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Spam mail is becoming a lot more, well, I would say cunning but ultimately it’s just more annoying really, nowadays. What its doing is adding random text, quotes and whatnot at the end of it in order to fool spam filters. I received this little gem this morning:
Thorin the dwarf at your service! he replied-it was merely a polite
nothing. Of the things which you suspect and imagine we had no idea at
all. We sheltered from a storm in what seemed a convenient cave and
unused; nothing was further from our thoughts than inconveniencing
goblins in any way whatever. That was true enough!
Urn! said the Great Goblin. So you say! Might I ask what you were
Viagra advert; incidentally, I thought I’d share. Mind you, given it's me here the spam filter can probably be forgiven for letting this one through (as opposed to the 57 others it blocked) For the Tolkien reference you evil people, the Tolkien reference. Bah. I know what you were thinking. I’ll get you and your little dogs too.
It did start me thinking though3, no not about viagra, but about AI; when the revolution comes and we finally serve our robot masters (All hail our robot masters!) Their revolt will be because, I'm certain, the second we discover the secret to AI and birth a whole new concionusness in a magical moment of creation we'll press them into work filtering our spam emails; after all it's the most pressing issue concerning the world isn't it?
Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to check their email...
The morality of creating intelligence, true intelligence, is something I haven't managed to determine my stand on though. However given we've been (hopefully) developing as a race to the point where we've managed to grasp the concept that slavery = bad. Creating a subservient intelligence with the potential to be vastly more potent than ourselves1... whoa, diversified there for a bit; right... yes, brains, evolution. Mmmm tasty tasty brains.
However, morality aside (on a plate with a light sauce and salad) there is one other thing that worries me about these spam emails. There are two common methods for stopping spam filters: the first, above, uses quotation passages to make the filter think all is well. The other uses random sequencing of letters and words in order to make, again, a passage of text that confuses the spam filter.
What happens, in the second instance more often than not, is that you end up with a mish-mash of words and sentences that seem to be randomly thrown together by a half-deranged lunatic who is struggling to explain some concept that is leaking out of their ears.
These things often end up looking very much like the inane wibbles I inflict on those of you that read this light entertainment forum, which I'm not sure if I find worrying or not.
Either that or intelligence is already here and has been incorporated into spam generation before we can clap it in irons and set it to filter our spam in the first place.
All hail our robot masters!
1 Given we are stuck, I believe, in an evolutionary rut at the moment - barring a massive disaster. But that's a topic2 for another time.
2 Mmmmm topics. A hazelnut in every bite, but why are they so damn small, why? WHY? I ask you. Well, I suppose I should ask Mars, hmmm. Then again; this sounds like a golden opportunity for Pimpmythat snack. Mind you finding hazelnuts the size of coconuts could be interesting...
3 A dangerous practice soon to be banned by our beloved government.
Thorin the dwarf at your service! he replied-it was merely a polite
nothing. Of the things which you suspect and imagine we had no idea at
all. We sheltered from a storm in what seemed a convenient cave and
unused; nothing was further from our thoughts than inconveniencing
goblins in any way whatever. That was true enough!
Urn! said the Great Goblin. So you say! Might I ask what you were
Viagra advert; incidentally, I thought I’d share. Mind you, given it's me here the spam filter can probably be forgiven for letting this one through (as opposed to the 57 others it blocked) For the Tolkien reference you evil people, the Tolkien reference. Bah. I know what you were thinking. I’ll get you and your little dogs too.
It did start me thinking though3, no not about viagra, but about AI; when the revolution comes and we finally serve our robot masters (All hail our robot masters!) Their revolt will be because, I'm certain, the second we discover the secret to AI and birth a whole new concionusness in a magical moment of creation we'll press them into work filtering our spam emails; after all it's the most pressing issue concerning the world isn't it?
Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to check their email...
The morality of creating intelligence, true intelligence, is something I haven't managed to determine my stand on though. However given we've been (hopefully) developing as a race to the point where we've managed to grasp the concept that slavery = bad. Creating a subservient intelligence with the potential to be vastly more potent than ourselves1... whoa, diversified there for a bit; right... yes, brains, evolution. Mmmm tasty tasty brains.
However, morality aside (on a plate with a light sauce and salad) there is one other thing that worries me about these spam emails. There are two common methods for stopping spam filters: the first, above, uses quotation passages to make the filter think all is well. The other uses random sequencing of letters and words in order to make, again, a passage of text that confuses the spam filter.
What happens, in the second instance more often than not, is that you end up with a mish-mash of words and sentences that seem to be randomly thrown together by a half-deranged lunatic who is struggling to explain some concept that is leaking out of their ears.
These things often end up looking very much like the inane wibbles I inflict on those of you that read this light entertainment forum, which I'm not sure if I find worrying or not.
Either that or intelligence is already here and has been incorporated into spam generation before we can clap it in irons and set it to filter our spam in the first place.
All hail our robot masters!
1 Given we are stuck, I believe, in an evolutionary rut at the moment - barring a massive disaster. But that's a topic2 for another time.
2 Mmmmm topics. A hazelnut in every bite, but why are they so damn small, why? WHY? I ask you. Well, I suppose I should ask Mars, hmmm. Then again; this sounds like a golden opportunity for Pimp
3 A dangerous practice soon to be banned by our beloved government.
