Yeah, sure. By the way, do I need to remind you who will design an program the 'robotic overlords'? Irrational, half-finished, animal Humans. You may as well just start juggling running chainsaws, or trusting your life to 'self-driving cars' that don't have any manual controls for the human [strike]victim[/strike]occupant. Man makes God in his own image, after all, and a 'robotic overlord' would just be a more efficiently flawed version of Humans, and by the way science fantasy has already created that which you speak: it's called 'Skynet'.
Nope. Only time will tell. A thousand years or so from now, assuming Humans have not extinguised themselves and the rest of the planet with them, we might have evolved our brains enough to stop acting like dumb panicky animals when it counts the most not to. Otherwise, I start to wonder whether the real reason we haven't found evidence of other civilizations out in our galaxy is because all intelligent life follows the same pattern, get too much tech too quickly, can't handle it, and end up annihilating themselves.
Issues like this just further convince me that humans are just animals who happen to be slightly smarter than the other animals on this planet, and as such are incapable of being rational or logical. The obvious answer to this 'problem' (such as it is) is that PARENTS need to police what their own offspring are or are not doing with the Internet, and if they are incapable or unwilling to do so, then any consequences of that are on them, not on any government, not on any website, and certainly not a burden to be borne by the rest of the citizens of their country. But of course expecting animals to be accountable and responsible is asking way too much so of course we all have to endure pants-on-head stupid nonsense like this.
Apparently no politician anywhere on the planet understands even basic technology, let alone how the internet works. You can't dictate things like this to websites that are owned and wholly hosted outside the borders of your country. Therefore your 'morality legislation', like all 'morality legislation', falls flat on it's face right out of the gate. Even China's 'great firewall' isn't 100% effective and opens the door to all sorts of abuse of it's abilities.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: at the rate things are going, we're going to end up with NO internet at all, only 'walled gardens' within national borders, that are utterly useless for anything serious due to lack of connectivity and too many controls, along with a useless substitute for actual encryption.
Therefore the entire premise falls flat on it's face, right out the starting gate. Human beings are just animals who happen to be smarter than the other animals on this planet, and this simple FACT is reflected day after day in the news, and in our recorded history. We can't even get people to give up the totally irrational, illogical, and sometimes silly idea of 'god/gods' and religion, and by the way look at what it does to our so-called 'civilization'? It is ruining it, it is holding us back, it could destroy us. Don't bother with questions like this until the human brain manages to evolve past the point of needing mythical, omniscient, omnipotent beings to explain the Universe and our own existence. The need of people for such things just screams out to me that our poor caveman brains are still just too primitive and simple to even accept that we can't know everything, and it panics and makes things like 'god' up so it doesn't completely melt down. When the human brain reaches a point where it can deal with not understanding everything without having to say 'god did it', then maybe we can have a conversation about being 'rational' and 'logical'.
Of course, they may not have murdered the right guy, but hell, it's not like anyone can ask him questions now.
Exactly. They acted as judge, jury, and executioner, and that is not the role of police anywhere within the United States of America. On the surface it seems as though they acted out of emotion and not logic or reason, bypassing procedure, and excluding any judicial action -- as well as precluding the possibility of interrogating the shooter to gain any and all intelligence data they possibly could. What if this was part of a wide-ranging conspiracy? What if they have ties to domestic or foreign terrorist groups? Yes, there was more than one shooter (and didn't they get the others alive?) and weren't they highly organized? This was no random, spur-of-the-moment act of violence, it was a coordinated, well-planned attack.
Of course I'm finding it difficult to not say that it's no surprise that this happened in Texas.
Personally I found it rather disturbing to hear about it this morning, even knowing that neither I nor anyone else really knows the full story in all it's details yet. On the surface it sounds like the police made themselves judge, jury, and (literally) executioner, rather than finding a way to disable the subject, arrest, and then allow the judicial system to do it's job. As I just said above, for those of you who somehow manage to read only the words you want to read and not everything written: We don't have all the details of the incident, not YET. For all we know, there really was no other way to get the shooter out alive to be arrested -- but it's still highly disturbing, rather chilling, and it's not going to do anything to calm things down, either.
I'm going to give the AC in this case the benefit of the doubt, and assume he's posting this ironically or sarcastically and actually doesn't believe that drivel.
Next, there is no 'god', but of course no two people will ever agree on that point, so I'll let it go for now.
Now, if this 'Pastor Mitch' character really believes this crap, how about he posts his credit card numbers, bank account numbers, PIN numbers drivers license and social security numbers, and all his other identity-related information on the Internet for anyone to use. Then how about he installs cameras and microphones in every room of his house, including the bathroom, connected to the Internet 24/7/365, never turned off ever, so we can witness what a clean, pious, sanctified, honest life he's living, with nothing to hide. If he won't do all that then I guess we have to assume he's got some Deep Dark Secrets he needs to hide from us all and is going to Hell when he dies! He must be having sex with his wife in a non-missionary position only for procreation purposes or some horrible Sin like that, LOL! These types would make me laugh if they weren't so completely and utterly idiotic -- and so full of shit and hypocritical.
If stupid trends like what Putin wants continue, at some point there won't be and Internet anymore, all there'll be are Walled Gardens within national borders, never interconnected at all, all of them with their own peculiar set of rules dictated by technologically-incompetent politicians, and for the most part completely unsafe for anyone to use for any reason whatsoever -- except the governments of those Walled-garden countries, who will use the strongest encryption possible, forbidding it to anyone else for any reason. So much for the age of information! As usual, involving too many Humans in it is mucking it up so thoroughly that it might not be possible to save it.
I would tend to agree with you, friend. I read so many comments in this discussion attributing so many Machiavellian plots and motivations to Putin's actions, but I too think the simplest explanation is the most likely correct explanation: Putin has no clue how encryption really works, has no idea how the Internet really works, and thinks he can just snap his fingers and get what he wants. For starters he'd have to disconnect Russia and the territories it controls from the rest of the Internet, permanently, since he can't dictate what anyone outside of that defined area is doing. Then he'd have to stop use of all encryption inside his Walled Garden, substituting some severely weakened version that government types could easily decrypt -- which naturally would be easy for criminals to decrypt, too, since there is so much corruption in Russia, organized crime there would have the ability to do so about as soon as the government. In the end Putin may as well just outlaw the Internet entirely within Russia, it would actually be possible, and less painful than what he wants done.
The question I have, not living in or ever having visited China, is: Are their 'regular' TV shows there utter, unwatchable crap? If so then it would begin to explain why viewer-generated content like this would be so popular.
No, NOT 'nonsense', bringing an indictment against her NOW would be MORE tampering with the election than if you waited until AFTER the election and you damned well know that.
Oh shut the hell up. This is a solution looking for a problem, it isn't in any way necessary, it's just more expensive and not necessarily any better, in fact it might just be worse overall.
Instead of just a small amount of money to replace a broken sideview mirror, now it'll cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars and for most people require a trip to a mechanic shop, if not the dealer service shop, to diagnose and repair -- and you'll still be required to turn your head to look when changing lanes anyway. Passive mirrors are just fine, thanks anyway, I'll skip your overpriced unnecessary 'solution' to a problem that doesn't exist.
As I see it, indicting Hillary Clinton right now would be tantamount to tampering with the results of the general election in September in favor of Trump, and one way or another would be political/career suicide for anyone who made an indictment happen. That's what I think is saving her from it.
Remember when I said that? Remember when I got mocked for saying that? Are you going to remember I said that when it turns out I'm right? Of course you won't.
..but I'll say it again, now, anyway: Too much automation will make people dumber, less skilled, and lazier overall. Some of them are practically chomping at the bit for the opportunity to become lazier and stupider. Should we just call this Evolution in Action? Or should we do something to save people from themselves? Oh, wait, it's not just the stupid and lazy that will get themselves killed, now, is it? They'll get someone else killed right along with them, won't they?
Screw you people and your gods-be-damned 'self driving' cars. I don't even CARE that this instance wasn't even an actual 'self-driving car', it's foreshadowing of the future of the whole stupid subject, and I'll have the privilege (said with seriously sarcastic overtones) of living through the whole gods-be-damned thing, and it'll be just so fucking much fun the whole time knowing that I Saw It Coming.. along with the rest of the stupid shit that Humans are doing right now in the gods-be-damned world.
..and YES, I AM RANTING. It's about all I can do about any of this, apparently.
The main purpose of a traditional 'cruise control' in automobiles is to reduce driver fatigue, which becomes a safety enhancement, not so much 'speeding ticket avoidance'. If you're going to be on the highway for 5 hours, not having to have your right foot on the throttle the entire time will significantly reduce your overall fatigue.
I'd rather just be in control of the vehicle to begin with.
I think the takeaway from this tragic incident, should be to impress upon everyone the need for so-called 'self driving/autonomous cars' to be required by law to be designed and manufactured with a full set of manual controls for a human driver, for human drivers to continue to be fully educated, trained, regularly tested, and fully licensed, and for the so-called 'autonomous driving' functions of such vehicles be limited in scope and functionality (as if they won't be anyway, by the inherent lacking of human-level intelligence and intution) to just a sophisticated 'autopilot/cruise control' type feature, so that human drivers will not be allowed to become too complacent, and as a result, situationally unaware, and over time 'rusty' in their vehicle-handling skills.
Yeah, this, and as someone else said, this isn't the first time someone has come up with something that does precisely this. It'll potentially have applications in warehouse equipment or robotics (or robotic warehouse equipment), but there are too many moving parts/it's too complicated to really be practical on a passenger vehicle, and even if you did, the replacement cost would likely be phenomenally high in comparison to standard tires. Wouldn't at all be surprised if 'replacement' would entail replacing the entire wheelset, which would need to be sent in to be completely refurbished as well as replacing the rubber parts.
Oh look, the Microsoft shills are trying to chastise me again for daring to voice my opinion of Microsoft bullshit!
Shove it up your asses, Microsoft shills, and all you Microsoft fanbois can shove it up your asses, too. Some of us are sick to death of their imperialistic attitude and aren't going to be quiet about it, and if you don't like it then you can go to hell.
See, I actually do know and understand everything you're saying; I just wanted someone else to say it.;-) We have to be careful or the dystopian future I speak of will happen.
Everything you have is 'rented' or 'leased', save consumables. Your house, your car, your phone, your computer, your furniture, even the clothes on your back are 'rented' or 'leased' to you for a monthly fee. I'm sure there are plenty of corporations out there that would love that world, where they have a guaranteed monthly income that is not dependent on sales, just lock everyone into lease contracts for everything they own. And, naturally, since you don't own any of it, you have zero rights to do what you want with it, and the 'owner' has 100% rights, so you have to put up with whatever their decisions are. Ads in your face 24/7/365? Keystroke logging? Tracking of viewing habits? Tracking of your location and activities? It's all in the lease agreement you had to sign in order to have even a place to live.
Talk about your dystopian futures! All the above of course is mere fiction. It's more like something I'd expect from the world of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash than anything in the real world. But it doesn't mean that some corporate types don't have these thoughts, either..
Slashdot Mirror
The EU must reconcile the need for an open internet with our endless hunger for a corner on the market and profits
Say it like it is, shithead telecoms.
Yeah, sure. By the way, do I need to remind you who will design an program the 'robotic overlords'? Irrational, half-finished, animal Humans. You may as well just start juggling running chainsaws, or trusting your life to 'self-driving cars' that don't have any manual controls for the human [strike]victim[/strike]occupant. Man makes God in his own image, after all, and a 'robotic overlord' would just be a more efficiently flawed version of Humans, and by the way science fantasy has already created that which you speak: it's called 'Skynet'.
Nope. Only time will tell. A thousand years or so from now, assuming Humans have not extinguised themselves and the rest of the planet with them, we might have evolved our brains enough to stop acting like dumb panicky animals when it counts the most not to. Otherwise, I start to wonder whether the real reason we haven't found evidence of other civilizations out in our galaxy is because all intelligent life follows the same pattern, get too much tech too quickly, can't handle it, and end up annihilating themselves.
Issues like this just further convince me that humans are just animals who happen to be slightly smarter than the other animals on this planet, and as such are incapable of being rational or logical. The obvious answer to this 'problem' (such as it is) is that PARENTS need to police what their own offspring are or are not doing with the Internet, and if they are incapable or unwilling to do so, then any consequences of that are on them, not on any government, not on any website, and certainly not a burden to be borne by the rest of the citizens of their country. But of course expecting animals to be accountable and responsible is asking way too much so of course we all have to endure pants-on-head stupid nonsense like this.
Apparently no politician anywhere on the planet understands even basic technology, let alone how the internet works. You can't dictate things like this to websites that are owned and wholly hosted outside the borders of your country. Therefore your 'morality legislation', like all 'morality legislation', falls flat on it's face right out of the gate. Even China's 'great firewall' isn't 100% effective and opens the door to all sorts of abuse of it's abilities.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: at the rate things are going, we're going to end up with NO internet at all, only 'walled gardens' within national borders, that are utterly useless for anything serious due to lack of connectivity and too many controls, along with a useless substitute for actual encryption.
Therefore the entire premise falls flat on it's face, right out the starting gate. Human beings are just animals who happen to be smarter than the other animals on this planet, and this simple FACT is reflected day after day in the news, and in our recorded history. We can't even get people to give up the totally irrational, illogical, and sometimes silly idea of 'god/gods' and religion, and by the way look at what it does to our so-called 'civilization'? It is ruining it, it is holding us back, it could destroy us. Don't bother with questions like this until the human brain manages to evolve past the point of needing mythical, omniscient, omnipotent beings to explain the Universe and our own existence. The need of people for such things just screams out to me that our poor caveman brains are still just too primitive and simple to even accept that we can't know everything, and it panics and makes things like 'god' up so it doesn't completely melt down. When the human brain reaches a point where it can deal with not understanding everything without having to say 'god did it', then maybe we can have a conversation about being 'rational' and 'logical'.
Of course, they may not have murdered the right guy, but hell, it's not like anyone can ask him questions now.
Exactly. They acted as judge, jury, and executioner, and that is not the role of police anywhere within the United States of America. On the surface it seems as though they acted out of emotion and not logic or reason, bypassing procedure, and excluding any judicial action -- as well as precluding the possibility of interrogating the shooter to gain any and all intelligence data they possibly could. What if this was part of a wide-ranging conspiracy? What if they have ties to domestic or foreign terrorist groups? Yes, there was more than one shooter (and didn't they get the others alive?) and weren't they highly organized? This was no random, spur-of-the-moment act of violence, it was a coordinated, well-planned attack.
Of course I'm finding it difficult to not say that it's no surprise that this happened in Texas.
Personally I found it rather disturbing to hear about it this morning, even knowing that neither I nor anyone else really knows the full story in all it's details yet. On the surface it sounds like the police made themselves judge, jury, and (literally) executioner, rather than finding a way to disable the subject, arrest, and then allow the judicial system to do it's job. As I just said above, for those of you who somehow manage to read only the words you want to read and not everything written: We don't have all the details of the incident, not YET. For all we know, there really was no other way to get the shooter out alive to be arrested -- but it's still highly disturbing, rather chilling, and it's not going to do anything to calm things down, either.
I'm going to give the AC in this case the benefit of the doubt, and assume he's posting this ironically or sarcastically and actually doesn't believe that drivel.
Next, there is no 'god', but of course no two people will ever agree on that point, so I'll let it go for now.
Now, if this 'Pastor Mitch' character really believes this crap, how about he posts his credit card numbers, bank account numbers, PIN numbers drivers license and social security numbers, and all his other identity-related information on the Internet for anyone to use. Then how about he installs cameras and microphones in every room of his house, including the bathroom, connected to the Internet 24/7/365, never turned off ever, so we can witness what a clean, pious, sanctified, honest life he's living, with nothing to hide. If he won't do all that then I guess we have to assume he's got some Deep Dark Secrets he needs to hide from us all and is going to Hell when he dies! He must be having sex with his wife in a non-missionary position only for procreation purposes or some horrible Sin like that, LOL! These types would make me laugh if they weren't so completely and utterly idiotic -- and so full of shit and hypocritical.
If stupid trends like what Putin wants continue, at some point there won't be and Internet anymore, all there'll be are Walled Gardens within national borders, never interconnected at all, all of them with their own peculiar set of rules dictated by technologically-incompetent politicians, and for the most part completely unsafe for anyone to use for any reason whatsoever -- except the governments of those Walled-garden countries, who will use the strongest encryption possible, forbidding it to anyone else for any reason. So much for the age of information! As usual, involving too many Humans in it is mucking it up so thoroughly that it might not be possible to save it.
I would tend to agree with you, friend. I read so many comments in this discussion attributing so many Machiavellian plots and motivations to Putin's actions, but I too think the simplest explanation is the most likely correct explanation: Putin has no clue how encryption really works, has no idea how the Internet really works, and thinks he can just snap his fingers and get what he wants. For starters he'd have to disconnect Russia and the territories it controls from the rest of the Internet, permanently, since he can't dictate what anyone outside of that defined area is doing. Then he'd have to stop use of all encryption inside his Walled Garden, substituting some severely weakened version that government types could easily decrypt -- which naturally would be easy for criminals to decrypt, too, since there is so much corruption in Russia, organized crime there would have the ability to do so about as soon as the government. In the end Putin may as well just outlaw the Internet entirely within Russia, it would actually be possible, and less painful than what he wants done.
The question I have, not living in or ever having visited China, is: Are their 'regular' TV shows there utter, unwatchable crap? If so then it would begin to explain why viewer-generated content like this would be so popular.
No, NOT 'nonsense', bringing an indictment against her NOW would be MORE tampering with the election than if you waited until AFTER the election and you damned well know that.
Oh shut the hell up. This is a solution looking for a problem, it isn't in any way necessary, it's just more expensive and not necessarily any better, in fact it might just be worse overall.
Instead of just a small amount of money to replace a broken sideview mirror, now it'll cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars and for most people require a trip to a mechanic shop, if not the dealer service shop, to diagnose and repair -- and you'll still be required to turn your head to look when changing lanes anyway. Passive mirrors are just fine, thanks anyway, I'll skip your overpriced unnecessary 'solution' to a problem that doesn't exist.
As I see it, indicting Hillary Clinton right now would be tantamount to tampering with the results of the general election in September in favor of Trump, and one way or another would be political/career suicide for anyone who made an indictment happen. That's what I think is saving her from it.
Remember when I said that? Remember when I got mocked for saying that? Are you going to remember I said that when it turns out I'm right? Of course you won't.
..and YES, I AM RANTING. It's about all I can do about any of this, apparently.
..but I'll say it again, now, anyway: Too much automation will make people dumber, less skilled, and lazier overall. Some of them are practically chomping at the bit for the opportunity to become lazier and stupider. Should we just call this Evolution in Action? Or should we do something to save people from themselves? Oh, wait, it's not just the stupid and lazy that will get themselves killed, now, is it? They'll get someone else killed right along with them, won't they?
Screw you people and your gods-be-damned 'self driving' cars. I don't even CARE that this instance wasn't even an actual 'self-driving car', it's foreshadowing of the future of the whole stupid subject, and I'll have the privilege (said with seriously sarcastic overtones) of living through the whole gods-be-damned thing, and it'll be just so fucking much fun the whole time knowing that I Saw It Coming.. along with the rest of the stupid shit that Humans are doing right now in the gods-be-damned world.
The main purpose of a traditional 'cruise control' in automobiles is to reduce driver fatigue, which becomes a safety enhancement, not so much 'speeding ticket avoidance'. If you're going to be on the highway for 5 hours, not having to have your right foot on the throttle the entire time will significantly reduce your overall fatigue.
I'd rather just be in control of the vehicle to begin with.
I think the takeaway from this tragic incident, should be to impress upon everyone the need for so-called 'self driving/autonomous cars' to be required by law to be designed and manufactured with a full set of manual controls for a human driver, for human drivers to continue to be fully educated, trained, regularly tested, and fully licensed, and for the so-called 'autonomous driving' functions of such vehicles be limited in scope and functionality (as if they won't be anyway, by the inherent lacking of human-level intelligence and intution) to just a sophisticated 'autopilot/cruise control' type feature, so that human drivers will not be allowed to become too complacent, and as a result, situationally unaware, and over time 'rusty' in their vehicle-handling skills.
Yeah, this, and as someone else said, this isn't the first time someone has come up with something that does precisely this. It'll potentially have applications in warehouse equipment or robotics (or robotic warehouse equipment), but there are too many moving parts/it's too complicated to really be practical on a passenger vehicle, and even if you did, the replacement cost would likely be phenomenally high in comparison to standard tires. Wouldn't at all be surprised if 'replacement' would entail replacing the entire wheelset, which would need to be sent in to be completely refurbished as well as replacing the rubber parts.
Oh look, the Microsoft shills are trying to chastise me again for daring to voice my opinion of Microsoft bullshit!
Shove it up your asses, Microsoft shills, and all you Microsoft fanbois can shove it up your asses, too. Some of us are sick to death of their imperialistic attitude and aren't going to be quiet about it, and if you don't like it then you can go to hell.
..says Morgan Stanley", is what that headline should read. What a crappy-sounding future that is!
See, I actually do know and understand everything you're saying; I just wanted someone else to say it. ;-) We have to be careful or the dystopian future I speak of will happen.
Everything you have is 'rented' or 'leased', save consumables. Your house, your car, your phone, your computer, your furniture, even the clothes on your back are 'rented' or 'leased' to you for a monthly fee. I'm sure there are plenty of corporations out there that would love that world, where they have a guaranteed monthly income that is not dependent on sales, just lock everyone into lease contracts for everything they own. And, naturally, since you don't own any of it, you have zero rights to do what you want with it, and the 'owner' has 100% rights, so you have to put up with whatever their decisions are. Ads in your face 24/7/365? Keystroke logging? Tracking of viewing habits? Tracking of your location and activities? It's all in the lease agreement you had to sign in order to have even a place to live.
Talk about your dystopian futures! All the above of course is mere fiction. It's more like something I'd expect from the world of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash than anything in the real world. But it doesn't mean that some corporate types don't have these thoughts, either..
Thansk for the recommendation, I'll check it out. Big bonus points if the old Dell Lattitude laptop I've got will run it, too.
..and on my To-Do List is to migrate my computers off of Windows and onto some version of Linux. Enough is too much.