For We Are Many
question
An AI can't multitask?
Brian
Jun 16, 2017 12:37PM
I will start off by saying that I think that the limitations on the Bobs are useful in explaining how a being so powerful can stay that humble and basically good.
Many times we hear how Bobs are limited on time because they are so busy with a backlog of TODOs and dealing with human and alien problems. It seems like an unnecessary limitation. Why couldn't a Bob have more than one instance going at once? A single Bob should be able to cover several meetings and a moot at the same time. It is already tough to track the multi bobs and I imagine this would make things worse. I also think it would be hard to write a humble Bob who is an honest broker when they are so much closer to perfection.
So, a mild critique but I am looking forward to seeing how Bobs deal with new additions to thier kind and fighting the Others. Book 3 promises to be fun.
Many times we hear how Bobs are limited on time because they are so busy with a backlog of TODOs and dealing with human and alien problems. It seems like an unnecessary limitation. Why couldn't a Bob have more than one instance going at once? A single Bob should be able to cover several meetings and a moot at the same time. It is already tough to track the multi bobs and I imagine this would make things worse. I also think it would be hard to write a humble Bob who is an honest broker when they are so much closer to perfection.
So, a mild critique but I am looking forward to seeing how Bobs deal with new additions to thier kind and fighting the Others. Book 3 promises to be fun.
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I would suspect that they are barely able to recreate the tech for true human brain type AI. This complication is in of itself multitasking (think about how many independent processes you are multitasking right now while you aren't actively thinking about them that would each need a separate process in a computer based system. ) Humans multi-task naturally compared to computers we are just so natural at it we don't realize we are doing it. There is a lot a Bob is doing at one time; however due to computer processing limitations (note he talks about expanding memory to do more things, but so far hasn't discussed a better processor IIRC) Bob can only focus and think creatively ,the hard part of the AI, on one thing at a time. He can change frame rate to process information faster and think and effectively be in 2 places at once as far as humans are concerned which he does do a few times.
I would imagine AI should be able to multi-task very well. I'm not sure there would be a processor hang up on multi-tasking as even processors around now based on their core-count and logical or virtual hyper-threading can handle dozens if not 100's of threads at once. If the software is configured properly each of these threads could support a task. I suppose they could be limited to the complication of each task as if the task is very complicated it likely would require more than 1 thread to perform adequately.
I think the limit on Bob seems to be what he thinks he can actually do as in limits that are almost self imposed from having been human. You see it many times in the book where he can basically slow time and think through complicated thoughts in milliseconds, yet combat, and other stressful situations seem to be in real time with him acting very slowly in comparison.
I do enjoy how this is portrayed as if he could replicate himself 1000's of times and then they all multi-task 1000 different things the books would be a tough read and Bob would have already taken over the entire galaxy, what fun would that be? :)
I think the limit on Bob seems to be what he thinks he can actually do as in limits that are almost self imposed from having been human. You see it many times in the book where he can basically slow time and think through complicated thoughts in milliseconds, yet combat, and other stressful situations seem to be in real time with him acting very slowly in comparison.
I do enjoy how this is portrayed as if he could replicate himself 1000's of times and then they all multi-task 1000 different things the books would be a tough read and Bob would have already taken over the entire galaxy, what fun would that be? :)
The lack-of multi-tasking is basically explained in the books as processor time being used for simulating human reactions in virtual reality. That is, it takes full bob-concentration at normal speed to maintain a single human-like presence. Further, from book one, we know Bob doesn't want to remove his humanity for fear of going insane, getting suicidal or otherwise becoming like the failure studies.
The to do lists are explained because there is a physical limit to how many printers produced or how much production or resource demand is available.
Still, I agree it doesn't always make sense. For example we hear about "frame jack" a lot, but this isn't used very often, even though in any scenario where planning or quick reactions are needed (various Others battles for instance) every Bob present could conceivably frame jack simultaneously and have reaction times limited only by their collective processing power.
The to do lists are explained because there is a physical limit to how many printers produced or how much production or resource demand is available.
Still, I agree it doesn't always make sense. For example we hear about "frame jack" a lot, but this isn't used very often, even though in any scenario where planning or quick reactions are needed (various Others battles for instance) every Bob present could conceivably frame jack simultaneously and have reaction times limited only by their collective processing power.
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