It is not a meaningless assertion. If you took modern society and jerked the rug of technology out from under it, the majority of people on earth would die, until the population fell back to what it was a couple hundred years ago. Contrary to the article blurb, the promises of technology have largely held true. Life is now relatively abundant, easy, painless, and long. So much so that we look in horror at places on earth where it hasn't taken hold yet.
As for why sci-fi of fifty years didn't come true, why would it? It was just made-up ideas. Science fiction is just that, not a guarantee of anything.
Haven't you ever fantasized about being homeless? Like when you're visiting the bay area and it's a really nice day out? I have. But then I guess a little fantasy is a far cry from doing it for real.
I always thought the Internet would make wars awfully awkward, since you could be in direct, person-to-person contact with the civilians on the other side. At least a few of them are bound to put up facebook pages chronicling their hardships, in English, for all to see. (And to be fair, foreign propagandists are sure to create sympathetic shills as well - though as long as the pictures of slaughtered children are real, I'm not sure the identity of the supposed grieving mother really matters).
So I guess this practice will help shield us from that little inconvenience.
As the supply of data center space dwindles, the price will go up. When it goes up enough, it will become profitable to build new data centers, and it will happen. It's the economy, people.
Yes, and knowing ahead of time what the economy is likely to do is the key to making money from it, which is something some people are very interested in.
Probably because it's the majority group that generally has the power in society to enforce prejudices by denying housing, voting rights, employment, etc.
Anyways, I would like to know if she is actually racist, as evidenced by the rulings she has made? So far all I have heard is one or two statements from a talk (not a legal proceeding) a number of years ago. It's silly to base one's opinion on that, when she has gone "on the record" through her rulings countless times. If she has made racist rulings, then we don't need her on the bench.
I agree, this is like "infiltrating" the coffee-break room of the Army recruiting station at your hometown strip mall. It's not great, but it's not that big a deal. I'm not sure I want the DoD investing the (taxpayer) resources to make sure nobody ever, ever defaces their website again.
It's not the size of the consequences that matter to people, it's the perceived motive of self-interest. I learned this by living through Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal vs. Clinton's Monica Lewinski scandal. One got off, the other got impeached, and it had nothing to do with the actual consequences.
We are not going to shut down LHC for the winter due to high electricity costs. If it never occured to you that we would, since the apparatus and the staff would seemingly cost so much more than the electricity anyways, congratulations, it turns out you were right even when we didn't know it yet, thus we will be running the collider and everything is exactly as you would have assumed had you never read this article at all. Thanks for your time.
I don't know what Obama policies you are referring to, unless it is closing offshore tax loopholes. Personally I am fine with that one; if they think they can operate better by physically relocating to Bermuda, let them try.
Show me a business that never loses a customer or employee to the competition, and I will show you a business that charges customers too little and pays employees too much. State giveaways to business are the same. I'd rather live in a state that grows slower but is financially better off because only the companies with a reasonable business case to be there (other than govt handouts) are there. Hosting a business requires investment in infrastructure, from water pipes to police stations. Don't roll out the welcome mat for companies that just want a free ride.
I am still not sure how they would stop people losing eyesight by staring up close into the beam...
I can buy a propane torch for $10 and I wouldn't want to stare up close into that while it's lit. My 10-year-old bought a bb gun at Walmart and it certainly isn't eye-safe.
My question is how they prevent it from flickering badly, since (unlike phosphors in a TV) there is no persistence from a projector screen. Seems like you'd need an extremely fast refresh rate, perhaps displaying each frame 4 times or more.
Incidentally, the best crab cakes I've had are Philips in the BWI airport. It seems like the best ones should be at some fine restaurant or maybe a hole-in-the-wall shack near the shore, but my favorite are at the airport:/
That said, I think it is amusing that you picked finance and law rather than engineering and technology as examples given the ridiculous excesses in both of the latter fields as of late.
Actually I agree about engineers being the largest engine of wealth and economic growth. It just seemed too self-serving:)
But on a national level, retreating from international competition and just doing whatever can't be outsourced is a recipe for disaster! If we all do the same jobs that people in every country do, we are guaranteed to have the same per capita GDP as those countries. Sure, right now you can a lot of money as a plumber in the US. But that's because there are people in finance, law, researchers, etc. with the income to pay you higher-than-world-average rates.
Look at the big expensive houses in your area and I bet there are quite a few "company" pickups with construction company advertising on them in the driveway.
Aren't those the same homes in foreclosure right now? It seems like construction is more cyclical than other industries. Auto mechanics don't seem to have booms and busts like that.
Keep this story in mind the next time you hear about "China" hacking DoD computers - we don't know whether or not the govt. is behind hacks from a given country, assuming the attacks even originate from there, it could just be bored geeks in their mom's basements.
And keep this story in mind the next time an "American" (they always turn out to be dual citizens) is arrested for spying in Iran or China - we don't know whether a US citizen has been doing some un-sanctioned spying on another country. Even if they're not on the CIA payroll, it could be business interests, it could be family ties, it could be a grudge, and after reading this story I realize it could just be flat out idle curiosity?
However these humanity vs. machine fantasies are more about people's techno-phobia than about real-life.
I wonder if muslims feel that way? We figure the "real" threat is a guy with a boxcutter, to them the real threat really is a semi-autonomous robot being piloted by a guy half a world away, bombs that drop from thousands of feet in the sky, and computers that pick out your phone call from among millions. On the receiving end, those threats must be maddeningly impersonal.
We already have automated systems that assess threats to themselves and respond automatically with lethal means.
It's really hard for me to imagine any useful thing not having some "instinct" for self-preservation. Even cars have rev-limiters to prevent self-destruction. Even fairly basic robots have collision avoidance. Surely UAV's already do, or soon will, have code to prevent them from flying into the ground. As robots become more advanced and more autonomous, their self-preservation instincts will become more complex as well - and thus more liable to unforeseen consequences. This is all the more true of combat robots in the ultimate hostile environment; they're useless if they get taken out immediately.
Were the prostitutes and lap dancers all buried in specific manner? Were Entertainers and Witch Doctors entombed according to a formula? What about Soldiers, Thieves, and the petty district enforcers? How about the drug trading class?
Are these supposed to be rhetorical questions? Buried remains may well leave clues to such things. We certainly bury soldiers according to a special formula today. I can easily imagine witch doctors, priests, government officials / tribal leaders being buried with distinct artifacts. Even certain types of labor (e.g. a lifetime of stooping, or working in smoky air) can leave revealing effects on human remnants.
Would you be so naive and parochial to suggest that having a body covered with prison tats is not an indicator of social class today?
What point are you trying to make? I was replying to somebody who didn't think it was possible to discern social classes from thousands of years ago. I say it is, sometimes.
It seem far more likely the anthropologist's understanding of the social class structure is seriously flawed.
Or it could be you.
"Social class" means with wealth and power. How you can tell after 2500 years is because burial rituals are closely associated with wealth and power, people are buried in different places and with different objects or clothing depending on how wealthy they were or weren't. The Pharaohs are an extreme example.
As for ornamentation being a certain indication of social status, look at people today getting body piercings. Sure, it has a perceived social benefit, of making you more desirable - but primarily to others in the same class, or perhaps slightly above. But they are negatively associated with a high position in society. And, yes, there are exceptions to everything. But if you took the top 10% of Americans, measured by net worth, they would have less than 10% of the body piercings.
If you don't accept that example, consider drug and gang tatoos. Yes, they elevate somebody in their social group, but no, that does not equate to status in society as a whole.
By the way the reason I call the "new way" the wrong way is because as far as I know, accelerated video will never work. Nor will monitor power management. And from my experience with xserver-within-xservers (including Xephyr, VNC, and VMWare), they all have keyboard driver bugs where the client or server will start typing only in caps, or control keys stop working, etc, etc.
Again, it's all stuff that exists. The reason I say it hasn't "gelled" is because there doesn't seem to be critical mass of users to make it work correctly, much less conveniently.
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As for why sci-fi of fifty years didn't come true, why would it? It was just made-up ideas. Science fiction is just that, not a guarantee of anything.
Rush Limbaugh has been married (and divorced) three times - but he has no children (cite)... so he may in fact be the virgin in question.
Haven't you ever fantasized about being homeless? Like when you're visiting the bay area and it's a really nice day out? I have. But then I guess a little fantasy is a far cry from doing it for real.
I think in the case of Cuba, it's personal. Some Americans just can't stand the thought of Castro outliving our antagonism.
So I guess this practice will help shield us from that little inconvenience.
Yes, and knowing ahead of time what the economy is likely to do is the key to making money from it, which is something some people are very interested in.
Anyways, I would like to know if she is actually racist, as evidenced by the rulings she has made? So far all I have heard is one or two statements from a talk (not a legal proceeding) a number of years ago. It's silly to base one's opinion on that, when she has gone "on the record" through her rulings countless times. If she has made racist rulings, then we don't need her on the bench.
"Charging for stuff" is not "a" business model, it's business. What's not a business model is giving free rides. Something's gotta give.
To me what comes out best here is SSD drives, almost regardless of OS. Booting in half the time of the velociraptor? Very cool.
I agree, this is like "infiltrating" the coffee-break room of the Army recruiting station at your hometown strip mall. It's not great, but it's not that big a deal. I'm not sure I want the DoD investing the (taxpayer) resources to make sure nobody ever, ever defaces their website again.
It's not the size of the consequences that matter to people, it's the perceived motive of self-interest. I learned this by living through Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal vs. Clinton's Monica Lewinski scandal. One got off, the other got impeached, and it had nothing to do with the actual consequences.
We are not going to shut down LHC for the winter due to high electricity costs. If it never occured to you that we would, since the apparatus and the staff would seemingly cost so much more than the electricity anyways, congratulations, it turns out you were right even when we didn't know it yet, thus we will be running the collider and everything is exactly as you would have assumed had you never read this article at all. Thanks for your time.
Show me a business that never loses a customer or employee to the competition, and I will show you a business that charges customers too little and pays employees too much. State giveaways to business are the same. I'd rather live in a state that grows slower but is financially better off because only the companies with a reasonable business case to be there (other than govt handouts) are there. Hosting a business requires investment in infrastructure, from water pipes to police stations. Don't roll out the welcome mat for companies that just want a free ride.
I wonder why don't they release a normal-sized, mains-powered projector with awesome brightness first?
I can buy a propane torch for $10 and I wouldn't want to stare up close into that while it's lit. My 10-year-old bought a bb gun at Walmart and it certainly isn't eye-safe.
My question is how they prevent it from flickering badly, since (unlike phosphors in a TV) there is no persistence from a projector screen. Seems like you'd need an extremely fast refresh rate, perhaps displaying each frame 4 times or more.
Incidentally, the best crab cakes I've had are Philips in the BWI airport. It seems like the best ones should be at some fine restaurant or maybe a hole-in-the-wall shack near the shore, but my favorite are at the airport :/
Actually I agree about engineers being the largest engine of wealth and economic growth. It just seemed too self-serving :)
But on a national level, retreating from international competition and just doing whatever can't be outsourced is a recipe for disaster! If we all do the same jobs that people in every country do, we are guaranteed to have the same per capita GDP as those countries. Sure, right now you can a lot of money as a plumber in the US. But that's because there are people in finance, law, researchers, etc. with the income to pay you higher-than-world-average rates.
Aren't those the same homes in foreclosure right now? It seems like construction is more cyclical than other industries. Auto mechanics don't seem to have booms and busts like that.
And keep this story in mind the next time an "American" (they always turn out to be dual citizens) is arrested for spying in Iran or China - we don't know whether a US citizen has been doing some un-sanctioned spying on another country. Even if they're not on the CIA payroll, it could be business interests, it could be family ties, it could be a grudge, and after reading this story I realize it could just be flat out idle curiosity?
I wonder if muslims feel that way? We figure the "real" threat is a guy with a boxcutter, to them the real threat really is a semi-autonomous robot being piloted by a guy half a world away, bombs that drop from thousands of feet in the sky, and computers that pick out your phone call from among millions. On the receiving end, those threats must be maddeningly impersonal.
It's really hard for me to imagine any useful thing not having some "instinct" for self-preservation. Even cars have rev-limiters to prevent self-destruction. Even fairly basic robots have collision avoidance. Surely UAV's already do, or soon will, have code to prevent them from flying into the ground. As robots become more advanced and more autonomous, their self-preservation instincts will become more complex as well - and thus more liable to unforeseen consequences. This is all the more true of combat robots in the ultimate hostile environment; they're useless if they get taken out immediately.
Are these supposed to be rhetorical questions? Buried remains may well leave clues to such things. We certainly bury soldiers according to a special formula today. I can easily imagine witch doctors, priests, government officials / tribal leaders being buried with distinct artifacts. Even certain types of labor (e.g. a lifetime of stooping, or working in smoky air) can leave revealing effects on human remnants.
What point are you trying to make? I was replying to somebody who didn't think it was possible to discern social classes from thousands of years ago. I say it is, sometimes.
Or it could be you. "Social class" means with wealth and power. How you can tell after 2500 years is because burial rituals are closely associated with wealth and power, people are buried in different places and with different objects or clothing depending on how wealthy they were or weren't. The Pharaohs are an extreme example.
As for ornamentation being a certain indication of social status, look at people today getting body piercings. Sure, it has a perceived social benefit, of making you more desirable - but primarily to others in the same class, or perhaps slightly above. But they are negatively associated with a high position in society. And, yes, there are exceptions to everything. But if you took the top 10% of Americans, measured by net worth, they would have less than 10% of the body piercings.
If you don't accept that example, consider drug and gang tatoos. Yes, they elevate somebody in their social group, but no, that does not equate to status in society as a whole.
Again, it's all stuff that exists. The reason I say it hasn't "gelled" is because there doesn't seem to be critical mass of users to make it work correctly, much less conveniently.