The thing is, we're much much more likely to be nuked or contaminated by a bomb that was smuggled in via conventional low-tech means, VS atop an expensive missile. It's orders of magnitude easier, cheaper and untracable.
I agree though that missile interception is a worthy project (with nifty spinoffs), but it's too much of a fuck'n wasteful porkbarrel as it is!
I think they'd have better luck selling a missile "shield" to the public if the shield also included funding for more and better radiation-detection at ports & in cities around the country, AND they sent more of that pork towards alternative energy projects that reduce the cause of the conflict, rather than defending against the symptoms.
I'm sure you CAN fathom WHY people find pleasure in trolling (even on "sensitive" topics like autism), but you'd rather play saint than to acknowledge the true range of human evolutionary psychology.
I can even understand WHY a psychopath would, say, find pleasure in torturing a child to death while forcing family members to watch in horror. Doesn't mean I AM one, but I can understand.
Yeah, it's too bad that being a two-faced phony will always be a job requirement as long as the number of potential customers able to see through the bullshit is fewer than those who get hooked by it. Cluetrain? Hah.
Microvision is working on retinal displays, which are a major advancement over the old LCD helmets, but yeah, it still costs too much for the limited immersion you get.
I can't wait for the next display tech after retinal projection: optic nerve interface. So c'mon neuro-geeks! get hacking - the brain's childsplay!:-)
It might be less romantic, but it's much more economical to build space habitats with artificial gravity (Babylon5/O'Neill-ish). Here, you don't have a gravity well to fight, there's constant sunlight, and there's no wasted mass beneath your feet which could be put better use.
Bio-Human colonization of outer space isn't even our ultimate destiny - "inner space" is. I hope I haven't shocked you with science "fiction" you're not ready to seriously contemplate.:-)
Remind me never to make a drugjoke when talking to a security hardass who's actually afraid of anonymous boogeymen crashing critical systems and bringing down democracy from parkbenches. I'm guessing security is part of your job, in which case you begin to believe your own FUD in order to secure more $ from clients.
Oh, and no, I've long since graduated, but thanks for the insult. I hope to see you first in line for a subdermal id&tracking chip, bud! I'll be the "anonymous terrorist" laughing at you from the sidelines.
How do you run a Cyber Cafe (that takes cash), a Public Library network, an anonymous remailer, an anonymous non-logging proxy, or an insecure home computer running Windows BackOrifice edition, yet avoid being used as a script-kiddie (or spam, or terrorist) portal?
Anonymous wireless access isn't any more or less a "threat" than the same situation in the insecure-by-default, unaccountable wired world.
Hmm... do you also think that those evil anonymous postcards with no return address should be banned too? I mean... what if some scr1ptk1ddie terrorist laced it with acid and you accidentally licked it?!:-)
What is happening is that improved communication and transport infrastructures are removing more and more of the physical barriers that have kept rich and poor countries... apart
It's great to be egalitarian (and I am), but the more common human trait evolved to want you and your tribe to maintain status above others (the evolution of cooperation notwithstanding).
Every single day I think about the near future where physical molecules will be manipulated as cheaply and easily as digital bits, and what this might mean for the world system. On the one hand, everyone will be wealthy beyond compare, and on the other hand, humans still have primitive instincts to contend with.
"Cheney needs a heart, Bush needs a brain, the Democrats need courage...hmmm...I might have an idea for a movie here if I could only come up with a good angle" - isaac peterson
Certain species of uber-geeks spell "fuck" as "fsck" on purpose in to appear a bit more professionally pretentious, and to display their tribal *nix membership.
This pathetic meme will live on as long as it gets a *chortle* for being a "witty" and politically correct mispelling of an otherwise 'uncivilized' curse word.
There is now a factory [digital, and soon molecular] in every home, and scarcity is now a completely artificial construct.
The thing is, once we have molecular manufacturing, the (selfish) motive to make information artificially scarce is greatly reduced because the other side of the "equation" has been balanced. Starving artists no longer starve, and programmers kids no longer go unclothed, because atoms have become as easily and cheaply manipulated as bits.
Of course, incentives matter even in an economy of abundance because there's still scarcity in the form of time, matter, energy, space, and, most importantly, intelligence. Age-old property rights tie up the former (unless you're a dirty commie:), and only AI can reduce the market for the old-fashioned human intelligence that's able to create works of art like Lord of the Rings (but human-level AI is *unfortunately* a bit further along the Singularity curve than nanotechnology).
e.g. An incentive to write for an author like Tom Clancy wouldn't be a $0.01 wall display, or a $5 mansion-just-add-water, or commonplace diamonds, but something really scarce, like beachfront property, or 30 minutes with a real pornstar, or 5 billion tons of asteroidal feedstock matter (if society is still OK with such extreme individual excess as success).
On the other hand, you'd have artists like the Marquis de Sade, Neal Stephenson, and millions of others, who, without the worry of working-just-to-survive, would create for the sheer joy of it instead of just the boring economic incentive.
Beaurocrats often think themselves above the law because they're obviously the "good guys", and in order to do their job they shouldn't be subject to the same inconveniences. It's only the rest of us potential-terrorist peons who should have to prove our innocence by showing we have nothing to hide.
People despise one-way mirrors for perfectly valid reasons, and I hope the magnifying glass stays focused on those behind it until it's replaced with transparent glass, or brick. (ick... this analogy needs work:)
I don't fault any nation for being, or wanting to become a member of the Big-Nuclear-Dick Club, since M.A.D. is actually better for keeping world peace by forcing diplomacy (with WW2 being the demo), and nobody gets to treat your country like a 3rd-class afterthought anymore.
(On a related note: If Bush Jr decides to punish Iraq even when they find no evidence of BigDick weapons, I really hope Saddam is smart enough to BLUFF with "nukes hidden in big cities" to thwart our invasion and oil seizure. How "un-american" of me eh?)
...or I'll have to sell some of my precious "security" stock.
God Bless American AntiVirus companies and their Anti-Terrorist business campaign!
You could be transmitting your IP address right now for hackers to lock-in on! Buy some protection for you and your loved ones before they wipe out your hidden porn collection!
There's one theory that suggests that the missing mass in the universe is actually being hidden by millions of alien "Matrix-like" computing spheres surrounding their massive energy sources (i.e. invisible stars).
I know it's an out there idea, but it's still a plausible explaination.
I'm just at a loss as to what can be done to save our nations from our politicians/corporations and get them back to serving the people.
The best answer I've got is: hold on just a few more painful decades for the technology revolution (which I needn't name) that will make nations irrelevant.
Therefore, we do not need hunters. What do hunters do now?
Play football? Become a criminal predator? Join the army? Get a job in advertising?:)
But there's literally no place left for us to go, unless we start building underwater or on Antarctica (problematic when the surface altitude changes seasonally, but possible).
Hey, don't leave out the ocean's surface. There's room enough to build thousands of state-sized floating cities for us meat-popsicles.
After that point, yeah, there's space, but rockets probably can't cheaply blast people off Earth faster than they're being born (2.3 babies per second). Maybe if we built a ring of space elevators around the equator we could spit the human sardines offplanet faster... I don't know. Or maybe the best solution is to expand to innerspace and leave our bulky biological bodies in the dust.
Well then how will yours truly and everyone else get money for work if it is all being done by robots.
When robots are doing all the menial & skilled labor, and your 'nanoreplicator' is producing all your food and any physical object you could desire, and AI has replaced your programming job:) , well, that'll be the day that WELFARE isn't a derogatory term....... (even though a WORK ETHIC will still be deeply ingrained in many people)....... oh, and we'll have to kill all the landlords so we can live rent-free and shit on each others free property.
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Re:I don't think it's wishfull thinking
on
Christmas in 2050
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· Score: 1
I think most technological delays aren't from lack of knowhow or scientific ability, but from lack of grant money....
Some predictions are just bad and no amount of money should be wasted (including stupid grants from my taxes) on achievable possibilities that it turns out no one really wants to pay for. If you want to make a bad prediction, here's what you do:
Ignore the scientific facts, or guess. (e.g. nuclear power being too cheap to meter & flying cars (that waste more energy fighting gravity, and need still more processing power to make safe flight possible))
Forget to ask whether anyone wants the projected product or situation. (e.g. VideoPhones & Meal-in-a-pill...)
Ignore the costs. (e.g. personal rockets)
Try to predict which company or technology will win. (e.g. MicroVision and their retinal display patents)
The only thing I'd say is totaly out of reach, even with infinite research money, is 'mind reading' technology
Tell that to the SciFi Channel as they've recently become the Paranormal Channel with all the psychic tripe they run...
Were I to bet on it, I'd say the walking/talking Barbie WILL exist by 2050, and one that can do an okay job of interacting with the kid.
Hah. The porn industry will have RealDoll's(TM) walking decades before that.:)
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Re:So the Singularity isn't gonna happen?
on
Christmas in 2050
·
· Score: 1
The technological Singularity is still on its exponential track - it's just that this futurists job depends on predicting things that can be sold and aren't too much of a future shock.:)
I wonder what Google's plans are, "going forward", for decentralized search? In 5 years, smart p2p comms is going to be killing quite a few centralized golden geese.
I use yahoo for only one thing nowadays: their "most popular" ranking of news stories and photos.
I just think it's extremely entertaining to see what other people think is most important. Of course, it's the tabloid shit that bubbles to the top most of the time...
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think BigOil worries much about losing the oil-guzzling spacecraft market to nuclear competition. :)
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I agree though that missile interception is a worthy project (with nifty spinoffs), but it's too much of a fuck'n wasteful porkbarrel as it is!
I think they'd have better luck selling a missile "shield" to the public if the shield also included funding for more and better radiation-detection at ports & in cities around the country, AND they sent more of that pork towards alternative energy projects that reduce the cause of the conflict, rather than defending against the symptoms.
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I can even understand WHY a psychopath would, say, find pleasure in torturing a child to death while forcing family members to watch in horror. Doesn't mean I AM one, but I can understand.
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I can't wait for the next display tech after retinal projection: optic nerve interface. So c'mon neuro-geeks! get hacking - the brain's childsplay! :-)
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Why trade one gravity well for another?
It might be less romantic, but it's much more economical to build space habitats with artificial gravity (Babylon5/O'Neill-ish). Here, you don't have a gravity well to fight, there's constant sunlight, and there's no wasted mass beneath your feet which could be put better use.
Bio-Human colonization of outer space isn't even our ultimate destiny - "inner space" is. I hope I haven't shocked you with science "fiction" you're not ready to seriously contemplate. :-)
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Oh, and no, I've long since graduated, but thanks for the insult. I hope to see you first in line for a subdermal id&tracking chip, bud! I'll be the "anonymous terrorist" laughing at you from the sidelines.
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Anonymous wireless access isn't any more or less a "threat" than the same situation in the insecure-by-default, unaccountable wired world.
Hmm... do you also think that those evil anonymous postcards with no return address should be banned too? I mean... what if some scr1ptk1ddie terrorist laced it with acid and you accidentally licked it?! :-)
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It's great to be egalitarian (and I am), but the more common human trait evolved to want you and your tribe to maintain status above others (the evolution of cooperation notwithstanding).
Every single day I think about the near future where physical molecules will be manipulated as cheaply and easily as digital bits, and what this might mean for the world system. On the one hand, everyone will be wealthy beyond compare, and on the other hand, humans still have primitive instincts to contend with.
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This pathetic meme will live on as long as it gets a *chortle* for being a "witty" and politically correct mispelling of an otherwise 'uncivilized' curse word.
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The thing is, once we have molecular manufacturing, the (selfish) motive to make information artificially scarce is greatly reduced because the other side of the "equation" has been balanced. Starving artists no longer starve, and programmers kids no longer go unclothed, because atoms have become as easily and cheaply manipulated as bits.
Of course, incentives matter even in an economy of abundance because there's still scarcity in the form of time, matter, energy, space, and, most importantly, intelligence. Age-old property rights tie up the former (unless you're a dirty commie :), and only AI can reduce the market for the old-fashioned human intelligence that's able to create works of art like Lord of the Rings (but human-level AI is *unfortunately* a bit further along the Singularity curve than nanotechnology).
e.g. An incentive to write for an author like Tom Clancy wouldn't be a $0.01 wall display, or a $5 mansion-just-add-water, or commonplace diamonds, but something really scarce, like beachfront property, or 30 minutes with a real pornstar, or 5 billion tons of asteroidal feedstock matter (if society is still OK with such extreme individual excess as success).
On the other hand, you'd have artists like the Marquis de Sade, Neal Stephenson, and millions of others, who, without the worry of working-just-to-survive, would create for the sheer joy of it instead of just the boring economic incentive.
People despise one-way mirrors for perfectly valid reasons, and I hope the magnifying glass stays focused on those behind it until it's replaced with transparent glass, or brick. (ick... this analogy needs work :)
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Even the media wants to spin it that way with misleading headlines like "Pakistani leader hints he was ready to use nuclear arms" when he never actually said such a thing (but it's to be ASSUMED of BOTH sides anyway).
I don't fault any nation for being, or wanting to become a member of the Big-Nuclear-Dick Club, since M.A.D. is actually better for keeping world peace by forcing diplomacy (with WW2 being the demo), and nobody gets to treat your country like a 3rd-class afterthought anymore.
(On a related note: If Bush Jr decides to punish Iraq even when they find no evidence of BigDick weapons, I really hope Saddam is smart enough to BLUFF with "nukes hidden in big cities" to thwart our invasion and oil seizure. How "un-american" of me eh?)
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God Bless American AntiVirus companies and their Anti-Terrorist business campaign!
You could be transmitting your IP address right now for hackers to lock-in on! Buy some protection for you and your loved ones before they wipe out your hidden porn collection!
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There's your answer.
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I know it's an out there idea, but it's still a plausible explaination.
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Is that you Jim Bell? :-)
I'm just at a loss as to what can be done to save our nations from our politicians/corporations and get them back to serving the people.
The best answer I've got is: hold on just a few more painful decades for the technology revolution (which I needn't name) that will make nations irrelevant.
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Play football? Become a criminal predator? Join the army? Get a job in advertising? :)
But there's literally no place left for us to go, unless we start building underwater or on Antarctica (problematic when the surface altitude changes seasonally, but possible).
Hey, don't leave out the ocean's surface. There's room enough to build thousands of state-sized floating cities for us meat-popsicles.
After that point, yeah, there's space, but rockets probably can't cheaply blast people off Earth faster than they're being born (2.3 babies per second). Maybe if we built a ring of space elevators around the equator we could spit the human sardines offplanet faster... I don't know. Or maybe the best solution is to expand to innerspace and leave our bulky biological bodies in the dust.
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When robots are doing all the menial & skilled labor, and your 'nanoreplicator' is producing all your food and any physical object you could desire, and AI has replaced your programming job :) , well, that'll be the day that WELFARE isn't a derogatory term....... (even though a WORK ETHIC will still be deeply ingrained in many people)....... oh, and we'll have to kill all the landlords so we can live rent-free and shit on each others free property.
--
Some predictions are just bad and no amount of money should be wasted (including stupid grants from my taxes) on achievable possibilities that it turns out no one really wants to pay for. If you want to make a bad prediction, here's what you do:
The only thing I'd say is totaly out of reach, even with infinite research money, is 'mind reading' technology
Tell that to the SciFi Channel as they've recently become the Paranormal Channel with all the psychic tripe they run...
Were I to bet on it, I'd say the walking/talking Barbie WILL exist by 2050, and one that can do an okay job of interacting with the kid.
Hah. The porn industry will have RealDoll's(TM) walking decades before that. :)
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The last time I checked, Pricewatch and PriceGrabber still found the better deals.
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I just think it's extremely entertaining to see what other people think is most important. Of course, it's the tabloid shit that bubbles to the top most of the time...
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