The problem I have with the "cyber weapons" terminology is that they are weapons which do not kill anyone.
That's not a given. What about a malware which causes a nuclear power plant to blow up? What about one which just opens all gates at a major dam, causing a flood downstream? Or more subtle, what if some malware in a hospital is used to kill people by making machines emit too much radiation, by making life-support machines to switch off themselves, or even simply by slightly manipulating the medication plan? That may even be used for targeted killing. Not to mention the fact that cyber weapons could also be used to gain control over real weapons.
We seem to use a very different meaning of the word "intelligence". Intelligence as I understand it cannot be changed by education. At all. Education can enable you to make better use of it, that's all.
Also I doubt there are many people smarter than e.g. Isaac Newton living today. There may be a few (from pure statistics, you'd expect it), but certainly the humans as whole have not become more intelligent in the past new years. You may think we have invented so much more in the current time than in the past, but that's simply not true. Even in the medieval times, there were lots of inventions which we today just take as granted. Like the windmill, the water mill, innovations in the way you do agriculture...
You seem to confuse intelligence with knowledge. Yes, we have more knowledge than people before us. Simple because we know the things the people before us have discovered, as well as those we ourselves have discovered. That doesn't mean we are more intelligent.
Oops, I just notice I miscalculated (I mixed up meters and kilometers): 60 Hz corresponds to just 5000 kilometers, i.e. 1/8 of earths circumference. So a long enough power line on earth to efficiently send is possible. However the point of the atmosphere still remains: I doubt that you could pick up the power line signal even from a satellite circling earth.
But I assume no matter how advanced we as a society get, we'll continue using electricity, and the same could be presumed for other intelligent life. Transmitting power across power lines should generate SOME level of EM-spectrum signal, no? Could we detect that?
Note that a 60Hz electromagnetic wave has a wavelength of 5 million kilometers, which is more than 10 times the distance between earth and moon. That is, even the longest power lines are far too short to be efficient antennas for electromagnetic radiation at this frequency. Not that you'd want them to be; all EM radiation generated by power lines means an energy transmission loss. Also, who tells you that the aliens don't use directed current transmission (which causes no EM radiation at all, apart from a negligible amount when switching on and off)?
Anyway, I don't think the little low-frequency electromagnetic radiation which is generated by power lines even leaves the earth. There are only a few frequency windows where the atmosphere is transparent.
I don't think even humans were meaningfully intelligent until the time we started broadcasting radio.
So you say the radio waves have somehow modified our brains to get more intelligent?
Also I don't think the old inventions needed less intelligence than the modern ones. The only difference is that back then, much fewer people were thinking about new inventions. But that's not related to radio waves at all, but more to common education (during most of the history, the vast majority of people couldn't even read and write) as well as there simply being more people on earth today.
Actually, the cosmic microwave background is not really the afterglow of a big bang. Rather, the aliens have found out the ideal encoding for long-range space communications, which happens to look like 2.7 Kelvin thermal radiation if you don't know how to decode it.:-)
However that was a one-time signal. We also have received a one-time signal (the so-called wow signal). We have waited for a repetition, to confirm it's really an alien signal. Since we never got a repetition, we concluded it was probably not a real alien signal. Anyway, we never answered.
If any aliens have received the Arecibo signal, and those aliens are somewhat like us, they also have waited for a repetition of that signal, and since that repetition never came, they'll not answer.
Actually it is quite unlikely that higher intelligence would evolve in a non-social species. The advantages of intelligence beyond a certain point only appear when several intelligent beings work together, i.e. communicate. A solitary high intelligence would not be much of an advantage for survival, and therefore won't be selected for. Therefore higher intelligence should always come with a desire to communicate.
Unfortunately I can't find any information about what sort of music they tested. For example, if someone is singing, it can be very distracting; in a way pure instrumental music isn't. Also the type of instrumental music may matter (modern or classical, slow or fast, etc.).
However those other theories have to be very convoluted in order to explain why the universe looks as if the laws of nature didn't change significantly for billions of years. The assumption that the laws indeed didn't change is by far the simplest theory explaining it.
It's like me seeing your answer to my post. The obvious assumption is that this answer exists because you answered to my post. Of course that's not the only possible cause. But any alternative theory is such implausible that I can reject it unless I get good evidence for it.
If it is an experiment, then it's obvious that the whole thing will end when the experiment is finished (or when the funding runs out), and God will have no further interest in either the world or its inhabitants. If we are lucky, we will still sleep on some old backup disk...
Slashdot Mirror
Computers aren't very good at creative things.
Yet.
That's not a given. What about a malware which causes a nuclear power plant to blow up? What about one which just opens all gates at a major dam, causing a flood downstream? Or more subtle, what if some malware in a hospital is used to kill people by making machines emit too much radiation, by making life-support machines to switch off themselves, or even simply by slightly manipulating the medication plan? That may even be used for targeted killing. Not to mention the fact that cyber weapons could also be used to gain control over real weapons.
We seem to use a very different meaning of the word "intelligence". Intelligence as I understand it cannot be changed by education. At all. Education can enable you to make better use of it, that's all.
Also I doubt there are many people smarter than e.g. Isaac Newton living today. There may be a few (from pure statistics, you'd expect it), but certainly the humans as whole have not become more intelligent in the past new years. You may think we have invented so much more in the current time than in the past, but that's simply not true. Even in the medieval times, there were lots of inventions which we today just take as granted. Like the windmill, the water mill, innovations in the way you do agriculture ...
You seem to confuse intelligence with knowledge. Yes, we have more knowledge than people before us. Simple because we know the things the people before us have discovered, as well as those we ourselves have discovered. That doesn't mean we are more intelligent.
Oops, should of course have read: epsilon < 0
How is that different to command.com?
Interestingly, this URL already takes me to Google.
No, in the story they will just be hackers.
Oops, I just notice I miscalculated (I mixed up meters and kilometers): 60 Hz corresponds to just 5000 kilometers, i.e. 1/8 of earths circumference. So a long enough power line on earth to efficiently send is possible. However the point of the atmosphere still remains: I doubt that you could pick up the power line signal even from a satellite circling earth.
Note that a 60Hz electromagnetic wave has a wavelength of 5 million kilometers, which is more than 10 times the distance between earth and moon. That is, even the longest power lines are far too short to be efficient antennas for electromagnetic radiation at this frequency. Not that you'd want them to be; all EM radiation generated by power lines means an energy transmission loss. Also, who tells you that the aliens don't use directed current transmission (which causes no EM radiation at all, apart from a negligible amount when switching on and off)?
Anyway, I don't think the little low-frequency electromagnetic radiation which is generated by power lines even leaves the earth. There are only a few frequency windows where the atmosphere is transparent.
So you say the radio waves have somehow modified our brains to get more intelligent?
Also I don't think the old inventions needed less intelligence than the modern ones. The only difference is that back then, much fewer people were thinking about new inventions. But that's not related to radio waves at all, but more to common education (during most of the history, the vast majority of people couldn't even read and write) as well as there simply being more people on earth today.
Actually, the cosmic microwave background is not really the afterglow of a big bang. Rather, the aliens have found out the ideal encoding for long-range space communications, which happens to look like 2.7 Kelvin thermal radiation if you don't know how to decode it. :-)
However that was a one-time signal. We also have received a one-time signal (the so-called wow signal). We have waited for a repetition, to confirm it's really an alien signal. Since we never got a repetition, we concluded it was probably not a real alien signal. Anyway, we never answered.
If any aliens have received the Arecibo signal, and those aliens are somewhat like us, they also have waited for a repetition of that signal, and since that repetition never came, they'll not answer.
Well, just assume that epsilon 0.
Actually it is quite unlikely that higher intelligence would evolve in a non-social species. The advantages of intelligence beyond a certain point only appear when several intelligent beings work together, i.e. communicate. A solitary high intelligence would not be much of an advantage for survival, and therefore won't be selected for. Therefore higher intelligence should always come with a desire to communicate.
iOS's security is also left to the manufacturer. It's just that the manufacturer is the same company which also provides iOS.
At least when discussing a story about effects of listening you should get "hear, hear!" right.
Unfortunately I can't find any information about what sort of music they tested. For example, if someone is singing, it can be very distracting; in a way pure instrumental music isn't. Also the type of instrumental music may matter (modern or classical, slow or fast, etc.).
However those other theories have to be very convoluted in order to explain why the universe looks as if the laws of nature didn't change significantly for billions of years. The assumption that the laws indeed didn't change is by far the simplest theory explaining it.
It's like me seeing your answer to my post. The obvious assumption is that this answer exists because you answered to my post. Of course that's not the only possible cause. But any alternative theory is such implausible that I can reject it unless I get good evidence for it.
"evidence for X" == "It looks like X"
So you are basically saying that we have evidence for having evidence ...
Unfortunately due to his age, the Father will no longer be able to hold it, and thus will drop it on the floor where it shatters in a thousand pieces.
As long as you cannot deliver physical goods over the net, regular mail will exist, even if it is reduced mostly to parcels.
You confused "omnipotent" (almighty) with "omniscient" (all-knowing).
You can have full power and still know next to nothing.
Because without the experiment, he will not get it published. Isn't that obvious?
If you take the time in power into account, I think Hitler still has the larger body count per year.
If it is an experiment, then it's obvious that the whole thing will end when the experiment is finished (or when the funding runs out), and God will have no further interest in either the world or its inhabitants. If we are lucky, we will still sleep on some old backup disk ...