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[challenge entry] All that social despairing with witchy further down the board inspired this:

knocked it up a bit quick - sorry it's kinda crudely executed!

From the 1950s Government Warnings challenge. See all 378 entries (closed)

(I helped save b3ta! chaotic_illuminator proud spacehopperist, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:15, archived)
# Should be posted
in every maternity ward.
(Indole Ring, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:18, archived)
# And every unemployment office...
Western Society is totally fucked, you know. We may not have quite developed the perfect AI machine which can build its own successors - even better AI machines - but we have created huge stratas of society where an economic, intellectual, cultural and moral underclass gives birth to the next generation of even-further-under-class...
How the hell do you reverse the damage we've wrought in the last few decades?
EDIT - after all, there isn't enough bandwidth for everyone to hang out on b3ta... we've saved 7500 odd so far, but we can't look after everyone!
(I helped save b3ta! chaotic_illuminator proud spacehopperist, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:24, archived)
# hehe
that first bit sounds like an Issac Asimov short story :P (about the computers building better computers and so on....)

EDIT: computers name was Multivac..
(lostpixel, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:25, archived)
# Asimov talked about it...
I think it was part of Alan Turing's vision... A lot of people have used the "reproduction" function as a talking point re robotics. AI, computers, etc, etc...

EDIT - that's the one! Well done. Couldn't remember a specific story...
(I helped save b3ta! chaotic_illuminator proud spacehopperist, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:27, archived)
# Turing there was a man who was hounded
to a needless death - poor man.
(The Scone from U.N.C.L.E., Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:31, archived)
# Was reading a book
about logic had a bit about Turing in... sort of interesting.. I guess you learn a lot about that thing if you do Computer Science at Uni...
(lostpixel, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:32, archived)
# I hope you do!
I didn't, so I wouldn't know.
Turing is a hero. If any single person can be credited with inventing the modern programmable computer, it's him. As pointed out above, a much hounded and persecuted man. And because the work at Bletchley Park, including the invention of Collosus, was classified war stuff, other people got the credit for building the first computer for over 50 years, until the classification was lifted. Rough deal for all concerned. Probably the single most important technological innovation of the century, and they couldn't even say "er... we did that years before them!".
(I helped save b3ta! chaotic_illuminator proud spacehopperist, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:36, archived)
# sounds like a v.Clever man :p
I am starting my course at UnI in CS after this GAP year I am taking.... Really looking forward to it.... should learn lots of interesting things...

Think I might get some books bout turing from the library :P tnx..
(lostpixel, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:40, archived)
# Read the real history....
...but also read Neal Stephenson's wonderful wonderful novel "The Cryptonomicon", which is fiction, but has some real people in, including Turing. I won't say any more - don't want to spoil it. It will blow you away.
(I helped save b3ta! chaotic_illuminator proud spacehopperist, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:42, archived)
# If you're into computer-related sci-fi,
Vernor Vinge has also written a novel called A Fire Upon The Deep, which is also mind-bogglingly good.
(Indole Ring, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:48, archived)
# also noted...
thanky!
(I helped save b3ta! chaotic_illuminator proud spacehopperist, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:49, archived)
# hehe tnx
I was trying to think of some more authors to read.... just been re-reading some Arthur C Clarke - The city and the stars :P..
(lostpixel, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:49, archived)
# read the Cryptonomicon ASAP!!!
I can't recommend it highly enough. Gripping, ambitious, wide-ranging, action-packed, but all about big big ideas. Fucking awesome.
(I helped save b3ta! chaotic_illuminator proud spacehopperist, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:51, archived)
# lol
goes to library and nocks down doors :P
(lostpixel, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:53, archived)
# Seconded!
It's a great book.

Another interesting novel with Turing in it is Enigma by Robert Harris. It's set in Bletchley Park at the height of the U-boat war.
(Indole Ring, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:56, archived)
# Too damn right.
About the only hope I can see is in the hyperintelligent machines.

Ever read Vernor Vinge's Singularity essay?
(Indole Ring, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:30, archived)
# heard of it... not read it..
now bookmarked it... will read tomorrow!
(I helped save b3ta! chaotic_illuminator proud spacehopperist, Sun 17 Nov 2002, 0:32, archived)