Whether or not the oddball is heavier or lighter does matter.
If you weigh 4 vs 4 in round 1, which ones are you going to set aside if the scales tip? Let's say you go with the heavier group. The 2 vs 2 weighing here may be even since the oddball was lighter and was in the group you set aside. By that point, you have to find the oddball in the set-aside group of four with only one remaining weighing.
Actually, it does matter whether or not the odd-ball is heavier or lighter, even if you use a log base 3 solution.
Let's say you first measure 4 vs 4 first (planning to use the remaining 4 if the scales are even). If one of the sides tips, which ones do you throw out? You have to know you are looking for a heavier ball.
Set aside, for a moment, the credibility (or lack thereof) pertaining to this case. What scares me is the way a large bullying corporation can intimidate and screw individuals through litigation. Even if they lose the lawsuit, if they can prevent individuals from creating software and services which fringe upon RIAA financial interests and venues of profitability, then they will see themselves as successful. Must we all be looking over our shoulders anytime we work on projects which potentially could be used for piracy in addition to legitimate purposes? Will I be the next person in the RIAA's crosshairs, meat for a litigation nightmare.
Thanks be to the RIAA for creating a reverse fortune lottery. Millions of Americans are players. I wonder who'll be the next lucky winner who gets his/her life screwed? Perhaps the RIAA can kill two birds with one stone -- innovation and justice.
Set aside, for a moment, the credibility (or lack thereof) pertaining to this case. What scares me is the way a large bullying corporation can intimidate and screw individuals through litigation. Clearly, the RIAA's goal primary goal here is intimidation. Even if they lose the lawsuit, if they can prevent individuals from creating perfectly legal software and services which fringe upon RIAA financial interests and venues of profitability, then they will see themselves as successful.
This ability to intimidate is simply stifles innovation. Now law-abiding citizens will need to be looking over their shoulders to wonder if their perfectly legal work threatens RIAA interests, hence setting them in the crosshairs of a litigation nightmare.
Interesting concept. The article speaks this producing "high-quality audio" -- yet I assume this must be mainly mid to high frequency sound. Any significant production of lower frequencies would certainly cause screen vibration, which might give new meaning to the term "flicker".
As a former evangelical, I find your post very thoughtful and articulate. Do you, perchance, maintain a website of writings or the like?
Explore!
on
AI in Sci-Fi
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· Score: 2, Interesting
If, in creating these sentient robots, we were able to pass on our curiosity and love for knowledge, then I believe these robots would explore the galaxy. Our civilization tends to focus resources on projects which will be completed within our lifetimes (less than 100 years). We don't get excited about the prospect of launching a probe toward Alpha Proxima because we know it would take thousands of years to get there. However, these time limitations would not be so significant to robots. What's 50,000 to send a probe to a star and 50,000 years to wait for its return if near immortality has been achieved through mechanizing the brain?
Having said this, if we ever encounter E.T., I wonder if it will be the robotic leftovers of a biological civilization like ours. Think about our time-scale. It took about 2 billion years for eukaryotic cells to evolve. Mammals didn't appear for another 1.3 billion years. Compare that to human civilization, which has been around for less than 10,000 years. So much has changed in just the last 500 years. Who can imagine what things would be like in another 1 million years? Yet 1 million years is a drop in the bucket in the evolutionary time-scale. If we don't kill ourselves, it seems that would be enough time to unravel the mysteries of the brain and create artificial manifestations of our uniqueness. If we pass the torch of our inquisition onto self-repairing, sentient robots, the time constraints of space exploration could finally be conquered.
Tune into the latest miniseries, "Harried by America", starring Dubya, the U.S. military, and the Axis of Evil. In tonight's episode, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein gets his due for becoming a perceived threat to American security. Witness firsthand the power of the U.S. military, as thousands of Tomahawk missiles and JDAM GPS-guided missiles rain down upon Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Mosul. Break out the popcorn, kick up your feet, sit back, and enjoy! This is military entertainment at its finest -- most certainly must-see TV!
Next week: All eyes turn toward North Korea and dictator Kim Jong II as George Bush announces...
Interesting... let's assume for a moment that the universe's expansion was frozen.
Now, if I threw a baseball in a straight line from point x,y,z in the universe, at some point, that baseball would again pass through one of the planes of its starting location? (I'm neglecting all interferences, including gravity)
3-d space curving... hmmmmm... I'm having trouble picturing what this 3-d curvature would look like. Anyone have a helpful mental image of this?
I found two books I read to be very helpful in learning how to sort between the good and bad:
"The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" - by Carl Sagan
"Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and other Confusions of our Time" - by Michael Shermer
Slashdot Mirror
Whether or not the oddball is heavier or lighter does matter.
If you weigh 4 vs 4 in round 1, which ones are you going to set aside if the scales tip? Let's say you go with the heavier group. The 2 vs 2 weighing here may be even since the oddball was lighter and was in the group you set aside. By that point, you have to find the oddball in the set-aside group of four with only one remaining weighing.
Actually, it does matter whether or not the odd-ball is heavier or lighter, even if you use a log base 3 solution.
Let's say you first measure 4 vs 4 first (planning to use the remaining 4 if the scales are even). If one of the sides tips, which ones do you throw out? You have to know you are looking for a heavier ball.
Set aside, for a moment, the credibility (or lack thereof) pertaining to this case. What scares me is the way a large bullying corporation can intimidate and screw individuals through litigation. Even if they lose the lawsuit, if they can prevent individuals from creating software and services which fringe upon RIAA financial interests and venues of profitability, then they will see themselves as successful. Must we all be looking over our shoulders anytime we work on projects which potentially could be used for piracy in addition to legitimate purposes? Will I be the next person in the RIAA's crosshairs, meat for a litigation nightmare.
Thanks be to the RIAA for creating a reverse fortune lottery. Millions of Americans are players. I wonder who'll be the next lucky winner who gets his/her life screwed? Perhaps the RIAA can kill two birds with one stone -- innovation and justice.
Set aside, for a moment, the credibility (or lack thereof) pertaining to this case. What scares me is the way a large bullying corporation can intimidate and screw individuals through litigation. Clearly, the RIAA's goal primary goal here is intimidation. Even if they lose the lawsuit, if they can prevent individuals from creating perfectly legal software and services which fringe upon RIAA financial interests and venues of profitability, then they will see themselves as successful.
This ability to intimidate is simply stifles innovation. Now law-abiding citizens will need to be looking over their shoulders to wonder if their perfectly legal work threatens RIAA interests, hence setting them in the crosshairs of a litigation nightmare.
Interesting concept. The article speaks this producing "high-quality audio" -- yet I assume this must be mainly mid to high frequency sound. Any significant production of lower frequencies would certainly cause screen vibration, which might give new meaning to the term "flicker".
Praksys,
As a former evangelical, I find your post very thoughtful and articulate. Do you, perchance, maintain a website of writings or the like?
If, in creating these sentient robots, we were able to pass on our curiosity and love for knowledge, then I believe these robots would explore the galaxy. Our civilization tends to focus resources on projects which will be completed within our lifetimes (less than 100 years). We don't get excited about the prospect of launching a probe toward Alpha Proxima because we know it would take thousands of years to get there. However, these time limitations would not be so significant to robots. What's 50,000 to send a probe to a star and 50,000 years to wait for its return if near immortality has been achieved through mechanizing the brain?
Having said this, if we ever encounter E.T., I wonder if it will be the robotic leftovers of a biological civilization like ours. Think about our time-scale. It took about 2 billion years for eukaryotic cells to evolve. Mammals didn't appear for another 1.3 billion years. Compare that to human civilization, which has been around for less than 10,000 years. So much has changed in just the last 500 years. Who can imagine what things would be like in another 1 million years? Yet 1 million years is a drop in the bucket in the evolutionary time-scale. If we don't kill ourselves, it seems that would be enough time to unravel the mysteries of the brain and create artificial manifestations of our uniqueness. If we pass the torch of our inquisition onto self-repairing, sentient robots, the time constraints of space exploration could finally be conquered.
Now, if they could only save us a little time and include in the label the copy protection format used and version number...
Tune into the latest miniseries, "Harried by America", starring Dubya, the U.S. military, and the Axis of Evil. In tonight's episode, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein gets his due for becoming a perceived threat to American security. Witness firsthand the power of the U.S. military, as thousands of Tomahawk missiles and JDAM GPS-guided missiles rain down upon Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Mosul. Break out the popcorn, kick up your feet, sit back, and enjoy! This is military entertainment at its finest -- most certainly must-see TV!
Next week: All eyes turn toward North Korea and dictator Kim Jong II as George Bush announces...
Interesting... let's assume for a moment that the universe's expansion was frozen.
... hmmmmm... I'm having trouble picturing what this 3-d curvature would look like. Anyone have a helpful mental image of this?
Now, if I threw a baseball in a straight line from point x,y,z in the universe, at some point, that baseball would again pass through one of the planes of its starting location? (I'm neglecting all interferences, including gravity)
3-d space curving
I found two books I read to be very helpful in learning how to sort between the good and bad: "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" - by Carl Sagan "Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and other Confusions of our Time" - by Michael Shermer
"10" types of people?? Perhaps you should say: There are 10 types of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who can't count.