I think the other thing with transplants is you also get their stem cells.
The stem cells move around. Depending on what happens it could be more of a merger than an acquisition.
So if they are prone to cancer you might get cancer too.
Some people suspect that you might even get some personality changes. I won't be surprised if some of it is true - since the stomach and other organs are likely to have some influence over what you like to eat (after millions of years, animals should be more likely to eat what their organs feel like having).
The main problem with prosthetic limbs is probably bandwidth and latency in the human-device interfaces. Once you get a way of talking with the brain fast things should improve drastically.
It may require a more direct connection to the brain. So you might be controlling your prosthetic leg, but not via the nerves on your leg, but via a connection straight to your brain.
You can move about in a computer game without using the nerves in your leg. So in my opinion prosthetic legs do not need to be controlled by leg nerves.
I do think that some computer processing is needed (no point having your brain doing the stuff that can be automated), but I also think that for some humans their brains might be able to adapt well enough for a more direct and thus full control (say in event the prosthetic limb is damaged, you might wish to improvise - rather than move like an insect with broken limbs - insect limbs seem a bit more automated).
"This would mean that, for purposes of sensation, motor control and proprioception, we can't operate more than four limbs at once."
I'm sure that's wrong.
We extend our mental maps to include vehicles, devices and tools that we operate on a regular basis. Believe me, some of us even feel pain when we ding our car on something. Some even feel pain if they get shot in a video game.
The fact that many people can be trained to see with their _tongue_ means the brain is very adaptable.
The Seeing Tongue: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_9_160/ai_78681631
Just because you start seeing with your tongue does not mean you lose sight in your eyes. So I do not believe that we are limited to controlling 4 limbs. When people use a tool they are skilled in, that tool becomes an extension of their body - and it does not even have to be physically connected to their body - ask people who do stunts with RC helicopters, or play FPS/RTS games.
Once you practice enough, it becomes learnt and integrated into your brain, you no longer think "Ah I must press this to do X", you just think "I need to go here" and you do whatever it takes to get it done.
A skilled typist does not think of each key stroke independently, the typist just thinks of the phrase (or sees stuff to type) and all the 8 fingers and 2 thumbs get it done. So controlling more than 4 limbs shouldn't be a huge problem.
However, just like when you concentrate on something a lot, say drawing an intricate design, you may lose awareness of what's going on with your little toe (until something significant happens to it, or even is about to happen to it - incoming object via peripheral vision - in which case the rest of your brain brings it to your attention).
Hey you said: "Google isnt doing anything with your data - they take a peek, show the ads and then forget."
And you have provided no evidence to back that up.
You may not mind what Google does, other people might. And lots of potential gmail users live in countries where the ISPs aren't so friendly with the NSA.
I'm actually not that bothered about Google doing stuff with all that data, what bothers me about Google is their poor security track record.
As for using my common sense, I get paid to use my "common sense":).
It sure doesn't seem so perfectly readable to you. Maybe that's the intention of that google page;).
You said: "Google isnt doing anything with your data - they take a peek, show the ads and then forget."
1) Where does it say they forget? 2) "Google's computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including...". Where does it say that "various purposes" does not include data mining.
Unless the word "including" recently changed meaning, "various purposes" is _not_limited_ to everything following the "including" bit.
The stuff following "including" is a subset of "various purposes". Google can do all sorts of crap and still not need to change that clause.
"and to improve our services", Google could provide services to the NSA too.
"The United States is opposing efforts at a United Nations treaty-drafting conference to raise the minimum age at which soldiers can be sent into combat under international law"
"The proposal to raise the minimum age for military combat, to 18 years old from 15, is proving to be one of the most contentious issues in negotiations on an international Convention on the Rights of the Child"
Minimum age for military combat is 15. Age of consent for sex in the USA is 16?
The UK isn't that much better:
"The Child Soldiers Global Report, released on Tuesday, identifies the UK Government as the only country in Europe that still recruits 16-year-olds, and routinely sends soldiers as young as 17 into battle. "
So a "child" can give consent to get fucked up but not consent to be fucked;).
Honestly if a sexy lady (unattached) seduced me and had consensual sex with me (aka "raped" ) back when I was a horny 14 year old, I don't think I'd have been scarred for life, I believe I would have been able to come to terms with it somehow - let's just say more woohoo than boohoo;).
Now if she got sent to jail for doing that, then I might actually get scarred. I mean think about it - having your girlfriend being prosecuted, sent to jail, and everyone says bad things about her. You might even start believing some of the bad things they say too.
I believe girls are more like to be "scarred" if a guy did that to them when they were young. I admit I don't really know.
BUT, I've seen various surveys about sex, relationships and the results seem to indicate that women tend to lie/misremember about such stuff in one way, and guys tend to lie/misremember in another way... To me that lying/misremembering is indicative of how they would feel later on in life about such things.
I suspect many women actually agree with that remark.
If a guy they find attractive flirts or tries to chat with them it's OK, whereas if a guy they don't find attractive does the exact same thing it's sexual harassment.
I'm lucky that I'm not in the "ugly" group, so when I smile at ladies, they often smile back, instead of making a run for it or clutching their handbags (or reaching in for the pepper spray/taser).
I do understand the "why" though. It's partly due to whether she thinks she's safe and can trust the person. Just like if Daddy throws his little girl up in the air, she screams in _delight_, not terror. Because she knows Daddy will not let her get hurt.
Similarly if a guy slaps his guy friend on the back, or soft-punches him in the stomach, it's considered friendly and OK - you trust your friend to not hurt you. Whereas if a stranger did that, it's not so OK...
HOWEVER, to jail someone just because they are thinking stuff you don't like, that's a slippery slope.
These sort of laws, pose a greater long term threat to the public than people "thought raping" others in secret.
"The United States is opposing efforts at a United Nations treaty-drafting conference to raise the minimum age at which soldiers can be sent into combat under international law"
"The proposal to raise the minimum age for military combat, to 18 years old from 15, is proving to be one of the most contentious issues in negotiations on an international Convention on the Rights of the Child"
Age of consent is 16. Min age for military combat is 15.
So, it's illegal to have _consensual_ sex with somebody who is 15, but it's fine for 15 year olds to consent to military combat where they have a higher chance of being killed and killing others.
Not ok to fuck with, but still OK to fuck up;).
"Save and protect the poor children, so that we can send them to Iraq/Afghanistan/wherever to kill and die".
What they should be able to control is actually raping a child.
I find some women very attractive, I don't go and rape them.
If governments/people really want to protect the children they should not be focusing on the viewers of child porn. They should _follow_ the money and go after the producers of child porn.
Also one more thing, what I have noticed is if a child falls down for the first time, he often looks at his parents to figure out whether it's something serious or not. If the parents make a huge fuss over it, the child cries. Whereas if the parents look to acknowledge the child has fallen down, maybe say "oops!", and then continue on if it's nothing serious, the child usually picks himself up and goes on to do what he originally wanted to do.
Anyway, yeah "save and protect the children", so that we can send them to die in Iraq.
"The United States is opposing efforts at a United Nations treaty-drafting conference to raise the minimum age at which soldiers can be sent into combat under international law"
The current minimum age is 15. Go figure... Good to see the priorities eh?
"Its banned to have images with real children, as it should be"
1) Why? 2) Define children
So if teenagers send each other nude/seminude pics of themselves they should be jailed under child protection laws?
Seems like many teenagers are doing that nowadays.
What if a kid sends _you_ a nude photo by accident?
As for mental illness not being able to be fixed. Does that mean we should execute pedophiles or imprison them for life? No chance for turning over a new leaf etc. If that's wrong, then I think we shouldn't put them on "sex offender" lists either. They serve their time, they get out. They do it again, you put them in again.
Lots of robbers and thieves are repeat offenders too.
"More seriously, a person who enjoys child porn almost certainly enjoys looking at children in real life, as well. So should we ban children from all public spaces just in case there happens to be a paedophile around who will have bad thoughts because they happen to see a child they find attractive? "
Nah the next step is to make them wear a hijab/burqa/chador, just like in those Islamic countries.
I'm sure many adults have bad thoughts, even illegal ones when they happen to see an adult they find attractive.
Some also have bad illegal thoughts when they happen to see an adult they find offensive.
I think support quality varies from place to place.
Dell server support seems decent here. Their technicians seem to get a lot of practice in fixing stuff on site, I wonder why;).
Their servers aren't total crap, they are just not that good.
My dept also had a bad batch of Dell Dimension desktops - nvidia vidcards with bad caps, and a few desktops had power supplies going "pop" rather audibly, releasing the magic smoke and thus not working...
I like the IBM server designs better and nowadays IBM x86 servers aren't that much more expensive either.
They all use the same vendors for the commodity parts though (drives, mem etc), so don't pay too much more - you need to save the money to buy spare/redundant/mirror parts.
BTW when an IBM server failed, the IBM support here was a bunch of rookies replacing the base board for their first time. Go figure...
The way I see it, support quality could vary from region to region. If you want support, try calling the support number before you decide who to buy from. If they don't answer, go figure:).
My aunt bought an Inspiron in Malaysia, to use in NZ where she lives, and I told her to go for the "Complete Cover" thing. Sure Dell's "Complete Cover" _might_ be overpriced etc etc, but I figured it would be less hassle than getting the notebook insured, successfully getting a claim and getting whatever problem fixed. And I suspect Dell Support listens a bit better to their more profitable customers.
Soon after she bought it, she accidentally spilt stuff on it. Dell got it fixed without hassle.
When performance doesn't matter much I'd use perl instead of Java, or some other higher level language (e.g. Python).
Of course when your boss/customer requires Java, use Java:).
I'm mixed on Lisp- Lisp is kind of high level and kind of not... I guess I'm just too lazy - perl has CPAN = lots of wheels I don't have to reinvent - and document;).
Whether or not you gave them permission, they are doing it. See: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/privacy.html
"Google maintains and processes your Gmail account and its contents to provide the Gmail service to you and to improve our services. The Gmail service includes relevant advertising and related links based on the IP address, content of messages and other information related to your use of Gmail. Google's computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, delivering advertisements and related links, preventing unsolicited bulk email (spam), backing up your messages, and other purposes relating to offering you Gmail. "
You can test it out very easily, just send an email with the appropriate keywords and if you have the default gmail UI, you may see ads that are related to those keywords.
If you accidentally clicked on those ads, the advertisers could figure out a thing or two, set a cookie etc... So be careful what you click on.
If he manages to more than break even in raw energy terms even if it's too hard to convert X-Ray radiation to electricity, he could try to figure out a way to blow stuff up. Then he could get even more funding...
Slashdot Mirror
I think the other thing with transplants is you also get their stem cells.
The stem cells move around. Depending on what happens it could be more of a merger than an acquisition.
So if they are prone to cancer you might get cancer too.
Some people suspect that you might even get some personality changes. I won't be surprised if some of it is true - since the stomach and other organs are likely to have some influence over what you like to eat (after millions of years, animals should be more likely to eat what their organs feel like having).
The main problem with prosthetic limbs is probably bandwidth and latency in the human-device interfaces. Once you get a way of talking with the brain fast things should improve drastically.
It may require a more direct connection to the brain. So you might be controlling your prosthetic leg, but not via the nerves on your leg, but via a connection straight to your brain.
You can move about in a computer game without using the nerves in your leg. So in my opinion prosthetic legs do not need to be controlled by leg nerves.
I do think that some computer processing is needed (no point having your brain doing the stuff that can be automated), but I also think that for some humans their brains might be able to adapt well enough for a more direct and thus full control (say in event the prosthetic limb is damaged, you might wish to improvise - rather than move like an insect with broken limbs - insect limbs seem a bit more automated).
"This would mean that, for purposes of sensation, motor control and proprioception, we can't operate more than four limbs at once."
I'm sure that's wrong.
We extend our mental maps to include vehicles, devices and tools that we operate on a regular basis. Believe me, some of us even feel pain when we ding our car on something. Some even feel pain if they get shot in a video game.
The fact that many people can be trained to see with their _tongue_ means the brain is very adaptable.
The Seeing Tongue:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_9_160/ai_78681631
Just because you start seeing with your tongue does not mean you lose sight in your eyes. So I do not believe that we are limited to controlling 4 limbs. When people use a tool they are skilled in, that tool becomes an extension of their body - and it does not even have to be physically connected to their body - ask people who do stunts with RC helicopters, or play FPS/RTS games.
Once you practice enough, it becomes learnt and integrated into your brain, you no longer think "Ah I must press this to do X", you just think "I need to go here" and you do whatever it takes to get it done.
A skilled typist does not think of each key stroke independently, the typist just thinks of the phrase (or sees stuff to type) and all the 8 fingers and 2 thumbs get it done. So controlling more than 4 limbs shouldn't be a huge problem.
However, just like when you concentrate on something a lot, say drawing an intricate design, you may lose awareness of what's going on with your little toe (until something significant happens to it, or even is about to happen to it - incoming object via peripheral vision - in which case the rest of your brain brings it to your attention).
Hey you said: "Google isnt doing anything with your data - they take a peek, show the ads and then forget."
:).
And you have provided no evidence to back that up.
You may not mind what Google does, other people might. And lots of potential gmail users live in countries where the ISPs aren't so friendly with the NSA.
I'm actually not that bothered about Google doing stuff with all that data, what bothers me about Google is their poor security track record.
As for using my common sense, I get paid to use my "common sense"
Sorry, I screwed up. The US only allows enlistment (with parental consent) at 17.
Yep I screwed up. The US only allows enlistment (with parental consent) at 17.
Sorry.
OK I screwed up. The US only allows enlistment (with parental consent) at 17.
Oops.
It sure doesn't seem so perfectly readable to you. Maybe that's the intention of that google page ;).
You said: "Google isnt doing anything with your data - they take a peek, show the ads and then forget."
1) Where does it say they forget?
2) "Google's computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including...".
Where does it say that "various purposes" does not include data mining.
Unless the word "including" recently changed meaning, "various purposes" is _not_limited_ to everything following the "including" bit.
The stuff following "including" is a subset of "various purposes". Google can do all sorts of crap and still not need to change that clause.
"and to improve our services", Google could provide services to the NSA too.
Regarding consent:
;).
;).
"The United States is opposing efforts at a United Nations treaty-drafting conference to raise the minimum age at which soldiers can be sent into combat under international law"
"The proposal to raise the minimum age for military combat, to 18 years old from 15, is proving to be one of the most contentious issues in negotiations on an international Convention on the Rights of the Child"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFDC1538F932A35751C1A96E948260
Minimum age for military combat is 15. Age of consent for sex in the USA is 16?
The UK isn't that much better:
"The Child Soldiers Global Report, released on Tuesday, identifies the UK Government as the only country in Europe that still recruits 16-year-olds, and routinely sends soldiers as young as 17 into battle. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1383998.stm
So a "child" can give consent to get fucked up but not consent to be fucked
Honestly if a sexy lady (unattached) seduced me and had consensual sex with me (aka "raped" ) back when I was a horny 14 year old, I don't think I'd have been scarred for life, I believe I would have been able to come to terms with it somehow - let's just say more woohoo than boohoo
Now if she got sent to jail for doing that, then I might actually get scarred. I mean think about it - having your girlfriend being prosecuted, sent to jail, and everyone says bad things about her. You might even start believing some of the bad things they say too.
I believe girls are more like to be "scarred" if a guy did that to them when they were young. I admit I don't really know.
BUT, I've seen various surveys about sex, relationships and the results seem to indicate that women tend to lie/misremember about such stuff in one way, and guys tend to lie/misremember in another way... To me that lying/misremembering is indicative of how they would feel later on in life about such things.
I suspect many women actually agree with that remark.
If a guy they find attractive flirts or tries to chat with them it's OK, whereas if a guy they don't find attractive does the exact same thing it's sexual harassment.
I'm lucky that I'm not in the "ugly" group, so when I smile at ladies, they often smile back, instead of making a run for it or clutching their handbags (or reaching in for the pepper spray/taser).
I do understand the "why" though. It's partly due to whether she thinks she's safe and can trust the person. Just like if Daddy throws his little girl up in the air, she screams in _delight_, not terror. Because she knows Daddy will not let her get hurt.
Similarly if a guy slaps his guy friend on the back, or soft-punches him in the stomach, it's considered friendly and OK - you trust your friend to not hurt you. Whereas if a stranger did that, it's not so OK...
HOWEVER, to jail someone just because they are thinking stuff you don't like, that's a slippery slope.
These sort of laws, pose a greater long term threat to the public than people "thought raping" others in secret.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFDC1538F932A35751C1A96E948260
;).
"The United States is opposing efforts at a United Nations treaty-drafting conference to raise the minimum age at which soldiers can be sent into combat under international law"
"The proposal to raise the minimum age for military combat, to 18 years old from 15, is proving to be one of the most contentious issues in negotiations on an international Convention on the Rights of the Child"
Age of consent is 16. Min age for military combat is 15.
So, it's illegal to have _consensual_ sex with somebody who is 15, but it's fine for 15 year olds to consent to military combat where they have a higher chance of being killed and killing others.
Not ok to fuck with, but still OK to fuck up
"Save and protect the poor children, so that we can send them to Iraq/Afghanistan/wherever to kill and die".
What they should be able to control is actually raping a child.
I find some women very attractive, I don't go and rape them.
If governments/people really want to protect the children they should not be focusing on the viewers of child porn. They should _follow_ the money and go after the producers of child porn.
Also one more thing, what I have noticed is if a child falls down for the first time, he often looks at his parents to figure out whether it's something serious or not. If the parents make a huge fuss over it, the child cries. Whereas if the parents look to acknowledge the child has fallen down, maybe say "oops!", and then continue on if it's nothing serious, the child usually picks himself up and goes on to do what he originally wanted to do.
Anyway, yeah "save and protect the children", so that we can send them to die in Iraq.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFDC1538F932A35751C1A96E948260
"The United States is opposing efforts at a United Nations treaty-drafting conference to raise the minimum age at which soldiers can be sent into combat under international law"
The current minimum age is 15. Go figure... Good to see the priorities eh?
"Its banned to have images with real children, as it should be"
1) Why?
2) Define children
So if teenagers send each other nude/seminude pics of themselves they should be jailed under child protection laws?
Seems like many teenagers are doing that nowadays.
What if a kid sends _you_ a nude photo by accident?
As for mental illness not being able to be fixed. Does that mean we should execute pedophiles or imprison them for life? No chance for turning over a new leaf etc. If that's wrong, then I think we shouldn't put them on "sex offender" lists either. They serve their time, they get out. They do it again, you put them in again.
Lots of robbers and thieves are repeat offenders too.
"More seriously, a person who enjoys child porn almost certainly enjoys looking at children in real life, as well. So should we ban children from all public spaces just in case there happens to be a paedophile around who will have bad thoughts because they happen to see a child they find attractive? "
;)
Nah the next step is to make them wear a hijab/burqa/chador, just like in those Islamic countries.
I'm sure many adults have bad thoughts, even illegal ones when they happen to see an adult they find attractive.
Some also have bad illegal thoughts when they happen to see an adult they find offensive.
So put everyone in a hijab?
Just put a bunch in charge of repealing crap or redundant laws as well.
:).
Or make all laws expire after a time period.
The length of the time period is related to the number of people required to pass the law.
The Constitution might have to be renewed every 100 years (or 200 years?).
Murder etc laws = 50 years.
civil laws = shorter
If there are too many laws to keep renewing, then there are too many laws, the legislators should then write "better code".
I think support quality varies from place to place.
;).
Dell server support seems decent here. Their technicians seem to get a lot of practice in fixing stuff on site, I wonder why
Their servers aren't total crap, they are just not that good.
My dept also had a bad batch of Dell Dimension desktops - nvidia vidcards with bad caps, and a few desktops had power supplies going "pop" rather audibly, releasing the magic smoke and thus not working...
I like the IBM server designs better and nowadays IBM x86 servers aren't that much more expensive either.
They all use the same vendors for the commodity parts though (drives, mem etc), so don't pay too much more - you need to save the money to buy spare/redundant/mirror parts.
BTW when an IBM server failed, the IBM support here was a bunch of rookies replacing the base board for their first time. Go figure...
The way I see it, support quality could vary from region to region. If you want support, try calling the support number before you decide who to buy from. If they don't answer, go figure :).
:).
My aunt bought an Inspiron in Malaysia, to use in NZ where she lives, and I told her to go for the "Complete Cover" thing. Sure Dell's "Complete Cover" _might_ be overpriced etc etc, but I figured it would be less hassle than getting the notebook insured, successfully getting a claim and getting whatever problem fixed. And I suspect Dell Support listens a bit better to their more profitable customers.
Soon after she bought it, she accidentally spilt stuff on it. Dell got it fixed without hassle.
She didn't even call me
I heard he might be starting on a sentence soon.
We outsourced that to China.
They said they'd provide nonblocking executions in a scalable manner.
When performance doesn't matter much I'd use perl instead of Java, or some other higher level language (e.g. Python).
:).
;).
Of course when your boss/customer requires Java, use Java
I'm mixed on Lisp- Lisp is kind of high level and kind of not... I guess I'm just too lazy - perl has CPAN = lots of wheels I don't have to reinvent - and document
Linear scaling does not necessarily mean 700 threads though.
The factor does not have to be 1.
If it's 4, then it would be 4 threads for one core, and 2800 threads for 700 cores. And that would still be linear scaling.
"Google isnt doing anything with your data - they take a peek, show the ads and then forget."
Citation please.
Whether or not you gave them permission, they are doing it. See: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/privacy.html
"Google maintains and processes your Gmail account and its contents to provide the Gmail service to you and to improve our services. The Gmail service includes relevant advertising and related links based on the IP address, content of messages and other information related to your use of Gmail.
Google's computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, delivering advertisements and related links, preventing unsolicited bulk email (spam), backing up your messages, and other purposes relating to offering you Gmail. "
You can test it out very easily, just send an email with the appropriate keywords and if you have the default gmail UI, you may see ads that are related to those keywords.
If you accidentally clicked on those ads, the advertisers could figure out a thing or two, set a cookie etc... So be careful what you click on.
Russia isn't in such a great state.
I don't really think it's your grandfather's fault anyway. It's probably your parent's generation who are ruling the country at the moment.
But given it's a democracy (of some sorts) it's the voters and the voting system...
If he manages to more than break even in raw energy terms even if it's too hard to convert X-Ray radiation to electricity, he could try to figure out a way to blow stuff up. Then he could get even more funding...
Many reptiles do hear with their lower jaws.