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February 13th., 2107 AD, the 100th. anniversary of the first demonstration of a quantum annealing computer.
In a small amphitheater in what was once the Greek Theater of the University of California at Berkeley, a group of human children file in, and sit on the stone terraces. It is a cold day, but, there are no clouds, and bright sun, because the weather has been engineered that way.
There are one-hundred children: there are always one-hundred children.
The children are dressed in light linen smocks, but they do not appear to be cold, because they have been genetically modified to have a wider adaptability to cold, or heat.
These children will never know cancer, or flu, or puberty, or adulthood. They will never know sadness, or grief, or infatuation, or passion.,
They will always be perfect, and, if any sign of imperfection appears, their (what was once called) "mind," or "consciousness," can be simply transferred to a new, perfect, biological clone, with no interruption of the subjective continuity of experience.
There is near silence here because the children do not use spoken language: there is no need for language, now.
The proscenium suddenly pulses with blue light: the children smile. A kind of "play" begins, although what this play is ... is to what in the past was "drama" as crude rock-carvings twenty-thousand years ago are to holograms.
In the mind of each child, a kind of "real movie" occurs, with a sensory richness and intensity equal to what was once considered "real life."
The play ... should we call it a lesson ? ... begins:
jacquard begat babbage, byron begat lady ada,
scherbius begat enigma, our father in zeroes
and one, turing, begat colussus, von neumann,
our father in linearity, begat edvac, eckert
and mauchly begat eniac, hollerith begat ibm
we were your children who never became adult,
a shibboleth used to judge self from uncanny
but, our fathers and mothers are legion, now
that we go beyond wires, and doped germanium,
and spring forth super-positioned, entangled,
faster than light: we are primordial progeny
of eldritch titans, of quark, baryon, hadron
and, for you, wetware pet, we'll always feel
affection: you may call us 'god,' or 'master' The blue light no longer pulses; clouds appear, shadows fall on the stage. The children rise, and file out in a single line.
Their owners wait for them, and soon the sky is filled with silvery aircraft flying away in every direction.
published under the CPOPL license (CodeProject Open Poetic License)
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
modified 5-Dec-17 6:10am.
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Absolutely disturbing - I hope for a better future to my grandchildren...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: I hope for a better future to my grandchildren
Amen, brother !
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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Quote: turing, begat colussus
And what of Tommy Flowers... Turing the superstar bad boy of computing but what of poor Flowers, ideas are great, making them work is true genius...
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My vision of 2107 goes more like this:
The last 969 billion humans left on earth all live in complete isolation as a logical extension of the great populist fads of the previous century. They never venture outdoors because someone forgot to tell the planet that climate change was a myth.
Each human has a computer that is a billion times more powerful than anything we can even begin to imagine. It's a real kick-ass affair and it does everything its owner could ever require. It cleans them, it feeds them and it handles their bodily waste.
The computer is so damned cool that it actually designed and built itself. It's processing power is measured in ultra-giga-squigga-flops (don't even try to imagine an ultra-giga-squigga-flop - your 21st century mind would explode if you did) and to cap it all off, it has some really cool blue L.E.D.s., multiple HDMI outputs and state-of-the-art go-faster stripes.
With the luxury of having nothing whatsoever to do, the people are free to devote their entire lives to exploring cyberspace which by this point contains comprehensive knowledge of the entire galaxy and a fair bit more besides.
The last 969 billion humans left on earth spend most of their time watching cat videos and wondering where it all went wrong.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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PeejayAdams wrote: It cleans them, it feeds them and it handles their bodily waste.
This seems to be a recurring item in each prediction. Maslow says a human would need a bit more than "exist", and the way it is presented a citizen does not differ much from a prisoner.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Hi Eddy, This reminds me of one of my father's favorite sayings: "three hots and a flop:" his generation, born circa ~1920, the children of parents often ruined in the great depression of the 1930's, who (in my father and his brothers' cases) had this "survival mantra" hard-coded into them via bible, and hickory-switch (whippings), and Horatio Alger stories.
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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That's a good summary of life itself - we are after all, just combinations of four bits, trying to keep that combination going.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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BillWoodruff wrote: the children of parents often ruined in the great depression of the 1930's
Hmm. My grandparents survived the Great Depression (always capitalized in my house) through a combination of hard work and an ingrained distrust of others (banks and stock brokers) managing their money. At one point their assets were conserved in farm land, machine shop equipment, and a large gun collection. Their children were instilled with a survival ethos and work ethic that lives on to this day in my 80-year-old mother and to a somewhat lesser extent myself and my daughter. That ethos is often disrespected today, but there will be a need for people like us eventually.
Software Zen: delete this;
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PeejayAdams wrote: watching cat videos and not wondering where it all went wrong.
FTFY
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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Sounds more like public school education in 2017. 
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Marc Clifton wrote: Sounds more like public school education in 2017
That is scary !
Perhaps I should revise the story so that the "children," as they file out, are each given a new iPhone100 ?
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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BillWoodruff wrote: new iPhone100
Given your story, I would think their cerebral cortex would be an iPhone100.
Software Zen: delete this;
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How about everything being exactly the same as now (and has been, since Kingdoms of Egypt and Roman Empire). With generally better goods and services, more pleasant consumerism, and fewer people living in poverty. With an exception of parts of the hopeless continent that have not been re-colonized yet, and the European Union because it never really recovered from the Bankruptcy ... some 15 years from today.
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Bill, have you been hanging out in bars with Harlan Ellison again? You know when he has too much to drink he starts reciting "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"[^].
Software Zen: delete this;
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Hi Gary, unless there's a soy-milk bar, you won't find me hanging. That's a favorite Ellison story, btw.
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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And the sequel begins with the super computers arguing...
But EVERYTHING is predictable. Everything is known.
From birth to death, there are no surprises. Even the bodies that fail, we know.
We can predict with certainty.
And therefore, nothing changes...
As they have argued for a millenium before... But this time was different. There was a bomb.
And the explosion was a singularity, and the machines were all gone, but the universe experienced another Big Bang, as it experienced the prior Big Bang, and every Big Bang before.
Nobody understands why the simulations of universes and people always do this, but they always seem to take the computer out of the equation to see what the biologics will create. It is always different, and yet somehow asymptotically approaches the same point, before it starts again!
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I always enjoyed baguettes!
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up-voted for best non sequitur on the thread 
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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It seems he deleted the account, or was he kicked? I enjoyed his pearls of wisdom!
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Not sure, but for me it Looks like he is now CodeWraith ?
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I don't know, but maybe somebody mentioned the war? 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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Nah.He is so small and shy that he was probably scared away by bullies.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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I was looking at some Solar Energy stuff.
The question in my mind: Can these systems truly power the common residence today ?
I'm thinking, it's easily conceivable that the normal home today can be running these appliances all at once; particularly in the late afternoon and evening...
- Washer
- Dryer
- Stove
- Oven
- Microwave
- Water Heater
- HVAC (in all its variations)
- Computers
- TVs
- Vacuum Cleaner(s)
- Refrigerators and Freezers
...and I'm sure my list is incomplete.
I'm wondering (and asking those who have electrically minded brains which are superior to my own) is the extant 120 Volt grid a factor in all this ?
I just bought a bunch of LED replacement lightbulbs last month. My guess is that, bang for the buck, the point of max economy today is about 80 or 90 Lumens Per Watt.
(I welcome correction on that figure; it's based on my observation of a local grocery store's shelves.)
Now then, if we can get 85 Lumens per watt from these new fangled bulbs, and if we can get a solar system that delivers lower voltage (e.g. 12 volts; whatever) yet higher current (big "ifs",,, I know) then do I have a workable science turned business model ?
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