On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 10:36:57AM -0500, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
>
> A little humor for the group.
>
> Among my other "legacy" systems I also have and still fool around
> with a bunch of TRS-80's. Believe it or not, the Z80 based TRS-80's
> were among the systems for which a version of STVOS was available.
> Thought I would look to see if any of it was still floating around.
>
> Asked Google
>
> "TRS-80 Software Tools Virtual Operating System"
>
> Got this result at the top of my response generated by whatever AI
> engine they use.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> A "TRS-80 Software Tools Virtual Operating System" refers to a software
> program that allows a modern computer to emulate a vintage TRS-80 computer,
> essentially creating a virtual environment where you can run old TRS-80
> software, including operating systems like TRSDOS, by simulating the
> hardware and functionality of the original machine, letting you access and
> use programs designed for the TRS-80 on your current computer.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> That is the biggest pile of steaming poo I have ever seen come out of
> any of the various AI engines I have run into. Not one piece of it is
> accurate other than the mention of TRSDOS.
First off all, that which is being marketed as "AI" these days is
essentially pattern matching on drugs and industrial solvents. No matter
what the marketing tells you, these systems do not and cannot think or
reason. When queried (and both the queries and the answers tend to be
heavily filtered and reprocessed from I read), they are hilariously prone
to whats politely called "hallucinations" and what is actually "vomiting
bullshit"[0]. Second: There are echos of the OG AI boom here, except these
days the systems use _epic_ amounts of brute force because today we can and
back then, _nobody_ could even build systems with a fraction of the compute
that is being casually thrown around here.
LLMs are being called "Stochastic Parrots" for very good reasons.
> I also have a bunch of iRobot Roombas in my house. Based on my experience
> with AI and robots I think there is no chance we will
> have to worry about any Terminators in the future.
Oversized pattern matching systems do have their use in the appropriate
places - i.e. when the problem to be solved _is_ actually pattern matching.
For instance, Swiss Railways (SBB) uses acoustic detectors tied to rails
feeding into a well trained "AI" pattern matching system to detect and
classify damage to rolling stock wheels based on the acoustic signature
of the damage - and then matches against time tables and train data to
identify the damaged wheel so it can be fixed and doesn't further damage
the rails.
Kind regards,
Alex.
[0] See Harry Frankfurter: On Bullshit
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison
