Comments for teedeepee.com http://www.teedeepee.com Tales of an accelerating future Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:41:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Comment on Forum by Christine http://www.teedeepee.com/forum/comment-page-1/#comment-111 Christine Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:41:02 +0000 http://www.teedeepee.com/blog/?page_id=364#comment-111 I actually believe that computers can potentially replace all human tasks apart from those involved with intuition and imagination (right brain activities).. The immediate step is for computers to automate all repetitive-type of human work, such as factory assembly lines, call centers (via voice recognition), immigration officers, cashiers, etc. The next step, many of our white-collar job functions can be replaced such as accountants, auditors, middle men, sales, bank officers should programming sophisticated enough and hardware sufficiently fast. But we need pressure points to accelerate this transformation because politically governments everywhere are incentivize to maximize employment rates for social stability concerns - hence governments might opt to sacrifice the potential efficiency that can be brought by robots by maintaining a low unemployment rate. On the corporate level, we still have abundant cheap labor pools yet to be utilized in the developing world. The costs of robotic R&D exceed costs of third world labour - as a result, there is a lack of incentives for corporates to engage in costly R&D unless there will be a surge of wage prices in the developing world. In China, it is happening, albeit slowly (see this news:http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/02/worlds-largest-electronics-manufacturer-foxconn-wants-1-million-more-robots-in-3-years-bye-bye-human-labor/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SingularityHub+%28Singularity+Hub%29) due to upward wage pressures. I actually believe that computers can potentially replace all human tasks apart from those involved with intuition and imagination (right brain activities)..

The immediate step is for computers to automate all repetitive-type of human work, such as factory assembly lines, call centers (via voice recognition), immigration officers, cashiers, etc. The next step, many of our white-collar job functions can be replaced such as accountants, auditors, middle men, sales, bank officers should programming sophisticated enough and hardware sufficiently fast.

But we need pressure points to accelerate this transformation because politically governments everywhere are incentivize to maximize employment rates for social stability concerns – hence governments might opt to sacrifice the potential efficiency that can be brought by robots by maintaining a low unemployment rate.
On the corporate level, we still have abundant cheap labor pools yet to be utilized in the developing world. The costs of robotic R&D exceed costs of third world labour – as a result, there is a lack of incentives for corporates to engage in costly R&D unless there will be a surge of wage prices in the developing world. In China, it is happening, albeit slowly (see this news:http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/02/worlds-largest-electronics-manufacturer-foxconn-wants-1-million-more-robots-in-3-years-bye-bye-human-labor/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SingularityHub+%28Singularity+Hub%29) due to upward wage pressures.

]]> Comment on A Divemaster’s Case Study by Ian Holmes http://www.teedeepee.com/2011/02/12/a-divemasters-case-study/comment-page-1/#comment-105 Ian Holmes Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:33:14 +0000 http://www.teedeepee.com/blog/?p=315#comment-105 Being a DM myself I see your dilema, although an AOW who can't detach his inflator hose is a liability to himself and others. It begs the question was it hire gear or his own equipment? If the latter, he should know his equipment and have it serviced on a regular basis. Also the PADI way creates an over confident diver, you can be Advanced after 9 dives??? Surely a recipe for danger. I can see why a lot of places ask for number of dives rather than qualification. Right, back to your scenario.... and what I would have done... You mention you came across the instructor with his group? If after about 1 or 2 minutes I personally would have signalled to that instructor that you were one diver down (I wont use LOST haha), told him to look after the non missing diver (so that he could continue his paid dive and enjoy the wreck) and also make sure they keep an eye out for the missing diver (he may be about taking pics, you know what pleasure divers are like), put that diver at ease by assuring him you will look for his buddy and then surface. The reason I say surface is because although the boat captain needs to be a trained EFR it is not always the case and as a duty of care and DM I would have gone up just incase. We will experience more situations like this the more we dive, they say for every 400-500 dives you will experience a situation where people have near death injuries, some experience a death whilst diving. An experience I think we both dont want? Hope that helps Buddy. Being a DM myself I see your dilema, although an AOW who can’t detach his inflator hose is a liability to himself and others. It begs the question was it hire gear or his own equipment? If the latter, he should know his equipment and have it serviced on a regular basis.
Also the PADI way creates an over confident diver, you can be Advanced after 9 dives??? Surely a recipe for danger. I can see why a lot of places ask for number of dives rather than qualification.
Right, back to your scenario…. and what I would have done…
You mention you came across the instructor with his group? If after about 1 or 2 minutes I personally would have signalled to that instructor that you were one diver down (I wont use LOST haha), told him to look after the non missing diver (so that he could continue his paid dive and enjoy the wreck) and also make sure they keep an eye out for the missing diver (he may be about taking pics, you know what pleasure divers are like), put that diver at ease by assuring him you will look for his buddy and then surface.
The reason I say surface is because although the boat captain needs to be a trained EFR it is not always the case and as a duty of care and DM I would have gone up just incase.
We will experience more situations like this the more we dive, they say for every 400-500 dives you will experience a situation where people have near death injuries, some experience a death whilst diving.
An experience I think we both dont want?
Hope that helps Buddy.

]]> Comment on A Divemaster’s Case Study by toxicmax http://www.teedeepee.com/2011/02/12/a-divemasters-case-study/comment-page-1/#comment-104 toxicmax Mon, 27 Jun 2011 06:53:15 +0000 http://www.teedeepee.com/blog/?p=315#comment-104 Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to watch cousteau on the telay? Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to watch cousteau on the telay?

]]> Comment on Ars Longa, Vita Brevis by ToxicMax http://www.teedeepee.com/2010/05/15/ars-longa-vita-brevis/comment-page-1/#comment-55 ToxicMax Mon, 24 May 2010 10:52:34 +0000 http://www.teedeepee.com/?p=216#comment-55 the fifth stage being also broken down into multiple stages of its own: first our galaxy, then the milky way, then the whole universe, until all the stars in the world are infused with our intelligence... but then the stars will start will start to die... To find out what is left of our intelligence then, read Asimov's The Last Question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBOrEbujD_4 the fifth stage being also broken down into multiple stages of its own: first our galaxy, then the milky way, then the whole universe, until all the stars in the world are infused with our intelligence… but then the stars will start will start to die… To find out what is left of our intelligence then, read Asimov’s The Last Question:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBOrEbujD_4

]]> Comment on Tactical Success, Meet Strategic Failure by ToxicMax http://www.teedeepee.com/2010/02/20/tactical-success-meet-strategic-failure/comment-page-1/#comment-2 ToxicMax Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:49:36 +0000 http://www.teedeepee.com/?p=125#comment-2 right, but aren't all of these men wearing baseball caps and even going through the trouble of covering their face with the hands when they pass the camera? How can anyone recognize them based on this footage? right, but aren’t all of these men wearing baseball caps and even going through the trouble of covering their face with the hands when they pass the camera? How can anyone recognize them based on this footage?

]]> Comment on Tactical Success, Meet Strategic Failure by teedeepee http://www.teedeepee.com/2010/02/20/tactical-success-meet-strategic-failure/comment-page-1/#comment-3 teedeepee Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:56:08 +0000 http://www.teedeepee.com/?p=125#comment-3 No, their passport photos had been scanned by immigration upon landing. The passports and identities were fake (actually borrowed from innocent people) but their pictures were genuine. Those photos are now all over the news outlets and on the front page of Interpol's "Wanted" page. They are perfectly recognizable -- and probably understimated the Dubai Police capability to trace some video surveillance footage back to their passports. [EDIT] I added the passport pictures of the first 11 suspects to illustrate this. No, their passport photos had been scanned by immigration upon landing. The passports and identities were fake (actually borrowed from innocent people) but their pictures were genuine. Those photos are now all over the news outlets and on the front page of Interpol’s “Wanted” page. They are perfectly recognizable — and probably understimated the Dubai Police capability to trace some video surveillance footage back to their passports.
[EDIT] I added the passport pictures of the first 11 suspects to illustrate this.

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