Part of the problem for Americans catching irony or sarcasm is that so many American's believe such a wide variety of crazy things it's hard sometimes to know if they are joking. For instance, if you knew me and heard me say, "Obama's raising taxes because he's a secret Muslim," you would know that I was joking. However, if you knew I was an American but didn't know me personally, it's entirely possible that I was being serious. We have to look for extra cues to see if someone is being serious or not, because in America you never know what someone actually believes.
I'm certainly not saying that all aspects of human behavior are biologically determined. We have evolved a brilliantly wonderful brain that does have the ability to transcend its evolution. People sacrifice themselves in war before they reproduce, people join organizations like the Catholic priesthood where they are not supposed to reproduce. Because of its complexity, our brains are able to bring forth far more varied experiences and behaviors that could be possible with mere instinct. However, the template upon which our behaviors rest comes from millions of years of evolution and are strongly impacted by them. Sex, a primary drive in evolution, is manifested repeatedly within the layers of intellect and emotion in many forms because it is such a powerful, basic, animalistic drive that is required to be relevant through many aspects of life.
The nature and experience of our desires came into existence through evolution. That which drives what we do with our intelligence, our desires, were created through evolution, and are still largely beyond our understanding. Once we can redesign our brains and actively do so I will say that we have moved beyond our animal selves. I will admit that we do 'hack' are brains with meditation techniques and drugs, but we don't have the level of control over that which motivates us to say that we are beyond evolution.
Intelligence is a matter of degree. Human intelligence does not negate our evolutionary origins. Our intelligence has a common origin with other animal intelligence, and it can illuminate the nature of our intelligence to study other animals.
If humanity can't survive the free flow of information and has to limit it, it will be out-competed by an extraterrestrial civilization that can. (I'm talking long term, like million years)
In the real world, most organizations aren't blessed to be completely staffed by godlike cyber-warriors who can context-switch platforms without a financially detectable loss of productivity.
I'm an atheist but I'll answer that for you just to be the devil's (or God's) advocate. God created time 6000 years ago. God and heaven transcend all things material, including time.
Seriously, when are we going to evolve from that stage where we are still inventing new ways to throw rocks at each other?
Since evolution involves a certain segment of a population dying off, and another segment surviving to reproduce, it seems that the segment that has the newest and best way to throw rocks would be the most likely to survive. I don't see anything about 'evolution' that would discourage inventing new rock throwers.
When I was first learning C there were several people in the class who simply couldn't wrap their mind around pointers. They just couldn't get the idea of a variable that had a memory address to another variable, let alone utilize it. Then, when we were learning about object oriented programming, it was actually about a year before I got that 'aha!' moment when it became clear. Now the object oriented mind set is second nature to me, but I remember when it just wasn't there. Then there's multi-threading, the normal forms of relational databases, and design patters; concepts that the average person doesn't really encounter in everyday life that takes some learning, patience, and time to understand sufficiently to write modern applications. I think that in order to be able to learn all this you have to actually enjoy the act of programming, and not everyone does. You can't fully grok the concepts unless you put them in action yourself and see them function.
Voyager 1's current speed is 17.46 km/s. That's fast, but the speed of light is about 299,792 km/s. We could right now, using nuclear propulsion and spending ridiculous amounts of money, we could reach about 10000 km/s and reach Voyager.
For most of human history as it turns out, women were not given much choice on who they'd have sex with, and rape was a viable and commonly-practiced method of procreation.
Most of human history is a mere 5000 years or so. Modern humans have existed for over 100000 years. Genus homo for at least 3 million. Those guys lived in small family groups. Sexual selection by women might have had a larger impact in those days, and could have led to genetically transferred sexual predispositions by women. Once the genome is more fully understood, these processes can be subject to real science.
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Part of the problem for Americans catching irony or sarcasm is that so many American's believe such a wide variety of crazy things it's hard sometimes to know if they are joking. For instance, if you knew me and heard me say, "Obama's raising taxes because he's a secret Muslim," you would know that I was joking. However, if you knew I was an American but didn't know me personally, it's entirely possible that I was being serious. We have to look for extra cues to see if someone is being serious or not, because in America you never know what someone actually believes.
I'm certainly not saying that all aspects of human behavior are biologically determined. We have evolved a brilliantly wonderful brain that does have the ability to transcend its evolution. People sacrifice themselves in war before they reproduce, people join organizations like the Catholic priesthood where they are not supposed to reproduce. Because of its complexity, our brains are able to bring forth far more varied experiences and behaviors that could be possible with mere instinct. However, the template upon which our behaviors rest comes from millions of years of evolution and are strongly impacted by them. Sex, a primary drive in evolution, is manifested repeatedly within the layers of intellect and emotion in many forms because it is such a powerful, basic, animalistic drive that is required to be relevant through many aspects of life.
If you are motivated by love, or motivated by fear, or motivated by curiosity, then you are a pawn of evolution.
The nature and experience of our desires came into existence through evolution. That which drives what we do with our intelligence, our desires, were created through evolution, and are still largely beyond our understanding. Once we can redesign our brains and actively do so I will say that we have moved beyond our animal selves. I will admit that we do 'hack' are brains with meditation techniques and drugs, but we don't have the level of control over that which motivates us to say that we are beyond evolution.
Intelligence is a matter of degree. Human intelligence does not negate our evolutionary origins. Our intelligence has a common origin with other animal intelligence, and it can illuminate the nature of our intelligence to study other animals.
If humanity can't survive the free flow of information and has to limit it, it will be out-competed by an extraterrestrial civilization that can. (I'm talking long term, like million years)
Yes. (I would site examples of the derivative nature of other great artist's works (Shakespeare, da Vinci), but I have to get back to work.)
While I agree that our highest art right now is the movies, I would put Quentin Tarantino down as the greatest artist.
Firing people sometimes is an escape goat for companies mistakes.
"escape goat". Best eggcorn I've heard in awhile.
In the real world, most organizations aren't blessed to be completely staffed by godlike cyber-warriors who can context-switch platforms without a financially detectable loss of productivity.
The goal is to make money.
I'm an atheist but I'll answer that for you just to be the devil's (or God's) advocate. God created time 6000 years ago. God and heaven transcend all things material, including time.
Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. A must read if you are interested in artificial intelligence and/or information theory.
I've read all those except Shelley (it's in my book case though).
bump
They probably played Everquest 2. You could make good money collecting shinies.
"That which is dead can never die."
Maybe the Ironborn invaded?
Thanks for giving me something to do during those long compiles!
Seriously, when are we going to evolve from that stage where we are still inventing new ways to throw rocks at each other?
Since evolution involves a certain segment of a population dying off, and another segment surviving to reproduce, it seems that the segment that has the newest and best way to throw rocks would be the most likely to survive. I don't see anything about 'evolution' that would discourage inventing new rock throwers.
When I was first learning C there were several people in the class who simply couldn't wrap their mind around pointers. They just couldn't get the idea of a variable that had a memory address to another variable, let alone utilize it. Then, when we were learning about object oriented programming, it was actually about a year before I got that 'aha!' moment when it became clear. Now the object oriented mind set is second nature to me, but I remember when it just wasn't there. Then there's multi-threading, the normal forms of relational databases, and design patters; concepts that the average person doesn't really encounter in everyday life that takes some learning, patience, and time to understand sufficiently to write modern applications. I think that in order to be able to learn all this you have to actually enjoy the act of programming, and not everyone does. You can't fully grok the concepts unless you put them in action yourself and see them function.
Voyager 1's current speed is 17.46 km/s. That's fast, but the speed of light is about 299,792 km/s. We could right now, using nuclear propulsion and spending ridiculous amounts of money, we could reach about 10000 km/s and reach Voyager.
Some particle accelerators collide electrons and positrons.
Actually I was just being snarky.
Just try to collide two ideal points in a particle accelerator.
For most of human history as it turns out, women were not given much choice on who they'd have sex with, and rape was a viable and commonly-practiced method of procreation.
Most of human history is a mere 5000 years or so. Modern humans have existed for over 100000 years. Genus homo for at least 3 million. Those guys lived in small family groups. Sexual selection by women might have had a larger impact in those days, and could have led to genetically transferred sexual predispositions by women. Once the genome is more fully understood, these processes can be subject to real science.