Word: humanity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...generously populates a place "where everything was known, and where many things were known even before they happened, above all if they concerned the rich." But the constant gossip actually pays little heed to class distinctions. Whatever their status, the author's characters energetically play their parts in the human comedy. They are born to die. Hearts are enchanted, broken and sometimes put back together again. Wisdom accrues to those who have grown too old to profit by its possession. This novel is filled with surprises, but not those of the amazing variety. The constant, throbbing fascination here...
These experiments illustrate the paradox at the heart of today's computer science. The most powerful computing machines -- giant number crunchers possessed of speed and storage capacities beyond human comprehension -- are essentially dumb brutes with no more intellectual depth than a light bulb. At the other extreme are computers that have begun to exhibit the first glimmers of human-like reasoning, but only within the confines of narrowly defined tasks...
...have labored to make headway at these two frontiers of computer research. One group, working with the lightning-fast machines known as supercomputers, is always pushing for more raw power, more blazing speed. The other group, writing programs that show the rudiments of artificial intelligence, explores the mysteries of human thought. Each of these two grand scientific enterprises, backed by billions of research dollars and blessed with some of the century's best minds, has proceeded as if the other did not exist...
Cleaning up after the onslaught is often quite a chore. "Besides having to clean up the usual leftovers of beer cans, maids often discover the unwelcome sight of human leftovers," says Risberg. "The number of complaints from maids increases proportionately with the number of teenagers down here...
...Cambridge Department of Human Services will help the four with their security deposit, said Cambridge Emergency Services Coordinator Philip F. Mangano. But he said they would try to pull their own weight afterwards. "They have indicated by establishing monthly incomes that they can pay the monthly rent," he added...