Laser etching is cool, I guess, but what would be even cooler is bringing 3D printing to the masses. Right now these rapid prototyping "printers" cost hundreds of thousands, but one day you'll be (over)paying Lexmark for DRM'd "LiquidPlastic-jet" cartridges so that you can print out cheap parts of your own design, or barbie dolls, or warhammer knockoffs, eating utensils, dildos(?!), etc...
In the place of the wasteful ISS (which needs to stay porky to keep the budget), we should build a new station that pushes more important boundaries than station maintenance, politics, inchworm robotarms, or microgravity research on snail sex in space.
We should be focusing on a station that:
Is a self-contained system. (reduced dependence on Earth for supplies lost to inefficiency and leakage).
Rotates for artificial gravity. (don't have to return to the gravity well to restore wasted-away bodies).
I was thinking a little farther down the road -- when robotics, AI, molecular manufacturing, etc., have ushered in the potential economy of abundance -- where the incentive to be a spamming asshole shrinks away to nothing because just about everything is cheap and automated.
I guess you still might see spam like "Buy a SPACIOUS quarter-acre of Kansas realestate for only $1,000,000!!!", or "SECRET gene therapy for a larger penis! Better than the OPEN SORES solution!!!", or "Meet a REAL celebrity for only 150 luxury tickets! Virtual Reality is for losers!", or... whatever.
Another major reason I think the payservices aren't international yet -- besides issues of exclusive distribution deals, tax & legal headaches, higher fees, more CC fraud, etc -- is that it will be too obvious when they try to maximize their profit by charging poor countries less and restrict resale to richer countries (DRM region coding).
If Ethiopians could buy an mp3 track for only 7 grains of rice(!), and there were no digital trade barriers in place, they could resell it to fat Americans for 1,931,375 grains of rice, and, well, that's not the corporate definition of globalism.
So you're saying it was all a conspiracy against the independents who were eating into their Blockbuster pie award-stealing cheapies, eh? Nothing at all to do with them being idiots by actually thinking they could stop the leaks? Damn The Man! Damn him all the way to hell!:)
The point isn't that the data is encrypted - I know that. The point is that you would stick out like a sore thumb BECAUSE it's encrypted all the time, going to the same proxy dest, and is way outside normal use patterns. So the the BOFH unplugs you, then tattles, and you're fired.
Well, BT clients essentially participate in a tit-for-tat;
Too that tit-for-tat doesn't have a memory that persists longer than one session. That way, the true leeches could be limited further, even when hundreds of seeds.
eMule does this. Every clients gets a random UID and over time you get pushed up higher in other peoples upload queues for being a good uploader yourself. Leeches are always at the bottom of the queues.
You can only get away with tunneling as long your BOFH isn't also peeking into your packets, which you should assume they will. I mean, hey, only corporate spies and subversives use port 80 for anything other than vanilla HTTP, right?
"OH YEAH? Well when I grow up I'm going to have 340 billion billion billion billion hundred million thousand dollars!"
Kid #2: OH YEAH? I'm going to have that much... plus a trillion more!
Kid #1: Times a million!
Kid #2: To the infinity power! All your money are belong to me!
Kid #1: Then I'm going to kill you and take it all.
Kid #2: Take it. I just want to live and be happy.
If it takes near zero effort, then you lose nothing when everybody else duplicates your work.
Yes you do. You lose the opportunity to game the system and get "money for nothing" - something a lot of powerful people feel entitled to.
Of course, the big picture view is that the planet as a whole is the net loser when lengthy, unworthy monopolys are handed out, but nobody will admit to caring about the "greater good" anymore (sounds too much like communism).
I, too, have pretty much resigned myself to the notion that any human-based utopia is probably impossible without some genetic engineering.
We evolved in a world of scarcity, where "Mine!" served our genes (self/family/tribe) very well, and it's a big part of our psyche subconsciously and consciously. Even in the economy of abundance to come, with everybody potentially living like kings, there will still be a few who want to be the king of kings and have MORE than everyone else around them for primal reasons. Oh, and the sexiest queens will still want to get with the most powerful kings (what an incentive to hoard!), and not just your every-day schmoe.
Unfortunately, there's no way to download the RoboteQ motor controller the design requires
I downloaded "RoboteQ.molecular.blueprint[45A99B28].bz" last night, and my Zyvex FX3000 nanoassembler burn^H^H^H^Hbuilt it in only 6 minutes! Sure, it's still technically illegal to copy someones "Intellectual Property" (until HR837475 becomes law), but putting food on the table doesn't cost anything anymore, and they got whuffie from me just the same.
As alluded to in the previous post, I strongly believe that there is more value to human life than intelligence.
That would be the value YOU get of the emotional attachment to the other person, or a pet. Also, there's the "do unto others as you would want them to do unto you" goldenrule; it's a cold-hearted bastard who can't empathize with a retard, or the retards family who love him/her regardless. We evolved that way.
Are you advocating the euthanasia of amnesiacs? Or infanticide?
No - I'm just saying that their mental lives are worth less objectively. Subjectively, human empathy for others can be so "selfish" as to keep brain-dead vegetables' bodies warm in the hospital.
Mmm. Any scifi with timetravelers going back in time is a major turnoff for me, because it doesn't appear to be remotely possible, so I can't get excited.
Much like most scifi where humans fly around the galaxy for thousands of years in little tincans doesn't seem likely, so is just space opera.
Like I said, our empathy for a potential human that's just-like-us, will always be greater than that for some other intelligent "thing". Evolutionary psych. Us vs Them. Kill the invading tribe.
My point was that the AI would be more alive, mentally (which is what counts), and it's death a greater objective loss than a non-thinking fetus. Subjectively, emotion comes into play, but I'm a cold-hearted bastard right?
I had planned on reading that right after Corey Doctorow's Down and out in the Magic Kingdom a few months ago, but didn't get around to it. Guess I'll have to make time; I hear it's about the hell of not being allowed to die (for those who wish to), so people push the limits out of boredom.
I wouldn't want to disable pain completely, but to simply be able to "turn it down" after a couple seconds of intense agony to get the point. Just think of it as the same kind of painkiller humans would be using if they still fought wars themselves.
And the reinforced skull is to make sure that the entire experience isn't lost in the event of a very violent death, like having your Abrams tank filled with molten metal. Then again, I suppose it might make more sense to keep the game-body completely bio, but do periodic "save games" at waypoints (just like in current games) so at least there's SOME fear of losing memory.
Still, I think I'd prefer alternate rules that allowed for a hardened artificial brain, so even though your game-body was ripped to shreds by a mortar, your blackbox would intact until recovered.:)
Roger Penrose's "Quantum Consciousness" is grasping at straws, IMO. The religious-types love it though, because it validates their idea of the "soul" and the supremacy of the bio-human being.
However, the funny thing is that even if it was the case that quantum effects play a large part in consciousness, it's still in the realm of physics, not God.
20 billion neurons is 1/5th of a humans' 100 billion neurons. Now all we need is the ability to "scan" with molecular precision and "brain backups" are right around the corner.:)
I'd love to play paintball with real guns if I could back my brain up beforehand (and limit my pain receptors when I got hit) in the case my reinforced skull was destroyed before I could merge the experience back with my main-self.
Slashdot Mirror
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The precursor to the nano-forge.
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We should be focusing on a station that:
IMHO.
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I was thinking a little farther down the road -- when robotics, AI, molecular manufacturing, etc., have ushered in the potential economy of abundance -- where the incentive to be a spamming asshole shrinks away to nothing because just about everything is cheap and automated.
I guess you still might see spam like "Buy a SPACIOUS quarter-acre of Kansas realestate for only $1,000,000!!!", or "SECRET gene therapy for a larger penis! Better than the OPEN SORES solution!!!", or "Meet a REAL celebrity for only 150 luxury tickets! Virtual Reality is for losers!", or... whatever.
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And better economics - then people aren't so desperate to spew garbage to sell garbage so they can eat.
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Yeah, the default 50x50 flame icon for Firebird looks like pixelated shit - like bad clipart from the late 80s.
I'm partial to the flaming feather myself.
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I realised a long time ago that everyone marches to a slightly different beat than everyone else.
But if you march to the beat of the extroverted mainstream, that's license to mock.
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If Ethiopians could buy an mp3 track for only 7 grains of rice(!), and there were no digital trade barriers in place, they could resell it to fat Americans for 1,931,375 grains of rice, and, well, that's not the corporate definition of globalism.
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<ironic hypocrite>btw - download Whale Rider while it's hot, Hot, HOT!</hypocrite>
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Too that tit-for-tat doesn't have a memory that persists longer than one session. That way, the true leeches could be limited further, even when hundreds of seeds.
eMule does this. Every clients gets a random UID and over time you get pushed up higher in other peoples upload queues for being a good uploader yourself. Leeches are always at the bottom of the queues.
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Kid #1: Times a million!
Kid #2: To the infinity power! All your money are belong to me!
Kid #1: Then I'm going to kill you and take it all.
Kid #2: Take it. I just want to live and be happy.
--
Yes you do. You lose the opportunity to game the system and get "money for nothing" - something a lot of powerful people feel entitled to.
Of course, the big picture view is that the planet as a whole is the net loser when lengthy, unworthy monopolys are handed out, but nobody will admit to caring about the "greater good" anymore (sounds too much like communism).
--
We evolved in a world of scarcity, where "Mine!" served our genes (self/family/tribe) very well, and it's a big part of our psyche subconsciously and consciously. Even in the economy of abundance to come, with everybody potentially living like kings, there will still be a few who want to be the king of kings and have MORE than everyone else around them for primal reasons. Oh, and the sexiest queens will still want to get with the most powerful kings (what an incentive to hoard!), and not just your every-day schmoe.
"It's good to be King/selfish" - mel brooks
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I downloaded "RoboteQ.molecular.blueprint[45A99B28].bz" last night, and my Zyvex FX3000 nanoassembler burn^H^H^H^Hbuilt it in only 6 minutes! Sure, it's still technically illegal to copy someones "Intellectual Property" (until HR837475 becomes law), but putting food on the table doesn't cost anything anymore, and they got whuffie from me just the same.
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That would be the value YOU get of the emotional attachment to the other person, or a pet. Also, there's the "do unto others as you would want them to do unto you" goldenrule; it's a cold-hearted bastard who can't empathize with a retard, or the retards family who love him/her regardless. We evolved that way.
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No - I'm just saying that their mental lives are worth less objectively. Subjectively, human empathy for others can be so "selfish" as to keep brain-dead vegetables' bodies warm in the hospital.
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Much like most scifi where humans fly around the galaxy for thousands of years in little tincans doesn't seem likely, so is just space opera.
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My point was that the AI would be more alive, mentally (which is what counts), and it's death a greater objective loss than a non-thinking fetus. Subjectively, emotion comes into play, but I'm a cold-hearted bastard right?
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And the reinforced skull is to make sure that the entire experience isn't lost in the event of a very violent death, like having your Abrams tank filled with molten metal. Then again, I suppose it might make more sense to keep the game-body completely bio, but do periodic "save games" at waypoints (just like in current games) so at least there's SOME fear of losing memory.
Still, I think I'd prefer alternate rules that allowed for a hardened artificial brain, so even though your game-body was ripped to shreds by a mortar, your blackbox would intact until recovered. :)
There's a short story in there somewhere...
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However, the funny thing is that even if it was the case that quantum effects play a large part in consciousness, it's still in the realm of physics, not God.
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I'd love to play paintball with real guns if I could back my brain up beforehand (and limit my pain receptors when I got hit) in the case my reinforced skull was destroyed before I could merge the experience back with my main-self.
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