And, of course, there may well be several people working at Microsoft who actually work for the NSA
That's a really interesting line of thought. What are the ethical ramifications of that? Is it ok to pretend that you're for Microsoft when in reality you may be a cryptographer for the NSA? What about modifying Microsoft's products for the good of some other entity? Could the person who does this be sued by Microsoft if they were discovered or would the NSA tell them that they can't because of national security?
Isn't the problem for the authors of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" that they claim their book is fact?
I don't think they ever claimed that it was fact or fiction. In an interview with one of the authors he claims that from their research they came to the conclusion that the story was possible. Whatever that means.
Little did we know how far China would come in 60 years.
I don't know. IIRC, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story where the Chinese were the first to make it to one of Saturn's or Jupiter's moons. It seems that at least he thought that they would leap ahead of everybody else.
That Dune movie was supposed to be directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Salvador Dali was supposed to be Padishah Emperor Shaddam. I think this movie was supposed to have a small budget and Dali's request for a salary of $100,000 was nearly going to sink the film. Unfortunately the film was never made. I don't think that film would have been anything like Dune but it would have been interesting nonetheless.
On Bladerunner, I think it would be a horrible idea to make any sort of a sequel. That film is a masterpiece.
just diving in without spending years studying someone else's work too thoroughly. I think that his reasoning is that in this manner you will not "learn too much" and you will be more open to new ideas.
Let's face it, even excellent actors like Liam Neeson, Ewan Macgregor, Natalie Portman all gave wooden and unconvincing performances under Lucas's direction
You forgot to mention SAMUEL L. JACKSON! Pretty wooden performance from him too.
That would be one scenario. We would have to be extremely careful if we decided to build anything that an ET sent us (e.g. completely understand the principles involved, etc). The biggest risk, of course, is that some ET is traveling in a spaceship ala Columbus and lands on our doorstep. We would be extremely lucky if we didn't end up like the American Indians.
He wrote about the Chinese being the first to one of Jupiter's moons in a short story that I think was the inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'm not sure why Clarke saw the Chinese as being trailblazers into space from way back in the 50s but he did.
Yeah, it did seem kind of weird but perhaps he did made the dig because he's a mormon and I imagine that Larry David is an atheist? In any case, the ending of Seinfeld was pretty horrible. I don't know how they screwed that up.
I doubt we'll see anything in the near future but that doesn't mean that NASA and other private companies aren't working on it. NASA is developing something called "Highway in the Sky" which is allegedly going to allow people to drive their automated flying cars through the sky - safely.
Militarily, just imagine if the military minds of Julius Caesar, Alexander and Cromwell held commanded in today's battlefields.
I'm not sure that they really did have exceptional military minds. Sure, they were on the whole very ambitious but it sounds like a lot of their success stemmed from their technology. I think Alexander's armies had very long spears which the enemy did not have and Caesar had superior Roman engineering to "shock and awe" his adversaries.
Slashdot Mirror
That's a really interesting line of thought. What are the ethical ramifications of that? Is it ok to pretend that you're for Microsoft when in reality you may be a cryptographer for the NSA? What about modifying Microsoft's products for the good of some other entity? Could the person who does this be sued by Microsoft if they were discovered or would the NSA tell them that they can't because of national security?
I don't think they ever claimed that it was fact or fiction. In an interview with one of the authors he claims that from their research they came to the conclusion that the story was possible. Whatever that means.
I don't know. IIRC, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story where the Chinese were the first to make it to one of Saturn's or Jupiter's moons. It seems that at least he thought that they would leap ahead of everybody else.
I heard someone call it "The Rapture of the Nerds" which I think is more apropo.
They no longer work for Microsoft.
IIRC, Kubrick and Clarke wrote the screenplay for 2001 first. Clarke wrote the novel afterwards.
On Bladerunner, I think it would be a horrible idea to make any sort of a sequel. That film is a masterpiece.
just diving in without spending years studying someone else's work too thoroughly. I think that his reasoning is that in this manner you will not "learn too much" and you will be more open to new ideas.
He was a physicist, mathematician and engineer. And this was over 2,000 years ago!
Picasso had copied one of Rembrandt's paintings? Would the copy still be considered a cheap imitation?
He volunteered to test medical treatments for $5,000. I sure as hell wouldn't do it. It was enough to film his first movie "El Mariachi".
Netscape didn't have loads of cash like Google and they certainly couldn't execute worth a damn.
Art's Theremin Page
That would be one scenario. We would have to be extremely careful if we decided to build anything that an ET sent us (e.g. completely understand the principles involved, etc). The biggest risk, of course, is that some ET is traveling in a spaceship ala Columbus and lands on our doorstep. We would be extremely lucky if we didn't end up like the American Indians.
That must totally suck to be Mr. Christ and find out that people have subverted your teachings.
See here for more details! It's unfortunate that the urban legend made it into one of my group theory textbooks.
"Are you referring to the theory of natural selection? If so, it's very much a scientific theory."
So it is falsifiable then?
is merely a hypothesis?
He wrote about the Chinese being the first to one of Jupiter's moons in a short story that I think was the inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'm not sure why Clarke saw the Chinese as being trailblazers into space from way back in the 50s but he did.
Robot Exclusion Protocol courtesy of ftrain.
Yeah, it did seem kind of weird but perhaps he did made the dig because he's a mormon and I imagine that Larry David is an atheist? In any case, the ending of Seinfeld was pretty horrible. I don't know how they screwed that up.
I doubt we'll see anything in the near future but that doesn't mean that NASA and other private companies aren't working on it. NASA is developing something called "Highway in the Sky" which is allegedly going to allow people to drive their automated flying cars through the sky - safely.
I'm not sure that they really did have exceptional military minds. Sure, they were on the whole very ambitious but it sounds like a lot of their success stemmed from their technology. I think Alexander's armies had very long spears which the enemy did not have and Caesar had superior Roman engineering to "shock and awe" his adversaries.
You're not taking much of a risk. I've seen the trailer and it is FANTASTIC! I imagine that the film will be pretty good.