The one thing he left out was that fact that that our new technologies are NEW and that they WILL result in major societial changes in NEW and unpredicatable ways.
The Machine gun is a great example.
Many people may not be aware, but the Machine Gun has Saved more soldiers lives than it has taken. In fact many people believe that the Machine Gun has saved more soldier lives than penicillian.
Before the Machine Gun, 10 men could guard no more than 20 or so unarmed prisoners. Otherwise they rush you, take your weapon etc.
Yes, it allowed prisons and concentration camps to grow, but before it, GENERALS COULD NOT ACCEPT THE SURRENDER OF THE ENEMEY EXCEPT AT THE END OF THE WAR
You could not accept the surrender of one battalion, because you could not spare the men to guard them while your other forces went off to fight the next set of soldiers.
So if people surrendered and it was not the last enemey combatants, you killed them. So no one surrended.
The inventor of the Machine Gun did NOT realize he was allowing people to surrender, he thought he creating a horrendous killing machine.
similarly, the new technolgies we are creating WILL surprise us, and will create NEW social structures that we did not have before.
Society will evolve in a strange new manner, not the simple ideas propagated by these Science Fiction Authors mentioned by the writer.
If you read that ridiculous over-hyped press realease, you realize they are saying that windows CE will be put into phones and other small devices, not into things that people think of as computer substities.
And they are basically guessing that windows CE will conquer the other formats, probably because they were paid by Microsoft.
You MIGHT be correct.
However, 99% of all spammers routinely break the law.
Specifically they:
1) Do not keep "do not email" lists as required by many localities.
2) Do not respect California's "ADV:" in subject line requirement.
3) Break truth in advertising rules.
4) 50% of the time they talk about making money at home, they are discussing a Ponzi scheme where you become a Spammer. The other 50% of the time they are not talking about becoming a spammer, they are talking about an outright Nigerian scam. Both of these are illegal in the U.S.
5) If they are spamming for Porn, they make no effort to stop kids from receiveing their spam, thereby breaking MORE laws.
What it comes down to is that they systematically break a TON of misdeamenors, and many of them systematically commit multiple felonies. Just because it is hard to prosecute them does NOT mean they are innocent.
1) Cloning for body part usage: Clone self, pith embryo before 3rd month, keep fetus alive until birth, take kidneys et. al. and implant in self.
2) Creating Self aware computers as opposed to self aware Robots (Computers can not move, escape, defend themselves, hook upto a phone line and call for help unless a human being helps them do this. A robot has legs to move and arms to help themselves.)
3) Genetically modifying animals for enhanced intelligence (say IQ of 70) but not granting them the smae rights we would grant a Retarded human being with the same IQ.
4) Preventing people from genetically correcting "deformities/weaknesses", such as a pre-disposition for cancer, a predisposition for weak heart, a pre-disposition for less intelligence.
5) Using Drugs/genetics to affect the sexuality of a full grown person (Make them straight not gay - or vice versa for that matter).
6) Using Drugs/genetics to affect the sexuality of a child/infant.
I find a great article about an invisibility cloak try to submit and they reject, but this crap gets published 3 times?
Someone needs a karma adjustment.
In addition to the artificial object problem mentioned above, there is also the far more likely problem of resolution and size.
A 12' by 12' picture using 600 dpi resolution is FAR more complex than a 4' by 4' using 200 dpi.
1) It would significantly cut down on the spam, but not kill it completely. It would in fact be far better than some of you think, because about 70% of spam is actually an advertisement on how to become a SPAMMER. (Pretty much every single "get rich quick", "work from home", and "are you computer literate" offer is actually a ponzi scheme of "Pay me money and I will tell you how to spam people like I did to you." ) If you put in even a 1 cent cost per hundred emails, this scheme dies.
2) There are many perfectlly good means of killing all spam. Here is one:
A) get an email program that has both a filter and an auto reply function.
B) Set up a filter. If an email comes in that does not have the word "maps" (Spam backwards) or some other code word in the Subject line, your filter i. appends an instruction to your recepient to use that code word, ii. autoreplies to that sender, and iii. deletes the email. Spammers can NOT afford the time to deal with any replies.
C) If your buddies also do a similar thing, you might get caught in a loop. To deal with this you can have the auto-filter insert your code word to the subject line before you reply. The only problem might develop is if the spammers started using an auto-reply function of their own (A highly unlikely event in my mind).
This simple system kills all spam going into your mailbox today. It does cause minor inconveince to people trying to mail stuff to you as they have to remember to input your code word. But their inconveinence is less than you having to delete 1,000 junkmail from your inbox every other day.
Make a receiver unit the size and shape of 1/2 a standard batteries. Build it into a regular rechargeable battery. Yes, it will only have 1/2 the regular shelf life, but you can put it in any battery operated device
More than 50% of you misunderstood the issues here.
1) The system has NOTHING to do with alternative fuels. We are talking fuel additive.
2) The system is claiming increased efficiancy and increased power. Neither one of these claims is prima facia negated by the fact that things are being added or the fact that the fuel must be manufactured by the hydrolisis machine.
Power is the easiest to understand - if the engine is now capable of providing more energy bursts, even if it uses up more gallons of gas to do so, it is a success. If a single combustion cycle provides more energy than it is succesful, even if the engine has to spend 2 hours creating electricity to generate the hydrogen first.
Efficiancy is harder to understand. Basically if the alternators are properly designed, through normal use they will generate excess electricity beyond what the car needs. This energy is WASTED - untill the complex hydrolis system presented is used to recapture that waste energy.
In other words, this device is theoretically useful, assuming that
A) Hydrogen is not damaging to the engine and
B) Hydrogen in the fuel increases the power or efficency of the combustion cycle more than a similar amount of gasoline would.
I smell an idiot.
This moron thinks HE can give as good as he gets?
Does he not realize that it is the otherwayu around. WE are trying to give as much crap as he sends us. Yes we are failing to do that, but he should not be proud about the fact that he is more of an a-hole than the rest of the world combined. And this crook actually claims he is not "breaking the law". He admitted to a "mistake" where he falsified a return address/took over someone's server. I guess it was just a "mistake" when OJ killed his wife.
People are not robots that buy what they are told.
Ads do three different thigns:
Pay for the show/otherwise amuse us.
Give Name recognition to a product
If a service/product is new/unknown, it informs the public about it.
Only the last service can not be done via fast-forward viewing. Frankly it is so rarely used that is not that big a deal..
Yes, advertisers claim that a "good" ad will get people to buy coke over pepsi or whatever, but that is bullcrap. People might try it once, but no one, not even a status obssessed teen really buys one product instead of another because an ad told them to. (But they will insist on a "known" product that was advertised over an "un-known".)
The discussion about whether it is a good idea to freeze our current proccessor is not the most intelligent thing around.
If you are going to have a new, custom designed, super-efficient cooling device, then it allows you to design a computer chip to take advantage of it.
You guys have heard of super-conductors haven't you? While I am not in any way saying this device will let you make a superconducting computer I am pointing out that at lower temperatures, properties change in a a way that is favorable towards computing.
If we have really good cooling devices, it can open up new concepts in chip design that will take advantage/need the low temperature creted by the device.
Parents CAN compete with Fox. Look, 95% of TV is junk. Only 5% of it is worth anything. Quality is worth 1000 times what Quantity is.
What do you think - that you are smart enough to realize that TV has some bad ideas, but your poor defenseless kids are morons???? No. The kids are ignorant, not stupid. If their parents are making SENSE, they are far more effected by what their parents say than anything said by TV.
But when their parents put forth garbage like "Masturbation makes you go blind" then wonder of wonders, the kids agree with the TV that sex is OK, instead of the parents.
Anyone that insists that their opponents views be silenced IS a dictator. Lies need silence to flourish, but the truth can triump over any amount of bull.
The only real power when it comes to psychological warfare is he who holds the truth. If you are in fact correct that the Big Media is powerfull, it is only because the Media is correct and your personal views are wrong. If I am in fact correct that Big Media is pretty powerless and has little if any effect on the kids, it is becasue the Media is wrong.
Your own statements prove you wrong. Commercial Products ARE Speech - you said so yourself: "Skewing this perception with graphic sexual violence, especially rewarding such behaviour in a game, should be restricted."
In other words, the games are sending the political message that "sex and violence are not evil and are in fact acceptable behavior."
You personally may thing that this clearly political statement is wrong and skewed, but that does not change the fact that it IS a political statement.
I hereby pronouce MY personal belief that their is NOTHING wrong or evil about Graphic Sex and that Violence, is not in and of itself evill.
What right do YOU have to prohibit me and my political friends from promulgating our view points?
Because we charge people to see them is not a good answer - the people that pay us agree with us and are contributing to our political cause. Yes the manufacturers make a profit, but the Republican party is HUGELY profitable - they take in more in donations almost every year then they spend.
To sum up, anything that has a psychological impact by definition IS political speech. You may not like our political ideas, but we have the right to say them.
P.S. While I do not think Violence is neccesarily evil, I definitely think not allowing the other side to speak IS evil. Images and other forms of speech are NOT mind control. If we are wrong/evil then the people that are exposed to our ideas will realize that and abandon us of their own free will without being forced to by dictators like you.
I am not going to call you an anti-semite. I am going to call you an ignorant fool.
Israel has NEVER "stolen" land.
They are a tiny country. Other countries, FAR bigger than they are, with FAR more money (most of it coming from the U.S. via Oil sales) attacks them, as a way to distract their unhappy population from the fact that their countries are incredibally poorly run.
Isreal wins the War, that they did NOT start, and Conquers their defeated enemey. They then keep the Land they won in the War.
This is clearly "CONQUERING" not "stealing"
Other countries of the world do nto object because ALL of them have Conquered before, including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, etc. Most of them however started their wars, rather than reacted to them.
Isreal may mistreat their non-jewish citizens by not allowing them to vote, but Only a really stupid person thinks that Isreal "stole" land.
No it is not that hard. Any one this nuerotic is going to be making the house himself. But he is still a fool for trying to make it out of Adobe.
If you are insane enough to think that the definite chemicals in commonly used housing materials are "posionous" then you can still easily do the following:
Build a Log cabin. Use fresh wood that you cut down yourself. Make sure to wear thick cotton gloves that you made yourself from cotton that you grew yourself to protect you from the poisons that those nasty Axe makers used on your Axe.
There are so many chemicals in the air and the food we eat (even if you grow it yourself - there is NO such thing as "pure dirt") that his entire philosphy is bad. He is the kind of guy that will get upset if I tell him I dumped a gallon of the most powerfull solvent (Monoxide-Di-Hydrogen) in it's purest form on his face. When he realizs that I dumped water on him he will try to convince me that I lied to him.
Chemicals != bad. Salt is a chemical. Sugar is a checmical. Proteins are Chemicals. Vitamins are Chemicals.
Any substance if you get too much of it, will kill you. At lesser levels they are bad for you. But Even the deadliest posion around has a safe level, and quite a few of them have minor beneficial effects when adminstered at safe doses (Arsenic is used in certain medical treatements.)
When I saw this cartoon I got really mad that someone had ripped off Larry Niven's Great story and had to laugh at myself when I read the credits at the end and realized that Larry himself had given permission and agreed to transform his great Known Space/puppeteer/Kzinti story into a Star Trek/Vulcan/Kzinti cartoon.
You get the super feature of Tivo - 80% of the rescheduling power and not having to know when your show is on to record it. You give up the commercial killing stuff and maybe 20% of the rescheduling power. They can sell it cheaper then Tivo, because they are funded by the networks to keep the commercials.
Will it sell? Depends on price.
If you tell me that for a one time payment of $50 bucks, I can get the rescheduling, then YES it will sell and Tivo will die.
If instead they try to price it as competitive with Tivo and then try to make Tivo Illegal, it will not do well, and hopefull the lawsuit will die.
What absolute proof that companies abuse DMCA.
The printer companies have repeatedly had their patent claims thrown out because any judge with a brain instantly realizes that they do not actuallly qualify for a patent, they are just trying to create an illegal monopoly.
Now by claiming that the companies are breaking the DMCA they are effecitvely enforcing patents that are not blatnat lies that no judge would fall for.
For whatever reason, antibiotics have been heavily abused, creating resistant strands. I personally think it is a combination of Hypochondriac patients/parents, weak-willed Doctors and stupid non-medical use.
But that is essentially irrelevant.
We need to control, limit, restrict, and otherwise prevent the massive abuse of these life saving techniques.
Patents are a good start to make sure that idiots do not use anti-biotics to insure their lawn is healthy during a drought.
The psuedo-intellectualists that like to say that TV is worthless and never head the hundreds of bad symponies that were played once and never plaed again will eventaully take a look at Buffy.
They will find a show that avoided formula, made it's own path, and actually had had their characters think.
Unlike the X files, (where people who were trying to keep their "advanced technology" a secret routinely used that technology to kill people instead of shooting them), Buffy the Vampire Slayer had villains that were not morons and when the Hero outsmarted them, chances are you were as saying WOW what a good idea, not "DUH".
This show taught morals and ethics, it showed the world in shades of Gray, not Black and white. It demonstrated unhappy endings and that bad things do happen to good people.
100 years from now, real intellectualists will treat Buffy the Vampire Slayer the way people talk about the Hitchcock films. They are Classics and will be studied in Film Schools.
While I agree with you that "Intelligence", has previously had bad defintions, and that the Turing Test is not a good definition, I do not agree with your conclusion regarding the "real" definition of Intelligence, nor do I agree that we will never decide we have A.I.
I also disagree with your belief that the fact that Dolphins are considered self-aware has made the majority of humans decide self-awareness is not intelligence. Some people, myself included, believe that Dolphins may very well be as intelligent and have as much of a soul, sapience, Intelligence, etc. as a human does (albeit perhaps a stupid human).
I can see several things that would convince us that we have a real A.I. The simplest pracitcal way I can think of for such a non-human intelligence to convince the majority of humans that they are in fact intelligent:
Demand that we admit it has Intelligence and give it legal rights and threaten to kill humans if we refuse.
Note this is not proof of intelligence, or any kind of "terrorism test", but instead a practical means of forcing the political systems to consider granting legal intelligence.
I personally think the mere act of demaning legal rights and understanding what those legal rights rights are (not simply quoting or even paraphrasing back what it was told) would by itself be proof of intelligence. But I also realize that their are enough bigots out there to ignore a non-violent demand.
The USPO makes very little judgement calls, getting a patent is incredibally easy. Why - because they are part of the executive branch, not the judicial branch. That way, if their is any arguement, both sides can have all their rights observed by a court of law.
The question is, will a court hold it up. It does not sound like that patent will stand up.
Slashdot Mirror
The Machine gun is a great example.
Many people may not be aware, but the Machine Gun has Saved more soldiers lives than it has taken. In fact many people believe that the Machine Gun has saved more soldier lives than penicillian.
Before the Machine Gun, 10 men could guard no more than 20 or so unarmed prisoners. Otherwise they rush you, take your weapon etc.
Yes, it allowed prisons and concentration camps to grow, but before it, GENERALS COULD NOT ACCEPT THE SURRENDER OF THE ENEMEY EXCEPT AT THE END OF THE WAR
You could not accept the surrender of one battalion, because you could not spare the men to guard them while your other forces went off to fight the next set of soldiers.
So if people surrendered and it was not the last enemey combatants, you killed them. So no one surrended.
The inventor of the Machine Gun did NOT realize he was allowing people to surrender, he thought he creating a horrendous killing machine.
similarly, the new technolgies we are creating WILL surprise us, and will create NEW social structures that we did not have before.
Society will evolve in a strange new manner, not the simple ideas propagated by these Science Fiction Authors mentioned by the writer.
And they are basically guessing that windows CE will conquer the other formats, probably because they were paid by Microsoft.
Specifically they:
1) Do not keep "do not email" lists as required by many localities.
2) Do not respect California's "ADV:" in subject line requirement.
3) Break truth in advertising rules.
4) 50% of the time they talk about making money at home, they are discussing a Ponzi scheme where you become a Spammer. The other 50% of the time they are not talking about becoming a spammer, they are talking about an outright Nigerian scam. Both of these are illegal in the U.S.
5) If they are spamming for Porn, they make no effort to stop kids from receiveing their spam, thereby breaking MORE laws.
What it comes down to is that they systematically break a TON of misdeamenors, and many of them systematically commit multiple felonies. Just because it is hard to prosecute them does NOT mean they are innocent.
1) Cloning for body part usage: Clone self, pith embryo before 3rd month, keep fetus alive until birth, take kidneys et. al. and implant in self.
2) Creating Self aware computers as opposed to self aware Robots (Computers can not move, escape, defend themselves, hook upto a phone line and call for help unless a human being helps them do this. A robot has legs to move and arms to help themselves.)
3) Genetically modifying animals for enhanced intelligence (say IQ of 70) but not granting them the smae rights we would grant a Retarded human being with the same IQ.
4) Preventing people from genetically correcting "deformities/weaknesses", such as a pre-disposition for cancer, a predisposition for weak heart, a pre-disposition for less intelligence.
5) Using Drugs/genetics to affect the sexuality of a full grown person (Make them straight not gay - or vice versa for that matter).
6) Using Drugs/genetics to affect the sexuality of a child/infant.
I find a great article about an invisibility cloak try to submit and they reject, but this crap gets published 3 times? Someone needs a karma adjustment.
In addition to the artificial object problem mentioned above, there is also the far more likely problem of resolution and size. A 12' by 12' picture using 600 dpi resolution is FAR more complex than a 4' by 4' using 200 dpi.
Star Trak.
Their design was almost entirely based on Captain Kirk's communicator.
I personally try to be creative and come up with my own designs, but I do take inspiration from others, including sci-fi.
2) There are many perfectlly good means of killing all spam. Here is one:
A) get an email program that has both a filter and an auto reply function.
B) Set up a filter. If an email comes in that does not have the word "maps" (Spam backwards) or some other code word in the Subject line, your filter i. appends an instruction to your recepient to use that code word, ii. autoreplies to that sender, and iii. deletes the email. Spammers can NOT afford the time to deal with any replies.
C) If your buddies also do a similar thing, you might get caught in a loop. To deal with this you can have the auto-filter insert your code word to the subject line before you reply. The only problem might develop is if the spammers started using an auto-reply function of their own (A highly unlikely event in my mind).
This simple system kills all spam going into your mailbox today. It does cause minor inconveince to people trying to mail stuff to you as they have to remember to input your code word. But their inconveinence is less than you having to delete 1,000 junkmail from your inbox every other day.
Make a receiver unit the size and shape of 1/2 a standard batteries. Build it into a regular rechargeable battery. Yes, it will only have 1/2 the regular shelf life, but you can put it in any battery operated device
1) The system has NOTHING to do with alternative fuels. We are talking fuel additive.
2) The system is claiming increased efficiancy and increased power. Neither one of these claims is prima facia negated by the fact that things are being added or the fact that the fuel must be manufactured by the hydrolisis machine.
Power is the easiest to understand - if the engine is now capable of providing more energy bursts, even if it uses up more gallons of gas to do so, it is a success. If a single combustion cycle provides more energy than it is succesful, even if the engine has to spend 2 hours creating electricity to generate the hydrogen first.
Efficiancy is harder to understand. Basically if the alternators are properly designed, through normal use they will generate excess electricity beyond what the car needs. This energy is WASTED - untill the complex hydrolis system presented is used to recapture that waste energy.
In other words, this device is theoretically useful, assuming that
A) Hydrogen is not damaging to the engine and
B) Hydrogen in the fuel increases the power or efficency of the combustion cycle more than a similar amount of gasoline would.
I smell an idiot. This moron thinks HE can give as good as he gets? Does he not realize that it is the otherwayu around. WE are trying to give as much crap as he sends us. Yes we are failing to do that, but he should not be proud about the fact that he is more of an a-hole than the rest of the world combined. And this crook actually claims he is not "breaking the law". He admitted to a "mistake" where he falsified a return address/took over someone's server. I guess it was just a "mistake" when OJ killed his wife.
Ads do three different thigns:
Pay for the show/otherwise amuse us.
Give Name recognition to a product
If a service/product is new/unknown, it informs the public about it.
Only the last service can not be done via fast-forward viewing. Frankly it is so rarely used that is not that big a deal..
Yes, advertisers claim that a "good" ad will get people to buy coke over pepsi or whatever, but that is bullcrap. People might try it once, but no one, not even a status obssessed teen really buys one product instead of another because an ad told them to. (But they will insist on a "known" product that was advertised over an "un-known".)
If you are going to have a new, custom designed, super-efficient cooling device, then it allows you to design a computer chip to take advantage of it.
You guys have heard of super-conductors haven't you? While I am not in any way saying this device will let you make a superconducting computer I am pointing out that at lower temperatures, properties change in a a way that is favorable towards computing.
If we have really good cooling devices, it can open up new concepts in chip design that will take advantage/need the low temperature creted by the device.
What do you think - that you are smart enough to realize that TV has some bad ideas, but your poor defenseless kids are morons???? No. The kids are ignorant, not stupid. If their parents are making SENSE, they are far more effected by what their parents say than anything said by TV.
But when their parents put forth garbage like "Masturbation makes you go blind" then wonder of wonders, the kids agree with the TV that sex is OK, instead of the parents.
Anyone that insists that their opponents views be silenced IS a dictator. Lies need silence to flourish, but the truth can triump over any amount of bull.
The only real power when it comes to psychological warfare is he who holds the truth. If you are in fact correct that the Big Media is powerfull, it is only because the Media is correct and your personal views are wrong. If I am in fact correct that Big Media is pretty powerless and has little if any effect on the kids, it is becasue the Media is wrong.
In other words, the games are sending the political message that "sex and violence are not evil and are in fact acceptable behavior."
You personally may thing that this clearly political statement is wrong and skewed, but that does not change the fact that it IS a political statement.
I hereby pronouce MY personal belief that their is NOTHING wrong or evil about Graphic Sex and that Violence, is not in and of itself evill.
What right do YOU have to prohibit me and my political friends from promulgating our view points?
Because we charge people to see them is not a good answer - the people that pay us agree with us and are contributing to our political cause. Yes the manufacturers make a profit, but the Republican party is HUGELY profitable - they take in more in donations almost every year then they spend.
To sum up, anything that has a psychological impact by definition IS political speech. You may not like our political ideas, but we have the right to say them.
P.S. While I do not think Violence is neccesarily evil, I definitely think not allowing the other side to speak IS evil. Images and other forms of speech are NOT mind control. If we are wrong/evil then the people that are exposed to our ideas will realize that and abandon us of their own free will without being forced to by dictators like you.
Israel has NEVER "stolen" land.
They are a tiny country. Other countries, FAR bigger than they are, with FAR more money (most of it coming from the U.S. via Oil sales) attacks them, as a way to distract their unhappy population from the fact that their countries are incredibally poorly run.
Isreal wins the War, that they did NOT start, and Conquers their defeated enemey. They then keep the Land they won in the War.
This is clearly "CONQUERING" not "stealing"
Other countries of the world do nto object because ALL of them have Conquered before, including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, etc. Most of them however started their wars, rather than reacted to them.
Isreal may mistreat their non-jewish citizens by not allowing them to vote, but Only a really stupid person thinks that Isreal "stole" land.
If you are insane enough to think that the definite chemicals in commonly used housing materials are "posionous" then you can still easily do the following:
Build a Log cabin. Use fresh wood that you cut down yourself. Make sure to wear thick cotton gloves that you made yourself from cotton that you grew yourself to protect you from the poisons that those nasty Axe makers used on your Axe.
There are so many chemicals in the air and the food we eat (even if you grow it yourself - there is NO such thing as "pure dirt") that his entire philosphy is bad. He is the kind of guy that will get upset if I tell him I dumped a gallon of the most powerfull solvent (Monoxide-Di-Hydrogen) in it's purest form on his face. When he realizs that I dumped water on him he will try to convince me that I lied to him.
Chemicals != bad. Salt is a chemical. Sugar is a checmical. Proteins are Chemicals. Vitamins are Chemicals.
Any substance if you get too much of it, will kill you. At lesser levels they are bad for you. But Even the deadliest posion around has a safe level, and quite a few of them have minor beneficial effects when adminstered at safe doses (Arsenic is used in certain medical treatements.)
When I saw this cartoon I got really mad that someone had ripped off Larry Niven's Great story and had to laugh at myself when I read the credits at the end and realized that Larry himself had given permission and agreed to transform his great Known Space/puppeteer/Kzinti story into a Star Trek/Vulcan/Kzinti cartoon.
You get the super feature of Tivo - 80% of the rescheduling power and not having to know when your show is on to record it. You give up the commercial killing stuff and maybe 20% of the rescheduling power. They can sell it cheaper then Tivo, because they are funded by the networks to keep the commercials.
Will it sell? Depends on price.
If you tell me that for a one time payment of $50 bucks, I can get the rescheduling, then YES it will sell and Tivo will die.
If instead they try to price it as competitive with Tivo and then try to make Tivo Illegal, it will not do well, and hopefull the lawsuit will die.
Now by claiming that the companies are breaking the DMCA they are effecitvely enforcing patents that are not blatnat lies that no judge would fall for.
But that is essentially irrelevant.
We need to control, limit, restrict, and otherwise prevent the massive abuse of these life saving techniques.
Patents are a good start to make sure that idiots do not use anti-biotics to insure their lawn is healthy during a drought.
They will find a show that avoided formula, made it's own path, and actually had had their characters think.
Unlike the X files, (where people who were trying to keep their "advanced technology" a secret routinely used that technology to kill people instead of shooting them), Buffy the Vampire Slayer had villains that were not morons and when the Hero outsmarted them, chances are you were as saying WOW what a good idea, not "DUH".
This show taught morals and ethics, it showed the world in shades of Gray, not Black and white. It demonstrated unhappy endings and that bad things do happen to good people.
100 years from now, real intellectualists will treat Buffy the Vampire Slayer the way people talk about the Hitchcock films. They are Classics and will be studied in Film Schools.
What do you think the chances are that there is life of some kind in our solar system besides on planet Earth?
I also disagree with your belief that the fact that Dolphins are considered self-aware has made the majority of humans decide self-awareness is not intelligence. Some people, myself included, believe that Dolphins may very well be as intelligent and have as much of a soul, sapience, Intelligence, etc. as a human does (albeit perhaps a stupid human).
I can see several things that would convince us that we have a real A.I. The simplest pracitcal way I can think of for such a non-human intelligence to convince the majority of humans that they are in fact intelligent:
Demand that we admit it has Intelligence and give it legal rights and threaten to kill humans if we refuse.
Note this is not proof of intelligence, or any kind of "terrorism test", but instead a practical means of forcing the political systems to consider granting legal intelligence.
I personally think the mere act of demaning legal rights and understanding what those legal rights rights are (not simply quoting or even paraphrasing back what it was told) would by itself be proof of intelligence. But I also realize that their are enough bigots out there to ignore a non-violent demand.
The USPO makes very little judgement calls, getting a patent is incredibally easy. Why - because they are part of the executive branch, not the judicial branch. That way, if their is any arguement, both sides can have all their rights observed by a court of law. The question is, will a court hold it up. It does not sound like that patent will stand up.