our history of war really couldn't be any worse. all decisions made by humans. could we really get any worse?
Oh yeah, the decisions could be a LOT worse. The US actually has very humane rules of engagement. They are a far cry from "kill them all and let God sort them out".
I don't necessarily disagree with fielding autonomous lethal robots, but they need to have very specific instructions. It should be pointed out that we've had autonomous killing machines for quite a while. They're called "Tomahawk Cruise Missiles".
Exactly. Starship Troopers was an entirely serious book, with some deep social commentary. Much of the current social morass might have been avoided if it (and similar ideas) had been heeded.
The Starship Troopers movie was a travesty that RAH would have hated!
It highlights the need for Apple to tell us exactly how the fingerprint security works, which was a part of the point of the original article.
Apple has revealed enough detail:
According to an unnamed spokesman at Apple, the fingerprint detector won't actually record images of your fingerprints.
and...
This is in line with what Apple said during the actual announcement, specifically that the information was stored "in the Secure Enclave inside the A7 chip on the iPhone 5s." The information would not be store on Apple's servers or in the iCloud.
Oh yeah, the "flat earth" theory of global warming "denialism". The actual FACT is that "global warming" hasn't been observed for quite a while. We'll see if and when it crops up again. It just may be that the current solar Grand Minimum will be a factor...
Perfect, split China into 10 countries and global warming is solved!
The reason I brought that up is that "but per-capita the amount of CO2 China generates is lower than the US" is often trotted out as an excuse for why the US should sacrifice itself on the altar of CAGW even though China is a worse offender.
Of course splitting China into many countries (presumably with interesting borders to distribute CO2 production;) would do nothing to address the total CO2 going into the atmosphere, which is the only issue that matters.
Actually a good bit of effort is going into not releasing natural gas into the atmosphere. I doubt it will be a big problem going forward...
Regardless, moving a good bit of fossil fuel electricity generation to nuclear is an all-around win. We may well need such high-intensity energy sources for geoengineering and we'll definitely need them for space travel.
China is heavily investing to reduce carbon output, as its technocratic leadership understands the issue. When they reduce their output to less than that of the US, the US will have to come up with some new avoidance excuse.
As to a new "US avoidance excuse", US CO2 production is down to 1994 levels due to fracking and therefore increased use of natural gas, among other factors. Now all we need is a sane nuclear power policy, with nuclear plants replacing almost all coal-fired plants here, and CO2 production would be way down without harm to the economy. In fact, by exporting high-tech thorium generators, the US could make a ton of money.
Not really, Thunderbolt offers a ton of expansion at nominal expense. The RAM will also be user-upgradable. Third parties will undoubtedly offer SSD upgrades.
The two items that will probably involve Apple to upgrade are the processor and GPUs, but most folk don't upgrade those over the life of a typical system.
Since Jobs died Apple hasn't had any really impressive announcements, nothing really new and exciting.
That's actually not true, the new Mac Pro is a pretty bold move in the workstation space.
It shows one trademark of Apple, taking some getting used to before deciding if it's a good idea. I'm actually excited about it and look forward to getting my hands on one. It certainly shows a good deal of design brilliance and intent.
I think during Job's second period with Apple he instilled an enduring vision for the company, loosely summed up as "spare no expense in making elegant products that are easy to use". Genius, ground-breaking products get extra credit, but if Apple can just continue to make great products that make people's lives easier it'll do fine. Apple can certainly afford to get top talent to make that vision happen.
It actually amazes me how poorly Apple's competition does with ease of use.
You can really upgrade the hell out of a PC, and keep doing it, if you want. I haven't bought a new desktop in like 8 years, yet it is still very much top of the line. What happens is I just replace components as needed. I get a new GPU every 18ish months, new HDDs if I run out of space or if something is faster enough to catch my interest (like my SSD), a new audio card when I see one with features I want, a new motherboard/CPU every 2ish years, new RAM if the motherboard needs it, new PSU should power requirements change (hasn't happened) and a new case never because I like mine.
So, after eight years you have the same case and (surprisingly) the same power supply. In the meantime you've spent who knows how much time getting things working. That's fine, but it's a hobby (or vocation) in it's own right.
Apple's approach is the opposite. You buy the computer, and it works. Typically Macs have a longer useful lifespan than a PC. When you decide you need more power (or perhaps the system dies out of warranty), you buy a new one. That approach works for a lot of people that would rather do something productive as opposed to fixing a PC (I'm reminded of my friend the dentist and part-time PC repair guy).
These new Mac Pros have upgradable RAM, and likely upgradable GPUs. Plus, they can be expanded far more than any reasonable internal expansion would permit via six Thunderbolt channels. I think Apple will do very well with these systems - I certainly want one!
Great post. I'd like to add that we're going into a solar Grand Minimum, similar to the Dalton and Maunder minima. We'll see how global temperatures fare as time progresses - the warmist alarmists have extremely poor timing. We're looking at somewhere between 20-200 years of lower solar activity. We shall see, but I really doubt things will move to better agreement with the IPCC models.
I expect continuing technological progress and market forces will act to lower CO2 output. I think advanced nuclear generation needs to be vastly expanded for many reasons, including space applications of nuclear. I hope LENR pans out as some at NASA seems to think it will. Finally, endpoint solar generation looks very promising as prices come down and the technology improves. Truly, humanity has a bright future if we don't listen to the Luddite voices of despair.
The United States needs to be a technology leader, not a regressive voice forcing us into some drab reduced future in the name of "Green".
We know due to lots of stuff, like tree rings and lake sediments. While they all have margins of error, they are all in broad agreement that the temperature rises in the last century have been exceptional.
What they do not do is decisively link the rises with CO2. We'll see, but there was also exceptional solar activity in the 20th Century. Now, here we are with lower solar activity, and temperatures have been flat for over 15 years...
The current situation is that we now have over two decades of hundreds of experiments worldwide indicating heat and transmutations with minimal radiation and low energy input. By any rational measure, this evidence indicates something real is occurring. So, is LENR "Real?" Evidently, from the now long standing and diverse experimental evidence. And, yes - with effects occurring from using diverse materials, methods of energy addition etc. This is far from a "Narrow Band" set of physical phenomena.
There is a physical theory NASA is evaluating, no violation of thermodynamics required.
You might also be interested in this presentation by another NASA scientist. From the summary page:
A cheap, abundant, clean, scalable, portable source
of energy will impact EVERYONE.
Singular solution to peak oil, climate change, fresh
water, and associated geopolitical instabilities.
Drop-in replacement for traditional utility heat
sources. Minimal impact to existing infrastructure
Enables widely distributed generation. Homes and
businesses generate what they need - on site.
Enables whole new approaches to all of NASA’s
missions - we can affordably get off this rock!
If true, guilt-free high intensity energy all around!:-)
Well, that is a fine description of events, except you've left out any conception of religion, morality, and the golden rule.
Believe it or not, religion and related ethics are the major counterbalance to the "naked greed" that would seem to be the driving force of capitalism. We shall see what ethos derives from the current era, if any..:P
Yep, in fact the real world is proving out Dyson's exact point. Warming has been lower than expected, there is still a ton of winter snowfall in Britain (in fact Britain just had an extremely cold winter) and the Arctic ice isn't close to being completely gone in summertime. Arctic ice did hit a low point last year, we'll see how it recovers this coming winter.
The other interesting thing to watch will be the influence of the next twenty to forty years of Solar Grand Minimum conditions. During the Maunder and Dalton minima things got pretty chilly!;-)
Slashdot Mirror
our history of war really couldn't be any worse. all decisions made by humans. could we really get any worse?
Oh yeah, the decisions could be a LOT worse. The US actually has very humane rules of engagement. They are a far cry from "kill them all and let God sort them out".
I don't necessarily disagree with fielding autonomous lethal robots, but they need to have very specific instructions. It should be pointed out that we've had autonomous killing machines for quite a while. They're called "Tomahawk Cruise Missiles".
Bah, somehow my Julia link got fubared. Anyhow, here's a good one:
julialang.org
Those who're interested in Matlab alternatives would be well served to check out Julia.
It's a very clean language and has very good (LLVM based) performance!
What he wanted was something like UNIX.
I guess you mean something different from FreeBSD? heh
It could have been done seriously, very easily.
It was written against the milieu of World War II. Not many folks today realize at a gut level what that entailed. Read it again, with that in mind.
Exactly. Starship Troopers was an entirely serious book, with some deep social commentary. Much of the current social morass might have been avoided if it (and similar ideas) had been heeded.
The Starship Troopers movie was a travesty that RAH would have hated!
It highlights the need for Apple to tell us exactly how the fingerprint security works, which was a part of the point of the original article.
Apple has revealed enough detail:
and...
From the WSJ.
Oh yeah, the "flat earth" theory of global warming "denialism". The actual FACT is that "global warming" hasn't been observed for quite a while. We'll see if and when it crops up again. It just may be that the current solar Grand Minimum will be a factor...
Although Galileo’s explanation for why ice floats on water was closer to the truth than his opponent’s arguments...
Of COURSE the almighty Galileo was right! (heh)
per-capita means nothing to the environment BTW
Perfect, split China into 10 countries and global warming is solved!
The reason I brought that up is that "but per-capita the amount of CO2 China generates is lower than the US" is often trotted out as an excuse for why the US should sacrifice itself on the altar of CAGW even though China is a worse offender.
Of course splitting China into many countries (presumably with interesting borders to distribute CO2 production;) would do nothing to address the total CO2 going into the atmosphere, which is the only issue that matters.
Actually a good bit of effort is going into not releasing natural gas into the atmosphere. I doubt it will be a big problem going forward...
Regardless, moving a good bit of fossil fuel electricity generation to nuclear is an all-around win. We may well need such high-intensity energy sources for geoengineering and we'll definitely need them for space travel.
China is heavily investing to reduce carbon output, as its technocratic leadership understands the issue. When they reduce their output to less than that of the US, the US will have to come up with some new avoidance excuse.
They talk a good game, but you're apparently willing to ignore the over 350 new large coal-fired power plants they're building over the next few years. China will reign supreme in CO2 generation (per-capita means nothing to the environment BTW) from here on out. India also plans to build over 450 new coal-fired plants.
As to a new "US avoidance excuse", US CO2 production is down to 1994 levels due to fracking and therefore increased use of natural gas, among other factors. Now all we need is a sane nuclear power policy, with nuclear plants replacing almost all coal-fired plants here, and CO2 production would be way down without harm to the economy. In fact, by exporting high-tech thorium generators, the US could make a ton of money.
Cheap upgrades are a major issue.
Not really, Thunderbolt offers a ton of expansion at nominal expense. The RAM will also be user-upgradable. Third parties will undoubtedly offer SSD upgrades.
The two items that will probably involve Apple to upgrade are the processor and GPUs, but most folk don't upgrade those over the life of a typical system.
Since Jobs died Apple hasn't had any really impressive announcements, nothing really new and exciting.
That's actually not true, the new Mac Pro is a pretty bold move in the workstation space.
It shows one trademark of Apple, taking some getting used to before deciding if it's a good idea. I'm actually excited about it and look forward to getting my hands on one. It certainly shows a good deal of design brilliance and intent.
I tend to disagree, but we'll have to see.
I think during Job's second period with Apple he instilled an enduring vision for the company, loosely summed up as "spare no expense in making elegant products that are easy to use". Genius, ground-breaking products get extra credit, but if Apple can just continue to make great products that make people's lives easier it'll do fine. Apple can certainly afford to get top talent to make that vision happen.
It actually amazes me how poorly Apple's competition does with ease of use.
You can really upgrade the hell out of a PC, and keep doing it, if you want. I haven't bought a new desktop in like 8 years, yet it is still very much top of the line. What happens is I just replace components as needed. I get a new GPU every 18ish months, new HDDs if I run out of space or if something is faster enough to catch my interest (like my SSD), a new audio card when I see one with features I want, a new motherboard/CPU every 2ish years, new RAM if the motherboard needs it, new PSU should power requirements change (hasn't happened) and a new case never because I like mine.
So, after eight years you have the same case and (surprisingly) the same power supply. In the meantime you've spent who knows how much time getting things working. That's fine, but it's a hobby (or vocation) in it's own right.
Apple's approach is the opposite. You buy the computer, and it works. Typically Macs have a longer useful lifespan than a PC. When you decide you need more power (or perhaps the system dies out of warranty), you buy a new one. That approach works for a lot of people that would rather do something productive as opposed to fixing a PC (I'm reminded of my friend the dentist and part-time PC repair guy).
These new Mac Pros have upgradable RAM, and likely upgradable GPUs. Plus, they can be expanded far more than any reasonable internal expansion would permit via six Thunderbolt channels. I think Apple will do very well with these systems - I certainly want one!
Great post. I'd like to add that we're going into a solar Grand Minimum, similar to the Dalton and Maunder minima. We'll see how global temperatures fare as time progresses - the warmist alarmists have extremely poor timing. We're looking at somewhere between 20-200 years of lower solar activity. We shall see, but I really doubt things will move to better agreement with the IPCC models.
I expect continuing technological progress and market forces will act to lower CO2 output. I think advanced nuclear generation needs to be vastly expanded for many reasons, including space applications of nuclear. I hope LENR pans out as some at NASA seems to think it will. Finally, endpoint solar generation looks very promising as prices come down and the technology improves. Truly, humanity has a bright future if we don't listen to the Luddite voices of despair.
The United States needs to be a technology leader, not a regressive voice forcing us into some drab reduced future in the name of "Green".
Excellent post.
Of course, the counterpoint will be "things will change and we'll have to adapt or die!". Tough. Things are always changing regardless.
I completely agree that in the longer term another Ice Age would be devastating.
We know due to lots of stuff, like tree rings and lake sediments. While they all have margins of error, they are all in broad agreement that the temperature rises in the last century have been exceptional.
What they do not do is decisively link the rises with CO2. We'll see, but there was also exceptional solar activity in the 20th Century. Now, here we are with lower solar activity, and temperatures have been flat for over 15 years...
Here is a statement from Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA Langley Research Center:
There is a physical theory NASA is evaluating, no violation of thermodynamics required.
You might also be interested in this presentation by another NASA scientist. From the summary page:
If true, guilt-free high intensity energy all around! :-)
Well, that is a fine description of events, except you've left out any conception of religion, morality, and the golden rule.
Believe it or not, religion and related ethics are the major counterbalance to the "naked greed" that would seem to be the driving force of capitalism. We shall see what ethos derives from the current era, if any.. :P
Yep, in fact the real world is proving out Dyson's exact point. Warming has been lower than expected, there is still a ton of winter snowfall in Britain (in fact Britain just had an extremely cold winter) and the Arctic ice isn't close to being completely gone in summertime. Arctic ice did hit a low point last year, we'll see how it recovers this coming winter.
The other interesting thing to watch will be the influence of the next twenty to forty years of Solar Grand Minimum conditions. During the Maunder and Dalton minima things got pretty chilly! ;-)
I think that "fact" will change - it's a matter of how long it'll take...
Please cite your sources on "the arctic becoming completely free of ice" and "Britain having snow-free winters" with both happening "very soon".
Thanks!
China's nuclear warhead stockpile (~240 warheads) is similar in size to that of the UK and France.
The actual fact is that no one except top Chinese players knows how many warheads China has. Granted it's probably a good bit less than 8000. ;-)