hal)
b) attempts to process the input and aborts, basically taking extra time to get to a)
c) attempts to process the input and crashes, which is a decidedly non-lethal condition. It can certainly cause an annoying service interruption, but it's not system-death.
d) processes the garbage input and produces garbage output, then continues largely unmoved by the experience.
Q: "Has this thesis ever been done before?"
A: "Coconut."
There may now be lingering coconut-related nonsense in the database that needs cleaning up, but again, this is nonlethal.

iirc, the multivac didn't so much give up in a fit of blue smoke as realise that it had made so many decisions based on a flawed premise and thus ruined too many promising careers as a result. It concluded that its programming was not fit for purpose. It probably went looking for a programmer or counsellor or whatever handles such advanced computers to tell it what do do next (or ran its self-diagnostics package), and stopped its main job in the interim as a precautionary measure while the problem was resolved. All the story notes it that it the immediate aftermath of the event, it was effectively out of commission for its usual task.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

We have A.I now?

He meant global spanning computer nets. Which even now we don;t have anything even remotely resembling MULTIVAC.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by robkelk

Well, yes. It's called the Unicorn in the Garden rule (after the James Thurber story of the same name) - go past one improbable assumption and suspension of disbelief gets snapped.

Every super popular work of science fiction and fantasy has far more than a single improbability.