# ­xkcd thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [May 28, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574 "2020-05-28T00:57:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 74
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1462 "2022-06-11T12:49:37Z")
In other words,you’re in the normal progression. Munroe is, in this case as in so many others, atypical among the human population. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1463 "2022-06-14T00:02:47Z")
> **[Greatest Scientist](https://xkcd.com/2632/)** > > "Ow! One of the petri dishes I left on the tower railing fell and hit me on the head! Hey, that gives me an idea..." ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1464 "2022-06-14T06:47:00Z")
Let’s see: Eratosthenes Galileo Franklin Fleming Pavlov Newton am I missing anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1465 "2022-06-14T13:20:19Z")
And let’s not forget that she and her daughter had three Nobel Prizes between them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1466 "2022-06-15T14:02:18Z")
> **[Astronomer Hotline](https://xkcd.com/2633/)** > > Employment statistics have to correct for the fact that the Weird Bug Hotline hires on a bunch of extra temporary staff every 17 years. I still haven’t seen any yet this year, but then, I haven’t been out much in the evenings. I need to make an effort at that: Catching a lightning bug is the last item on my checklist for it to be officially summer. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1467 "2022-06-15T18:43:46Z")
My daughter caught her first one last night ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1468 "2022-06-15T18:49:31Z")
I took my dogs out at just the right time a few nights ago, and the neighbor’s yard was just covered in fireflies. The little girl dog was fascinated. Then she became concerned. Then she yipped at them. Last night, there were only a few out, but one flew close, and I caught it. It crawled around on my hand, and I showed it to the little girl dog. Oh, a new friend! Then it blinked. Now she’s afraid of fireflies, too. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1469 "2022-06-18T04:52:01Z")
> **[Red Line Through HTTPS](https://xkcd.com/2634/)** > > Some organization has been paying to keep this up and it hasn't been removed from search results. Seems like two votes of confidence to me. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2022, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1470 "2022-06-21T06:20:40Z")
> **[Superintelligent AIs](https://xkcd.com/2635/)** > > Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they should, they didn't stop to think if they could. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1471 "2022-06-22T03:07:03Z")
I don’t get it. Have I failed the Turing test? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1472 "2022-06-22T03:17:27Z")
I think the joke is that only having AI researchers train AIs, just teaches the AIs how to be AI researchers. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1473 "2022-06-22T03:19:47Z")
They also seem to be ignoring each other and just pontificating, rather than trying to solve the actual problems AI are expected to solve. In other words, they seem to be just as obsessed as a good AI researcher has to be. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1474 "2022-06-22T14:28:29Z")
I dunno; the one on the left seems to be responding to something (apparently an inversion of the Chinese Room thought experiment, where it’s an AI in the room instead of a human). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1475 "2022-06-22T14:39:08Z")
The one on the left is talking about the “AI in a box” experiment > **[AI capability control](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_box)** > > In the field of artificial intelligence (AI) design, AI capability control proposals, also referred to as AI confinement, aim to increase our ability to monitor and control the behavior of AI systems, including proposed artificial general intelligences (AGIs), in order to reduce the danger they might pose if misaligned. However, capability control becomes less effective as agents become more intelligent and their ability to exploit flaws in human control systems increases, potentially resulting i... > Even casual conversation with the computer’s operators, or with a human guard, could allow such a superintelligent AI to deploy psychological tricks, ranging from befriending to blackmail, to convince a human gatekeeper, truthfully or deceitfully, that it is in the gatekeeper’s interest to agree to allow the AI greater access to the outside world. The AI might offer a gatekeeper a recipe for perfect health, immortality, or whatever the gatekeeper is believed to most desire; on the other side of the coin, the AI could threaten that it will do horrific things to the gatekeeper and his family once it inevitably escapes. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1476 "2022-06-22T15:11:05Z")
So, does it pass or fail the Turing test if it can’t be differentiated from an AI researcher? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1477 "2022-06-22T15:12:49Z")
There doesn’t seem to be anyone there that they (or any of the other AI) are actually responding to. And they’re all ignoring each other. And the humans seem to be uninterested, as the one with hair is clearly facing away from them. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1478 "2022-06-22T18:45:22Z")
I think what’s happening is that the AIs have taken over the world and are now endlessly talking at humans. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1479 "2022-06-23T00:19:55Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And the humans seem to be uninterested, as the one with hair is clearly facing away from them. I see it as the opposite - IMO she’s looking toward the AI on page right, and the guy to the one on page left, while walking toward each other (for comfort?). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1480 "2022-06-23T01:24:15Z")
> **[What If? 2 Countdown](https://xkcd.com/2636/)** > > If you don't end the 99 Bottles of Beer recursion at N=0 it just becomes The Other Song That Never Ends. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1481 "2022-06-23T12:04:09Z")
The bike ride from NYC to LA from September 2-13 checks out. Using google maps without stoppping at about 12 MPH it takes just under 12 days [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=73) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=75)