Mod parent up. I don't believe he broke any laws, either. Furthermore, I think he did what he did knowing damned well that he'd probably get canned regardless, but thought that the truth of things getting out into the light was more important than his own personal welfare, which is admirable.
We can always demand that the entire Administration be removed, put the Speaker of the House in charge temporarily, and have a Special Election for POTUS. Basically we reboot the country. It would be totally unprecedented, it would totally suck, but it might be what we have to do to save America.
This is why I have neither Facebook nor a smartphone. I don't want anyone seeing, hearing, reading anything about me, or knowing my geographic location (GPS receiver physically disabled in my non-smartphone, which is off most of the time anyway).
..yeah, because my full-time, 40-hour-a-week job is to do extensive research and fact-checking of every single opinion I post on random internet discussion forums where I don't even have to use my legal name to do so, to satisfy the whims of other random commentors who likewise don't even use anything like a real name, just because they say I should. How about 'NO'?
I base my opinions on my observations and the overall impressions I get from various news sources. I'm not writing a White Paper here, I'm not Official Advisor to the President or Congress or anything like that, I'm like you: A random person on a more-or-less anonymous discussion forum, posting my opinions on things. If you don't like my opinions that's your right, but it's also my right to say "I couldn't care less whether you like my opinion on this subject or not", and that's just tough for you now isn't it? I can also say "Go take your pointless sarcasm somewhere else, I'm not interested".
Europe already has a well-developed, mature rail system. Sure, it's not as fast as this 'hyperloop' alleges it'll be, but are you really in that much of a hurry? I thought Europeans liked their rail system which is why it's been around so long and is as extensive as it is. Why do they need 'hyperloop'? I don't think they do.
Even if you don't drink your brain wears out, starts screwing up, when you get old? This is news, how, exactly?
My conclusion: Nothing to see here.
My recommendations: Don't sit on your ass your whole life, get some damn exercise, don't drink every damn day, and while we're on the subject, don't eat garbage food all the time, and you'll be as fine as you ever could be. Of course no one who needs to be told all this will take the advice so as usual I'm wasting my breath.
He should have turned over his Twitter account to his Press Secretary when he took office and all Tweets should have been vetted and cleared before being sent. But of course that's just the smallest thing on a huge list of things he should or should not be doing, up to and including having run for president in the first place.
Isn't that a horribly sad commentary on our so-called 'civilization', though? Think about the potential that's being thrown away in the form of people's minds that, if properly trained, could come up with all sorts of things that could elevate the entire human race -- except that would dilute the power-base of the rich and privileged, and they just can't have that, now can they?
That's exactly what it is, friend. Citizens who can think for themselves are harder or impossible to control. Difficult to impossible to maintain your power-base when there are people around who can see what you're doing for what it is and not just blindly do what they're told.
Partisan politics-as-usual bullshit Focusing on Clinton instead of the BIGGER PICTURE
Listen buddy: IDGAF about Hillary; I didn't vote for the old bat and I didn't vote for Cheeto-head either, but I do give a good god-fucking-damnit about whether some Russian military assholes, on the orders of the head Russian asshole, HACKED OUR GODS-BE-DAMNED ELECTION PROCESS AND GOT AWAY WITH IT! Is that so fucking hard for you and EVERYONE LIKE YOU to understand!?
Meanwhile your boy Cheeto-head, the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief, is FUCKING OVER THE COUNTRY with his ham-fisted attempts at being President. You still happy with your choice for POTUS, boy?
If anyone for a single moment thinks this wouldn't be abused to the extreme and leveraged for corporate espionage and corporate cyberwarfare, then you're extremely naive. Companies would be hacking their competitors 24/7, claiming they're 'counter-attacking because they detected being hacked', and totally fabricate the evidence of said hacking. It would turn the Internet into something out of a cyberpunk novel, but in the worst sort of way. You think the Internet is dangerous NOW? Just wait until the MPAA and RIAA have the legal right to literally attack the IP address of anyone, anywhere, with basically no accountability and no consequences. On that note you'd probably have them hacking random people's computers, planting copyrighted material (movies, etc) then having the FBI kick their door in and confiscate their computing equipment, arrest them, jail them, and then they'd also get sued for everything they're worth; what a great money-making scheme that would be, right?/s
Screw that. Another technologically fucktarded politician with another horribly bad idea. Not enough 'nope!' in the entire Universe for that.
Finally, in the aftermath of the 2016 election debacle, and with as much fucking-up as Trump is doing to the country, I've had to do something I really didn't want to do, but feel I have no choice anymore (which angers me): re-registering from Independent ('fail to state', really) to Democrat. In 2020 we'll have to do everything we can to reverse and repair all the damage being done, and hope it's not too late.
Nope, nope, and nope. You're all drinking the media-fuelled Kool-Aid. I and many others just don't buy it. Also, don't confuse 'wait and see' with 'sticking your head in the sand', jackass. Also, unless you can totally eliminate Capitalism from the world while simultaneously creating a Star Trek-like post-scarcity Earth-of-the-future, your 'UBI' nonsense will NEVER work. Buck up, buddy, you'll be working the rest of your life; deal with it.
Maybe slightly off-topic, but do you know what helps my overall productivity at home? Having shoes on my feet. Being dressed like I'm going out into public helps my mindset even more.
If your job doesn't ever involve having to be physically present to do a physical task then I don't see the problem; a programmer, web designer, paperwork-shuffler, etc, doesn't need to be physically present. I, on the other hand, are working with hardware all day long, and I can't do that from home, so I have to be physically present in the lab in order to work. The value of an employee should be measured first by whether they get everything done they're supposed to get done, then by the quality of the aforementioned tasks, not by something as useless as 'do they arrive early and stay late' and similar. These things are holdovers from earlier times when someone not physically showing up for work meant an entire team of people would be hamstrung because of it (i.e. physical labor jobs). If your job is something not requiring you to be there to use your body to physically move things, then even if you're part of a team, you're still contributing to the team effort and doing your part for whatever project you're assigned to whether you're in an office or in your pajamas at home sitting in front of a keyboard.
Many of you are proponents of the whole 'UBI' concept. If your current job is capable of becoming work-from-home, would you feel better about having to work? You might still have to be available nine-to-five, but no commute, no having to get dressed in going-to-work clothes if you don't want to, no shoes on your feet if you don't want to, no co-workers to deal with even if you don't want to deal with them, nobody looking over your shoulder at random times.. bonus points if your work doesn't require you to keep 'bankers hours', allowing you to set your own schedule.
LOL the only thing anyone is in 'control' of is themselves, and that's only assuming they're capable of it.
You want serenity in your life? A decrease in overall anxiety and depression? Learn to differentiate between the shit you CAN do something about, and the shit you CAN'T do something about -- and DISCARD the latter from your brain.
Since you and some others seem to be SO informed and SO wise, what do you suggest I do? Panic and run around waving my arms like an idiot like the rest of you are doing? 'React' instead of 'act'? Make shit up that I THINK will shield me from the Brave New World Order everyone seems to think is coming? Sell everything I own and buy gold bars, go hide in a cabin somewhere in Montana until it's all over? Or maybe {insert equally ridiculous nonsense here}?
STUFF AND NONSENSE.
Know what I'm going to do? NOTHING. Why? Because you, I, and everyone else has no idea what is really going to happen. 'Reacting' is the dumbest thing you could do -- and I am still convinced that The Sky Is Not Going To Fall. If you're lost in a maze and people are looking for you, you sit your ass down and WAIT TO BE FOUND.
Please do go right ahead and panic all you want though. I'll sit here with my popcorn and enjoy the show.:-)
So which is it: Do you have a Time Machine and you're from the robot-controlled future, here to warn us here in the past (nevermind the violation of basic safety rules with regards to temporal mechanics, paradoxes, etc)? Or do you have a Magic Mirror that can see into the future?
Or are you just young, and haven't been around long enough to see at least one other cycle of this sort of 'The Sky Is Falling!' nonsense before?
Go read some history books. Go find old newspaper stories from decades past. Or, at least go talk to people in their 70's and older, who still remember things; they'll tell you that every few decades things get shaken up by one development or another, and The Sky Is Falling, Everybody Panic is the general reaction to it.
Serioulsy, people, calm the hell down already. Take a few deep breaths, repeat whatever mantra you need to, and calm down. Panicked minds turn off their ability to reason and instead just react. Don't be That Guy.
So, basically, if you fall for the 'mobile payment' meme, you're failing a basic intelligence test?
I should write things like this down, for those days when I'm not feeling at my best, to remind myself that I'm still smarter than the average human, even on my worst days. xD
Most people do not think the progress will continue indefinitely but it doesn't have to do so in order for for computers to a) achieve human level general intelligence or b) achieve consciousness.
That statement right there is what qualifies you as an 'AI' nutter, buddy. We have NO IDEA yet how the human brain achieves what we consider 'consciousness', 'sentience', or 'self-awareness', and until we do we cannot build machines capable of those qualities, we can ONLY create the false illusion of them, a parlor trick, fakery, on a very limited level. I don't care how many games of 'Go' or Chess some computer can win, until it's capable of passing the Turing Test at the strictest levels, over and over and over again, I will not consider any of these half-assed machines they keep trotting out to be 'artificial intelligence'. Movies and TV shows aren't real, friend; they are as much fantasy as what you and the media think 'AI' is.
Before you even THINK of going off on me: Scientists who study the human brain agree with me. Unless you've got credible sources in academia who can explain in great detail how human consciousness/sentience/self-awareness works, you can't tell me what these hackneyed algorithms they've been trotting out are real 'artificial intelligence'. Use a different word for them!
I'm about the same age as you and I see this so-called 'self driving car' nonsense as a loss of freedom because you'll have no way of actually directly controlling the vehicle (if they have their way, that is), it will go where it will, and worse, someone else (criminals, police, government, some faceless random person sitting behind a keyboard somewhere) will be able to control it remotely. A vehicle is a tool; the way humans use tools, they become effectively an extension of your physical body, so far as your brain is concerned. If you can't control the tool, it can't become a virtual part of you. It becomes more like being on a rollercoaster at that point, except one that could get you killed. I don't need a 'thrill ride' (more like TERROR ride, really) every time I need to go anywhere; I'd rather WALK that put up with that.
It seems like every freakin' day I hear about one hack or another into someone's POS payment system, or banking information, or whatever, yet we're expanding our ability to pay electronically for everything? Some people talking about doing away with cash? Seriously? This week I had to get my bank to deactivate my debit card and go get a replacement because of a POS breech at Chipotle restaurants; I'd already been thinking about starting to pay for everything I could with cash (just to reduce the number of receipts I have to enter into my checking account ledger), but that has got me thinking it's time to stop using electronic payment methods entirely and go back to paying cash for everything and mailing paper checks for my monthly bills, just so I don't get my bank account drained. So why, in the face of more and more hacks, are we expanding this?
I'm going to point at all you fools and laugh myself silly when robots don't take everyones' jobs.
Even Chicken Little is going to point and laugh derisively, shaking his chicken-head sadly at how dumb humans can be.
Some people just want to watch the world burn.
Then there are some people who, for some inexplicable reason, just want to run around, waving their arms like madmen, doom-saying like there's no tomorrow.
For some reason they seem to be the same people who obsessively correct peoples' grammar and spelling, and nitpick choice of one word over another in a sentence. Anyone got any ideas on why that is?
Listen, buddy: This is not Debate Club. This is not a real news organization, and we're not journalists. This is a pseudo-news site on the Internet, and we're a bunch of random nobodies, discussing our opinions about the news of the day and what's going on in the world; it's a virtual water cooler discussion. We're not making policy here, we're not crafting legislation, we're not deciding strategy on the World stage for anyone, and, really, in the Grand Scheme of things, nobody really cares what we say here, not in the least. Your opinion, my opinion, $SOMEONE_ELSE's opinion, they're all worth NOTHING to anyone but ourselves. There's nothing to WIN or LOSE here, you're not getting any real 'points' towards anything, except maybe that inner feeling of validation from knowing that other random nobodies on the Internet happen to like what you posted. So how about you lighten up? If nothing else you won't wear out your keyboard so quickly, or aggravate that case of Carpal Tunnel you've got. xD
Slashdot Mirror
Mod parent up. I don't believe he broke any laws, either. Furthermore, I think he did what he did knowing damned well that he'd probably get canned regardless, but thought that the truth of things getting out into the light was more important than his own personal welfare, which is admirable.
We can always demand that the entire Administration be removed, put the Speaker of the House in charge temporarily, and have a Special Election for POTUS. Basically we reboot the country. It would be totally unprecedented, it would totally suck, but it might be what we have to do to save America.
This is why I have neither Facebook nor a smartphone. I don't want anyone seeing, hearing, reading anything about me, or knowing my geographic location (GPS receiver physically disabled in my non-smartphone, which is off most of the time anyway).
..yeah, because my full-time, 40-hour-a-week job is to do extensive research and fact-checking of every single opinion I post on random internet discussion forums where I don't even have to use my legal name to do so, to satisfy the whims of other random commentors who likewise don't even use anything like a real name, just because they say I should. How about 'NO'?
I base my opinions on my observations and the overall impressions I get from various news sources. I'm not writing a White Paper here, I'm not Official Advisor to the President or Congress or anything like that, I'm like you: A random person on a more-or-less anonymous discussion forum, posting my opinions on things. If you don't like my opinions that's your right, but it's also my right to say "I couldn't care less whether you like my opinion on this subject or not", and that's just tough for you now isn't it? I can also say "Go take your pointless sarcasm somewhere else, I'm not interested".
Europe already has a well-developed, mature rail system. Sure, it's not as fast as this 'hyperloop' alleges it'll be, but are you really in that much of a hurry? I thought Europeans liked their rail system which is why it's been around so long and is as extensive as it is. Why do they need 'hyperloop'? I don't think they do.
Even if you don't drink your brain wears out, starts screwing up, when you get old? This is news, how, exactly?
My conclusion: Nothing to see here.
My recommendations: Don't sit on your ass your whole life, get some damn exercise, don't drink every damn day, and while we're on the subject, don't eat garbage food all the time, and you'll be as fine as you ever could be. Of course no one who needs to be told all this will take the advice so as usual I'm wasting my breath.
He should have turned over his Twitter account to his Press Secretary when he took office and all Tweets should have been vetted and cleared before being sent. But of course that's just the smallest thing on a huge list of things he should or should not be doing, up to and including having run for president in the first place.
Isn't that a horribly sad commentary on our so-called 'civilization', though? Think about the potential that's being thrown away in the form of people's minds that, if properly trained, could come up with all sorts of things that could elevate the entire human race -- except that would dilute the power-base of the rich and privileged, and they just can't have that, now can they?
That's exactly what it is, friend. Citizens who can think for themselves are harder or impossible to control. Difficult to impossible to maintain your power-base when there are people around who can see what you're doing for what it is and not just blindly do what they're told.
Partisan politics-as-usual bullshit
Focusing on Clinton instead of the BIGGER PICTURE
Listen buddy: IDGAF about Hillary; I didn't vote for the old bat and I didn't vote for Cheeto-head either, but I do give a good god-fucking-damnit about whether some Russian military assholes, on the orders of the head Russian asshole, HACKED OUR GODS-BE-DAMNED ELECTION PROCESS AND GOT AWAY WITH IT! Is that so fucking hard for you and EVERYONE LIKE YOU to understand!?
Meanwhile your boy Cheeto-head, the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief, is FUCKING OVER THE COUNTRY with his ham-fisted attempts at being President. You still happy with your choice for POTUS, boy?
If anyone for a single moment thinks this wouldn't be abused to the extreme and leveraged for corporate espionage and corporate cyberwarfare, then you're extremely naive. Companies would be hacking their competitors 24/7, claiming they're 'counter-attacking because they detected being hacked', and totally fabricate the evidence of said hacking. It would turn the Internet into something out of a cyberpunk novel, but in the worst sort of way. You think the Internet is dangerous NOW? Just wait until the MPAA and RIAA have the legal right to literally attack the IP address of anyone, anywhere, with basically no accountability and no consequences. On that note you'd probably have them hacking random people's computers, planting copyrighted material (movies, etc) then having the FBI kick their door in and confiscate their computing equipment, arrest them, jail them, and then they'd also get sued for everything they're worth; what a great money-making scheme that would be, right? /s
Screw that. Another technologically fucktarded politician with another horribly bad idea. Not enough 'nope!' in the entire Universe for that.
Finally, in the aftermath of the 2016 election debacle, and with as much fucking-up as Trump is doing to the country, I've had to do something I really didn't want to do, but feel I have no choice anymore (which angers me): re-registering from Independent ('fail to state', really) to Democrat. In 2020 we'll have to do everything we can to reverse and repair all the damage being done, and hope it's not too late.
Nope, nope, and nope. You're all drinking the media-fuelled Kool-Aid. I and many others just don't buy it. Also, don't confuse 'wait and see' with 'sticking your head in the sand', jackass. Also, unless you can totally eliminate Capitalism from the world while simultaneously creating a Star Trek-like post-scarcity Earth-of-the-future, your 'UBI' nonsense will NEVER work. Buck up, buddy, you'll be working the rest of your life; deal with it.
Maybe slightly off-topic, but do you know what helps my overall productivity at home? Having shoes on my feet. Being dressed like I'm going out into public helps my mindset even more.
If your job doesn't ever involve having to be physically present to do a physical task then I don't see the problem; a programmer, web designer, paperwork-shuffler, etc, doesn't need to be physically present. I, on the other hand, are working with hardware all day long, and I can't do that from home, so I have to be physically present in the lab in order to work. The value of an employee should be measured first by whether they get everything done they're supposed to get done, then by the quality of the aforementioned tasks, not by something as useless as 'do they arrive early and stay late' and similar. These things are holdovers from earlier times when someone not physically showing up for work meant an entire team of people would be hamstrung because of it (i.e. physical labor jobs). If your job is something not requiring you to be there to use your body to physically move things, then even if you're part of a team, you're still contributing to the team effort and doing your part for whatever project you're assigned to whether you're in an office or in your pajamas at home sitting in front of a keyboard.
Many of you are proponents of the whole 'UBI' concept. If your current job is capable of becoming work-from-home, would you feel better about having to work? You might still have to be available nine-to-five, but no commute, no having to get dressed in going-to-work clothes if you don't want to, no shoes on your feet if you don't want to, no co-workers to deal with even if you don't want to deal with them, nobody looking over your shoulder at random times.. bonus points if your work doesn't require you to keep 'bankers hours', allowing you to set your own schedule.
LOL the only thing anyone is in 'control' of is themselves, and that's only assuming they're capable of it.
You want serenity in your life? A decrease in overall anxiety and depression? Learn to differentiate between the shit you CAN do something about, and the shit you CAN'T do something about -- and DISCARD the latter from your brain.
Since you and some others seem to be SO informed and SO wise, what do you suggest I do? Panic and run around waving my arms like an idiot like the rest of you are doing? 'React' instead of 'act'? Make shit up that I THINK will shield me from the Brave New World Order everyone seems to think is coming? Sell everything I own and buy gold bars, go hide in a cabin somewhere in Montana until it's all over? Or maybe {insert equally ridiculous nonsense here}?
:-)
STUFF AND NONSENSE.
Know what I'm going to do? NOTHING. Why? Because you, I, and everyone else has no idea what is really going to happen. 'Reacting' is the dumbest thing you could do -- and I am still convinced that The Sky Is Not Going To Fall. If you're lost in a maze and people are looking for you, you sit your ass down and WAIT TO BE FOUND.
Please do go right ahead and panic all you want though. I'll sit here with my popcorn and enjoy the show.
Because it amuses me. If you come to a place like this and take it seriously then You're Doing It Wrong. xD
So which is it: Do you have a Time Machine and you're from the robot-controlled future, here to warn us here in the past (nevermind the violation of basic safety rules with regards to temporal mechanics, paradoxes, etc)? Or do you have a Magic Mirror that can see into the future?
Or are you just young, and haven't been around long enough to see at least one other cycle of this sort of 'The Sky Is Falling!' nonsense before?
Go read some history books. Go find old newspaper stories from decades past. Or, at least go talk to people in their 70's and older, who still remember things; they'll tell you that every few decades things get shaken up by one development or another, and The Sky Is Falling, Everybody Panic is the general reaction to it.
Serioulsy, people, calm the hell down already. Take a few deep breaths, repeat whatever mantra you need to, and calm down. Panicked minds turn off their ability to reason and instead just react. Don't be That Guy.
So, basically, if you fall for the 'mobile payment' meme, you're failing a basic intelligence test?
I should write things like this down, for those days when I'm not feeling at my best, to remind myself that I'm still smarter than the average human, even on my worst days. xD
Most people do not think the progress will continue indefinitely but it doesn't have to do so in order for for computers to a) achieve human level general intelligence or b) achieve consciousness.
That statement right there is what qualifies you as an 'AI' nutter, buddy. We have NO IDEA yet how the human brain achieves what we consider 'consciousness', 'sentience', or 'self-awareness', and until we do we cannot build machines capable of those qualities, we can ONLY create the false illusion of them, a parlor trick, fakery, on a very limited level. I don't care how many games of 'Go' or Chess some computer can win, until it's capable of passing the Turing Test at the strictest levels, over and over and over again, I will not consider any of these half-assed machines they keep trotting out to be 'artificial intelligence'. Movies and TV shows aren't real, friend; they are as much fantasy as what you and the media think 'AI' is.
Before you even THINK of going off on me: Scientists who study the human brain agree with me. Unless you've got credible sources in academia who can explain in great detail how human consciousness/sentience/self-awareness works, you can't tell me what these hackneyed algorithms they've been trotting out are real 'artificial intelligence'. Use a different word for them!
I'm about the same age as you and I see this so-called 'self driving car' nonsense as a loss of freedom because you'll have no way of actually directly controlling the vehicle (if they have their way, that is), it will go where it will, and worse, someone else (criminals, police, government, some faceless random person sitting behind a keyboard somewhere) will be able to control it remotely. A vehicle is a tool; the way humans use tools, they become effectively an extension of your physical body, so far as your brain is concerned. If you can't control the tool, it can't become a virtual part of you. It becomes more like being on a rollercoaster at that point, except one that could get you killed. I don't need a 'thrill ride' (more like TERROR ride, really) every time I need to go anywhere; I'd rather WALK that put up with that.
It seems like every freakin' day I hear about one hack or another into someone's POS payment system, or banking information, or whatever, yet we're expanding our ability to pay electronically for everything? Some people talking about doing away with cash? Seriously? This week I had to get my bank to deactivate my debit card and go get a replacement because of a POS breech at Chipotle restaurants; I'd already been thinking about starting to pay for everything I could with cash (just to reduce the number of receipts I have to enter into my checking account ledger), but that has got me thinking it's time to stop using electronic payment methods entirely and go back to paying cash for everything and mailing paper checks for my monthly bills, just so I don't get my bank account drained. So why, in the face of more and more hacks, are we expanding this?
I'm going to point at all you fools and laugh myself silly when robots don't take everyones' jobs.
Even Chicken Little is going to point and laugh derisively, shaking his chicken-head sadly at how dumb humans can be.
Some people just want to watch the world burn.
Then there are some people who, for some inexplicable reason, just want to run around, waving their arms like madmen, doom-saying like there's no tomorrow.
For some reason they seem to be the same people who obsessively correct peoples' grammar and spelling, and nitpick choice of one word over another in a sentence. Anyone got any ideas on why that is?
Too long, didn't read, LOL xD
Listen, buddy: This is not Debate Club. This is not a real news organization, and we're not journalists. This is a pseudo-news site on the Internet, and we're a bunch of random nobodies, discussing our opinions about the news of the day and what's going on in the world; it's a virtual water cooler discussion. We're not making policy here, we're not crafting legislation, we're not deciding strategy on the World stage for anyone, and, really, in the Grand Scheme of things, nobody really cares what we say here, not in the least. Your opinion, my opinion, $SOMEONE_ELSE's opinion, they're all worth NOTHING to anyone but ourselves. There's nothing to WIN or LOSE here, you're not getting any real 'points' towards anything, except maybe that inner feeling of validation from knowing that other random nobodies on the Internet happen to like what you posted. So how about you lighten up? If nothing else you won't wear out your keyboard so quickly, or aggravate that case of Carpal Tunnel you've got. xD