No one has yet created life purely from organic molecules.
Correct. And irrelevant. Just because we can't yet duplicate the process which probably took millions of years of chance doesn't mean it didn't happen.
It's like finding some naturally formed bricks and suggesting that all it takes is a tornado to come along and make a house out of them.
You are arguing from the position of irreducible complexity. Again, just because you can't see the set of steps which are required doesn't mean they don't exist. The simple fact is that having any sort of gradient in survival rates will force an evolutionary process to come into play as individuals compete for limited resources. In this case, there is a naturally occurring difference in the potency of venom and the location of the sting. If there was an advantage to a certain combination, it would be expected to out compete the others.
Ah, but the crucial difference here is a continuity of consciousness. I'd have to problems with having my whole body replaced, as long as my consciousness is not erased. Even sleeping people have continuity.
Hot damn. I thought I was the only one who had reasoned it like this. I much prefer female avatars. I do, however, have to make the occasional kid sad when they ask to cyber(or make some obscene suggestions), and I reveal my gender. I guess they are too young to remember that venerable adage: "The Internet: where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents."
don't complain when someone needs a few hundred bucks, more than you need a PORTABLE INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE!!!!!
He was held up AT GUNPOINT! This wasn't a "broke the car window and swiped a laptop" type of crime, this was someone brandishing an instrument of death. Yes, sir, I want that person locked up until such time(if any) as they can be rehabilitated.
They might not have. I certainly don't have much. I'm usually solo-PvE or an off-healer in a group.
Both locks were trolling in Alliance lands, and knocking out quest-givers and the guys manning flight paths, which is how the fights started. So, I assumed that they were at least somewhat prepared for the response.
They may well have been morons. I don't make any claims as to being a great PVP fighter. Just relating what I've found. Note: I was taken down once by one of the 'locks. He caught me by surprise, and low on mana. I was toast. So, while I respect 'locks(one of my alts is a lock), they are not invincible.
Talking out of butt are we now? You wouldn't last more than a minute against a level 60 affliction lock, let alone two 70 locks.
Well, I did. Twice. Not two at a time, mind you. But, yes, I solo'd a 'lock in Westfall just last night(the first was in a two man group attacking that town in Loch Modan. A 70 warrior and I against a warrior and lock. We kept killing them until they unflagged and left). And, no, I'm not set up for any sort of dps, being a Holy spec pally. All of my armor is +spell damage/healing. Took every scrap of mana I had(and I burnt through all of my major self save spells), but I did it. And when a 70 rogue and mage showed up, together we finished the whole group(a hunter, the 'lock, a mage and something else), several times over. Look up Kyrietheles on armory if you want to see my specs. I'm on Uldaman. I'm not normally a PVP player, but last night was a blast.
Unorganized instanced PvP too much of a hassle? Have short (on the order of minutes, seconds if you're up against a 'lock) 1v1 - 5v5 arena matches
Sorry, but this struck me as funny. I'm a level 64 pally, and in the last two days, I've pwned 2 70 'locks. The moment they start to fear, you bubble, Holy Shock, whack 'em a few times, do a Hammer of Justice and a judgement, and watch them cry all the way to the grave.
Man, the last time I had goat was at an Indian buffet somewhere in the Kansas City area. If I had that recipe, I would decimate the local goat population. MMMMMMMMM!
since you are the only layer who reads/. regularly
Now, just wait a damned minute there. I lay on a regular basis. It's one of the benefits of being married.
Look at it this way. Just go back a few years. You had a great-grandfather. Imagine all the ways he could have died before reproducing. Now, imagine all of the things that could have rendered him sterile(so that, even surviving, he wouldn't reproduce). Now, imagine all of the possible alternate mates he could have chosen. Now, imagine all of the alternate sperm that could have produced your grandfather. That's just for 1/2 of 1 generation, and it's grossly simplified. Duplicate it for your great-grandmother, your grandfather and mother, and your father and mother. In just a handful of generations, the odds that YOU came to be are infinitesimal. Multiply that by the thousands of years before that, and add MY tree to it, and the odds that we would be typing this exchange would appear to be near impossible. But, we are indeed here, having this conversation. The point is that, in hindsight, any particular series of events will appear wildly improbable, and that the present state will appear preordained. It's not "praying to Random Chance" to recognize this.
Thanks. You linked that episode, I clicked and then felt the compulsion to fix something in the cultural references(the orca eating the penguins was based on the movie Orca, not Jaws). I've been wikified!
Please point out where I have ever advocated killing anyone.
Are you not aware of the meaning of the term suicide? Assisted suicide is someone actively working to help kill another person.
Yeah, giving people the freedom to chooce is such a horribly slippery slope.
In this case, there is clear historical precedence of government-led violation of human rights. The US has horribly mistreated disabled people in the past century. The Germans took it to a new level, of course. Those are just the cases I know of off the top of my head. I am certain that a google search would turn up lots of examples. There is now open talk amongst bio-ethicists about the euthanasia of disabled people. In that context, the expectation that legalized suicide would lead to pressure on doctors, patients and families to choose it over palliative care(if not degenerating into less than voluntary situations) is quite likely to be true.
I hope you realize how absurd it is to compare WoW with laying in bed for the rest of your life, unable to move.
Perhaps one problem is that you don't get the bigger picture. If you can control a character with your mind, you can control a vehicle, say, an electric scooter, or a voice synthesizer.
This is ignoring the fact that this research isn't about MMORPGs. Aside from the obvious socialization benefits, you could also utilize it as a tutor, a virtual lab, etc. Who knows how many Hawkings-level intellects would be snuffed out in your vision of the future for lack of companionship and an outlet for their creativity?
Did I say you did? I'm simply pointing out that you, as far as your post goes, have no frame of reference, and many disabled people(I would go so far as most, given the lack of widespread suicide and the lack of support for PAS in the group) fervently want to live. Deriding the important efforts to benefit those stricken by such problems(and this is more than MMORPGs for quadriplegics; think vehicle control and tele-presence technologies) in favor of simply killing them is short-sighted.
Besides, legal euthanasia opens up a whole new can of worms. Couple it with HMO-style thinking and the history lessons of the last century, and it's easy to see why disabled people protest it. They've been on the receiving end of that slippery slope before.
Death is ugly. It's ugly when a cheetah runs down a baby gazelle. It's ugly when a baboon kills and dismembers a monkey. It's ugly when a great white tears a seal to pieces. And it's ugly when someone whacks an animal for a steak. Life feeds on death. Get over it.
Slashdot Mirror
No one has yet created life purely from organic molecules.
Correct. And irrelevant. Just because we can't yet duplicate the process which probably took millions of years of chance doesn't mean it didn't happen.
It's like finding some naturally formed bricks and suggesting that all it takes is a tornado to come along and make a house out of them.
You are arguing from the position of irreducible complexity. Again, just because you can't see the set of steps which are required doesn't mean they don't exist. The simple fact is that having any sort of gradient in survival rates will force an evolutionary process to come into play as individuals compete for limited resources. In this case, there is a naturally occurring difference in the potency of venom and the location of the sting. If there was an advantage to a certain combination, it would be expected to out compete the others.
Ah, but the crucial difference here is a continuity of consciousness. I'd have to problems with having my whole body replaced, as long as my consciousness is not erased. Even sleeping people have continuity.
And why should you care?
Well, it might just be me, but I wouldn't want to be erased just to put a copy of me somewhere very quickly.
I like your work. Thank you for the link.
Or even the other way around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc
Hot damn. I thought I was the only one who had reasoned it like this. I much prefer female avatars. I do, however, have to make the occasional kid sad when they ask to cyber(or make some obscene suggestions), and I reveal my gender. I guess they are too young to remember that venerable adage:
"The Internet: where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents."
don't complain when someone needs a few hundred bucks, more than you need a PORTABLE INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE!!!!!
He was held up AT GUNPOINT! This wasn't a "broke the car window and swiped a laptop" type of crime, this was someone brandishing an instrument of death. Yes, sir, I want that person locked up until such time(if any) as they can be rehabilitated.
Would it be OK if I pitch a tent on your front lawn /joke
So, YOU were the little peeping tom I had to chase away! Stay off my lawn, dammit!
They might not have. I certainly don't have much. I'm usually solo-PvE or an off-healer in a group. Both locks were trolling in Alliance lands, and knocking out quest-givers and the guys manning flight paths, which is how the fights started. So, I assumed that they were at least somewhat prepared for the response.
They may well have been morons. I don't make any claims as to being a great PVP fighter. Just relating what I've found. Note: I was taken down once by one of the 'locks. He caught me by surprise, and low on mana. I was toast. So, while I respect 'locks(one of my alts is a lock), they are not invincible.
Talking out of butt are we now? You wouldn't last more than a minute against a level 60 affliction lock, let alone two 70 locks.
Well, I did. Twice. Not two at a time, mind you. But, yes, I solo'd a 'lock in Westfall just last night(the first was in a two man group attacking that town in Loch Modan. A 70 warrior and I against a warrior and lock. We kept killing them until they unflagged and left). And, no, I'm not set up for any sort of dps, being a Holy spec pally. All of my armor is +spell damage/healing. Took every scrap of mana I had(and I burnt through all of my major self save spells), but I did it. And when a 70 rogue and mage showed up, together we finished the whole group(a hunter, the 'lock, a mage and something else), several times over. Look up Kyrietheles on armory if you want to see my specs. I'm on Uldaman. I'm not normally a PVP player, but last night was a blast.
Now why was this moderated as a troll? Did I insult someone's favorite class or something? Sheesh.
Unorganized instanced PvP too much of a hassle? Have short (on the order of minutes, seconds if you're up against a 'lock) 1v1 - 5v5 arena matches
Sorry, but this struck me as funny. I'm a level 64 pally, and in the last two days, I've pwned 2 70 'locks. The moment they start to fear, you bubble, Holy Shock, whack 'em a few times, do a Hammer of Justice and a judgement, and watch them cry all the way to the grave.
Man, the last time I had goat was at an Indian buffet somewhere in the Kansas City area. If I had that recipe, I would decimate the local goat population. MMMMMMMMM!
I didn't say 'often.' I said 'regularly.'
since you are the only layer who reads /. regularly
Now, just wait a damned minute there. I lay on a regular basis. It's one of the benefits of being married.
Look at it this way. Just go back a few years. You had a great-grandfather. Imagine all the ways he could have died before reproducing. Now, imagine all of the things that could have rendered him sterile(so that, even surviving, he wouldn't reproduce). Now, imagine all of the possible alternate mates he could have chosen. Now, imagine all of the alternate sperm that could have produced your grandfather. That's just for 1/2 of 1 generation, and it's grossly simplified. Duplicate it for your great-grandmother, your grandfather and mother, and your father and mother. In just a handful of generations, the odds that YOU came to be are infinitesimal. Multiply that by the thousands of years before that, and add MY tree to it, and the odds that we would be typing this exchange would appear to be near impossible. But, we are indeed here, having this conversation. The point is that, in hindsight, any particular series of events will appear wildly improbable, and that the present state will appear preordained. It's not "praying to Random Chance" to recognize this.
Crotchless? A tank with a regulator, a backpack and some straps. If you can't work around that, you have bigger problems....
I've seen them all over mid-Kansas, which makes me wonder what cave-like structure they may be breeding in. My son caught one not a week ago, in fact.
Thanks. You linked that episode, I clicked and then felt the compulsion to fix something in the cultural references(the orca eating the penguins was based on the movie Orca, not Jaws). I've been wikified!
Please point out where I have ever advocated killing anyone.
Are you not aware of the meaning of the term suicide? Assisted suicide is someone actively working to help kill another person.
Yeah, giving people the freedom to chooce is such a horribly slippery slope.
In this case, there is clear historical precedence of government-led violation of human rights. The US has horribly mistreated disabled people in the past century. The Germans took it to a new level, of course. Those are just the cases I know of off the top of my head. I am certain that a google search would turn up lots of examples. There is now open talk amongst bio-ethicists about the euthanasia of disabled people. In that context, the expectation that legalized suicide would lead to pressure on doctors, patients and families to choose it over palliative care(if not degenerating into less than voluntary situations) is quite likely to be true.
I hope you realize how absurd it is to compare WoW with laying in bed for the rest of your life, unable to move.
Perhaps one problem is that you don't get the bigger picture. If you can control a character with your mind, you can control a vehicle, say, an electric scooter, or a voice synthesizer.
This is ignoring the fact that this research isn't about MMORPGs. Aside from the obvious socialization benefits, you could also utilize it as a tutor, a virtual lab, etc. Who knows how many Hawkings-level intellects would be snuffed out in your vision of the future for lack of companionship and an outlet for their creativity?
Did I say you did? I'm simply pointing out that you, as far as your post goes, have no frame of reference, and many disabled people(I would go so far as most, given the lack of widespread suicide and the lack of support for PAS in the group) fervently want to live. Deriding the important efforts to benefit those stricken by such problems(and this is more than MMORPGs for quadriplegics; think vehicle control and tele-presence technologies) in favor of simply killing them is short-sighted.
Besides, legal euthanasia opens up a whole new can of worms. Couple it with HMO-style thinking and the history lessons of the last century, and it's easy to see why disabled people protest it. They've been on the receiving end of that slippery slope before.
It's funny how so many people who actually are disabled disagree with you.
Death is ugly. It's ugly when a cheetah runs down a baby gazelle. It's ugly when a baboon kills and dismembers a monkey. It's ugly when a great white tears a seal to pieces. And it's ugly when someone whacks an animal for a steak. Life feeds on death. Get over it.