(no subject)
Okay, so I promised that I'd type up an entry last weekend, but I didn't. But I definitely want to this weekend, hence why I've created an entry.
First, I only got 68 out of 100 on the Computer Science III test I talked about in my last entry. I was surprised that I did that poorly. Actually I ended up getting 70 out of 100 after talking to my professor about one of the questions I did poorly on, but that wasn't much comfort. I was aiming for 80 or above and I didn't achieve it. Obviously once again there were some concepts that I thought I understood and apparently I either didn't or the fatigue from being up all night working got to me and the hour-and-a-half nap that I took before the test wasn't enough to make me alert enough to remember everything, and what I put on the allowed cheat sheet didn't do the job either. The final is this Thursday. I've already started studying for it as I definitely don't want to end up with such a low score on the final.
There's another element that's cropped up in CS III for me also: a guy named Matt, who is also a student in the class (and, I"m presuming, is the person who has a score of 97%, the highest in the class) is offering help with the labs and studying. I bring this up because I've asked him if I could get some help on one of the labs but I'm also jealous of his current standing in the class, especially since judging by his looks he can't be any more than 20. I know the right thing to do is to swallow my pride and get the help, but I'm tempted not to because of my jealousy and because it's only a matter of one point in my overall score. But I also can't stand having worked on something for so long and not getting it and feeling stupid as a result. I told Matt I'd be available Tuesday night before realizing that that's usually when I take my nap before work so I'll have to change that to Tuesday afternoon. He wanted me to send an email saying when I wanted to do this, so I still have an opportunity to change the plans slightly - if I decide to see him at all.
On a positive note, to give myself a better chance at doing well on the final I've already started studying for it. I've studied every day since Wednesday night for at least a half-hour after seeing the advice on, among other things, our morning newscast saying that studying for a half-hour for five days before a test is more effective than studying for five hours on the night before. I've mainly been studying representations of graphs and graph algorithms, which is what most of the final will be on since it wasn't covered on the previous two tests. The other part is everything else we've had in the class, which was covered on the first two tests. Hopefully this strategy will work out.
I've also been feeling a bit lonely lately. I haven't been out as much with my friends and I haven't been online as much either, and when I am it seems that few people want to talk. Also, I've been having email exchanges with three people, but one of them I haven't heard from in at least two weeks and one seems to be off and on again. The third I need to respond to, so I know that's my fault, and I'll respond after I upload this entry. I actually like communicating via email with people as it seems I get to go more in-depth and personal with email than on LiveJournal, IRC, instant messaging, or Web forums. I understand that people get busy and may not have the time or the motivation to respond when I want them to, but I still feel more isolated when they don't. As for hanging out with friends in person, I haven't been doing as much of that lately, either. The last time I did was Thursday night. Part of the reason was that Jeff was out of town for the weekend last weekend and no one else really got together. I did see a movie with some of Vik's friends, though, on Friday afternoon. Even so, it was no substitute for hanging out at Jeff's.
I want to bring up an issue that I heard about on the show "IDEAS" on CBC Radio One on Tuesday night as I was trying to take my nap before work: technology and how it relates to our future as a species. "Ideas" had an interview with Ray Kurzweil, who among other things has made pretty accurate predictions about technology, its uses, and its purposes, and predicts that by the middle of this century robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology will have advanced to the point where we humans will implant computers into our brains to increase our intelligence, communicate telepathically, and be able to create a virtual reality by directly stimulating neurons in our brains. He also predicts that through the latter two we will live significantly longer than we do now, and that all of this will culminate in what he calls the technological singularity, a point where technological progress will be so rapid that no predictions can be made beyond its beginning. By this time computers will have surpassed humans in intelligence, humans will merge with computers, and due to medical advances and this merging with machines we humans will become immortal. He stated that this would happen because just about everything - and I do mean everything - will be able to be represented in terms of information technology, and that said technology will keep growing exponentially.
Personally my views on this are pretty much the same as expressed by Bill Joy, the founder of Sun Microsystems and a key computer scientist in the creation of the original Berkeley Software Distribution, in "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," which appeared in Wired magazine in April of 2000: Kurzweil's predictions will come true but the world that comes about from it will be dystopian world, not the utopia that Kurzweil is trying to keep himself alive to experience. Joy wrote that we can't predict what decisions machines will make for us, assuming we turn over out decision-making to them entirely, that once all three of these technologies are common that they will be very difficult to control, and that we need to decide which of these technologies we will pursue and which we will not pursue for our own good.
Other critics point out that the possibility of this happening is slim since the circumstances which got us to this point won't hold long enough for us to reach a technological singularity. They may be right, but Kurzweil has been pretty good about predicting the future, though I think in this case like your local TV meteorologist he's altered his predictions slightly over the years and that calls his credibility into question.
Unfortunately the episode of "IDEAS" isn't available online, though you can find a synopsis here. Bill Joy's "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" can be found in its entirety here.
That's all for now. No Software of the Week, since as amazing as this sound I haven't found anything that's "wowed" me and I haven't really been on the lookout.
First, I only got 68 out of 100 on the Computer Science III test I talked about in my last entry. I was surprised that I did that poorly. Actually I ended up getting 70 out of 100 after talking to my professor about one of the questions I did poorly on, but that wasn't much comfort. I was aiming for 80 or above and I didn't achieve it. Obviously once again there were some concepts that I thought I understood and apparently I either didn't or the fatigue from being up all night working got to me and the hour-and-a-half nap that I took before the test wasn't enough to make me alert enough to remember everything, and what I put on the allowed cheat sheet didn't do the job either. The final is this Thursday. I've already started studying for it as I definitely don't want to end up with such a low score on the final.
There's another element that's cropped up in CS III for me also: a guy named Matt, who is also a student in the class (and, I"m presuming, is the person who has a score of 97%, the highest in the class) is offering help with the labs and studying. I bring this up because I've asked him if I could get some help on one of the labs but I'm also jealous of his current standing in the class, especially since judging by his looks he can't be any more than 20. I know the right thing to do is to swallow my pride and get the help, but I'm tempted not to because of my jealousy and because it's only a matter of one point in my overall score. But I also can't stand having worked on something for so long and not getting it and feeling stupid as a result. I told Matt I'd be available Tuesday night before realizing that that's usually when I take my nap before work so I'll have to change that to Tuesday afternoon. He wanted me to send an email saying when I wanted to do this, so I still have an opportunity to change the plans slightly - if I decide to see him at all.
On a positive note, to give myself a better chance at doing well on the final I've already started studying for it. I've studied every day since Wednesday night for at least a half-hour after seeing the advice on, among other things, our morning newscast saying that studying for a half-hour for five days before a test is more effective than studying for five hours on the night before. I've mainly been studying representations of graphs and graph algorithms, which is what most of the final will be on since it wasn't covered on the previous two tests. The other part is everything else we've had in the class, which was covered on the first two tests. Hopefully this strategy will work out.
I've also been feeling a bit lonely lately. I haven't been out as much with my friends and I haven't been online as much either, and when I am it seems that few people want to talk. Also, I've been having email exchanges with three people, but one of them I haven't heard from in at least two weeks and one seems to be off and on again. The third I need to respond to, so I know that's my fault, and I'll respond after I upload this entry. I actually like communicating via email with people as it seems I get to go more in-depth and personal with email than on LiveJournal, IRC, instant messaging, or Web forums. I understand that people get busy and may not have the time or the motivation to respond when I want them to, but I still feel more isolated when they don't. As for hanging out with friends in person, I haven't been doing as much of that lately, either. The last time I did was Thursday night. Part of the reason was that Jeff was out of town for the weekend last weekend and no one else really got together. I did see a movie with some of Vik's friends, though, on Friday afternoon. Even so, it was no substitute for hanging out at Jeff's.
I want to bring up an issue that I heard about on the show "IDEAS" on CBC Radio One on Tuesday night as I was trying to take my nap before work: technology and how it relates to our future as a species. "Ideas" had an interview with Ray Kurzweil, who among other things has made pretty accurate predictions about technology, its uses, and its purposes, and predicts that by the middle of this century robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology will have advanced to the point where we humans will implant computers into our brains to increase our intelligence, communicate telepathically, and be able to create a virtual reality by directly stimulating neurons in our brains. He also predicts that through the latter two we will live significantly longer than we do now, and that all of this will culminate in what he calls the technological singularity, a point where technological progress will be so rapid that no predictions can be made beyond its beginning. By this time computers will have surpassed humans in intelligence, humans will merge with computers, and due to medical advances and this merging with machines we humans will become immortal. He stated that this would happen because just about everything - and I do mean everything - will be able to be represented in terms of information technology, and that said technology will keep growing exponentially.
Personally my views on this are pretty much the same as expressed by Bill Joy, the founder of Sun Microsystems and a key computer scientist in the creation of the original Berkeley Software Distribution, in "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," which appeared in Wired magazine in April of 2000: Kurzweil's predictions will come true but the world that comes about from it will be dystopian world, not the utopia that Kurzweil is trying to keep himself alive to experience. Joy wrote that we can't predict what decisions machines will make for us, assuming we turn over out decision-making to them entirely, that once all three of these technologies are common that they will be very difficult to control, and that we need to decide which of these technologies we will pursue and which we will not pursue for our own good.
Other critics point out that the possibility of this happening is slim since the circumstances which got us to this point won't hold long enough for us to reach a technological singularity. They may be right, but Kurzweil has been pretty good about predicting the future, though I think in this case like your local TV meteorologist he's altered his predictions slightly over the years and that calls his credibility into question.
Unfortunately the episode of "IDEAS" isn't available online, though you can find a synopsis here. Bill Joy's "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" can be found in its entirety here.
That's all for now. No Software of the Week, since as amazing as this sound I haven't found anything that's "wowed" me and I haven't really been on the lookout.