October 6, 2014 at 12:28 pm
I am on the "less than 5 years to retirement" team. I am hoping for less than 1 - but am only confident of less than 5.
October 6, 2014 at 12:56 pm
Tom_Sacramento (10/6/2014)
5 years from now...When I started in this business 35 years ago life was punch-card FORTRAN and Assembler code. I am absolutely amazed at where we are now, ...
Ah, nothing like spending a late night at the campus lab building typing out your assembler code on the pesky punch card machines. Need to move a section of code, no cut and paste required, just pull out that section of the cards and resort. Big programs? you cleared off a big table (late at night) and put all the key routines in piles. (and what a pain it was!)
As for the article, IMHO, most of the predictions are much farther away, but could happen. We are still waiting for AI. Which is a very good thing. If they get it right, Battlestar Galactica here we come. If/when Google gets is AI stuff working, combined with all the data they have on those who use Google, and after they buy Facebook or vice/versa, it will be corporate big brother
The more you are prepared, the less you need it.
October 6, 2014 at 1:08 pm
crussell-931424 (10/6/2014)
I'm fairly confident that in five years I will be retired.
Retirement is just around the corner for me... less than four months. :w00t:
Tom
October 6, 2014 at 1:59 pm
Eric M Russell (10/6/2014)
Azure first gave us the ability to create a database, as opposed to just a key value store.
Steve, perhaps you meant to say: "Azure first gave us (SQL Server) the ability to create a key value store, as opposed to just a relational database". Azure Table Storage, the new storage model, is more like a key value store; versus the SQL Server relational database running on Azure.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg309178.aspx%5B/quote%5D
Actually the original could stuff, which was showcased at TechEd in '07 or '08 from a subset of the SQL Server team, was a "database" that only allowed tables as key value stores. Couldn't see much use for it, other than maybe lookup data for some apps that needed to be distributed. However I think it was in 2009 that we could actually create a database with tables, views, limited programmability.
October 6, 2014 at 2:53 pm
Miles Neale (10/6/2014)
There will be no need for school. We will alter the DNA prebirth so that no one is born without the initial abilities of Albert E. and who knows where they will go. Imagine a world without limits!!!
You're wrong, we'll have a catalog to choose, because Albert Einstein abilities won't be enough. You'll be able to choose Michael Jordan, Kofi Annan, Steve Jobs, Michael Phelps, Robin Williams, Zinedine Zidane and many others depending on the interest of each person.
October 6, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Luis Cazares (10/6/2014)
Miles Neale (10/6/2014)
There will be no need for school. We will alter the DNA prebirth so that no one is born without the initial abilities of Albert E. and who knows where they will go. Imagine a world without limits!!!You're wrong, we'll have a catalog to choose, because Albert Einstein abilities won't be enough. You'll be able to choose Michael Jordan, Kofi Annan, Steve Jobs, Michael Phelps, Robin Williams, Zinedine Zidane and many others depending on the interest of each person.
Excellent point, and I stand corrected.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
October 7, 2014 at 6:57 am
Luis Cazares (10/6/2014)
Miles Neale (10/6/2014)
There will be no need for school. We will alter the DNA prebirth so that no one is born without the initial abilities of Albert E. and who knows where they will go. Imagine a world without limits!!!You're wrong, we'll have a catalog to choose, because Albert Einstein abilities won't be enough. You'll be able to choose Michael Jordan, Kofi Annan, Steve Jobs, Michael Phelps, Robin Williams, Zinedine Zidane and many others depending on the interest of each person.
In my opinion, and I don't think that science has proven otherwise yet, the abilities of the persons mentioned above are the result of their life experiences, their interests and character, and simply being in the right place at the right time in history. It's not coded in their DNA. A lot of unexceptional offspring are the result of pairing between exceptional parents, despite having two sets of exceptional DNA and the benefit of better than average parenting.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
October 7, 2014 at 7:31 am
Eric M Russell (10/7/2014)
Luis Cazares (10/6/2014)
Miles Neale (10/6/2014)
There will be no need for school. We will alter the DNA prebirth so that no one is born without the initial abilities of Albert E. and who knows where they will go. Imagine a world without limits!!!You're wrong, we'll have a catalog to choose, because Albert Einstein abilities won't be enough. You'll be able to choose Michael Jordan, Kofi Annan, Steve Jobs, Michael Phelps, Robin Williams, Zinedine Zidane and many others depending on the interest of each person.
In my opinion, and I don't think that science has proven otherwise yet, the abilities of the persons mentioned above are the result of their life experiences, their interests and character, and simply being in the right place at the right time in history. It's not coded in their DNA. A lot of unexceptional offspring are the result of pairing between exceptional parents, despite having two sets of exceptional DNA and the benefit of better than average parenting.
Studies show that it is effort, not DNA, that has the greatest effect on results. So sorry, designer babies are fiction. We may be able to breed out certain flaws/inherited diseases but I doubt that we will ever be able to breed good looks or genius.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
October 7, 2014 at 7:46 am
Gary Varga (10/7/2014)
Eric M Russell (10/7/2014)
Luis Cazares (10/6/2014)
Miles Neale (10/6/2014)
There will be no need for school. We will alter the DNA prebirth so that no one is born without the initial abilities of Albert E. and who knows where they will go. Imagine a world without limits!!!You're wrong, we'll have a catalog to choose, because Albert Einstein abilities won't be enough. You'll be able to choose Michael Jordan, Kofi Annan, Steve Jobs, Michael Phelps, Robin Williams, Zinedine Zidane and many others depending on the interest of each person.
In my opinion, and I don't think that science has proven otherwise yet, the abilities of the persons mentioned above are the result of their life experiences, their interests and character, and simply being in the right place at the right time in history. It's not coded in their DNA. A lot of unexceptional offspring are the result of pairing between exceptional parents, despite having two sets of exceptional DNA and the benefit of better than average parenting.
Studies show that it is effort, not DNA, that has the greatest effect on results. So sorry, designer babies are fiction. We may be able to breed out certain flaws/inherited diseases but I doubt that we will ever be able to breed good looks or genius.
That's true. I know this is drifting further off-topic, but even if there were a technical way to engineer the next generation to be composed of mostly geniuses, I'm not sure how practical it would be. Society itself isn't structured to accomodate that many smart people.
Consider all the university educated folks who were standing in the unemployment lines; we literally have more university degrees than we know what to do with. When a company complains that they can't find enough qualified candidates for job openings, they're not talking about folks with genious level IQ, they're talking about candidates who meet the minimum requirements for a narrowly defined job at specific salary range.
Yes, a genious should be able to create their own job, but a high IQ doesn't guarantee that the person is also a self-starter; it might just mean they are more prone to depression because of their limited circumstances.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
October 7, 2014 at 7:54 am
True.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
October 7, 2014 at 8:22 am
Eric M Russell (10/7/2014)
Yes, a genious should be able to create their own job, but a high IQ doesn't guarantee that the person is also a self-starter; it might just mean they are more prone to depression because of their limited circumstances.
You're right, that's why I mentioned different people with different abilities. A world full of Einsteins wouldn't work. I don't consider Steve Jobs or Bill Gates as computer geniuses, but I know that without them, the computer world wouldn't be the same. And, after all, my comment was just to continue with the previous joke. 😛
There's a sci-fi movie called Gattaca that approaches this issue. In it, a "love-conceived" man has to struggle to get opportunities in a world where most kids are "designed" using the best genes from their parents. Ironically, life can change expected circumstances and demonstrates that he can be better than the others.
October 7, 2014 at 8:31 am
Luis Cazares (10/7/2014)
Eric M Russell (10/7/2014)
Yes, a genious should be able to create their own job, but a high IQ doesn't guarantee that the person is also a self-starter; it might just mean they are more prone to depression because of their limited circumstances.You're right, that's why I mentioned different people with different abilities. A world full of Einsteins wouldn't work. I don't consider Steve Jobs or Bill Gates as computer geniuses, but I know that without them, the computer world wouldn't be the same. And, after all, my comment was just to continue with the previous joke. 😛
There's a sci-fi movie called Gattaca that approaches this issue. In it, a "love-conceived" man has to struggle to get opportunities in a world where most kids are "designed" using the best genes from their parents. Ironically, life can change expected circumstances and demonstrates that he can be better than the others.
Of all the designer genes, the "self-starter" gene would probably prove the most practical. A generation of self-starters is something we could use here and now.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
October 7, 2014 at 8:54 am
The phrase "survival of the fittest" falls short of reality which uses "survival of the fittest for unknown upcoming conditions". Its even more complicated because right now what is effective is collaboration. The information era has passed and I'd like to call the new one a Collaboration Era. It takes a group of individuals to stand out and accomplish anything. Seriously it is said that no one person knows how to make something as simple as a pencil because of the complexity of supplying, manufacturing, and distributing it. The knowledge of most anything is so distributed that it all is not in one brain. We function as a collective mind...thanks in large part to the internet.
Furthermore, consider that change is massively parallel. Seven billion people competitively adapt minute-to-minute and trade up to whatever works better. We ruthlessly steal habits that work. This is the power of genetic algorithms and evolution.
October 7, 2014 at 9:37 am
Eric M Russell (10/7/2014)
Society itself isn't structured to accomodate that many smart people...
Eric, This is very wise and appropriate and never off topic. Society rejected a generation of dirty, smelly, long-haired, waco people who loved logic and lived within computers. They were programmers, but were also rejects, nerds, geeks, and propeller-heads who had no value in society. They were rejected and scorned simply because they were not good looking, strong, or had muscles. They had brains, heavy beards and thick glasses. They were smart, and they could do things mentally that others could not even dream of. And these rejects turned into the giants that built the core of what is IT today. We stand on the shoulders of these giants, doing what we do because of what they created out of dreams that they made into reality.
Society has not traditionally accommodated the smart, they rejected, they tolerated, accepted, and to some point today respect them. But there is not room for too many smart people, you are correct.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
October 7, 2014 at 9:46 am
...at last!!! Reason for my existence 😀
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 30 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply