I don't know who said that first, but I read it here on Slashdot.
I like Vinge's fiction, but the Singularity thing strikes me as an apocalyptic/transcendent/eschatological scenario for people who can't stomach the Book of Revelation.
Face it: the real underpinnings of the "Singularity" are not any kind of hard science, but human yearning for redemption and transformation. All this talk about the growth of AI is a joke -- in fact most of the field of AI is a joke, since no one can even define what natural intelligence is, much less the artificial kind. And technological trends like Moore's Law are not in any way bound to continue, yet geeks treat them like scientifically proven laws of nature, and then extrapolate the emergence of an Ubermind.
The impulses behind religion -- a desire for collective change and a future utopia -- need not be manifested in traditionally religious ways. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, ostensibly anti- or non-religious people believed in a faith called Marxism, that promised an all-cleansing revolution and a workers' paradise. The "Singularity" nuts are just the latest iteration of this.
There's a term for the movement of people who want to cyborgize themselves, which escapes me at the moment (exomorphs? something like that). But I imagine there's a lot of overlap between them and the "Singularists."
I'm serious! Cybercafes are sprouting up in Lagos and other African cities, and guess who one of their main customer bases is? Yes, the African money transfer scammers.
I really can't wait untill the twin towers. When Hollywood makes great movies like this the whole MPAA trying to take away our rights thing doesn't sound so bad...
I'm in the process of setting up a political blog on SubIntSoc.net that uses b2. It's open source and totally customizable. The Cafelog forums contains scripts for dozens of cool hacks created by users.
Ultimately, "blogging" software is usable for all sorts of purposes. Heck, people use Slashcode for blogging. A "blog" is just a threaded, sequenced posting and/or discussion program. Not all are about people's belly button lint, or whatever.
I lived in Florida for 20 years, and traveled b/t Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa/St. Pete, Orlando, Gainesville, Tallahassee, and Ft. Myers all the time -- probably 6-8 times a year. I would have killed to be able to take a train, instead of driving. It's a 6-hour drive from Miami to Gainesville (which I made frequently during college)... and that's when there's no traffic. On holiday weekends, add an hour or three to that.
Objection 1: "It will only serve a few cities." Actually, Fla. HSR WILL serve the whole state when the system is built out. It makes sense to build lines to serve the 5 largest metro areas first -- they contain the most potential riders. But if you read my story, you'll see a link to a map that basically includes rail lines covering the whole state, following the paths of the major interstate highways (I-10, I-4, I-95, I-75) and the Fla. Turnpike. This means stations in Pensacola, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Ocala, Daytona, St. Augustine, Titusville, Fort Myers, Naples, and elsewhere.
Objection 2 seems to be the cost of the system. Well, the Florida HSR site says they are exploring a "DBMF" option, which stands for Design, Build, Maintain and Finance. In other words, a public-private partnership would build and run (and pay for) the system. You let private firms finance a major part of the system, and then let them make their money back by running it for profit. For an example, look at NYC: many people don't realize that 2/3 of its subway lines were actually built and run by private companies (tho they are now owned by the gov't.). A privately run train service would probably be more efficient anyway (look at how bad Amtrak service is... it's a gov't. monopoly, so they don't have to try).
Objection 3: not enough public transit WITHIN cities. This, sadly, is true. Florida needs to rectify this. I know there are serious efforts being made in southeast Florida (Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Palm Beach), but they've got a long way to go. Still, trains are very long-term investments (think decades and even centuries). Eventually Fla.'s major population centers will HAVE to offer better local transit systems, even if it doesn't happen for 15 or 20 years. And then the intercity HSR service will fully come into its own. Also, people and businesses will start to view locations near the HSR stations as desirable, and development patterns will change. You have to think long-term, something Americans seem to be bad at (and Floridians worst of all).
In any case, the status quo -- more and more roads, which just promote more and more traffic -- is unacceptable. Someone needs to have the vision to change this. Those who fear such a change are, wittingly or unwittingly, choosing the path that will lead to paving the entire state with asphalt and concrete. It's time to realize this is not working.
They want $10 from me just so I can listen -- without burning or keeping anything. That's like paying for radio. (And no, I'm not an XM subscriber and am not planning to be.)
They want $18 from me if I want to burn and keep 10 songs a month. That's like paying full price for a CD, except that I have to supply the CD and make it myself, and don't get any liner notes, cover art, etc.
The Subversive Intellectual Society runs an interesting site. It's not really a mock news site, but it contains a lot of satire, mostly about government, corporate and technology subjects. They pose as some kind of underground political group, and claim that their web site is hosted on a hacked DARPA server.
This was the most interesting part of the article for me:
At first, anxious to demonstrate CG's full photorealistic power, the animators took Yoda far beyond his crude former self, having his mouth form full phonemes and moving his body around faster. They also ironed out all the wrinkles: No more jiggly ears or shaky arms or broadly pantomimed walks. But these initial results ''looked creepy,'' says Coleman. ''It looked like a little green man. It wasn't Yoda.''
So they ''dirtied up'' the animation, aping all of Yoda's limitations. When original puppeteer (and voicer) Frank Oz saw the footage, he freaked. ''He said, 'You're even matching my mistakes! Those ear wiggles -- you've got to get those out!''' But Coleman, and especially Lucas, vetoed Oz's request, arguing that the evident puppet-ness of Yoda is in fact what audiences remember best about him, and they still expect it.
They were right. I was impressed by the fact that Yoda still moved like he used to, and didn't suddenly have overarticulated lips. I also noticed his ears trembling occasionally as his head moved. This was essential to selling us on the CGI.
I much prefer the more organic look of puppetry and stop-motion to some of the poorly done CGI in the last couple SW movies (and the "Special Edition" of the 1st trilogy). Two examples: In Star Wars: SE there was a lot of crap that was supposed to "enhance" Mos Eisley, including a Stormtrooper (I think) falling off of a beast he was riding. It looked stupid and fake. In ATC, there was the Sound of Music scene where CGI Anakin fell off of his giant snail, or whatever the hell that thing was. Also incredibly fake. Clue to Lucas: put REAL people on horses, or even on big stuffed models of the creatures you're portraying (like the Taun-Tauns in Empire), and film them falling off. Looks much better.
This CNN article from Feb. 2001 talks a little about it. But at that time it supposedly hadn't been deployed. Since then I've heard that Chinese Internet users are using Triangle Boy for secure connections to the outside world, bypassing the government firewalls.
This guy ties together two interesting ideas: the fact that humans appear to have evolved through an "aquatic ape" stage, and the particular gravitational conditions of Mars.
We should also note the recently discovered vast amounts of water on Mars.
Sorry your story got rejected and you don't get any karma, but please. Enough with the ragging on people because they talk about other stuff besides your pet topic.
This is not the first time I (or people I know) have submitted matters of major general interest that have been ignored. I'm not a biologist or paleontologist, so it's not my "pet topic," but I'm smart enough to recognize that Gould was a genius and a major figure in the history of science.
Apparently you, like the nameless/. editor who rejected the story, are not.
This is not a troll, and it's not offtopic, if Slashdot is truly about "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters":
The greatest evolutionary theorist since Charles Darwin died of cancer at his Manhattan home today... here's the New York Times obituary.
I submitted this story and it was rejected. Apparently Nintendo price cuts and the latest Star Wars box office figures are big news today, but not this.
I suggest that when Slashdot editors reject stories, they put their names on them, so we the submitters can start to figure out who ignores this kind of hugely important news in favor of trivia. Anonymous users are labeled as "cowards"... seems to me the same applies to anonymous editors.
Of course I fully expect this story WILL appear on the front page later tonight, or tomorrow, or better yet, in two or three days, after another 50 people have submitted it, and Taco or Timothy or somebody finally recogizes its significance.
I'd give back the Internet if it would find us a cure for cancer.
Forget giving it back... having it is more likely to find us a cure.
Think of all the communication and collaboration that is now possible between researchers around the world. And think of the various distributed computing projects, that use Net-connected PCs to crunch numbers for biomedical research and other causes.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know who said that first, but I read it here on Slashdot.
I like Vinge's fiction, but the Singularity thing strikes me as an apocalyptic/transcendent/eschatological scenario for people who can't stomach the Book of Revelation.
Face it: the real underpinnings of the "Singularity" are not any kind of hard science, but human yearning for redemption and transformation. All this talk about the growth of AI is a joke -- in fact most of the field of AI is a joke, since no one can even define what natural intelligence is, much less the artificial kind. And technological trends like Moore's Law are not in any way bound to continue, yet geeks treat them like scientifically proven laws of nature, and then extrapolate the emergence of an Ubermind.
The impulses behind religion -- a desire for collective change and a future utopia -- need not be manifested in traditionally religious ways. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, ostensibly anti- or non-religious people believed in a faith called Marxism, that promised an all-cleansing revolution and a workers' paradise. The "Singularity" nuts are just the latest iteration of this.
There's a term for the movement of people who want to cyborgize themselves, which escapes me at the moment (exomorphs? something like that). But I imagine there's a lot of overlap between them and the "Singularists."
I'm serious! Cybercafes are sprouting up in Lagos and other African cities, and guess who one of their main customer bases is? Yes, the African money transfer scammers.
THe free market at work, I guess.
I really can't wait untill the twin towers. When Hollywood makes great movies like this the whole MPAA trying to take away our rights thing doesn't sound so bad...
Is this a troll?
They certainly blow most other "kid" movies out of the water (especially those by Disney, who funds them but can't compete with them creatively).
Spirited Away is the only "kid" movie I've seen in ages that could stand up to a Pixar flick.
The code isn't complete, it's missing things like burning-to-cd routines;
How long before some enterprising h4x0r finds a way around this?
And what license is this released under? Can the code be legally extended/tweaked by others?
Kartoo.com
Note: Flash required.
I'm in the process of setting up a political blog on SubIntSoc.net that uses b2. It's open source and totally customizable. The Cafelog forums contains scripts for dozens of cool hacks created by users.
Ultimately, "blogging" software is usable for all sorts of purposes. Heck, people use Slashcode for blogging. A "blog" is just a threaded, sequenced posting and/or discussion program. Not all are about people's belly button lint, or whatever.
I did so, and surfed to nytimes.com, and immediately got a pop-up.
It did get passed by a majority of voters. Those who didn't vote for it or didn't read their ballot carefully have only themselves to blame.
The leaders weren't leading, so the people did, and now the leaders must follow.
I lived in Florida for 20 years, and traveled b/t Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa/St. Pete, Orlando, Gainesville, Tallahassee, and Ft. Myers all the time -- probably 6-8 times a year. I would have killed to be able to take a train, instead of driving. It's a 6-hour drive from Miami to Gainesville (which I made frequently during college)... and that's when there's no traffic. On holiday weekends, add an hour or three to that.
Objection 1: "It will only serve a few cities." Actually, Fla. HSR WILL serve the whole state when the system is built out. It makes sense to build lines to serve the 5 largest metro areas first -- they contain the most potential riders. But if you read my story, you'll see a link to a map that basically includes rail lines covering the whole state, following the paths of the major interstate highways (I-10, I-4, I-95, I-75) and the Fla. Turnpike. This means stations in Pensacola, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Ocala, Daytona, St. Augustine, Titusville, Fort Myers, Naples, and elsewhere.
Objection 2 seems to be the cost of the system. Well, the Florida HSR site says they are exploring a "DBMF" option, which stands for Design, Build, Maintain and Finance. In other words, a public-private partnership would build and run (and pay for) the system. You let private firms finance a major part of the system, and then let them make their money back by running it for profit. For an example, look at NYC: many people don't realize that 2/3 of its subway lines were actually built and run by private companies (tho they are now owned by the gov't.). A privately run train service would probably be more efficient anyway (look at how bad Amtrak service is... it's a gov't. monopoly, so they don't have to try).
Objection 3: not enough public transit WITHIN cities. This, sadly, is true. Florida needs to rectify this. I know there are serious efforts being made in southeast Florida (Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Palm Beach), but they've got a long way to go. Still, trains are very long-term investments (think decades and even centuries). Eventually Fla.'s major population centers will HAVE to offer better local transit systems, even if it doesn't happen for 15 or 20 years. And then the intercity HSR service will fully come into its own. Also, people and businesses will start to view locations near the HSR stations as desirable, and development patterns will change. You have to think long-term, something Americans seem to be bad at (and Floridians worst of all).
In any case, the status quo -- more and more roads, which just promote more and more traffic -- is unacceptable. Someone needs to have the vision to change this. Those who fear such a change are, wittingly or unwittingly, choosing the path that will lead to paving the entire state with asphalt and concrete. It's time to realize this is not working.
If you build it, they WILL come.
They want $10 from me just so I can listen -- without burning or keeping anything. That's like paying for radio. (And no, I'm not an XM subscriber and am not planning to be.)
They want $18 from me if I want to burn and keep 10 songs a month. That's like paying full price for a CD, except that I have to supply the CD and make it myself, and don't get any liner notes, cover art, etc.
Conclusion: it's still overpriced.
And it's updated every week (1 or 2 new stories).
One the funniest features: Create Your Own Terror Warning.
The Subversive Intellectual Society runs an interesting site. It's not really a mock news site, but it contains a lot of satire, mostly about government, corporate and technology subjects. They pose as some kind of underground political group, and claim that their web site is hosted on a hacked DARPA server.
Right now they are chronicling a fictitious candidate's race to become "Dictator" of Florida.
A large chunk of it is repeated twice.
Luckily for you, the Slashdot "editors" applied their excellent language skills to your post and... completely failed to correct the problem.
Didn't the mice in H2G2 already build such a computer? I think it was called... the Earth.
:)
Will the Earth Simulator have the nice fjords by Slartibartfast?
...thanks to a top secret DARPA project, unknown till now.
;)
Here's a look at what it's been recording recently in the Oval Office...
This was the most interesting part of the article for me:
At first, anxious to demonstrate CG's full photorealistic power, the animators took Yoda far beyond his crude former self, having his mouth form full phonemes and moving his body around faster. They also ironed out all the wrinkles: No more jiggly ears or shaky arms or broadly pantomimed walks. But these initial results ''looked creepy,'' says Coleman. ''It looked like a little green man. It wasn't Yoda.''
So they ''dirtied up'' the animation, aping all of Yoda's limitations. When original puppeteer (and voicer) Frank Oz saw the footage, he freaked. ''He said, 'You're even matching my mistakes! Those ear wiggles -- you've got to get those out!''' But Coleman, and especially Lucas, vetoed Oz's request, arguing that the evident puppet-ness of Yoda is in fact what audiences remember best about him, and they still expect it.
They were right. I was impressed by the fact that Yoda still moved like he used to, and didn't suddenly have overarticulated lips. I also noticed his ears trembling occasionally as his head moved. This was essential to selling us on the CGI.
I much prefer the more organic look of puppetry and stop-motion to some of the poorly done CGI in the last couple SW movies (and the "Special Edition" of the 1st trilogy). Two examples: In Star Wars: SE there was a lot of crap that was supposed to "enhance" Mos Eisley, including a Stormtrooper (I think) falling off of a beast he was riding. It looked stupid and fake. In ATC, there was the Sound of Music scene where CGI Anakin fell off of his giant snail, or whatever the hell that thing was. Also incredibly fake. Clue to Lucas: put REAL people on horses, or even on big stuffed models of the creatures you're portraying (like the Taun-Tauns in Empire), and film them falling off. Looks much better.
The CIA's venture capital company, In-Q-Tel, has funded a project called Triangle Boy:
m ity.software.idg/
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/02/15/anony
This CNN article from Feb. 2001 talks a little about it. But at that time it supposedly hadn't been deployed. Since then I've heard that Chinese Internet users are using Triangle Boy for secure connections to the outside world, bypassing the government firewalls.
At least according to "Harry Covert":
File #2: A Martian Chronicle
This guy ties together two interesting ideas: the fact that humans appear to have evolved through an "aquatic ape" stage, and the particular gravitational conditions of Mars.
We should also note the recently discovered vast amounts of water on Mars.
Someone should formulate, in mathematical notation, the principle that the current release of Mozilla will approach, but never reach, 1.0.
How many more incremental releases will there be?
Sorry your story got rejected and you don't get any karma, but please. Enough with the ragging on people because they talk about other stuff besides your pet topic.
/. editor who rejected the story, are not.
This is not the first time I (or people I know) have submitted matters of major general interest that have been ignored. I'm not a biologist or paleontologist, so it's not my "pet topic," but I'm smart enough to recognize that Gould was a genius and a major figure in the history of science.
Apparently you, like the nameless
This is not a troll, and it's not offtopic, if Slashdot is truly about "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters":
The greatest evolutionary theorist since Charles Darwin died of cancer at his Manhattan home today... here's the New York Times obituary.
I submitted this story and it was rejected. Apparently Nintendo price cuts and the latest Star Wars box office figures are big news today, but not this.
I suggest that when Slashdot editors reject stories, they put their names on them, so we the submitters can start to figure out who ignores this kind of hugely important news in favor of trivia. Anonymous users are labeled as "cowards"... seems to me the same applies to anonymous editors.
Of course I fully expect this story WILL appear on the front page later tonight, or tomorrow, or better yet, in two or three days, after another 50 people have submitted it, and Taco or Timothy or somebody finally recogizes its significance.
I'd give back the Internet if it would find us a cure for cancer.
Forget giving it back... having it is more likely to find us a cure.
Think of all the communication and collaboration that is now possible between researchers around the world. And think of the various distributed computing projects, that use Net-connected PCs to crunch numbers for biomedical research and other causes.
Earlier today it was the dual-screen laptop. They seem to publish these stories totally uncritically.
Dudes, if you're that desperate, just regurgitate something from Space.com, Wired News, or the Register.
This is not a troll.