One sympathizes best with those that one is most similar to... I agree with that.
...and the modern american soldier has more in common with that robot than most iraqis. In more ways than one. But I have to disagree here. The American soldier has one thing in common with these robots: they are working toward the same goal (in this narrow instance). Aside from that, everything about them is different. To illustrate how much more the Americans have in common with Iraqis (or even insurgents), let me quote from Merchant of Venice:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
Clearly, these things are not also true of the robot (except a couple of them, if you take their meanings loosely). And yet, because they help to keep us alive, we feel empathy toward them.
We can feel empathy for a machine that's doing us a favor -- but in reality has no feelings -- while simultaneously dehumazing whole groups of people who only differ from ourselves culturally and/or geographically.
...a qubit can have three possible states -- one, zero or a "superposition" of one and zero. This unique property theoretically makes quantum computing able to solve large-scale calculations that would dwarf today's supercomputers. Trying to understand this claim better, I followed wired's link to this article, which states:
...in a QC, the bit is upgraded to a quantum bit, or qubit, that doesn't need to choose between 1 and 0. It can be both at once. As a result, a memory array of n qubits can represent every number between 1 and 2^n simultaneously. A QC's capacity doubles with each additional qubit. It may be humbling that the world's largest QC is currently only 7 qubits in size, and can barely process single-digit numbers. But a QC of 333 qubits would be able to perform operations instantaneously on every number between 1 and a googol (10^100), a value considerably larger than the number of atoms in the universe. To carry out addition or multiplication on every positive integer between 0 and 10^100 would take one of today's supercomputers several quadrillion years as it marched through one number at a time. But a QC would perform the calculation all at once, and it'd be done. I can (kinda) understand how n qubits can store every number between 1 and 2^n, and I can (very vaguely) imagine how that allows one to perform calculations on all those numbers simultaneously. Assuming all of that is true and good, what would one do with the output? For example, let's say I take sqrt(1 to 2^n) and get glurg as a result. Does glurg really hold the sqrt of all those numbers, and if so, how do I access them individually?
I didn't mean to imply that the 35 hour week was the biggest or only problem, and I stand corrected about the law regarding the work week. The general gist of my post, however, is that France needs to get back in the game and having a socialist making economic policy would likely just dig the hole a little deeper. France needs pro-growth policies and sometimes the entrenched systems have to been ripped out by the roots, à la Reagan and Thatcher. Mme Royal may actually have been correct in predicting violence in the streets, but it's probably the only path that leads to an economically competitive France.
This will be a good thing for France's economy, which has been sluggish in recent years due to the country's labor policies. It is illegal in France to work more than 35 hours a week, which makes it difficult to successfully start a small business. Royal offered a comforting promise that France could keep their old ways in place and still be economically competitive, but France has apparently opted for a tougher kind of love.
Furthermore, just because he's "conservative" by French standards, don't think that means he'd belong to the GOP.
I've always seemed to me that humans have more than 5 senses. In addition to the usual suspects, we can also sense temperature, direction (some more than others), and pressure (to a certain degree). Even within our sense of vision, there is a tremendous amount of processing that occurs unconsciously. If you've ever realized, upon pulling into the parking lot at work, that you can't recall a thing since leaving the house, you know what I'm talking about. Cognitive scientists call this ability "blindsight" and it's a very different thing from what we normally think of as sight.
It's strange the way our brains gets calibrated to a certain pattern and start seeing it everywhere. With regard to Tetris, I remember driving down the street once and picturing how the buildings would fit together if I could rotate and stack them.
I'm sure if I ran 40,000 miles of fiber and interconnected two idle routers and modified my TCP stack to handle massive window sizes and other tweaks, I could get nearly the full line rate, at twice the distance. And if you had, we'd be talking about it.
I've been to Europe, and quite frankly, the stuff you get in grocery stores there is no better than Hershey's. I spent a few weeks in Germany and I have to disagree. The supermarkets there carry many varieties of cheap chocolate that are way better than Hershey's. Two that come to mind are Kinder Chocolate and Milka. These are both cheap, supermarket brands and are very good (according to my American taste buds). My German friends were amused that I liked Kinder Chocolate because (as the name implies) it's targeted for kids. To me, this was some gourmet shit.
I suppose this means I'll have to give up on the possibility that one morning I'll wake up and only geeks will have girlfriends.... and that I'll be a super hero... So in your fantasy... you'll still be alone?
I first read the headline as "OMG Website Exposes Thousands of SSNs" and wondered if I had typed in digg.com by accident. Of course, if I had, it would read, "OMG!!! Top 10 AMAZING Websites that Expose SSNs!!!!111!1!ones!!! [PICS]"
Even seemingly trivial ones like telling the difference between an apple and an orange is difficult for a computer today. Which is exactly why we need hardware that works more like the human brain. We are so much better at vision than computers that it's hard to even compare. Most 3-yr-olds can find Grandma in the family picture, but computers aren't even close.
Slashdot Mirror
...and the modern american soldier has more in common with that robot than most iraqis. In more ways than one. But I have to disagree here. The American soldier has one thing in common with these robots: they are working toward the same goal (in this narrow instance). Aside from that, everything about them is different. To illustrate how much more the Americans have in common with Iraqis (or even insurgents), let me quote from Merchant of Venice: Clearly, these things are not also true of the robot (except a couple of them, if you take their meanings loosely). And yet, because they help to keep us alive, we feel empathy toward them.By "we" I meant humans. I was referring to a human tendency. You however, have dived headlong into us/them-ism... and been modded insightful for it.
We can feel empathy for a machine that's doing us a favor -- but in reality has no feelings -- while simultaneously dehumazing whole groups of people who only differ from ourselves culturally and/or geographically.
...a qubit can have three possible states -- one, zero or a "superposition" of one and zero. This unique property theoretically makes quantum computing able to solve large-scale calculations that would dwarf today's supercomputers. Trying to understand this claim better, I followed wired's link to this article, which states:
...in a QC, the bit is upgraded to a quantum bit, or qubit, that doesn't need to choose between 1 and 0. It can be both at once. As a result, a memory array of n qubits can represent every number between 1 and 2^n simultaneously. A QC's capacity doubles with each additional qubit. It may be humbling that the world's largest QC is currently only 7 qubits in size, and can barely process single-digit numbers. But a QC of 333 qubits would be able to perform operations instantaneously on every number between 1 and a googol (10^100), a value considerably larger than the number of atoms in the universe. To carry out addition or multiplication on every positive integer between 0 and 10^100 would take one of today's supercomputers several quadrillion years as it marched through one number at a time. But a QC would perform the calculation all at once, and it'd be done. I can (kinda) understand how n qubits can store every number between 1 and 2^n, and I can (very vaguely) imagine how that allows one to perform calculations on all those numbers simultaneously. Assuming all of that is true and good, what would one do with the output? For example, let's say I take sqrt(1 to 2^n) and get glurg as a result. Does glurg really hold the sqrt of all those numbers, and if so, how do I access them individually?I didn't mean to imply that the 35 hour week was the biggest or only problem, and I stand corrected about the law regarding the work week. The general gist of my post, however, is that France needs to get back in the game and having a socialist making economic policy would likely just dig the hole a little deeper. France needs pro-growth policies and sometimes the entrenched systems have to been ripped out by the roots, à la Reagan and Thatcher. Mme Royal may actually have been correct in predicting violence in the streets, but it's probably the only path that leads to an economically competitive France.
ding!
This will be a good thing for France's economy, which has been sluggish in recent years due to the country's labor policies. It is illegal in France to work more than 35 hours a week, which makes it difficult to successfully start a small business. Royal offered a comforting promise that France could keep their old ways in place and still be economically competitive, but France has apparently opted for a tougher kind of love.
Furthermore, just because he's "conservative" by French standards, don't think that means he'd belong to the GOP.
I'm confused. I thought Indians lived in teepees.
We cannot fight the English - there's too many!
I've always seemed to me that humans have more than 5 senses. In addition to the usual suspects, we can also sense temperature, direction (some more than others), and pressure (to a certain degree). Even within our sense of vision, there is a tremendous amount of processing that occurs unconsciously. If you've ever realized, upon pulling into the parking lot at work, that you can't recall a thing since leaving the house, you know what I'm talking about. Cognitive scientists call this ability "blindsight" and it's a very different thing from what we normally think of as sight.
Look at the underside of your mouse and tell me you want to hold that against your face.
You deserve a "funny" mod point, but I'm fresh out.
It's strange the way our brains gets calibrated to a certain pattern and start seeing it everywhere. With regard to Tetris, I remember driving down the street once and picturing how the buildings would fit together if I could rotate and stack them.
I first read the headline as "OMG Website Exposes Thousands of SSNs" and wondered if I had typed in digg.com by accident. Of course, if I had, it would read, "OMG!!! Top 10 AMAZING Websites that Expose SSNs!!!!111!1!ones!!! [PICS]"
Just wait. In 10 years, that emo kid will be your boss.
It couldn't have. The movie took place back in the early nineties; about the same time as our trouble with Saddam and the Iraqis.