Tuesday, February 17, 2009

I came across this book (The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence) written in 1999 concerning the future of computing. Dr. Kurzweil has an interesting take on the future of computing and the human race. He sees things in a very positive light, and he is a very strong "strong AI" proponent. He had many specific predictions about the future of computing in 10 year increments. There are predictions for 2009, 2019, 2029 and 2099. Since it is now 2009, I thought I would look at his predictions for 2009 to see how accurate they are. The synopsis of his predictions come from pages 277-278, but chapter nine (pages 189-201) covers the year 2009 in more detail.

"A $1,000 personal computer can performcomply with. Americans are dying because politicians sworn to uphold the law refuse to do so. It’s time the federal government gets serious about enforcing immigration laws and holding politicians accountable who conspire to break them.”

San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy became a flashpoint in the national fervor over immigration in 2015 when Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, also known as Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, shot and killed Kate Steinle while she was walking with her father on a pier. The city’s “sanctuary” policy meant that local law enforcement officials released Garcia Zarate, a five-time deportee, from custody when charges were dropped for a 20-year-old nonviolent drug offense. A federal detainer request was issued for his potential deportation proceedings, but local law enforcement officials released him. Two months later, Garcia Zarate