> It would be cheaper to simply hire some inhouse IT people to support and develop software than it is to pay outside...and multiple cities and governments can collaborate.
Err... no. At least not always. Things like word processors are best bought off-the-shelf. Of course, once you have slightly unusual requirements, customising COTS software (like, say, SAP) gets hideously expensive. This is _not_ an endorsement for MickeySoft, btw.
Actually the West put up with a racist tyranny in South Africa because it was far too profitable trading with it to risk upsetting the applecart, not because it couldn't manage the logistics of an invasion. South Africa's government eventually collapsed partly due to many years of sanctions, but they were pretty porous, and many countries had to be dragged kicking and screaming into compliance with them.
He probably won't reduce it to an absurdity. Remember that any formal system which is powerful enough to say anything useful has statements which are true but unprovable, and false but not disprovable.
I call theology a formal system deliberately - that's why I'm interested in it - it's just that it's less rigorous than, say, Euclidean geometry (and has fewer useful models than most other formal systems as well).
Disclaimer: I've been an atheist since I was 15 (nearly 40 years now).
Sure, but far too many people send Word97 files when a plain text file would have been adequate. Most people assume that you're going to have the same version of Word as they do, and go all blank when you ask for something else (I'm speaking from personal experience).
Oh dear god, not another closet libertarian who thinks "The Fountainhead" was the greatest book ever written and Ayn Rand was an insightful philosopher - it's a steaming pile of crap, as is "Atlas Shrugged". I read them both years ago, on the priciple of "know the enemy".
I think I agree with you, I was just being an arsehole (my hobby). The only significant difference between a mind and a Turing machine is complexity. I think Hofstaeder's metaphor of an ant's nest as mind is instructive. Otoh, I'm not convinced we'll ever be able to build a machine sufficiently complex to exhibit intelligence.
Are you mad? There is no Ark. There never was. It's a fucking fairy tale written by people who (to quote Harry Harrison) didn't even understand the mechanism of the rainbow.
People have been looking for this for quite a while now, and every piece of "evidence" has quickly been shown to be fraudulent, or the product of a psychotic delusion.
Atheism is not a religion, it's merely the application of the blowtorch of reason to a thin tissue of lies.
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> It would be cheaper to simply hire some inhouse IT people to support and develop software than it is to pay outside...and multiple cities and governments can collaborate.
... no. At least not always. Things like word processors are best bought off-the-shelf. Of course, once you have slightly unusual requirements, customising COTS software (like, say, SAP) gets hideously expensive. This is _not_ an endorsement for MickeySoft, btw.
Err
Windows (TM) _is_ a cluster (but not in the sense you mean). If you're uncertain what I mean, ask a Marine.
Actually the West put up with a racist tyranny in South Africa because it was far too profitable trading with it to risk upsetting the applecart, not because it couldn't manage the logistics of an invasion. South Africa's government eventually collapsed partly due to many years of sanctions, but they were pretty porous, and many countries had to be dragged kicking and screaming into compliance with them.
Well - the name might be wrong, but they got the IQ right.
RTFA (despite the break with tradition). Animal and human waste.
I take it you mean beer-flavoured soda. Or non-carbonated wine-flavoured soda perhaps. Preferably with an appropriate alcohol content.
Actually, I've always thought he looked like a date-rapist ...
He will ...
Why should we beware of the dog?
It's not (any longer) a mainstream christian idea, but it certainly seems, from sunny Australia, to be a mainstream _American_ idea.
Which I think was the point being made originally.
He probably won't reduce it to an absurdity. Remember that any formal system which is powerful enough to say anything useful has statements which are true but unprovable, and false but not disprovable.
I call theology a formal system deliberately - that's why I'm interested in it - it's just that it's less rigorous than, say, Euclidean geometry (and has fewer useful models than most other formal systems as well).
Disclaimer: I've been an atheist since I was 15 (nearly 40 years now).
I'm sure they have a certain amount of plausible deniability. I doubt if there's a (discoverable) paper trail.
Sure, but far too many people send Word97 files when a plain text file would have been adequate. Most people assume that you're going to have the same version of Word as they do, and go all blank when you ask for something else (I'm speaking from personal experience).
Probably the only thing Word 4 doesn't do that he needs is read the Word 97 (or whatever) files that other people keep sending him.
Actually, VMS and UNIX are both minicomputer OSs. Multics, otoh, did run (sort of) on a mainframe.
I'm not convinced that an operating system based on VMS (WinXP) is really _more_ modern than a unix-like OS.
...
Really, it's all about elegant solutions to problems as opposed to Windows
Oh dear god, not another closet libertarian who thinks "The Fountainhead" was the greatest book ever written and Ayn Rand was an insightful philosopher - it's a steaming pile of crap, as is "Atlas Shrugged". I read them both years ago, on the priciple of "know the enemy".
I think I agree with you, I was just being an arsehole (my hobby). The only significant difference between a mind and a Turing machine is complexity. I think Hofstaeder's metaphor of an ant's nest as mind is instructive. Otoh, I'm not convinced we'll ever be able to build a machine sufficiently complex to exhibit intelligence.
So ... let me get this straight ... _your_ intuition that srong AI is achievable conflicts with _Penrose's_ intuition that it isn't.
Yeah ... Yahoo Serious' films made me (almost) embarrassed to be Australian. Most of us aren't like that, we do actually have a sense of humour.
Why on earth should he show any respect to bullshit? I don't, and I think he's right not to. And he has a right not to.
> I'm waiting to see if anyone can find any preserved brass or iron remnants from the Roman Chariots and armor lost in the crossing of the Red Sea.
Were these Romans who lost their armour and chariots in the Red Sea Egyptian Romans or some other kind?
Are you mad? There is no Ark. There never was. It's a fucking fairy tale written by people who (to quote Harry Harrison) didn't even understand the mechanism of the rainbow.
People have been looking for this for quite a while now, and every piece of "evidence" has quickly been shown to be fraudulent, or the product of a psychotic delusion.
Atheism is not a religion, it's merely the application of the blowtorch of reason to a thin tissue of lies.
You're probably deeply psychologically scarred just from _using_ it ...
It doesn't matter - they are equivalent.