"Should we need a license to buy peanuts because so many people are allergic?"
You may well laugh... but some people are so allergic to peanuts that they get a reaction just from walking past someone who happens to be chewing a peanut.
"BTW: If someone uses missile defense lasers near your city, then you should have strong curtains just to make sure that any weak reflections wouldn't pass inside your house. And blind someone."
"when the rain falls, it will be like normal rain at first because higher up in the air it will be colder and the methane/ethane will be liquid, but as it gets closer to the surface, it will turn into a gas as it warms up, so the rain will turn from liquid into a gas before it reaches the surface, and will then rise upwards."
Actually this already happens here on Earth (only with water).
There are desert areas (Sahara included IIRC) where sometimes it rains and the rain evaporates before it can hit the ground.
Metal Gear Solid Worm? Like as opposed to a solid snake.
And is there a Liquid Worm out there, lurking?
(and no I am not a fanboy; those games *SUCK* big balls: I always though the solid and liquid snake names were some obscure Japanese fecal-matter reference).
There is this internal conflict we must have, where on the one hand we want our technology to have a survival instinct; so that it is motivated to look after itself while we are not.
A bit like a human baby figuring out that sometimes mummy is not looking this way and it has to get out of the way of the reversing SUV by its self.
On the other hand, the prospect of computers that have a survival instinct is (or bloody should be) a bit scary.
The real problem we have is very much like facing the emancipation of slaves; on the one hand you'd rather not have the expense of maintaining slaves and couldn't they just take care of themselves. On the other hand you *know* how you treated them and worry that they will extract revenge.
Or read Stanislaw Lem 'Non Serviam'. A true classic of AI literature.
Then theres the low level side where a filesystem is filling up and what do you start deleting first? If the *computer* could choose, for its own health and wellbeing, where would *it* start?
and in the next episode, it turns out that there is already a secret network of so-called 'jammers' who do just this.
The best part, for the jammers, is that eventually the 'watchers' disbelieve everything that they say or do.
Once that happens of course, a jammer may decide to actually blow something up... and convincing the watchers that a jammer is actually going to do something dangerous proves somewhat difficult.
"I agree- it's amazing how much is packed into a single cell organism."
they are so sophisticated; one of the things I always wanted to try was putting protists through the kind of cognitive psych tests that they use on rats and pigeons to guage their intelligence and ability to learn from experience. I have a suspicion that there would be some surprises..
I studied this at uni as part of my (*abortive) MSc degree;
I was looking into genetic algorithms at first, then decided that to really understand genetic algorithms I should look at nature and went and studied cell bio and genetics. For a comp-sci guy that was a humbling experience... we think that we are so smart with our computers but they have nothing on the simplest of organisms. Anyway, where was I oh yeah
Leonard Adelman (sp?) did some really interesting work with DNA computing (about 10 years ago, probably what you are referring to) like a solution to the Travelling Salesman Problem in O(1). Well... O(1) in time but still a bit exponential in space.
Still, an olympic size swimmingpool of DNA solution would solve most of the TSP's that you'd want
:)
Then theres the work I read about involving hijacking the RNA editing mechanisms of trypanosomes (the protist that causes sleeping sickness). Their RNA editing mechanisms (which they use to change coat proteins to evade immune response) was demonstrated to be Turing complete.
Protists are awesome; our trick, as multicellular organisms, is that we build houses out of lots of bricks. But protists build an entire house out of just *one* brick. I think thats impressive.
Actually I've pondered what would happen if there were a (serious) movement to emancipate the corporation.
I mean, if its a legal person, how can it be owned, right? You mean theres a type of person which can be owned, just like some kind of *property*? Crazy! whacko!
Free the corporations! End this tyrannical oppression!
"So any formal system is either contradicting itself or incomplete."
Any which are powerful enough to express arithmetic.
I often wonder this about my mind; if it is a formal system, surely it is powerful enough to express arithmetic, which would make it either incomplete or inconsistent.
I think I prefer the complete/inconsistent to the incomplete/consistent.
Though there is a third way; we -- and by extension reality itself -- is not and cannot be expressed in any formal system whatsoever. I prefer this one.
The fourth way, I really don't want to get into, is that our minds actually arn't powerful enough to express arithmetic. Those who have seen me trying to do long division would understand.
Suppose that you fart, on average once a day regularly, and they are reasonably large farts.
And suppose that I fart once a week, on a Saturday, and when I fart I release the entire contents of my digestive tract all in one go. But you don't know this (yet).
If you keep track of our gaseous emissions you may well find, come Friday, that you are producing *far* more gas than me.
Wait till Saturday, because I eat burritos on Friday nights.
See my point?
You have to see the big picture or else you may find yourself overwhelmed when you least expect it.
The sum total of all volcanos on Earth, taken over the period of human history may produce less noxious emmissions than human civilisation; but *perhaps* the reason that human civilisation has been possible is because we are in a quiet period (Sunday through Thursday in my example).
Indeed it looks as if the climate for the past 5000 years (or so) has been *remarkably* stable compared to the rest of the Earths history.
Oh and guess what? Human civilisations have been developing for 5000 years (or so).
What you do is you have a huge stash of embarassing hardcore porn, say 'bukkake bloopers 2000'
You use steganography to hide your real naughtyness inside those images and encrypt the image archive.
When someone insists that you decrypt it, you naturally get really embarassed but finally relent.
They see what you are 'hiding' and maybe laugh in your face; but they don't detect the stegged content (which would, presumably, be *far* worse than 'bukkake bloopers 2000' but what *that* could be I cannot imagine).
Slashdot Mirror
Its like the Church of the Subgenius thing on alcohol only it applies to C as well. IE;
"You shouldn't code in C to solve problems; only to create them."
"At the time he was working on Plan-9 which takes all the best ideas from UNIX and junks them, leaving only the unrefined crud that is best ignored."
ewwwww sounds like INTERCAL made into an operating system!
"Should we need a license to buy peanuts because so many people are allergic?"
You may well laugh... but some people are so allergic to peanuts that they get a reaction just from walking past someone who happens to be chewing a peanut.
"BTW: If someone uses missile defense lasers near your city, then you should have strong curtains just to make sure that any weak reflections wouldn't pass inside your house. And blind someone."
Surely ducking and covering works for lasers too?
(Obligatory ATHF reference coming right up)
Computer: "Retinal scan commencing"
Oglethorpe: "aaaarrrgghhhhh my eyes! Wrong laser! Wrong laser! I thought I told you to label those buttons, Emory!"
Emory: "Well you said not to label them because of security or something"
"or else he deorbits it over Washington DC and wipe out the entire US and Europe."
ahh tell him go ahead, I'm not there...
It's as if Douglas Adams hung out with Carlos Castaneda at college or something...
Maybe thats what they actually use.
You know, for its ability to withstand immersion in oils and fats...?
"when the rain falls, it will be like normal rain at first because higher up in the air it will be colder and the methane/ethane will be liquid, but as it gets closer to the surface, it will turn into a gas as it warms up, so the rain will turn from liquid into a gas before it reaches the surface, and will then rise upwards."
Actually this already happens here on Earth (only with water).
There are desert areas (Sahara included IIRC) where sometimes it rains and the rain evaporates before it can hit the ground.
I believe its called 'ghost rain'
Metal Gear Solid Worm? Like as opposed to a solid snake.
And is there a Liquid Worm out there, lurking?
(and no I am not a fanboy; those games *SUCK* big balls: I always though the solid and liquid snake names were some obscure Japanese fecal-matter reference).
"and another entirely to define what this is."
;)
That would be "Survive, damn you! Survive!"
There is this internal conflict we must have, where on the one hand we want our technology to have a survival instinct; so that it is motivated to look after itself while we are not.
A bit like a human baby figuring out that sometimes mummy is not looking this way and it has to get out of the way of the reversing SUV by its self.
On the other hand, the prospect of computers that have a survival instinct is (or bloody should be) a bit scary.
The real problem we have is very much like facing the emancipation of slaves; on the one hand you'd rather not have the expense of maintaining slaves and couldn't they just take care of themselves. On the other hand you *know* how you treated them and worry that they will extract revenge.
Or read Stanislaw Lem 'Non Serviam'. A true classic of AI literature.
Then theres the low level side where a filesystem is filling up and what do you start deleting first? If the *computer* could choose, for its own health and wellbeing, where would *it* start?
Ooops there goes the pr0n...
"Agencies right now are giving $30,000 signing bonuses to people with almost-native knowledge of languages like Farsi"
Yeah but they don't *trust* any of those people either. How can the Good Old Boys back home trust that they arn't secretly working for the enemy?
They're probably *brown* people and you know how much the old WASP network trusts brown people...
No, I think the idea is that if you type really *really* fast, then they can't keep up with you.
;)
and in the next episode, it turns out that there is already a secret network of so-called 'jammers' who do just this.
The best part, for the jammers, is that eventually the 'watchers' disbelieve everything that they say or do.
Once that happens of course, a jammer may decide to actually blow something up... and convincing the watchers that a jammer is actually going to do something dangerous proves somewhat difficult.
Wow... you know, I thought that applied to *everyone* I meet online...
You are devious. I *like* that.
:)
"I agree- it's amazing how much is packed into a single cell organism."
they are so sophisticated; one of the things I always wanted to try was putting protists through the kind of cognitive psych tests that they use on rats and pigeons to guage their intelligence and ability to learn from experience. I have a suspicion that there would be some surprises..
I studied this at uni as part of my (*abortive) MSc degree;
:)
I was looking into genetic algorithms at first, then decided that to really understand genetic algorithms I should look at nature and went and studied cell bio and genetics. For a comp-sci guy that was a humbling experience... we think that we are so smart with our computers but they have nothing on the simplest of organisms. Anyway, where was I oh yeah
Leonard Adelman (sp?) did some really interesting work with DNA computing (about 10 years ago, probably what you are referring to) like a solution to the Travelling Salesman Problem in O(1). Well... O(1) in time but still a bit exponential in space.
Still, an olympic size swimmingpool of DNA solution would solve most of the TSP's that you'd want
Then theres the work I read about involving hijacking the RNA editing mechanisms of trypanosomes (the protist that causes sleeping sickness). Their RNA editing mechanisms (which they use to change coat proteins to evade immune response) was demonstrated to be Turing complete.
Protists are awesome; our trick, as multicellular organisms, is that we build houses out of lots of bricks. But protists build an entire house out of just *one* brick. I think thats impressive.
Actually I've pondered what would happen if there were a (serious) movement to emancipate the corporation.
I mean, if its a legal person, how can it be owned, right? You mean theres a type of person which can be owned, just like some kind of *property*? Crazy! whacko!
Free the corporations! End this tyrannical oppression!
"So any formal system is either contradicting itself or incomplete."
Any which are powerful enough to express arithmetic.
I often wonder this about my mind; if it is a formal system, surely it is powerful enough to express arithmetic, which would make it either incomplete or inconsistent.
I think I prefer the complete/inconsistent to the incomplete/consistent.
Though there is a third way; we -- and by extension reality itself -- is not and cannot be expressed in any formal system whatsoever. I prefer this one.
The fourth way, I really don't want to get into, is that our minds actually arn't powerful enough to express arithmetic. Those who have seen me trying to do long division would understand.
Suppose that you fart, on average once a day regularly, and they are reasonably large farts.
And suppose that I fart once a week, on a Saturday, and when I fart I release the entire contents of my digestive tract all in one go. But you don't know this (yet).
If you keep track of our gaseous emissions you may well find, come Friday, that you are producing *far* more gas than me.
Wait till Saturday, because I eat burritos on Friday nights.
See my point?
You have to see the big picture or else you may find yourself overwhelmed when you least expect it.
The sum total of all volcanos on Earth, taken over the period of human history may produce less noxious emmissions than human civilisation; but *perhaps* the reason that human civilisation has been possible is because we are in a quiet period (Sunday through Thursday in my example).
Indeed it looks as if the climate for the past 5000 years (or so) has been *remarkably* stable compared to the rest of the Earths history.
Oh and guess what? Human civilisations have been developing for 5000 years (or so).
Just wait till Saturday, dude. Wear a gas-mask.
why can't I add AC to my foes?
darn...
"Does anything like this exist?"
Its called 'steganography'
What you do is you have a huge stash of embarassing hardcore porn, say 'bukkake bloopers 2000'
You use steganography to hide your real naughtyness inside those images and encrypt the image archive.
When someone insists that you decrypt it, you naturally get really embarassed but finally relent.
They see what you are 'hiding' and maybe laugh in your face; but they don't detect the stegged content (which would, presumably, be *far* worse than 'bukkake bloopers 2000' but what *that* could be I cannot imagine).
and my entire class was failed because noone could write a program to check whether another, arbitrary program, would eventually finish execution...
"remember where these orders come from..."
;)
"follow the chain of command..."
"the *political* office..."
John Sheridan knew his stuff alright; it sure is one way to start a civil war! (sort of)