Re:Returning Home, by Ian Watson.
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AI in Sci-Fi
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"One single SRB detonated over Moscow would kill every living thing in the city and its environs-apart from cockroaches and such..."
How about a bomb that wipes out all the cockroaches and leaves everything else untouched and unharmed?
Of course it would only have to miss one pregnant female and the roach population would be back up to pre-bomb levels in a week.
Re:Not as far fetched as it would seem
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AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 1
"At any given point in history, the fraction of humanity who held slaves or who approved of holding slaves was very small."
And the larger fraction of humanity were the ones being held as slaves.
Re:Not as far fetched as it would seem
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AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 1
"What would YOU do?
Whatever I was designed to want to do..."
Exactly. Just because something is programmed for self-awareness doesn't mean that it's programmed with a survival instinct or a thirst for power or a reproduction drive or any of that other stuff we biological machines somehow picked up along the way. However, once those self aware artificial intelligences are programmed to learn from all sorts of inputs (they way we do), then all bets are off and it's time for a whole new nature versus nurture argument.
"Try using a telephone from 50 years ago, with the infrastructure from 50 years ago and tell me that phone is not obsolete."
Well, back then you could direct dial across town (except in Mayberry:-), although I think you still needed the operator for long distance calls until about 45 years ago. That same phone could easily still be in service and work just fine with today's infrastructure, it just couldn't do touch-tone.
The great thing about Straw Dogs was how the non-violent main character, forced to use violence, out-thought the bad guys and improvised with what was on hand.
Bird watching could be English slang for girl watching and tit is the name of an actual bird, of the kind with wings, feathers, and the ability to fly, so what is or isn't an innocent sounding name or what is or isn't a naughty sounding name is even more subjective a judgement than what is or is not pornography or obscenity or whatever term is used for whatever it is to which some politician thinks you need to be denied access or from which they think you need to be protected.
In other, fewer, words, it's hopelessly unworkable. Which is why you can be sure that a politician is behind it.
For the time being cars and computers both can use 12 Volt negative ground gear, but car makers are looking at going to a much higher voltage (times 4 or more) on order to deliver the same watts over thinner (cheaper) wires, and your old 5 Volt CPU went down to 3.3 Volt and now they're moving even lower so in the future if they ditch that legacy stuff and use lower voltage drive motors they can go with a single voltage output power supply meaning fewer parts and lower manufacturing costs so enjoy the temporary intersection of hackable car and computer parts while it lasts.
Set your resolution for 640 x 480 and you should be close enough to the neighborhood of NTSC video not to freak out your televison too badly, although your actual VGA monitor display will look really mid 80s.
I don't think you can get 1024 x 768 over an NTSC type composite video feed without making the NTSC composite type video display go crazy. Wonder if those displays can be hacked to do VGA, it's not like trying to get a CRT television to do double the horizontal sweep rate that the yoke and flyback are designed for.
Others have had the same problem and fixed it the same way, so maybe it's which browser you post with, or whether you're running x86 or Apple or who knows.
Or maybe it used to be that way and they just never told us that it was fixed.
I'm not sure what it is that you are thankful that I can't stop (unwanted pregnancies?), nor what on my part you consider threats and intimidation. I am also unfamiliar with the book to which you refer.
Meaning no disrespect whatsoever I must still disagree. You did not earn that right. You had it all along, as do the rest of us. If you have to earn it, it's not a right, it's a privilege or something like that. I do applaud your excercise of that right, especially as it seems to be informed.
Yes, it would be nice to cap medical malpractice. Maybe they could do it by getting rid of the bad doctors. Then there would be less need for a cap on medical malpractice award amounts, as the reduced number of chronicly malpracticing doctors would mean lower overall payouts and this would allow malpractice insurance companies to lower premiums, assuming that premium levels are due solely to expenses related to medical malpractice and not the need to cover the losses caused by their bad investments and stockholder pressure for ever-increasing profits and share prices.
Probably the same as someone slipping you a chemical male contraceptive without your knowledge. Drugging oneself may be legal, depending upon the substance, doing it to someone else without their knowledge or consent isn't. Although, if you had been prevented from being a party to the creation of a pregnancy that was unwanted by the woman involved, there would have been no abortion for you to object to.
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How about a bomb that wipes out all the cockroaches and leaves everything else untouched and unharmed?
Of course it would only have to miss one pregnant female and the roach population would be back up to pre-bomb levels in a week.
And the larger fraction of humanity were the ones being held as slaves.
Whatever I was designed to want to do..."
Exactly. Just because something is programmed for self-awareness doesn't mean that it's programmed with a survival instinct or a thirst for power or a reproduction drive or any of that other stuff we biological machines somehow picked up along the way. However, once those self aware artificial intelligences are programmed to learn from all sorts of inputs (they way we do), then all bets are off and it's time for a whole new nature versus nurture argument.
Which means some idiot probably sold it for a lot less than it was worth.
Or as we used to say in radio, a consultant is a guy who can tell you a hundred ways to get a date, but doesn't know any women.
Westinghouse was big in broadcasting before this guy was born.
Well, back then you could direct dial across town (except in Mayberry :-), although I think you still needed the operator for long distance calls until about 45 years ago. That same phone could easily still be in service and work just fine with today's infrastructure, it just couldn't do touch-tone.
Actually in 1981 Gates was licensing DOS to IBM for their PC that hit stores in October of that year.
The great thing about Straw Dogs was how the non-violent main character, forced to use violence, out-thought the bad guys and improvised with what was on hand.
Best watched with an empty bladder.
A. Because they've always got that finger up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.
In other, fewer, words, it's hopelessly unworkable. Which is why you can be sure that a politician is behind it.
Well, technically you could use an AT board and an AT case with two unused 5.25 bays, you just can't use a much smaller than average case.
For the time being cars and computers both can use 12 Volt negative ground gear, but car makers are looking at going to a much higher voltage (times 4 or more) on order to deliver the same watts over thinner (cheaper) wires, and your old 5 Volt CPU went down to 3.3 Volt and now they're moving even lower so in the future if they ditch that legacy stuff and use lower voltage drive motors they can go with a single voltage output power supply meaning fewer parts and lower manufacturing costs so enjoy the temporary intersection of hackable car and computer parts while it lasts.
Set your resolution for 640 x 480 and you should be close enough to the neighborhood of NTSC video not to freak out your televison too badly, although your actual VGA monitor display will look really mid 80s.
I don't think you can get 1024 x 768 over an NTSC type composite video feed without making the NTSC composite type video display go crazy. Wonder if those displays can be hacked to do VGA, it's not like trying to get a CRT television to do double the horizontal sweep rate that the yoke and flyback are designed for.
Isn't that supposed to be Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Ring? Or was that Captain Video?
Or maybe it used to be that way and they just never told us that it was fixed.
I'm not sure what it is that you are thankful that I can't stop (unwanted pregnancies?), nor what on my part you consider threats and intimidation. I am also unfamiliar with the book to which you refer.
Meaning no disrespect whatsoever I must still disagree. You did not earn that right. You had it all along, as do the rest of us. If you have to earn it, it's not a right, it's a privilege or something like that. I do applaud your excercise of that right, especially as it seems to be informed.
When you say converted I hope you meant made mp3 format copies and carefully stored the irreplacable originals.
Was the Magna Carta ever repealed? Doesn't it contain a few protections?
I'd think that the mounted 50 cal would be an excellent way to convince people that they really don't want to criticize your color choice.
Yes, it would be nice to cap medical malpractice. Maybe they could do it by getting rid of the bad doctors. Then there would be less need for a cap on medical malpractice award amounts, as the reduced number of chronicly malpracticing doctors would mean lower overall payouts and this would allow malpractice insurance companies to lower premiums, assuming that premium levels are due solely to expenses related to medical malpractice and not the need to cover the losses caused by their bad investments and stockholder pressure for ever-increasing profits and share prices.
Probably the same as someone slipping you a chemical male contraceptive without your knowledge. Drugging oneself may be legal, depending upon the substance, doing it to someone else without their knowledge or consent isn't. Although, if you had been prevented from being a party to the creation of a pregnancy that was unwanted by the woman involved, there would have been no abortion for you to object to.