A riot broke out around the French Academy of General Studies (acronym rarely used) as thousands tried and failed to register as licensed journalists. Amidst the fray the irony was as deep as the blood in the streets, as those who were involved were unsure whether they had yet obtained the rights to film the event. Furthermore, those who had successfully registered found it difficult to film themselves during the incident as they were overcome by the mob. Police had no idea who was legally allowed to film the event and, because they had to turn off their cameras due to not being journalists themselves, no solid proof of the perpetrators has survived.
"If we found a comet headed right at us there is nothing we could do about it. Not even Bruce Willis could save us. The universe is full of dangers on a scale so large that we would have no hope of avoiding them should they involve us. Some of them are not merely possible, but inevitable. Everyone dies eventually. Even the Earth."
How do you know there is nothing we could do about it? Have you researched every possible angle? Do you know that if we decided to employ our nuclear weapons (the USA alone probably has enough) against it in a all-out effort to deflect the comet/asteroid that we couldn't succeed? No, you don't. Do you know if we developed a spalling laser using said nuclear weapons (to avoid actually having to go out there with the nukes) we couldn't deflect the mass? No, you don't. And I think the people on Earth (ok, except you) wouldn't just give up so easily.
I think we also need NASA to monitor the Sun for any signs of impending supernova.
A supernova would destroy the Earth and clearly kill all of us. Therefore we should spend whatever it takes to monitor the Sun.
The sun cannot supernova. And BTW, we are monitoring the sun. All the time. It's not just a nova that poses a danger. How about solar storms? I would sure like to know if the Sun is about to spew electromagnetic radiation all over us, especially if it was a very powerful storm capable of knocking out electronics. We might not be able to stop it, but we can mitigate the consequences.
The rest of your post is unrelated and asinine.
Consider this: we have auto insurance because there are wrecks frequently.
Well, on an astronomical scale, there are impacts frequently. That might not translate into tomorrow, or it might. Point is, we don't know. Don't you think we SHOULD?
You seem to think there's nothing we can do about it.
Sorta like your view that mining isn't critical to a societal well-being...
I never said it wasn't critical. It happens to not be the ONLY critical industry even though the slogan basically says it is.
If you want to go live in a grass hut somewhere, more power to you.
I don't want to live in a grass hut. But I've lived in a log house and I'll tell you, I really enjoyed it. It felt warm and natural. A lot better than this building I am in now which feels cold and synthetic. Granted it wasn't all built with organic materials, but the bulk of it was.
I prefer to live in a house that is built upon a mined product, held together with a mined product, with interior walls thanks to a mined product, using electricity carried by a mined product, drink fresh water via a mined product, transport sewage away in a mined product, drive a car that has a frame from a mined product, on roads composed entirely of mined product.
I understand the huge impact mining has on my daily life. I really do. I like it. I don't want to lose it. You are still missing my main point which is that the slogan was narrow-minded in that it says mining is everything when clearly it is not.
I bet the agriculture industry agrees... without mining, there's no way we could support the billions of people on planet Earth.. Yah, agriculture definitely doesn't do more than mining does for that!/sarcasm
Look, all I am saying is, that slogan is absurdly narrow-minded.
Hence the parody from the guys who made the site.
Oh and BTW, modders.. my OP actually wasn't Offtopic. It was about the VERY topic this story represents. But thanks for playing.
Why should I trust you on this? Do you have some experience of being dead? Has a dead person reported their pain status to you in a credible way? Are you certified by a professional body of People Who Know What Death Feels Like?
Simple. If Death is the end of being there can be nothing beyond. In which case, like I said, trust me, you won't be feeling pain. You won't even know you aren't feeling pain. On the other hand, if Death is NOT the end of being, and you continue to perceive, feel and be then you have not died. You might say 'but my body is dead!' Sure, great, fine. Whatever. But you are not. Whatever it is that really makes you you has not died. And that's all that matters. It would mean 'death' is just a transition.
You admit in your post that you think it is necessary for some people to believe things that are untrue. How can I know that anything you tell me isn't something you know to be untrue but believe to be a beneficial lie for me to accept?
Who said it was untrue? You did. I said there was no proof.
There's no way you can know what I tell you isn't a lie unless you experience it yourself. And, even then, do you know you can assume that experience was genuine in nature?
No and I'm an atheist. Hoping to stay alive is a hope in one's self and chance. Since the person in a POW camp has been shown that they are powerless, they lose that hope. Chance of rescue in a POW camp is also slight, so they lose that hope. If their army is a mile away and they know that then there hope of rescue would be greater. Hope in a god is the belief in an powerful entity. While a god might not get you out of the situation, generally everything has an overall plan or it will be sorted out in the next life.
If you don't believe in a god, just think of it as a mental trick to help with the mind over matter idea.
You being an atheist means nothing in this discussion. But thanks for sharing. Clearly the people who were religious didn't lose hope that their God would save them. But that's not really the point anyway. Just because you come here claiming to know that everyone in a POW camp loses hope doesn't make it so. I think people are far more capable of hope. Of course, I also think hope might not have anything to do with it. It might just be mental and physical strength. There's no proof.
Ok, then... I'll just say it. People who made it out alive probably had a religious experience... from making it out alive. And since only the people who made it out alive can contribute to this study then we have a problem here. I doubt the study takes this into account.
This is correlation. Not causation.
I bet if you asked the ones who made it out alive if they 'hoped to live' they would say yes almost 100% of the time. Gee, that sure beats the religious-only survivors by a fair margin I bet. It includes the religious AND non-religious all at once and yet still adheres to the original definition of hope keeping you alive.
Adapt or perish. I love how the summary says these companies are somehow smart for trying to do this. It's not an uphill battle for them, it's like trying to crane-kick a grizzly bear. You might pull off the kick, but you'll die for it. They're digging their own business graves.
To psychologically survive such an ordeal you need to believe in something else.
That.. or you can be bat-shit insane. Either way. Myself...I prefer the latter.
Sure, I'm playing Devil's Advocate to all the mystical, spiritual holier-than-thou types... Someone had to. I happen to think those beliefs are necessary in certain people. So I guess I agree with TFA. They provide psychological padding for the minds of people who cannot handle their own mortality. If they let go of those beliefs and merely admitted there is no proof of anything like a personal God then they would probably have a meltdown.
Must be a side-effect of consciousness in semi-primates. We see ourselves in the mirror and know what we're looking at. Then we get all scared when we realize what we're looking at is wonderful and will someday go away forever, maybe. Really I think it's deeply tied to the instinct to avoid pain. Semi-primates think death will be an endlessly painful experience. Newsflash, if you're dead, trust me, you won't feel pain. And if you are dead and feeling pain, you ain't dead baby. Focus on the pain and become one with it. It's just a feeling afterall. Transcend it and become immortal.. Or whatever. Up to you.
I understand the reasoning behind modeling these systems on our own highly-evolved (ok, maybe not in some people) biological systems. What I want to see, however, is something capable of learning and improving its' own ability to learn. If our intelligent systems are always evolution-limited by the progress of our own biological systems then I can't see how A.I. smarter than a human will ever ben achieved. But if we are able to give these systems our own abilities as a starting point and then watch it somehow create something more intelligent than we are... then we really have something. Whether or not what we have is good at that point I can't say, though there are many people and communities in the world who are working on making sure this post-human intelligence doesn't essentially destroy us. Foresight for example.
I'm not knocking the MIT research, I think it's amazing. It just seems to me like imitation rather than imagination. Granted, highly evolved and complicated imitation. But does it even have the abilities of a parrot?
If you are retiring at 50 you have serious financial security. So I suggest you treat it as a hobbie instead of job. Do it for yourself, not somebody else. Maybe it will turn into something that makes money for you. But if you do it for some company then they own your work. Give yourself more freedom.
Of course, if you manage to find a company that you mesh with and the projects you work on are the same thing you would do by yourself, then by all means, go for it. The team envrionment can be rewarding.
Just try to get out of the cubicle as much as possible. You'll be dead in ten years if you don't. Or close anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
Tell 'em what yer gonna tell em. Tell 'em. Then tell 'em what you told em.
TLF
No.. those would be a brain-crotch interface...
Sorry I couldn't resist.
TLF
vague pr0n use ideas begin now!
TLF
That would make no sense huh?
:)
Good thing it's not true and I pulled it directly from my posterior.
TLF
Ironically, you must only be wielding a video camera... Don't ask me.. I think the lawmakers were drunk on wine. :)
TLF
A riot broke out around the French Academy of General Studies (acronym rarely used) as thousands tried and failed to register as licensed journalists. Amidst the fray the irony was as deep as the blood in the streets, as those who were involved were unsure whether they had yet obtained the rights to film the event. Furthermore, those who had successfully registered found it difficult to film themselves during the incident as they were overcome by the mob. Police had no idea who was legally allowed to film the event and, because they had to turn off their cameras due to not being journalists themselves, no solid proof of the perpetrators has survived.
TLF
"If we found a comet headed right at us there is nothing we could do about it. Not even Bruce Willis could save us.
The universe is full of dangers on a scale so large that we would have no hope of avoiding them should they involve us.
Some of them are not merely possible, but inevitable. Everyone dies eventually. Even the Earth."
How do you know there is nothing we could do about it? Have you researched every possible angle? Do you know that if we decided to employ our nuclear weapons (the USA alone probably has enough) against it in a all-out effort to deflect the comet/asteroid that we couldn't succeed? No, you don't. Do you know if we developed a spalling laser using said nuclear weapons (to avoid actually having to go out there with the nukes) we couldn't deflect the mass? No, you don't. And I think the people on Earth (ok, except you) wouldn't just give up so easily.
TLF
One word: dramatic.
TLF
The sun cannot supernova. And BTW, we are monitoring the sun. All the time. It's not just a nova that poses a danger. How about solar storms? I would sure like to know if the Sun is about to spew electromagnetic radiation all over
us, especially if it was a very powerful storm capable of knocking out electronics. We might not be able to stop it, but we can mitigate the consequences.
The rest of your post is unrelated and asinine.
Consider this: we have auto insurance because there are wrecks frequently.
Well, on an astronomical scale, there are impacts frequently. That might not translate into tomorrow, or it might. Point is, we don't know. Don't you think we SHOULD?
You seem to think there's nothing we can do about it.
In this respect, you are wrong.
TLF
rofl.. nice point.
out of curiosity...How can they tell the difference between adding a negative and subtracting a positive?
4 - 4 = 0 4 + -4 = 0....
Hrm.
TLF
That's all I was saying.
Advertising is really poor most of the time. For example, 99% of the commericals I see on TV make me want to never watch TV again.
Is it any wonder I don't watch much TV?
Anyway, I know the topic was about fair-use parody copyright laws... Oh well, you're right we're way out there now.
TLF
I'm not offended. I just think it's ridiculous.
... Existence: brought to you by carbon.
And don't take my point of view to the extreme.
I think they could've added one word to make it right.
"Modern life: brought to you by mining."
Or something like that.
TLF
That statement is obvious.
What you want/need can be:
1) Found on the surface of the planet.
2) Found below the surface of the planet.
But, if it's found below the surface, then that makes life as we know it possible. Forget everything ON the surface, that stuff is so yesterday.
TLF
But, hey, that's just me...
Meh.
/sarcasm
I bet the agriculture industry agrees... without mining, there's no way we could support the billions of people on planet Earth.. Yah, agriculture definitely doesn't do more than mining does for that!
Look, all I am saying is, that slogan is absurdly narrow-minded.
Hence the parody from the guys who made the site.
Oh and BTW, modders.. my OP actually wasn't Offtopic. It was about the VERY topic this story represents. But thanks for playing.
TLF
"Life: brought to you by mining"
Are you kidding me?
I have nothing further to say.
TLF
Simple. If Death is the end of being there can be nothing beyond. In which case, like I said, trust me, you won't be feeling pain. You won't even know you aren't feeling pain. On the other hand, if Death is NOT the end of being, and you continue to perceive, feel and be then you have not died. You might say 'but my body is dead!' Sure, great, fine. Whatever. But you are not. Whatever it is that really makes you you has not died. And that's all that matters. It would mean 'death' is just a transition.
Who said it was untrue? You did. I said there was no proof.
There's no way you can know what I tell you isn't a lie unless you experience it yourself. And, even then, do you know you can assume that experience was genuine in nature?
TLF
You being an atheist means nothing in this discussion. But thanks for sharing. Clearly the people who were religious didn't lose hope that their God would save them. But that's not really the point anyway. Just because you come here claiming to know that everyone in a POW camp loses hope doesn't make it so. I think people are far more capable of hope. Of course, I also think hope might not have anything to do with it. It might just be mental and physical strength. There's no proof.
TLF
Ok, then... I'll just say it. People who made it out alive probably had a religious experience... from making it out alive. And since only the people who made it out alive can contribute to this study then we have a problem here. I doubt the study takes this into account.
This is correlation. Not causation.
I bet if you asked the ones who made it out alive if they 'hoped to live' they would say yes almost 100% of the time. Gee, that sure beats the religious-only survivors by a fair margin I bet. It includes the religious AND non-religious all at once and yet still adheres to the original definition of hope keeping you alive.
TLF
Yep.
Adapt or perish. I love how the summary says these companies are somehow smart for trying to do this. It's not an uphill battle for them, it's like trying to crane-kick a grizzly bear. You might pull off the kick, but you'll die for it. They're digging their own business graves.
TLF
That was a wonderful quote. I have to admit I didn't know T H Huxley was so damned intelligent. Must. Read. More.
TLF
That.. or you can be bat-shit insane. Either way. Myself...I prefer the latter.
Sure, I'm playing Devil's Advocate to all the mystical, spiritual holier-than-thou types... Someone had to. I happen to think those beliefs are necessary in certain people. So I guess I agree with TFA. They provide psychological padding for the minds of people who cannot handle their own mortality. If they let go of those beliefs and merely admitted there is no proof of anything like a personal God then they would probably have a meltdown.
Must be a side-effect of consciousness in semi-primates. We see ourselves in the mirror and know what we're looking at. Then we get all scared when we realize what we're looking at is wonderful and will someday go away forever, maybe. Really I think it's deeply tied to the instinct to avoid pain. Semi-primates think death will be an endlessly painful experience. Newsflash, if you're dead, trust me, you won't feel pain. And if you are dead and feeling pain, you ain't dead baby. Focus on the pain and become one with it. It's just a feeling afterall. Transcend it and become immortal.. Or whatever. Up to you.
TLF
How about hoping to stay alive? I am pretty sure most people have that.
Kind of throws your whole argument out into the realm of pseudoscience, neh?
TLF
I understand the reasoning behind modeling these systems on our own highly-evolved (ok, maybe not in some people) biological systems. What I want to see, however, is something capable of learning and improving its' own ability to learn. If our intelligent systems are always evolution-limited by the progress of our own biological systems then I can't see how A.I. smarter than a human will ever ben achieved. But if we are able to give these systems our own abilities as a starting point and then watch it somehow create something more intelligent than we are... then we really have something. Whether or not what we have is good at that point I can't say, though there are many people and communities in the world who are working on making sure this post-human intelligence doesn't essentially destroy us. Foresight for example.
I'm not knocking the MIT research, I think it's amazing. It just seems to me like imitation rather than imagination. Granted, highly evolved and complicated imitation. But does it even have the abilities of a parrot?
TLF
If you are retiring at 50 you have serious financial security. So I suggest you treat it as a hobbie instead of job. Do it for yourself, not somebody else. Maybe it will turn into something that makes money for you. But if you do it for some company then they own your work. Give yourself more freedom.
Of course, if you manage to find a company that you mesh with and the projects you work on are the same thing you would do by yourself, then by all means, go for it. The team envrionment can be rewarding.
Just try to get out of the cubicle as much as possible. You'll be dead in ten years if you don't. Or close anyway.
TLF