Author Archives → Limbic
Designated Ground Zeros
The USA’s 1950’s era nuclear target list makes for grim reading.
There were relatively few targets though. I thought pretty much every Soviet city was on the list.
Source: 1950s U.S. Nuclear Target List Offers Chilling Insight – The New York Times
OpenAI
A bulge is forming in the distribution of the future.
From the NY Times:
A group of prominent Silicon Valley investors and technology companies said on Friday that they would establish an artificial-intelligence research center to develop “digital intelligence” that will benefit humanity.
The investors — including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman — said they planned to commit $1 billion to the project long term, but would initially spend only a small fraction of that amount in the first few years of the project. But, Mr. Musk said, “Everyone who is listed as a contributor has made a substantial commitment and this should be viewed as at least a billion-dollar project.”
The organization, to be named OpenAI, will be established as a nonprofit, and will be based in San Francisco.
Its long-range goal will be to create an “artificial general intelligence,” a machine capable of performing any intellectual task that a human being can, according to Mr. Musk. He also stressed that the focus was on building technologies that augment rather than replace humans.