this is not about rights, it's about games. I remember seeing a lot of discussions about buying stuff for MMOGs and other tonguetwisters with real money. facebook users should only be subject to the same amount of ridicule as other gamers.
well, it's the same as with spam. When spam filters became standard, people invented chain letters. Now they'll just turn up the kitty cuteness to 11. but seriously now, they just realized that a lot of people have no idea they can sort their e-mail in any way, or that they can use folders; so they're just doing that for them, with a filter that learns.
Whenever I hear "quantum leap" I think about the quantum tunneling effect. I always thought that was the entire point of using the expression "quantum leap".
I think the problem is with relative loudness. There's a street full of old cars, and just one electric car; you're not going to hear the electric car. I don't know about the blind, but I personally rely on sound too; I only ever saw one electric car in my life (on the street), and I first noticed it because I perceived it as perfectly silent (and it was 2 m away, leaving) --- afterwards I realized it didn't have an exhaust pipe. If I were on a bike in a busy street, I doubt I'd hear an electric car coming up behind me.
I see your point. This system where we combine fingerprinting with retinal scans and full body X-rays is not enough.
I think we have a simple solution: brain measurements. I understand that brains have these wiggly lines on them (circumtelligently designed), and these are unique. So I propose we just put a neurosurgeon at each airport, to quickly check if your brain matches your passport.
I don't think it can be very hard to write a code that can be told 6 months in advance that time will do something strange. It's the programmers problem if they're using too many libraries to be able to do this without introducing a few bugs.
I don't know where that particular user lives. However, in Brussels you can find houses that are rented out to students, and have just one internet connection. So you might raise that 4 to 10 or even 12, and it might just be possible that some of them are moving away, and they wanted to make a collection before moving to a country where it's more problematic to download movies. hell... think of a mirror to a porn site and that's enough:)
"not even junk science"? that seems a bit harsh, and uninformed. As a physicist, I can tell you that there are different systems where you see the same structure in the equilibrium state (actually, not really equilibrium, but quasistationary regime; you need to have some energy passing through the system). I didn't take the time to think a lot about the problem, but I don't find it ridiculous to assume that if we have life on Earth, some similar phenomenon should be found wherever you have similar conditions.
the guy says "reverse engineer the brain". you can't do that with just the DNA, you need all of quantum physics (ok, chemistry). If you think you can, please show me how. Yes, having both the DNA and a few working brains might let you play a bit using just information theory, but I doubt anyone will be able to predict the behaviour of a human brain within 10 years. Maybe direct communication with a computer, maybe "fake telepathy" by linking radios to the brain, but not reverse engineering.
The most important objection: noise. There is a lot of noise in the brain, and it's behaviour is influenced by that noise. The learning part is actually controled by stochasticity. You can only reverse engineer the brain in the limit that you can find examples of convergent evolution (and yes, you can find examples of convergent evolution). But when it comes to abstract thought, there are many ways of doing the same thing, many of them on the same level of efficiency (think of group theory: identical structures that you can find in very different settings).
"mathematically simulate" means a hell of a waste of resources. The point is that a brain is currently the most efficient machine that can simulate "a brain". I find it highly unlikely that humans will be able to "reverse engineer the brain" within the next 10 years, if by "reverse engineer" you understand "being able to predict with a reasonable amount of certainty the behaviour of the brain for a given input". If you do it by using current hardware to simulate neural nets, it will be hugely inefficient, to the point where you can't actually do it with available resources. What is possible is that special simple simulations will be possible by then, and we will also be using different hardware for this task, but we will still be very far from understanding what is happening.
Let me make it simpler: yes, you can learn how to drive, and you can make AI that knows how to drive, but no one understands what your brain is actually doing while you're driving.
I agree with you, except for the part about episode III. There are a bunch of forgivable mistakes in episodes I and II, and they could have made episode III into something that fixed them. For me, Anakin's turn to the darkside was not believable, and the memory of Leia talking to Luke about her real mother was there with me throughout the entire movie (only to ruin the ending). Anyway, you'll get a lot of people to shout at you, so I wanted to let you know you're not alone.
PS: I like both Jar Jar and the ewoks. And speaking of ewoks, anyone remember Chewbacca's Tarzan yell? why are you complaining about the prequels then?
I would understand wanting to legally change your name to something jewish if you live in an antisemitic environment. Generally I would understand wanting to legally change your name to another known human name, to prove some point like the above.
But other than that... in this particular case I don't see a reasonable reason.
Slashdot Mirror
this is not about rights, it's about games. I remember seeing a lot of discussions about buying stuff for MMOGs and other tonguetwisters with real money.
facebook users should only be subject to the same amount of ridicule as other gamers.
well, it's the same as with spam. When spam filters became standard, people invented chain letters. Now they'll just turn up the kitty cuteness to 11.
but seriously now, they just realized that a lot of people have no idea they can sort their e-mail in any way, or that they can use folders; so they're just doing that for them, with a filter that learns.
parent is not funny. the comment should be +1 scary: think of this movie.
it makes you wonder. was he being an asshole about microsoft and money just so that he could have more to give now?
hippies happen
yeah? talk to apple. some of their USB stuff doesn't really work with other USB stuff.
Whenever I hear "quantum leap" I think about the quantum tunneling effect. I always thought that was the entire point of using the expression "quantum leap".
you just made my day.
silly idea, but I spent at least half an hour thinking about it.
I think the problem is with relative loudness. There's a street full of old cars, and just one electric car; you're not going to hear the electric car.
I don't know about the blind, but I personally rely on sound too; I only ever saw one electric car in my life (on the street), and I first noticed it because I perceived it as perfectly silent (and it was 2 m away, leaving) --- afterwards I realized it didn't have an exhaust pipe.
If I were on a bike in a busy street, I doubt I'd hear an electric car coming up behind me.
I see your point.
This system where we combine fingerprinting with retinal scans and full body X-rays is not enough.
I think we have a simple solution: brain measurements. I understand that brains have these wiggly lines on them (circumtelligently designed), and these are unique. So I propose we just put a neurosurgeon at each airport, to quickly check if your brain matches your passport.
Just receiving a bad time and dealing with it is a bad idea.
I don't think it can be very hard to write a code that can be told 6 months in advance that time will do something strange. It's the programmers problem if they're using too many libraries to be able to do this without introducing a few bugs.
6 months in advance is not enough?
very very cool experiments, but I'm curious as to what the theorists will say about it. :)
by the way, the universe is wrong is an option now
I don't know where that particular user lives. However, in Brussels you can find houses that are rented out to students, and have just one internet connection. So you might raise that 4 to 10 or even 12, and it might just be possible that some of them are moving away, and they wanted to make a collection before moving to a country where it's more problematic to download movies. :)
hell... think of a mirror to a porn site and that's enough
are you seriously going to start the 2.6 = 2.7 debate when they're still fighting about Kb, KB and KiB?
the numbers are more like guidelines...
"not even junk science"?
that seems a bit harsh, and uninformed. As a physicist, I can tell you that there are different systems where you see the same structure in the equilibrium state (actually, not really equilibrium, but quasistationary regime; you need to have some energy passing through the system). I didn't take the time to think a lot about the problem, but I don't find it ridiculous to assume that if we have life on Earth, some similar phenomenon should be found wherever you have similar conditions.
the guy says "reverse engineer the brain". you can't do that with just the DNA, you need all of quantum physics (ok, chemistry). If you think you can, please show me how.
Yes, having both the DNA and a few working brains might let you play a bit using just information theory, but I doubt anyone will be able to predict the behaviour of a human brain within 10 years. Maybe direct communication with a computer, maybe "fake telepathy" by linking radios to the brain, but not reverse engineering.
The most important objection: noise. There is a lot of noise in the brain, and it's behaviour is influenced by that noise. The learning part is actually controled by stochasticity. You can only reverse engineer the brain in the limit that you can find examples of convergent evolution (and yes, you can find examples of convergent evolution). But when it comes to abstract thought, there are many ways of doing the same thing, many of them on the same level of efficiency (think of group theory: identical structures that you can find in very different settings).
"mathematically simulate" means a hell of a waste of resources.
The point is that a brain is currently the most efficient machine that can simulate "a brain".
I find it highly unlikely that humans will be able to "reverse engineer the brain" within the next 10 years, if by "reverse engineer" you understand "being able to predict with a reasonable amount of certainty the behaviour of the brain for a given input". If you do it by using current hardware to simulate neural nets, it will be hugely inefficient, to the point where you can't actually do it with available resources.
What is possible is that special simple simulations will be possible by then, and we will also be using different hardware for this task, but we will still be very far from understanding what is happening.
Let me make it simpler: yes, you can learn how to drive, and you can make AI that knows how to drive, but no one understands what your brain is actually doing while you're driving.
mod parent informative
I agree with you, except for the part about episode III. There are a bunch of forgivable mistakes in episodes I and II, and they could have made episode III into something that fixed them. For me, Anakin's turn to the darkside was not believable, and the memory of Leia talking to Luke about her real mother was there with me throughout the entire movie (only to ruin the ending).
Anyway, you'll get a lot of people to shout at you, so I wanted to let you know you're not alone.
PS: I like both Jar Jar and the ewoks. And speaking of ewoks, anyone remember Chewbacca's Tarzan yell? why are you complaining about the prequels then?
Sir, I think you're misunderestimating the power of the US FBI.
considering the EULA stuff, plus the amout of first posts I've seen in the past few days on slashdot, I would call this both funny and insightful.
I would understand wanting to legally change your name to something jewish if you live in an antisemitic environment.
Generally I would understand wanting to legally change your name to another known human name, to prove some point like the above.
But other than that... in this particular case I don't see a reasonable reason.
more and more I wonder about the 2012 thing.