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Old 02-23-2011, 04:39 PM   #8 (permalink)
Arragonis
The PRC.
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
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Computers are stupid, I know I program them

Seriously though think about your last journey hypermiling. You spotted a hill ahead, maybe up or down. How did you know ? How could you describe it so that something that has no idea what a hill is would know ? And then how could you tell this thing what a hill looks like ?

Colour ? Naw some have snow, some are concrete, some are grass, some are desert...

Is it above your horizon or below ? Naw - you have smaller hills in front of you that you probably ignore.

Are we tipping up or down ? Well a computer can do that but then when does the hill end as that affects how long we cruise or how long we 'pulse'.

How do we ignore the cars in front so we just look at the hill.

Actually should we look at the cars because there is a hazard ahead - maybe a junction, maybe a busy spot or maybe just a numpty on a mobile.

We (humans) would spot all of this and react. Maybe we would react differently but we would react in the way that our (and others we know) experiences have taught us.

However at this point the computer is still working out what a hill is.
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