TITLE: Two Forms of Irrelevance
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: March 13, 2015  3:07 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
<B>When companies become irrelevant to consumers</B>.  <BR/>
From
<A HREF="http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html">
   The Power of Marginal</A>,
by Paul Graham:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 The big media companies shouldn't worry that people will post
 their copyrighted material on YouTube.  They should worry that
 people will post their own stuff on YouTube, and audiences will
 watch that instead.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

You mean <EM>Grey's Anatomy</EM> is still on the air?  (Or, as
today's teenagers say, "Grey's what?")

<B>When people become irrelevant to intelligent machines</B>.  <BR/>
From
<A HREF="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/outing-a-i-beyond-the-turing-test/">
   Outing A.I.: Beyond the Turing Test</A>,
by Benjamin Bratton:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 I argue that we should abandon the conceit that a "true"
 Artificial Intelligence must care deeply about humanity -- us
 specifically -- as its focus and motivation.  Perhaps what we
 really fear, even more than a Big Machine that wants to kill
 us, is one that sees us as irrelevant.  Worse than being seen
 as an enemy is not being seen at all.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Our new computer overlords indeed.  This calls for a different
sort of preparation than studying lists of presidents and state
capitals.
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