Simply put, technological singularity is a prediction that technology will progress at an unbelievably fast pace, so fast that the future will be unpredictable, unimaginable, and completely different than the way things are today. Of course there is much more to it, but this set of articles is just an introduction.
So what would take place if we ever did design computers that were more intelligent than us? Would human beings be rendered obsolete? Could humans and computers ever develop some sort of understanding? Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov was one of the first people to propose safety precautions for AI with his “Three Laws of Robotics.” The first law the computers must follow is that a robot may not injure a human being or let a human being get hurt through inaction. The second law is that robots have to comply with the orders given to it by humans, except when these orders would conflict with the first rule. And the third law is that a robot must protect its own existence as long as doing so doesn’t conflict with the first or second law. Of course, things don’t go down that smoothly in Asimov’s fiction.
Things are not going so great for this country. The economy is the pits, and Americans are losing jobs by the barrel-ful. Marketing is as strong arm as ever, making our citizens believe that they absolutely MUST have the next big “thing” – whatever it may be, whether it be a cellphone or a computer. All of the next big THINGS have updated versions which are bigger and better, which means that the time to purchase is NOW.
A science fiction novel I once read from a while back described a group of scientists who put together a supercomputer that was more intelligent than humans. Anyone could type a question into the supercomputer, which would instantaneously answer with an accurate answer. One day, a scientist was working late in the lab alone. He typed the question “Is there a god?” into the supercomputer. Without hesitation, the supercomputer gave its alarming reply: “There was not a god, but there is one now.”
Whenever tax season rolls around, the crooks seem to come out of the woodwork. This tax season was no different. Internal Revenue Service scams were spread around; the most popular one involved an email that appeared to be a legitimate email from the IRS. This email stated that this year, your tax refund can be available on your Visa or Mastercard. To transfer your refund, it directed you to a website that requested your credit card number, social security number, card verification value numbers, credit card expiration dates, filing status, amount shown on your tax return, and other personal information. In today’s day and age, it is my hope that nobody would give this kind of information to an unverified website merely because it looks authentic, but the few people who were duped are surely victims of identity theft and are now feeling the blowback from their fatal mistake.
Who doesn’t love a good text message? Painless, fast, and no talking on the phone to that annoying person you have to get in touch with! There is no arguing with the fact that texting is becoming a major conduit for the exchange of information. It is no wonder that there were practically 750 billion text messages sent in the United States last year, nearly twice the amount of text messages sent in 2008.
Welcome back to debt collection 101, your beginner’s guide to debt collection. In the last article I wrote about two types of debt collectors, third party collection agents and in house debt collectors. I spoke about what skip tracing was and how a skilled debt collector will use it to find new information on a debtor that is difficult to locate.
Pay cuts and layoffs pushed more Americans into bankruptcy the past year, and experts say that the situation won’t be likely to get better until the unemployment problem improves. In Wisconsin, bankruptcy filings raised to 30 percent in 2009. This came on top of a 35 percent increase in the preceding year.
The times they are a changing, and chances are your collection agent is changing with them. If you have been called by a collection agent before, you probably know that most debt collectors are strictly regulated by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act- a federal law that mandates how they can approach you and proceed with the collection process.