I’m sitting in Canberra Airport, day-drinking because my flight is delayed. Of course. I’m fine with it, though. I figure you just factor this stuff in nowadays.
I downloaded a couple of eps of The Mandolorian for the flight back, knowing that I won’t do any work. On the way down I listened to some podcasts, including an old episode of The Talk Show, with Gruber and Moltz discussing car buying. Gruber is an Apple expert, but a car novice. He was talking about the natural power imbalance on the car lot. You’re making one of the biggest purchases of your life, one you might only make a couple of times. But you’re going up against a guy who does this eight hours a day every day, and may have been doing it for years.
Seems legit, except the last time I bought a car, or tried to, I walked into the dealer with money in my pocket, ready to drive away whatever they had that matched my needs. But do you think I could get the salesman to give it up?
Nope.
That guy had his script and he was sticking to it. Even when I picked out a car, pointed at it, and said, give me that one, now, he said, “What do I have to do to get you into this car today.”
I stared at him and literally said, “Take my money.”
He still didn’t get it. Never actually did. I had to go somewhere else.
Though some Buddhist beliefs would say that most of us run on scripts "sleep is made up of short dreams, but life is a long dream. You may awaken to the fact that you are living a dream, and then fall back into the dream once again. In Buddhism, awakening from the long dream of life means realizing your self-nature. A sentient being who does not experience this realization remains forever caught in a dream.
Then there is John Searle's thought experiment titled Chinese room. Suppose you had a computer that could read Chinese scripts follows instructions of a computer program, produces other Chinese characters, which it presents as output. It does so sufficiently that it passes a turning test. What if Searle, who does not know Chinese supposes that he is in a closed room and has a book with an English version of the computer program, along with sufficient papers, pencils, erasers, and filing cabinets. Searle could receive Chinese characters through a slot in the door, process them according to the program's instructions, and produce Chinese characters as output, without understanding any of the content of the Chinese writing. If the computer had passed the Turing test this way, it follows, says Searle, that he would do so as well, simply by running the program manually.
Some posit that that there is no essential difference between the roles of the computer and himself in the experiment. Each simply follows a program, step-by-step, producing behavior that is then interpreted by the user as demonstrating intelligent conversation. Searle asserts that there is no essential difference between the roles of the computer and himself in the experiment. Each simply follows a program, step-by-step, producing behavior that is then interpreted by the user as demonstrating intelligent conversation. This theory was used by a human in a scout ship to defend against one of the the Berserker machines in a short story by Fred Saberhagen.
In philosophy there is a concept I find terrifying of a philosophical zombie a philosophy of mind that is physically identical to a normal person but does not have conscious experience. An idea employed by
Alastair Reynolds in Poseidon's Wake.
So before I judge another's adherence to scripts to function through their day I probably should take some time to review my own.
Next time this happens (car dealers won’t sell you a car, not: your in Canberra, although that would work too) please let me know, so I can start hoovering asset backed securities backed by used car loans - the recovery values go through the roof when there’s a shortage of supply.
Bought a new car in Sydney a few years ago. Negotiated the price with the sales dude by phone which was a surprisingly painless experience.
Travelled up to Sydney from Canberra to pick it up, with bank cheque in hand. For some reason I was still forced to deal with the finance people who tried to convince me that their finance and insurance was a better deal than just paying for the car with the cheque.
Nearly pulled the pin on the whole thing, not sure what was going on in their head, and why they need to complicate what should have been a simple exchange of money for a car.
Though some Buddhist beliefs would say that most of us run on scripts "sleep is made up of short dreams, but life is a long dream. You may awaken to the fact that you are living a dream, and then fall back into the dream once again. In Buddhism, awakening from the long dream of life means realizing your self-nature. A sentient being who does not experience this realization remains forever caught in a dream.
Then there is John Searle's thought experiment titled Chinese room. Suppose you had a computer that could read Chinese scripts follows instructions of a computer program, produces other Chinese characters, which it presents as output. It does so sufficiently that it passes a turning test. What if Searle, who does not know Chinese supposes that he is in a closed room and has a book with an English version of the computer program, along with sufficient papers, pencils, erasers, and filing cabinets. Searle could receive Chinese characters through a slot in the door, process them according to the program's instructions, and produce Chinese characters as output, without understanding any of the content of the Chinese writing. If the computer had passed the Turing test this way, it follows, says Searle, that he would do so as well, simply by running the program manually.
Some posit that that there is no essential difference between the roles of the computer and himself in the experiment. Each simply follows a program, step-by-step, producing behavior that is then interpreted by the user as demonstrating intelligent conversation. Searle asserts that there is no essential difference between the roles of the computer and himself in the experiment. Each simply follows a program, step-by-step, producing behavior that is then interpreted by the user as demonstrating intelligent conversation. This theory was used by a human in a scout ship to defend against one of the the Berserker machines in a short story by Fred Saberhagen.
In philosophy there is a concept I find terrifying of a philosophical zombie a philosophy of mind that is physically identical to a normal person but does not have conscious experience. An idea employed by
Alastair Reynolds in Poseidon's Wake.
So before I judge another's adherence to scripts to function through their day I probably should take some time to review my own.
thank you for coming to my TED talk
Try being familiar with say, information technology, having to call a "help centre" to resolve an issue.
Talk about staying on script.
Next time this happens (car dealers won’t sell you a car, not: your in Canberra, although that would work too) please let me know, so I can start hoovering asset backed securities backed by used car loans - the recovery values go through the roof when there’s a shortage of supply.
all this talk about scripts is making some people in a picket line in the US get twitchy eyes
Bought a new car in Sydney a few years ago. Negotiated the price with the sales dude by phone which was a surprisingly painless experience.
Travelled up to Sydney from Canberra to pick it up, with bank cheque in hand. For some reason I was still forced to deal with the finance people who tried to convince me that their finance and insurance was a better deal than just paying for the car with the cheque.
Nearly pulled the pin on the whole thing, not sure what was going on in their head, and why they need to complicate what should have been a simple exchange of money for a car.
What hope could you possibly have left after becoming a failed car salesman?