Humor is often based on an increase of understanding, empathy, etc. it can also have an increase in affection, compassion, etc. In that situation it is usually a very positive thing. Think of watching a child do or plan something, and you see the obvious flaws. You can laugh, and then teach as well.
It would be a true AI if you could educate it enough to understand the concept of fiction and humor, and then read and enjoy something like "Alice in Wonderland", or the equivalent.
Just off the cuff here... Humor is the result of the surprise (small or large) from and/or recognition of an inconsistancy. The inconsistancy usually increases pleasure or empathy, and understanding regarding some element of the situation, and is often accompanied by a recognition of the non-reality or illogical nature of the element that created the surpise. Sometimes the surprise will connect several things together in a new way that renders something else illogical. Humor is often tightly connected with the sense of affinity for someone, something, or some situation.
Humor can be used to cruelly to increase and maintain one's own power in a situation by exposing something else as illogical or unwanted.
Just like the kid in the window watching you with your girl, and suggesting his favorite brand of condoms, isn't a peeping tom.
Don't think of it as wasting your time and destroying the scenic view. Think of it as helpful messages to alert you of products and offers you may be interested in.
Maybe we should paint out the cliff sides in Yosemite National Park with ads for your favorite laxative.
As noted at the end of the story: Contributing editor Annalee Newitz wrote about the female orgasm in issue 13.07.
This is an example of something useful. Not an Ad-Geek's passion for my cookie folder. Pervert.
which is the typical response of someone with a short attention span
;-)
well maybe not. But there is something to be said about the right of someone who is in the web publishing industry offering their opinion, vs someone in a faceless crowd in almost a million users taking a snide potshot.
Note that your user number is in the half million range, and you have been around a while. This might qualify for success in some circles. This might give him the right to an opinion, even in the USA. And to publish it via a soap box he controls. even if he is an awful writer.
It's called an "in depth" article. Actually, it is typical for the length of article you saw in a major newspaper on a regular basis before the days of the internet.
Compare this with common blogs, and other similar media since the dawn of the television age.
yes there is more information about more things, but I think you could make an argument that the breadth of content has expanded at the cost of depth. Much content has become more shallow, because of the length of time it takes to type up, say, as a comment to slashdot, when you are rushing to get your thoughts online early in the chain of comments.
it takes time to develop an in depth knowledge of something, time that people are less willing to develop, blaming it on ADHD or whatever, when a summer without electronic technology in a library of dead tree edition books would be a start to a good cure.
I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics. A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.
It doesn't help with the marketing, I imagine. They want each console to be (and LOOK) different than the others, to have its own character. This is not as important for stereo components.
Obviously, they think that there is no possible reason why you would want to buy somebody else's product, and no reason what so ever why they should play nice with others.
Of course a nice rack mount configuration can't be that difficult to dream up. Unless you are a game designer. Because then, the game would have to stand solely on the inherent merits of it's value as a system, not on it's value as eye candy.
I wouldn't mind a fugly rack or stack system, as long as it blew other folks away. Raw power has an aethestic all it's own.
And there is a certain perverse pleasure to having a rackmount gaming system. It says something.
My brother began to dictate in his best oratorical style, the one which has the tribes hanging on his words.
"In the beginning," he said, "exactly fifteen point two billion years ago, there was a big bang and the Universe--"
But I had stopped writing. "Fifteen billion years ago?" I said incredulously.
"Absolutely," he said. "I'm inspired."
"I don't question your inspiration," I said. (I had better not. He's three years younger than I am, but I don't try questioning his inspiration. Neither does anyone else or there's hell to pay.) "But are you going to tell the story of Creation over a period of fifteen billion years?"
"I have to," said my brother. "That's how long it took. I have it all here," he tapped his forehead, "and it's on the very highest authority."
By now I had put down my stylus. "Do you know the price of papyrus?" I said.
"What?" (He may be inspired but I frequently noticed that the inspiration didn't include such sordid matters as the price of papyrus.)
I said, "Suppose you describe one million years of events to each roll of papyrus. That means you'll have to fill fifteen thousand rolls. You'll have to talk long enough to fill them and you know that you begin to stammer after a while. I'll have to write enough to fill them and my fingers will fall off. And even if we can afford all that papyrus and you have the voice and I have the strength, who's going to copy it? We've got to have a guarantee of a hundred copies before we can publish and without that where will we get the royalties from?"
My brother thought a while. He said, "You think I ought to cut it down?"
"Way down," I said, "if you expect to reach the public."
"How about a hundred years?" he said.
"How about six days?" I said.
He said, horrified, "You can't squeeze Creation into six days."
I said, "This is all the papyrus I have. What do YOU think?"
"Oh well," he said, and began to dictate again, "In the beginning -- Does it have to be six days, Aaron?"
I said, firmly, "Six days, Moses."
Thats is not a paper. It's a presentation that might as well have been prepared in powerpoint. Papers are peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals. This guy is a crackpot.
I think I had it covered in my original comment. Note he classified it in the papers section, not that it mastters much
I sort of like the idea of presenting an analysis as to what would be actual proof for this in the DNA, and cite commonalities and differences across the phyla and the species, etc on a DNA basis.
Opponents to creationism and intelligent design argue that school science classes should focus on genuine scientific theories. Well, evolution certainly fails that test. And to simply say intelligent design is not a genuine scientific theory is simply an opinion, not fact. Intelligent design can and has been proved scientifically.
Intelligent design by whom? I am perfectly willing to beleive that the vorlons and the cylons did an excellent job terraforming the planet recently, and the different modification design crews placed convenient markers in one form or another to keep easy track to thier projects. (web feet, blue eyes, the whole thing)
In any case, it is possible to solve the mess in a way that gives the proponents of Intelligent Design exactly what they say they are looking for, sort of, and at the same time takes away the pudding.
First we give them exactly what they want. But we add things to it.
In the classroom, we have these kind of discussions:
What would be evidence of Intelligent Design? What would be evidence of intelligent Design, such as genetic manipulation by a scientist, vs. the normal structure of DNA? and what is the normal structure of DNA anyhow? Of Genes? Could you have copyright markers inside DNA?
Actual evidence. And we tie this into the ethics of Biology.
(Note that a recent news item reports that 20% of the Human Genome has already been patented, even through they actually did not design the genes, but have only isolated a possible speculated use)
Also, you can mention all the possible angles on who could be the speculated authors in the theory of Intelligent Design.
Do not forget to mention the Flying Saucer people, who are rumored to have manipulated the genetic structure of mankind for their own ends. What would be evidence of all of this at the genetic level ?
As a side note, there are a number of images of something resembling a double helix seen in ancient sumerian art. This would twist the nose of some folks, although, for the purposes of classroom discussion, you can discuss the coincidence as a coincidence, without being heavy handed on the subject.
Direct link to WMV file of a military film introducing an operational high power laser. They show it taking out shells and rockets in midair. Some lousy special effects, but educational.
It's a martian university information technology research project. the local martian college geeks have hacked into the systems and are feeding them a virtual reality data stream of what they want us poor earthlings to receive as data. The trick is to see how long they can keep us going.
the two systems are actually sitting inside a research lab in separate rooms in a cave someplace on the northern slope of Valles Marenaris [sp?]
Everything is simulated in glorious high precision detail. Everything.
Quite an exercise in engineering, actually. The kids are getting good grades.
The White House is obviously trying to defend America from the scourge of Comedy Terrorists around the world. What better place to do this than at home?
Slashdot Mirror
unless you deliberately limit yourself.
Just off the cuff here ... Humor is the result of the surprise (small or large) from and/or recognition of an inconsistancy. The inconsistancy usually increases pleasure or empathy, and understanding regarding some element of the situation, and is often accompanied by a recognition of the non-reality or illogical nature of the element that created the surpise. Sometimes the surprise will connect several things together in a new way that renders something else illogical. Humor is often tightly connected with the sense of affinity for someone, something, or some situation.
Humor can be used to cruelly to increase and maintain one's own power in a situation by exposing something else as illogical or unwanted.
Do YOU suffer from Advertising Deficiency Syndrome? These folks think you do, and they are there to help.
No, really.
Just like the kid in the window watching you with your girl, and suggesting his favorite brand of condoms, isn't a peeping tom.
Don't think of it as wasting your time and destroying the scenic view. Think of it as helpful messages to alert you of products and offers you may be interested in.
Maybe we should paint out the cliff sides in Yosemite National Park with ads for your favorite laxative.
As noted at the end of the story: Contributing editor Annalee Newitz wrote about the female orgasm in issue 13.07.
This is an example of something useful. Not an Ad-Geek's passion for my cookie folder. Pervert.
well maybe not. But there is something to be said about the right of someone who is in the web publishing industry offering their opinion, vs someone in a faceless crowd in almost a million users taking a snide potshot.
Note that your user number is in the half million range, and you have been around a while. This might qualify for success in some circles. This might give him the right to an opinion, even in the USA. And to publish it via a soap box he controls. even if he is an awful writer.
It's called an "in depth" article. Actually, it is typical for the length of article you saw in a major newspaper on a regular basis before the days of the internet.
Compare this with common blogs, and other similar media since the dawn of the television age.
yes there is more information about more things, but I think you could make an argument that the breadth of content has expanded at the cost of depth. Much content has become more shallow, because of the length of time it takes to type up, say, as a comment to slashdot, when you are rushing to get your thoughts online early in the chain of comments.
it takes time to develop an in depth knowledge of something, time that people are less willing to develop, blaming it on ADHD or whatever, when a summer without electronic technology in a library of dead tree edition books would be a start to a good cure.
I thought it was some newly invented star trek language, to get around the copyrights on Klingon.
Klingon is copyrighted, yes?
although this is still a good tactic.
Everyone else, doing Real Work(TM), like Sysadmins, gets some sort of a conventional installation, like Linux.
will someone with mod points please mod this parent up?
It doesn't help with the marketing, I imagine. They want each console to be (and LOOK) different than the others, to have its own character. This is not as important for stereo components.
Obviously, they think that there is no possible reason why you would want to buy somebody else's product, and no reason what so ever why they should play nice with others.
Of course a nice rack mount configuration can't be that difficult to dream up. Unless you are a game designer. Because then, the game would have to stand solely on the inherent merits of it's value as a system, not on it's value as eye candy.
I wouldn't mind a fugly rack or stack system, as long as it blew other folks away. Raw power has an aethestic all it's own.
And there is a certain perverse pleasure to having a rackmount gaming system. It says something.
HOW IT HAPPENED - Isaac Asimov
My brother began to dictate in his best oratorical style, the one
which has the tribes hanging on his words.
"In the beginning," he said, "exactly fifteen point two billion
years ago, there was a big bang and the Universe--"
But I had stopped writing. "Fifteen billion years ago?" I said
incredulously.
"Absolutely," he said. "I'm inspired."
"I don't question your inspiration," I said. (I had better not.
He's three years younger than I am, but I don't try questioning his
inspiration. Neither does anyone else or there's hell to pay.) "But are
you going to tell the story of Creation over a period of fifteen billion
years?"
"I have to," said my brother. "That's how long it took. I have it
all here," he tapped his forehead, "and it's on the very highest authority."
By now I had put down my stylus. "Do you know the price of
papyrus?" I said.
"What?" (He may be inspired but I frequently noticed that the
inspiration didn't include such sordid matters as the price of papyrus.)
I said, "Suppose you describe one million years of events to each
roll of papyrus. That means you'll have to fill fifteen thousand rolls.
You'll have to talk long enough to fill them and you know that you begin to
stammer after a while. I'll have to write enough to fill them and my fingers
will fall off. And even if we can afford all that papyrus and you have the
voice and I have the strength, who's going to copy it? We've got to have a
guarantee of a hundred copies before we can publish and without that where
will we get the royalties from?"
My brother thought a while. He said, "You think I ought to cut it
down?"
"Way down," I said, "if you expect to reach the public."
"How about a hundred years?" he said.
"How about six days?" I said.
He said, horrified, "You can't squeeze Creation into six days."
I said, "This is all the papyrus I have. What do YOU think?"
"Oh well," he said, and began to dictate again, "In the beginning --
Does it have to be six days, Aaron?"
I said, firmly, "Six days, Moses."
Thats is not a paper. It's a presentation that might as well have been prepared in powerpoint. Papers are peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals. This guy is a crackpot.
I think I had it covered in my original comment. Note he classified it in the papers section, not that it mastters much
Of Interest is the paper
"The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Quantum Mechanics Workshop" presented at the University of Eindhoven, Netherlands, February 28, 2005 (PDF Warning)
I think the title just about says it all
Now they want to crash the internet.
When when they get the idea that the internet is not a party that they were invited to?
;)
I sort of like the idea of presenting an analysis as to what would be actual proof for this in the DNA, and cite commonalities and differences across the phyla and the species, etc on a DNA basis.
Intelligent design by whom? I am perfectly willing to beleive that the vorlons and the cylons did an excellent job terraforming the planet recently, and the different modification design crews placed convenient markers in one form or another to keep easy track to thier projects. (web feet, blue eyes, the whole thing)
In any case, it is possible to solve the mess in a way that gives the proponents of Intelligent Design exactly what they say they are looking for, sort of, and at the same time takes away the pudding.
First we give them exactly what they want. But we add things to it.
In the classroom, we have these kind of discussions:
What would be evidence of Intelligent Design? What would be evidence of intelligent Design, such as genetic manipulation by a scientist, vs. the normal structure of DNA? and what is the normal structure of DNA anyhow? Of Genes? Could you have copyright markers inside DNA?
Actual evidence. And we tie this into the ethics of Biology.
(Note that a recent news item reports that 20% of the Human Genome has already been patented, even through they actually did not design the genes, but have only isolated a possible speculated use)
Also, you can mention all the possible angles on who could be the speculated authors in the theory of Intelligent Design.
Do not forget to mention the Flying Saucer people, who are rumored to have manipulated the genetic structure of mankind for their own ends. What would be evidence of all of this at the genetic level ?
As a side note, there are a number of images of something resembling a double helix seen in ancient sumerian art. This would twist the nose of some folks, although, for the purposes of classroom discussion, you can discuss the coincidence as a coincidence, without being heavy handed on the subject.
http://www.hedfud.com/media/albums/videos02/mobile _laser.wmv
Direct link to WMV file of a military film introducing an operational high power laser. They show it taking out shells and rockets in midair. Some lousy special effects, but educational.
So what stuff are they keeping secret?
It's a martian university information technology research project. the local martian college geeks have hacked into the systems and are feeding them a virtual reality data stream of what they want us poor earthlings to receive as data. The trick is to see how long they can keep us going.
the two systems are actually sitting inside a research lab in separate rooms in a cave someplace on the northern slope of Valles Marenaris [sp?]
Everything is simulated in glorious high precision detail. Everything.
Quite an exercise in engineering, actually. The kids are getting good grades.
While sombody has to complain, it can indicate (not always) something unusually small such as hat size or something.
Plus, it isn't like he does this ALL the time.
so I think I'll give him a pass on the occasional rant.
Not that Blizzard would ever be so smart as to apologize or anything. I wonder if they care? (not)
The White House is obviously trying to defend America from the scourge of Comedy Terrorists around the world. What better place to do this than at home?
the gal has a fashion designer background, and likes to use a clothing and cloth appropriate pallette. Even if my eyes bleed.
Although I would not mind a greyscale option for my display.
I remember those. Now that's scary.