Well, I'm guessing that you're older than 2, and you're plainly not embarrassed about spouting off on a subject you obviously know nothing about, so...counterpoint nicely made!
...about the same time I signed up for my slashdot account.:) I couldn't wait to buy the thing, but I eventually got an MP3 CD player to replace it. Couldn't beat 650MB of MP3's at your fingertips.
A computer controlling about 30 different parameters in the process--including temperature, temperature gradient, gas flow rates, and the chemistry of the mix--allows the builders to control the properties of the tubes.
A genetic algorithm is a great way to optimize a set of parameters. If they can find a way to test parameter sets quickly this would be a great opportunity to use a GA to find the best parameters, especially given that there's so many of them.
The hardest approach is, "There are conspiracies behind this, I can see that they exist in some nebulous form, but I will neither drive myself crazy trying to get to the bottom of it nor will I pretend that the world is the simple thing that my television tells me that it is, I will simply be content to know that these forces are moving with purpose in the world somewhere beyond my sight."
You've just repeated my basic attitude about most things. I like to call it "Devout Agnosticism" for short.:)
Okay first of all, if it's government run you know they're gonna spy on everyone everywhere with it.
As opposed to what's currently being done in the private sector?
When you have the president of the united states, in the state of the union address, demanding that private companies be exempt from current laws...are they really private companies anymore?
Not exactly the same, but it is a problem when other people are taking them seriously.
Another thing to add about that comic: the same folks who give credence to intelligent design tend to be in the same political circles as those who advocate mountaintop removal mining. So, as the comic says, the universe doesn't require that anyone believes in the mountain, but if enough people don't want the mountain to exist anymore they'll just erase it. In a generation it doesn't matter if anyone believed in the mountain or not...it's gone.
Moral of the story? Don't underestimate how far people are willing to go.
Newtonian mechanics is a deterministic process. Quantum theory is not. And yet, somehow, we get from the non-deterministic phenomena to the deterministic ones.
So now there's a study showing that the seemingly random elements that go into evolutionary pressures can lead to a reliably predictable result.
Good to know folks are doing research in this direction. Let's get more of it.:)
Now, to turn things around, all the things mentioned to me -- the crusades and so on -- don't appear to me to be related to religion at all.
Aw, man, you had a great argument going until that.
So, the bad stuff done in the name of religions are not "related to religion," yet the good stuff inspired by religious ideas are "related to religion"? (And, you really make a fool of yourself trying to say the Crusades were not related to Christianity. I think you're basically disagreeing with 99.9% of historians here. Here, do some reading)
Take the good with the bad. If you ignore all of the bad you just look like an idiot. The point is to weigh the good and the bad and judge whether, on the whole, religion is a benefit.
Life is itself a problem-solving system, you'd think that we'd have abandoned a tool that's become as useless as religion, using Science instead! But the inertia of stupidity is infinite.
You have part of it.
What problem does religion (and belief in general) solve?
Bonus: Can you formulate an answer that does not make you inherently superior to religions people? See this as a challenge befitting your superior intellect. (Then once seen, unsee.)
The solution to all wars, and to religion to a large extent, is EDUCATION to teach Science to everyone, and RESOURCES so that they never get the perception that those will lack.
Do you really think millions of years of human evolution can be changed by education and resources?
And, before you turn the flames on me, I'm agnostic, so chill.
Show me a large-scale ethanol process, sunlight-to-tank, that doesn't take petroleum as an input and then I'll be much more impressed.
I'd be impressed as well, mainly because there is no energy generation process...period...that would not currently use petroleum as an input. Wind, Solar, Nuclear, Hydro, Geothermal - all require petroleum as an input to construct and maintain infrastructure. A huge portion of our physical infrastructure, not just fuel, is dependent on petroleum. One word: plastics.
So discounting the use of petroleum in energy production is a red herring. It's impossible.
Slashdot Mirror
You speak as if you're above us all. You talk like the elite claim to disdain.
Sanctimonious prick.
Somalia and Kosovo?
Somalia and Kosovo?
After the last seven years, all you have to say is fucking Somalia and Kosovo?
Yeah, all administrations wag the dog.
The Bush administration wagged the whole fucking planet.
Please.
Millions of emails, over a period of several years, and you see no intent to delete?
Do much work for psyops?
Well, I'm guessing that you're older than 2, and you're plainly not embarrassed about spouting off on a subject you obviously know nothing about, so...counterpoint nicely made!
...about the same time I signed up for my slashdot account. :) I couldn't wait to buy the thing, but I eventually got an MP3 CD player to replace it. Couldn't beat 650MB of MP3's at your fingertips.
As ridiculously easy as using a spell checker?
Usually I'm not quite so pedantic, but you were commenting on how dumbed down folks are, and I couldn't resist...
Genetic engineering and/or cybernetics, enabled by mathematics, may well change that.
Thank god his specialty isn't hydrodynamics!
A genetic algorithm is a great way to optimize a set of parameters. If they can find a way to test parameter sets quickly this would be a great opportunity to use a GA to find the best parameters, especially given that there's so many of them.
You've just repeated my basic attitude about most things. I like to call it "Devout Agnosticism" for short.
Except in the congress, where the legislation was actually authored. Remember that whole election thing in 1994?
As opposed to what's currently being done in the private sector?
When you have the president of the united states, in the state of the union address, demanding that private companies be exempt from current laws...are they really private companies anymore?
Yes, it's appropriate.
It's a small percentage that is disproportionately vocal, determined, and influential. Hence the harping...
Another thing to add about that comic: the same folks who give credence to intelligent design tend to be in the same political circles as those who advocate mountaintop removal mining. So, as the comic says, the universe doesn't require that anyone believes in the mountain, but if enough people don't want the mountain to exist anymore they'll just erase it. In a generation it doesn't matter if anyone believed in the mountain or not...it's gone.
Moral of the story? Don't underestimate how far people are willing to go.
Malkovich?
Evolution.
Chilling effect? You know what? I kinda want them to chill. You know...until there's a new administration...
You do know that we replace about 98% of the atoms in our bodies every year, right?
And it's 100% every seven or so. (bones take a little longer...)
Newtonian mechanics is a deterministic process. Quantum theory is not. And yet, somehow, we get from the non-deterministic phenomena to the deterministic ones.
:)
So now there's a study showing that the seemingly random elements that go into evolutionary pressures can lead to a reliably predictable result.
Good to know folks are doing research in this direction. Let's get more of it.
Aw, man, you had a great argument going until that.
So, the bad stuff done in the name of religions are not "related to religion," yet the good stuff inspired by religious ideas are "related to religion"? (And, you really make a fool of yourself trying to say the Crusades were not related to Christianity. I think you're basically disagreeing with 99.9% of historians here. Here, do some reading)
Take the good with the bad. If you ignore all of the bad you just look like an idiot. The point is to weigh the good and the bad and judge whether, on the whole, religion is a benefit.
You have part of it.
What problem does religion (and belief in general) solve?
Bonus: Can you formulate an answer that does not make you inherently superior to religions people? See this as a challenge befitting your superior intellect. (Then once seen, unsee.)
Do you really think millions of years of human evolution can be changed by education and resources?
And, before you turn the flames on me, I'm agnostic, so chill.
Will Ireland trive in a recession, boyo?
I'd be impressed as well, mainly because there is no energy generation process...period...that would not currently use petroleum as an input. Wind, Solar, Nuclear, Hydro, Geothermal - all require petroleum as an input to construct and maintain infrastructure. A huge portion of our physical infrastructure, not just fuel, is dependent on petroleum. One word: plastics.
So discounting the use of petroleum in energy production is a red herring. It's impossible.