I am totally outraged and offended at the sight of those boobies!...*is anyone else in the room to judge me? nope!*.....nevermind my fake outrage then! I'll save the hypocrisy for later.
But the fact these people got greedy ended up pissing me off to the point I started filtering via Mac Address.
Instead of being selectively vindictive (and enjoying it, as you seem to) it would be much better for everyone involved if fair-share traffic-shaping algorithms were the default filter on wireless routers, so that no one person could hog the bandwidth at the expense of others. The more you use it (when it's scarce), the less you get (unless you want to pony up extra ca$h for a higher minimum).
That's easy: bottup-up anarchy. But even with totally anonymous nets you have pseudo identities and self-moderating systems like slashdot. Much better than the top-down control-freak alternative (unless you ARE a control-freak that is).
If there is ever going to be a "transparent society", I would hope that two things hold true:
That there's still at least the same level of privacy that you can find in a small town (which isn't much). As it is today, you have way MORE privacy living in a big city or in the middle of nowhere. But if people can't even escape the gaze of tiny mote cameras & mics to jerk off, pick their nose, or call the president a fucking moron, then you'll end up with a neurotic, resentful population.
Two-way glass. Government officials and CEOs don't deserve the luxury of being hypocrites. They want the right to dig through our lives? It goes both ways.
Until there is really perfect AI software -- which I think is so unlikely as to preclude reasonable speculation for the purpose of this conversation -- reporters won't be replaced by software.
Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess.
AI and IA is an inevitability in our lifetime as long as ancient exponential trends continue on track.
The ability to do research and learn new things isn't going to be replaced by technology.
Regurgitating boring facts and rote memorization WILL be replaced by technology eventually. A brain-computer interface -- which isn't that far off -- will, in essence, allow some future "Google" to be an extension of your brain's main memory. This still isn't the holy grail, though, because it only decreases access time to huge databases of information, but doesn't do much to decrease the time it takes to fully absorb something, understand it critically, and fork off new ideas (for that we need even more advanced Intelligence Amplication).
Copyright covers the work as a logical construct, not the physical means of transmiting that work.
Too many people confuse the two. The medium doesn't matter anymore, only the message between people matters. Copyright law has long since lost sight of its foundations anyway... and needs a major overhaul.
Right click-Save Image as. ..
Well then, somebody needs to tell those photographers to stop putting their print resolution scans online then, right? Me saving a crappy 1024x768 image to my desktop background isn't going to deprive anyone of anything; there's already so much out there. If I love the image (and respect the artist's attitude) I may want a tangible copy on my wall, so I'll still go to the artist to get it signed, framed, and shipped.
But... but... won't somebody please think of the CHILDREN?!
I played this game a while ago, and after the funny "shock value" gimmicks wore off (quickly), all that was left was Y.A.B.S. (Yet Another Boring Shooter).
Oh, and if you're that hot woman that went thru security in San Franciso last week wearing the studded leather jacket and no shirt or bra underneath it... By all means, forget to dress again before putting on you jacket. I know I enjoyed seeing your bare top and the stunned faces all around. I think the TSA guy enjoyed it too, even if he couldn't speak for a few minutes afterwards.
I'm guessing you're not a teenager anymore, so, uhh, what's the big fucking deal about yet another pair of boobies? Never seen 'em before? Hard up? Sheltered much? Live in Utah or Iraq?
Sorry, your little "I saw boobies" end comment just made me feel sorry the lives most traveling suits must lead. You even wrote your booby comment in sterile-speak.:)
...the environmental impact of large scale economic growth.
Growing pains. We're like birds shitting in our nests before we're big enough to leave it.
I used to be an environmentalist (more of a sentamentalist, actually), until I started to view humankind's technology and its impact as a natural extention of our evolution.
We'll eventually reach the end of our dirty industrial phase (without killing ourselves), and begin a green nanotech phase where we're not forced to rape resources in the conventional top-down way, because we've got complete control over 100% recyclable matter, and where we can actually reverse all the environmental damage we've done at the molecular level.
Grandma's going to have the last laugh, though, and live to be 130.
And she'll laugh even harder when nanotechnologies allow her to rejuvenate her body and become immortal. Mental age: 130; Biological age: ~28. That's one "experienced" older woman! (did I really just say that?).
I remember reading (can't find the link) that the parasite to host ratio is fairly constant throughout ALL systems. Be it tapeworms, SCO/RAMBUS, welfare bums, or con artists, there will always be more parasites than "honest" hosts. But only the symbiotic parasites succeed, which spammers for example are not, because they're destroying email.
Get yourself a nice durable bag made of hemp fiber. The only downside is that Ashcroft probably won't let you get near the whitehouse with it because he probably thinks hemp == maryjoowanna == terrorism == exposed titties == sex.
And it doesn't hurt that buying hemp means less oil money for petroleum-based synthetic clothes.
I'm not sure how we can make laws for the net as it is.
You can only make laws for the "corporate net" with links to the real world that everbody uses for things like paying their taxes online; it will be the one to get infested with soul-sucking DRM. The OTHER "sideband freenet" will always be a self-governed anarchy (like slashdot) just the way I like it.
Just wanted to second those two authors, and the post-human Singularity "genre" in general. It's pretty much the only kind of SF I can read anymore that doesn't require me to suspend my disbelief.
Spam-in-a-can space opera and pure fantasy is still entertaining as long as there's human characters to empathize with, but it's not visionary.
I've been using iRATE radio, despite its shitty interface, not because the music is FREE, but because I've fallen in love with the convenience of this adaptive filter. I really doubt that the majors will implement it though, because it subverts their ability to PROMOTE the titty-pop music THEY want to push on the masses, ClearChannel-style. If good music can simply bubble to the top, relative to each persons tastes, then the relevance of the RIAA shrinks even further.
You didn't hear it from me, but Wal-Mart is in secret talks with Sony to produce walking Greeter Robots, Checkout Clerk Robots, Stockboy Robots, Cleanup Robots, and Union-Buster Robots! In related news, McDonalds is laying off 95% of their human resource grunts to be replaced by Burger Flipping Bots, and Spit-in-a-Cops-Burger Bots.
Getting rid of all those pesky human employees means much, much lower prices for... for... hey, where did all the customers go? Waiting in breadlines?
Slashdot Mirror
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Are you kidding? Kimchi stinks! It's basically rotten cabbage.
I haven't gotten used to that nasty smell in 10 years.
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Instead of being selectively vindictive (and enjoying it, as you seem to) it would be much better for everyone involved if fair-share traffic-shaping algorithms were the default filter on wireless routers, so that no one person could hog the bandwidth at the expense of others. The more you use it (when it's scarce), the less you get (unless you want to pony up extra ca$h for a higher minimum).
--
That's easy: bottup-up anarchy. But even with totally anonymous nets you have pseudo identities and self-moderating systems like slashdot. Much better than the top-down control-freak alternative (unless you ARE a control-freak that is).
--
Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess.
AI and IA is an inevitability in our lifetime as long as ancient exponential trends continue on track.
--
Regurgitating boring facts and rote memorization WILL be replaced by technology eventually. A brain-computer interface -- which isn't that far off -- will, in essence, allow some future "Google" to be an extension of your brain's main memory. This still isn't the holy grail, though, because it only decreases access time to huge databases of information, but doesn't do much to decrease the time it takes to fully absorb something, understand it critically, and fork off new ideas (for that we need even more advanced Intelligence Amplication).
--
--
Too many people confuse the two. The medium doesn't matter anymore, only the message between people matters. Copyright law has long since lost sight of its foundations anyway... and needs a major overhaul.
Right click-Save Image as. . .
Well then, somebody needs to tell those photographers to stop putting their print resolution scans online then, right? Me saving a crappy 1024x768 image to my desktop background isn't going to deprive anyone of anything; there's already so much out there. If I love the image (and respect the artist's attitude) I may want a tangible copy on my wall, so I'll still go to the artist to get it signed, framed, and shipped.
--
I played this game a while ago, and after the funny "shock value" gimmicks wore off (quickly), all that was left was Y.A.B.S. (Yet Another Boring Shooter).
--
Yeah, because all the 9/11 hijackers looked like disheveled bums up to no good!...oh wait, no they didn't, they blended in perfectly.
(mental note: cut off my ponytail before blowing up a plane.)
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I'm guessing you're not a teenager anymore, so, uhh, what's the big fucking deal about yet another pair of boobies? Never seen 'em before? Hard up? Sheltered much? Live in Utah or Iraq?
Sorry, your little "I saw boobies" end comment just made me feel sorry the lives most traveling suits must lead. You even wrote your booby comment in sterile-speak. :)
--
Growing pains. We're like birds shitting in our nests before we're big enough to leave it.
I used to be an environmentalist (more of a sentamentalist, actually), until I started to view humankind's technology and its impact as a natural extention of our evolution.
We'll eventually reach the end of our dirty industrial phase (without killing ourselves), and begin a green nanotech phase where we're not forced to rape resources in the conventional top-down way, because we've got complete control over 100% recyclable matter, and where we can actually reverse all the environmental damage we've done at the molecular level.
--
And she'll laugh even harder when nanotechnologies allow her to rejuvenate her body and become immortal. Mental age: 130; Biological age: ~28. That's one "experienced" older woman! (did I really just say that?).
--
What? No cure for scarcity, stupidity, or alzheimers in 50 years?
Kill me now.
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Your bot seems to be limited by slow actuators, though. It needs some spring in its step so it can evade predators. :)
Evolutionary optimization fascinates me to no end.
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And it doesn't hurt that buying hemp means less oil money for petroleum-based synthetic clothes.
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You can only make laws for the "corporate net" with links to the real world that everbody uses for things like paying their taxes online; it will be the one to get infested with soul-sucking DRM. The OTHER "sideband freenet" will always be a self-governed anarchy (like slashdot) just the way I like it.
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I love stuff like that.
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Spam-in-a-can space opera and pure fantasy is still entertaining as long as there's human characters to empathize with, but it's not visionary.
--
Well, there is one major feature that none of them have yet: Collaborative filtering.
I've been using iRATE radio, despite its shitty interface, not because the music is FREE, but because I've fallen in love with the convenience of this adaptive filter. I really doubt that the majors will implement it though, because it subverts their ability to PROMOTE the titty-pop music THEY want to push on the masses, ClearChannel-style. If good music can simply bubble to the top, relative to each persons tastes, then the relevance of the RIAA shrinks even further.
--
You didn't hear it from me, but Wal-Mart is in secret talks with Sony to produce walking Greeter Robots, Checkout Clerk Robots, Stockboy Robots, Cleanup Robots, and Union-Buster Robots! In related news, McDonalds is laying off 95% of their human resource grunts to be replaced by Burger Flipping Bots, and Spit-in-a-Cops-Burger Bots.
Getting rid of all those pesky human employees means much, much lower prices for... for... hey, where did all the customers go? Waiting in breadlines?
--