... This reminds me of the town that complained so much about solar cells because they'd suck up all the sunlight....
The town didn't say that, the id10t news-person said that! The town was already surrounded on three sides by solar collectors. They didn't want their road totally blocked.
M$ got big by being the one that spoke to IBM. Digital Research (CP/M and CP/M86) did not want to talk to them.
So M$ learned a -lot- from IBM, and have been trying to become them, ever since.
Example: Way back in the late '70s, when Microsoft MBasic was the thing on S100 bus 8080 computers, Microsoft decided to make a memory board for the computers. Because MBasic was getting a bit bloated (and businesses needed bigger Basic programs) and the current static memory boards were a bit expensive ($800 for 4KB). They made a dynamic memory board and sold it for $400. But, they bundled it with the MBasic software and refused to sell either alone.
Not too bad, right? Except the dynamic memory boards did not work. Not just "some of them didn't work". None of them ever worked in any computer, that I know of.
Some friends and I took apart one board and reverse engineerd it. We put in new chips, cut runs and changed the circuits, nothing we did could make it work. Of course we were younger then. But we learned a lot doing this, and one thing we learned was that the chips used were not compatible with the S100 bus cycles and data control. It seems unlikely that Microsoft ever tested the boards!
So pretty soon everyone knew the boards were not working. Microsoft refused to take them back, and also refused to change the bundling. So businesses who had to have the MBasic software, had to buy the M$ memory board with it, throw the board away, and buy a Seals memory board instead.
We never were equal in the first place. It only says we should be -treated- equally. Not forced to be -made- equal. That is actually my worry about "genetic engineering", that some politician would try to make us all exactly the same.
Because other car companies, and their investors, are afraid of Tesla taking their business over. And because even the respected news sevices are now devolved to "clickbait", no better than the grocery store "alians in my lunch" papers.
Wages increasing to keep up with inflation? That sounds like a nice change of pace, let's do it!
More seriously, there would likely be SOME inflation, but since the economy can't tell the difference between basic income money and wage money, it's not going to be the problem you expect. Just index the basic income to inflation and it'll find an equilibrium.
That's called positive feedback. It will cause either a rapidly increasing rate of inflation, or rythmic swings back and forth (i.e. cycles).
(Don't they teach calculus in high-school any more?)
... Think a CEO is doing 1000x the actual value creation of his engineers? Not in the least. He/she is "getting his hands" on income, not "earning" it in a sense that is of long-term value to the economy. He is being paid to do fuck-all,...
That is true sometimes. But if it were always true most companies would fail. So no.
Equating different people's work is difficult, but just because you don't know what they are doing does not mean they are doing nothing.
Don't trust CEOs, but don't trust the people that have been feeding you propaganda, either!;-)
Each winter, we have several homeless freeze to death.
You may want to shut up.
I think what they meant was, the only reason some countries don't have several hundred (thousand?) freeze to death in the winter, is that it doesn't freeze there...
And of course, some places several people freeze to death each winter, even though they were -not- homeless or considered poor.
The problem is finding "Free market capitalism"... Most super rich believe that "free market" would actually be a monopoly for their products where you are forced to buy (see the pharmaceutical where industry if the patient does not buy that very expensive drug he dies) and workers are not human beings, to be used and thrown away when they become unable to work.
That's true sometimes. But that has nothing to do with "Free Market" (emphasis on "free"), where everyone can decide what to buy and sell. Any large organisation has a tendency for beauracracy and power trips, whether govenment or private, liberal or conservative. Any changes or prospective solutions need to guard against this. And "Monopoly" is not even close to "Free"!
i.e., Don't believe the advertising, don't believe the propoganda, don't drink the coolaid. But don't thow the baby out with the bathwater, either. 8-)
Wouldn't the smart thing then be to simply create a version of the mosquito that is, itself, immune to the infection - and so can't spread it ? That sounds like a low-impact change (though it may be very difficult - I have no expertise in insect immunology). But an anopheles mosquito that can't be infected with the malaria parasite would save lots of lives without removing the mosquito from the ecology.
That would be a good solution, if the side effects were not too bad. Such as the mosquitoes carrying some new disease. It is very complicated and takes a lot of work, but we are getting to the level where we can do that work. And, at least sometimes, succeed. 8-)
"Changes to an ecology should be approached with fear and trembling... And some very large computers."
I would like the mosquitoes gone, but there could be some side effects that were very bad. And, of course, what makes anyone think they could erradicate anything entirely? (Except if it was unintentional!)
Slashdot Mirror
Just because some people think something, that does not make it true.
Autopilots require a pilot at the controls. Robots might not. Something they saw in a movie doesn't count... 8-P
... This reminds me of the town that complained so much about solar cells because they'd suck up all the sunlight. ...
The town didn't say that, the id10t news-person said that!
The town was already surrounded on three sides by solar collectors. They didn't want their road totally blocked.
In times past, anyone who did not wake up when small lights were reflected at them from the darkness, was quite likely to be eaten by a preditor.
That means that anyone alive today is not going to sleep well, in the presents of these lights, even if they think they do! ;-)
Could all of these black holes be the "dark matter" that they are looking for?
There is only one sensible answer to the question "where is everyone?"
That is: We are in Quarentine. No-one will speak to us, except an occasional bunch of kids that "sneak through the barbed wire".
As for not seeing anyone at a distance, south-sea islanders looking for smoke signals on the horizon would not see much, either! 8-)
(Of course, I'm wronging the south sea islanders, who knew quite a bit about navigation and the curvature of the earth.)
If they had a couple of years warning it would make a perfect target for mining - relatively small mas, close proximity, nice low delta V..
Don't worry, if it was passing that slow it will be back later, we can get it then.
If it doesn't hit us then...
Yes. Bigger is not always better...
Actually. IBM only dictated what you could do with LEASED mainframes. ...
Except I never knew anyone who IBM would agree to sell outright to. Heard of, maybe, a long way away... 8-)
M$ got big by being the one that spoke to IBM. Digital Research (CP/M and CP/M86) did not want to talk to them.
So M$ learned a -lot- from IBM, and have been trying to become them, ever since.
Example:
Way back in the late '70s, when Microsoft MBasic was the thing on S100 bus 8080 computers, Microsoft decided to make a memory board for the computers. Because MBasic was getting a bit bloated (and businesses needed bigger Basic programs) and the current static memory boards were a bit expensive ($800 for 4KB). They made a dynamic memory board and sold it for $400. But, they bundled it with the MBasic software and refused to sell either alone.
Not too bad, right? Except the dynamic memory boards did not work. Not just "some of them didn't work". None of them ever worked in any computer, that I know of.
Some friends and I took apart one board and reverse engineerd it. We put in new chips, cut runs and changed the circuits, nothing we did could make it work. Of course we were younger then. But we learned a lot doing this, and one thing we learned was that the chips used were not compatible with the S100 bus cycles and data control. It seems unlikely that Microsoft ever tested the boards!
So pretty soon everyone knew the boards were not working. Microsoft refused to take them back, and also refused to change the bundling. So businesses who had to have the MBasic software, had to buy the M$ memory board with it, throw the board away, and buy a Seals memory board instead.
That's Microsoft's idea of business... 8-{
We never were equal in the first place. It only says we should be -treated- equally. Not forced to be -made- equal.
That is actually my worry about "genetic engineering", that some politician would try to make us all exactly the same.
Because other car companies, and their investors, are afraid of Tesla taking their business over.
And because even the respected news sevices are now devolved to "clickbait", no better than the grocery store "alians in my lunch" papers.
Thinking that car autopilots will prevent car crashes, is like thinking that aircraft autopilots will prevent airplane crashes. They don't ! ;-)
If you don't believe in personal ownership of things, you should be aware of a situation called "The tragedy of the commons".
Base income to increase employment rate? How is that supposed to happen?
Because you are typically only counted as unemployed if you are semi-actively looking for a job.
That's true, the politicians sort of lie about it. If you quit looking for work, they don't count you as unemployed anymore (most places).
Wages increasing to keep up with inflation? That sounds like a nice change of pace, let's do it!
More seriously, there would likely be SOME inflation, but since the economy can't tell the difference between basic income money and wage money, it's not going to be the problem you expect. Just index the basic income to inflation and it'll find an equilibrium.
That's called positive feedback. It will cause either a rapidly increasing rate of inflation, or rythmic swings back and forth (i.e. cycles).
(Don't they teach calculus in high-school any more?)
... Think a CEO is doing 1000x the actual value creation of his engineers? Not in the least. He/she is "getting his hands" on income, not "earning" it in a sense that is of long-term value to the economy. He is being paid to do fuck-all, ...
That is true sometimes. But if it were always true most companies would fail. So no.
Equating different people's work is difficult, but just because you don't know what they are doing does not mean they are doing nothing.
Don't trust CEOs, but don't trust the people that have been feeding you propaganda, either! ;-)
Each winter, we have several homeless freeze to death.
You may want to shut up.
I think what they meant was, the only reason some countries don't have several hundred (thousand?) freeze to death in the winter, is that it doesn't freeze there...
And of course, some places several people freeze to death each winter, even though they were -not- homeless or considered poor.
The problem is finding "Free market capitalism"... Most super rich believe that "free market" would actually be a monopoly for their products where you are forced to buy (see the pharmaceutical where industry if the patient does not buy that very expensive drug he dies) and workers are not human beings, to be used and thrown away when they become unable to work.
That's true sometimes. But that has nothing to do with "Free Market" (emphasis on "free"), where everyone can decide what to buy and sell.
Any large organisation has a tendency for beauracracy and power trips, whether govenment or private, liberal or conservative. Any changes or prospective solutions
need to guard against this. And "Monopoly" is not even close to "Free"!
i.e., Don't believe the advertising, don't believe the propoganda, don't drink the coolaid. But don't thow the baby out with the bathwater, either. 8-)
But...but...but now that our predictive modeling of climate is inerrant, then what could be so difficult about modeling ecosystems?
Interesting point! ... maybe ecosystems are worse?
Which would be more complex, climate or ecology?
Well, if weather is just air
8-o
Machines that advanced, would be indistinguishable from biological bodies. Except maybe a bit "better".
Maybe, biology -is- what you get after machines?
Except, we've just missed a few upgrades and preventive maintanance... 8-)
Whenever you think "kill them all", remember that -you- might be in the next group to be targetted!
As our supercomputing power improves and we do better at modeling ecosystems, there will be all sorts of interesting tricks we can do.
True. And, all sorts of interesting mistakes we can make... 8-o
But maybe not as -many- mistakes, with the modelling.
Despite your ordering, I'm fairly sure man had nothing to do with the demise of the dinos.
True, whoever threw that rock at them was not us... ;-)
Wouldn't the smart thing then be to simply create a version of the mosquito that is, itself, immune to the infection - and so can't spread it ? That sounds like a low-impact change (though it may be very difficult - I have no expertise in insect immunology). But an anopheles mosquito that can't be infected with the malaria parasite would save lots of lives without removing the mosquito from the ecology.
That would be a good solution, if the side effects were not too bad. Such as the mosquitoes carrying some new disease.
It is very complicated and takes a lot of work, but we are getting to the level where we can do that work. And, at least sometimes, succeed. 8-)
"Changes to an ecology should be approached with fear and trembling ... And some very large computers."
I would like the mosquitoes gone, but there could be some side effects that were very bad.
And, of course, what makes anyone think they could erradicate anything entirely? (Except if it was unintentional!)