So a fellow BT'er and I were on our way to some outdoor fun when we got in to a discussion about the U.S. gov't and the elections. During that conversation, the notion of "what if a computer acted in place of Congress and the President." In most cases, computers:
1. Are not self-serving
(ok...let's pretend Jonny 5 or HAL are not candidates
)
2. Cannot be influenced by emotion or non-rational thought
(A real Terminator would NEVER allow this to happen
)
3. Cannot lie
4. Use math as its primary logic platform
That being said, what kind of impact would those qualities have on:
1. Fiscal responsibility
(how fast do you REALLY think our federal budget would be balanced due to cutting of programs losing money or inefficient program mgmt
)
2. Social issues
(could it use math to actually weigh in on these matters or would it ignore all together?
)
3. Security
(how would it define a threat?
)
Finally, what programming methodology should you use to establish the operating parameters for said computer:
1. Based entirely on parameters established by constitution?
2. Prohibit any decision from being made that will cost more money to implement than money received?
3. Allow the computer to learn?
4. Other?
It was kind of a fun conversation. Yeah, it tinges of "i-Robot" and other apocalyptic scenarios, but after witnessing our current gov't basically regress in to a bunch of whiney, lying, backstabbing, bad decision making and overall incompotent collection of individuals, perhaps "change" really needs to beyond just a new face.
Of course, there's always the issue that "humans program computers", but guess no solution is perfect.
[Note: this is no way implies I favor computers over people and this conversation is probably best conducted while under the influence of alcohol]
Edited by cooutdoors 2008-11-10 3:27 PM