You may be right that survival in our pond is guaranteed in the future; however, we have no way of knowing what dangers lie ahead. For one, there's grey goo, for which we'd want to be on several gravity wells so if it does break out, it doesn't consume us all.
Second, there is a limited amount of processing power to be obtained by taking apart the planets and creating a Matrioshka Brain (similar to a Dyson Sphere). If we want to compute more than that, then we'll have to take apart other solar systems' planets and surround their stars with collectors, batteries, and computational units.
That's known as a submarine patent, and they were invalidated some time ago (a few years, I think): patents are now granted at the date of first filing, not the date of granting, so if a company uses a submarine technique over the course of 10 years, then they'll only have 7 years to fuck the rest of with.
But even a day is too long, so it hasn't been completely stamped out yet. (And won't be, at least until we're all off the planet and the control freaks can inherit the Earth from the meek.)
At first I read this as "Velcro soles" and thought, "Cool! He can walk on carpeted ceilings!"
Me, I have shoes (Reebok) that have both laces and velcro. Very nice, because you tie the laces, then strap them down with the velcro so they don't come untied.
You are absolutely right. There's no human that has lived past 122 years on record.
However, there were times when man couldn't fly, or walk on the moon, or talk to someone on another continent without shouting.
Technology is not changing at the same pace (look at the previous several thousand years, and look at the last 50). And the rate of change is not merely accelerating; it's going up exponentially, and it's not the case that there's "no end in sight"; but it is the case that once we've achieved a milestone, it opens up worlds of possibilities that just weren't there before.
Like with computers; 10 years ago it was difficult to talk to a computer (and expect something to happen); these days, we routinely talk to computers when we call our credit card 800 numbers.
Nanotechnology is coming, and will totally change everything. The coolest thing is that nanotechnology is just another technological advance. It's not the be-all, end-all of human existence (hi Cameron!), but it will open a ton of doors that aren't currently available: curing disease, hunger, poverty, aging, and death; providing "energy too cheap to meter" (we heard that with nuclear power, but this time it's true); giving us extra arms and wings and wheels; making backups of us in case of an accident; doing simultaneous restores so you can be on multiple continents at the same time; the possibilities are, while not quite limitless, astounding.
We'll be able to convert close to 100% of the sun's energy once we surround it with a Dyson sphere or Matrioshka brain. It will open up space travel; first with a space elevator to reduce launch costs, and further in the future when we take the planets apart so we don't have to deal with gravity wells and can move around much more efficiently. (We'd live on the Dyson sphere/Matrioshka brain, or in ships, or planetissimals.)
At any rate, what I'm getting at is we cannot use history as a judge when dealing with technological advances. Just because "nobody ever did that" (fly/walk on moon/live to 1,000,000) doesn't mean nobody will ever do that.
there's a big difference between living in the body of a 20 year old for 480 years versus living in the body of an 80 year old for 420 years.
Well, I lived in the body of a 20 year old for 420 years, which were mostly college; and now I find a strange reluctance at attempts to access the memories...
Microsoft put the video drivers in the kernel in NT 4, and whatever the FPS we played at the time (Quake 2, I think? The Painkeep mod, was that Quake 2?) would crash a lot more than it did on NT 3.51, so we ended up playing more on our test machines.
GUIDs are prior art. Once an IP address gets long enough, it can hold a GUID, which is a combination of the current date and time, and some information about the machine (MAC address, hostname, stuff like that).
It's trivially simple to say, once you have IP addresses that meet or exceed the size of GUIDs, that we should not have IP addresses distributed via DHCP, but instead just choose the GUID at install time.
Higher layers can segment the network (both in software and, like, firewalls).
I find it abhorrent that several individuals secretly patented this while working on the IETF spec. That should get jail time.
The government side I agree with, but there should also be penalties from the IETF -- like, people caught doing that can NEVER AGAIN define a standard, write articles, work for, or even be a member, of the IETF.
You know (OT), I've been wondering about solving chess. Once we have enough machines in distributed.net (or whatever the fashion is tehse days), we can just approach it brute-force:
Number the pieces 1-16 (for one side). Move piece 1. Send that board to the grid. Move piece 1 back to start and a different place, if possible. If not, move piece 2, and send new board to the grid. Keep repeating, spawning new threads, until that board is done, then reconnect to the grid as a slave.
Each of the other slaves will do the same for moves on the opponent's side.
Obviously, this is a large search space, and quantum computers would probably be required to finish the job. But the twist is this: once we've calculated all of the possible games, we work our way back from the games we'd lose in, and just not choose whatever move we chose last to end up in that particular checkmate. Keep working our way up if that was the only move, of course, until we've pruned away probably 75% or so of the total area. Then we have an unbeatable chess game, which also reacts lightning fast.
Of course, it might be several terabytes in size, so wouldn't easily install on the home machine (yet).
You touch on another point: why won't the spammer learn automation?
I'm not a spammer, but if I was approaching this problem I'd do it thusly:
Make the trojan/virus/whatever a little larger, so it can receive mail as well. (This should be simple because the smart virus writer built auto-update into the virus.)
When it receives an email, parse it. Does it understand the format? If not, forward it to home base (via FreeNet) for analysis.
Once home base receives an unknown email, a human will parse it, determine the right next step, and code it as a rule and distribute it to the zombies.
IBM defeated.
Now, they could add those fuzzy images and a text field to type them into, but then they get into the ADA area. Anything that's hazy to a computer will be hazy to some set of the population.
And recognizing those images would also be a fairly trivial task, because there's a finite variation on 36 characters [A-Z0-9], and it would be constantly sending in samples for home base to develop an algorithm for.
Or, since those guys make fuckloads of money, they could just set up a shell corporation to purchase the software. Reverse engineer, and they don't need the communications network described above (although it would be nice to have for any future requirements).
I very much want to see recording devices embedded into the humans which we elect to office. And never removed; that's the price you pay for seeking to be a master.
Then the power of the purse will be greatly reduced. They can't accept bribes or even discuss them while in office (of course, there's the time leading up to being elected that they could make these arrangements, so it's not airtight), and everything they do is monitored and available to the citizens.
Then government will truly be transparent, and control will be given back to the people.
I know I'm off to Guantanamo for thinking this, though.
So I'd say NAT is a pretty good solution, and unlike IPv6, it's here now.
Also, why does the grandparent assume that NAT and IPv6 are mutually exclusive?
They're actually orthogonal--I'm sure we'll see NAT on top of IPv6, and I don't see anything wrong with that, for exactly the reason you described: to be able to install XP without getting immediately infected. And to be able to continue to use older devices which cannot be upgraded to IPv6 for whatever reason (closed source, manufacturer dot-bombed, etc.).
Furthermore, how can it be a crime to not deprive someone of something? If making copies is a crime, then we should do away with VCRs, cameras, photocopiers, scanners, and the like.
I'm not hurting anyone else when I copy something to enrich my life. I'm only benefitting the universe--more abundance with less expense. Taking a picture so memories last longer, recording a concert, sharing MP3s and movies with friends, making CDs for the car, copying books, music, movies, and cars (in less than 20 years)--all these things have no victim!
It works in IE, but in Mozilla (1.8a4 for Windows XP) all I see are broken image icons. They still resize, which is kinda neat to look at, but then I loaded it in IE and I was like "whoa".
Slashdot Mirror
Second, there is a limited amount of processing power to be obtained by taking apart the planets and creating a Matrioshka Brain (similar to a Dyson Sphere). If we want to compute more than that, then we'll have to take apart other solar systems' planets and surround their stars with collectors, batteries, and computational units.
This isn't an animal talking; this is technology.
But even a day is too long, so it hasn't been completely stamped out yet. (And won't be, at least until we're all off the planet and the control freaks can inherit the Earth from the meek.)
Me, I have shoes (Reebok) that have both laces and velcro. Very nice, because you tie the laces, then strap them down with the velcro so they don't come untied.
However, there were times when man couldn't fly, or walk on the moon, or talk to someone on another continent without shouting.
Technology is not changing at the same pace (look at the previous several thousand years, and look at the last 50). And the rate of change is not merely accelerating; it's going up exponentially, and it's not the case that there's "no end in sight"; but it is the case that once we've achieved a milestone, it opens up worlds of possibilities that just weren't there before.
Like with computers; 10 years ago it was difficult to talk to a computer (and expect something to happen); these days, we routinely talk to computers when we call our credit card 800 numbers.
Nanotechnology is coming, and will totally change everything. The coolest thing is that nanotechnology is just another technological advance. It's not the be-all, end-all of human existence (hi Cameron!), but it will open a ton of doors that aren't currently available: curing disease, hunger, poverty, aging, and death; providing "energy too cheap to meter" (we heard that with nuclear power, but this time it's true); giving us extra arms and wings and wheels; making backups of us in case of an accident; doing simultaneous restores so you can be on multiple continents at the same time; the possibilities are, while not quite limitless, astounding.
We'll be able to convert close to 100% of the sun's energy once we surround it with a Dyson sphere or Matrioshka brain. It will open up space travel; first with a space elevator to reduce launch costs, and further in the future when we take the planets apart so we don't have to deal with gravity wells and can move around much more efficiently. (We'd live on the Dyson sphere/Matrioshka brain, or in ships, or planetissimals.)
At any rate, what I'm getting at is we cannot use history as a judge when dealing with technological advances. Just because "nobody ever did that" (fly/walk on moon/live to 1,000,000) doesn't mean nobody will ever do that.
Well, I lived in the body of a 20 year old for 420 years, which were mostly college; and now I find a strange reluctance at attempts to access the memories...
That's not how I interpreted it. Mine is more like the First Witness' "That house is white on this side":
He wants you to believe that he believes it.
First of all, how would the octopus get into a tree in order to steal it?
Second of all, where would the octopus find a parrot that large?
Microsoft put the video drivers in the kernel in NT 4, and whatever the FPS we played at the time (Quake 2, I think? The Painkeep mod, was that Quake 2?) would crash a lot more than it did on NT 3.51, so we ended up playing more on our test machines.
But that's your example: video, for NT 4.
My Simpsons quote got progressively smaller as I added new numbers. ;-) Now I'm out of room. I guess I could start removing vowels...
Actually, they do exactly that at every release, just subtly: "Now faster!" "More stable!" "Improved security!"
The thing about all those comparisons is, they're not about competitors (in a strict sense, anyway): they're about Microsoft's previous best efforts.
It's trivially simple to say, once you have IP addresses that meet or exceed the size of GUIDs, that we should not have IP addresses distributed via DHCP, but instead just choose the GUID at install time.
Higher layers can segment the network (both in software and, like, firewalls).
I find it abhorrent that several individuals secretly patented this while working on the IETF spec. That should get jail time.
The government side I agree with, but there should also be penalties from the IETF -- like, people caught doing that can NEVER AGAIN define a standard, write articles, work for, or even be a member, of the IETF.
(Ask a silly que-OW!
Number the pieces 1-16 (for one side). Move piece 1. Send that board to the grid. Move piece 1 back to start and a different place, if possible. If not, move piece 2, and send new board to the grid. Keep repeating, spawning new threads, until that board is done, then reconnect to the grid as a slave.
Each of the other slaves will do the same for moves on the opponent's side.
Obviously, this is a large search space, and quantum computers would probably be required to finish the job. But the twist is this: once we've calculated all of the possible games, we work our way back from the games we'd lose in, and just not choose whatever move we chose last to end up in that particular checkmate. Keep working our way up if that was the only move, of course, until we've pruned away probably 75% or so of the total area. Then we have an unbeatable chess game, which also reacts lightning fast.
Of course, it might be several terabytes in size, so wouldn't easily install on the home machine (yet).
I'm not a spammer, but if I was approaching this problem I'd do it thusly:
IBM defeated.
Now, they could add those fuzzy images and a text field to type them into, but then they get into the ADA area. Anything that's hazy to a computer will be hazy to some set of the population.
And recognizing those images would also be a fairly trivial task, because there's a finite variation on 36 characters [A-Z0-9], and it would be constantly sending in samples for home base to develop an algorithm for.
Or, since those guys make fuckloads of money, they could just set up a shell corporation to purchase the software. Reverse engineer, and they don't need the communications network described above (although it would be nice to have for any future requirements).
OK, now I feel dirty.
No, you aren't. I regularly read license plates in 1337. Some very amusing, and one was in French: "80W K00". ;-)
So he should bully back: get some patents on his methods.
Then the power of the purse will be greatly reduced. They can't accept bribes or even discuss them while in office (of course, there's the time leading up to being elected that they could make these arrangements, so it's not airtight), and everything they do is monitored and available to the citizens.
Then government will truly be transparent, and control will be given back to the people.
I know I'm off to Guantanamo for thinking this, though.
(I wanted to say "eat sheep" to get the "baad" joke, but couldn't find a way to do a "p"... Or an "h" for that matter, but just slur the last word ;-)
Also, why does the grandparent assume that NAT and IPv6 are mutually exclusive?
They're actually orthogonal--I'm sure we'll see NAT on top of IPv6, and I don't see anything wrong with that, for exactly the reason you described: to be able to install XP without getting immediately infected. And to be able to continue to use older devices which cannot be upgraded to IPv6 for whatever reason (closed source, manufacturer dot-bombed, etc.).
Strangely, at work I was able to see it correctly in Mozilla. At home I use 1.8a4, not sure about work but I think 1.6 or so.
I'm not hurting anyone else when I copy something to enrich my life. I'm only benefitting the universe--more abundance with less expense. Taking a picture so memories last longer, recording a concert, sharing MP3s and movies with friends, making CDs for the car, copying books, music, movies, and cars (in less than 20 years)--all these things have no victim!
I use vi, you insensitive clod!
Wrong. In my view, a teacher that decided to reward students like that would be removed from academia.
You totally failed to understand my point. Good work!
I never said "lofty goals"; when I said "goals" I meant "the goals of that task", in other words:
"Why would I want to expend more effort on a task once the goals of that task have been achieved?"
Or, as a comedian back in the 80s put it, "Your keys are always in the last place you look. OF COURSE! Once you find them, YOU STOP LOOKING."