Well, this should pretty much be the end of math

[Leros]

As someone who has taken plenty of math courses, and a few college level engineering math courses, you aren't really being taught to solve the equation, more when and how to USE the equation.

Also about understanding the basic idea behind the equation. If you understand the concepts, you can only know a few basic things and derive most of what you need.

 

[irishScott]

Cool, but I'm curious how it works with different textbooks that may use differing fonts, formatting, variable names, subscript designations, etc.

 

[skimple]

Eventually it will be just like the Star Trek episodes where a bunch of clueless morons have no comprehension about the technology that controls their world.

Actually, we're pretty close to that already....

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Eventually it will be just like the Star Trek episodes where a bunch of clueless morons have no comprehension about the technology that controls their world.

Actually, we're pretty close to that already....

Or, its been like that since man discovered fire.

 

[DigDog]

do want

 

[moonbogg]

If you could have an implant installed in your head that let you do math like this simply by looing at it, would you have it installed?

 

[Belegost]

While it may take a year or two to learn + - X and / in school, it is still very much useful and quicker than pulling out a calculator. For instance we're doing our bathrooms and sometimes have had to do on-the-fly calculations for tile or spacing. Measuring and dividing or even adding a few numbers in our head is much faster than putting down a tape measure to punch in numbers. I can't imagine not knowing how to do something like figuring out how many 9" bullnose tiles I need to fill 96" of vertical wall space in my head. Surely you can do that faster than doing it on a calculator.

But what about when you just point your smartphone at the wall, say "figure out how many tiles for a shower" and it gives you the complete list of needed tiles, exact cuts for all tiles needing cuts, and a mock-up video showing the correct process for optimally marking and laying the tiles to get even joints?

That's the sort of intelligent systems Moonbogg is discussing.

Imagine how you would feel if all around you, amazing progress was being made. Huge scientific achievements came in regular frequency and the world's technology and overall rate of innovation skyrocketed. The only problem with this picture, is you feel eerily irrelevant and no longer feel like you are a part of that progress.
The last time any person made a significant contribution was about 50 years ago, and even that was a rare stretch. Here you are, in the year 2114 and the world is more amazing than ever, but sadly, you feel less and less like its your world. You feel like everything is handed to you, like a spoiled rich kid who knows nothing about the feeling one gets when they genuinely earn something.
No sense of accomplishment. No sense of reward. No sense of importance, and just about completely now, no sense of purpose or relevance.

Our successors won't have any need to attack us, or to annihilate us in order to further themselves. We will simply stand there, jaws agape as we watch them innovate themselves further and further away, well beyond our grasp, we will be left behind. Like a lonely ray of light which will never know the eye of an observer, for the ceaseless expansion of the universe is too great for it to ever overcome. So too will be our destiny.

Welcome to singularity. I think the interesting questions are:

Will we solve the issues of physical processing and manipulation to enable adaptable robotic entities to do most (all) human physical labor before or after we solve the issues of a self-adaptive artificial system capable of performing significant tasks in critical thinking, creative design, and other tasks currently under the knowledge worker category.

- To me this question is critical in where society goes, if the physical labor machines come first, then humans will increasingly be cut out of those jobs, and only those who do mentally intensive work will be relevant, I see this leading to a human upper class of well-educated, intelligentsia coupled to capital holders who need them, and a largely irrelevant under-class of humans subsisting on what is allowed them. If the development goes the other way I see capital holders using machines to replace the intelligentsia and the vast majority of humans of all intellectual capability become a serf-like labor class slaving under constant threat of being replaced with physical labor machines.

Will we learn enough about our neurobiology to enable human augmentation before or after we achieve AIs capable of directed iteration on their own design? Can augmentation of the human brain sufficiently improve our ability to maintain relevance in the face of AI systems capable of geometric (if not exponential) capability growth?

If so, then the future you describe need not occur, humans will enable our own directed evolution path which should enable us to remain relevant. Otherwise we slowly become a vestigial appendage to a larger artificial society.

 

[vi edit]

What's more amazing to me is that there's actually an interesting app available for Windows Phone.

 

[Albatross]

Whoever wrote that app will probably earn a fortune.

 

[Ruptga]

Whoever wrote that app will probably earn a fortune.

Once it's done. Looks like they're shooting for an early '15 release.

 

[Kev]

Okay, listen up you feckless droids. Learning math isn't about learning how to solve equations no matter how complex. The purpose is to enable you to envision and estimate a larger world view. To raise the level of of your understanding and perception of the world around you. The possibilities made available through understanding the math is something no machine will ever be able to do. They can order the possibilities in any manner the programmer can envision but, will NEVER, be able to use intuition, combining unrelated facts, to create new maths or tools to solve a new type of problem.

wow, get over yourself

 

[moonbogg]

wow, get over yourself

Don't presume yourself beyond the point of insult. If that presumption has already been made, then turn about face, wind up, and let him have it.

Welcome to singularity.

Shhh. Don't disturb them. They are like frogs in a slow boil. They're time is almost up, but they are too comfortable to do anything about it yet.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Neat! But can that thing help you calculate tips like my Wizard?

 

[DrPizza]

Can I be serious for a minute? I believe education will be completely obsolete before long, especially things like math. It would be ludicrous to invest time and energy learning something that a machine can do infinitely faster and better.
In the future, I expect knowledge to be accessible in the same way information is accessible via google.

Okay, listen up you feckless droids. Learning math isn't about learning how to solve equations no matter how complex. The purpose is to enable you to envision and estimate a larger world view. To raise the level of of your understanding and perception of the world around you. The possibilities made available through understanding the math is something no machine will ever be able to do. They can order the possibilities in any manner the programmer can envision but, will NEVER, be able to use intuition, combining unrelated facts, to create new maths or tools to solve a new type of problem.

Thanks for saving me some of the time responding to the first quote.

Anyone who thinks that education simply means the ability to recall facts and give answers to basic math problems... well, their education failed them. The ability to use Google and look up simple facts or definitions, or use a calculator to compute a value does not mean you're able to interrelate, organize, hypothesize, compare, differentiate, develop, originate, judge, recommend, summarize, appraise, compare, evaluate, criticize, . . .

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Thanks for saving me some of the time responding to the first quote.

Anyone who thinks that education simply means the ability to recall facts and give answers to basic math problems... well, their education failed them. The ability to use Google and look up simple facts or definitions, or use a calculator to compute a value does not mean you're able to interrelate, organize, hypothesize, compare, differentiate, develop, originate, judge, recommend, summarize, appraise, compare, evaluate, criticize, . . .

Education did fail me but, I read enough and was interested enough to educate myself.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Thanks for saving me some of the time responding to the first quote.

Anyone who thinks that education simply means the ability to recall facts and give answers to basic math problems... well, their education failed them. The ability to use Google and look up simple facts or definitions, or use a calculator to compute a value does not mean you're able to interrelate, organize, hypothesize, compare, differentiate, develop, originate, judge, recommend, summarize, appraise, compare, evaluate, criticize, . . .

The purpose of an education is of course not just to collect facts but how to think, which you have broken down into various examples and components. The spooky thing to me is that some people seem quite willing to do without the one quality which separates us from all other species. There's this fantasy that removing the effort required to become an intelligent person will make their lives some kind of paradise. What it will do is make them helpless and redundant. Darwin always wins, and that which is not needed perishes.

 

[moonbogg]

Thanks for saving me some of the time responding to the first quote.

Anyone who thinks that education simply means the ability to recall facts and give answers to basic math problems... well, their education failed them. The ability to use Google and look up simple facts or definitions, or use a calculator to compute a value does not mean you're able to interrelate, organize, hypothesize, compare, differentiate, develop, originate, judge, recommend, summarize, appraise, compare, evaluate, criticize, . . .

Do you think there is something special about a human brain that can't be replicated? Imagine whatever special qualities you think people have, and then add to that CPU like abilities and its game over. You can spend 1000 years in the best college ever, and it won't matter. Not even a little bit.

 

[Ruptga]

Shhh. Don't disturb them. They are like frogs in a slow boil. They're time is almost up, but they are too comfortable to do anything about it yet.

We've already been over this, but speak for yourself. We transhumans will rise above both man and machine. Resistance is futile.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Do you think there is something special about a human brain that can't be replicated? Imagine whatever special qualities you think people have, and then add to that CPU like abilities and its game over. You can spend 1000 years in the best college ever, and it won't matter. Not even a little bit.

What pudding can you feed a shark to make it a tree?