Probably not the correct way to see it, but compared to new car makers like Tesla, BYD, Xpeng and so on, Ford seems not doing anything. The formers invest heavily on softwares, robots (in house or funding external cos), ADAS, remote sensing etc. I don't see giant legacies doing the same.
well they were a battery company first. I cant know for sure but i presume they bought the ice car manufacturing lines always with the intention of going fully electric over time.
China made its first computer in 1958 and its first 1 megaflop computer in 1973, so yes, their nascence of computer programming preceded the Cultural Revolution, about 10 years after the West.
It was also a Cold War. My father-in-law and mother-in-law were both gifted mathematicians and mainframe programmers. She also designed CPUs. She is a sweet sweet person and a major badass. She is my hero. She’s in her 80s and was more accomplished in her 20s than you and I put together will ever be.
A generation of gifted, and hard working graduates emerged out of the bitter ashes of the cultural revolution. Their delayed entry to tertiary education and the circumstances behind it gave added impetus to their desire to study and gain knowledge.
I've met several across different disciplines and two (at least) in computer science and networking. When the barriers for travel came down, many studied and worked abroad, I met some in Edinburgh at the end of the 70s who worked in advanced language areas (think the foundations of ML) formal methods, CSP, you-name-it. People like these in networking (I subsequently know and worked with in governance contexts) built and led the chinese academic internet. These people are now senior academics in the Chinese academy of science. They're serious, smart people.
There was also a late 1970s VLSI boom in China. It's why they were so successful in the 80s and 90s outsourcing chip commercialization space.
So to my own knowledge if not "in" the cultural revolution certainly very rapidly afterwards assuming you take its run up into the 70s.
The Great Cultural Revolution were the Golden Age of PRC. The economy grew rapidly. If you had the Little Red Book, you could take a free train to join the Great Rally held at Beijing.
Hundreds of thousands of micro-computers had been built during that period. For example, there were many used in the textile factories. Workers there were encouraged to learn programming. They wrote programs to control the weaving machines.
After Capitalist Roaders seize the power through a palace coup, they told everybody that, the Great Cultural Revolution wrecked the economy. So most were ditched.
As programmer shortage emeraged in the 1980s, Capitalist Roaders start promoting "grab toddlers to computers".
I could believe it, the timespan should be 1966-1976, so maybe in late 70s. I know a lot of automation software was being written in my Eastern European socialist country in assembly language around 1974. I think mostly for 6800-based chips like probably MOS 6502.
That's always the case for through stations, I believe. However even terminus stations don't have their platforms locked to a fixed destination. Milan Central station has 24 platforms and each of them hosts multiple routes. Rome Termini has 32 platforms, same thing. You can monitor departures at this link, if you are very patient to keep track of them
I mean, most of my friends (especially the artists but also software devs) seem to hate AI with a passion: sometimes because of the ethical bankruptcy, other times because of the amount of slop it produces and how in your face it is due to the hype cycle, other times due to a belief that it more or less leads to brainrot and atrophy of cognitive abilities.
I'm really struggling with this one. I think AI (generative and not) is surely fascinating. I should by rights be all up in it. I could definitely get it, I don't think I'm stupid in terms of technology. Regardless of the damage the laser-focus on one thing might (or might not) be doing to rest of industry (and the effect on society, which to be honest, I am conflicted on if we can blame the technology). And yet so much of it is all so...tedious and fake somehow, and just even keeping up with headlines is exhausting let along engaging with every LinkedIn "next huge thing that if you don't do you should find a bridge to live under soon".
It's like that guy who tells you constantly how rich and cool he is. Bro, if you're that cool, let your cool speak for itself. But I'm not sure I want to lend you a grand for your new car.
It's all very much the crypto bubble all over again, at this point. Same hype, same "get in now before you're left behind" (this is almost a sure signal that something is an unsustainable bubble; sustainable growth doesn't require this type of scaremongering recruitment), same level of completely unrealistic promises, same grifters (in some cases, literally the same people).
Hating a tool? And software developers with emotions ? (I get it for the artists :-p)
In my opinion AI makes visible more structural issues that were always there, but we could ignore. People addicted to various stuff (being substances or social networks or watching sports), social communities disappearing (no more going to the pub, stay at home with your TV), growing inequality (because capital is not taxed as labor), strange beliefs (all the conspiracy theories, which existed before) and others.
Find a use for the new tool to improve the situation if you can, but I think that hating tools can lead you on dark paths.
The slop is real. Especially when I see promoters of platforms for vibe coders. They don't understand the implications of lack of security in potentially viral apps. It's easy to consider them as WMDs.
People have the same password across services. They share personal information. In a geopolitical climate as today's, where the currency of war is disruption, it can wreak havoc.
What does that mean? Like in a practical sense - russia declares war on ukraine… next step is? Move towards a multipolar equilibrium? How? How long does that take.
Yes ideally we’d live in a world where this bullshit doesn’t happen. But it does happen, so our choices are to respond with the tools we have NOW or not respond at all.
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