My pareidolia knows no bounds.

Holy cr*p! We could be on the verge of mastering artificial stupidity. One of the most important milestones on the road to mastering artificial intelligence.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Larry Burford</i>
<br />Wouldn't it be cool if this little exercise lead to some sort of breakthrough in pattern recognition software?
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In the late 80s, I was working for a company in the semiconductor industry that brought in a contractor to create a pattern recognition algorithm that could find certain cross patterns the fabricators were adding to their silicon wafers, such that we could automate recipe creation. At the time, a person had to manually go to each cross, and "select" it as your navigation site.

Seems like a simple task? No?

No. It was a nightmare in the making due to reflectivity and transparency issues of the various materials that make up the layers of a computer processor (integrated circuit)

25 years later it still seems very crude to me. At least based on that article.

So, yes, that would certainly be cool.

Put it to the test on the raw data in the MSSS strips that Neil used to find his art works. Now <b>that </b> would be something.

rd

A 'firestorm' on a message board like this is when several (or more) members are posting often enough and quickly enough that in the time it takes most of them to compose a reply and post it, at least one other member has already posted something.

When this happens, most replies are not in sync with the message being replied-to.

It is what happened yesterday, and it was most likely part of why Zip Monster 'grabbed his football' and left.

***

We have been close to that level of activity again today.

Again, kind of cool. I observe these phenomena and as a scientist I'm fascinated. But as a person trying to help others communicate accurately, I cringe.

Larry, I've seen websites that are ten times harder for you to keep track of who is talking to who and when. This seems fine to me. I usually go back and check to see if I missed something. Usually only takes one quick scan of the previous page.

I guess I assume (and you know what happens) everyone reads every message. Since there's no official "reply" type threads, all the messages are interwoven, so sometimes any one of us posts "to the world" and other times, we quote enough to make it obvious who is being replied to.

It would never have occurred to me to slow down. lol

Slowing down is probably not the right way to solve the 'problem'. In fact, rapid exchange like that, with people that can literally be anywhere in cis-lunar space, is part of what makes the on-line experience better (in SOME ways) than real life.

LB

<b>[] "I usually go back and check to see if I missed something. Usually only takes one quick scan of the previous page." </b>

Most, if not all, of us do this as well. But in the middle of a firestorm you often don't feel like taking the time to go back. It's too much like slowing down.

But not going back, and picking up the posts you missed, guarantees that you miss things. Like support that you expected, but <u>thought</u> you did not get.

LB