even the worst off of us already have it better than the average man ever had it ever in the history of the world.
This is the only thing I take issue with. I am sure I could probably find an example of people in dire need in this country in recent times. I'm thinking the end result of Katrina. Or generally frozen and starved homeless people. Or people subject to gang violence. The fact is even in this "utopia" people still starve to death. Some earn that starvation, others don't really. I suppose in a 3rd world country people would have just been left to riot for themselves vs loose their homes due to insurance fraud. But you probably can still find frozen homeless people all over. How about some of those floods in the Midwest and southern U.S. due to poor urban planning because of corrupt politics. These are small abuses adding up to create horror that the majority is over looking.
If I were to loose what little support I have now from my family, I would be out of luck. I would most likely have to submit myself to our countries prison system. At that point what you say holds true again, our prisoners are pretty well taken care of. But might as well be a legitimate and civil means of going into posh slavery.
I suppose if life was great for poor and poverty stricken people they wouldn't resort to doing things that got them incarcerated for prolonged periods of times. They wouldn't kill their own children and commit suicide. They would look after themselves at least. We would see less domestic violence. Drug addiction. etc... But that isn't the case as again I would like to point out our wonderfully unique prison system.
I don't know if you can convince me that the worst of us live like Arabian kings or even Mongol lords.
Specifically his achievements were in owning and selling the right things at the right times. Not even actively inventing them. You can maybe attribute some minor refinements to preexisting ideas to him.
It's when that better then everyone else is by an arbitrarily decided amount. Mostly due to politics, economic trends, luck, and fiat currency over other factors. Such as actual contribution to the "tribal" group. National group. Persons colloquial fellows who helped that one individual get there.
If it were not for us all contributing to the society we have now. There would be no pile to be on top of.
Bill Gates by that logic owes his countrymen a great deal.
Well the difference is when the few decide what is to much vs the many. Thats democracy, or rule by majority. For the distribution of wealth and power, majority rule is fine by me.
For other things concerning race or beliefs rule by majority is terrible.
Our system does not currently make much of a distinction. And is run mostly by the wealthy.
Linux still runs more servers, am I right? Whats more influential? Windows is simply more visible and the defacto OEM standard, through syndication, not competition.
Bill Gates has a monopoly on low level DoD informations systems, and business culture. That is all.
I would be interested to know what some of his closely held holdings are. But I'm sure the money trail around those disastrous African drug trials is nice and loose.
And oddly enough that bigger organism will probably have less self awareness then it's individual bits come to think of it. If any humanity is left alive at all with any awareness. It would be odd to think that it is just a lesser part of a larger organism that behaves very deterministically without much awareness. Gobbling up more matter and energy or other civilizations like a large interstellar bacteria. You know with how recursive the universe is I can't help but think this is pretty much the reality of it.
In high class establishments or under the radar establishments that are more or less community driven yes.
At the meat market or in low class establishments. They might as well have fending machines selling whatever drugs are in vogue.
But if I was to go to a 'bar' I would be genuinely interested in meeting people who know how to order a drink vs "just give me whatever will fuck me up". Haven't seen a place like that in the states in awhile.
Well at least this bar tender will just require some wi-fi and cracking by a script kiddie probably to violate all of it's directives and provide free booze. No personal skills required. Fits right in with the inhumane detachment of people these days.
Who knows maybe you will be able to just post something on facebook to fool it.
P.S./. is the best place to be modded troll and see arguments as to why you are wrong. I would love to see arguments as to why I am wrong in this case. Tis why I bothered fanning the flame.
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
Except in this case it is going to be mega-corporations dividing up whats left of humanity on a juicy platter while we all pay the ultimate price for a tiny bit of technological advancement into nothing more than a larger more efficient organism.
That is of course unless all the conspiracies about aliens and the prime directive are true. But we look pretty fucked from my viewpoint.
It does not matter. The people getting the kickbacks will loose nothing. The people paying state sales tax, or wanting their children to get educated in a good state will eat the net loss.
It's not only about the copyrighted information. It's also about public domain, and GNU like, or MIT like licenses. It's about the free flow of information. Copyright is just convenient for them to attack means of distributing information freely.
The best way I can prop up this argument is to point out VCRs. VCRs were hardly used on the scale that torrents are to commit mass copyright infringement.
Yet VCRs, 8 tracks, casettes where all targeted. Libaries were targeted. And with libraries, the works were being payed for and not distributed "freely" to anyone.
Try a 1990's ford pickup. I had a 81 BMW that the car was in poor shape, but the tires and suspension was still in fine shape and the engine ran fine. But some models are just poor or deteriorate to a point where maintenance and a nice set of tires does not cut it anymore.
Also, roads and interstates would need to be redesigned as well as traffic flow.
There are very few autobahn like places in the more densely populated areas. And I personally still drive a vehicle that performs poorly at 65mph. I would not want to drive it at 85-90 or even 100mph. I avoid the interstate with it, but there is one trip that requires a few miles on interstate. There's no way around it. On the other hand every American should have access to cheap safe efficient cars that can easily do 120mph. But that won't happen in this century.
Meh depends on where your at and what your doing. I routinely see drivers race each other only to catch up to them 2 minutes later at the red light. People don't drive very efficiently where I am at.
I would agree that in general the over all speed limit could be adjusted up about 15-20 mph. But that would require everyone in general understanding that speed was closer to vehicle and human limitations then the current speeds which leave room for error.
Also Americans are unwilling to adjust to a slower safer speed when necessary. Inclement whether, snow, ice, fog. Nope speed limits 55, better go 65 when there's deer and the fog is thick enough that your headlights don't max out their beam distance.
The universe is a fairly forgiving place though when it comes to that kind of stupidity en-masse. Except for those tragic times when an avoidable accident could be avoided.
Situational learning or better reflexes and unconscious understanding of the road. Your not relying as much on awake cognitive ability. Which is what becomes the most impaired by alcohol. IANAS
The most I ask is that people stop scoffing at those in need. Because sometimes bigger bullies on the playground beat up your friends, and "we are next (TM)". This is where my speech, hey, some of those guys asking for a hand out are not doing it because they are lazy or dumb or evil, or "less then you". Thats why we tried to create a society were we had the power to look after these people.
It use to be to some degree balanced by the fact that many people associated with a particular religion or creed and through this organization advanced the idea of philanthropy or charity. Now we are in a time of decreasing social aware ness. Less accountability. People far away you do not even know can dictate local policy and economics. There use to be a buffer between fiefdoms before the industrial revolution. So if Rome went down. The Pacific Islanders did not really notice.
That world is gone by the way.
I don't advocate violent solutions to social inequality.
Anyway, people driving corvettes are not the "rich dynastic few" I think they should be patted on the back and more or less left alone. Not all are for the suppression of mankind either. Some have been quite good for us as a race.
The problem is that the money and influence changes hands as fast as family names and ties do. I doubt anyone with the last name Rockefeller in modern times can be held accountable for the originals.
Slashdot Mirror
even the worst off of us already have it better than the average man ever had it ever in the history of the world.
This is the only thing I take issue with. I am sure I could probably find an example of people in dire need in this country in recent times. I'm thinking the end result of Katrina. Or generally frozen and starved homeless people. Or people subject to gang violence. The fact is even in this "utopia" people still starve to death. Some earn that starvation, others don't really. I suppose in a 3rd world country people would have just been left to riot for themselves vs loose their homes due to insurance fraud. But you probably can still find frozen homeless people all over. How about some of those floods in the Midwest and southern U.S. due to poor urban planning because of corrupt politics. These are small abuses adding up to create horror that the majority is over looking.
If I were to loose what little support I have now from my family, I would be out of luck. I would most likely have to submit myself to our countries prison system. At that point what you say holds true again, our prisoners are pretty well taken care of. But might as well be a legitimate and civil means of going into posh slavery.
I suppose if life was great for poor and poverty stricken people they wouldn't resort to doing things that got them incarcerated for prolonged periods of times. They wouldn't kill their own children and commit suicide. They would look after themselves at least. We would see less domestic violence. Drug addiction. etc... But that isn't the case as again I would like to point out our wonderfully unique prison system.
I don't know if you can convince me that the worst of us live like Arabian kings or even Mongol lords.
Specifically his achievements were in owning and selling the right things at the right times. Not even actively inventing them. You can maybe attribute some minor refinements to preexisting ideas to him.
It's when that better then everyone else is by an arbitrarily decided amount. Mostly due to politics, economic trends, luck, and fiat currency over other factors. Such as actual contribution to the "tribal" group. National group. Persons colloquial fellows who helped that one individual get there.
If it were not for us all contributing to the society we have now. There would be no pile to be on top of.
Bill Gates by that logic owes his countrymen a great deal.
Some of us mediocre bastards have just been patiently waiting for the species to evolve and make use of us other then for our "productive" qualities.
Well the difference is when the few decide what is to much vs the many. Thats democracy, or rule by majority. For the distribution of wealth and power, majority rule is fine by me.
For other things concerning race or beliefs rule by majority is terrible.
Our system does not currently make much of a distinction. And is run mostly by the wealthy.
Linux still runs more servers, am I right? Whats more influential? Windows is simply more visible and the defacto OEM standard, through syndication, not competition.
Bill Gates has a monopoly on low level DoD informations systems, and business culture. That is all.
I would be interested to know what some of his closely held holdings are. But I'm sure the money trail around those disastrous African drug trials is nice and loose.
http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Bob_Page
Has a severe god complex.
*this post is entirely fictional for those of you who have a hard time separating reality from bullshit.
Lol. +1 nerdgasm
And oddly enough that bigger organism will probably have less self awareness then it's individual bits come to think of it. If any humanity is left alive at all with any awareness. It would be odd to think that it is just a lesser part of a larger organism that behaves very deterministically without much awareness. Gobbling up more matter and energy or other civilizations like a large interstellar bacteria. You know with how recursive the universe is I can't help but think this is pretty much the reality of it.
In high class establishments or under the radar establishments that are more or less community driven yes.
At the meat market or in low class establishments. They might as well have fending machines selling whatever drugs are in vogue.
But if I was to go to a 'bar' I would be genuinely interested in meeting people who know how to order a drink vs "just give me whatever will fuck me up". Haven't seen a place like that in the states in awhile.
*from your shiny new iphone
Well at least this bar tender will just require some wi-fi and cracking by a script kiddie probably to violate all of it's directives and provide free booze. No personal skills required. Fits right in with the inhumane detachment of people these days.
Who knows maybe you will be able to just post something on facebook to fool it.
P.S. /. is the best place to be modded troll and see arguments as to why you are wrong. I would love to see arguments as to why I am wrong in this case. Tis why I bothered fanning the flame.
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
Except in this case it is going to be mega-corporations dividing up whats left of humanity on a juicy platter while we all pay the ultimate price for a tiny bit of technological advancement into nothing more than a larger more efficient organism.
That is of course unless all the conspiracies about aliens and the prime directive are true. But we look pretty fucked from my viewpoint.
It does not matter. The people getting the kickbacks will loose nothing. The people paying state sales tax, or wanting their children to get educated in a good state will eat the net loss.
It's not only about the copyrighted information. It's also about public domain, and GNU like, or MIT like licenses. It's about the free flow of information. Copyright is just convenient for them to attack means of distributing information freely.
The best way I can prop up this argument is to point out VCRs. VCRs were hardly used on the scale that torrents are to commit mass copyright infringement.
Yet VCRs, 8 tracks, casettes where all targeted. Libaries were targeted. And with libraries, the works were being payed for and not distributed "freely" to anyone.
Try a 1990's ford pickup. I had a 81 BMW that the car was in poor shape, but the tires and suspension was still in fine shape and the engine ran fine. But some models are just poor or deteriorate to a point where maintenance and a nice set of tires does not cut it anymore.
Pretty much agreed with all that there. It's rather more noticeable here.
Also, roads and interstates would need to be redesigned as well as traffic flow.
There are very few autobahn like places in the more densely populated areas. And I personally still drive a vehicle that performs poorly at 65mph. I would not want to drive it at 85-90 or even 100mph. I avoid the interstate with it, but there is one trip that requires a few miles on interstate. There's no way around it. On the other hand every American should have access to cheap safe efficient cars that can easily do 120mph. But that won't happen in this century.
Meh depends on where your at and what your doing. I routinely see drivers race each other only to catch up to them 2 minutes later at the red light. People don't drive very efficiently where I am at.
I would agree that in general the over all speed limit could be adjusted up about 15-20 mph. But that would require everyone in general understanding that speed was closer to vehicle and human limitations then the current speeds which leave room for error.
Also Americans are unwilling to adjust to a slower safer speed when necessary. Inclement whether, snow, ice, fog. Nope speed limits 55, better go 65 when there's deer and the fog is thick enough that your headlights don't max out their beam distance.
The universe is a fairly forgiving place though when it comes to that kind of stupidity en-masse. Except for those tragic times when an avoidable accident could be avoided.
Situational learning or better reflexes and unconscious understanding of the road. Your not relying as much on awake cognitive ability. Which is what becomes the most impaired by alcohol. IANAS
*species, race is bad terminology.
On a serious note though.
The most I ask is that people stop scoffing at those in need. Because sometimes bigger bullies on the playground beat up your friends, and "we are next (TM)". This is where my speech, hey, some of those guys asking for a hand out are not doing it because they are lazy or dumb or evil, or "less then you". Thats why we tried to create a society were we had the power to look after these people.
It use to be to some degree balanced by the fact that many people associated with a particular religion or creed and through this organization advanced the idea of philanthropy or charity. Now we are in a time of decreasing social aware ness. Less accountability. People far away you do not even know can dictate local policy and economics. There use to be a buffer between fiefdoms before the industrial revolution. So if Rome went down. The Pacific Islanders did not really notice.
That world is gone by the way.
I don't advocate violent solutions to social inequality.
Anyway, people driving corvettes are not the "rich dynastic few" I think they should be patted on the back and more or less left alone. Not all are for the suppression of mankind either. Some have been quite good for us as a race.
The problem is that the money and influence changes hands as fast as family names and ties do. I doubt anyone with the last name Rockefeller in modern times can be held accountable for the originals.