"As far as I can tell, his argument was "quantum physics is complicated. The brain is complicated. Therefore it can only be explained as quantum physics".
If that's all you got out of it, you can't have actually read the books. Seriously. Or you're deliberately trying to reduce his arguments to their stupidest form.
A far more accurate (but still an exceptionally dumbed down) summary might be:
(1) There are some human thought processes that appear to be outside the realm of traditional computation (2) One place we might be seeing analogous processes is in quantum physics, and the two may be connected
And I don't know where from his tone you get the idea that he's arrogant. He strikes a very good balance between trying to make his case and admitting his theory is only a possibility. Something which I can't say for a lot of his critics.
"We were all in advanced analysis or something. We'd been working on a proof in class for a week, and we'd reached an impasse, an impossible stage, and in the dream logic, the only way we were going to be able to progress was if (and only if) someone cut off their arm: the requirement was 'proof by mutilation.' And the scary thing was, we were going to do it, there was no question or discussion about that, the only thing we hadn't settled yet was whose arm we were going to use."
There's bad stuff coming up. Torture you've been prepared for, but there's worse. There's death coming up and you must be ready for this: Some of the wrong people die. This isn't 'Curious George Uses the Potty.' The wrong people die, some of them, and the reason is this: Life isn't fair.
You're going to have this problem at some point no matter what cosmology you subscribe to -- either you'll have to say there's some entity or category of stuff that has always existsed, or you'll have to go through an infinite (or cyclic) chain of predecessors or causes.
"It's sort of like with the Senate Republicans considering the "Nuclear Option" of barring filibusters; it doesn't seem to occur to any of them that this move will come back to bite them in the ass just as soon as there is a non-Republican majority..."
This is the one thing that really actually scares me, because it shows that they don't think there will ever again be a non-Republican majority.
Think about it for a moment: Why would they think that? Especially considering how close it's really been in many cases.
"Those in America and the UK, and other developed countries, are relatively better educated. As such, their occupational mobility is higher."
Occupational mobility from being a software engineer to another profession is iffy. Your skillset is highly specialized, and you have to do a lot of work to overcome being perceived as a mere 'techie' on top of actually possesing outside skills.
Nonsense. The same things were said when Japan made a move to dominate the car industry, so what happened?
Whew! We have nothing to worry about! The Chinese-Indian challenge to the American-dominated computer industry will be as innefectual and short-lived as the Japanese challenge to American auto-makers.
"The DSL needs to go over the same physical wire that the landline requires. If you don't have a landline, and don't pay for landline service, why the heck should any telephone company be forced to provide DSL over that line?"
Because WE PAYED FOR THAT LINE. Yes, that's right. Much of the infrastructure our phone companies use was publically funded, on the condition that phone companies (a) served some areas that might not otherwise have been profitable enough and (b) would allow competition/reselling over those networks.
I think the more relevant question is: why in the world are we the people still so moronic as to believe private interests will ever deliver a true version of (b)?
What we need is a publically owned and directed network that private services can compete over. But that scares businesses like, oh, Qwest, to death. Without a lock on distribution, innovation and quality of service might be the qualities they'd have to compete on, not how they can manipulate rules for using their network.
And as for (a)... it's not working either. I've been trying to get my parents DSL for eight years. No dice, despite the fact they're a mere two blocks from a technology office park.
This recent DSL ruling is dinosaurs protecting their turf, not the free market at work.
I accept DRM now. I use iTunes, I buy because it's convenient, and I don't use PyMusique or Hymn or anything like that. If I really, really want redistribute a song to a friend for listening, I burn it to a CD.
The restrictions aren't onerous -- about the only thing that really bugs me is that I'm not allowed to stream over a local network without entering a password.
Not only has CSS 2.1 been out for a year (and CSS 2 for 7 years)... but Dean Edwards has been steadily shoring up CSS support with his IE7 javascript extension for over a year now.
I can't understand why MS might have trouble at least doing work that a single individual working for free in his spare time is apparently able to accomplish.
"The 60-year-old millionaire adventurer stayed awake for almost all of the trip, taking only brief catnaps in the jet"
A 60 year old staying awake for nearly three days straight is as impressive to me as fuel economy. I couldn't make two full days straight, even when I was 19...
Seemingly, Google actually *wants* to build cool stuff. And they care about making it cool, with these little extra details other companies might overlook as frou-frou.
In this way, they're a bit like Apple. But priced for just about anyone.:)
Every time one of these terraforming thought experiments comes up, I have to wonder: why don't we try terraforming a desert here first? Seeing what we can do in Earth's extreme environments, from the Sahara to Antarctica. It'd be good practice, and we could probably figure out something useful to do with the space....
What I often wonder about is why there isn't more discussion about having a public network, over which service is offered by competing private parties. We don't have a State-run trucking company along with public roads. Why do we assume it has to be government monopoly vs state monopoly? Private competition over public networks could mean real competition due to low barriers to entry. We all know how a good commons can serve as a platform for widespread success.
And why do we do half-a** measures like mandating private competition over... private networks? That's how things seem to be done here in Utah. I've been trying to help my parents get broadband for 7 years. They live in a town of nearly 100,000 people. They live two blocks from a technology campus/business park. They can't get DSL. It's always "oh, about 6 months from now," from Qwest and has been since 1998. Near as I can tell, at least half of the city must be in the same boat, because that's the portion of Orem that was built around or before my parents home was. Of course, you call up any of Qwest's "competition," and it turns out they're simply reselling Qwest's services, and since Qwest apparently can't get it together to update half of my hometown... no DSL for them.
Of course, Qwest cried and screamed and protested and astroturfed when the UTOPIA project came around, promising not only competing service, but a truly updated public infrastructure. Qwest won't or can't provide the service, but darned if they're going to let somebody else show them up and take away their free lunch. The entrepreneur who started one of the first ISPs in Utah, of course, saw right through them..
Grendel's mother is so fat, she have to... well... I mean, she's so... actually, I guess she is large, but mostly that has the effect that she's menacing to tough medieval warrior types. Hmmmmm.
Slashdot Mirror
So far, everything I've scanned doesn't say what architecture they'll be using. Itanium, anyone?
And I'm sure they're not going to go with a standard PC architecture... openfirmware rather than PC BIOS being at least one key difference.
Parent is hilarious.
Get yourself a schizophrenic math genius. They see everything. :)
"As far as I can tell, his argument was "quantum physics is complicated. The brain is complicated. Therefore it can only be explained as quantum physics".
If that's all you got out of it, you can't have actually read the books. Seriously. Or you're deliberately trying to reduce his arguments to their stupidest form.
A far more accurate (but still an exceptionally dumbed down) summary might be:
(1) There are some human thought processes that appear to be outside the realm of traditional computation
(2) One place we might be seeing analogous processes is in quantum physics, and the two may be connected
And I don't know where from his tone you get the idea that he's arrogant. He strikes a very good balance between trying to make his case and admitting his theory is only a possibility. Something which I can't say for a lot of his critics.
This is math culture.
"We were all in advanced analysis or something. We'd been working on a proof in class for a week, and we'd reached an impasse, an impossible stage, and in the dream logic, the only way we were going to be able to progress was if (and only if) someone cut off their arm: the requirement was 'proof by mutilation.' And the scary thing was, we were going to do it, there was no question or discussion about that, the only thing we hadn't settled yet was whose arm we were going to use."
There's bad stuff coming up. Torture you've been prepared for, but there's worse. There's death coming up and you must be ready for this:
Some of the wrong people die. This isn't
'Curious George Uses the Potty.' The wrong people die, some of them, and the reason is this: Life isn't fair.
---William Goldman The Princess Bride
You're going to have this problem at some point no matter what cosmology you subscribe to -- either you'll have to say there's some entity or category of stuff that has always existsed, or you'll have to go through an infinite (or cyclic) chain of predecessors or causes.
"It's sort of like with the Senate Republicans considering the "Nuclear Option" of barring filibusters; it doesn't seem to occur to any of them that this move will come back to bite them in the ass just as soon as there is a non-Republican majority..."
This is the one thing that really actually scares me, because it shows that they don't think there will ever again be a non-Republican majority.
Think about it for a moment: Why would they think that? Especially considering how close it's really been in many cases.
Parent may have been refering to a moment from Star Trek IV:
"William Shatner (Kirk): Oh, him? He's harmless. Part of the free speech movement at Berkeley in the sixties. I think he did a little too much LDS."
See here.
The mere fact I know this may mean I'm not getting a date with anyone not in a Troi costume for a year or two.
"Those in America and the UK, and other developed countries, are relatively better educated. As such, their occupational mobility is higher."
Occupational mobility from being a software engineer to another profession is iffy. Your skillset is highly specialized, and you have to do a lot of work to overcome being perceived as a mere 'techie' on top of actually possesing outside skills.
Nonsense. The same things were said when Japan made a move to dominate the car industry, so what happened?
Whew! We have nothing to worry about! The Chinese-Indian challenge to the American-dominated computer industry will be as innefectual and short-lived as the Japanese challenge to American auto-makers.
However, has it ever been stated that Calamari are not mammals ?
Whoever told you that is a total liar. Like other mammals Calamari can either have breasts or be totally flat.
Facts:
(1) Calamari are mammals
(2) Calamari nurse their young ALL the time
(3) The purposes of Calamari are to flip out and warn "It's a trap!"
"The DSL needs to go over the same physical wire that the landline requires. If you don't have a landline, and don't pay for landline service, why the heck should any telephone company be forced to provide DSL over that line?"
Because WE PAYED FOR THAT LINE. Yes, that's right. Much of the infrastructure our phone companies use was publically funded, on the condition that phone companies (a) served some areas that might not otherwise have been profitable enough and (b) would allow competition/reselling over those networks.
I think the more relevant question is: why in the world are we the people still so moronic as to believe private interests will ever deliver a true version of (b)?
What we need is a publically owned and directed network that private services can compete over. But that scares businesses like, oh, Qwest, to death. Without a lock on distribution, innovation and quality of service might be the qualities they'd have to compete on, not how they can manipulate rules for using their network.
And as for (a)... it's not working either. I've been trying to get my parents DSL for eight years. No dice, despite the fact they're a mere two blocks from a technology office park.
This recent DSL ruling is dinosaurs protecting their turf, not the free market at work.
I accept DRM now. I use iTunes, I buy because it's convenient, and I don't use PyMusique or Hymn or anything like that. If I really, really want redistribute a song to a friend for listening, I burn it to a CD.
The restrictions aren't onerous -- about the only thing that really bugs me is that I'm not allowed to stream over a local network without entering a password.
Not only has CSS 2.1 been out for a year (and CSS 2 for 7 years)... but Dean Edwards has been steadily shoring up CSS support with his IE7 javascript extension for over a year now.
I can't understand why MS might have trouble at least doing work that a single individual working for free in his spare time is apparently able to accomplish.
Such a balanced view full of respect for others who've come to a different conclusion? You're a disgrace to zealots everywhere!
And what I don't get is: why? Why do these offices assume they're gonna get better work out of their employees if they burn them out?
"The 60-year-old millionaire adventurer stayed awake for almost all of the trip, taking only brief catnaps in the jet"
A 60 year old staying awake for nearly three days straight is as impressive to me as fuel economy. I couldn't make two full days straight, even when I was 19...
So in other words, for you to get a nice, new cloak of invisibility you'll need to be microscopic in size
Not a problem. If you'll just step right over here to this shrinkometer....
I believe they're already using this as a revenue source.
Seemingly, Google actually *wants* to build cool stuff. And they care about making it cool, with these little extra details other companies might overlook as frou-frou.
:)
In this way, they're a bit like Apple. But priced for just about anyone.
Every time one of these terraforming thought experiments comes up, I have to wonder: why don't we try terraforming a desert here first? Seeing what we can do in Earth's extreme environments, from the Sahara to Antarctica. It'd be good practice, and we could probably figure out something useful to do with the space....
What I often wonder about is why there isn't more discussion about having a public network, over which service is offered by competing private parties. We don't have a State-run trucking company along with public roads. Why do we assume it has to be government monopoly vs state monopoly? Private competition over public networks could mean real competition due to low barriers to entry. We all know how a good commons can serve as a platform for widespread success.
And why do we do half-a** measures like mandating private competition over... private networks? That's how things seem to be done here in Utah. I've been trying to help my parents get broadband for 7 years. They live in a town of nearly 100,000 people. They live two blocks from a technology campus/business park. They can't get DSL. It's always "oh, about 6 months from now," from Qwest and has been since 1998. Near as I can tell, at least half of the city must be in the same boat, because that's the portion of Orem that was built around or before my parents home was. Of course, you call up any of Qwest's "competition," and it turns out they're simply reselling Qwest's services, and since Qwest apparently can't get it together to update half of my hometown... no DSL for them.
Of course, Qwest cried and screamed and protested and astroturfed when the UTOPIA project came around, promising not only competing service, but a truly updated public infrastructure. Qwest won't or can't provide the service, but darned if they're going to let somebody else show them up and take away their free lunch. The entrepreneur who started one of the first ISPs in Utah, of course, saw right through them..
Grendel's mother is so fat, she have to... well... I mean, she's so... actually, I guess she is large, but mostly that has the effect that she's menacing to tough medieval warrior types. Hmmmmm.
just like Web browsers and other WYSIWYG editors
*giggle*
*snicker*
*sob*
Have you used any WYSIWYG editor that didn't mangle markup or render it poorly?