"Let it happen"? How would you stop it - do tell. I'm not finger-pointing. I'm merely observing that there is a cycle to human history, and it's pretty obvious towards which end of the cycle we are headed. We call ourselves smart, but really I don't think there's anything we can do to stop it. Not individually and not collectively. Because the greed and corruption is part of our nature, as is our lazyness and our tolerance. So we go with the flow, while the immoral work their secret plots and plunder the wealth of society right in front of our eyes, until it reaches a point where we can take no more. Then we rise up, and smash the yoke that turned into a noose to strangle us. And then immediately settle our heads into a different yoke... But if all you're thinking is "republican/democrat/socialist/neocon" then you sir, can't see the wood for the trees.
The problem isn't Bush or Obama - it's the system. The whole damned machine. It's no longer working for the people, it's working to feed itself from the people. The next step is that it starts eating people directly, seizing their assets and imprisoning/shooting their bodies. And it's not just the US government either - I can't believe the amount of bullshit that has been going on for the past 20 years, and especially since 9/11 because, you know, terrorism.
Actually be the government, that's the best way to steal.
Well if you're the government, then it's not stealing. It's called tax. Levy. Fee. Tariff. Fine. Licence. But not stealing. It's perfectly legal, see how it says so here on this piece of paper I agreed to and signed, on your behalf?
Yep, there are so many laws nowadays even the lawyers aren't sure any more. So they just wing it. If the man wants you in jail, he has the time and resources to keep this shit up until you are either in jail or put a bullet in your own head. Welcome to the real world. And people look at me funny when I say I am anti-government. And please don't give me this republican/democrat/liberal/conservative bullshit. All that means is you're sitting on a different turd, but you're still in the septic tank.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to say here.
Neither am I, but that should change once the medication reaches an adequate blood plasma concentration. Nah I'm just being my usual ultra-cynical self, because some people (not necessarily you) believe that insightful and cute children's books rank up there along Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Avicenna and the like. Has nothing to do with you, I'm just a grumpy old man with too much time on my hands.
He's a blogger and he has a page on wikipedia. How DARE you doubt his credibility, hater!/sarcasm
Hey maybe I could start slashvertising too. I mean I've been posting here forever. A couple people like me. Thousands hate me. I could be a famous internet authority! Authority of BS, but an authority nonetheless.
No, they save that last part for when their "prediction" fails to match up with what actually happens. So then they say "oh well, to get an ACCURATE forecast I need to know exactly where and when you were born".
I read it in first grade, I believe. Or kindergarten. I really don't remember, and I don't remember how they taste. That's what happens when you read more than one book. You forget little details like that. And while I understand that Teddy Seuss is quite insightful philosophy for some people, I'll argue that there are quite a few more profound books out there too. And they also taste awesome.
Me, I keep coming back because there's a rare chance of seeing an actual sentient commenter, and then wondering how long until he gets hate-modded to -3.
You would probably be better off reading only negatively modded comments. There would be a lot less to filter out.
The software was told to buy stock, and buy stock it did. The problem is not in the software per se, it's in failing to recognize an anomalous situation and continuing blindly on. Those who use the software have to sit down and work out why they would need a program that did what it did, and clearly work out parameters so that the software determine when it needs to switch behavior and go into sleep mode or something. Most biological pathways have some sort of feedback system built in that limits the initial step. It makes no sense to have a program that empties your company's wallet - no, almost its entire net worth - in under 2 hours. There is no situation in the world where this can be advantageous or justified. Sometimes missing out on that "opportunity" is much, much better than losing the whole company.
I guess we'll never really know if it was bad design, in that there were no failsafes in the program, or bad management, in that they comparmentalized so much that the guy doing the coding had no idea of the impact his code would have because he was never told how it would be used. Still, you learn very early in trading that some days it's better just to stay in bed. Greed is not always good.
there's plenty of people who've driven for decades and never had any accident whatsoever.
Yeah, and there's plenty of people who can't seem to leave the drive-way without having an accident. The point is it's impossible to tell who belongs into which group without actually giving them a car and letting them drive for a while. When considering the individual, of course as much individual freedom as you can get is what your are going to shoot for. When considering public policy, however, your actual individual wants and needs fall second to the needs of the population as a whole, and the only way to reliably assess those needs is through (appropriate) statistics.
GoogleDrive will only be affordable (at any time in the next couple decades) to rich people to replace professional, expert drivers.
Remarkably stupid if Google does this. They'll go the way of the "electric" car and all the other fancy cars targeted at, well, Beverly Hills. A few rich celebs will buy one and pose for the cameras, and then they will be forgotten. No, Google needs to bite the bullet and take an example from Henry Ford. Make pennies on the unit, but make millions and millions of units.
But if everyone went around in automated cars, the point is there would be no "idiot" in your rear view because he also would have been in an automated car; one which would have stopped in time.
Understood. But the lack of an aquifer will not stop the rain from falling. Sure, there will be flooding but I thought you said you wanted water? I'm sure a solution can be engineered. Of course the real solution is to stop breeding like rabbits but the minute you say that, people's eyes glaze over and they get defensive of their 6 children, or point to the 3rd world and declining 1st world birth rates, etc, which makes things "political" all of a sudden. The fact of the matter is when I was a kid, there was barely 4 billion people in the world. Now there are over 7 billion. In another generation or so, it will be 16, and I can't imagine the problem becoming easier to solve at that point.
How dare these people hoard this water and remove it from the ecosystem. I'd also like to know where all these vast reservoirs of water are hidden, so we can raid them, and return our water to us. Oh wait - perhaps it's a case of... ahh yes, the USABLE, water, the potable water, the water that can be drunk by people and animals and crops, yeah that's in short supply. And it costs lots of money to turn all that urine - be it human or animal, or all that fertilizer and insecticide contaminated farm run-off - back into potable water.
So this is an economic problem, not a physical one. Well you know at some point you have to stop building stadiums and funding armies and buying fancy jet fighters, and actually spend money where it's needed. Otherwise you have to start sterilizing or shooting people. It's that simple. And if you do nothing, the problem will fix itself. Earth will always have water, and the water will be much cleaner when there are no humans left.
Well, I'm a physician. So while I don't deal with differential equations on a daily basis, I certainly needed a lot of math just to understand things like pKa and reaction rates in biochemistry, things like stroke-volume and the Starling equation, to understand how a kidney works, to understand why a 4cm aortic aneurysm is not such a big deal and a 6cm one can be deadly (something about a 4th power in there), acid base imbalances, why in the trauma room I need to use the short catheter and not the long one, etc. I needed math just to understand all of those concepts. In my day to day work, well, I don't need THAT much math - mostly fairly simple arithmetic. Dose is 50mg/kg divided in twice daily, patient weighs 7 kg, so I need to give him 350mg a day which is 175mg twice a day... Not rocket science. You need to look at an arterial blood gas printout, glance at the pH, HCO3 pO2 and pCO2 and instantly decide if you're looking at metabolic or respiratory acid/alkalosis. There's math there but after a while it's not work - they are all numbers you have seen before. And then there's the math that has to do with billing, and figuring out if you're actually earning or losing money which is not as easy as it sounds. Then there's the math that you have to deal with from your banker, who wants to bill you $700 a month for that new equipment you just bought. Should you buy the other model and save $50 a month, or not?
Then I go home. I have a mortgage. More math. Should I refinance, or stay as I am? How about retirement? How much money will I need to maintain my lifestyle, and how can I make sure I have it?
Oh there's plenty of math in life. Not everything is a Taylor series, or trig, but think of it like running. You have to learn to sit, then to crawl, then to walk, and then to run. Most of your life will be spent sitting, some of it walking. Rarely will you run. But still it's good to know you can, and that you can do it when you have to. Math is the same way. If you're a fool you'll kid yourself into thinking that math isn't important. That's the same as going through life with your eyes shut. Things will happen to you and you'll get into trouble, because the ones who are good at math will rob you blind. Or you can open your eyes, and spot where the reasonable deals are and where the rip-offs are.
You misunderstand me. It's not that the government can take money from honest men - it's that the government ONLY takes money from honest men. You think drug dealers pay tax on their cocaine income? It also only cages the weak and stupid. The government will never find the money of dishonest men, and will never be able to put a smart man in jail because the smart man doesn't get caught. The greedy gets caught. The impatient gets caught. And the stupid gets caught.
Most people think that the government is some noble parent that's there to protect them from the big bad bully. No, the government IS the big bad bully. There are other bullies on the block, the monopolies, the gangs and organized crime, but they run and hide when the government shows up. They will just come back later. But it's the honest guy that doesn't get out of the way. He stays there, innocent, doing anything the government asks- no - tells him to do. Paying whatever he has to do. And he says thank you, even when he's left with nothing. Not true, if he's lucky he'll be told a lie with a chuckle, some sort of vague political promise. It's a sweet deal. For the government.
You're not called a bully if you're opressing the strong.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh I will. But you first. That's human nature too...
"Let it happen"? How would you stop it - do tell. I'm not finger-pointing. I'm merely observing that there is a cycle to human history, and it's pretty obvious towards which end of the cycle we are headed. We call ourselves smart, but really I don't think there's anything we can do to stop it. Not individually and not collectively. Because the greed and corruption is part of our nature, as is our lazyness and our tolerance. So we go with the flow, while the immoral work their secret plots and plunder the wealth of society right in front of our eyes, until it reaches a point where we can take no more. Then we rise up, and smash the yoke that turned into a noose to strangle us. And then immediately settle our heads into a different yoke... But if all you're thinking is "republican/democrat/socialist/neocon" then you sir, can't see the wood for the trees.
The problem isn't Bush or Obama - it's the system. The whole damned machine. It's no longer working for the people, it's working to feed itself from the people. The next step is that it starts eating people directly, seizing their assets and imprisoning/shooting their bodies. And it's not just the US government either - I can't believe the amount of bullshit that has been going on for the past 20 years, and especially since 9/11 because, you know, terrorism.
Actually be the government, that's the best way to steal.
Well if you're the government, then it's not stealing. It's called tax. Levy. Fee. Tariff. Fine. Licence. But not stealing. It's perfectly legal, see how it says so here on this piece of paper I agreed to and signed, on your behalf?
Yep, there are so many laws nowadays even the lawyers aren't sure any more. So they just wing it. If the man wants you in jail, he has the time and resources to keep this shit up until you are either in jail or put a bullet in your own head. Welcome to the real world. And people look at me funny when I say I am anti-government. And please don't give me this republican/democrat/liberal/conservative bullshit. All that means is you're sitting on a different turd, but you're still in the septic tank.
Morpheus being the greek god of... oh never mind.
Wait till you have kids
No, it's wait until you have grand-kids for me. I probably still won't read it to them. I'm a different sort of grand-pa.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to say here.
Neither am I, but that should change once the medication reaches an adequate blood plasma concentration. Nah I'm just being my usual ultra-cynical self, because some people (not necessarily you) believe that insightful and cute children's books rank up there along Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Avicenna and the like. Has nothing to do with you, I'm just a grumpy old man with too much time on my hands.
He's a blogger and he has a page on wikipedia. How DARE you doubt his credibility, hater! /sarcasm
Hey maybe I could start slashvertising too. I mean I've been posting here forever. A couple people like me. Thousands hate me. I could be a famous internet authority! Authority of BS, but an authority nonetheless.
No, they save that last part for when their "prediction" fails to match up with what actually happens. So then they say "oh well, to get an ACCURATE forecast I need to know exactly where and when you were born".
I read it in first grade, I believe. Or kindergarten. I really don't remember, and I don't remember how they taste. That's what happens when you read more than one book. You forget little details like that. And while I understand that Teddy Seuss is quite insightful philosophy for some people, I'll argue that there are quite a few more profound books out there too. And they also taste awesome.
Me, I keep coming back because there's a rare chance of seeing an actual sentient commenter, and then wondering how long until he gets hate-modded to -3.
You would probably be better off reading only negatively modded comments. There would be a lot less to filter out.
The software was told to buy stock, and buy stock it did. The problem is not in the software per se, it's in failing to recognize an anomalous situation and continuing blindly on. Those who use the software have to sit down and work out why they would need a program that did what it did, and clearly work out parameters so that the software determine when it needs to switch behavior and go into sleep mode or something. Most biological pathways have some sort of feedback system built in that limits the initial step. It makes no sense to have a program that empties your company's wallet - no, almost its entire net worth - in under 2 hours. There is no situation in the world where this can be advantageous or justified. Sometimes missing out on that "opportunity" is much, much better than losing the whole company.
I guess we'll never really know if it was bad design, in that there were no failsafes in the program, or bad management, in that they comparmentalized so much that the guy doing the coding had no idea of the impact his code would have because he was never told how it would be used. Still, you learn very early in trading that some days it's better just to stay in bed. Greed is not always good.
there's plenty of people who've driven for decades and never had any accident whatsoever.
Yeah, and there's plenty of people who can't seem to leave the drive-way without having an accident. The point is it's impossible to tell who belongs into which group without actually giving them a car and letting them drive for a while. When considering the individual, of course as much individual freedom as you can get is what your are going to shoot for. When considering public policy, however, your actual individual wants and needs fall second to the needs of the population as a whole, and the only way to reliably assess those needs is through (appropriate) statistics.
I have one of those, it's called a "bulldozer". Yeah ok it's not autonomous, but it certainly builds its own road... :)
GoogleDrive will only be affordable (at any time in the next couple decades) to rich people to replace professional, expert drivers.
Remarkably stupid if Google does this. They'll go the way of the "electric" car and all the other fancy cars targeted at, well, Beverly Hills. A few rich celebs will buy one and pose for the cameras, and then they will be forgotten. No, Google needs to bite the bullet and take an example from Henry Ford. Make pennies on the unit, but make millions and millions of units.
Unless of course you happen to be stopped in the overtaking lane of a highway...
But if everyone went around in automated cars, the point is there would be no "idiot" in your rear view because he also would have been in an automated car; one which would have stopped in time.
That also works. When the objective is population reduction, it really doesn't matter who gets killed, so long as they get killed.
I wonder if this means that the project has been....put to sleep.
Understood. But the lack of an aquifer will not stop the rain from falling. Sure, there will be flooding but I thought you said you wanted water? I'm sure a solution can be engineered. Of course the real solution is to stop breeding like rabbits but the minute you say that, people's eyes glaze over and they get defensive of their 6 children, or point to the 3rd world and declining 1st world birth rates, etc, which makes things "political" all of a sudden. The fact of the matter is when I was a kid, there was barely 4 billion people in the world. Now there are over 7 billion. In another generation or so, it will be 16, and I can't imagine the problem becoming easier to solve at that point.
How dare these people hoard this water and remove it from the ecosystem. I'd also like to know where all these vast reservoirs of water are hidden, so we can raid them, and return our water to us. Oh wait - perhaps it's a case of... ahh yes, the USABLE, water, the potable water, the water that can be drunk by people and animals and crops, yeah that's in short supply. And it costs lots of money to turn all that urine - be it human or animal, or all that fertilizer and insecticide contaminated farm run-off - back into potable water.
So this is an economic problem, not a physical one. Well you know at some point you have to stop building stadiums and funding armies and buying fancy jet fighters, and actually spend money where it's needed. Otherwise you have to start sterilizing or shooting people. It's that simple. And if you do nothing, the problem will fix itself. Earth will always have water, and the water will be much cleaner when there are no humans left.
Well, I'm a physician. So while I don't deal with differential equations on a daily basis, I certainly needed a lot of math just to understand things like pKa and reaction rates in biochemistry, things like stroke-volume and the Starling equation, to understand how a kidney works, to understand why a 4cm aortic aneurysm is not such a big deal and a 6cm one can be deadly (something about a 4th power in there), acid base imbalances, why in the trauma room I need to use the short catheter and not the long one, etc. I needed math just to understand all of those concepts. In my day to day work, well, I don't need THAT much math - mostly fairly simple arithmetic. Dose is 50mg/kg divided in twice daily, patient weighs 7 kg, so I need to give him 350mg a day which is 175mg twice a day... Not rocket science. You need to look at an arterial blood gas printout, glance at the pH, HCO3 pO2 and pCO2 and instantly decide if you're looking at metabolic or respiratory acid/alkalosis. There's math there but after a while it's not work - they are all numbers you have seen before. And then there's the math that has to do with billing, and figuring out if you're actually earning or losing money which is not as easy as it sounds. Then there's the math that you have to deal with from your banker, who wants to bill you $700 a month for that new equipment you just bought. Should you buy the other model and save $50 a month, or not?
Then I go home. I have a mortgage. More math. Should I refinance, or stay as I am? How about retirement? How much money will I need to maintain my lifestyle, and how can I make sure I have it?
Oh there's plenty of math in life. Not everything is a Taylor series, or trig, but think of it like running. You have to learn to sit, then to crawl, then to walk, and then to run. Most of your life will be spent sitting, some of it walking. Rarely will you run. But still it's good to know you can, and that you can do it when you have to. Math is the same way. If you're a fool you'll kid yourself into thinking that math isn't important. That's the same as going through life with your eyes shut. Things will happen to you and you'll get into trouble, because the ones who are good at math will rob you blind. Or you can open your eyes, and spot where the reasonable deals are and where the rip-offs are.
Now it makes sense :)
You misunderstand me. It's not that the government can take money from honest men - it's that the government ONLY takes money from honest men. You think drug dealers pay tax on their cocaine income? It also only cages the weak and stupid. The government will never find the money of dishonest men, and will never be able to put a smart man in jail because the smart man doesn't get caught. The greedy gets caught. The impatient gets caught. And the stupid gets caught.
Most people think that the government is some noble parent that's there to protect them from the big bad bully. No, the government IS the big bad bully. There are other bullies on the block, the monopolies, the gangs and organized crime, but they run and hide when the government shows up. They will just come back later. But it's the honest guy that doesn't get out of the way. He stays there, innocent, doing anything the government asks- no - tells him to do. Paying whatever he has to do. And he says thank you, even when he's left with nothing. Not true, if he's lucky he'll be told a lie with a chuckle, some sort of vague political promise. It's a sweet deal. For the government.
You're not called a bully if you're opressing the strong.