I repeat; there is no American humor on Iraqi soil. We have choked, gagged, and croaked our foes with superior Iraqi humor. The infidels shall suffer the wrath of Bill-alshaf Cosb-ylti!
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think this picture says more about North Korea than any article ever could. It's a Nasa compsite image of the Earth At Night. It shows man-made light levels. It beautifully visualizes a combination of population density and "development".
Wrong. As others have already mentioned, the DPRK military obviously don't have the same treatment as the rest of the nation, as most of the nation's resources go there. They would most certainly have a power grid enough for training, seeing Kim Jong Il's luxuries.
And according to Chinese news sources, the profiteer are setting up the spot for tourism. Like a real Atlantis. Visitors pay for diving to oooh and aaah at what use to be home for so many, and the ex-residents pay to see what used to be their homeland. How considerate.
It completely sickens me to see culture and environment destroyed for economic profits. Money does not grant happiness. Money grants desire for more money. As put so well in Dead Poet's Society:
We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering -- these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love -- these are what we stay alive for.
For money, which only supports living, they are destroying beauty and homeland, part of life itself.
Of course, I'm a hypocrite. If I really cared, I'd've thrown out my box and lived as a hermit to lessen the load on the environment. But we're merely human, after all.
Let's all just agree to pretend that we're not living in pixie-world or The Matrix, OK? It makes no difference, anyway, and it's a whole lot simpler. And if you want to kill your neighbour or your boss, you can't console yourself that they were just simulated anyway.
Dave's right. It's just like the argument of fate. As long as you do not know what will happen in the future, the question of whether there is fate or not is moot point. You can explain events as fate or as random events all you want, since it has already taken place.
From an existentialist (thus pessimistic) point of view, we simply exist. Attempts to explain otherwise, of how universe is controlled by a greater being, controlled by a fixed law, or in this case, simulated, is merely attempts of humans to create meaning that does not exist. We simply are, our reality simply is, no greater being, no fixed law.
I take this further and say that our reality may or may not just exist, but does not matter. Like the point of infinite Matrices, one simulated by the other, it simply does not matter where the "real reality" is. Within our concepts that are taken for granted anyway (anyone can define "define"? anyone can define "is"? Why does the reflexive law of equality have to be true?), there can many explanations of our reality. And those explanations can be true (whatever true means); but as long as this universe's workings does not change, the explanations are all valid and "true", it simply does not matter which one you believe in - our reality will keep on its ways, existing as it is.
all you have to do (ask anyone in movies) is emulate the minumum amount to look realistic on screen.
On the Summer Reading List thread, many slashdotters mentioned The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Within Ch. 6 was a description of how Prime Intellect "rewrote" the Universe, as follows:
"No, you wouldn't. Let me ask you something. If I leave here...if I go back to civilization...does this forest continue to exist?"
"I can leave it running in your absence if you want." Caroline wanted to throw up. Now even the forest wasn't real. Nothing was real. "Don't bother. Get rid of it." Instantly, it disappeared. She was standing in an antiseptically white space so pure and seamless and bright that the eye balked at reporting it to the brain. She was standing on a hard, smooth surface, but it was not visible. There were no shadows. There was no horizon; the floor and the sky looked exactly the same, and there was no transition from one to the other. She might have been standing on the inside of some enormous white ball. Prime Intellect was still there. "What is this?" she asked. "Neutral reality," Prime Intellect said. "The minimum landscape which supports human existence. Actually, not quite the minimum. I could get rid of the floor. But that would have startled you."
So basically, the visual portion of this world would just be like a raytracer running constantly. Whatever the eye can see it simulates and draws; out of the eye, nothing is (and need to be) simulated.
Slashdot Mirror
Bill Gates? What's that? Does it run Linux?
I repeat; there is no American humor on Iraqi soil. We have choked, gagged, and croaked our foes with superior Iraqi humor. The infidels shall suffer the wrath of Bill-alshaf Cosb-ylti!
It completely sickens me to see culture and environment destroyed for economic profits. Money does not grant happiness. Money grants desire for more money. As put so well in Dead Poet's Society:For money, which only supports living, they are destroying beauty and homeland, part of life itself.
Of course, I'm a hypocrite. If I really cared, I'd've thrown out my box and lived as a hermit to lessen the load on the environment. But we're merely human, after all.
From an existentialist (thus pessimistic) point of view, we simply exist. Attempts to explain otherwise, of how universe is controlled by a greater being, controlled by a fixed law, or in this case, simulated, is merely attempts of humans to create meaning that does not exist. We simply are, our reality simply is, no greater being, no fixed law.
I take this further and say that our reality may or may not just exist, but does not matter. Like the point of infinite Matrices, one simulated by the other, it simply does not matter where the "real reality" is. Within our concepts that are taken for granted anyway (anyone can define "define"? anyone can define "is"? Why does the reflexive law of equality have to be true?), there can many explanations of our reality. And those explanations can be true (whatever true means); but as long as this universe's workings does not change, the explanations are all valid and "true", it simply does not matter which one you believe in - our reality will keep on its ways, existing as it is.
On the Summer Reading List thread, many slashdotters mentioned The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Within Ch. 6 was a description of how Prime Intellect "rewrote" the Universe, as follows:
So basically, the visual portion of this world would just be like a raytracer running constantly. Whatever the eye can see it simulates and draws; out of the eye, nothing is (and need to be) simulated.
Now throw 15,000 of these guys in a boat and add some sea sickness and you've got a biohazard. Is that a weapon of mass destruction?