Slashdot Mirror

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/472433-oh-the-jobs-people-work-at-out-west-near-hawtch-hawtch
"Oh, the jobs people work at! Out west near Hawtch-Hawtch there's a Hawtch-Hawtcher bee watcher, his job is to watch. Is to keep both his eyes on the lazy town bee, a bee that is watched will work harder you see. So he watched and he watched, but in spite of his watch that bee didn't work any harder not mawtch. So then somebody said "Our old bee-watching man just isn't bee watching as hard as he can, he ought to be watched by another Hawtch-Hawtcher! The thing that we need is a bee-watcher-watcher!". Well, the bee-watcher-watcher watched the bee-watcher. He didn't watch well so another Hawtch-Hawtcher had to come in as a watch-watcher-watcher! And now all the Hawtchers who live in Hawtch-Hawtch are watching on watch watcher watchering watch, watch watching the watcher who's watching that bee. You're not a Hawtch-Watcher you're lucky you see!"

By the way, while this can lead to "full employment", that does not make it a great thing:
http://pdfernhout.net/beyond-a-jobless-recovery-knol.html
"There are a large number of possible cures that can be tried either to create jobs or to deal with the problems posed by widespread chronic unemployment, each with various different long term societal consequences (both good and bad)."

Translation: Google Big.

Quantity has a quality all its own. Maybe you're just whistling in the dark hoping that all your experience in networking isn't going to be made irrelevant in the next 5 years when competing with young turks? Openflow is not going to be necessary for most organizations, traditional hardware and routing will suffice. But for organizations that run more than a handful of racks of hardware in their data centre, this is going to save them money.

As far as the intellectual quality of the boycott, I guess Stephen Hawking hasn't sat around and thought about it as deeply as you have.

Seeing as he is now being accused of hypocrisy over his continued use of Israeli technology, I'm guessing he didn't think about it very much. Great physicist, I enjoy his work, and fortunately he seems to bounce back from his previous mistakes. I'm sure he'll bounce back from this mistake too.

'Asimov's New Guide to Science' is the best popular science book I know of. Much better than his scifi. Anyone who reads this weighty tome will come out with a decent background understanding of physics, chemistry and biology and as a added plus it is a easy read for any age. A read of this is worth a year of schooling because it draws you in and is written by a polymath who is also a masterful author. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/977262.Asimov_s_New_Guide_To_Science

I just finished this book and loved it. It is a book about a high school team and the FIRST robotics competition.
Easy, fun read and loads of science+general teanage kids stuff.
By Neil Bascomb. The New Cool

As I said, you're ducking the issue.

Btw, if you want to know what a Man is, read Kipling.
http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm

Personally I prefer Heinlein's version:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12051-a-human-being-should-be-able-to-change-a-diaper

Note that Heinlein didn't differentiate on gender. Neither should you; it's not fair.

That's cool, and I'm all for looking for these things, but I can't help but feel a little sad knowing we'll never get there to explore them, even with robots.

I think we'll get to exploring and colonizing other worlds, if we can get together as a race to do it. "The impossible" has been done by us time and time again. Airplane flight was once impossible, as was going to the moon. The impossible is just something that hasn't been done yet.

.

“Never say that you can't do something, or that something seems impossible, or that something can't be done, no matter how discouraging or harrowing it may be; human beings are limited only by what we allow ourselves to be limited by: our own minds. We are each the masters of our own reality; when we become self-aware to this: absolutely anything in the world is possible.

Master yourself, and become king of the world around you. Let no odds, chastisement, exile, doubt, fear, or ANY mental virii prevent you from accomplishing your dreams. Never be a victim of life; be it's conqueror.”

Mike Norton

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/impossible

In his novel Marooned in Realtime , which deals with a technological Singularity, Vernor Vinge muses that a civilization might choose to retreat into a virtual reality buried deep below a planet's surface instead of expanding outward.

What if it turns out to be, rather, The Orchid Cage by Herbert W. Franke?

I read that book in my childhood - great to see it finally come to real life!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/727375.Danny_Dunn_Invisible_Boy

Makes me shudder to think how many other sci-fi stories from childhood will come to real life.

Some quotes on why walking rocks : )

Thats it! Thank you :)
I read it in:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7539053-ogon-diab-a

This book has a short story called "Dzie liftera" ('Day of a lifter') that is either based on the Limes Inferior, is part of it, or was the basis for that book.

People are still making references to the mythical Great Catholic Altar Boy Molestation Conspiracy Project?

Oh the "mythical conspiracy project"? Hmmm, let's see from the laundry list of cases we find:

In July 2010, the Vatican doubled the length of time after the 18th birthday of the victim that clergymen can be tried in a church court and streamlined the processes for removing "pedophile priests."

So they streamlined a process to cater to a "mythical conspiracy project?" People like you are what's wrong with organized religion and one of the primary reasons of why I am atheist. The people that run the Vatican and those in the past that have stood up and protected that power structure at all costs are fallible mortals. Shut up and deal with it or I'll throw you in with Scientology. And all those cases have dried up, right? Right? If you give money to the Roman Catholic church, that's what you're paying for, in part.

Dude -- The "a" in "atheist"means without or lacking. I'm an atheist the same way I'm amoral. IMHO, morals are way too multi-valued to be a useful guide to modulating my behavior. I'm not anti-moral, or even immoral (how can I be immoral if I don't use any morals?) I'm just amoral, without morals. Ditto atheism -- since I know there is no way to demonstrate the existence of a god, I am, by definition, without a god -- an atheist. I am also without all the associated baggage that theists have to trundle around, which seems to be your point of friction, here. You should seriously consider rebranding yourself, if what's wrong with religion is one of your primary reasons for calling yourself an atheist. Try anti-theist for starts. You don't like the way theists behave, so the label you choose for yourself should reflect that dislike. You can label yourself an atheist when you realize that there were no gods, are no gods and never can be gods. Incidentally, being honest and transparent in this manner allows you to cooperate with theists when their goals happen to align with yours (and to dispatch them without remorse when they don't.)

Well, if your assertion is that "people are a problem", you're not the first to make that observation..

It's a little-considered fact that 100% of insider crime is committed by insiders.

Short of extincting the human race, I don't see a good solution. Maybe we should not fixate on the insolubles?

I never actually read "the Catcher in the Rye," but I've heard the famous quote: "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."

To look at the world and say, "Oh, it's unjust, everything sucks, it's hopeless" is a fundamentally understandable point of view, but it overlooks another truth. You can, in fact, make a small impact. Getting back to Aaron Swartz, he did a lot to make the world a better place, and part of the loss we collectively suffer is that we don't get to benefit from more of his time and his selfless work.

So, I think people who feel powerless and hopeless haven't yet realized that trying to have a positive impact on their communities, their families, and their friends is part of what makes life worth living. I suggest you broaden your definition of "meaningful change" to include people you can actually meet and talk to, and you'll see that there are opportunities to promote social good in your everyday personal and professional life.

Turning this into a game with the hope of making money is cynical and tasteless.

Maybe, but totally protected under the 1st amendment.

True, but this isn't about Congress passing a law to restrict speech - it's about one company deciding not to sell a third party's product...

People and companies churn out tasteless crap all day. Perhaps they should all be censored. Good thing I don't have to buy Apple's crap.

Exactly - those (myself included) who are uncomfortable with either Apple's policies, or the general stranglehold they like to maintain on their ecosystem, are free to buy other stuff :-)

...the game ran afoul of the guidelines for including Japanese flags in a WWII naval sim.

So if Godzilla were to attack New York would Apple deny a sim after the fact because it was unfair to monsters?

The policy in question was about games depicting entities that are real. Despite what Stephen King and Dr Who may have you believe, most adults consider that monsters are not real :-)

Read the book Gifted Grownups (it's available at Amazon) or research Intellectual Giftedness or Gifted and Talented.

Being smart, gifted and/or talented, ("gifted" people often think differently than just "smart" people), doesn't automatically mean you'll be successful, but you can be happy none-the-less. There are plenty of perfectly happy "gifted" adults washing dishes or waiting tables at restaurants.

Disclaimer: Before she died in 2006, my wife was a Gifted Education teacher for 20 years, after being an English teacher for 20 years, and was one the Outstanding Gifted Education teachers of the year for Virginia in 2005. What I know about "Gifted" I learned from her, but I don't claim to know anywhere near what she knew or that I am, in fact, relaying things correctly - YMMV.

You mean, like History? A lot of it is basically fairy tales after all, you know, is written by the victors. And with it you should put a lot of popular culture "facts", like Newton's apple or Franklin's kite. Or, as we are talking about schools, what about Santa or other childrens myths? Should be denied as policy in the schools? Our culture is based in small lies like this ones to believe in big ones like justice, duty, mercy (Hogfather was a pretty good read), or that life have a meaning.

Of course, that you go to movies don't mean that you should think that everything there is the pure truth, a "fiction" somewhere should be clarified. There are tales (like there is an almighty god that created us all) that are nice, and teaches us a lot of helpful things for conviving with others. But as with Santa, people should understand how much fiction and how much of "loosely based on a true story" is there. And of course, people should know about science, including evolution and natural selection, is just how the world works, be about us or any other living thing.

Nothing short of a violent and bloody revolution can reverse this trend.

This just isn't true. If the people really cared about this issue, they could get it changed via the ballot box.

Really? Still smoking that "hope and change" dope, are you?

Go read Douglas Adams, it's good for you.
Or, if reading is not your forte, go watch The Simpsons (skip to 13:22).

“If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.”
(attributed to Emma Goldman, Jello Biafra and others)

It's just that they don't care as much as you do, so you want to act like a psychopath who doesn't get his way.

Apparently reading comprehension is not one of your strong points.

Let's try something else: "Nothing short of a miracle can reverse this trend."
See, now I'm a saint!

You'll pardon me if I don't think GP was arguing for a 'reasonable' tax rate. You should also show that we don't already have that, and further that reducing income tax would do anything to improve the situation. You can force budget cuts, but the problem is that our politicians' spending priorities are not aligned with yours, and that won't change.

We have a debt to pay down. Unless you like the idea of China owning 8% of everything you see in this country, you should be clamoring for higher taxes, not lower. At the risk of becoming a scoundrel, I submit that paying taxes is an act of patriotism.

I enjoyed the hell out of Costa Rica, and didn't pay them a dime in taxes. I would go back in a heartbeat -- they have a great (socialized) medical system too. It's not like emigration isn't an option, or would be hugely unpleasant. My suggestion to GP is: put your money where your mouth is. I did.

“The choice is between two ways of life: between individual liberty and State domination; between concentration of ownership in the hands of the State and the extension of ownership over the widest number of individuals; between the dead hand of monopoly and the stimulus of competition; between a policy of increasing restraint and a policy of liberating energy and ingenuity; between a policy of levelling down and a policy of opportunity for all to rise upwards from a basic standard. — Sir Winston Churchill, WOLVERHAMPTON, 23 JULY 1949” (Kudos )
 

Will the debate be this good?

My wife and I attended the Reason Rally on the National Mall this year, which was billed as a positive expression of non-theistic secular thought. We met many wonderful people there and were truly inspired by Adam Savage's incredibly positive and inspiring speech on the wonders of science, Nate Phelps remarkably eloquent denunciation of his father's Westboro Baptist Church, and your own speech highlighting the absurdity of having to hold such a rally at all; however, I we were also incredibly put off by vitriol on display by so many other speakers who were entirely focused on the evils of religion rather than the good science and rationality brings to civilized life. We ended up leaving the rally in the middle of PZ Meyer's speech because we found it so distressing in its Rush Limbaugh-esque tone.

It bothers me that so many of us define ourselves by what we don't believe rather than what we do. As Carolyn Porco elucidated so concisely at a talk you were involved in, I am not an atheist, I am a scientist. Like Carl Sagan, I get a profound sense of spirituality from science that I want to desperately for everyone in the world to open their own eyes and discover.

My attempts to get people to read your book The God Delusion were met with strong resistance, people were very turned off to its tone, but those same individuals loved your book The Magic of Reality . As someone who has pursued both the strategy of being highly critical of religion in one work, while apparently softening that criticism in your latter work in exchange for focusing on the wonders of the natural world, could you speak to pros and cons of these different strategies of persuasion, not just in your own work but in the efforts of others like Adam Savage and PZ Meyers?

Thank you so much for your taking the time to interact with us on /.! This really is an exciting development and an honor.

You might like SCI-FI book about this sort of thing: Deus Machine by Pierre Oulette". The premise is, "Super fast AI + BIO engineering... What can possibly go wrong!?"

One cool thing I like is that it was written before the human genome was mapped... And also just around the time the Internet began to take off (1993), so it's a bit dated, but fun to see how folks imagined our current state of things, and where we might go in the near future.

As it happens I'm reading the The Space Merchants at the moment, which posits a future where advertising is ubiquitous. It was written in the 50s. Talk about prescient. The characters seem exceedingly cynical, then you realize they're just oblivious when they say the things like "the pamphlets were chock full of sound reasoning, a notion we ad men dispensed with ages ago."

The Percussionist Neil Peart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Peart of the band Rush http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_(band) released a book "Clockwork Angels" http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13592828-clockwork-angels

co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4845.Kevin_J_Anderson which has a number of Antagonists, among which is "the clockmaker" who takes over society through the creation and a massive influx of "artificially created" gold. The second primary antagonist has created "artificially created" diamonds. Quite timely I believe. Well played Mr. Peart! Well played!

The Percussionist Neil Peart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Peart of the band Rush http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_(band) released a book "Clockwork Angels" http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13592828-clockwork-angels

co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4845.Kevin_J_Anderson which has a number of Antagonists, among which is "the clockmaker" who takes over society through the creation and a massive influx of "artificially created" gold. The second primary antagonist has created "artificially created" diamonds. Quite timely I believe. Well played Mr. Peart! Well played!

Check it out - fantastic dialogue and impressive realization of future tech: downloadable personas, backups, and lots of drugs and guns. Quite an enjoyable read:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40445.Altered_Carbon

amen to that. I do a bit of reading in the bath.... a tatty paperback is perfect for that, an expensive ereader is not. Same for out and about - a paperback is easy to pack and doesn't matter if someone nicks it.

And not only that, the feel good and they get you laid.

Foster has single-handedly committed all the cardinal sins that Serious SF Authors(tm) must never do:

Movie/TV spin-off novels? Check (See: Splinter of the Mind's Eye).
Crossing over into Fantasy? Check (See: Spellsinger).
Dabbling with humor? Check (Spellsinger, Glory Lane, etc.).
Indulging a disrespected fringe group? Check. (Furries man. See Spellsinger (again!), Quozl, the Icerigger trilogy).

If there is a scale that measures prolific hackery, with Peirs Anthony on the bottom and Stephen King on the top, I would put Foster far, far closer to King. Glory Lane, To the Vanishing Point, and Into the Out Of are all truly excellent reads. They're not life changers, they're just damn good. He's got a fine roster of clever and poigniant short stories. For old school geeks, the most notable of which is "Why Johnny Can't Speed" which has been cited as direct inspiration for the classic Steve Jackson game Car Wars.

And hey, without Car Wars, SJ Games might never have been successful enough to launch GURPS. Without GURPS, there would be no GURPS Cyberpunk, no Secret Service raid on SJ Games in 1991, and maybe no Electronic Frontier Foundation either. How's that for underrated?

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke

On The Beach by Nevil Shute

The last is a movie, not a novel, and it is not really sci-fi. But I stumbled across it on YouTube the other day so I thought I would mention it: Threads

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke

On The Beach by Nevil Shute

The last is a movie, not a novel, and it is not really sci-fi. But I stumbled across it on YouTube the other day so I thought I would mention it: Threads

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke

On The Beach by Nevil Shute

The last is a movie, not a novel, and it is not really sci-fi. But I stumbled across it on YouTube the other day so I thought I would mention it: Threads

Didn't the world already end? I coulda sworn...

Don't worry, you're not the only one who hasn't noticed yet.

GoodReads has a selection that might spark his interest.

Not only the above, but the atoms that make up your left hand probably came from a different star to those that make up your right.

as said by Lawrence Krauss

If one can find a copy, "An Omnibus of Science Fiction" edited by Groff Conklin. Several editions from the Fifties, he also edited a variety of other anthologies. Excellent stories, easily accessible and though-provoking, although some will seem dated. "A Pail of Air" by Fritz Leiber has stuck with me since I read it circa '58.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?298440
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2318155.Omnibus_of_Science_Fiction
http://www.iblist.com/book12137.htm

for starters.

Wow, one of my ~2nd grade reading assignments is suddenly relevant.

If you're not a criminal, or an "unwanted race" under some future tyranny state, what does it matter that the government tracks your phone?

That's rather shortsighted. Simply because you aren't oppressed right now doesn't mean you won't be later on. Better to stop such Orwellian policies before you need them removed than after...not to mention the ethics of allowing others to be oppressed and not giving a rip because it isn't you.

And let's face it, "criminal" is a term that is defined by the government. I'm sure everyone here on /. has seen stories where "${Ridiculous_Action} is illegal in the state of..." For example, "Men who deflower virgins, regardless of age or marital status, may face up to five years in jail," in Auburn, Alabama. How many guys do you think are "criminals" according to THAT law? Yet have they actually done anything wrong (assuming that it was consensual and both parties were over the age of consent)? Okay, so what...you've got a city full of guys who haven't actually done anything wrong, but are technically guilty of violating an absurd law in some obscure town in the south. Big deal, right? <tinfoilhat status="on">But suppose one of these guys is threatening the establishment...or is suspected of doing something wrong, even though the PD don't have enough evidence to get a warrant...or...or...or. Now, they have a technical violation of the law that can be used to arrest or harass him, which can have devastating effects, even if he is later found to be innocent. </tinfoilhat> Okay, that's a hypothetical situation that really dives into conspiracy-theorist territory, but I seem to remember a popular Ayn Rand quote warning about this.

If you really want computers to augment humans,
once you have a wearable computer+sensors that are sufficiently advanced you can have them do the following:
1) Continuous video+audio recording in high res of past X minutes, and low res for longer periods. This way you don't have to miss stuff - you can tell the computer to switch to high res till further notice (the past X minutes would already be in high res) and then save it. Eidetic memory for the masses!
2) Continuous background image recognition (look for faces or objects - military version = gun muzzle detection, vehicle detection, anti-camouflage )
3) Continuous background audio recognition (voice etc[1]).
4) GPS+ map + compass direction feedback.
5) Work with "area/location computers" (so that you can more easily control/access location specific stuff - lights, jukebox, climate control, menus, ordering systems).
6) Many more stuff - see below too.

Sounds like you've either already read, or should read, Elizabeth Moon's "Vatta's War" series... :)

It's a great 5-book sci-fi series in which these sorts of brain/computer interface devices are quite commonplace. Artificial eidetic memory, command codes for database access, environmental controls, communication, memory storage, etc. It's very well written: if you haven't read it already I suggest giving it a try!

#1 = Trading in Danger
#2 = Marque and Reprisal
#3 = Engaging the Enemy
#4 = Command Decision
#5 = Victory Conditions

Pulitzer-prize winning science writer Deborah Blum has decided to call out New York Times journalist Nicholas Kirstof for his secondary crusade (she notes he is an admirable journalist in other realms)

... an excellent example of Gell-Mann amnesia:

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

How does this Blum know that Kristof really is an "admirable journalist" on other topics? Maybe he's just as useless with other topics as he is with chemicals?

You are both right. The fund managers and their pet quants did not understand the whole process and the effects of their actions, all they knew was they were 'printing money' out of thin air every day. Cannot say they were not warned by many, including the father of quantitative analysis; the late, great Mr. Mandelbrot. Yeah, the fractal guy. Taleb was also an ardent 'wet blanket'. Both predicted this mess years before it happened. Nothing has changed, toxic assets are STILL accumulating in many funds' portfolios. Who cares? The Guv will bail them out after they're done raping the markets.

That was my first thought too. I still remember eraser and "The First Battle of Bull Run" and toreador petticoats.

Anyone who grew up reading Encylopedia Brown stores -- you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Joe Meno's wistfully spare The Boy Detective Fails. If you can imagine indie shoegazer music put into book form, this would surely by part of that imaginary genre's major canon.

I'd much rather have a shield belt / unit, though one wonders if it wouldn't have the same societal implications as Poul Anderson's novel _Shield_:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2150533.Shield

William

I kind of think we are close to living the future as written about in Nature's End by James W. Kunetka, Whitley Striebe http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/394986.Nature_s_End

Genetic manipulation of plants and animals, genetic mental enhancement of humans (plays a pretty big part in the story, I don't want to post an spoiler), Oceans flooding the way they say they will and population immigration because of it, computer worms and how computers run a lot of stuff (I liked the stock program that is 51% correct of the time) and so on. That world really looks like what is happening today just taken to a little bit to the far end of things. I still say it was a pretty good read.

for the same reason that we don't have a gift economy

Humans have always had a gift economy, including today. Book tip: "The generous man" by Tor Norretranders.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/142903.The_Generous_Man

look at the number one recommendation on this site:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2450.Best_Children_s_Science_Fiction_Books

A placebo versus LSD, double-blind versus cleansing the doors of perception, delirium tremens versus psychedelic consciousness; thinking is the best way to travel.

Can't believe I forgot these: The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy and another series by the same author, Limekiller.

You have to be able to appreciate trenchant satire to enjoy this story about an alterante universer where Hitler emigrates to the US and becomes a celebrated Science Fiction writer. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/633177.The_Iron_Dream

Totally. Also -- more obscure -- his Kornbluth collaborations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_M._Kornbluth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons - Idiocracy was obviously ripped from this, not that it was a 100% original theme for Pohl & Kornbluth, either.

A Pohl Collab with Jack Williamson, The Reefs of Space http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1476166.The_Reefs_of_Space - could be the most visually striking SF film ever made. I've been waiting to see it since I first read the book in 1959.

Another too-cool book and possible movie candidate - The Stars My Destination http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination by Alfred Bester. Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite living authors) called this the first cyberpunk novel. Neil is right about that. It is also one of the finest "high concept" SF novels ever written, and was so far ahead of its time (1956) that a lot of reviewers panned it.

Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
The stars my destination

This should be a movie. If you don't believe me, ask Neal Stephenson. He has no doubt read and liked this novel.

I really enjoyed a really strange novel called I, Zombie by "Curt Selby". According to this link, this was actually a pen name for Doris Piserchia.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1257369.I_Zombie

I think you will enjoy it more if you don't read any spoilers. I'll just say it's told first-person by a narrator with a truly strange point of view, and some truly strange things happen.

This isn't even forgotten, because I don't think it was ever well-known. But I enjoyed the heck out of it, and perhaps you will too.

steveha