Rights are a privilege, not a right. You need to abide by the requirements set forth by the governing bodies, or find another country to live in. It's really that simple.
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
So a robot walks in a warehouse and finds 100 people all tied up. One of them in the middle has explosives. In this scenario, the robot concludes that the only way to save the other 99 is to kill the one with the explosives. He only has 5 seconds to make a decision.
What does he do? By the first law, he's screwed no matter what decision he makes. Does he opt for the greater good option and kill the one man to save the 99? Or let all 100 die?
For an Asimovian robot, the correct course of action would be to move the 1 explosive laden human as far away from the 99 humans as quickly as possible to avoid as many injuries as possible to the 99, while in the process attempting to disarm the explosive in order to also save the life of the one. If disarming were not possible, it would attempt to remove the explosive device from that one, accepting the possibility of causing non-lethal injury in the process, followed by itself carrying the explosive device as far away from any humans which might be injured by its detonation. If possible, it would then distance itself from the device, to avoid harming itself, but otherwise would use its own body to shield any humans from the detonation.
The interesting part is when, due to plot contrivance, the robot was entering the warehouse in order to quickly retrieve some goods or device which would be used to save the lives of another 100 humans, and must choose which group to save, as also due to plot contrivance there is insufficient time or resources (or robots) to save both groups.
Of course, the point that Asimov usually makes is: a robot which survives such an ordeal wherein humans are killed usually goes catatonic due to the conflict in its positronic net due to allowing a human to come to harm.
We can provide for endless new jobs over the coming centuries as we have to rebuild literally thousands of drowning cities! We will open up new sea shipping lanes, as previously impassable straits are expanded from rising ocean levels! Previously frozen tundra will become prime temperate real estate!
Yeah, won't it just be fucking fantastic when billions of people around the world can 3D-print gas centrifuges and the equipment necessary to extract uranium from seawater. Won't that be fun to watch.
It seems that the people we need to be watching are the shrimp processing plants. Now we know what they're up to with all that extra chitin laying around.
We need to take a stand against all the illegal aliens coming to our fair planet to probe for jobs.
To this end, we will build a Dyson fence around the southern border of the solar system...
Extending this arguement, baseball bats should be illegal, because nobody should really have a use for them. Only criminals, or people planning on committing a crime would have use for such weaponry. A chihuahua can defend a home, why be excessive?
Finding just one asteroid rich in Platinum and other valuable metals may result in a return on the order of trillions of dollars, justifying the billions in expenses of bringing such an asteroid to earth/lunar orbit and extracting all of its resources.
I would prefer to work remotely from out in the country, and only have to drive in to work when I have to. (ie. for installing new servers in the datacenter, or removing old ones.) Having grown up on a farm, I see it as a problem that 10 miles worth of my commute along the highway is former farmland that is now entirely suburban. That's not "rural idylls", that's an increase in food price due to decrease in food production capacity, to provide an untenable environment that is hostile to anything but a large number of vehicles spread out across too large an area.
Nah, it's just proof that this species of flatworms originated from Gallifrey. As if asian carp and zebra mussels weren't enough for invasive species, now the time lords are doing it to us too? Sheesh, sterilize your bilges already.
If CERN was doing real science (at the LHC) they would have been able to say with confidence that they were going to find (or not find) this "new" "particle" months ago and give reasons for exactly where and how they expected to find it.
What part of the fact that the Standard Model predicts this bound state at this mass did you not understand?
Exactly right. The "discovery" of this particle was merely a confirmation of an existing prediction.
For the sake of learning the languages, given your background, in your position I would pick up C++, Java, and C# in that order. (That path will provide the quickest learning curve given your experience.)
After or concurrent to those, you should also learn PHP. The basics are not that much different from C or Basic, and the object oriented extensions are most similar to C++ and Java. The reason I suggest PHP is that it is not just useful as a web programming language, but is also very useful in backend scripting when used in console mode.
However, for the sake of career advancement, continuing with Project Management is the best route to take.
You might enjoy a position as a development team manager, where you can still take an active role in programming, for the sake of constructing overall architecture, and then delegate building specific modules to the rest of your team.
.... hence my want for a breathalyzer like mechanism for detecting high levels of THC.
I really hope something can be figured out though, since way to much time and money has been invested in criminalizing something that really isn't a big deal.
Perhaps something like the prick-less blood sugar monitors that you just hold against your forearm. If I remember correctly, they work by shining specific frequencies of light through the capillaries in your skin and estimate blood glucose levels by how much gets reflected. They're not as accurate as the standard blood tests, but they do work. I suspect that the same technology could be adapted to looking for other chemicals in the blood stream. Though, looking for too many chemicals at the same time would likely be a nightmare of optical spectroscopy.
Slashdot Mirror
Insightful my ass!
You sound like the guy in the SUV barreling down an icy road at over 50MPH that ran me off the road, nearly killing my family in the process.
You sir, need your license revoked.
This post should either be modded Funny or Insightful, but I can't quite decide which...
Rights are a privilege, not a right. You need to abide by the requirements set forth by the governing bodies, or find another country to live in. It's really that simple.
Take the first law for example
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
So a robot walks in a warehouse and finds 100 people all tied up. One of them in the middle has explosives. In this scenario, the robot concludes that the only way to save the other 99 is to kill the one with the explosives. He only has 5 seconds to make a decision.
What does he do? By the first law, he's screwed no matter what decision he makes. Does he opt for the greater good option and kill the one man to save the 99? Or let all 100 die?
For an Asimovian robot, the correct course of action would be to move the 1 explosive laden human as far away from the 99 humans as quickly as possible to avoid as many injuries as possible to the 99, while in the process attempting to disarm the explosive in order to also save the life of the one. If disarming were not possible, it would attempt to remove the explosive device from that one, accepting the possibility of causing non-lethal injury in the process, followed by itself carrying the explosive device as far away from any humans which might be injured by its detonation. If possible, it would then distance itself from the device, to avoid harming itself, but otherwise would use its own body to shield any humans from the detonation.
The interesting part is when, due to plot contrivance, the robot was entering the warehouse in order to quickly retrieve some goods or device which would be used to save the lives of another 100 humans, and must choose which group to save, as also due to plot contrivance there is insufficient time or resources (or robots) to save both groups.
Of course, the point that Asimov usually makes is: a robot which survives such an ordeal wherein humans are killed usually goes catatonic due to the conflict in its positronic net due to allowing a human to come to harm.
Global warming is a Great thing!
We can provide for endless new jobs over the coming centuries as we have to rebuild literally thousands of drowning cities! We will open up new sea shipping lanes, as previously impassable straits are expanded from rising ocean levels! Previously frozen tundra will become prime temperate real estate!
Imagine the possibilities!
/sarcasm
Yeah, won't it just be fucking fantastic when billions of people around the world can 3D-print gas centrifuges and the equipment necessary to extract uranium from seawater. Won't that be fun to watch.
It seems that the people we need to be watching are the shrimp processing plants. Now we know what they're up to with all that extra chitin laying around.
The moral of this story is: Don't fly with Delta.
They've screwed up every trip I've taken on their airline. Never giving them my business again.
My fellow Earthicans,
We need to take a stand against all the illegal aliens coming to our fair planet to probe for jobs. To this end, we will build a Dyson fence around the southern border of the solar system...
So, what, should we get our power from unicorn farts? The energy has to come from somewhere.
I, for one, welcome our unicorn fart power generating overlords.
So long as the farts aren't in my back yard.
/sarcasm
Any building with metal walls and a metal roof is effectively a Faraday cage, but you don't see the Fed outlawing aluminum siding...
It's not a hard drive, it's the equivalent of a microfiche, which can be read with a big enough magnifying glass.
They better not give a battery with that high an energy density the same form factor as a 9volt battery, or he might not have kids for long.
Just a minor correction, but both ammonia and bleach are bases. Ammonia is a weak base, and bleach is a strong base. Vinegar is an acid.
Extending this arguement, baseball bats should be illegal, because nobody should really have a use for them. Only criminals, or people planning on committing a crime would have use for such weaponry. A chihuahua can defend a home, why be excessive?
Finding just one asteroid rich in Platinum and other valuable metals may result in a return on the order of trillions of dollars, justifying the billions in expenses of bringing such an asteroid to earth/lunar orbit and extracting all of its resources.
The system is metal poor, so it can't be Cybertron. I would guess Gallifrey if one of them had been terrestrial.
I would prefer to work remotely from out in the country, and only have to drive in to work when I have to. (ie. for installing new servers in the datacenter, or removing old ones.) Having grown up on a farm, I see it as a problem that 10 miles worth of my commute along the highway is former farmland that is now entirely suburban. That's not "rural idylls", that's an increase in food price due to decrease in food production capacity, to provide an untenable environment that is hostile to anything but a large number of vehicles spread out across too large an area.
Nah, it's just proof that this species of flatworms originated from Gallifrey. As if asian carp and zebra mussels weren't enough for invasive species, now the time lords are doing it to us too? Sheesh, sterilize your bilges already.
By their own definition, all the secrecy, encryption, etc, everyone working for the FBI/DoJ may be considered a terrorist.
If CERN was doing real science (at the LHC) they would have been able to say with confidence that they were going to find (or not find) this "new" "particle" months ago and give reasons for exactly where and how they expected to find it.
What part of the fact that the Standard Model predicts this bound state at this mass did you not understand?
Exactly right. The "discovery" of this particle was merely a confirmation of an existing prediction.
For the sake of learning the languages, given your background, in your position I would pick up C++, Java, and C# in that order. (That path will provide the quickest learning curve given your experience.) After or concurrent to those, you should also learn PHP. The basics are not that much different from C or Basic, and the object oriented extensions are most similar to C++ and Java. The reason I suggest PHP is that it is not just useful as a web programming language, but is also very useful in backend scripting when used in console mode. However, for the sake of career advancement, continuing with Project Management is the best route to take. You might enjoy a position as a development team manager, where you can still take an active role in programming, for the sake of constructing overall architecture, and then delegate building specific modules to the rest of your team.
In other words, there's a reason for the existence of justifiable homicide.
.... hence my want for a breathalyzer like mechanism for detecting high levels of THC.
I really hope something can be figured out though, since way to much time and money has been invested in criminalizing something that really isn't a big deal.
Perhaps something like the prick-less blood sugar monitors that you just hold against your forearm. If I remember correctly, they work by shining specific frequencies of light through the capillaries in your skin and estimate blood glucose levels by how much gets reflected. They're not as accurate as the standard blood tests, but they do work. I suspect that the same technology could be adapted to looking for other chemicals in the blood stream. Though, looking for too many chemicals at the same time would likely be a nightmare of optical spectroscopy.
No worries though, I'm sure this will only apply to things that frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress to a small select group of people...
Like politicians seeing anything that they disagree with.
No, the love of money is the root of all evil. (Doesn't anyone actually read Timothy anymore?)