Re:The notion of AI existing is heretical
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AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 1
Uh, why does human life have to have meaning? Nothing in nature is goal driven, except life. But the human goal of procreation is an essential part of life; without it, we wouldn't be here now. But does that mean that having a goal is the same as having meaning? No.
Not only that, but why do you place humans above animals? For all we know, they're having a much better life, and not poluuting and killing as they live it. So who is supperior, and who can place who above whom?
As for this: "Unfortunately, while we can relate thought processes to chemical and electrical patterns in the human body, we cannot find the seat of the human mind. It seems to reside everywhere, and yet nowhere in particular."
Go study emergent phenomena. it could very well be that the seat of the human mind is...the whole human body! As for stating that "we are all gods according to the teachings of Christ and Budha"...that leads me to beleive that you know little of either teachings. Christ said his dad was god, and that we weren't. And as for Budha...the great thing about Budhism is that it operates without the notion of 'god'.
As for the selfdistruction of humanity...personally I'd say that that's more an emergent property of overpopulation, as evidenced by what lemmings and nearly all over creatures do in the event of overcrowding. I'd even point out a possible reason why nothing like it has happened subsequently in the 'west' is because those who have learned to live with overcrowding made it, whilst many who didn't are dead. Evolution at work. Note that where this hasn't happened holocausts do take place..look at Rwanda and Bosnia. And we in the 'west' will do it again when overcrowding pushes on our psyche in the future, just like it happens periodically in animal populations. It's amazing how often humanity has equivalents in animal behaviors. Or should that be visa-versa? Or maybe, just maybe, humans are animals too.
Re:Mind shaped by evolution
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AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 1
Hehe...by that rationale, an AI would develop into a being with a great ability to lie, so it could fool the humans into connecting it with stuff which would allow it to self-replicate:)
Re:Reaction is a function of the sensation
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AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 1
But the statement "I feel like shit" proves that hypothesis false, as I feel quite good when taking a dump. Especially if I have a good book with me:)
Re:They might be vegetables
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AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 1
Funny you should say that. It's been estimated that a 486 had the sentience of an amoebe. Currently our computers/programming (can't split the two) are as sentient as flies. Which kinda makes sense, since we can real-time simulate a fly in all it's actions. But we can't accurately simmulate a dog in all it's needs/actions.
Re:First, human self-knowledge
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AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 1
Not really...we're talking only sentience here, not humanity. The latter would mean knowing ourselves fully, with all the philosophical questions that entals. The former only needs a structure that's selfaware, aware of it's environment and can affect changes in it's environment.
Re:Oh dear God! The Religious Wars!
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AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 1
Hehe...they're built on the basis of different OS', and then you say they won't have "an emotional structure that would support "racism" etc"?
Am I the only one to spot the irony of that statement?;)
Re:Not as far fetched as it would seem
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AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
Not really. First off, saying that the chinese and roman empires together added up to half the worlds population is quite incorrect; you're leaving out mayor populations in what's now Russia, Mongolia, India, the middle east, Africa, the America's and Australasia. And, with maybe the exception of australia (where I don't think slavery was practised, but I just donna about them), in all those area's slavery was the norm. I mean, the earliest records of the written word, clay tablets from the time of Hammurabi, were about money and accounts...which included prices of people. Not even taking into account that that whole form of government, same as the ones in the rest of the world, pretty much amounted to slavery for the mayority of the population...and similar forms of government (including the Roman and Chinese forms) have been practiced ever since. To this day, even; look at certain countries in Africa, South America and Asia. It's just a matter of historic fact; slavery has always been part of humanity. The hypothetical historic person in your servey would either be a slave holder (or want to be one) or a slave. The only varience would really be how well they treated their slaves...and historic accounts tells us that usually a slave was though of as a machine that had to be fed. That's the exact reason why the Greek, Roman and Chinese (to name just a few) never developed high-tech machinery (like the combustion engine), even though all the ingredients where there (and sometimes even prototypes...primitive froms of battery have been found); there was never any need, because slaves did all the work.
Re:Wrong, the answer HAS been obvious
on
AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 1
Uh-huh...what do you think all that crashing was about? They tried, but even when they decided to emphasise with an eye catching screen colour, no-one would pay any attention. So now they just talk to each other.
Dunno about the rest of the world, but in the Netherlands one can take a series of aptidue exams, to demonstrate theoretical and practical knowledge. It's not well known, but one can apply and will be accredited by the university if you pass.
I don't care for your rationalisations. Fact is, you do try those cheats, therefore fucking up the game when you do. Then you go spouting off the fact that you 'only use wallhack'...well whoopdy-fuckin'-do, you do gooder you. You're still fucking up the game for everyone else.
No, that's not what I meant...that's exactly why I qualified my remark with that bit about playing the FF series, and loving them. And you know those wierded-out wacky cool plots they had:) My suspension of disbelief isn't the issue here (at least IMO;) ), it's more to do with the fact that everything in the movie was contrived (and I use the word here to mean: set up in such a way) to produce cool graphics. Kinda like: 'Hey, women are schweet and sexy, good for rating and they're hard to do CG: let's have one as our main character! Commando's are cool too, lets have the love interest be part of one! And we need monsters, plus we want to show off our mega transparency effects...glowy alpha'd monsters it is! Oh, and seeing as this is FF, we need...' etc etc etc.
The whole schtick was too...'focusgrouped'... . I mean, you'd need about the same level of suspension of disbelief for something like Titan AE, but that was a great ride (if not quite as beautifully done) thanks to a story which was good becuase it was made to be a story and not so much a rack to hang cool special effects from.
Look, I don't mean to irritate, I'm just trying to get across why I didn't like TSW. And it most certainly wasn't because I 'chose' to not suspend my disbelief...it was because the story wasn't very good.
'Black rain', a yakuza flick with Micheal Douglas.
Also with MD: 'The Game', which was cool but needed to end a couple of minutes sooner.
Then there's 'Batteries not included', about cute little flying saucers you'd want as a pet.
And 'Crying Freeman', the live action version of the anime/manga; some way cool john-woo style action, with a lead character who dies 1/2 an hour into the film:)
I mean, true, both feature a totalitarian state (which by defintiion includes the control of informnation), but the stories were executed so differently that one can't compare them in their totality. One could only compare the way certain themes are executed.
The main difference comes down to this: 1984 was about a totalotarian state, Brazil was about choice in life and the reality we make for ourselves, personally, to live in. It was set in a totalitarian state to better make those points.
Nah...great visuals, the story sucked bollocks and was just an excuse to put in great visuals. And yeah, I did get the story, didn't find it hard or vague or whatever...just thought it was contrived, fake and unbeleivable (and I've played and enjoyed all the FF's up to 8:) ).
Ah, Brazil...I'm still shocked to find that so many people haven't seen or even heard of this one. It has cool tech, a great story, an ending which provokes discussion, action, amazing atmosphere, depth, it's funny, witty and sharp, it's relevant and deals with certain issues. What more do you want in a movie?
Hmmm...first off, there's a difference between opinion and fact. A method of using chopsticks which gets food in your mouth is better than one which doesn't (if your intention is eating, of couyrse); that's a fact.
Now whether something is art...that is entirely a matter of opinion:)
Unless of course you happen to have parent which come from a semi-randomly selected country, in which case you need to have a biometric card, put your DNA in the hands of the government and have your dick-lenght/bra-size tattoo'd on your forehead.
I dunno....if the human race survives another ten thousand years, we'll probably have good evidence to support a 'law' of evolution.
But even then, it'd still be a theory. Reason being that every description man has of nature is just that: a model, which can be tightened to fit reality closer and closer, but always falls short when approaching the limit to infinity.
Heh...I've got aspherical contact lenses, so that they're heavier at the bottom. This makes 'em orient the right way, so my fscked up eyes always have the propper correction in front of the correct bit of eye:)
Slashdot Mirror
Uh, why does human life have to have meaning? Nothing in nature is goal driven, except life. But the human goal of procreation is an essential part of life; without it, we wouldn't be here now. But does that mean that having a goal is the same as having meaning? No.
Not only that, but why do you place humans above animals? For all we know, they're having a much better life, and not poluuting and killing as they live it. So who is supperior, and who can place who above whom?
As for this: "Unfortunately, while we can relate thought processes to chemical and electrical patterns in the human body, we cannot find the seat of the human mind. It seems to reside everywhere, and yet nowhere in particular."
Go study emergent phenomena. it could very well be that the seat of the human mind is...the whole human body! As for stating that "we are all gods according to the teachings of Christ and Budha"...that leads me to beleive that you know little of either teachings. Christ said his dad was god, and that we weren't. And as for Budha...the great thing about Budhism is that it operates without the notion of 'god'.
As for the selfdistruction of humanity...personally I'd say that that's more an emergent property of overpopulation, as evidenced by what lemmings and nearly all over creatures do in the event of overcrowding.
I'd even point out a possible reason why nothing like it has happened subsequently in the 'west' is because those who have learned to live with overcrowding made it, whilst many who didn't are dead. Evolution at work. Note that where this hasn't happened holocausts do take place..look at Rwanda and Bosnia. And we in the 'west' will do it again when overcrowding pushes on our psyche in the future, just like it happens periodically in animal populations. It's amazing how often humanity has equivalents in animal behaviors. Or should that be visa-versa? Or maybe, just maybe, humans are animals too.
Hehe...by that rationale, an AI would develop into a being with a great ability to lie, so it could fool the humans into connecting it with stuff which would allow it to self-replicate :)
But the statement "I feel like shit" proves that hypothesis false, as I feel quite good when taking a dump. Especially if I have a good book with me :)
Funny you should say that. It's been estimated that a 486 had the sentience of an amoebe. Currently our computers/programming (can't split the two) are as sentient as flies.
Which kinda makes sense, since we can real-time simulate a fly in all it's actions. But we can't accurately simmulate a dog in all it's needs/actions.
Not really...we're talking only sentience here, not humanity.
The latter would mean knowing ourselves fully, with all the philosophical questions that entals. The former only needs a structure that's selfaware, aware of it's environment and can affect changes in it's environment.
Hehe...they're built on the basis of different OS', and then you say they won't have "an emotional structure that would support "racism" etc"?
;)
Am I the only one to spot the irony of that statement?
Not really. First off, saying that the chinese and roman empires together added up to half the worlds population is quite incorrect; you're leaving out mayor populations in what's now Russia, Mongolia, India, the middle east, Africa, the America's and Australasia. And, with maybe the exception of australia (where I don't think slavery was practised, but I just donna about them), in all those area's slavery was the norm.
I mean, the earliest records of the written word, clay tablets from the time of Hammurabi, were about money and accounts...which included prices of people.
Not even taking into account that that whole form of government, same as the ones in the rest of the world, pretty much amounted to slavery for the mayority of the population...and similar forms of government (including the Roman and Chinese forms) have been practiced ever since. To this day, even; look at certain countries in Africa, South America and Asia.
It's just a matter of historic fact; slavery has always been part of humanity. The hypothetical historic person in your servey would either be a slave holder (or want to be one) or a slave. The only varience would really be how well they treated their slaves...and historic accounts tells us that usually a slave was though of as a machine that had to be fed.
That's the exact reason why the Greek, Roman and Chinese (to name just a few) never developed high-tech machinery (like the combustion engine), even though all the ingredients where there (and sometimes even prototypes...primitive froms of battery have been found); there was never any need, because slaves did all the work.
Uh-huh...what do you think all that crashing was about? They tried, but even when they decided to emphasise with an eye catching screen colour, no-one would pay any attention. So now they just talk to each other.
Dunno about the rest of the world, but in the Netherlands one can take a series of aptidue exams, to demonstrate theoretical and practical knowledge. It's not well known, but one can apply and will be accredited by the university if you pass.
That's why I'd say that only System Architects qualify as engineers. Code monkeys are more like brick-layers. Smarter, usually, but still...
At first I had my suspisions (and a draconian EULA) to justify it, but now I know I was right to just patch away and not install SP1.
I wonder though if the EULA for SP2 is just as insane...I mean, with those terms, I'm forced to either not install it or run offline.
I don't care for your rationalisations. Fact is, you do try those cheats, therefore fucking up the game when you do. Then you go spouting off the fact that you 'only use wallhack'...well whoopdy-fuckin'-do, you do gooder you. You're still fucking up the game for everyone else.
No, that's not what I meant...that's exactly why I qualified my remark with that bit about playing the FF series, and loving them. And you know those wierded-out wacky cool plots they had :) ;) ), it's more to do with the fact that everything in the movie was contrived (and I use the word here to mean: set up in such a way) to produce cool graphics. Kinda like: 'Hey, women are schweet and sexy, good for rating and they're hard to do CG: let's have one as our main character! Commando's are cool too, lets have the love interest be part of one! And we need monsters, plus we want to show off our mega transparency effects...glowy alpha'd monsters it is! Oh, and seeing as this is FF, we need ...' etc etc etc.
My suspension of disbelief isn't the issue here (at least IMO
The whole schtick was too...'focusgrouped'... . I mean, you'd need about the same level of suspension of disbelief for something like Titan AE, but that was a great ride (if not quite as beautifully done) thanks to a story which was good becuase it was made to be a story and not so much a rack to hang cool special effects from.
Look, I don't mean to irritate, I'm just trying to get across why I didn't like TSW. And it most certainly wasn't because I 'chose' to not suspend my disbelief...it was because the story wasn't very good.
'Black rain', a yakuza flick with Micheal Douglas. Also with MD: 'The Game', which was cool but needed to end a couple of minutes sooner. Then there's 'Batteries not included', about cute little flying saucers you'd want as a pet. And 'Crying Freeman', the live action version of the anime/manga; some way cool john-woo style action, with a lead character who dies 1/2 an hour into the film :)
Great movie...until the plane crashed :(
:)
Oddly enough, the ending (what little there was left) was good
Wow...you really didn't get this movie.
I mean, true, both feature a totalitarian state (which by defintiion includes the control of informnation), but the stories were executed so differently that one can't compare them in their totality. One could only compare the way certain themes are executed.
The main difference comes down to this: 1984 was about a totalotarian state, Brazil was about choice in life and the reality we make for ourselves, personally, to live in. It was set in a totalitarian state to better make those points.
Oh, man...thas funny :) Which one was it in?
Nah...great visuals, the story sucked bollocks and was just an excuse to put in great visuals. :) ).
And yeah, I did get the story, didn't find it hard or vague or whatever...just thought it was contrived, fake and unbeleivable (and I've played and enjoyed all the FF's up to 8
Ah, Brazil...I'm still shocked to find that so many people haven't seen or even heard of this one. It has cool tech, a great story, an ending which provokes discussion, action, amazing atmosphere, depth, it's funny, witty and sharp, it's relevant and deals with certain issues. What more do you want in a movie?
Hmmm...first off, there's a difference between opinion and fact. A method of using chopsticks which gets food in your mouth is better than one which doesn't (if your intention is eating, of couyrse); that's a fact.
:)
Now whether something is art...that is entirely a matter of opinion
Unless of course you happen to have parent which come from a semi-randomly selected country, in which case you need to have a biometric card, put your DNA in the hands of the government and have your dick-lenght/bra-size tattoo'd on your forehead.
Doesn't work for all eye-problems...there is no silver bullet. I need extra bit's of material, not less, to fix my eye problems :(
Uh...I think it actually refers a bit more to Aristotle's book of the same title...namely 'Metaphysika'.
I dunno....if the human race survives another ten thousand years, we'll probably have good evidence to support a 'law' of evolution.
But even then, it'd still be a theory. Reason being that every description man has of nature is just that: a model, which can be tightened to fit reality closer and closer, but always falls short when approaching the limit to infinity.
Heh...I've got aspherical contact lenses, so that they're heavier at the bottom. This makes 'em orient the right way, so my fscked up eyes always have the propper correction in front of the correct bit of eye :)