As best I understand, a petaflop is 1,000 trillion connections per second. The human brain can do 20,000 of them, so it’s the high mark for computer operations.
I understand we are at the 2.5 petaflop level now, but expect to transcend human capacity pretty darn soon.
I wonder when we wake up to that if we will feel any differently? I want to feel different or differently as the case may be.
I understand that Newt’s top staff all quit over something or other. That knocked Anthony’s nether regions off the top spot. I imagine he woke up feeling differently, if not different.
Meanwhile folks will soon be starting to paw through all of Sarah’s e-mails during her brief and situationally boring (according to her) time as governor of Alaska. No doubt she will be feeling differently about some of the things she said then as to what she wished she’d said. Although in truth, I suspect she feels no different at all.
Meanwhile, Ricky Santorum will say more stupid shit, and Mitt will continue to look so out of his element trying to rub elbows with the average joe, all the while turning his positions about anything and everything inside out and round about, hoping to grab the current wave of public opinion about pork bellies and the relative merits of white as opposed to black truffles.
“Paw”-lenty will continue to be so boring that it can be described as Truman Capote once did James Baldwin’s writing:”balls-achingly boring. Not having a pair, I don’t know where to look for a similar anatomical analogy.
Trumpet will continue to try to be kingmaker by threatening to come back in if the “wrong” choice is made, and Sarah bleats a similar refrain. Does anybody care?
In all, I can “learn” all this and expend no more than 1/millionth of my petaflop of existing mental ability. And boy, that seems rude indeed to my brain, which waits no doubt, in sheer anticipation of being used for greater things. No doubt. Or maybe some doubt, since I just learned of this petafloppery thing and hell, I may have gotten most of it wrong for all I know.
Infidel753 has one of those quotes today that sounds all noble and stuff. It has the atheistic ring to it–you know what I mean–I don’t lean on fairies to soothe my existential ennui. I’m brave enough to face the truth. Live now! I liked it in a strange sort of way, even though I don’t believe it, and would argue that the author has a thoroughly incorrect assumption about what faith is really all about. Go read it. See what you think. Does it make you feel different or differently?
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Oh does anybody remember amid the chaos of all these so exceptional candidates and all the never-to-be-missed announcements that fall delicately from their fangs, that we have a debt ceiling crisis, a housing crisis, an energy crisis, a jobs crisis, a war crisis, and no doubt a crisis of faith, rationality, and plain old guts? Does anybody care that the environment may already be so screwed up by the man-made (yes women too) tinkering and pooping in our own nest, that it may never recover? At least not in a manner fit for this species? No I thought not. It’s more fun to raise a “this Bud’s for You!” and drown our over-par score from this morning.
Does it make you feel different? How about differently? Too much to ask?
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Meanwhile (I do like that word), in Alabama it is now against the law to knowingly give a ride to an undocumented immigrant. Well, let me tell ya somethin’ there ALA BAM a, it has always been a social crime, and moreover an intellectual crime to knowingly give a native Alabamian a ride across the state lines. It is a prison, after all, and the inmates must be kept INSIDE.
When Governor Bentley attends various governors meetings, he’s required to wear a HAZMAT suit. He is, I swear! Nobody wants that contamination entering their state.
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Which leads me to conclude that there must be places around the globe that are infinitely better places to live than the US now. Better in every respect. So why aren’t we sneaking across some damn borders ourselves? No Canada, not you, just too damn cold–which is why you aren’t stuffed to the gills with illegals from around the world. Just a short trip across the top-o-the-world, and you are THERE. Still, suspiciously, I do hear the trace of a Russian accent on occasion when listening to Hockey Night in Canada.
Which begs the question of whether if you stand upon your igloo in the Yukon Territory, you can see Russia? Or only Sarah’s back porch? Does she keep the blinds open? Does Todd wear boxers or briefs?
And does THAT finally make you feel differently or just only vaguely uncomfortable?
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Inspissated: a word used by pissants to show off. Not really. Go look it up. If you dare to learn something today! Do you? A man by the name of Stanley Fish (hateful parents had he: Stanley?) wrote a book entitledHow to Write a Sentence and How to Read One. The last part is both arrogant and cheeky don’t you think?
On pains of being called really priggish ( a delightfully under-used word wouldn’t you say), I won’t suggest that reading my blog would save you the price of the book. HA. Okay.
One “style” author suggests the word “indeed” shouldn’t be used. Indeed!
He says, Writing cannot be taught, but it can be learned. Yes, I can see THAT. And don’t ever end a sentence with THAT. Not THAT but that. but then, I just did that again! Ha, ended in again that time. Time. Oh shut-up!
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If you think this post has all been a monumental waste of your time, well think of poor me. I had to write it. And besides, blame OKJimm. I’m blaming him for everything that goes wrong for the next week. Sign up to be the next scapegoat!
Damn I sure miss Truman Capote.
Now that I think about it.
No indifference here.
As best I understand, a petaflop is 1,000 trillion connections per second.
Computations, actually. FLOPS means “floating point operations per second” and is a standard measure of computing power.
The human brain has 100 trillion synaptic connections (connections between brain cells — this is much larger than the number of brain cells, since each brain cell is connected to several thousand others). One firing of one synapse takes 1/200 second, so total capacity is equivalent to 200 x 100 trillion firings per second, or 20,000 petaflops. In fact it’s probably less in practice, since at any given time may synapses are not firing, but it’s a rough figure for the upper limit of the brain’s computing power.
It needs all that capacity to run highly sophisticate “programs” like human consciousness.
I understand we are at the 2.5 petaflop level now, but expect to transcend human capacity pretty darn soon.
The new 50,000-petaflop Cray XK6 system will be at least twice as powerful as the human brain — the first time the latter has ever been surpassed.
When computers reach 100 times the power of the brain (2015-2017 time frame) they’ll be powerful enough for us to run complete simulations of human brains on them, although in practice we won’t be able to do that until brain-scanning technology catches up.
Well ain’t you the smarty pants! lol…Thanks for all the information. I guess that means that computers are getting mighty smart.
Me: so total capacity is equivalent to 200 x 100 trillion firings per second, or 20,000 petaflops
Should have said 20 petaflops (= 20,000 trillion operations per second).
Questions:
Can we see a picture of Infidel750?
When CRAY853 will replace the poor, who will enrich the rich?
Is the above baroque dump a sign of things to come?
Is a flop a success or a failure?
After all this noise I deafinitely deafferent.
indeedy, those are some powerful questions you pose.
Truly a rant extraordinaire! My concern now is the extreme weather patterns we’re now seeing. Cyclical? Who knows. Devastating? watch for food prices to soar what with corn yields taking a hit. Will the earth survive? Hell yes, she just may have to cleanse herself of this pesky parasite called humanity.
Why I rant extraordinaire? Me? And yes, I do think this is not some cyclical thing. I think the times they are a changing, and you are right, corn production in the Midwest is projected along with soybeans to be reduced by 30%. That will no doubt cause a good spike in prices.
//blame OKJimm//
Hey, sure, why knot….go out on a limb…I can handle blame…me is sturday as an oak… I will share the blame…just doan leaf me out when the beer is poured
I knew I could count on you!
Infidel753′s post (and the subsequent discussion) were riveting. With technology advancing at a dizzying rate, we’ll need to confront a host of ethical and social issues in the decades to come.
As I mentioned at Infidel753′s blog, I’m eager to see what will occur when computer self-awareness comes into the picture. At this time, no matter how powerful a computer might be, it still lacks free will and consciousness. How soon will we unlock the mechanism behind self-awareness? What vistas (for good or for ill) will open up if we ever bestow sentience on powerful computers?
Ahab — see my response to your comment. Full understanding of the mechanisms of self-awareness and will is probably ten to twenty years away. Sentient machines are a more iffy proposition — right now there are still too many unknowns. But eventually machine intelligence will be integrated into human intelligence, vastly increasing the latter.
I surely have no doubt that it will happen Infidel.