In my previous post on Quantum Teleportation, one of the many links in there was on a fun Philosophical discussion called "What Makes You You?". After enjoying that write up immensly, I tried a few more on this site "Wait But Why", run by a smart/funny Harvard grad (Tim Urban) and they were great as well. He's not a true expert in any of these topics but he really does his research (sources are usually impeccable, for non-experts that's already an accomplishment!) and has a knack for making these serious/very technical topics fun for all levels of expertise!
I'll paste the 3 articles I enjoyed, will surely read more in the future!
http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/12/what-makes-you-you.html
Note: I thought Tim did a great job covering the many cases/angles to look at this question, my fave example naturally is the Transporter one. My personal evolving (somewhat still) view isn't any of the ones he listed, it's that I disagree with the way most people incl. Tim think about what is "You", they've made it almost as sacred & permanent as a Soul (which I also don't believe in ;-) My view (actually matches almost perfectly 1 of the commenters on this article named Joel) is that "You" is most likely an illusory emergent phenomenon, created by the complex processes of any sentient being, be it Carbon or Silicon or Other based when the "Mind" is fully awake/conscious & receiving power/energy/inputs. For example, my theory applied to the great Teleporter example is that, 2 "You"'s were created, one in Boston & the other in London at that exact moment of creation (effectively there is no difference between the 2). But once the 2 "You"'s step off the Teleporter pad, they are receiving different sensory inputs and of course each brain has generated a conscious mind...neither will be OK with being obliterated! Which one is the real "You"? They both are but it's almost like traveling back in time say 1 minute, which is the real "You"? Both are! I'm quite different now in every way then when I was a teenager but nobody argues I'm not "Me" anymore (There's many degrees/shades of "You", these 2 Me's from the Transporter are much closer then I am with my teenage self!). It is quite a mess though to have that kind of malfunction, as essentially now you have someone even closer than a twin brother! What if your married? I guess you can have the wife go thru the same accident then we have 2 pairs again ha! I'll point out, that Quantum Teleportation which is likely the only way we could ever achieve this in reality will never have this "accident" as a crucial step in the process is that the original quantum state is destroyed (well this is messy because I'm not sure that this necessarily means the person is destroyed)...anyway I digress! There was a brilliant Star Trek Next Gen ep on this, check here!
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html
Seems this one above is WBW's most popular article, it's a fairly long 2 parts but even for me that knew 99% of this already it was a fun read...well it's a weighty topic so not sure fun is the right word. This has to do with AI and the exponetial growth of Technology, something I go on about a lot but Tim writes it up for a general audience much better than I could. At the very start he makes a statement that he did not know much about this topic prior to this research he underwent and it has now blown his mind and changed his worldview! I think he covered pretty much every important facet except the Mind Uploading angle, I personally think we likely have no chance to contain an ASI and frankly I'd feel better if the 1st ASI was a Human (not Trump plz!!) who uploaded and evolved online to ASI level...but I dunno if that's how it'll go down. The other related topic is Merging, we need to merge with the AI's once they get to AGI level else we get left behind or worse! 2045 here we come!
http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html
Finally, I haven't finished this one yet but an old interesting thought on Aliens by the genius Enrico Fermi, is called the Fermi Paradox. Have an enjoyable read about it above.
Quantum Teleportation & Beyond!
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Even before I studied Math & Physics in University, I had already read many popularized accounts of the 2 pillars of Physics, Quantum Physics & Einstein's General Relativity. I also read biographies of the geniuses like Erwin Schrodinger that contributed the most to these theories. But it wasn't till I studied the math behind Quantum Mechanics that I understood (about as well as anyone can!) where all those weird properties that exhibit themselves in the world of atoms come from. This isn't what I'll be focusing on in this post but aside from the more technical links above, here's a great introductory link at a high level that covers the many strange properties that pop up in the micro-world!
Probably the most out there result (that's on solid theoretical & experimental footing) is what Einstein called "Spooky action at a distance", something called Quantum Entanglement (for a good high level summary, check Chris Craddock answer then Brian Dodson's). This phenomena is essential to most of the other interesting aspects of QM such as below.
I've been reading quite a bit about new research in Quantum Teleportation, which at our current understanding has 3 parts in order of how well we have understood & tested
Before we get into some technical details/highlights from the math/physics...I highly recommend reading this wonderful philosophical account of "What Makes You You?", it's not a short read but it should blow your mind! Also, one of the sections in the prior link is called "The Cell Replacement Test", many people believe somehow the particles that make us up have something (individually) to do with our identify/sense of self so it surprises them to know that most of our cells (particles) are replaced in 7-10 year cycles (crucially not neurons in the cerebral cortex so this alone isn't conclusive of anything just more evidence). Finally some interesting insights that I mostly share can be found here (check Bill C. Reimers answer)...I especially like his simplistic but effective analogy of a conscious human being vs. a book, it's not the paper or the particles it's the Information contained that gives us and the book life. Based on all the facts I've seen to date, I believe our consciousness is an emergent phenomena.
Probably the most out there result (that's on solid theoretical & experimental footing) is what Einstein called "Spooky action at a distance", something called Quantum Entanglement (for a good high level summary, check Chris Craddock answer then Brian Dodson's). This phenomena is essential to most of the other interesting aspects of QM such as below.
I've been reading quite a bit about new research in Quantum Teleportation, which at our current understanding has 3 parts in order of how well we have understood & tested
- Quantum Teleportation of States (Paper appeared 1993 -- essentially transporting Quantum properties of 1 particle to another, arbitrarily far away with some caveats of course. AFAIK the best anyone has done is teleport 2 quantum properties of a Photon. So why is this Teleportation? Because most quantum particles are indistinguishable and hence if you can pass over their handful of quantum properties (from 1 particle to another) they are effectively cloned or transported if you will potentially half way across the galaxy!
- Quantum Energy Teleportation (Paper appeared 2008 -- the simplest explanation I have seen is part of this thread on QET -- "The analogy Hotta uses is that the vacuum energy is in a safe. Alice unlocks it with a key and puts some energy in the safe. Weirdly, opening the safe tells her what the key is, rather than her having the key initially. She then sends her key to Bob, who is able to open the safe with it and get at the energy Alice put in!")
- Quantum Teleportation of Particles with Mass (this last one is at the very edge of current research so it's all a bit tenuous but I believe QT of Electrons has not been achieved yet, though at least we are close due to this new research -- also 1 other reliable link I found on this but don't fully understand yet).
While each of the 3 topics above is very interesting in their own right, the possible applications are what's mind blowing.
First, the most prosaic one is the application to quantum computers & communication, essentially building a Quantum Internet. Last year, a Chinese consortium placed the first Quantum Satellite in orbit, this article sums all these topics nicely. Essentially, the most obvious benefit of a Quantum Internet is security but new applications ideas are popping up all the time, such as the cool one at the end of the article.
My fave application comes from Star Trek, an actual Transporter that can transport people across vast distances. However, this problem is still being debated from a theoretical point of view...from an Engineering point of view it's going to make creating AI or the 1st Quantum Computer look like child's play! I personally believe it is theoretically possible (which means at some point - who knows when - it will be implemented). This link from a CalTech PhD, working at Perimeter explains it very well in fairly simple terms (the link also explains #1 above very well too at the same time, he also explains how Physicist's fall into 3 groups on their views regarding the feasibility of...he too is in the same camp as me).
Before we get into some technical details/highlights from the math/physics...I highly recommend reading this wonderful philosophical account of "What Makes You You?", it's not a short read but it should blow your mind! Also, one of the sections in the prior link is called "The Cell Replacement Test", many people believe somehow the particles that make us up have something (individually) to do with our identify/sense of self so it surprises them to know that most of our cells (particles) are replaced in 7-10 year cycles (crucially not neurons in the cerebral cortex so this alone isn't conclusive of anything just more evidence). Finally some interesting insights that I mostly share can be found here (check Bill C. Reimers answer)...I especially like his simplistic but effective analogy of a conscious human being vs. a book, it's not the paper or the particles it's the Information contained that gives us and the book life. Based on all the facts I've seen to date, I believe our consciousness is an emergent phenomena.
Some points on Teleportation I would add/highlight are:
- Some argue Teleportation (of people) is impossible due to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, but this was shown to be not necessary in the groundbreaking 1993 Bennet et al paper I linked in #1. For more explanation of this non-trivial point check here and here.
- Next common argument against is the Quantum "No Cloning Theorem" (a general Quantum State copying machine cannot exist) , this one took me some time to research (my initial argument against it was arbitrary approximation, which at the scale of humans may be needed but not at the particle scale), turns out that this theorem doesn't prevent Teleportion, in computer parlance it is NOT a Copy-And-Paste procedure but instead a Cut-And-Paste (c.f. Erik Anson's answer), so the original Quantum State is destroyed. This does mean most likely you will die (in some sense) when you get Teleported but it may only be in the same discontinuity sense that you lose consciousness as you sleep, then awake the next morning with usually no memory of your dreamless sleep! Check section 4.3 here.
This topic continues to have new research shedding light on the true answer of whether it's possible or not from many sources, Quantum Physics, Neuroscience, Computer Science (Information Theory/Quantum Computers), Philosophy...etc. So I'll continue to follow it but I haven't seen anything conclusively rule it out, quite the opposite in fact! However, I'll say again, from an Engineering standpoint it's nearly an impossible task given our current state of technology but let's keep in mind our Smart Phones have the computational power of Supercomputers back in the 1990's that were the size of entire rooms!
PS I spent a lot of time thinking about (Quantum) Teleportation but actually the idea from Star Trek that would likely have the biggest impact on our daily lives is The Replicator, it's like the ultimate 3D copier, it can create dishes (with plates), drinks, pretty much any consumer product! For those that don't delve into deep science it might sound just as hard as the Teleportation to create these things but the amazing fact is that it's soooo much easier! We're getting pretty close! Just think of how much time could be saved, not going shopping, not cooking (except on rare occasions where you'd like to!), not cleaning up after etc!! Here's where we are at today on this topic, we don't need it to work exactly like it did in Star Trek (they were just very imaginative/smart guesses at the future) so we don't need to try and convert Energy to Matter via E=MC^2, it's much easier to use Nanotechnology and rearrange molecules etc. Turns out though that Scientists are close to even achieving this energy/matter conversion in the labratory via the "fancy physics" way so who knows (but this approach to Replication would take far longer than the Molecular Assembler)!
Khan Academy & The Future of Education
Thursday, February 16, 2017
I've always enjoyed listening to the few future gurus that seem to have an intuitive feel of certain trends that will persist, Ray Kurzweil is my fave when it comes to Technology but Sal Khan is my fave when it comes to the future of Education. While watching his TED talks I find myself repeating "exactly, that's what I thought too!".
Education became an important topic to me when in Grade 12 (I was coasting thru school in General level, I guess now they call it Applied) my Guidance Counselor said "This is your last year of school...what are your plans for the future?"...I said "dunno", so he said "Well let's look at a Community College course catalog", I saw programs like "Retail Meat Cutter", then I had an epiphany, a flash of light in my brain that reminded me I didn't enjoy the physical labor type part-time jobs I did up till then and I wanted a career that uses my brain/intelligence! I don't have anything against Comm. College, I think for many people they'd actually have a better career with a Comm. College diploma than a University degree but it just wasn't for me. So long story short, after that day I became obsessed with my education, I had to take many aptitude tests (& score high) just to join Advanced (now called Academic) then I had to take courses at Summer & Night school to catch up and graduate on time from OAC and get into University. My plan was to become a Professor of Mathematical Physics. I also regularly brought back a dozen or so books from the Library and devoured them all, books on Science, Philosophy, Fiction, Non-Fiction etc.
Of course that's not the road I envision for my daughters, Chiara & Aria, they will have extra tutoring here at home from us but focusing on increasing their interest in virtually everything, not via rote learning though. They'll have Science/Robotics/Computer Programming (making video games) camps, then at home I can use the computer, telescopes, microscopes etc...to show how cool Nature & learning is (Carol will focus on passing on her amazing study skills)! Of course, to be well rounded they participate in Sports & Arts activities as well.
Finally, my main point here is to introduce people to the wonderful Khan Academy, if you watch Sal's TED talks first (especially his latest one) you'll see there are 2 major ideas behind the Academy
Education became an important topic to me when in Grade 12 (I was coasting thru school in General level, I guess now they call it Applied) my Guidance Counselor said "This is your last year of school...what are your plans for the future?"...I said "dunno", so he said "Well let's look at a Community College course catalog", I saw programs like "Retail Meat Cutter", then I had an epiphany, a flash of light in my brain that reminded me I didn't enjoy the physical labor type part-time jobs I did up till then and I wanted a career that uses my brain/intelligence! I don't have anything against Comm. College, I think for many people they'd actually have a better career with a Comm. College diploma than a University degree but it just wasn't for me. So long story short, after that day I became obsessed with my education, I had to take many aptitude tests (& score high) just to join Advanced (now called Academic) then I had to take courses at Summer & Night school to catch up and graduate on time from OAC and get into University. My plan was to become a Professor of Mathematical Physics. I also regularly brought back a dozen or so books from the Library and devoured them all, books on Science, Philosophy, Fiction, Non-Fiction etc.
Of course that's not the road I envision for my daughters, Chiara & Aria, they will have extra tutoring here at home from us but focusing on increasing their interest in virtually everything, not via rote learning though. They'll have Science/Robotics/Computer Programming (making video games) camps, then at home I can use the computer, telescopes, microscopes etc...to show how cool Nature & learning is (Carol will focus on passing on her amazing study skills)! Of course, to be well rounded they participate in Sports & Arts activities as well.
Finally, my main point here is to introduce people to the wonderful Khan Academy, if you watch Sal's TED talks first (especially his latest one) you'll see there are 2 major ideas behind the Academy
- While Teachers range form amazing to terrible and of course many average ones (think Normal Distribution), we can put everyone on a level playing field by Teaching via a video that has already researched the most effective way of teaching a particular topic and have someone clearly demonstrate that visually. Incidentally, Sal's idea for the Education system is to invert the current process, meaning Teachers assign video lessons for homework then the next day the kids do the exercises under the Teachers supervision, where they can ask question relating to the video or the exercises!
- Mastering a topic before moving on, this most often happens in math but it applies to virtually all subjects, Sal's analogy is building a house, start with the foundation have a housing inspector come in and say...I'll give it a C- but it's a passing grade go ahead and keep building on this somewhat solid foundation! You have to master (basically ace the test, not with good guesses but a perfect understanding of the material) the material before building on that and moving on to more advanced topics!
Some people think the Khan Academy is just for kids who've fallen behind, need tutoring. It is great for that yes but it is so much more, many bright kids get bored with the current school system (especially K-8) where they feel the pace of learning is so slow and the interesting topics aren't delved into deeply enough for them, the Khan Academy can help here as well!
I recently started an account for Chiara, she's doing the "Early Math" section, she can watch the teaching videos by herself on her Tablet and then try to earn points, badges and unlock secret functionality (just like video games!) and we're always nearby if she has questions or needs help. We were on it last night and it was so much fun to see Kiki have a breakthrough and count to 100 by herself (she still has to practice more to crystallize)! So, I highly recommend signing up for FREE on their website (I created an account for me as a Parent then sub-accounts for the kids) no matter what subject you and your kids are interested in to explore further! They also have an App for both Ipad and Android I believe!
PS Thinking about all this stuff recently, out of curiosity I looked at the kind of courses kids take in High School these days vs. back in my day, it's really amazing the differences! I looked at a Private School we have here in Whitby called Trafalgar Castle School, they can learn Mandarin which is cool but I saw almost zero Computer Science type courses (I won't go off on a long tangent here but Carol & I are quite sure that almost any career in 20 years will have CS as it's core) which shocked me...anyway I found this accredited Virtual Private High School online and they had at least 3-4 Comp Sci classes which was more assuring! Check this course on Data Science which is a hot topic these days, the syllabus is amazing, will prepare the kids very well!
PPS A tangentially related article I just read on LinkedIn, it is thought provoking (and adds some unique points to this topic that is gaining momentum in the media). I definitely agree the jobs of the future will tilt more towards higher IQ jobs, probably the last frontier of jobs I see AI replacing is Theoretical Physicists working on Grand Unified Theories, the top ones have IQ's in the 180-200 range! Also, areas in Pure Math that require similar IQ's just to even grasp much less do research in! I keep up on this stuff, since I left Grad School and it's truly humbling how high these sky scrapers of human ingenuity are...I think the stars of these fields are definitely 2-3 levels higher than me on the IQ scale (and I've never been accused of being overly humble ha)! Nonetheless, AI once created will quickly reach these levels and just as quick surpass them (just think about how much more powerful computers get each year)!
PS Thinking about all this stuff recently, out of curiosity I looked at the kind of courses kids take in High School these days vs. back in my day, it's really amazing the differences! I looked at a Private School we have here in Whitby called Trafalgar Castle School, they can learn Mandarin which is cool but I saw almost zero Computer Science type courses (I won't go off on a long tangent here but Carol & I are quite sure that almost any career in 20 years will have CS as it's core) which shocked me...anyway I found this accredited Virtual Private High School online and they had at least 3-4 Comp Sci classes which was more assuring! Check this course on Data Science which is a hot topic these days, the syllabus is amazing, will prepare the kids very well!
PPS A tangentially related article I just read on LinkedIn, it is thought provoking (and adds some unique points to this topic that is gaining momentum in the media). I definitely agree the jobs of the future will tilt more towards higher IQ jobs, probably the last frontier of jobs I see AI replacing is Theoretical Physicists working on Grand Unified Theories, the top ones have IQ's in the 180-200 range! Also, areas in Pure Math that require similar IQ's just to even grasp much less do research in! I keep up on this stuff, since I left Grad School and it's truly humbling how high these sky scrapers of human ingenuity are...I think the stars of these fields are definitely 2-3 levels higher than me on the IQ scale (and I've never been accused of being overly humble ha)! Nonetheless, AI once created will quickly reach these levels and just as quick surpass them (just think about how much more powerful computers get each year)!
Fast Food harms you in new novel ways!
Sunday, February 5, 2017
New research shows that not only is most types of Fast Food bad for you in a multitude of ways (this link uses Instant Ramen Noodles as a great example), but now even the packaging, which is coated with various chemicals (stain resistant, water repellent & non-stick) can migrate into your food.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/02/05/0743242/report-finds-pfas-chemicals-in-one-third-of-fast-food-packaging
Just like anyone else, sometimes at home I don't have time to make a fresh from scratch lunch, but I've found there's many Organic frozen meals that taste great with all natural (mostly organic) ingredients. It's just like if your Mom made a great lasagna from scratch and froze it for you...but not in plastic haha as they can leach in extreme temps, such as frozen or heat (similar to the fast food container story). Ok, actually you can use plastic containers as long as they are the correct type but I'm not sure I fully trust that this is the last word on this tricky complex subject so I put parchment paper (even this has silicone but this is quite inert) in the container to prevent sticking during freezing.
Here's some of my fave fast Organic (or Natural) foods with no bad ingredients
Sprinkle with Pine nuts before putting in oven
https://www.amys.com/our-foods/pesto-pizza
https://www.amys.com/our-foods/vegetable-pot-pie
https://www.amys.com/our-foods/black-bean-burrito
Healthy Planet has this for 40% cheaper
https://www.frozenbutcher.ca/shop/antibiotic-hormone-free-beef-chili.html
Also at Healthy Planet I like a few of the IndianLife products, such as these wraps...they make great all natural Tortilla's as well (for when I make Tacos)
http://www.indianlife.com/product/naan-wrap-with-lentils-brown-rice/
Carnegie Mellon AI beats top poker pros — a first
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Yet another step towards the Singularity :-) AI claimed Chess back in 1997, Jeopardy in 2011, GO in 2016 and now, Poker in 2017! Notice the progression is not linear at all! Looks exponential to me, as Kurzweil has been saying!
http://www.kurzweilai.net/carnegie-mellon-ai-beats-top-poker-pros-a-first
The Supercomp running the code (learning based algos) is still on the order of 1000x times "weaker" than the human brain so there's some room for improvement ;-) Also, let's not forget that when we build a computer with a comparable number of interconnections (Current estimates say 10^15 [Quadrillion] -- Synapses connecting Neurons in humans) then we will be no match for that computer for 1 main reasons, processing speed! Our synapses fire at ~0.1 - 2Hz (compare to a typical i7 firing at 3 Billion Hz [GHz]), furthermore, the speed at which these signals travel is very slow in Humans (286 Mph) compared to nearly at the speed of light in computers (186,000 Mph -- or the actual speed of light in Optical computers).
If we think about the firing rate as a kind of time keeping device, we can see why seconds became our shortest (in most cases) units of time (1 Hz is 1 cycle per sec)...compare that to a computer running at 1 Billion cycles per sec, convert that to 1 cycle per Nano sec. If the computer equivalent of a second is a Nano second, then 1 Billion Nano seconds (i.e. 1 sec) is a long time to think for a computer...it is the equivalent of saying 1 Billion seconds is a long time to think for a human (10^9 sec = ~32 years!). Consider how much you can accomplish in 32 years! These computers that reach our level of interconnections, with their much faster processing speed can do as much each second! I found a link that show's we are still years away from this (I say only years again due to the exponential increases) so you have some time for that info to sink in and make peace with it haha (I'll remind my readers again, this is why I say we join them rather than try to beat them...I'll leave the details of that for a future post!).
PS Just saw this hilarious comment regarding the last link (simulating 1 sec of 1% of the human brain)
http://www.kurzweilai.net/carnegie-mellon-ai-beats-top-poker-pros-a-first
The Supercomp running the code (learning based algos) is still on the order of 1000x times "weaker" than the human brain so there's some room for improvement ;-) Also, let's not forget that when we build a computer with a comparable number of interconnections (Current estimates say 10^15 [Quadrillion] -- Synapses connecting Neurons in humans) then we will be no match for that computer for 1 main reasons, processing speed! Our synapses fire at ~0.1 - 2Hz (compare to a typical i7 firing at 3 Billion Hz [GHz]), furthermore, the speed at which these signals travel is very slow in Humans (286 Mph) compared to nearly at the speed of light in computers (186,000 Mph -- or the actual speed of light in Optical computers).
If we think about the firing rate as a kind of time keeping device, we can see why seconds became our shortest (in most cases) units of time (1 Hz is 1 cycle per sec)...compare that to a computer running at 1 Billion cycles per sec, convert that to 1 cycle per Nano sec. If the computer equivalent of a second is a Nano second, then 1 Billion Nano seconds (i.e. 1 sec) is a long time to think for a computer...it is the equivalent of saying 1 Billion seconds is a long time to think for a human (10^9 sec = ~32 years!). Consider how much you can accomplish in 32 years! These computers that reach our level of interconnections, with their much faster processing speed can do as much each second! I found a link that show's we are still years away from this (I say only years again due to the exponential increases) so you have some time for that info to sink in and make peace with it haha (I'll remind my readers again, this is why I say we join them rather than try to beat them...I'll leave the details of that for a future post!).
PS Just saw this hilarious comment regarding the last link (simulating 1 sec of 1% of the human brain)
New Show - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Friday, January 27, 2017
Just an FYI on a new show we're really enjoying...Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency! It's based on the Douglas Adams book (have not read this one but of course his Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is one of my all time faves).
Here's a trailer for it. The ratings on Metacritic are a bit divided between Critics and Users, I guess it is that kinda show but this time I totally agree with the User ratings. From what I hear the show doesn't follow the books plot super closely but I can definitely tell from the dialogue...it is Adamsesque!
Seems BBC America developed the series and Netflix is also helping distribute it, so I presume you could watch it there (that's not how I got it). Hmm, just googled it, seems you can! Also I'm a fan of Elijah Wood, glad he plays an integral role...guess it's hard to avoid typecasting after playing Frodo!
Here's a trailer for it. The ratings on Metacritic are a bit divided between Critics and Users, I guess it is that kinda show but this time I totally agree with the User ratings. From what I hear the show doesn't follow the books plot super closely but I can definitely tell from the dialogue...it is Adamsesque!
Seems BBC America developed the series and Netflix is also helping distribute it, so I presume you could watch it there (that's not how I got it). Hmm, just googled it, seems you can! Also I'm a fan of Elijah Wood, glad he plays an integral role...guess it's hard to avoid typecasting after playing Frodo!
TekSavvy - Not perfect but by far best ISP out there
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
If like me your ISP is TekSavvy then you may have received a nice rebate on your monthly fee's this month! By the way, TekSavvy "rents" Rogers' infrastructure, this is important to know because it could lead to 1 drawback of switching to them, if you seem to have a lot of issues with Rogers and it's not your entire area but specific to your home than going to TekSavvy may not be a good idea...Rogers will definitely put your name at the back of the line when it comes to servicing your request! I've not had any issue with just our house in 6 years here in Whitby so works for me!
We're in a Grandfathered plan, we get 60 Mbps down (this is essential if you have a few people in the house and each has 1 or 2 devices on the WiFi, each device takes part of the stream...last I checked my Router I think I saw ~10 devices! <For the hacker minds out there, yes all devices are ours haha> ) and 10 Mbps up (this is very useful if you want to make HD video calls or if you want to be a good P2P node), also we have a 400 Gb monthly cap, which I do make use of!
Most importantly, I have the best most stable modem out there (now I sound like Trump ;-) the Motorola Surfboard! Unlike Rogers or Bell, TekSavvy has been very good at letting their customers use virtually any Modem they want until recently...now it seems all their higher speed packages require this sub-par unstable Modem (technically this one is US version).
So while I still recommend anyone that can to go with TekSavvy (they offer much lower prices for equivalent speed/usage than Rogers or Bell and have great customer service), this new wrinkle (which I'm sure is Rogers doing as I think they get a cut of these modems) makes me hesitate on this great deal I just saw...I could switch to 100 Mbps down/10 Mbps up with Unlimited cap for $63.95 (that's not just an intro offer for a few months like you see on Rogers or Bell sites -- and that's just a few bucks more than I'm paying)!! I'm checking with TekSavvy now but I don't think they will allow my modem (even though it's a DOCSIS 3.0 and can handle speeds to 300 MBPS +) to switch to that deal :-(
If that is the case, we'll stick with our deal for now and I'll keep researching that CISCO modem that's required for these new high speed packages. They def get a lot of bad reviews but I think it's mainly cause many people try to use the Router component of the modem to save money instead of buying a good Router...as you might guess the Router part of the modem is a piece of crap. I would recommend that nobody ever use the Router component of a Modem/Router combo but instead buy a good modem such as mine or something equivalent and use these types of Combo Modems in Bridge mode (ignores built in Router, can flow thru your better one).
At some point when they're offering 1 Gbps speeds (Rogers & Bell I think already do) at reasonable prices we'll definitely have to switch, so I'm hoping at that point they have a good modem option (like they did in the past) or at least the Modem component of these CISCO's is decent (but I have my doubts, most average modems can't handle the complexity of P2P traffic - I had one once, would hang all the time, whenever I noticed no internet, I had to power cycle the modem).
We're in a Grandfathered plan, we get 60 Mbps down (this is essential if you have a few people in the house and each has 1 or 2 devices on the WiFi, each device takes part of the stream...last I checked my Router I think I saw ~10 devices! <For the hacker minds out there, yes all devices are ours haha> ) and 10 Mbps up (this is very useful if you want to make HD video calls or if you want to be a good P2P node), also we have a 400 Gb monthly cap, which I do make use of!
Most importantly, I have the best most stable modem out there (now I sound like Trump ;-) the Motorola Surfboard! Unlike Rogers or Bell, TekSavvy has been very good at letting their customers use virtually any Modem they want until recently...now it seems all their higher speed packages require this sub-par unstable Modem (technically this one is US version).
So while I still recommend anyone that can to go with TekSavvy (they offer much lower prices for equivalent speed/usage than Rogers or Bell and have great customer service), this new wrinkle (which I'm sure is Rogers doing as I think they get a cut of these modems) makes me hesitate on this great deal I just saw...I could switch to 100 Mbps down/10 Mbps up with Unlimited cap for $63.95 (that's not just an intro offer for a few months like you see on Rogers or Bell sites -- and that's just a few bucks more than I'm paying)!! I'm checking with TekSavvy now but I don't think they will allow my modem (even though it's a DOCSIS 3.0 and can handle speeds to 300 MBPS +) to switch to that deal :-(
If that is the case, we'll stick with our deal for now and I'll keep researching that CISCO modem that's required for these new high speed packages. They def get a lot of bad reviews but I think it's mainly cause many people try to use the Router component of the modem to save money instead of buying a good Router...as you might guess the Router part of the modem is a piece of crap. I would recommend that nobody ever use the Router component of a Modem/Router combo but instead buy a good modem such as mine or something equivalent and use these types of Combo Modems in Bridge mode (ignores built in Router, can flow thru your better one).
At some point when they're offering 1 Gbps speeds (Rogers & Bell I think already do) at reasonable prices we'll definitely have to switch, so I'm hoping at that point they have a good modem option (like they did in the past) or at least the Modem component of these CISCO's is decent (but I have my doubts, most average modems can't handle the complexity of P2P traffic - I had one once, would hang all the time, whenever I noticed no internet, I had to power cycle the modem).
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