Sadly, Ideas are cheap - although ironically they are truly the most precious things we can posses.
I have zero experience in the game industry and I have no success in getting any idea of mine going big-time. Still, I have had ideas which later have been implemented by someone else (often because they were obvious due to some recent event).
I have come to the conclusion that the best ideas are the ones which you don't actually mind if someone else creates, because it means you get to use the creation.
My idea is for a video game called "Freeway Crash" or "Freeway Pileup" or something.
The game starts up with you getting on a freeway in random traffic. There is a countdown timer and at some random time in the countdown there will be an accident and you have to avoid it somehow - or avoid being caught-up in it.
The game would hinge on two things - one, it would need to be freely downloadable. two, it would need to have very good car models and crash physics.
The freeness would allow for mass download and play and the great graphics and physics would push for the pay (cheap 10$) version which would have the ability to playback the crash in slow motion and to create youtube-like vids a'la spore style and perhaps some other features like different cars and freeways or even an online component.
There. Free idea for the world.
Anybody want me as a game designer? I have 10 more concepts.
This will be remembered in the textbooks as one of the biggest discoveries in human history - and yet it will of course be presently overlooked by uninterested masses.
Will humanity ever get past our predilections with ourselves?
I can't fathom the significance of this event fully, and yet the public applause so well deserved is again, starkly absent.
oh well - I think it's great at least, maybe I shouldn't care so much what the masses think or care about.
Anytime I hear an (fossil burning) auto manufacturer claiming this or that about anything electric I feel like I'm listening to my friend talk about quitting smoking.
"Oh, I'm on ultra-light cigarettes now..."
"Oh, well, we don't have electric cars feasible yet, but we still need to work on the charging infrastructure and stuff anyhow, so..."
The whole hybrid car deal is just red herring, or distraction at best.
I think hybrids are a way for the big players to maintain their hold the industry away from new competition whilst they economically migrate slowly away from petrol manufacturing equipment to electric manufacturing.
As do I... I feel so melancholy thinking of the absence of Douglas Adams, Asimov, Clarke and the like as these amazing things come to be.
After a deep sigh I try to pep-up by imagining that they would be happy that at least we are here to see it.
I think to myself that although I probably won't be here to see interstellar travel, but if humanity does make it to the stars then I know I would have been happy that we did.
I think this kind of competition is just great, what with the innovation which is always spawned by things of this nature.
However, I can't help but notice that although I feel pride for the competitors and feel happy that progress in this direction is taking place, the public interest seems lacking. And I don't just mean Joe Shmoe is unamused: at the time of this posting the article has been front page slashdot for 5 minutes with 1 comment.
Is it because these vehicles, while being great proofs of concept, do point out the current weakness of real-time solar power? Are the cars just too lightly built and cheesy looking?
Perhaps a way to capture more popular attention (and thus imagination) might be to have a Solar "Charged" race. This would catch more interest I think.
Stipulate that the vehicles must charge their batteries using solar power and utilize only the power they have derived from the sun. This would allow high-performance electric cars to be showcased doing their sports-car killing speed runs whilst whining by like a flying saucer.
If there is one thing the scientists and geeks need to evolve, it's a better sense of PR.
If you need evidence that the nerdy are bad with PR just look at some of the scary, weird names used for our creations:
* Linux - sounds like an evil species of aliens - 'run! the Linux are attacking!'
* The Gimp - do I need to say more?
* Ubuntu - beautiful in translation, terrible as a mnemonic for the target 'lay' audience - 'ooo-but what?'
computer science is a misnomer, really. I've heard that a more accurate name would be Information Science. Calling it computer science is like calling geometry, rulerography - naming the field after the tool is a problem.
In that sense, programming might be considered the application of information science - truly the engineering side
As with the sciences, you are either garnering new data (research), promulgating that knowledge (teaching/instructing) or you are creating technologies with the acquired knowledge (engineering).
If you don't want to program or be involved in programming (management or otherwise) then you are going to have to work in a teaching or research field....Unless you want to do sales and marketing - I do hear those folks have the nicest ark of all.
It's almost like mother nature is giving humanity some 'gentle' urging to move-out and get our own place.
Pretty soon, however, if we don't get our ass in gear I have a feeling we might find all our stuff thrown out on the front lawn...if you follow the analogy.
That's damn interesting stuff you said there. Truly the restrictions are pretty dumb in light of this likelihood you illustrate.
Also, I do wholeheartedly agree with you on the eugenics argument, and the subsequent difficulty in enforcement (perhaps some kind of affirmative action using random employee testing or something might help - but that can is of worms). This hits home as a good friend of mine is not so healthy, surprisingly unattractive and yet so brilliant and friendly...well, friendly to me at least. To think he might be denied certain things for what might be deemed so-called defective genes.
Our technology is so outstripping our legal system, (has been for some time, I would say) and the pace continues to accelerate.
All things biotech are becoming like technology in general: more accessible and cheaper.
Let's say if I have some near-future technology or perhaps today a biochemist friend or two, would the law keep me from running a genetic test on myself?
Really, how long before a home test becomes viable? After all, one can already do this at home.
Visual object recognition systems have been a thorn in the side of robotics since the beginning. The other annoynace of battery power will likely be solved by the nanowire battery - therefore leaving 'sight' as the real final technological step for our lovely robots.
Extrapolating further, a human-quality object recognition system will yield results which we cannot currently imagine (let's avoid some big-brother robot talk for a second, however).
For example; I was looking at some old WWII photographs of troops getting on boat - thousands of faces in these very high-quality photographs. To myself, I thought,'Self. If all historical photographs could be placed in view of a recognition system, perhaps it could be found, interestingly, where certain ancestors of ours did appear.'
Throw in a dash of human-style creativity and reasoning and I'm certain some truly nifty revelations are to be found in our mountains of visual documentation currently lamenting in countless vast archives.
I hate to say it, but in domestic and utility robotics of the future there might be a desire for individuals to be unique in some way - in order to deter broad hacking or something.
Might this in fact offer some kind of barrier against virus outbreaks in general as well?
In other words, by making it hard to copy information, viruses and other malicious software which relies heavily on ease of prorogation might find infertile soil in such tech.
Of course, as these are speculations in the heterogeneous nature, I am more a fan of this heterogeny arising naturally from individual's design and creation, rather than some centralized manufacturer artificially imparting this upon their devices.
Basically - I would like to a see a future of some computing heterogeny, but only if it is the result of clever individuals being clever, not the result of attempts to stifle information flow, and thus keep individuals being dumb.
I think your point (intentional or not) is in fact quite valid. In a country of billions how could there not be at least a few with the innate talent needed to accomplish this?
Given, skill and talent are seperate but related things - talent you have or don't, skill you use or lose - yet with the right amount of inherent ability and the drive to learn, what isn't possible?
I distinctly remember that before the 911 attacks passengers were instructed to comply fully with hijackers. This was because it was thought that this would lessen the danger to passengers.
911 really blew the hijacker's wads, because there are no longer compliant airline passengers.
There will never be another hijacking unless the sole purpose is to crash the aircraft arbitrarily - in which case a kill switch wouldn't really hurt the hijacker's plans.
Burning the games may not make crime go back up (as I don't think the games are soley responsible for the decrease), but I like video games. Just give them to me instead of burning them.
Slashdot Mirror
Sadly, Ideas are cheap - although ironically they are truly the most precious things we can posses.
I have zero experience in the game industry and I have no success in getting any idea of mine going big-time. Still, I have had ideas which later have been implemented by someone else (often because they were obvious due to some recent event).
I have come to the conclusion that the best ideas are the ones which you don't actually mind if someone else creates, because it means you get to use the creation.
My idea is for a video game called "Freeway Crash" or "Freeway Pileup" or something.
The game starts up with you getting on a freeway in random traffic. There is a countdown timer and at some random time in the countdown there will be an accident and you have to avoid it somehow - or avoid being caught-up in it.
The game would hinge on two things - one, it would need to be freely downloadable. two, it would need to have very good car models and crash physics.
The freeness would allow for mass download and play and the great graphics and physics would push for the pay (cheap 10$) version which would have the ability to playback the crash in slow motion and to create youtube-like vids a'la spore style and perhaps some other features like different cars and freeways or even an online component.
There. Free idea for the world.
Anybody want me as a game designer? I have 10 more concepts.
Ah, copyrighted too! I imagine you used the patented process to procure that as well ;)
I wonder if it is possible to patent a process for maximizing the number of patents and the scope of those patents for a particular invention.
I had an idea once. It was a "jump to conclusions" mat.
But also I had an idea about the Martian magnetosphere - or lack thereof: http://thelazysci-fiauthor.blogspot.com/2007/04/ding.html
what do you all think? :)
This will be remembered in the textbooks as one of the biggest discoveries in human history - and yet it will of course be presently overlooked by uninterested masses.
Will humanity ever get past our predilections with ourselves?
I can't fathom the significance of this event fully, and yet the public applause so well deserved is again, starkly absent.
oh well - I think it's great at least, maybe I shouldn't care so much what the masses think or care about.
You are right, god paradoxes really don't apply here.
Cookies are good half-baked, but comments: not so much :P
Ah, the perils of rushed posting whilst the boss is nearby ;)
But it goes without saying that all the same old 'god paradoxes' come to play here.
Back in the late 20th century the EV1 had a waiting list.
Do they mean wall outlets?
Time to put the tin foil hat on...
Anytime I hear an (fossil burning) auto manufacturer claiming this or that about anything electric I feel like I'm listening to my friend talk about quitting smoking.
"Oh, I'm on ultra-light cigarettes now..."
"Oh, well, we don't have electric cars feasible yet, but we still need to work on the charging infrastructure and stuff anyhow, so..."
The whole hybrid car deal is just red herring, or distraction at best.
I think hybrids are a way for the big players to maintain their hold the industry away from new competition whilst they economically migrate slowly away from petrol manufacturing equipment to electric manufacturing.
I think this tin foil hat isn't working...
As do I... I feel so melancholy thinking of the absence of Douglas Adams, Asimov, Clarke and the like as these amazing things come to be.
After a deep sigh I try to pep-up by imagining that they would be happy that at least we are here to see it.
I think to myself that although I probably won't be here to see interstellar travel, but if humanity does make it to the stars then I know I would have been happy that we did.
Nonetheless, this distance is a new data point - that much is for certain. Even A single data point can really illuminate a function.
2, 4, 8, 16 means something completely different than 2, 4, 8, 32, after all.
Still, I do agree that the claim does sound a bit inflated.
I think this kind of competition is just great, what with the innovation which is always spawned by things of this nature.
However, I can't help but notice that although I feel pride for the competitors and feel happy that progress in this direction is taking place, the public interest seems lacking. And I don't just mean Joe Shmoe is unamused: at the time of this posting the article has been front page slashdot for 5 minutes with 1 comment.
Is it because these vehicles, while being great proofs of concept, do point out the current weakness of real-time solar power? Are the cars just too lightly built and cheesy looking?
Perhaps a way to capture more popular attention (and thus imagination) might be to have a Solar "Charged" race. This would catch more interest I think.
Stipulate that the vehicles must charge their batteries using solar power and utilize only the power they have derived from the sun. This would allow high-performance electric cars to be showcased doing their sports-car killing speed runs whilst whining by like a flying saucer.
If there is one thing the scientists and geeks need to evolve, it's a better sense of PR.
If you need evidence that the nerdy are bad with PR just look at some of the scary, weird names used for our creations:
* Linux - sounds like an evil species of aliens - 'run! the Linux are attacking!'
* The Gimp - do I need to say more?
* Ubuntu - beautiful in translation, terrible as a mnemonic for the target 'lay' audience - 'ooo-but what?'
computer science is a misnomer, really. I've heard that a more accurate name would be Information Science. Calling it computer science is like calling geometry, rulerography - naming the field after the tool is a problem.
In that sense, programming might be considered the application of information science - truly the engineering side
As with the sciences, you are either garnering new data (research), promulgating that knowledge (teaching/instructing) or you are creating technologies with the acquired knowledge (engineering).
If you don't want to program or be involved in programming (management or otherwise) then you are going to have to work in a teaching or research field. ...Unless you want to do sales and marketing - I do hear those folks have the nicest ark of all.
It's almost like mother nature is giving humanity some 'gentle' urging to move-out and get our own place.
Pretty soon, however, if we don't get our ass in gear I have a feeling we might find all our stuff thrown out on the front lawn...if you follow the analogy.
It looks Impenetrable!
This is so true; I've always said, "you get what you pay for."
Do you want to pay for software, or do you want to pay for people?
Only one can create the other.
That's damn interesting stuff you said there. Truly the restrictions are pretty dumb in light of this likelihood you illustrate.
Also, I do wholeheartedly agree with you on the eugenics argument, and the subsequent difficulty in enforcement (perhaps some kind of affirmative action using random employee testing or something might help - but that can is of worms). This hits home as a good friend of mine is not so healthy, surprisingly unattractive and yet so brilliant and friendly...well, friendly to me at least. To think he might be denied certain things for what might be deemed so-called defective genes.
Our technology is so outstripping our legal system, (has been for some time, I would say) and the pace continues to accelerate.
All things biotech are becoming like technology in general: more accessible and cheaper.
Let's say if I have some near-future technology or perhaps today a biochemist friend or two, would the law keep me from running a genetic test on myself?
Really, how long before a home test becomes viable? After all, one can already do this at home.
Good point.
Visual object recognition systems have been a thorn in the side of robotics since the beginning. The other annoynace of battery power will likely be solved by the nanowire battery - therefore leaving 'sight' as the real final technological step for our lovely robots.
Extrapolating further, a human-quality object recognition system will yield results which we cannot currently imagine (let's avoid some big-brother robot talk for a second, however).
For example; I was looking at some old WWII photographs of troops getting on boat - thousands of faces in these very high-quality photographs. To myself, I thought,'Self. If all historical photographs could be placed in view of a recognition system, perhaps it could be found, interestingly, where certain ancestors of ours did appear.'
Throw in a dash of human-style creativity and reasoning and I'm certain some truly nifty revelations are to be found in our mountains of visual documentation currently lamenting in countless vast archives.
I hate to say it, but in domestic and utility robotics of the future there might be a desire for individuals to be unique in some way - in order to deter broad hacking or something.
Might this in fact offer some kind of barrier against virus outbreaks in general as well?
In other words, by making it hard to copy information, viruses and other malicious software which relies heavily on ease of prorogation might find infertile soil in such tech.
Of course, as these are speculations in the heterogeneous nature, I am more a fan of this heterogeny arising naturally from individual's design and creation, rather than some centralized manufacturer artificially imparting this upon their devices.
Basically - I would like to a see a future of some computing heterogeny, but only if it is the result of clever individuals being clever, not the result of attempts to stifle information flow, and thus keep individuals being dumb.
I'll warm myself with these flames, thank you.
I think your point (intentional or not) is in fact quite valid. In a country of billions how could there not be at least a few with the innate talent needed to accomplish this?
Given, skill and talent are seperate but related things - talent you have or don't, skill you use or lose - yet with the right amount of inherent ability and the drive to learn, what isn't possible?
I distinctly remember that before the 911 attacks passengers were instructed to comply fully with hijackers. This was because it was thought that this would lessen the danger to passengers.
911 really blew the hijacker's wads, because there are no longer compliant airline passengers.
There will never be another hijacking unless the sole purpose is to crash the aircraft arbitrarily - in which case a kill switch wouldn't really hurt the hijacker's plans.
Brain damage caused by lead, mercury and such causes increase in misconceptions about video games ;)
Hasn't violent crime been steadily decreasing despite the increase in violent video games?
Burning the games may not make crime go back up (as I don't think the games are soley responsible for the decrease), but I like video games. Just give them to me instead of burning them.