Combine this technology with cloning, and you have the potential for immortality!
Grow your own clone, preferably without the brain, and replace your brain into it when the old body is all worn out. Repeat as nessesary.
Sure, you have some problems to overcome. The brain will still age, after all. And there is that nerve regeneration problem to be worked out... but hey, this could be the first day of the rest of your extremely extended life!
Not to get off topic, but aside from what CAN be done now to save power in a computer lab, I was curious what MIGHT be done someday?
What does the future hold for energy use in computers? Are they going to use more, or less? How can we conserve more power, or make what we do use go farther for the buck?
Do flatscreen monitors use less power than traditonal ones, or do they just look cool and use up less space? Instead of having to cool our CPUs with heat sinks, isn't there a way to design the chips not to waste so much energy as heat?
We go through periods of invention and innovation. Right now, invention is at an all time low, so we're focusing on innovation, to improve or extrapolate what we already have.
So what kind of innovation do we have to look forward to with computers and energy use? You tell me.
Robot Warz (the british version anyways) isn't exactly what I'd be looking forward to. Sure the host was Lister from Red Dwarf, but obstical courses? Come on!
Let's just admit what we really want: MECHS! (oops, please don't sue, Wizards of the Coast, since that's a copyrighted term and all)
We want MECHS. We want Mechs to do battle, not to do a robot version of American Gladiators (which is exactly what Robot Wars is!)
I'm looking forward to Battlebots 2020, personally. Just imagine what that will be like!
I happen to be a writer. Since writing is what I do, I don't see why I should appologize for being a bit eloquent in what I post. If you had something intelligent to say, I don't think you'd be wasting your time coming down on me.
In an age where tabliod journalism seems to reign supreme, where shock-value is standard criteria, and where the line "if it bleeds, it leads" rings true to many, it's refreshing to see that Satire is finding some respect.
Humour is perhaps one of the least appreciated forms of information and education out there. During the 60's, while civil rights activists worked at changing the laws to be fair to all races, people like Richard Pryor was changing the way we think with his sometimes crude and direct stand up comedy. It made people deal face to face with the way things were, but made you laugh about it as well, and that can have a long term impact on the way people think that laws cannot.
While the real news broadcasts fumbled and blustered over the political debacle, Indecision 2000 was able to (in a humerous way) make us face up to the fact that the system is flawed, that there is no good guys or bad guys, that the business of politics is politics, and with the general silly nature of elections in general.
If we learn to laugh at our own mistakes, we just might have a better chance of not making the same mistake again.
Of all the movies mentioned, what truely made them good was not the effects, but the writing. Technology is just a means to attempt to bring to life what a writer imagines when they draw up a script.
But here is an interesting and really cool thought. As technology becomes more accessible, imagine how the world of visual entertainment will change for the better!
Say you were an artist and writer, and wanted total creative control over a project, your best bet would be in a comic or graphic novel format, since you could do all the work yourself if you really wanted to. But if that comic became popular and turned into a movie or animated movie or series, heaven help you! A thousand people with their own ideas step in and chances are you end up with a disaster.
Now, concider CGI. In time, anyone will be able to make whatever kind of movie they want themselves, given enough time they could possibly do everything, including voices. Yes, there is a balance here, because enough time as to pass that the technology is cheap and user friendly enough for one person to do it. Long time.
But when it happens, a single writer with a single vision can create a movie exactly the way they want it, and I think the industry will be better off for it. Too many cooks truely do spoil the broth.
Maybe NASA is a little stuck up on the matter, but I think I can see why. After all, the station is still being built, and I doubt this "tourist" would do more than get in the way (think of a tourist in a small scientist's lab, where everyone is working and what might happen).
That said, I doubt the Russians have a clear perspective on the matter themselves. Their space program is severely cash strapped, and this guy has a huge amount of money tucked away just for them which will be paid UPON his arrival at the space station. So they've got this huge carrot dangling in front of them, is it any wonder if they're a little less than clearheaded about the issue?
The government of B.C. is built on over-regulation. I wanted to become a bicycle courier up here, and this is what I had to go through:
1) Written bicycle test: cost $15
2) Pratical road bicycle test: cost $15
3) Filling out forms and purchasing licence plate (?!?!) for bicycle: cost $12
So for 42 bucks you had the luxury of being licenced to work as a bicycle courier for ONE year. Now I'm sure that future years required only part 3) to be done, but it's just ridiculous!
I lived in Toronto, Ontario before this, and this was what was required to become a bike courier:
I'm sorry, but if you're talking Egypitian timespans, the next such timespan will see the earth not have enough space to give everyone their own graves. In the old days you could afford to give individual graves to everyone, and we can tollerate it now, but in the long run we're going to have to make room in your livingroom for a grave.
Of course there are the examples, such as Japan, where space is at such a premium, that you're only buried for X-number of years before you're exumed and placed in a little jar for your home shelf.
Quite frankly, there is no point in having tombstones last for more than a few hundred years, because after that, policies on burial are going to have to rapidly change.
How about a sub-topic? How could we make the most use of space to fit our dead into? Cremation is obviously very compact, but maybe there are some other ideas out there that don't destroy the body (or minimize damage).
It's strange. But X-Com was one of the best games to come out in its day. It didn't have state-of-the-art graphics, but it had a concept and execution that has never really been repeated since.
It also suffrered from that stranges of computer animals: DEevolution. X-com2 was graphically worse than the original, and Apocolypse was just a worse game with sharper graphics. That doesn't happen all that often. At the very least sequals maintain the status quo because programers or company executives are too afraid to try something different when something works well.
Anyways, it would be nice to see something like this game return. In an age of RTS games, a good turn based stategy is hard to come by.
I work on the internet... ergo I must be thinking about work. AAUGH! I'M STRESSED!
But seriously, while I agree that this happens, its also because we let it happen. It's all in the attitude, and if one has a job that is highly stressful (and unenjoyable) then it only stands to reason that the very thought of it will cause stress as well, dread of having to do the job. If one enjoys what they do, then the stress is easier to manage, and no doubt the thought of it won't cause nearly as much distress.
It's such a shame that most people insist on keeping jobs that pay well, but they hate.
Doesn't this remind you a bit of Peanuts? Good ol' Charlie Brown, boy of common sense, has straight forward views on life, but is essentially bullied into doing whatever Lucy says (be it kicking a football or paying her 5 cent psychiatrist fee) through excessive child mumbo-jumbo/jargon. Lucy should be working for Fox, apparently.
Just because it will expand forever, doesn't mean it won't have an end. Eventually everything will just disipate into heat. Eventually every sun will die and every black hole will fade, and the universe will be a cold, dead place. Even assuming that the human race was still around and we created artificial energy sources powerful enough to sustain us, eventually (WAY WAY WAY in the future) we'd use that all up as well. Even if you could use any raw material for fusion (ala the Delorian at the end of Back to the Future), eventually that will be used up as well. Eventually, it will all end.
Some of these cards and memory sticks are getting ludicrously tiny. Just because you CAN stuff X-number of Megs (or have angels dance) on the head of a pin doesn't mean you should.
The standard Compact Flash Card that I've seen in most digital cameras is also what my PSION 5 uses, and I like the size of them just fine. Small enough to store anywhere, big enough to find if you drop it on the floor.
But heaven help you if you sneeze on some of these smaller ones, with a slight updraft they might stay aloft for hours along with dandelion seeds... okay, I exagerate, but they are getting bloody small, and for no good reason.
If they think this is enough to account for all that "Dark Matter" we always hear about?
I think one of the more interesting things I've learned of late about black holes is they don't last for ever. Even something so powerful that nothing was thought to escape it will lose mass and eventually die, a strange fitting testament to a universe that we realize increasingly did indeed have a beginning, and will indeed have an end.
That comment about the Drudge Report, "Furthermore, if he ever *does* get another interesting story, we'll tune right back in. The public is better at sorting the good from the bad than you think." Rings quite hollow to me.
If the public is so good at sorting out the good from the bad, then why are tabloids the best selling newspapers in the world? The Enquirerer used to be #1 in north America for God's sake!
People are sheep who are looking for instant gratification. I think he's giving the public too much credit.
I have a phylosophy in life. Know your limitations, and work your life around them instead of trying to work through them.
For example. When I first went to university, I was slightly overweight. I know I don't have the willpower for working out regularly, I've tried too many times and failed. So instead, I found an apartment five miles away from the university, with a nice bike path that went almost all the where I lived. There was no way I would pay for a monthly bus pass (money better spent on games) so for the next three years I was biking at least 10 miles a day, five days a week. Sure it's a little extra work, but it's worth it. Problem solved.
This solution reminds me of that. Instead of trying to make encryption better and better, a process everyon knows will always have problems and flaws, either in security or convenience, they worked their way around it by making the numbers a one-shot deal. Sure it's a little extra work, but the rewards are worth it. Problem solved.
My brother and I are developing our own roleplaying system (aren't we all), and are hoping to get it published. I think we've got a perfect target audience, and we've got high hopes for the book (again, don't we all).
What I want to know is, is the market over saturated with roleplaying games, or under? I honestly can't make up my mind! Whenever I go somewhere selling roleplaying games, the shelves are full, packed even, with RPGs.
However, most of the books on those shelves are of similar genre (tons of AD&D naturally, Rifts, GURPS, ect), and the majority of the products are just suppliments for mega-established games.
But this still makes me wonder if there is room for the "little guy" out there.
As a freelance writer, I find RPGs to have an incredible amount of potential depth and character, something even the best computer RPG cannot possibly match. Imagination is a much more powerful tool than a really good graphic artist (or, to use an old movie analogy, the first rule of a good horror movie is to NEVER show the monster. The audience is far more frightened by what their imagination can conjour up than what the art college boys can cook up with latex).
If you have a talented writer as a GM, the possibilities are endless, and rewarding. I'm sorry, but computer games simply cannot compete.
Yet.
Neverwinter Nights is introuducing some very interesting things that will begin to level the playing field a bit. Not only can you create cities, adventures, characters, ect... but the gamemaster interacts while the game is going on, and can take on the roles of any NPCs he or she wants to. This level of interaction has great possibilities in constructing a fluid, dynamic storyline that the players can enjoy. I'm interested to see where this goes.
But I can't help but feel that traditional roleplaying will have a single advantage, and that is you are forced to rely on your imagination, and nothing else.
Obi (as in Obi-wan) is a word for a magic man in some language. I found this out playing scrabble when I used it, and gosh darn it, not only did it work, it had a definition for me!
Concidering the numerous oriental influences Star Wars has (and I'm sure entire websites address this), maybe -Wan was derived from -San, which every Westerner adds to the end of someones name if they're pretending to be Japanese. >:)
What will be interesting is to find a lifeform here that has been separated from the rest of the world for untold millions of years, with no contamination, and compare its genetic structure with our own. To see how much "junk" genes there are compared with the rest of us (many of the genes in our body are concidered to be useless, their only purpose to fill the right amount of space between useful sequences.
Assuming what we find there has not significantly evolved in untold millions of years (or, better yet, evolved in a distinctly different way than the rest of us!), the possibilities are quite fascinating.
Could it be that emails will be sifted to search for copyright hotwords like Coca Cola? Anyone using Coca Cola will automatically have a royalty charge applied to their account?
Here's a funny scenario. Say there is an e-mail scam going on. Someone is sending e-mails that promise a good thing, and after reading it, you fear that some foolish people are going to fall for it and lose their life savings. So you send out a warning email, using the body of the text to help people recognize it, as well as demonstrate the hows and whys of it being a scam.
Theoretically YOU could be fined for doing a public service.
On a lighter note... what if I emailed something, lost the original, and wanted to send it off to some other people. I go to a friend and ask them to bring it up in their account, and then I email it off to other people... do I have to get written signed permission from myself?:)
Slashdot Mirror
Combine this technology with cloning, and you have the potential for immortality!
Grow your own clone, preferably without the brain, and replace your brain into it when the old body is all worn out. Repeat as nessesary.
Sure, you have some problems to overcome. The brain will still age, after all. And there is that nerve regeneration problem to be worked out... but hey, this could be the first day of the rest of your extremely extended life!
Not to get off topic, but aside from what CAN be done now to save power in a computer lab, I was curious what MIGHT be done someday?
What does the future hold for energy use in computers? Are they going to use more, or less? How can we conserve more power, or make what we do use go farther for the buck?
Do flatscreen monitors use less power than traditonal ones, or do they just look cool and use up less space? Instead of having to cool our CPUs with heat sinks, isn't there a way to design the chips not to waste so much energy as heat?
We go through periods of invention and innovation. Right now, invention is at an all time low, so we're focusing on innovation, to improve or extrapolate what we already have.
So what kind of innovation do we have to look forward to with computers and energy use? You tell me.
Robot Warz (the british version anyways) isn't exactly what I'd be looking forward to. Sure the host was Lister from Red Dwarf, but obstical courses? Come on!
Let's just admit what we really want: MECHS! (oops, please don't sue, Wizards of the Coast, since that's a copyrighted term and all)
We want MECHS. We want Mechs to do battle, not to do a robot version of American Gladiators (which is exactly what Robot Wars is!)
I'm looking forward to Battlebots 2020, personally. Just imagine what that will be like!
I may be a writer, but nobody accused me of being a good speller ;).
Damn spellcheckers.
I happen to be a writer. Since writing is what I do, I don't see why I should appologize for being a bit eloquent in what I post. If you had something intelligent to say, I don't think you'd be wasting your time coming down on me.
I write what I believe, no appologies.
In an age where tabliod journalism seems to reign supreme, where shock-value is standard criteria, and where the line "if it bleeds, it leads" rings true to many, it's refreshing to see that Satire is finding some respect.
Humour is perhaps one of the least appreciated forms of information and education out there. During the 60's, while civil rights activists worked at changing the laws to be fair to all races, people like Richard Pryor was changing the way we think with his sometimes crude and direct stand up comedy. It made people deal face to face with the way things were, but made you laugh about it as well, and that can have a long term impact on the way people think that laws cannot.
While the real news broadcasts fumbled and blustered over the political debacle, Indecision 2000 was able to (in a humerous way) make us face up to the fact that the system is flawed, that there is no good guys or bad guys, that the business of politics is politics, and with the general silly nature of elections in general.
If we learn to laugh at our own mistakes, we just might have a better chance of not making the same mistake again.
....but superheroes still need good writers.
Of all the movies mentioned, what truely made them good was not the effects, but the writing. Technology is just a means to attempt to bring to life what a writer imagines when they draw up a script.
But here is an interesting and really cool thought. As technology becomes more accessible, imagine how the world of visual entertainment will change for the better!
Say you were an artist and writer, and wanted total creative control over a project, your best bet would be in a comic or graphic novel format, since you could do all the work yourself if you really wanted to. But if that comic became popular and turned into a movie or animated movie or series, heaven help you! A thousand people with their own ideas step in and chances are you end up with a disaster.
Now, concider CGI. In time, anyone will be able to make whatever kind of movie they want themselves, given enough time they could possibly do everything, including voices. Yes, there is a balance here, because enough time as to pass that the technology is cheap and user friendly enough for one person to do it. Long time.
But when it happens, a single writer with a single vision can create a movie exactly the way they want it, and I think the industry will be better off for it. Too many cooks truely do spoil the broth.
Maybe NASA is a little stuck up on the matter, but I think I can see why. After all, the station is still being built, and I doubt this "tourist" would do more than get in the way (think of a tourist in a small scientist's lab, where everyone is working and what might happen).
That said, I doubt the Russians have a clear perspective on the matter themselves. Their space program is severely cash strapped, and this guy has a huge amount of money tucked away just for them which will be paid UPON his arrival at the space station. So they've got this huge carrot dangling in front of them, is it any wonder if they're a little less than clearheaded about the issue?
The government of B.C. is built on over-regulation. I wanted to become a bicycle courier up here, and this is what I had to go through:
1) Written bicycle test: cost $15
2) Pratical road bicycle test: cost $15
3) Filling out forms and purchasing licence plate (?!?!) for bicycle: cost $12
So for 42 bucks you had the luxury of being licenced to work as a bicycle courier for ONE year. Now I'm sure that future years required only part 3) to be done, but it's just ridiculous!
I lived in Toronto, Ontario before this, and this was what was required to become a bike courier:
1) a bike.
'Nuff said.
I'm sorry, but if you're talking Egypitian timespans, the next such timespan will see the earth not have enough space to give everyone their own graves. In the old days you could afford to give individual graves to everyone, and we can tollerate it now, but in the long run we're going to have to make room in your livingroom for a grave.
Of course there are the examples, such as Japan, where space is at such a premium, that you're only buried for X-number of years before you're exumed and placed in a little jar for your home shelf.
Quite frankly, there is no point in having tombstones last for more than a few hundred years, because after that, policies on burial are going to have to rapidly change.
How about a sub-topic? How could we make the most use of space to fit our dead into? Cremation is obviously very compact, but maybe there are some other ideas out there that don't destroy the body (or minimize damage).
It's strange. But X-Com was one of the best games to come out in its day. It didn't have state-of-the-art graphics, but it had a concept and execution that has never really been repeated since.
It also suffrered from that stranges of computer animals: DEevolution. X-com2 was graphically worse than the original, and Apocolypse was just a worse game with sharper graphics. That doesn't happen all that often. At the very least sequals maintain the status quo because programers or company executives are too afraid to try something different when something works well.
Anyways, it would be nice to see something like this game return. In an age of RTS games, a good turn based stategy is hard to come by.
I work on the internet... ergo I must be thinking about work. AAUGH! I'M STRESSED!
But seriously, while I agree that this happens, its also because we let it happen. It's all in the attitude, and if one has a job that is highly stressful (and unenjoyable) then it only stands to reason that the very thought of it will cause stress as well, dread of having to do the job. If one enjoys what they do, then the stress is easier to manage, and no doubt the thought of it won't cause nearly as much distress.
It's such a shame that most people insist on keeping jobs that pay well, but they hate.
Doesn't this remind you a bit of Peanuts? Good ol' Charlie Brown, boy of common sense, has straight forward views on life, but is essentially bullied into doing whatever Lucy says (be it kicking a football or paying her 5 cent psychiatrist fee) through excessive child mumbo-jumbo/jargon. Lucy should be working for Fox, apparently.
Just because it will expand forever, doesn't mean it won't have an end. Eventually everything will just disipate into heat. Eventually every sun will die and every black hole will fade, and the universe will be a cold, dead place. Even assuming that the human race was still around and we created artificial energy sources powerful enough to sustain us, eventually (WAY WAY WAY in the future) we'd use that all up as well. Even if you could use any raw material for fusion (ala the Delorian at the end of Back to the Future), eventually that will be used up as well. Eventually, it will all end.
Some of these cards and memory sticks are getting ludicrously tiny. Just because you CAN stuff X-number of Megs (or have angels dance) on the head of a pin doesn't mean you should.
The standard Compact Flash Card that I've seen in most digital cameras is also what my PSION 5 uses, and I like the size of them just fine. Small enough to store anywhere, big enough to find if you drop it on the floor.
But heaven help you if you sneeze on some of these smaller ones, with a slight updraft they might stay aloft for hours along with dandelion seeds... okay, I exagerate, but they are getting bloody small, and for no good reason.
If they think this is enough to account for all that "Dark Matter" we always hear about?
I think one of the more interesting things I've learned of late about black holes is they don't last for ever. Even something so powerful that nothing was thought to escape it will lose mass and eventually die, a strange fitting testament to a universe that we realize increasingly did indeed have a beginning, and will indeed have an end.
That comment about the Drudge Report, "Furthermore, if he ever *does* get another interesting story, we'll tune right back in. The public is better at sorting the good from the bad than you think." Rings quite hollow to me.
If the public is so good at sorting out the good from the bad, then why are tabloids the best selling newspapers in the world? The Enquirerer used to be #1 in north America for God's sake!
People are sheep who are looking for instant gratification. I think he's giving the public too much credit.
Forgive the spelling and gramatical errors. I hang my head in shame.
I have a phylosophy in life. Know your limitations, and work your life around them instead of trying to work through them.
For example. When I first went to university, I was slightly overweight. I know I don't have the willpower for working out regularly, I've tried too many times and failed. So instead, I found an apartment five miles away from the university, with a nice bike path that went almost all the where I lived. There was no way I would pay for a monthly bus pass (money better spent on games) so for the next three years I was biking at least 10 miles a day, five days a week. Sure it's a little extra work, but it's worth it. Problem solved.
This solution reminds me of that. Instead of trying to make encryption better and better, a process everyon knows will always have problems and flaws, either in security or convenience, they worked their way around it by making the numbers a one-shot deal. Sure it's a little extra work, but the rewards are worth it. Problem solved.
I'm sorry, but the library PAID for those copies of books. Exactly who are YOU paying when you copy a book and put it up for everyone to read?
My brother and I are developing our own roleplaying system (aren't we all), and are hoping to get it published. I think we've got a perfect target audience, and we've got high hopes for the book (again, don't we all).
What I want to know is, is the market over saturated with roleplaying games, or under? I honestly can't make up my mind! Whenever I go somewhere selling roleplaying games, the shelves are full, packed even, with RPGs.
However, most of the books on those shelves are of similar genre (tons of AD&D naturally, Rifts, GURPS, ect), and the majority of the products are just suppliments for mega-established games.
But this still makes me wonder if there is room for the "little guy" out there.
As a freelance writer, I find RPGs to have an incredible amount of potential depth and character, something even the best computer RPG cannot possibly match. Imagination is a much more powerful tool than a really good graphic artist (or, to use an old movie analogy, the first rule of a good horror movie is to NEVER show the monster. The audience is far more frightened by what their imagination can conjour up than what the art college boys can cook up with latex).
If you have a talented writer as a GM, the possibilities are endless, and rewarding. I'm sorry, but computer games simply cannot compete.
Yet.
Neverwinter Nights is introuducing some very interesting things that will begin to level the playing field a bit. Not only can you create cities, adventures, characters, ect... but the gamemaster interacts while the game is going on, and can take on the roles of any NPCs he or she wants to. This level of interaction has great possibilities in constructing a fluid, dynamic storyline that the players can enjoy. I'm interested to see where this goes.
But I can't help but feel that traditional roleplaying will have a single advantage, and that is you are forced to rely on your imagination, and nothing else.
Obi (as in Obi-wan) is a word for a magic man in some language. I found this out playing scrabble when I used it, and gosh darn it, not only did it work, it had a definition for me!
Concidering the numerous oriental influences Star Wars has (and I'm sure entire websites address this), maybe -Wan was derived from -San, which every Westerner adds to the end of someones name if they're pretending to be Japanese. >:)
What will be interesting is to find a lifeform here that has been separated from the rest of the world for untold millions of years, with no contamination, and compare its genetic structure with our own. To see how much "junk" genes there are compared with the rest of us (many of the genes in our body are concidered to be useless, their only purpose to fill the right amount of space between useful sequences.
Assuming what we find there has not significantly evolved in untold millions of years (or, better yet, evolved in a distinctly different way than the rest of us!), the possibilities are quite fascinating.
Could it be that emails will be sifted to search for copyright hotwords like Coca Cola? Anyone using Coca Cola will automatically have a royalty charge applied to their account?
:)
Here's a funny scenario. Say there is an e-mail scam going on. Someone is sending e-mails that promise a good thing, and after reading it, you fear that some foolish people are going to fall for it and lose their life savings. So you send out a warning email, using the body of the text to help people recognize it, as well as demonstrate the hows and whys of it being a scam.
Theoretically YOU could be fined for doing a public service.
On a lighter note... what if I emailed something, lost the original, and wanted to send it off to some other people. I go to a friend and ask them to bring it up in their account, and then I email it off to other people... do I have to get written signed permission from myself?