It seems to me that this is the religion of the future.
When all of human consciousness is merged into a universal network, what exactly do we have? We have a huge, self-aware "organism" that contains all of human knowledge within itself, and is constantly learning and growing. The internet may be the birth of this future network.
What does this being encompass in a thousand years? A million? A billion?
In this scenario, the universe slowly becomes a self-aware entity. The universe is conscious. Could this be considered god?
When I read that the Bush administration's proposal for a labyrinthine "Department of Homeland Security" included an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, a thought that had been scratching the back of my mind like an industrious mouse scurried into the open: There is something Orwellian about the amorphous "war on terrorism."
The proposed new department would combine 22 federal agencies and have more armed agents than any other agency. But the Bush administration doesn't want you to be able to find out what the hell it's doing. National security, you know.
This and constantly trotting out "the war" as justification for whatever the Bush crowd wants to do reminded me of Orwell's anti-totalitarian classic, "1984." I don't want to overstate the case, but flipping though my old paperback, there are creepy similarities.
In the nightmare world of Orwell's 1984, "Airstrip One" (aka England) is ruled by an all-powerful Party, and is in a constant state of war; the Party's motto reads, in part, "WAR IS PEACE." But the "enemy" shifts all the time between two distant nations, Eastasia and Eurasia. Not unlike Bush's slowly expanding "axis of evil."
Like the "war on terrorism," Airstrip One's war is far away, and is hazy to the average citizen. See if this passage echoes present reality: "In a physical sense, the war involves very small numbers of people, mostly highly trained specialists, and causes comparatively few casualties. The fighting, when there is any, takes place on the vague frontiers whose whereabouts the average man can only guess at."
Orwell, according to critic Erich Fromm, "gives an impressive picture of how a society must develop which is constantly preparing for war." Bush declares this war will go on for 10 years or more. Whenever he or his lieutenants want us to swallow some new reduction in liberties -- i.e. the onerous USA-PATRIOT act, which enables more government snooping in private lives; BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU -- they haul out the war excuse.
I support an intelligence-based, targeted war on the diffuse threat of terrorists, as do many Americans. But that doesn't give the Bush hawks permission to go ranging off on any military adventure they choose, such as finishing Poppy's biz in Iraq.
Pretending that we are now in a "war" that demands sacrifices in civil liberties -- though curiously, none in material comforts -- is insulting. World War II was a real war, and Americans rightly gave up essentials to support the fighting overseas. It's disingenuous to suggest that the current "war" is remotely similar.
Of course, doublespeak was crucial to maintaining Party power in "1984," too. According to the Bush people, citizens aren't necessarily citizens if we just tag them enemies, and POWs aren't really POWs. And if they say it's war, damn it, it is war, whether the enemy shifts from al-Qaida to Iraq to...?
War is an instrument of power not just over an enemy, but over the citizens at home. And as a Party torturer in "1984" says, "Always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler... If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever."
No, it's not that bad. Not yet. But let's all keep an eye on who's lacing up their boots, shall we?
Let's try reading that again, shall we?
reward for the user who returns the milestone result
They are talking about the person who returns the 500 millionth result, not the person who finds ET.
I am a certified commercial pilot and air traffic controller. The problem with systems like this is that it is always easier than it sounds. No matter how nice that little LCD in the cockpit looks, flying is not going to be a "highway in the sky".
As a pilot, I regularly fly into airports where the wind is gusting to 30+ knots, the ceiling is 500 feet off the ground, the turbluence is slamming me against my seatbelts, and the visibility is below a mile.
If this alone didn't require a lot of skill, you have to constantly be alert for system failures, air traffic control instructions, and all relevant procedures.
All the automation in the world can't prepare your average highway driver for what flying can really be like.
This research will help pilots who are already fully certified reach their destinations easier and safer, but it will do nothing to have your average citizen flying the "highway in the sky".
This scum also got a hold of my domain, MP3Fiend.com. This was a highly successful Windows MP3 meta-engine a couple years ago, and it was the cornerstone of my business, Eternal Software.
Because of an e-mail problem with Network Solutions, this domain expired before I could reregister it. This guy jumped on it immediatly, and wants $4,500 to get it back!
I am looking into this situation with great detail, and I'm sorry to hear other people here have the same problem with this guy.
I run a very popular website (more than 10,000,000 hits a month and climbing) and banner rates can't even pay for hosting anymore.
The banner ad market is in such a sorry state that my inventory is about 10% sold with ultra-low CPMs, the rest are CPA campaigns which don't pay anything.
I for one am heading over to Amazon right now to check this out. I know my users really appreciate the work I put into my site, and now maybe they can show me by paying me $1 or more.
This is one thing that Verant (makers of Everquest) did right. Every time they would find some new form of cheating, they would quickly patch the game and make it unusable.
If they didn't do this, the game would be ruined and all that stuff on eBay would be worthless. But some of it is still going for thousands of real dollars, so you can see they have been successful with their anti-cheating code.
Forget about voting from home, let's just modernize the process at the voting centers.
The perfect solution would be some big, color, touchscreen LCDs. These would display in large fonts the candidates names and pictures, seperated into big blocks (senior citizen friendly).
When you selected a candidate, you'd get a new screen with Al Gore's beautiful face and a "Are you sure you want to vote for Al Gore?" prompt , plus two huge YES/NO buttons (green for YES, red for NO).
This would end this rediculous scene of counting paper ballots by hand. There would be NO mistaking who you want to vote for, and the votes could be INSTANTLY counted in real-time. Recounts would never be necessary.
While it may not be "dehumanizing", I definetly see the net as the beginning of isolation. I think the future sees humans hanging out, working, and sharing with each other remotely. And this is not a bad thing.
It is the dawning stages of a collective consciousness of sorts, where we are all thinking together and distance is irrelovant.
In his newest book, Just Six Numbers, Rees argues that six numbers underlie the fundamental physical properties of the universe, and that each is the precise value needed to permit life to flourish
Perhaps this is just it then.
What makes the universe, and us, so amazing? Without a doubt, it's consciousness. Perhaps this is the only universe there can be that will be self-reflecting. A god is not needed. It is here because it has to be and it has to be this way for consciousness to arise.
We are part of the universe. We are conscious. Therefore, in a way, the universe itself is conscious.
This just came out today, as seen in ScienceDaily:
Electromagnetic Fields Affect Human Cells
"Electromagnetic fields, similar to those found in overhead power lines, can have a biological effect on human cells, an effect that could contribute to the complex cellular process that leads to cancer, research at Michigan State University shows."
Slashdot Mirror
It seems to me that this is the religion of the future.
When all of human consciousness is merged into a universal network, what exactly do we have? We have a huge, self-aware "organism" that contains all of human knowledge within itself, and is constantly learning and growing. The internet may be the birth of this future network.
What does this being encompass in a thousand years? A million? A billion?
In this scenario, the universe slowly becomes a self-aware entity. The universe is conscious. Could this be considered god?
From:
... If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever."
http://commondreams.org/views02/0707-06.htm
When I read that the Bush administration's proposal for a labyrinthine "Department of Homeland Security" included an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, a thought that had been scratching the back of my mind like an industrious mouse scurried into the open: There is something Orwellian about the amorphous "war on terrorism."
The proposed new department would combine 22 federal agencies and have more armed agents than any other agency. But the Bush administration doesn't want you to be able to find out what the hell it's doing. National security, you know.
This and constantly trotting out "the war" as justification for whatever the Bush crowd wants to do reminded me of Orwell's anti-totalitarian classic, "1984." I don't want to overstate the case, but flipping though my old paperback, there are creepy similarities.
In the nightmare world of Orwell's 1984, "Airstrip One" (aka England) is ruled by an all-powerful Party, and is in a constant state of war; the Party's motto reads, in part, "WAR IS PEACE." But the "enemy" shifts all the time between two distant nations, Eastasia and Eurasia. Not unlike Bush's slowly expanding "axis of evil."
Like the "war on terrorism," Airstrip One's war is far away, and is hazy to the average citizen. See if this passage echoes present reality: "In a physical sense, the war involves very small numbers of people, mostly highly trained specialists, and causes comparatively few casualties. The fighting, when there is any, takes place on the vague frontiers whose whereabouts the average man can only guess at."
Orwell, according to critic Erich Fromm, "gives an impressive picture of how a society must develop which is constantly preparing for war." Bush declares this war will go on for 10 years or more. Whenever he or his lieutenants want us to swallow some new reduction in liberties -- i.e. the onerous USA-PATRIOT act, which enables more government snooping in private lives; BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU -- they haul out the war excuse.
I support an intelligence-based, targeted war on the diffuse threat of terrorists, as do many Americans. But that doesn't give the Bush hawks permission to go ranging off on any military adventure they choose, such as finishing Poppy's biz in Iraq.
Pretending that we are now in a "war" that demands sacrifices in civil liberties -- though curiously, none in material comforts -- is insulting. World War II was a real war, and Americans rightly gave up essentials to support the fighting overseas. It's disingenuous to suggest that the current "war" is remotely similar.
Of course, doublespeak was crucial to maintaining Party power in "1984," too. According to the Bush people, citizens aren't necessarily citizens if we just tag them enemies, and POWs aren't really POWs. And if they say it's war, damn it, it is war, whether the enemy shifts from al-Qaida to Iraq to...?
War is an instrument of power not just over an enemy, but over the citizens at home. And as a Party torturer in "1984" says, "Always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler
No, it's not that bad. Not yet. But let's all keep an eye on who's lacing up their boots, shall we?
Chances are that money was never in the door, and profits were inflated to trick the public into thinking things were okay.
And what does tricking the public do?
Gets them to buy stock, and thus raise the stock price.
And who has millions of shares of the stock?
The guys at the top.
This is a serious situation. This fraud has cost 17,000 people their jobs and many others their life savings.
A quick peek of the Yahoo WCOM Message Boards shows many desperate messages about people threatening suicide and serious financial losses.
These are the people who the suits at the top never think of, while they enrich themselves.
Let's try reading that again, shall we? reward for the user who returns the milestone result They are talking about the person who returns the 500 millionth result, not the person who finds ET.
Vader - "Come, and we will rule the Empire as father and son."
Luke - "I don't want to be a fool for you. Just another player in your game for two. You may hate me but it ain't no lie. Bye, bye, bye."
I am a certified commercial pilot and air traffic controller. The problem with systems like this is that it is always easier than it sounds. No matter how nice that little LCD in the cockpit looks, flying is not going to be a "highway in the sky".
As a pilot, I regularly fly into airports where the wind is gusting to 30+ knots, the ceiling is 500 feet off the ground, the turbluence is slamming me against my seatbelts, and the visibility is below a mile.
If this alone didn't require a lot of skill, you have to constantly be alert for system failures, air traffic control instructions, and all relevant procedures.
All the automation in the world can't prepare your average highway driver for what flying can really be like.
This research will help pilots who are already fully certified reach their destinations easier and safer, but it will do nothing to have your average citizen flying the "highway in the sky".
This scum also got a hold of my domain, MP3Fiend.com. This was a highly successful Windows MP3 meta-engine a couple years ago, and it was the cornerstone of my business, Eternal Software.
Because of an e-mail problem with Network Solutions, this domain expired before I could reregister it. This guy jumped on it immediatly, and wants $4,500 to get it back! I am looking into this situation with great detail, and I'm sorry to hear other people here have the same problem with this guy.
You guys might want to read this:
h t& th=54ab4d241c34e0cc&seekm=3b8fd177%40monitor.lanse t.com#link1
"Wait 7 days, and then maybe I'll answer this post. You see, I am going away
in seven days, and you will not hear from me again."
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&frame=rig
I run a very popular website (more than 10,000,000 hits a month and climbing) and banner rates can't even pay for hosting anymore. The banner ad market is in such a sorry state that my inventory is about 10% sold with ultra-low CPMs, the rest are CPA campaigns which don't pay anything.
I for one am heading over to Amazon right now to check this out. I know my users really appreciate the work I put into my site, and now maybe they can show me by paying me $1 or more.
Because they're too stupid to learn Emacs or Vi and they need they're precious Word!
Ya I love to have to read the manual to find out what control-key combination I need to press to UNDERLINE something.
Clicking that "U" is such a resource hog!
"worst patent ever"
No matter what, you can always record the lineout from your soundcard, then recompress into whatever you feel like (MP3, for example).
You may say "not many people would go through the trouble", but only ONE person has to, then they can share the MP3 just like we do now.
Nothing will stop this, so why are they bothering with all this encryption technology?
This is one thing that Verant (makers of Everquest) did right. Every time they would find some new form of cheating, they would quickly patch the game and make it unusable.
If they didn't do this, the game would be ruined and all that stuff on eBay would be worthless. But some of it is still going for thousands of real dollars, so you can see they have been successful with their anti-cheating code.
Forget about voting from home, let's just modernize the process at the voting centers.
The perfect solution would be some big, color, touchscreen LCDs. These would display in large fonts the candidates names and pictures, seperated into big blocks (senior citizen friendly).
When you selected a candidate, you'd get a new screen with Al Gore's beautiful face and a "Are you sure you want to vote for Al Gore?" prompt , plus two huge YES/NO buttons (green for YES, red for NO).
This would end this rediculous scene of counting paper ballots by hand. There would be NO mistaking who you want to vote for, and the votes could be INSTANTLY counted in real-time. Recounts would never be necessary.
Just my two cents, for what its worth.
No faster way to bring a site to its knees than to have Slashdot link to a video.
While it may not be "dehumanizing", I definetly see the net as the beginning of isolation. I think the future sees humans hanging out, working, and sharing with each other remotely. And this is not a bad thing.
It is the dawning stages of a collective consciousness of sorts, where we are all thinking together and distance is irrelovant.
It's always good to read fresh Slashdot content.
That'll be one hell of a ride for the participants in NBC's upcoming Destination Mir.
Foget figuring out why the universe is here... just get me one of these and Flight Simulator and I'll be happy.
In his newest book, Just Six Numbers, Rees argues that six numbers underlie the fundamental physical properties of the universe, and that each is the precise value needed to permit life to flourish Perhaps this is just it then.
What makes the universe, and us, so amazing? Without a doubt, it's consciousness. Perhaps this is the only universe there can be that will be self-reflecting. A god is not needed. It is here because it has to be and it has to be this way for consciousness to arise.
We are part of the universe. We are conscious. Therefore, in a way, the universe itself is conscious.
Could it have been any other way?
This just came out today, as seen in ScienceDaily:
Electromagnetic Fields Affect Human Cells
"Electromagnetic fields, similar to those found in overhead power lines, can have a biological effect on human cells, an effect that could contribute to the complex cellular process that leads to cancer, research at Michigan State University shows."
So this may actually be something to worry about.