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"...science fiction is sort of like a sociological genome. It's a huge range of possible futures, most of them useless; some vital. You never really know in advance."
- Peter Watts
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| 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. |
| Technovelgy from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by GP Putnam in 1966 Additional resources -
|
Another quote:
Everybody dealt with Mike every minute every day—his outputs that is. But hardly anybody saw him. So-called computermen—programmers, really—of the Authority's civil service stood watches in outer read out room and never went in machines room unless tell-tales showed misfunction.
(Mike from The Moon is a Harsh Misstress)
Thanks to SMOF for the picture and the quote.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Mike (Mycroft Holmes - Fair Dinkum Thinkum)-related
news articles:
- SCIgen - Computer Generates CS Papers
- NELL Computer Learns To Surf The Web For Facts
- Lunar Supercomputer Complex
- Xiaoice Will Text You And Be Your Friend
- ANNABELL AI Can Learn English From Scratch
- 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
- Alibaba's AI May Read Better Than You
| LLM 'Cognitive Core' Now Evolving |
| When Your Child's Best Friend Is An AI |
| Australian Authors Reject AI Training Of Llama |
| Does AI Provide A Way Forward For Talk Therapy |
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
