Re: Re: Kurzweil - (Definitely ON topic)

[Guest guest]

I understand the ability of scientists conquer physical problems that go wrong as we age such as heart disease and other organ failure and problems caused by inheriting bad genes, but cancers and diseases caused by microbes are another, more complicated matter. Microbes have an " intelligence " of their own. They mutate constantly causing illness that we have never seen before and are not immune to. Of necessity, we have to constantly find new, better ways of trying to stay one step ahead of them. Medicines that once worked become useless as the organisms mutate.

So unless we discover a sure-all cure/prevention for every possible disease out there (as well as predicting what future diseases will emerge and how to defeat THEM), I can't see how any futurist can say for sure that we will be disease-free someday.

on 10/2/2005 11:46 AM, at crjohnr@... wrote:

aequalsz wrote:

>

>

>

> Hello,

>

> The best chess grandmasters have already been spanked by computers.

>

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue

>

> Aequalsz

>

>

>

>

> I stand corrected. I consider Deep Blue and later incarnations as

testament to the remarkable power of human cognition rather than

suggesting machine mastery over it. It is the nature of human chess

players to learn from past mistakes and return smarter and stronger.

Machines can very accurately recall past outcomes but their ability to.......... (snipped)

[Guest guest]

I understand the ability of scientists conquer physical problems that go wrong as we age such as heart disease and other organ failure and problems caused by inheriting bad genes, but cancers and diseases caused by microbes are another, more complicated matter. Microbes have an " intelligence " of their own. They mutate constantly causing illness that we have never seen before and are not immune to. Of necessity, we have to constantly find new, better ways of trying to stay one step ahead of them. Medicines that once worked become useless as the organisms mutate.

So unless we discover a sure-all cure/prevention for every possible disease out there (as well as predicting what future diseases will emerge and how to defeat THEM), I can't see how any futurist can say for sure that we will be disease-free someday.

on 10/2/2005 11:46 AM, at crjohnr@... wrote:

aequalsz wrote:

>

>

>

> Hello,

>

> The best chess grandmasters have already been spanked by computers.

>

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue

>

> Aequalsz

>

>

>

>

> I stand corrected. I consider Deep Blue and later incarnations as

testament to the remarkable power of human cognition rather than

suggesting machine mastery over it. It is the nature of human chess

players to learn from past mistakes and return smarter and stronger.

Machines can very accurately recall past outcomes but their ability to.......... (snipped)