Raspberry Pi To Embrace RISC OS
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 31st Oct 2011 12:59 UTC, submitted by Martin H Hansen
RISC OS Sometimes, on a rather boring and run-of-the-mill Monday, I get news in the submission queue which just puts a gigantic smile on my face. We've talked about the Raspberry Pi before on OSNews, and other than reporting that everything's on track for a Christmas launch, it has also been announced that the Raspberry Pi will be able to run... RISC OS. A British educational ARM board running RISC OS? We have come full circle. And I couldn't be happier. Update: Theo Markettos emailed me with two corrections - Markettos isn't actually a representative of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and the quoted bits are transcribed, they're not Markettos' literal words. Thanks for clearing that up!
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RE[2]: Ya
by fretinator on Mon 31st Oct 2011 15:16 UTC in reply to "RE: Ya"
fretinator
Member since:
2005-07-06

I even strongly suspect one machine tells you when to wake up, most of the mornings


Of course, that's because I have programmed it to do that. The issue becomes more complex as the intelligence of the machine grows. Think of "Siri" from the iOS world.

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[3]: Ya
by zima on Mon 31st Oct 2011 19:08 in reply to "RE[2]: Ya"
zima Member since:
2005-07-06

Ahh, but why did you allow this authority to the machine in the first place?! ;) Of course, because you (we) suck at it, because that particular machine has much better "timekeeping intelligence" ;)
And consider: if those machines (possibly synchronised with the network of other machines - where Skynet lurks ;) ), one time, were to be mistaken or manipulated... most likely you would still listen to them most of that morning :>
(now add up all other machines on which we depend, usually hardly realising it; that is the whole point of ~AI, mass production and distribution of expertise; and - how large part of "our" economy revolves around... building and maintaining machines, anyway? ;p )

Generally (and trying to drag the topic in a serious manner ;) ), I don't feel it changes much that we give away "control" more or less wilfully - after a while, we forget about the old ways of doing things, we push them aside (and, one could argue, it frees the limited capabilities of our minds to focus on other tasks ...as long as we don't have super-intelligent machines able to outstrip us all in everything, that is ;) )


Traffic lights are a hilarious example:

1) We certainly are being told what to do by a machine.

2) "But, but, those who programmed the machine know what they are doing" ...well, I'm not quite sure about that. :>
Every single time new traffic lights show up in my neighbourhood, the flow of cars grinds to a halt, and half of the city (the jam "spills over" to other intersections) is paralysed during rush hours (or even outside them, whole day or two!), for a few days ;) (until "they" figure out, largely by trial and error it seems, which of the presets work decently; traffic & lights planning is largely done by specialised software anyway, so the group "in control" is very small - heck, I suspect large part of their models come from simulations, automated analyses of large sets of ~"traffic recordings", evolutionary algorithms, and such - in a way, quite depending on machines in the search for solutions ...and all this so we can efficiently operate machines which, by _their_ requirements, totally hijacked layouts of our cities and the style of life ;) )

Reply Parent Score: 2