My dad and I were watching a TV show where someone received a time traveling fax. I remarked that the software on the Fax machine may have just had a bug.
He immediately remarked "they're scientists (physicists who sent the fax) and it was impossible that they wouldn't have accounted for that".
I've been a software engineer for 10 years. He's a well-read hard-working blue-collar guy, working as a taxi driver and behind a deli most of his career. I just nodded and moved past it.
People want to anthromorphize AI. People want to yield divine knowledge to computers. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic indeed.
Heh. Ask him if the people at the deli he works at are generally competent.
I have a somewhat awful belief about humanity: that about 70% of people work jobs they’re not very good at. Most of the time this is ok, because so many jobs are bullshit anyway. Bad real estate agents still sell houses. Grumpy sales people still sell product. Social media managers - well, let’s not go there. But it has some strange consequences - like how most therapists are (in one study) less useful for the patient than journaling. Or in my opinion, the prevalence of crap software.
Ask about his work. Ask if his coworkers made a fax machine, if it would work reliably. If he gets it, you’ll know. You’ll see it in his eyes.
He immediately remarked "they're scientists (physicists who sent the fax) and it was impossible that they wouldn't have accounted for that".
I've been a software engineer for 10 years. He's a well-read hard-working blue-collar guy, working as a taxi driver and behind a deli most of his career. I just nodded and moved past it.
People want to anthromorphize AI. People want to yield divine knowledge to computers. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic indeed.