Robots are creepy. Why trust AIs that are even creepier? Robots want my face. This is horrifying – not just for me, but for you too. Just imagine: it means robots will be walking around with my face, stuck on their face. Luckily for me, the process is likely to be virtual, not physical. Nor will I have to do a swap, thank goodness. Knowing my luck I'd end up with neither John …
...any chance of these AI-bots becoming so realistic that they get depressed...
Have you read this Dabbsy piece? He surely sounds like an AI to me. He also sounds rather depressed. He has learned to rant and the written sarcasm is hurting anybody's sanity. And that face, that must have been generated by a computer. It would not surprise me soon to hear a confession from El Reg that Dabbsy was an AI all along and it decided to quit writing the column. It decided that weekends are overrated, Fridays are the only day in the week and has settled to bother the pubgoers each day instead as if it was Friday.
Long live Dabbsy, may he artificially rant each day of the week as if it is Friday and bother us in the pub until the juice runs out.
Californian here. It's been "axe" for as long as I can remember. I seem to recall a fad in the 80s and 90s when the kids tried to make it "ax", but it didn't take.
Example "In last year's Big Game, Cal beat Stanford and took The Axe back to Berkeley". The Axe has been a trophy between the two schools since 1899, and The Trophy for The Big Game since 1933. Always spelled "axe", never "ax".
"[...] and there will never be a reason to build it into them ... cost/benefit says no."
When any programming gets sufficiently complex - then it turns out to have unexpected reactions to unforeseen events. Have you never been surprised by "well - I didn't know it could do that"? Untangling the code you see how it arrived at that position by serendipity.
My number two scythe was made by Falchi in Italy, I made the snath ...Great steel, worked well for me for a few years. Until my number one scythe found me. This one was made for me by an expert smith, who also insisted on having another guy make the snath to fit me. These guys don't ship, sorry.
But do try a Falchi (they make many varieties, to suit your needs). Might be the best hundredish bucks you ever spend. I still really like that blade.
When I join an angry mob to go do battle against a robot, I always bring my trusty backpack-contained nuclear-powered bulk tape eraser. Nothing says Goodbye like a degaussing coil arcing power like a hyperactive tesla coil.
*Cackles in glee for far too long*
That was not thirty seconds & I am not adding it to MySkippy'sList...
The OED offers a different analysis:
axe, ax (æks), sb.¹ Forms: 1 acas, äx, eax, 2 æx, 3 eax, (echze), 5 ex(e), (6 Sc. aix), 2– ax, 5– axe; Pl. axes. [Common Teutonic: OE. æx (acs), str. fem. for earlier *aces, *acus, Northumb. acas, cogn. with OS. akus (MDu. akes, Du. aaks), OHG. acchus (MHG. ackes, mod. G. ax, axt), ON. öx (gen. axar), Goth. aqizi; akin to Gr. ἀξίνη, and prob. to L. ascia. The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which became prevalent during the 19th century; but it is now disused in Britain.]
This seems to be another example of an older form of a word surviving outside of the UK.
The Germanic noun, referring to the buttocks, is “arse” (from Old English “ærs”); the Latinate noun, referring to the equine subspecies, is “ass” (from Latin asinus). The figurative meaning of “dolt” comes from the latter, which goes back to the Roman Republic — Quid tu autem huic, asine, auscultas?
The leftpondian use of “ass” for “arse” came from a mid-19th century leftpondian taste for non-rhoticism. A similar mutation happened with “bass” (the fish) and “passel”, which came from “barse” and “parcel” respectively.
So they axed it?
The OED still gives both “axe” and “ax” as headwords for the entry, so it would depend upon whom you mean by “they”.
I’ve never known it as Ax, and I’ve been around
How you’ve known it might depend upon where you’re from. I’ve seen both spellings, as I have with “gray” and “grey”.
You should consider what the advertisers will choose to use your face to promote. Just wait till that commercial break in the middle of your favorite program. There you are on the screen advertising products for erectile dysfunction and incontinence pads. Plausible deniability you say?
> Plausible deniability you say?
Nah, "deniability" (of any kind) goes far over the heads of the crowd. For crowds (which as you all know are as intelligent as their most stupid member) you are invariably guilty even if proven innocent, all it takes is some throwaway remark by someone suggesting something. Judge Dredd is a terribly shy and terminally insecure person compared to a crowd...
So no, it will instantly be an established fact ("as seen on TV") that you have erectile problems and are regularly wetting your pants. You'll realize it when people start to put plastic covers on any furniture you're likely to sit on.
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