My man, if it came to that, let me assure you'd be searching cars yourselves. You north-americans have it so easy that you don't know how fast it can go bad.
But that begs the question: why will we be building megastructures in space in the first place?
That begs the answer some people will always give, luckily: "because we can". If you think economics is the only reason to human enterprises, you are (by some definitions) not human.
All of our actions are deterministic based on our hardware and the inputs to that hardware. I don't think that demeans the fact that we still feel like we have free will.
Humanists would hang you for that statement...
This was actually the conclusion that I came to that made me decide I would no longer worship God even if he were real (I used to be a Christian, I am no longer), because in fact it was him that set everything rolling and apparently knew beforehand what everyone would do, so their own "sin" was not their fault.
Then again, Christians would hang you for that statement.
The only two choices are not randomness and determinism. The introduction of free will requires the existence of something else, outside the rules of determinism and and the same time not random.
As our friend Neo so elegantly said - although in a different context - the problem is choice.
If your view of the universe is that of a total determinism, then everything you do could be explained in terms of the relationships of the particles since the beginning of the universe. It might be complex enough, but that's what determinism means. If that were true, then the concept of responsibility would crumble. I can't be held responsible for something that's inherent to the fabric of the universe. I never had a choice.
That's why the bible so elegantly introduces the concept of free will; because if God were the creator of everything and had the final word about every single event, then no man would hold any responsibility about anything. Everything could be traced back to god.
That's one of the reasons why I think religions are scams gone of hand.
Perhaps that's what models like quantum theory attemp to explain. That at some levels things are predictable, but at some other not. Of course, I say this without any in-depth knowledge about it...
Google has no interest in destroying the Java language and platform.
Well, if they replace the JVM with this dalvik thingy and "just use the result of the compilation", then they'd be one step closer of getting rid of the platform. They'd be just using the compiler, which they can toss away any moment. It could be a step-by-step strategy to undermine Oracle's Java and push their own platform... which would be composed of a new VM (dalvik), a new language (does that Go thing still exist?) and an OS (Android, Chrome OS)
Pretty sneaky, solid, long-term strategy, if you ask me... Oracle has a right to protect it, even if it bothers the whole developer community.
Exactly. IMO, it sucks because after a few days of catching up with long-missed mates, you realize nobody does anything useful there. It's not that everything in this life must serve a high, noble purpose, but facebook serves no purpose at all except wasting time.
Still, it has millions of users. I guess it's because of the pictures. Pretty much what happened other sites, such as flickr.
Thanks for taking care of the obligatory "popular things suck" stance, very insightful as usual.
It's not mandatory, and it's only an opinion. So thank YOU for taking care of the always popular "other people's opinion s#ck if they don't agree with me" stance. Very democratic as usual.
Slashdot Mirror
That makes it harder to "replace" English.
It's not hard. It'd only take a couple nukes.
If there are no lawyers, what are you going to do when someone breaks a contract with you?
Club some sense right into their heads.
this post again?
He's a colonel. And the show's basic premise was "these are the wrong people in the wrong place".
You mean the writers, right?
... a long time ago. I'm not impressed.
My man, if it came to that, let me assure you'd be searching cars yourselves. You north-americans have it so easy that you don't know how fast it can go bad.
The question is simple... it's reaching the answer that's complex, isn't it?
How can you create a replica of something that never existed? That'd be a true miracle!
PWNED!!!!
It will change exactly nothing at all in real life.
Exactly how is science outside real like?
My religious view doesn't even need to be adjusted to cope with this.
You have a religious view??? The nerve!!!
Need... mod... points!!
But that begs the question: why will we be building megastructures in space in the first place?
That begs the answer some people will always give, luckily: "because we can". If you think economics is the only reason to human enterprises, you are (by some definitions) not human.
Anonymous Coward, I'm sick of your constant idiotic posts... Quit it now, mate, or face Hell!
All of our actions are deterministic based on our hardware and the inputs to that hardware. I don't think that demeans the fact that we still feel like we have free will.
Humanists would hang you for that statement...
This was actually the conclusion that I came to that made me decide I would no longer worship God even if he were real (I used to be a Christian, I am no longer), because in fact it was him that set everything rolling and apparently knew beforehand what everyone would do, so their own "sin" was not their fault.
Then again, Christians would hang you for that statement.
It looks like we are sorrounded, mate! :P
The only two choices are not randomness and determinism. The introduction of free will requires the existence of something else, outside the rules of determinism and and the same time not random.
As our friend Neo so elegantly said - although in a different context - the problem is choice.
If your view of the universe is that of a total determinism, then everything you do could be explained in terms of the relationships of the particles since the beginning of the universe. It might be complex enough, but that's what determinism means. If that were true, then the concept of responsibility would crumble. I can't be held responsible for something that's inherent to the fabric of the universe. I never had a choice.
That's why the bible so elegantly introduces the concept of free will; because if God were the creator of everything and had the final word about every single event, then no man would hold any responsibility about anything. Everything could be traced back to god.
That's one of the reasons why I think religions are scams gone of hand.
Perhaps that's what models like quantum theory attemp to explain. That at some levels things are predictable, but at some other not. Of course, I say this without any in-depth knowledge about it...
OK, I'm convinced. Thank you, noble sir, for reminding me of that piece of xkcd... :)
None, I repeat NONE of the articles I have ever read actually even remotely begins to touch upon that subject.
Perhaps they don't touch it because you read them. Don't read them, and there's a 50/50 chance they will...
Individuals certainly are responsible for their own choices anyway, even if you can accurately simulate 100% beforehand what they're going to choose.
Demontration, please.
In this context, "pure" means something in the lines of "untainted by any man-devised procedure". But I guess you already knew that...
Google has no interest in destroying the Java language and platform.
Well, if they replace the JVM with this dalvik thingy and "just use the result of the compilation", then they'd be one step closer of getting rid of the platform. They'd be just using the compiler, which they can toss away any moment. It could be a step-by-step strategy to undermine Oracle's Java and push their own platform... which would be composed of a new VM (dalvik), a new language (does that Go thing still exist?) and an OS (Android, Chrome OS)
Pretty sneaky, solid, long-term strategy, if you ask me... Oracle has a right to protect it, even if it bothers the whole developer community.
Facebook sucks because it sucks.
Exactly. IMO, it sucks because after a few days of catching up with long-missed mates, you realize nobody does anything useful there. It's not that everything in this life must serve a high, noble purpose, but facebook serves no purpose at all except wasting time. Still, it has millions of users. I guess it's because of the pictures. Pretty much what happened other sites, such as flickr.
Thanks for taking care of the obligatory "popular things suck" stance, very insightful as usual.
It's not mandatory, and it's only an opinion. So thank YOU for taking care of the always popular "other people's opinion s#ck if they don't agree with me" stance. Very democratic as usual.
It's not doing any harm, either, since facebook is useless. So don't be mean and let the children play...
My bad, my comment was meant to be a reply to this one: http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1858882&cid=34164336