What makes a human? A lump of cells with homosapien DNA? Or a functioning brain with accumulated memories? The latter I'd say.
In that case, a sentient AI is more "alive" than a fetus or even a newborn. However, HUMAN EMPATHY is a more primal and powerful force than cold logic ever will be, so please ignore my argument.:)
--
Re:A related and interesting article
on
Watching You
·
· Score: 1
The first time in my recollection that one - much less two - "mainstream" news sources have brought this issue to light
Hey, even editors, reporters, CEOs, and other mass-media higher-ups want to keep the right to j-walk, steal paperclips, and jerk off in the executive bathroom without being watched.
Just a thought- in 40 years, when nanotechnology enables us to cheaply copy physical objects with little effort are we going to see the same kind of tactics from producers of material goods?
There will be an ultra-selfish few, sure, but for most the answer will be NO, because the base reason that some people are in support of artificial scarcity of "intellectual property" is so that they can trade it for REAL scarcity in a dog-eat-dog world, like putting food on the table, and clothes on their back.
But when you can make "copies" of ANY object given free energy (sunlight) + freely available, and infinitely recyclable molecules in the environment, a lot of the incentive to be selfish evaporates into thin air.
I've used iRATE on both WinXP and linux, and can tell you that the Java client sucks equally on both platforms. Still, I use it, because the player is integrated, and the music is Free & free, but most importantly, because collaborative filtering is much more convenient than wading through piles of major-label crap in stores, or on kazaa, gnutella, or suprnova, or on ShareReactor, or eMule's Jigle, etc.
This kind of "amazon-like" filtering will get a lot more popular in the future, IMO.
I'm sick and tired of the whining that 'It'll take away jobs.'
Please post again when it's your job that has been automated away -- as eventually the vast majority will be -- and you find it difficult to find a new one because production has become so damn efficient that only a tiny percentage of the population actually needs to work anymore, and yet the word "welfare" is still considered a dirty word.
It's a fact that one day most people will be technologically unemployed by robotics, AI, molecular manufacturing, etc., where the old "just retrain for a new job" no longer really applies. The question is how society deals with these "useless" people: will the elite just create make-work jobs to keep idle hands busy? Or will the proles demand that the fruits of automated production be redistributed more fairly?
Tallest Structure. Period: Canada's CN Tower. (to be replaced by a space elevator someday.)
Tallest Building + Ornamental Spire: TaiPei 101 (aka: The Ugly Takeout Container building)
Tallest Building w/ highest usable living/office space: Sears Tower
And here's my own metric: sum (floor[n].area * height). With that you get more kudos for having a more massive building in general, like the monster known as Sky City.
Some of them even take their bigger penis to the grave in the form of giant obelisks. It's funny walking through a cemetery and seeing all the "ordinary" graves in contrast to the schmucks who decided to tower above everyone else even in death.
If we define evil as that which has caused the most net unhappiness in the world, then the order should be:
Spammers
Telemarketers
SCO
Verisign
CowboyNeal
Spammers have caused more overall grief than hundreds of murders. But most people don't give two shits about an abstract big picture, and only care about events FOCUSED in time and space (like 9-11 or a celebrity murder).
Your analogy is off. A HotWheel(TM)(R) is physical property that is naturally scarce and can easily and obviously be owned, locked up, traded, etc. An idea is an intangible that can be replicated for no cost, and cannot be owned in any real sense, but for which the originator is currently granted a temporary monopoly that he can then choose how to license. YOU can choose the usual MineMineMine!(C) license, and someone else can choose the more natural share-alike GPL.
Delaying the release of the 9.2 images is a reward for those who contributed directly to the latest release
The core of your sanctimonious post is that early access bragging rights is a reward worth paying for? Sorry, but that is also a petty and selfish incentive to support Mandrake, especially since the software and bandwidth costs are shared by the community, so there's no good reason for the distro to be made artificially scarce for two weeks.
Charging for support makes sense, but charging for access to GPL'd software which Mandrake can only ask be kept artificially scarce, does not.
(You want recognition for supporting Mandrake monetarily, right? Fine -- instead of taking pride in having exclusivity, how about I come over and pat you on the back? Or how about a unique extra-super-duper-special "Gold Star" theme for your desktop with "Your Name" in lights?... sheesh.)
If you promote the freedom of one while denying the freedom of another, you are a hypocrite.
It's not hypocritical to promote the freedom of the masses to share and share-alike while also "limiting" a corporations' (composed of a tiny # of individuals) "right" to exploit this goodwill for exclusive gain.
(Can't remember why you're on my foe list. You anti-GPL or something?)
You forgot an important one:... and until ($THE_ARTISTS_ARE_GETTING_PAID_DIRECTLY) instead of the ($EVIL_RIAA_MIDDLMAN_BEING_OVERPAID_TO_TURN_AROUND _AND_SUE_EVERYONE) in order to keep their old-distribution business model set in stone.
And why do people become club members? Because of certain benefits, LIKE BEING ABLE TO DOWNLOAD THE ISO BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE.
So, you're saying that BRAGGING RIGHTS is the reason you became a club member? Running a new Mandrake release two weeks before everyone else is your incentive to send dollars Mandrakes way? That's a sincerely fucked up attitude.
People become club members because they WANT to support an OSS company, REGARDLESS of any artificial scarcity in the distribution of GPL'd software...
This may well be remembered as the beginning of the second space race.
Yet Another Rocket Launch is probably not the beginning of a 2nd chemical rocket space race. No, the next space race will begin once we can manufacture carbon nanotubes more than a few feet in length... if you can guess where I'm going with this...
Without "Us vs Them", and their respective labels, what do we got left? Boredom.:)
Petty nationalism (aka: tribalism) won't go away until our old genes and memes can be (artificially) adapted to cooperate more as a global whole, rather than compete. Even if resources were as abundant as a StarTrek replicator in every household, there'd still be irrational conflicts and primal powerlust screwing up the works unless we do some intelligent redesign.
I've still got the original GoogleCheat implant from 2013! This was from back before BCIs (Brain Computer Interfaces) were standardized, so it's kind of clunky, but the important thing is that it will continue to work forever WITHOUT a damn subscription to that newfangled MSNGoogle, and without any damn NewWorldOrder middleman snoop.
Oh, and this sucker draws a LOT of power; I've got to down an extra Dew every day just to produce the glucose it needs for normal operation. In stealth relay-node mode it takes three! They don't make 'em like that anymore!
Moore's law is really for CPU transistor size only, not for HDD capacity; it's a specific case of the more general Law of Accelerating Returns which applies to all evolutionary processes (such as HDD size).
Slashdot Mirror
What makes a human? A lump of cells with homosapien DNA? Or a functioning brain with accumulated memories? The latter I'd say.
In that case, a sentient AI is more "alive" than a fetus or even a newborn. However, HUMAN EMPATHY is a more primal and powerful force than cold logic ever will be, so please ignore my argument. :)
--
Hey, even editors, reporters, CEOs, and other mass-media higher-ups want to keep the right to j-walk, steal paperclips, and jerk off in the executive bathroom without being watched.
--
There will be an ultra-selfish few, sure, but for most the answer will be NO, because the base reason that some people are in support of artificial scarcity of "intellectual property" is so that they can trade it for REAL scarcity in a dog-eat-dog world, like putting food on the table, and clothes on their back.
But when you can make "copies" of ANY object given free energy (sunlight) + freely available, and infinitely recyclable molecules in the environment, a lot of the incentive to be selfish evaporates into thin air.
--
This kind of "amazon-like" filtering will get a lot more popular in the future, IMO.
--
In the immortal words of Andy Richter, "People Suck." :)
--
economic "communism" + scarcity + totalitarian govt == BAD
economic "communism" + scarcity + democratic govt == BAD
economic "communism" + abundance + totalitarian govt == BAD
economic "communism" + abundance + democratic govt == GOOD?
Need a new term.
--
Yes. Capitalism works best when people are isolated, rather than helping each other out "for free".
--
Please post again when it's your job that has been automated away -- as eventually the vast majority will be -- and you find it difficult to find a new one because production has become so damn efficient that only a tiny percentage of the population actually needs to work anymore, and yet the word "welfare" is still considered a dirty word.
It's a fact that one day most people will be technologically unemployed by robotics, AI, molecular manufacturing, etc., where the old "just retrain for a new job" no longer really applies. The question is how society deals with these "useless" people: will the elite just create make-work jobs to keep idle hands busy? Or will the proles demand that the fruits of automated production be redistributed more fairly?
--
What? Like being too chickenshit to build taller? Lesson learned; terrorists won.
--
- Tallest Structure. Period: Canada's CN Tower. (to be replaced by a space elevator someday.)
- Tallest Building + Ornamental Spire: TaiPei 101 (aka: The Ugly Takeout Container building)
- Tallest Building w/ highest usable living/office space: Sears Tower
And here's my own metric: sum (floor[n].area * height). With that you get more kudos for having a more massive building in general, like the monster known as Sky City.--
--
I'm all for curing them! We need to get them out in the open where we can frag their asses. :)
--
Spammers have caused more overall grief than hundreds of murders. But most people don't give two shits about an abstract big picture, and only care about events FOCUSED in time and space (like 9-11 or a celebrity murder).
--
Your analogy is off. A HotWheel(TM)(R) is physical property that is naturally scarce and can easily and obviously be owned, locked up, traded, etc. An idea is an intangible that can be replicated for no cost, and cannot be owned in any real sense, but for which the originator is currently granted a temporary monopoly that he can then choose how to license. YOU can choose the usual MineMineMine!(C) license, and someone else can choose the more natural share-alike GPL.
--
The core of your sanctimonious post is that early access bragging rights is a reward worth paying for? Sorry, but that is also a petty and selfish incentive to support Mandrake, especially since the software and bandwidth costs are shared by the community, so there's no good reason for the distro to be made artificially scarce for two weeks.
Charging for support makes sense, but charging for access to GPL'd software which Mandrake can only ask be kept artificially scarce, does not.
(You want recognition for supporting Mandrake monetarily, right? Fine -- instead of taking pride in having exclusivity, how about I come over and pat you on the back? Or how about a unique extra-super-duper-special "Gold Star" theme for your desktop with "Your Name" in lights? ... sheesh.)
--
It's not hypocritical to promote the freedom of the masses to share and share-alike while also "limiting" a corporations' (composed of a tiny # of individuals) "right" to exploit this goodwill for exclusive gain.
(Can't remember why you're on my foe list. You anti-GPL or something?)
--
--
So, you're saying that BRAGGING RIGHTS is the reason you became a club member? Running a new Mandrake release two weeks before everyone else is your incentive to send dollars Mandrakes way? That's a sincerely fucked up attitude.
People become club members because they WANT to support an OSS company, REGARDLESS of any artificial scarcity in the distribution of GPL'd software...
--
Yet Another Rocket Launch is probably not the beginning of a 2nd chemical rocket space race. No, the next space race will begin once we can manufacture carbon nanotubes more than a few feet in length ... if you can guess where I'm going with this...
--
Petty nationalism (aka: tribalism) won't go away until our old genes and memes can be (artificially) adapted to cooperate more as a global whole, rather than compete. Even if resources were as abundant as a StarTrek replicator in every household, there'd still be irrational conflicts and primal powerlust screwing up the works unless we do some intelligent redesign.
--
Sincerely,
Mentally Challenged Parents Association
(What's a Petafile, Walter?)
--
Oh, and this sucker draws a LOT of power; I've got to down an extra Dew every day just to produce the glucose it needs for normal operation. In stealth relay-node mode it takes three! They don't make 'em like that anymore!
</end bad attempt at fiction>
--
If you weren't so new to /. (with a uid above 700K), I'd think that was an in intentional troll. :)
--
"However, growth in magnetic memory is not primarily a matter of Moore's law, but includes advances in mechanical and electromagnetic systems."
--
I prefer Shadow's BitTorrent client on *nix (where the browser mime/file association isn't automatic).
--