How do you design a test for life that is all-encompassing? Isn't it arrogant to assume that our definition of life (that which revolves around our ball of dirt) is the only definition? What about a silicon life-form? We are designing tests for carbon-based life, tests for earth life.
Only if we use your definition of arrogance.
What kind of test could we send to detect microbial life that diesn't meet our definitive tests?
If we don't use definitive tests, how will we know whether the answers are any good? What would you do? Drop some aluminum siding on the surface to see if there is an overwhelming need for martian life to bond to it?
Re:If they're so sophisticated...
on
MilSpec Biotech
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· Score: 1
>Wouldn't it be easier to just pour a much smaller fraction of their budget into discovering ways to, >oh,-I-don't-know, maybe find ways to reduce the need for armed conflict in the first place?
Well, no. Not since President Carter outlawed assassinating heads of state.
Think of all the lives that could have been saved over the years by a couple of good headshots.
International BOFH Brotherhood?
on
IT Unions?
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· Score: 1
I wonder if people have thought of the ramifications of what could happen in a truly bitter strike.
'Round where I'm from, when Teamsters (or the most recent example, the Detroit Newspaper Strike) go on strike, it's almost inevitable that some poor truck driving shlub is going to be shot at by a highway sniper, property will be destroyed and people will be beat up or murdered.
Of course the Union will claim that none of the perpetrators of these crimes are really union members, just people who want to cause trouble. They might even go so far as to imply the company did it.
So, when routers mysteriously stop working properly, or a companies web site gets DDOS'd, or a really nasty virus somehow makes it into the network and the AV is turned off it'll be the same thing.
I wonder if the folks who make up the membership of the AFL-CIO and other unions have really thought long and hard about exactly who they're trying to organize. I wonder how long the mutual support of other unions will last when the payroll server crashes on Friday morning and the backup tapes have been erased.
My prediction is that programmers will remain white collar. Network techies will become
unionized.
However, once someone realizes who is organizing and what an extended strike could mean, the BOFH Brotherhood will become similar to other "critical" unions like the Air Traffic Controllers.
They'll pass a law saying, "You can organize all you want. You just can't strike."
Re:I'm a Union IT Professional
on
IT Unions?
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· Score: 1
5) I can't be fired for my continual, unabashedly militant leftist political and union organizing activities.
Which is interesting because leftist political union types will stop at nothing to get people who disagree with their ideas fired.
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The Mimes claim they own a copywright on typing on things that aren't there and are filing a lawsuit.
They say it's a job security thing.
How do you design a test for life that is all-encompassing? Isn't it arrogant to assume that our definition of life (that which revolves around our ball of dirt) is the only definition? What about a silicon life-form? We are designing tests for carbon-based life, tests for earth life.
Only if we use your definition of arrogance.What kind of test could we send to detect microbial life that diesn't meet our definitive tests?
If we don't use definitive tests, how will we know whether the answers are any good? What would you do? Drop some aluminum siding on the surface to see if there is an overwhelming need for martian life to bond to it?
>Wouldn't it be easier to just pour a much smaller fraction of their budget into discovering ways to, >oh,-I-don't-know, maybe find ways to reduce the need for armed conflict in the first place?
Well, no. Not since President Carter outlawed assassinating heads of state.
Think of all the lives that could have been saved over the years by a couple of good headshots.
I wonder if people have thought of the ramifications of what could happen in a truly bitter strike.
'Round where I'm from, when Teamsters (or the most recent example, the Detroit Newspaper Strike) go on strike, it's almost inevitable that some poor truck driving shlub is going to be shot at by a highway sniper, property will be destroyed and people will be beat up or murdered. Of course the Union will claim that none of the perpetrators of these crimes are really union members, just people who want to cause trouble. They might even go so far as to imply the company did it.
So, when routers mysteriously stop working properly, or a companies web site gets DDOS'd, or a really nasty virus somehow makes it into the network and the AV is turned off it'll be the same thing.
I wonder if the folks who make up the membership of the AFL-CIO and other unions have really thought long and hard about exactly who they're trying to organize. I wonder how long the mutual support of other unions will last when the payroll server crashes on Friday morning and the backup tapes have been erased.
My prediction is that programmers will remain white collar. Network techies will become unionized. However, once someone realizes who is organizing and what an extended strike could mean, the BOFH Brotherhood will become similar to other "critical" unions like the Air Traffic Controllers.
They'll pass a law saying, "You can organize all you want. You just can't strike."
5) I can't be fired for my continual, unabashedly militant leftist political and union organizing activities.
Which is interesting because leftist political union types will stop at nothing to get people who disagree with their ideas fired.