Artificial intelligence or true understanding of the functional mechanics of consciousness? I can only imagine that the discovery of one will reveal the other...
Of all the possible realities, structures, and designs in the world, why does human society happen to be the way it is? Why is it even "human" society?
The universe goes about its way according to physics and you are an extant result of that mindlessness, which just so happens to be weaved into complexity through natural selection and historical 'accident' (occurrence).
It's a fact that six billion humans all run on nearly the exact same software and have, generally, the same hopes, fears, pleasures and passions. Ever listen to music lyrics? Isn't it amazing how they often express your innermost thoughts in such a succinct way? How could they capture such a feeling so well? Because they are having the exact same feelings as you. You're all human and you're all operating on the same rules that have been programmed over, technically, billions of years.
The mere fact that "society" exists, a vast and incomprehensibly complex interplay of innumerable factors, surviving entire generations and lifespans indicates that the world is marching forward according to the laws of physics and human civilization is the current result of that.
All the world's a stage, and you're just an actor. Call me when someone free will's up some anti-gravity.
That said, the mind and the world is so complex to us at this point that we can assume and use 'free will' in conversation and practice. Even if we recognize strict determinism, we're still going to continue acting as if we have free will so who cares?
You can't compare a few radical Christians to the Islamic community (which rioted over cartoons at the provocation of a few clerics and keep their women in a state of subjugation), nor abortion bombings to the 9/11 attacks.
I'm not going to support the invasion of Iraq, even if it would have been a good thing in the long run if it had been a success (which it isn't at this point).
Nor are drunk driving statistics relevant. I'm all for stricter drunk driving penalties.
9/11 wasn't the caprice of fate, it was a planned assault that had a crippling effect on our nation's economy.
"When the stock markets reopened on September 17, 2001, after the longest closure since the Great Depression in 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ("DJIA") stock market index fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8920, its biggest-ever one-day point decline. By the end of the week, the DJIA had fallen 1369.7 points (14.3%), its largest one-week point drop in history." - Wikipedia
Not to mention the Iraq and Afghan wars were a DIRECT RESULT of the 9/11 attacks. Those countries would not have been invaded if we had not had planes hijacked and hitting military buildings and skyscrapers.
9/11 had a resonant impact on our society, and we're still dealing with the effects of it today. So the 9/11 attacks bother me the most, and they should bother you the most as well.
Well obviously they are a major threat, but they haven't been throwing airliners into major structures lately.
I was simply pointing out that that is why they were choosing middle eastern food markets as opposed to, say, Latin food marts. I don't necessarily agree that it is wise or believe that it will achieve positive results. But there is a reason that it was middle easterners.
Maybe because the OUTSIDE threat in the world right now is Islamic fundamentalism which historically manifests itself in individuals of middle eastern descent?
3 million dollars per year is a pittance
on
Is SETI Worth It?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Three million dollars a year is a small price to pay for the chance at discovering another sentient race in the galaxy, even if it is a longshot. It is one cent per year per individual.
You are asking about music and paintings, both of which would be capable of high art when considered by themselves. Inserting a Mona Lisa into deathmatch isn't going to make the latest FPS into high art, since the FPS is comprised of more than the painting or music that you have around it. It would be like framing a classic painting in a square mile of paintings by five year olds.
There is no doubt that most games come nowhere close to a piece by *insert favorite artist*.
Ebert, of course, considers films high art. A film has a strict design space path that it never deviates from. You can imagine a straight line. Some games allow for a certain level of interactivity, but you are still constrained within the design of the game. All a game does is open up the straight line "experience" of the design space into a cylinder of "possible experiences". That freedom and interaction allows for a slightly different story.
I doubt it even enters Eberts mind, when thinking about this subject, that most of the films he considers "high art" could have been changed in subtle ways, and he still would have lavished praise on them. While there are an infinite number of possibilities even in a cylindric design-space path, they are limited to the possibilities contained within the volume of the cylinder.
If you imagine a film traversing the design space of all possibilities, there is a smooth, linear transition from one moment to the next. It never deviates. But you could, conceivably, take portions of that line, and move them ever so subtly... a game merely gives you the freedom to move the line yourself, while being capable of delivering to you a very focused experience.
What I'm trying to say is that if the director of the Godfather switched the camera angle and had Pacino phrase his line a little differently, it would not have impacted the movie much. A gamer playing Shadow of the Colossus that crawls up the left leg instead of the right leg of the giant creature is merely "shifting" the experience of the design space line within the cylinder provided to him by the game producers.
I would argue that a game producer can still provide a deep, meaningful experience while allowing the player some small degrees of freedom (enough to make it an interesting game), and with that end I would argue that a game could be produced that would be considered "high art", even if none exist today.
Not to mention we were playing 8-bit Mario years ago, the game industry has a lot of maturing to do, who knows what we'll have in another fifty years...
Slashdot Mirror
Artificial intelligence or true understanding of the functional mechanics of consciousness? I can only imagine that the discovery of one will reveal the other...
let's make a post about it!
Of all the possible realities, structures, and designs in the world, why does human society happen to be the way it is? Why is it even "human" society? The universe goes about its way according to physics and you are an extant result of that mindlessness, which just so happens to be weaved into complexity through natural selection and historical 'accident' (occurrence). It's a fact that six billion humans all run on nearly the exact same software and have, generally, the same hopes, fears, pleasures and passions. Ever listen to music lyrics? Isn't it amazing how they often express your innermost thoughts in such a succinct way? How could they capture such a feeling so well? Because they are having the exact same feelings as you. You're all human and you're all operating on the same rules that have been programmed over, technically, billions of years. The mere fact that "society" exists, a vast and incomprehensibly complex interplay of innumerable factors, surviving entire generations and lifespans indicates that the world is marching forward according to the laws of physics and human civilization is the current result of that. All the world's a stage, and you're just an actor. Call me when someone free will's up some anti-gravity. That said, the mind and the world is so complex to us at this point that we can assume and use 'free will' in conversation and practice. Even if we recognize strict determinism, we're still going to continue acting as if we have free will so who cares?
'30 worst articles ever posted to Slashdot' list.
We cast our wiretapping net ever-wider! You guys might as well just give up now.
are the reason that Nader can sap votes. It's not obvious that all republicans and democrats are "in the pockets of lobbyists". http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN00192: and http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN00230: There are two major bills for lobbying ethics reform passed by Congress and sponsored by McCain and Obama, respectively.
It is precisely the concept of memetics as originally proposed by Richard Dawkins in his seminal work, "The Selfish Gene". Nothing is new here.
"Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian."
News Post Comes With Article, Sort Of
it will take care of itself eventually, demand for bandwidth will increase and money will be poured into infrastructure
Natural selection programmed bees.
You can't compare a few radical Christians to the Islamic community (which rioted over cartoons at the provocation of a few clerics and keep their women in a state of subjugation), nor abortion bombings to the 9/11 attacks.
I'm not going to support the invasion of Iraq, even if it would have been a good thing in the long run if it had been a success (which it isn't at this point).
Nor are drunk driving statistics relevant. I'm all for stricter drunk driving penalties.
9/11 wasn't the caprice of fate, it was a planned assault that had a crippling effect on our nation's economy.
"When the stock markets reopened on September 17, 2001, after the longest closure since the Great Depression in 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ("DJIA") stock market index fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8920, its biggest-ever one-day point decline. By the end of the week, the DJIA had fallen 1369.7 points (14.3%), its largest one-week point drop in history." - Wikipedia
Not to mention the Iraq and Afghan wars were a DIRECT RESULT of the 9/11 attacks. Those countries would not have been invaded if we had not had planes hijacked and hitting military buildings and skyscrapers.
9/11 had a resonant impact on our society, and we're still dealing with the effects of it today. So the 9/11 attacks bother me the most, and they should bother you the most as well.
Well obviously they are a major threat, but they haven't been throwing airliners into major structures lately. I was simply pointing out that that is why they were choosing middle eastern food markets as opposed to, say, Latin food marts. I don't necessarily agree that it is wise or believe that it will achieve positive results. But there is a reason that it was middle easterners.
Maybe because the OUTSIDE threat in the world right now is Islamic fundamentalism which historically manifests itself in individuals of middle eastern descent?
Three million dollars a year is a small price to pay for the chance at discovering another sentient race in the galaxy, even if it is a longshot. It is one cent per year per individual.
Extrasolar planet refers to any planet beyond our solar system, not beyond our galaxy.
The Milky Way galaxy (ours) contains ~200 billion stars, each one a potential solar system.
Obligatory wikipedia article listing some of the discovered extrasolar planets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planet
He was correct about the tidal forces being caused by the moon. The rotation of the earth has more to do with weather than the tides. http://www.princeton.edu/~pccm/outreach/scsp/water_on_earth/tides/science/causes.htm
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:FX7fM0XdTiEJ:pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/DonohueLevittTheImpactOfLegalized2001.pdf+abortion+crime&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us
I'd find it amusing if you have to purchase the box and pay $10 a month to have ads in your game.
All for the low, low price of your personal freedoms!
You can eat kudzu as well.
High electricity usage and infrared sensing from helicopter or plane flyovers can give away an indoor growing facility.
Curse your lack of WYSIWYG and editing, Slashdot.
You are asking about music and paintings, both of which would be capable of high art when considered by themselves. Inserting a Mona Lisa into deathmatch isn't going to make the latest FPS into high art, since the FPS is comprised of more than the painting or music that you have around it. It would be like framing a classic painting in a square mile of paintings by five year olds. There is no doubt that most games come nowhere close to a piece by *insert favorite artist*. Ebert, of course, considers films high art. A film has a strict design space path that it never deviates from. You can imagine a straight line. Some games allow for a certain level of interactivity, but you are still constrained within the design of the game. All a game does is open up the straight line "experience" of the design space into a cylinder of "possible experiences". That freedom and interaction allows for a slightly different story. I doubt it even enters Eberts mind, when thinking about this subject, that most of the films he considers "high art" could have been changed in subtle ways, and he still would have lavished praise on them. While there are an infinite number of possibilities even in a cylindric design-space path, they are limited to the possibilities contained within the volume of the cylinder. If you imagine a film traversing the design space of all possibilities, there is a smooth, linear transition from one moment to the next. It never deviates. But you could, conceivably, take portions of that line, and move them ever so subtly... a game merely gives you the freedom to move the line yourself, while being capable of delivering to you a very focused experience. What I'm trying to say is that if the director of the Godfather switched the camera angle and had Pacino phrase his line a little differently, it would not have impacted the movie much. A gamer playing Shadow of the Colossus that crawls up the left leg instead of the right leg of the giant creature is merely "shifting" the experience of the design space line within the cylinder provided to him by the game producers. I would argue that a game producer can still provide a deep, meaningful experience while allowing the player some small degrees of freedom (enough to make it an interesting game), and with that end I would argue that a game could be produced that would be considered "high art", even if none exist today. Not to mention we were playing 8-bit Mario years ago, the game industry has a lot of maturing to do, who knows what we'll have in another fifty years...
Now to make people look foolish by challenging them to break out of a wet paper bag!