Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

Re:Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years an... by genedangelo on Sunday May 31, 2020 @09:31AM (#23369483)

I think someday we will be able to duplicate the basic brain of an infant in a computer. Don't forget all the information is in our DNA and there's not that much innate knowledge - most of the infant's brain relates to the amazing capacity to learn. Someone will then take one home and train it like a human baby. It will become so close to a human that it will spark debates about whether it has self-awareness and whether it should have human rights. I regret I won't be around to see it, but who knows - maybe I'll be back :-)

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Re:Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years an... by MauranKilom on Sunday May 31, 2020 @09:53AM (#23369600)

> Don't forget all the information is in our DNA

I'm not so sure about that (but I'm pretty green on bioinformatics). I mean, for one: https://xkcd.com/1605/. For two, if that was the case we wouldn't need projects like folding@home and such to tell us what the structures described by DNA actually look like. And for three, there is a massive amount of influence on brain development from elsewhere (both from within the fetal body and from the womb). It's a bit like having a compiler's source code but nothing to bootstrap it with...

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Re:Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years an... by netcan on Sunday May 31, 2020 @09:46AM (#23369560)

Reading a speculative prediction, given been watching progress from up close for 57 years, is interesting.

Any meaningful milestones along the way, that you think are worth noting. Tasks or roles that indicate progress?

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