On the other hand, the idea of a slot machine is to try to get money out of it
This is also the idea of an ATM, no?;)
So if one uses the ATM the way it's intended to be used (insert card, punch in pin, withdrawal amount, etc) and it spits out way too much cash because the machine itself was faulty... I fail to see how the two differ, honestly. Except that banks have a lot more lobbying power, perhaps:)
Well, they could also have been assuming it was some sort of special deal going on. Every 100th play gets bonus money, or something...
Anyway, I don't think that qualifies as intent. A lack of ethics, maybe... as a possible analogy, you see someone drop a 20 on the ground accidentally, if you don't pick it up and return it to them, is that a crime or just a lack of an ethical values?
What if the deep experience you have comes from understanding science?
The first time I understood Special Relativity was the closest experience I have I could call "religious" - an enormous, mind-blowing rush of awe and wonder; and looking up into the night sky with the understanding just how vast the universe is, is something that's akin to a religious "rush"; or so I think it may be... and it's something akin to a ritual, with me. If it's clear, I have to stop what I'm doing and look.:)
Just curious about where that fits into your speculations...
What you describe about your parrot echoes my experiences with my cats to a large extent. One notable exception is "new faces" - Pook, the older cat, is a regular door-greeter, she loves people. Bandit, on the other hand, runs and finds a place to observe for a while until he figures it's safe to come out...
disagree about cats and caring - back when I used to have regular job hours mine would be waiting in the window when it was time for me to come home. Now they hear my key in the door and if they aren't too deep in slumber they greet me when I get in. Then they roll on their backs for the I'm Home tummy rub... every few months I'm gone for four or five days on business and if there's not an extended make-up session when I get back, the claws come out, the vocal complaints start, and the furry bodies get underfoot constantly...
vocab
pook doesn't have too much of a range, but Bandit and I explore bits of "conversation" all the time, and the more I "talk" to him, the more he talks. He has distinct utterances he uses in certain situations. Given a few decades, I may decipher some of it...
Messy: cat boxes aren't much fun either, and require daily maintenance... and as to tearing up things, cats are much more efficient at that than any parrot. They're equipped for it, after all.:) I quit buying good furniture nearly twenty years ago...
In my not so humble opinion, any living thing that can love and get along with a human, is at least as intelligent as a human is. If not more.
And I'm not biased one bit by the fact that I love some of them. Erm.;)
On that thought, humans are probably the most xenophobic of all the intelligent species living on this planet. Well, it would explain quite a few things...
Communication of abstract concepts is the real problem with chimps; culture being one of those concepts.
I'd like to add that cats, in my observations, can also learn to recognize themselves in the mirror eventually - even kittens will realize there's another cat there. My young tomcat also recognizes my face in the mirror, he'll meet my eyes directly in the mirror and respond to facial movements the same way he does face to face. But he learned to do that - although he could obviously see images in the mirror at first, it took him a while to realize that the funny thing with the shaving cream on it's face was me. He's a cat who knows how to "shake hands" as well, and he doesn't confuse the mirror-imaged hands/paws.
My older cat Pook seems to have always known what a mirror is for. She'll preen in front of one for hours.
Your Amazon: Have you tried just keeping a large mirror on one wall of the cage for a long length of time, to see if he eventually figures it out? Maybe opposite the side of the cage you generally approach on, so the mirror images will include you as well? It might well be that mirrors mess up their depth perception in such a way that makes it difficult for them to focus on the image - but that would be true of cats as well, I'd think. But then cats probably have a greater sense of "self" - most mammals do so more than birds.
Do the birds like your Amazon show distinct emotional states? My place has always been a cattery, no place for birds:) and I've wondered about that.
Slashdot Mirror
This is also the idea of an ATM, no? ;)
So if one uses the ATM the way it's intended to be used (insert card, punch in pin, withdrawal amount, etc) and it spits out way too much cash because the machine itself was faulty... I fail to see how the two differ, honestly. Except that banks have a lot more lobbying power, perhaps :)
SB
Well, they could also have been assuming it was some sort of special deal going on. Every 100th play gets bonus money, or something...
Anyway, I don't think that qualifies as intent. A lack of ethics, maybe... as a possible analogy, you see someone drop a 20 on the ground accidentally, if you don't pick it up and return it to them, is that a crime or just a lack of an ethical values?
SB
It's not the nicotine that kills you, it's the cocktail of stuff that comes with it in that package.
(I've quit more times than I've counted - sucks not being able to breath on those long bike rides. Binging now, again. Fucking Stress
SB
Yeah?
So where's my THC patch?
*grumble damned kids*
SB
trends we see in the world today.
;)
Which ones? Just curious
SB
What if the deep experience you have comes from understanding science?
:)
The first time I understood Special Relativity was the closest experience I have I could call "religious" - an enormous, mind-blowing rush of awe and wonder; and looking up into the night sky with the understanding just how vast the universe is, is something that's akin to a religious "rush"; or so I think it may be... and it's something akin to a ritual, with me. If it's clear, I have to stop what I'm doing and look.
Just curious about where that fits into your speculations...
Cheers,
SB
Now *there's* a helluva idea for a "reality show"
We send them with equipment manufactured by the lowest bidder...
SB
The dissolution we know as death happens to all living things. We all have to face it.
The real tragedy of Challenger was not about humans dying. It was about dreams dying.
SB
So... should I consider myself disturbed if the diaper thing made perfect sense to me the first time I read about it?
SB
Lately, that's started to resemble history in the making
SB
(Assuming for the sake of argument that God can and does work through evolution and genetics.)
Then he's a really shitty engineer.
He should have engineered us with predisposed mass intentions to *reach* the stars, not worship them.
It's more like something dumbed-down by a committee.
SB
And Literal interpretations of "multiply, and fill the earth";
SB
Lack of evidence of such a gene is not evidence of the lack of such a gene.
SB
Yeah, but how much does he pay the telemarketers?
SB
Faith in other human beings.
That's the only 'real' sort of 'faith' with a somewhat practical basis
It has it's downsides...
SB
Abraham.
SB
Thanks for that link! Seems to work better with older bands, but that's what I like... *g*
SB
Yeah, well sometimes the moderators need the reminder... just ensuring
SB
Not to worry, the Chinese will be able to shoot down their laser communications satellite soon...
SB
For varying definitions of "vanilla porn" I think
SB
They're like sheep but with the added convenience of handlebars.
Must. Resist. Obvious. Joke.
SB
f there is a way to find porn, I'll have found it long before she will--finding porn is like a male geek superpower.
:)
Ahem. Finding porn on the internet is so easy it happens to some people accidentally
SB
You can laugh now, but what if Douglas Adams was wrong, and it's not mice, but honeybees? :)
SB
What you describe about your parrot echoes my experiences with my cats to a large extent. One notable exception is "new faces" - Pook, the older cat, is a regular door-greeter, she loves people. Bandit, on the other hand, runs and finds a place to observe for a while until he figures it's safe to come out...
disagree about cats and caring - back when I used to have regular job hours mine would be waiting in the window when it was time for me to come home. Now they hear my key in the door and if they aren't too deep in slumber they greet me when I get in. Then they roll on their backs for the I'm Home tummy rub... every few months I'm gone for four or five days on business and if there's not an extended make-up session when I get back, the claws come out, the vocal complaints start, and the furry bodies get underfoot constantly...
vocab
pook doesn't have too much of a range, but Bandit and I explore bits of "conversation" all the time, and the more I "talk" to him, the more he talks. He has distinct utterances he uses in certain situations. Given a few decades, I may decipher some of it...
Messy: cat boxes aren't much fun either, and require daily maintenance... and as to tearing up things, cats are much more efficient at that than any parrot. They're equipped for it, after all.
In my not so humble opinion, any living thing that can love and get along with a human, is at least as intelligent as a human is. If not more.
And I'm not biased one bit by the fact that I love some of them. Erm.
On that thought, humans are probably the most xenophobic of all the intelligent species living on this planet. Well, it would explain quite a few things...
SB
Excellent and interesting post.
:) and I've wondered about that.
Communication of abstract concepts is the real problem with chimps; culture being one of those concepts.
I'd like to add that cats, in my observations, can also learn to recognize themselves in the mirror eventually - even kittens will realize there's another cat there. My young tomcat also recognizes my face in the mirror, he'll meet my eyes directly in the mirror and respond to facial movements the same way he does face to face. But he learned to do that - although he could obviously see images in the mirror at first, it took him a while to realize that the funny thing with the shaving cream on it's face was me. He's a cat who knows how to "shake hands" as well, and he doesn't confuse the mirror-imaged hands/paws.
My older cat Pook seems to have always known what a mirror is for. She'll preen in front of one for hours.
Your Amazon: Have you tried just keeping a large mirror on one wall of the cage for a long length of time, to see if he eventually figures it out? Maybe opposite the side of the cage you generally approach on, so the mirror images will include you as well? It might well be that mirrors mess up their depth perception in such a way that makes it difficult for them to focus on the image - but that would be true of cats as well, I'd think. But then cats probably have a greater sense of "self" - most mammals do so more than birds.
Do the birds like your Amazon show distinct emotional states? My place has always been a cattery, no place for birds
Cheers,
SB