I don't directly experience what my former "self" experiences. I experience memories of "my" past that exist now. I also don't experience what my future "self" experiences. The idea that the self exists in multiple points in time is an illusion. That which qualifies as a unique identity exists only at a particular point in time. That is why it is possible that I just came into existence now, built with a full set of memories. Fortunately for those who want to be immortal, we probably are, since all points in time probably have existence beyond time. (think of Einsteinian 4 dimensional space-time)
I prefer the amputation analogy. Stealing is bad. Chopping off the thief's hand is even worse. Chopping off the thief's hand and the hand of anyone who bought stolen goods from the thief is even worse than that. Chopping off the thief's hand, the hand of anyone who bought stolen goods, and anyone who might or might not have bought stolen goods is SOPA.
Ah, I'm glad you caught that. So now Fred, the CEO of OmniMegaCorp can create a web site, called JoeMoneyBagsIsGreat, using his own money. What is to stop him from doing that? You think Joe MoneyBags is going to appreciate that? Maybe give him some favors in return? Or why can't he make commercials for Joe MoneyBags? It's his own money. If you advocate in a way that costs money, it is considered a donation to the campaign (at least if it make any difference).
Let's say all direct financial contributions by anyone were banned. And let's say there's a candidate that you like, named Jane Smith. She's up against a billionaire incumbent named Joe Moneybags. You decide to help Jane Smith by putting up a web site called ILikeJaneSmith.com. You write about how good she is. Joe Moneybags sees this and says, "Hey, you have put your money into her campaign, that is illegal." Your web site is shut down. Meanwhile, Joe Moneybags puts up a web site called ILikeJoeMoneyBags.com He finances it himself, which is fine and legal. If no one could put money into campaigns, only billionaires would be in government.
All the interesting stars with planets within a few thousand parsecs are all going to be called Kepler nnn, where nnn is a number between 1 and 999. All intelligent species found in that radius will be called Keplarians.
One of the reasons Germany is the second largest exporter is that it is surrounded by lots of countries with lots of consumers that share its currency. This is a huge advantage. It is also currently pissing alot of those neighbors off, because they see Germany become rich while they go into debt.
I even would have taken one of the little ones from "Dragonsong" (actually, they would be more practical--easier to feed). Growing up, it was a revelation to read a story with dragons that wasn't based around some epic fantasy war fighting an evil wizard. The Pern series brought me to one of a handful of worlds that made adolescence bearable, and it was a truly unique, imaginative place. She has earned her place in the pantheon of great science fiction writers.
Were you talking about extraterrestrial life in general or extraterrestrials visiting earth? Some people assume when you are talking about aliens you are talking about the big-headed Grays flying in UFOs. That's alot different than talking about single cell organisms on a planet 20 light years away. Also, many educated people who aren't in astronomy have no clue about just how big the Universe is. I think if they are shown just how many stars exist and how many probably have planets, they can be shown that there is a near certainty that there is other life out there, although not necessarily intelligent. (unless they have a religious bias that precludes such a thought).
Hey, for all I know it comes from a rounding error from metric to imperial conversions. Or it could be a clue into the true nature of reality. What I find interesting is that they are measuring the velocity of quantum particles using clocks whose accuracy are subject to relativistic forces. Hopefully more tests will tell if it means anything.
I don't think the neutrinos went faster than light (see Supernova argument above). I'm saying that the issue might be in how we calculate relativistic time with the GPS.
General Relativity is a classical theory, but the underlying nature of reality is quantum. So General Relativity, like Newton's theory of gravity, is an approximation of reality. Now, I'm not saying that the neutrinos went faster than light, however, perhaps this experiment has finally revealed a hole in General Relativity in the way the equations are applied to the timing of the event.
Plot Synopsis:
Start in Victorian England. The Doctor (Hugh Laurie) is helping Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) to stop Moriarty (Alan Rickman) who has kidnapped Ada Lovelace (Angelina Jolie) and has stolen H.G. Well's (Zach Galifianakis) time machine. Moriarty goes into the future and uses Ada's knowledge of programming to take over the cybermen. Combining his evil genius with his robot army he goes to war against the only force that can stop him, the Daleks. The Doctor has a moral quandary: try to stop the war or let these two forces destroy each other. Lots of big explosions.
So you don't believe that they actually came from the Temple Library and were buried to protect them from destruction in 70 AD when the Romans burned Jerusalem? I thought the Qumran theory was discredited.
Since I am my brain then the argument "my brain made me do it" means that "I made me do it". I don't see how this kills the idea of free-will. Since I am the chemical and electrical processes in my brain then whatever causes them to do what they do IS me. There is no philosophical difference with the situation if you had a magical soul. After all, whatever would compose a magical soul has to follow some sort of rules to come up with whatever decision it makes, just as physics and chemistry underlie the decisions I make.
Since Jon Katz recommended this site to me, it has been my favorite cubical lunch-break pastime (ok, sometimes I sneak here during a long compile). Thanks for putting this together and good luck!
Here are some likely factors that will determine the nature of our first alien encounter:
1) Any civilization that has developed practical interstellar travel will also probably have the medical technology to make themselves nigh immortal.
2) Even at speeds of 10 percent the speed of light, it would take an interstellar civilization a mere 5 million years to colonize the Milky Way Galaxy.
3) Any behavioral norms the immortal interstellar beings started with first came into being by natural selection, but then will probably have been modified by cultural selection, then by a high technology environment we can only speculate on. We have no idea what they think of the concepts of "good" and "evil".
4) At our current technological level we could not fight back if they decided to destroy us.
5) Since technological civilizations are probably relatively rare in the universe, it is likely they would want to study our development without interference.
Given these factors, if there is an interstellar civilization in this galaxy there is probably 1 dominant one observing the rest. I personally hope we are the most advanced, otherwise the Milky Way is already taken.
Slashdot Mirror
...like a giant, psionic squid exploding my brain.
I don't directly experience what my former "self" experiences. I experience memories of "my" past that exist now. I also don't experience what my future "self" experiences. The idea that the self exists in multiple points in time is an illusion. That which qualifies as a unique identity exists only at a particular point in time. That is why it is possible that I just came into existence now, built with a full set of memories. Fortunately for those who want to be immortal, we probably are, since all points in time probably have existence beyond time. (think of Einsteinian 4 dimensional space-time)
I prefer the amputation analogy. Stealing is bad. Chopping off the thief's hand is even worse. Chopping off the thief's hand and the hand of anyone who bought stolen goods from the thief is even worse than that. Chopping off the thief's hand, the hand of anyone who bought stolen goods, and anyone who might or might not have bought stolen goods is SOPA.
Ah, I'm glad you caught that. So now Fred, the CEO of OmniMegaCorp can create a web site, called JoeMoneyBagsIsGreat, using his own money. What is to stop him from doing that? You think Joe MoneyBags is going to appreciate that? Maybe give him some favors in return? Or why can't he make commercials for Joe MoneyBags? It's his own money. If you advocate in a way that costs money, it is considered a donation to the campaign (at least if it make any difference).
Let's say all direct financial contributions by anyone were banned. And let's say there's a candidate that you like, named Jane Smith. She's up against a billionaire incumbent named Joe Moneybags. You decide to help Jane Smith by putting up a web site called ILikeJaneSmith.com. You write about how good she is. Joe Moneybags sees this and says, "Hey, you have put your money into her campaign, that is illegal." Your web site is shut down. Meanwhile, Joe Moneybags puts up a web site called ILikeJoeMoneyBags.com He finances it himself, which is fine and legal. If no one could put money into campaigns, only billionaires would be in government.
Oops, my bad. Still, Vorgon would be a cool name for an alien species too. And their poetry might be better.
In that case I vote we call the next planet hunter Vorgon.
All the interesting stars with planets within a few thousand parsecs are all going to be called Kepler nnn, where nnn is a number between 1 and 999. All intelligent species found in that radius will be called Keplarians.
One of the reasons Germany is the second largest exporter is that it is surrounded by lots of countries with lots of consumers that share its currency. This is a huge advantage. It is also currently pissing alot of those neighbors off, because they see Germany become rich while they go into debt.
I even would have taken one of the little ones from "Dragonsong" (actually, they would be more practical--easier to feed). Growing up, it was a revelation to read a story with dragons that wasn't based around some epic fantasy war fighting an evil wizard. The Pern series brought me to one of a handful of worlds that made adolescence bearable, and it was a truly unique, imaginative place. She has earned her place in the pantheon of great science fiction writers.
Were you talking about extraterrestrial life in general or extraterrestrials visiting earth? Some people assume when you are talking about aliens you are talking about the big-headed Grays flying in UFOs. That's alot different than talking about single cell organisms on a planet 20 light years away. Also, many educated people who aren't in astronomy have no clue about just how big the Universe is. I think if they are shown just how many stars exist and how many probably have planets, they can be shown that there is a near certainty that there is other life out there, although not necessarily intelligent. (unless they have a religious bias that precludes such a thought).
Isn't relativity, being a classical theory, a deterministic theory?
Hey, for all I know it comes from a rounding error from metric to imperial conversions. Or it could be a clue into the true nature of reality. What I find interesting is that they are measuring the velocity of quantum particles using clocks whose accuracy are subject to relativistic forces. Hopefully more tests will tell if it means anything.
I thought Bell's Theorem contradicted special relativity.
I don't think the neutrinos went faster than light (see Supernova argument above). I'm saying that the issue might be in how we calculate relativistic time with the GPS.
General Relativity is a classical theory, but the underlying nature of reality is quantum. So General Relativity, like Newton's theory of gravity, is an approximation of reality. Now, I'm not saying that the neutrinos went faster than light, however, perhaps this experiment has finally revealed a hole in General Relativity in the way the equations are applied to the timing of the event.
Plot Synopsis: Start in Victorian England. The Doctor (Hugh Laurie) is helping Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) to stop Moriarty (Alan Rickman) who has kidnapped Ada Lovelace (Angelina Jolie) and has stolen H.G. Well's (Zach Galifianakis) time machine. Moriarty goes into the future and uses Ada's knowledge of programming to take over the cybermen. Combining his evil genius with his robot army he goes to war against the only force that can stop him, the Daleks. The Doctor has a moral quandary: try to stop the war or let these two forces destroy each other. Lots of big explosions.
I would only watch it if Hugh Laurie played the Doctor.
The man understood design, and he had that elusive "vision thing". He had a clear view of what he wanted his technology to be and stuck with it.
So you don't believe that they actually came from the Temple Library and were buried to protect them from destruction in 70 AD when the Romans burned Jerusalem? I thought the Qumran theory was discredited.
The phrase I heard before was "Fusion power is twenty years away and always will be."
Since I am my brain then the argument "my brain made me do it" means that "I made me do it". I don't see how this kills the idea of free-will. Since I am the chemical and electrical processes in my brain then whatever causes them to do what they do IS me. There is no philosophical difference with the situation if you had a magical soul. After all, whatever would compose a magical soul has to follow some sort of rules to come up with whatever decision it makes, just as physics and chemistry underlie the decisions I make.
Since Jon Katz recommended this site to me, it has been my favorite cubical lunch-break pastime (ok, sometimes I sneak here during a long compile). Thanks for putting this together and good luck!
It looks like the Neanderthal hybrids are discriminating against the baseline humans.
Here are some likely factors that will determine the nature of our first alien encounter: 1) Any civilization that has developed practical interstellar travel will also probably have the medical technology to make themselves nigh immortal. 2) Even at speeds of 10 percent the speed of light, it would take an interstellar civilization a mere 5 million years to colonize the Milky Way Galaxy. 3) Any behavioral norms the immortal interstellar beings started with first came into being by natural selection, but then will probably have been modified by cultural selection, then by a high technology environment we can only speculate on. We have no idea what they think of the concepts of "good" and "evil". 4) At our current technological level we could not fight back if they decided to destroy us. 5) Since technological civilizations are probably relatively rare in the universe, it is likely they would want to study our development without interference. Given these factors, if there is an interstellar civilization in this galaxy there is probably 1 dominant one observing the rest. I personally hope we are the most advanced, otherwise the Milky Way is already taken.