My view is that if the computer and the human acheive the same result, then they are doing the same thing. It doesn't matter that the computer is doing it in a "stupid" but well-understood way, and the human in an "intelligent" but poorly-understood way.
I was always impressed by people who could solve Rubik's cubes when I was young, my poor brain just couldn't work out how to complete them at all (I am also useless at chess). I guess I am not very good at thinking many moves ahead.
However, I realised you could peel all the little stickers off and stick them on in the correct places to 'solve' it. To me, this is how computers play chess.
Programming computers to beat humans at chess (in this way, look ahead tree-pruning with vast gambit encylopaedia on the side) may be an interesting academic exercise, perhaps, but the only thing it tells us about human intelligence is how it DOES NOT work.
Yeah, I presumed it was 90% showmanship and he was using some sort of special bullets, but you could see him taking the impacts OK. He was a big fat guy too, guess that helped! Looked dead impressive, nonetheless.
I remember seeing a program on TV where some crazy American who made bullet-proof vests stode on wearing one, produced an assault rifle and proceeded to fire it into his own chest, grinning madly. Now that's confidence in your product!!;-)
Why is it so much worse to see someone get blown then to see them get their head blown off?
I'll tell you why.. when they are getting their head blown off, you know it's make believe. When they are getting blown they are really getting blown. Regardless of the artistic context, that event is really happening. Of course this depends on how you feel about sex as whether this is a bad thing or not, but going by commonly held Western values, selling your body, or performing sex acts for 'sale' is seen as corrupting and degrading. And, as they are doing it for you, the watcher's benefit, you are complicit in that act.
Compare this with fake violence - nothing more going on there than an exploding blood pack and a bit of SFX. I believe that to be much easier to separate from reality.
See, that's what I don't get about you "criminals deserve what they get" types. For every inmate who gets bum-raped there is another inmate doing the raping! Presumably loving it, and getting away with it scott free. How does this fit in with your grand crime and punishment scheme?
Meant to add my rule of thumb for spyware - any program that actively thwarts the user for uninstalling it has got to have a hidden agenda.
Re:Other Programs...
on
Gator Examined
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I got a popup yesterday asking if I wanted to install Weatherbug. I refused, of course, but out of curiosity I did a little research, and ad-aware classifies it as a data-miner. Google has loads of hits for Weatherbug+Spyware (amusingly the first one links to a denial from the manufacturers, counterbalanced by about a thousand hits with people saying it is)
You haven't been to the US have you? In suburban areas the drivers flat-out ignore the Walk/Don't Walk sign. This is because pedestrians are virtually non-existant. Actually walking to places is considered such an aberration that you will get cars slowing as they pass so the drivers can gawk at you. Add to this the fact that drunk-driving is de rigeur, you are talking your life in your hands when you walk anywhere in America.
Same sort of thing with hand-written smilies. I was writing a note and was about to end on a colon-hypen-bracket smiley when I realised I could just draw an actual smiley face.
But I could not do that either - it looked too damn gay.
Playing games may give you the hand-eye coordination required to aim quickly but firing a gun is a world away from clicking a mouse button. The one and only time I fired a shotgun, I took careful aim (at a fench post) squeezed the trigger and *blammo* massive recoil, bullet goes God knows where up into the sky. All my FPS experience was useless when it came to the real thing.
With the sheer force and noise, it's actually quite physically traumatic to fire a gun.
I gott ask tho, is it possible/. editors could spend more than 2 seconds typing up their editorials? This smacks a bit of not giving a damn anymore. This isn't IRC.
Interesting acronym.. did you just make this up, or is it widely used? (I'm presuming it's like RTFM but for google)
Oh.. hold on...;-) I've googled and found it in the jargon file. Still, I'd never heard it before.
Re:Its a better one player game
on
Sim-Dud?
·
· Score: 1
Holy Shit! People have online pizza parlour jobs? For fun? Are we living in some sort of dystopian nightmare here? Where the rich go online and simulate the mundanity of crappy jobs for kicks while the poor do it for real????
The first step is admiting you have a problem.... now that Microsoft has gotten past the denial stage they can now move to stage 2, that is doing something about it....
Slashdot Mirror
My view is that if the computer and the human acheive the same result, then they are doing the same thing. It doesn't matter that the computer is doing it in a "stupid" but well-understood way, and the human in an "intelligent" but poorly-understood way.
I was always impressed by people who could solve Rubik's cubes when I was young, my poor brain just couldn't work out how to complete them at all (I am also useless at chess). I guess I am not very good at thinking many moves ahead.
However, I realised you could peel all the little stickers off and stick them on in the correct places to 'solve' it. To me, this is how computers play chess.
Programming computers to beat humans at chess (in this way, look ahead tree-pruning with vast gambit encylopaedia on the side) may be an interesting academic exercise, perhaps, but the only thing it tells us about human intelligence is how it DOES NOT work.
That alone makes me positive of next summer's number one B.O. hit though.
;-)
Yep, all those sweaty, overexcited, unwashed nerds in one place at one time... you'll get quite a BO hit off that alright!
Yeah, I presumed it was 90% showmanship and he was using some sort of special bullets, but you could see him taking the impacts OK. He was a big fat guy too, guess that helped! Looked dead impressive, nonetheless.
I remember seeing a program on TV where some crazy American who made bullet-proof vests stode on wearing one, produced an assault rifle and proceeded to fire it into his own chest, grinning madly. Now that's confidence in your product!! ;-)
Why is it so much worse to see someone get blown then to see them get their head blown off?
I'll tell you why.. when they are getting their head blown off, you know it's make believe. When they are getting blown they are really getting blown. Regardless of the artistic context, that event is really happening. Of course this depends on how you feel about sex as whether this is a bad thing or not, but going by commonly held Western values, selling your body, or performing sex acts for 'sale' is seen as corrupting and degrading. And, as they are doing it for you, the watcher's benefit, you are complicit in that act.
Compare this with fake violence - nothing more going on there than an exploding blood pack and a bit of SFX. I believe that to be much easier to separate from reality.
See, that's what I don't get about you "criminals deserve what they get" types. For every inmate who gets bum-raped there is another inmate doing the raping! Presumably loving it, and getting away with it scott free. How does this fit in with your grand crime and punishment scheme?
Lawsuites? Is that what you call the chairs in a attorney's waiting room?
Meant to add my rule of thumb for spyware - any program that actively thwarts the user for uninstalling it has got to have a hidden agenda.
I got a popup yesterday asking if I wanted to install Weatherbug. I refused, of course, but out of curiosity I did a little research, and ad-aware classifies it as a data-miner. Google has loads of hits for Weatherbug+Spyware (amusingly the first one links to a denial from the manufacturers, counterbalanced by about a thousand hits with people saying it is)
It does not seem to be well thought of, anyhow.
You did miss something. The article says that Gator now randomly delays ads by several minutes so you can't be sure what website triggered it.
Well, I doubt he managed to finish it this quick the first time around!!
You haven't been to the US have you? In suburban areas the drivers flat-out ignore the Walk/Don't Walk sign. This is because pedestrians are virtually non-existant.
Actually walking to places is considered such an aberration that you will get cars slowing as they pass so the drivers can gawk at you.
Add to this the fact that drunk-driving is de rigeur, you are talking your life in your hands when you walk anywhere in America.
> GRAB PENIS
I don't know what that is.
Guess you're right!
Same sort of thing with hand-written smilies. I was writing a note and was about to end on a colon-hypen-bracket smiley when I realised I could just draw an actual smiley face.
But I could not do that either - it looked too damn gay.
Playing games may give you the hand-eye coordination required to aim quickly but firing a gun is a world away from clicking a mouse button.
The one and only time I fired a shotgun, I took careful aim (at a fench post) squeezed the trigger and *blammo* massive recoil, bullet goes God knows where up into the sky. All my FPS experience was useless when it came to the real thing.
With the sheer force and noise, it's actually quite physically traumatic to fire a gun.
Am I the only one who heard Roxette to sing "I'm gonna get blitzed for some sex"?
Well, yes, but I did always think they were singing "fucking in the shack"
I gott ask tho, is it possible /. editors could spend more than 2 seconds typing up their editorials? This smacks a bit of not giving a damn anymore. This isn't IRC.
Interesting acronym.. did you just make this up, or is it widely used? (I'm presuming it's like RTFM but for google)
;-)
Oh.. hold on...
I've googled and found it in the jargon file.
Still, I'd never heard it before.
Holy Shit!
People have online pizza parlour jobs? For fun?
Are we living in some sort of dystopian nightmare here? Where the rich go online and simulate the mundanity of crappy jobs for kicks while the poor do it for real????
The DVD makers do, sure. Hence all the multi-region 'hacks'. It's the movie producers that want to control this.
The Transformed Man, you say?
I do belive this is a good time to plug my site.
. Does improper high-lighting affect reading comprehension? Never thought of that...
Well, why not see for yourself.
No, man, you've got it wrong - Soylent Green is people.
Actually, MS did eventually release the source for Bars'n'Pipes, and it has undergone many modernising improvements since.
Have a look.
The first step is admiting you have a problem.... now that Microsoft has gotten past the denial stage they can now move to stage 2, that is doing something about it....
And after that:
Step 3: Profit!!!