One of the many problems with that argument is it applies to all in the conversation.
Since Balderson (Jim) and I have talked IRL a couple of times, I consider him a lot less random than you. I have no idea if he remembers me (and even then likely not under this pseudonym).
But, if you want to take a half humorous offhand comment like I made as a serious argument, I really can't help you there.;)
"You are trying to solve the problem at the wrong place."
That's only one of the problems I'd like to solve with this. Brain implants and instant knowledge transfer would be nice. We don't have them yet.
"Stagnation *is* already a problem in many places."
Uh huh. Sure.
It agrees so well with existing observations. Not.
We've been increasing average lifespan greatly for some time. Well over a century. Yes, much of that is in infant death decreases rather than upper maximum limit, but it's also resulted in an increasing average workforce age.
Where's this massive slowdown in change and innovation your idea would predict?
Want to find a place with little change? Look for those with very young average populations.
I'm reminded of some tribal shaman ominously telling the headman "You must not stop female infanticide. We will overpopulate and all die."
Well. Malthus is a great instructor in not extrapolating a theory beyond the bounds of applicability.
I've been hearing skills based labor was going away since the 1960s when the AI types told us how easy it would be to do human level robotics.
The main thing is quality of life. Extra years of infirmity, dementia and living in some kind of care facility would be no advantage.
Extra years of good health would be. Not just to the individual, but to society. Training someone in a lot of professions is expensive. The decades of experience leave on retirement and have to be replaced.
Stagnation won't be a big problem, IMHO. Though you'll have people around for longer, new people will be coming into a given workplace, just at a slower rate. New ideas will still be around, and frankly, most people aren't doing research science, but things that are existing skill based rather than innovation based. Slashdot is a bit of an anomaly compared to the rest of the world as it has a high prevelance of knowledge workers.
Expect various pundits to say it's horrible and that no one should want to live that long. Of course, when they'd make the decision for themselves I suspect a lot would take the anti-aging drugs and then rationalize it somehow.
As far as impact on population, it'd be some, but not as big as you'd think. If you don't have a low enough reproductive rate, you'll still overpopulate even with current life spans.
Of all things, I was taking a walk down memory lane on a Sunday morning, listening to Henry Mancini's version of Brian's Song and feeling a bit wistful.
Dennis was a sort that I like. He made great tools for the sake of making great tools and didn't make much fuss over himself.
That's why he wasn't so well known. I like that. But, YMMV. If it helps your day to tell me to STFU, what the hey. I'll just drink my coffee and listen to Brian's Song again.
What set me off in the original comment was this idea that it was so easy to determine who these people are.
It's ridiculous on its face. If psychopaths weren't good at fooling people as to what they are, they wouldn't get into those positions of power.
These "biggest assholes" that he mentions may be psychopaths, but they aren't very good psychopaths. They don't do a good job of making people see them as something other than what they are.
And reversible arguments being evidence of psychopathy? Oh please. How many spousal arguments have you witnessed that have reversible arguments (ones that can be used by either side)? Boatloads. Does that mean all or even most of the people using them are psychopaths, or even stand as any evidence of it?
The point isn't about the politicians he uses for examples (he could use Obama and McCain just or many others as well) it's that the reasoning (and I shudder to call it reasoning) he uses is self contradictory
Ah. So by your analysis it seems, psychopaths are someone who you disagree with politically, may use a particular form of argument that most polticians use at some point or that a lot of people who've met them don't like.
Thus, Martin Luther King must have been a psychopath because quite a number of people (politicians and officials), especially in the south disgreed with him politically, didn't like him regardless that they'd met with him and he used a wide variety of argument styles as needed for his cause.
So, you have figured out how easy it is to find psychopaths where trained professionals fail. Maybe you should get a grant and write a paper. You'll make millions advising law enforcement and mental health care centers.
But, isn't it a little more likely you're just rationalizing your preexisting viewpoints?
Even if it's a bit more expensive, a well made push mower lasts a long long time and needs little maintenance. One up front cost and then nothing more. No need to store gasoline and oil, either.
For a small enough yard, it makes a lot of sense.
For a slightly larger one, a plug in electric mower makes sense.
I think I'd get hold of a small camp generator. They're small, pretty cheap and very quiet. Someone might even loan or donate one.
But, I guess that doesn't have the suffering for your cause appeal of pedaling a hacked up bike generator.
Given the food conversion efficiencies, fuel used in production, transport fuel usage for getting it to the city, the mentioned conversion inefficiency, etc. how carbon neutral that all is compared to just saying screw it and buying a little gasoline.
My first thought was, how was the glassware used in making and storing the anthrax prepared? It'd be pretty easy to get some measurable tin contamination just from things like not acid washing the glassware used, and I'd be a little surprised if that had been done.(Admittedly, I'm not a microbiologist, but glass tends to hang onto cations like metals. I'm not sure why you'd take extraordinary measures to get rid of it unless you were planning to have it trace element analyzed.)
When they first detected trace silicon in the spores, they thought it might be from weaponization, but it turned out to be internal to the spores rather than an external additive. (Boring sort that I am, I read the FBI summary report of the Ivins case.)
You laugh, but things that simple have sunk papers before.
Slashdot Mirror
Is this as reliable as when they captured his son and he showed up on TV soon after?
I think they've supposedly killed Kamis a couple of times. Resilient young man, that one.
"Random slashdotter"
One of the many problems with that argument is it applies to all in the conversation.
Since Balderson (Jim) and I have talked IRL a couple of times, I consider him a lot less random than you. I have no idea if he remembers me (and even then likely not under this pseudonym).
But, if you want to take a half humorous offhand comment like I made as a serious argument, I really can't help you there. ;)
"This guy is ridiculously illiterate."
No, this guy is willfully ignorant. That's far harder to fix.
I'll vote for "My Baby Does the Hanky Panky"
"Kung Fu Fighting" is a close second.
"You are trying to solve the problem at the wrong place."
That's only one of the problems I'd like to solve with this. Brain implants and instant knowledge transfer would be nice. We don't have them yet.
"Stagnation *is* already a problem in many places."
Uh huh. Sure.
It agrees so well with existing observations. Not.
We've been increasing average lifespan greatly for some time. Well over a century. Yes, much of that is in infant death decreases rather than upper maximum limit, but it's also resulted in an increasing average workforce age.
Where's this massive slowdown in change and innovation your idea would predict?
Want to find a place with little change? Look for those with very young average populations.
I'm reminded of some tribal shaman ominously telling the headman "You must not stop female infanticide. We will overpopulate and all die."
Well. Malthus is a great instructor in not extrapolating a theory beyond the bounds of applicability.
I've been hearing skills based labor was going away since the 1960s when the AI types told us how easy it would be to do human level robotics.
I'll file that one with the "paperless office".
3275 of em. That's a heck of a shotgun blast.
The main thing is quality of life. Extra years of infirmity, dementia and living in some kind of care facility would be no advantage.
Extra years of good health would be. Not just to the individual, but to society. Training someone in a lot of professions is expensive. The decades of experience leave on retirement and have to be replaced.
Stagnation won't be a big problem, IMHO. Though you'll have people around for longer, new people will be coming into a given workplace, just at a slower rate. New ideas will still be around, and frankly, most people aren't doing research science, but things that are existing skill based rather than innovation based. Slashdot is a bit of an anomaly compared to the rest of the world as it has a high prevelance of knowledge workers.
Expect various pundits to say it's horrible and that no one should want to live that long. Of course, when they'd make the decision for themselves I suspect a lot would take the anti-aging drugs and then rationalize it somehow.
As far as impact on population, it'd be some, but not as big as you'd think. If you don't have a low enough reproductive rate, you'll still overpopulate even with current life spans.
Gotta agree with you there. Steinmetz was pretty amazing. A little odd, but downright normal compared to Tesla.
Except I wasn't angry when I wrote that.
Of all things, I was taking a walk down memory lane on a Sunday morning, listening to Henry Mancini's version of Brian's Song and feeling a bit wistful.
Dennis was a sort that I like. He made great tools for the sake of making great tools and didn't make much fuss over himself.
That's why he wasn't so well known. I like that. But, YMMV. If it helps your day to tell me to STFU, what the hey. I'll just drink my coffee and listen to Brian's Song again.
What set me off in the original comment was this idea that it was so easy to determine who these people are.
It's ridiculous on its face. If psychopaths weren't good at fooling people as to what they are, they wouldn't get into those positions of power.
These "biggest assholes" that he mentions may be psychopaths, but they aren't very good psychopaths. They don't do a good job of making people see them as something other than what they are.
And reversible arguments being evidence of psychopathy? Oh please. How many spousal arguments have you witnessed that have reversible arguments (ones that can be used by either side)? Boatloads. Does that mean all or even most of the people using them are psychopaths, or even stand as any evidence of it?
The point isn't about the politicians he uses for examples (he could use Obama and McCain just or many others as well) it's that the reasoning (and I shudder to call it reasoning) he uses is self contradictory
In short, it's bullshit.
I want a Dennis Ritchie day!
Ah. So by your analysis it seems, psychopaths are someone who you disagree with politically, may use a particular form of argument that most polticians use at some point or that a lot of people who've met them don't like.
Thus, Martin Luther King must have been a psychopath because quite a number of people (politicians and officials), especially in the south disgreed with him politically, didn't like him regardless that they'd met with him and he used a wide variety of argument styles as needed for his cause.
So, you have figured out how easy it is to find psychopaths where trained professionals fail. Maybe you should get a grant and write a paper. You'll make millions advising law enforcement and mental health care centers.
But, isn't it a little more likely you're just rationalizing your preexisting viewpoints?
Even if it's a bit more expensive, a well made push mower lasts a long long time and needs little maintenance. One up front cost and then nothing more. No need to store gasoline and oil, either.
For a small enough yard, it makes a lot of sense.
For a slightly larger one, a plug in electric mower makes sense.
A quick google search sure shows a lot of generator rental and sales places in San Francisco proper.
Must not be that hard to own.
I think I'd get hold of a small camp generator. They're small, pretty cheap and very quiet. Someone might even loan or donate one.
But, I guess that doesn't have the suffering for your cause appeal of pedaling a hacked up bike generator.
Given the food conversion efficiencies, fuel used in production, transport fuel usage for getting it to the city, the mentioned conversion inefficiency, etc. how carbon neutral that all is compared to just saying screw it and buying a little gasoline.
If my "by our lady" mobile device was working well enough to google it, I wouldn't need the help in the "by our lady" first place!
"Busted, down on Bourbon Street, Set up, like a bowling pin. Knocked down, it get's to wearin' thin"
How would it know you were protesting rather than doing something else?
"I'm sorry. I can't send a message. You were holding up a liquor store. That's not peaceful protesting."
I can't be the only one to have imagined ALF as a trophy hanging on the wall and some guy in a space suit kicked back in an arm chair underneath.
My first thought was, how was the glassware used in making and storing the anthrax prepared? It'd be pretty easy to get some measurable tin contamination just from things like not acid washing the glassware used, and I'd be a little surprised if that had been done.(Admittedly, I'm not a microbiologist, but glass tends to hang onto cations like metals. I'm not sure why you'd take extraordinary measures to get rid of it unless you were planning to have it trace element analyzed.)
When they first detected trace silicon in the spores, they thought it might be from weaponization, but it turned out to be internal to the spores rather than an external additive. (Boring sort that I am, I read the FBI summary report of the Ivins case.)
You laugh, but things that simple have sunk papers before.
Via youtube or news videos since I'm not in New York.
It's got computers. It's got Democrats. It's got Republicans. It's got Facebook and datamining. It's got high priced consultants of dubious worth.
What else does it need?
Now we just have to figure out how there can be huge flame ridden disagreements about it.
Oh wait. It's already started.
Either way, it'd be huge.
It's a made up cover story for the real project.
Those bastards have contracted to have ceiling cat watch all of us!
I'd heard Lakshmi, but looking it up, it apparently was Namagiri, his family's goddess.