Nah. We blow up the Moon, we just have to put up with it. Earth will become a total backwater, of course, what with all the impacts, but that would certainly accelerate the settlement of the solar system.
With a network of jump gates, and the terraforming of most of the larger satellites of Jupiter and Saturn (heat source: to be determined), we could put together quite a nice culture.
Note: be sure to switch off all artificially intelligent laser-armed spy satellites before leaving planet. Who knows what they'll take into their minds over a hundred years or so...
3) Virtually everybody worldwide has access to research capabilities that were previously available only to the wealthy and those who had access to a major library are now available worldwide.
This is perhaps the big one. Used to be that I'd have to travel to a major city or university library if I wanted to find out some detailed or obscure information. Now, it's simple: Google Knows All Things.
Occasionally I still stop, realise what I'm doing and think 'Holy living fuck'. Look at what the Internet has done and what it has become in only ten years in the mainstream: I can't even begin to imagine the internet of 2024.
Guess what? A neural network is a simple nonlinear function. Period. Training such a thing is nothing more than estimating its parameters by minimizing some (usually quadratic) cost criterion. When you put something in, you merely evaluate a rather simple nonlinear function. There is no intelligence involved!
Pre-Sentient Algorithms:
Begin with a function of arbitrary complexity. Feed it values, "sense data". Then, take your result, square it, and feed it back into your original function, adding a new set of sense data. Continue to feed your results back into the original function ad infinitum. What do you have? The fundamental principle of human consciousness.
-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
"The Feedback Principle"
William Gibson's Neuromancer, written at the height of Japan's rise as an economic dynamo, had Japanese culture permeating all things western. This aspect of it has become somewhat dated.
A generation has just grown up to which videogames were the new rock and roll. There's Japan's cultural influence for you. Sure, there are a lot of American and European games around, but the home of that artform is still very much Japan.
I wouldn't be surprised if someday we eventually look back and see Japan's games as as great a cultural influence as Hollywood.
From what I read last time this was covered... Dirac kicks Theora's arse, and xvid too.
IIRC, it takes forever-squared to encode, but once done it beats just about anything in terms of file size and picture quality. Since the BBC's model is going to be encode once, then let the public download at will, this is fine by them.
And Tannenbaum notoriously didn't think much of Linus's design... Famously, Linus would not have got high marks for such a system if he were Tannenbaum's student;-)
If at some point NASA won't be willing to maintain the hubble anymore, how about transfering it to ESA? (petty nationalistic interests aside.)
America has the capability, but not the will, to maintain Hubble. Maybe ESA or Russia or Japan might have the will, but nobody has the capability. AFAIK, only the Shuttle is capable of reaching, capturing and repairing Hubble. Just perhaps a Soyuz could get up there, but its ability to manoeuvre and dock would be very much in question.
The whore of Babylon is a product of a very bad mushroom trip St John once had. She represents whatever the preacher in question hates. For instance, Jack Chick thinks she's the Vatican, and IIRC The Reverend Ian Paisley agrees...
An English geke I am, and/. I do rede forsooth. Spelynge is not thy strength, nor ys thyn gramyre of the fynest; yet it is for the tales of hackerye that I remayneth, and ye troles I do endure willynglye.
In it were some big, nasty monsters they dubbed "grendels," which they then proceeded to wipe, only to find out that the adult form was what was keeping the numbers of the immature form under control, resulting in a massed attacked by thousands of "baby grendels."
For anyone who doesn't know the original story, this is pleasingly ironic. Beowulf defeated the monster Grendel, ripped its arm off and hung it up as a trophy. Grendel goes home and dies of his injuries, and his mother promptly goes off to hunt down whoever did this to her dear boy...
Interesting question: could you ever be truly happy with a 'copy-cat' human-like robot (or dog, cat) as a partner/friend, that looks like, smells like, behaves like a real human?
Yeah, I think so. If it behaves the same, does it matter if it's artificial?
Personally, I'd be pretty damn pleased even if all it ever said was 'chii!'
Incidently, here in america, we use litigation for everything.
It's not just in America: it happened in.uk a while back. A guy called Laurence Godfrey sued Demon (then the leading ISP, IIRC) because some people were making fun of him on USENET. Depressingly, he won...
Guinness in a bottle? Heresy. If you're not drinking a Perfect Pint, you're not drinking Guinness.
It's not as bad as it was. Guinness put a whole lot of research money into getting good draught beer out of cans and bottles. You can get a very decent Guinness out of a bottle these days... although I concur that the true pint is to be had only in a pub. And may I put in a good word at this point for Matt Molloy's pub in Westport, Co Mayo? Undoubtedly the most excellent Guinness I've ever had.
Von Braun was often described as someone who'd work for anyone, and had no allegiance to any country.
Gather round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience;
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown!
"Ah, Nazi schmazi," says Wernher von Braun.
Some say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.
"Once zer rockets are up, who cares where zey come down?
Zat's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.
Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude should be one of gratitude
Like the widows and cripples in old London town
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.
You too could be a big hero
Once you've learned to count backwards to zero
"In German, oder Englisch, I know how to count down,
And I'm learning Chinese," says Wernher von Braun.
Slashdot Mirror
With a network of jump gates, and the terraforming of most of the larger satellites of Jupiter and Saturn (heat source: to be determined), we could put together quite a nice culture.
Note: be sure to switch off all artificially intelligent laser-armed spy satellites before leaving planet. Who knows what they'll take into their minds over a hundred years or so...
Dismiss this as lunacy and mod-me down?
No, no, not at all. That bit about zero-point energy alone is a +5 Funny if ever I saw one!
This is perhaps the big one. Used to be that I'd have to travel to a major city or university library if I wanted to find out some detailed or obscure information. Now, it's simple: Google Knows All Things.
Occasionally I still stop, realise what I'm doing and think 'Holy living fuck'. Look at what the Internet has done and what it has become in only ten years in the mainstream: I can't even begin to imagine the internet of 2024.
Um... that only applies in .us. In .uk the right to silence has been severely cut back.
Pre-Sentient Algorithms:
Begin with a function of arbitrary complexity. Feed it values, "sense data". Then, take your result, square it, and feed it back into your original function, adding a new set of sense data. Continue to feed your results back into the original function ad infinitum. What do you have? The fundamental principle of human consciousness.
-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
"The Feedback Principle"
A generation has just grown up to which videogames were the new rock and roll. There's Japan's cultural influence for you. Sure, there are a lot of American and European games around, but the home of that artform is still very much Japan.
I wouldn't be surprised if someday we eventually look back and see Japan's games as as great a cultural influence as Hollywood.
IIRC, it takes forever-squared to encode, but once done it beats just about anything in terms of file size and picture quality. Since the BBC's model is going to be encode once, then let the public download at will, this is fine by them.
Unwise.
and sometimes I'd try to log in without thinking just after starting a telnet session.
Over telnet? Log in as root over telnet? AAAARRRGGGHHH!
Avert your eyes, children! He may take on other.Forms!
And Tannenbaum notoriously didn't think much of Linus's design... Famously, Linus would not have got high marks for such a system if he were Tannenbaum's student ;-)
America has the capability, but not the will, to maintain Hubble. Maybe ESA or Russia or Japan might have the will, but nobody has the capability. AFAIK, only the Shuttle is capable of reaching, capturing and repairing Hubble. Just perhaps a Soyuz could get up there, but its ability to manoeuvre and dock would be very much in question.
Larger than an American pint, but quite a bit smaller than a British pint.
One US pint = 473.176475 ml
One UK pint = 568.261485 ml
Those Eurocrats will take my 68.261485ml from my cold, dead hands! Or, at least, from my incapably pissed hands...
You'd think that the ex-Soviet countries would be really protective of their new freedoms...
The whore of Babylon is a product of a very bad mushroom trip St John once had. She represents whatever the preacher in question hates. For instance, Jack Chick thinks she's the Vatican, and IIRC The Reverend Ian Paisley agrees...
An English geke I am, and /. I do rede forsooth. Spelynge is not thy strength, nor ys thyn gramyre of the fynest; yet it is for the tales of hackerye that I remayneth, and ye troles I do endure willynglye.
For anyone who doesn't know the original story, this is pleasingly ironic. Beowulf defeated the monster Grendel, ripped its arm off and hung it up as a trophy. Grendel goes home and dies of his injuries, and his mother promptly goes off to hunt down whoever did this to her dear boy...
Yeah, I think so. If it behaves the same, does it matter if it's artificial?
Personally, I'd be pretty damn pleased even if all it ever said was 'chii!'
There's something not quite right here, but I can't put my finger on it...
Even more amusingly, the Argentinian claim has a very large overlap with the British claim. The rematch will be on pay-per-view in 2050.
This post has been forwarded to the Department of Homeland Security.
It's not just in America: it happened in .uk a while back. A guy called Laurence Godfrey sued Demon (then the leading ISP, IIRC) because some people were making fun of him on USENET. Depressingly, he won...
I think they patented some aspects of emulation, mainly to shut down people selling GBA emus for palmtops.
Given the current state of patent law, chances are that any universal Turing machine now owes Nintendo royalties.
It's not as bad as it was. Guinness put a whole lot of research money into getting good draught beer out of cans and bottles. You can get a very decent Guinness out of a bottle these days... although I concur that the true pint is to be had only in a pub. And may I put in a good word at this point for Matt Molloy's pub in Westport, Co Mayo? Undoubtedly the most excellent Guinness I've ever had.
Gather round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience;
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown!
"Ah, Nazi schmazi," says Wernher von Braun.
Some say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.
"Once zer rockets are up, who cares where zey come down?
Zat's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.
Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude should be one of gratitude
Like the widows and cripples in old London town
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.
You too could be a big hero
Once you've learned to count backwards to zero
"In German, oder Englisch, I know how to count down,
And I'm learning Chinese," says Wernher von Braun.
-- Tom Lehrer
If you're suggesting Aldrin never went to the Moon, a tinfoil hat won't help. I recommend a boxer's gumshield.