Writing line of the day

[bktheirregular]

"If you really need to know what sort of a computer system you're dealing with, order it to perform an impossible task. A pure-logic system will choke on it and probably crash. A true AI will generally respond by telling you to perform an impossible task."

Comments

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I suppose that puts HAL's "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave" into the first category.

Makes sense. A 9-year-old computer is probably less powerful than the RAM in my coffee machine now.

[bktheirregular]

Yeah, HAL was too bound by logic to point out that he'd been given contradictory directives, I guess.

And my office-mate has a telephone that could probably out-think the laptop I used in law school.