Diff: SpirothetesAndHumans

+This article attempts to provide a partial foundation for some of the propositions expressed in ["Jobs and Human History", Church of Virus, Reply 1, Hermit, 2003-07-24 | http://www .churchofvirus .org /bbs/index.php?board=54;action=display;threadid=28871], and in particular the development of spirothetes and their interaction with mankind: 

+Energy should already be close to "free", only our short sitedness has stopped this from happening. Eventually, somebody will get a clue - and it will be. Possibly space solar collection and concentration to drive MHD generators, likely turbines in ocean currents, probably hydraulic or pneumatic transmission of ocean pressure changes to land or platform based generators, or maybe, just maybe, fusion . At which point fresh water and most raw materials will be extracted from sea water and the cost will tend towards zero. 

+[1] Self-awareness. Measured using the "mirror test". Gordon Gallup, Jr. began development of the mirror test in 1969. The mirror test involves marking the faces of animals or other parts which the animals cannot see with red dye, and determining whether the animals touch the marks on themselves or those appearing in a reflection in a mirror. Most animals treat mirror images as they would peers. Humans generally behave much the same way until 18 to 24 months, after which they start to recognize themselves in a reflection and also begin to use personal pronouns. Gallup proposes that the self-awareness demonstrated by this test might indicate the ability to empathize with other animals. [ "What an Elephant Sees in the Mirror", Jessica Clark, Brittanica.com, 2000-08-30 | http://www.mindspring.com/~samizdata/britannica/elephant.htm ] It should be noted that in [ "Self-Awareness" in the Pigeon", SCIENCE, VOL. 212, 1981-05-08, Robert Epstein, Robert P Lanza, BF Skinner | http://www.k.tsukuba-tech.ac.jp/ge/people/katoh/katohJ.html ] , produced a nonmentalistic model of this test which perhaps reduces the value of this test. However a great deal more work based on the "mirror-test for self awareness" is in the literature subsequent to the publication of "Self-Awareness" in the Pigeon" suggesting that the "mirror-test" is still consider a valid test. 

+[3] Elephants: In research conducted at Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe, Calif., two Asian elephants were observed for two and a half months. After they got used to the four-by-eight-foot mirror, they used it to find hidden objects and to observe marks that researchers placed on them with nontoxic face paint. [ "What an Elephant Sees in the Mirror", Jessica Clark, Brittanica.com, 2000-08-30 | http://www.mindspring.com/~samizdata/britannica/elephant.htm ]  

+[4] Dolphins: two new, unrelated studies are reporting that dolphins are able to recognize themselves in mirrors — often taken as a sign of self-awareness — and of spontaneously grasping the thoughts of other individuals, in this case, humans. [ " Brainy Dolphins Pass the Human 'Mirror' Test", The New York Times, Science, Mark Derr, 2001-05-01 | http://quantrm2.psy.ohio-state.edu/injae/course/612/dolphins_nyt.htm ]  

+[5] Great Apes: Koko, a gorilla who was taught sign language, has mastered more than 1,000 signs and understands several thousand English words. On human IQ tests, she scores between 70 and 95, putting her in the slow learner - but not retarded - category. And At the Washington National Zoo, orangutans given mirrors explore parts of their bodies they can't see otherwise, showing a sense of self. An orangutan named Chantek at the Atlanta Zoo used a mirror to groom his teeth and adjust his sunglasses, says his trainer. [ "Man and other animals", The Guardian, Jeremy Rifkin, 2003-08-16 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/,11917,1020066,00.html] . Refer also [ http://www.koko.org/]  

+[6] A human brain's probable processing power is around 100 Teraflops, roughly 100 trillion calculations per second, according to Hans Morvec, principal research scientist at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. This is based on factoring the capability of the brain's 100 billion neurons, each with over 1 000 connections to other neurons, with each connection capable of performing about 200 calculations per second... Morvec estimates a brain to have a 100-terabyte capacity. [ "This Is Your Computer on Brains", Wired News, Michelle Delio, 2002-11-19 | http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/,1377,56459,00.html ]  

+[7] [ "World Population Prospects: The 2002 Revision: Highlights", 2003-02-26 | http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2002/WPP2002-HIGHLIGHTSrev1.PDF, page 6 ]  

+[8] [ "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits", Electronics Vol 38 No 8, Dr. Gordon E Moore, 1965-04-19 | ftp://download.intel.com/research/silicon/moorespaper.pdf ]  

+[9] [ “Darwinism and unintentional electronics.”, Church of Virus, Hermit, 1999-06-02 | http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=39;action=display;threadid=17513;start=0 ]  

+[10] [ "HP Announces $499 PC, Printer and Monitor Package, Making Going Back to School Affordable and Easy", 2003-07-07, | http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2003/030707a.html ]  

+[ "Artificial Neural Networks Technology", Dave Anderson and George McNeil, 1992-08-20 | http://www.dacs.dtic.mil/techs/neural/neural_ToC.html ]   

+[ "Computers and Symbols versus Nets and Neurons", Kevin Gurney | http://www.shef.ac.uk/psychology/gurney/notes/download.html ]   

+[ "Neural Networks", Statsoft, 1984-2003 | http://www.statsoftinc.com/textbook/stneunet.html ]   

+[ "An Introduction to Neural Networks", Prof. Leslie Smith, 1996-2003 | http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~lss/NNIntro/InvSlides.html ]  

+[12] Fuzzy Neural Networks: [ "Artificial Neural Networks Technology", Dave Anderson and George McNeil, 7.2 What the Next Developments Will Be? | http://www.dacs.dtic.mil/techs/neural/neural12.html ]  

+[ http://www.aihorizon.com/essays/generalai/rj_ga.htm]  

+[ http://www.pcai.com/web/ai_info/general_ai_sites.html]   

+[ http://www.aihorizon.com/essays/generalai/]