A few challenges to interstellar travel from the back of my head:
(i) Interstellar matter has a low density, but is still going to somewhat slow down a space vehicle over vast distances;
(ii) Some steering is likely required in order to avoid the wandering jupiters and asteroids;
(iii) Life support systems are also going to require some energy.
I'm not sure how significant each of these effects are in practice, but it's at least reassuring to know that you can make a pit stop if necessary.
I guess that there would probably be some sort of fusion, fission, or gravitational resources available for many of these places. But I doubt much energy will be available without serious technology.
Assuming that many of these planets are Jupiter-class gas giants, they would have ample supply of Hydrogen. Since an advanced alien society shouldn't have much trouble creating hydrogen-to-helium fusion reactors, I imagine these interstellar stepping stones as useful gas stations -- places where you dump your helium, and refuel your hydrogen supply. This should lower the amount of hydrogen you need to carry around during interstellar travel by orders of magnitude.
I thought the norm was to refer to people by their given name informally, and their family name in more formal settings. Unless the author happens to be a personal buddy of Leonardo da Vinci, I believe "Leonardo" is the inappropriate title.
Rather than doing the classic "hello world" in BASIC, kids today start out by e.g. modding games.
Personally, I remember having fun by developing platformers using GameMaker back when it was free. This sort of graphical programming got me used to thinking in terms of loops, conditionals and variables -- as well as offering a high-level scripting language that let you access extra features.
Apparently, reading and writing is not a hard requirement for being a mathematician.
Neither is artihmetic, as demonstrated by Emma King -- a theoretical physicist with both dyslexia and dyscalculia. If you've got a few minutes to spare, I highly recommend watching this interview with her; it's quite fascinating to see someone incapable of basic arithmetic be so adept at abstract maths.
I think "anonymous" (aka a half-dozen bored kids) is just desperate to remain in the spotlight. The attention-getting is more important than any "cause". In fact, attention-getting is the cause.
Anonymous is an ad-hoc group, so they need to recruit participants on a per-target basis.
Since only easily hyped targets acquire critical mass, these are the only ones attacked.
Natural selection isn't the only factor that shapes humanity; don't forget about sexual selection and genetic drift. In fact, some argue that many of our human traits (intelligence, language, music, art) is a result of sexual rather than natural selection.
When trying to define life, we try to draw a sharp line somewhere in a continuum of chemical systems. I believe that a better approach would be to create different classes of life, with different requirements. Thus a virus can well be a class I life form, while humans register as class III.
For instance, one suggestion for such a classification would be:
Protolife: Reproducing structure
Class I: Also capable of undergoing evolution
Class II: Also capable of metabolism
Class III: Also capable of seeking a better environment
The definition of protolife is wide enough to envelop both normal chemical systems (fire and crystals) and certain computer systems, but it has to be wide in order to cover protocells and possibly some lifeforms that we haven't encountered yet. When you get to the class I definition, a virus would qualify due to its genetic material. Class II covers most plants and microorganisms. The last class covers humans and animals due to (i) our ability to move around and (ii) our ability to transform our environment.
If we try to look at artificial life forms, then a lot of software would register as protolife. Software that modifies itself to adapt to environmental requirements, would register as class I. I believe hooking up to the electrical grid should count as metabolism, so hardware with mutating software would go as class II. The last class would cover reproducing robots with mutating software.
Now, this is interesting: the number of searches for "Lyonnaise de Garantie escroc" has been increasing since December 27. I wonder what happened that day.
If the aliens are so much more advanced than us that they are capable of FTL, then we can't possibly be of any value to them. Any resources or minerals found on Earth can be found on planets or asteroids not contaminated with life forms. Any service we can do as slaves, can likely be performed better by their own machines. We're probably way too different to conduct their medical research on. Using us as a food source would simply be silly. I cannot see any possible motive for harming or destroying us on purpose.
However, if the aliens are at approximately our technological level, we might be perceived as either a threat or possible slaves. Such "primitive" aliens are likely incapable of FTL, so we should see them coming in good time.
Interesting thought, but I don't think it's a good idea. Volunteering everything might work as long as there are very few people doing it -- but if everyone starts doing it, it then (i) the feds will focus on improving software that automatically filters out suspicious traits from the online data, and (ii) not sharing everything will be deemed suspicious.
Unless Google partners up with Visa or MasterCard -- which would mean that they can link what you look at to what you actually buy. That sounds like valuable data if you intend to increase the effectiveness of your ads.
Some tardigrades could easily have survived. The things are known to survive temperatures from 73 K to 424 K, pressures up to 6000 atm, up to 10 years in a dehydrated state, and they even survived and reproduced after being stuck on the outside of a Russian spacecraft for 10 days in outer space.
Slashdot Mirror
Doomsday-theorists should be delighted.
There is a meme for this: link
The good thing about the English language is that it's got over a million words. Use a few uncommon ones:
> We're 12 widdiful pronks -- and 21 scopperloit nihilarians!
A few challenges to interstellar travel from the back of my head:
(i) Interstellar matter has a low density, but is still going to somewhat slow down a space vehicle over vast distances;
(ii) Some steering is likely required in order to avoid the wandering jupiters and asteroids;
(iii) Life support systems are also going to require some energy.
I'm not sure how significant each of these effects are in practice, but it's at least reassuring to know that you can make a pit stop if necessary.
I guess that there would probably be some sort of fusion, fission, or gravitational resources available for many of these places. But I doubt much energy will be available without serious technology.
Assuming that many of these planets are Jupiter-class gas giants, they would have ample supply of Hydrogen. Since an advanced alien society shouldn't have much trouble creating hydrogen-to-helium fusion reactors, I imagine these interstellar stepping stones as useful gas stations -- places where you dump your helium, and refuel your hydrogen supply. This should lower the amount of hydrogen you need to carry around during interstellar travel by orders of magnitude.
I thought the norm was to refer to people by their given name informally, and their family name in more formal settings. Unless the author happens to be a personal buddy of Leonardo da Vinci, I believe "Leonardo" is the inappropriate title.
I have excellent school and university grades. It was a waste of fucking time. I've stopped respecting the law.
I don't get your reasoning; the law didn't force you to attend university, you made that choice.
"...give me all yo' money, or I'll bust yo' ass like Atahualpa at Cajamarca!"
Rather than doing the classic "hello world" in BASIC, kids today start out by e.g. modding games.
Personally, I remember having fun by developing platformers using GameMaker back when it was free. This sort of graphical programming got me used to thinking in terms of loops, conditionals and variables -- as well as offering a high-level scripting language that let you access extra features.
Apparently, reading and writing is not a hard requirement for being a mathematician.
Neither is artihmetic, as demonstrated by Emma King -- a theoretical physicist with both dyslexia and dyscalculia. If you've got a few minutes to spare, I highly recommend watching this interview with her; it's quite fascinating to see someone incapable of basic arithmetic be so adept at abstract maths.
If we start censoring people with body shapes we consider outliers, how is that supposed to make people focus less on looks?
I think "anonymous" (aka a half-dozen bored kids) is just desperate to remain in the spotlight. The attention-getting is more important than any "cause". In fact, attention-getting is the cause.
Anonymous is an ad-hoc group, so they need to recruit participants on a per-target basis. Since only easily hyped targets acquire critical mass, these are the only ones attacked.
Natural selection isn't the only factor that shapes humanity; don't forget about sexual selection and genetic drift. In fact, some argue that many of our human traits (intelligence, language, music, art) is a result of sexual rather than natural selection.
For instance, one suggestion for such a classification would be:
The definition of protolife is wide enough to envelop both normal chemical systems (fire and crystals) and certain computer systems, but it has to be wide in order to cover protocells and possibly some lifeforms that we haven't encountered yet. When you get to the class I definition, a virus would qualify due to its genetic material. Class II covers most plants and microorganisms. The last class covers humans and animals due to (i) our ability to move around and (ii) our ability to transform our environment.
If we try to look at artificial life forms, then a lot of software would register as protolife. Software that modifies itself to adapt to environmental requirements, would register as class I. I believe hooking up to the electrical grid should count as metabolism, so hardware with mutating software would go as class II. The last class would cover reproducing robots with mutating software.
Perhaps you could get the RFID-tags as PDFs for your iPad?
Seeking power is in human nature. Money is but a form of power.
The "default password" should be 30 characters of mumbo-jumbo, so that it's secure by default, but changing it actually makes life easier.
Duke Nukem Forever. Oh wait...
I can easily picture a 16yo kid selling blood transfusions for a few bucks; just make a place for it at the mall.
Now, this is interesting: the number of searches for "Lyonnaise de Garantie escroc" has been increasing since December 27. I wonder what happened that day.
Just wait until someone produces javascript wrappers for linux/kernel.h and linux/module.h.
If the aliens are so much more advanced than us that they are capable of FTL, then we can't possibly be of any value to them. Any resources or minerals found on Earth can be found on planets or asteroids not contaminated with life forms. Any service we can do as slaves, can likely be performed better by their own machines. We're probably way too different to conduct their medical research on. Using us as a food source would simply be silly. I cannot see any possible motive for harming or destroying us on purpose.
However, if the aliens are at approximately our technological level, we might be perceived as either a threat or possible slaves. Such "primitive" aliens are likely incapable of FTL, so we should see them coming in good time.
Interesting thought, but I don't think it's a good idea. Volunteering everything might work as long as there are very few people doing it -- but if everyone starts doing it, it then (i) the feds will focus on improving software that automatically filters out suspicious traits from the online data, and (ii) not sharing everything will be deemed suspicious.
Unless Google partners up with Visa or MasterCard -- which would mean that they can link what you look at to what you actually buy. That sounds like valuable data if you intend to increase the effectiveness of your ads.
Some tardigrades could easily have survived. The things are known to survive temperatures from 73 K to 424 K, pressures up to 6000 atm, up to 10 years in a dehydrated state, and they even survived and reproduced after being stuck on the outside of a Russian spacecraft for 10 days in outer space.
If the circulation system is already failing, exactly how is a turbine more useful than a fuel cell?