I think you'll find I didn't miss the point, it just wasn't a very good one. If I had the money, I'd rather have a flash Mercedes or Jag than a 'entry level' car. I wouldn't care if the effect would quickly wear off, I would've still got pleasure out of it.
Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
Yeats's wish, expressed in his poem "Sailing to Byzantium," was a governing principle for those attending the World Transhumanist Association conference at Yale University in late June. International academics and activists, they met to lay the groundwork for a society that would admit as citizens and companions intelligent robots, cyborgs made from a free mixing of human and machine parts, and fully organic, genetically engineered people who aren't necessarily human at all. A good many of these 160 thinkers aspire to immortality and omniscience through uploading human consciousness into ever evolving machines.
The three-day gathering was hosted by an entity no less reputable than the Yale Interdisciplinary Bioethics Project's Working Research Group on Technology and Ethics; the World Transhumanist Association chairman and co-founder is Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom. Dismiss it as a Star Trek convention by another name, and you could miss out on the culmination of the Western experiment in rights and reason.
The opening debate, "Should Humans Welcome or Resist Becoming Posthuman?," raised a question that seems impossibly far over the horizon in an era when the idea of reproductive cloning remains controversial. Yet the back-and-forth felt oddly perfunctory. Boston University bioethicist George Annas denounced the urge to alter the species, but the response from the audience revealed a community of people who feel the inevitability of revolution in their bones.
"It's like arguing in favor of the plough. You know some people are going to argue against it, but you also know it's going to exist," says James Hughes, secretary of the Transhumanist Association and a sociologist teaching at Trinity College in Connecticut. "We used to be a subculture and now we're becoming a movement."
A movement taken seriously enough that it's already under attack. Hughes cites the anti-technologist Unabomber as a member of the "bio-Luddite" camp, though an extremist one. "I think that if, in the future, the technology of human enhancement is forbidden by bio-Luddites through government legislation, or if they terrorize people into having no access to those technologies, that becomes a fundamental civil rights struggle. Then there might come a time for the legitimate use of violence in self-defense," he says. "But long before that there will be a black market and underground network in place."
Should a fully realized form of artificial intelligence become in some manner enslaved, Hughes adds, "that would call for liberation acts--not breaking into labs, but whatever we can do."
But beyond the violent zealots, who are these supposed bio-Luddites? From the right, Leon Kass, chair of the President's Council on Bioethics, rails against transhumanism in his book Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity, and Francis Fukuyama weighs in with his fearful exploration, Our Posthuman Future. From the left, environmentalist Bill McKibben fires Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, a book that reads like a 227-page-long helpless screech of brakes on a train steaming ahead at full power.
They have a case for being somewhat apocalyptic about the convergence of genetics, computer science, nanotechnology, and bioengineering. The outcome is almost guaranteed to strain our ancient sensibilities and definitions of personhood.
For now, though, the dialogue sounds like a space-age parlor game. Why should the noodlings of a relative handful of futurists matter? The easy answer, and that's not to say it isn't a true one: As with science fiction, the scenarios we imagine reflect and reveal who we are as a society today. For example, how can we continue to exploit animals when we fear the same treatment from some imagined superior race in the future?
But the purpose of the Yale conference was direct, with no f
Polticians even believe the voting system is totally secure, and even if it wasn't, it's not up to them to sort it out, it's up to those 'computer people'.
If I got a palm, I'd get one because of its size, if I wanted something more powerful, I'd get a laptop
Please note I was only giving my opinion, I'm sure everyone else has opinions over their own:)
do palms become laptops? If I got a palm, I'd get one because of its size, if I wanted something more powerful, I'd get a laptop. This just seems to me a cross between a palm and a laptop that has none of the benefits of either.
If you dislike the posts he makes, it might be a good idea to set him as a Foe, and browse at Foe -5. That way you will never have to look at his huge limp phallus again!
Ask any Python aficionado and you'll hear that Python programmers have it all: an elegant language that offers object-oriented programming support, a readable, maintainable syntax, integration with C components, and an enormous collection of precoded standard library and extension modules. Moreover, Python is easy to learn but powerful enough to take on the most ambitious programming challenges. But what Python programmers have lacked is one concise and clear reference resource, with the appropriate measure of guidance in how best to use Python's great power. Now Python in a Nutshell fills this need.
In the tradition of O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series, this book offers Python programmers one place to look when they need help remembering or deciphering the syntax of this open source language and its many modules. This comprehensive reference guide makes it easy to look up all the most frequently needed information--not just about the Python language itself, but also the most frequently used parts of the standard library and the most important third-party extensions.
Python in a Nutshell focuses on Python 2.2 (and all its point releases), currently the most stable and widespread Python release. This book includes:
A fast-paced tutorial on the syntax of the Python language itself
An explanation of object-oriented programming in Python, covering both the classic and new-style object models
Coverage of other core topics, including exceptions, modules, strings, and regular expressions
A quick reference for Python's built-in types and functions, as well as the key modules in the Python standard library, including sys, os, time, thread, math, and socket, among many others
Reference material on important third-party extensions, such as Numeric and Tkinter
Information about extending Python and embedding it into other applications
Python in a Nutshell provides a solid, no-nonsense quick reference to information that programmers rely on the most. This latest addition to the best-selling "In a Nutshell" series will immediately earn its place in any Python programmer's library.
Synopsis In the tradition of O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series, this book offers Python programmers help remembering or deciphering the syntax of this open source language and its many modules. This comprehensive reference guide should make it easy to look up all the most frequently needed information - not just about the Python language itself, but also the most frequently used parts of the standard library and the most important third-party extensions. The book includes: a fast-paced tutorial on the syntax of the Python language itself; an explanation of object-oriented programming in Python, covering both the classic and new-style object models; coverage of other core topics, including exceptions, modules, strings, and regular expressions; a quick reference for Python's built-in types and functions, as well as the key modules in the Python standard library, including sys, os, time, thread, math, and socket, among many others; reference material on important third-party extensions, such as Numeric and Tkinter; and information about extending Python and embedding it into other applications.
Heh... another useful book just sprang to mind, try Learning Python. There isn't really much between the two books... although a see Amazon offer a discount, wheras with the other one you don't get a discount... anyways your choice:)
I've had numerous recharger packs and they've all had the same recharge times (give or take a few minutes), but for rechargable batteries I'd go with Duracell, as they're more reliable. Hope this helps:)
This idea of sharing power throughout countries has already somewhat taken off, for example if England has any excess power, France uses England's power, and visa versa.
And of course it would be lovely for more renewable energy sources to be used!
Most interesting is that this device promises Playstation 2 level graphics
Don't they relise that if they do this sales in Playstation 2s will drop to near zero?
Slashdot Mirror
I think you'll find I didn't miss the point, it just wasn't a very good one. If I had the money, I'd rather have a flash Mercedes or Jag than a 'entry level' car. I wouldn't care if the effect would quickly wear off, I would've still got pleasure out of it.
No, otherwise the story would have been released 3 weeks ago, and would have been poorly-written, but full of action.
And have a suprise ending?
Well... I might be missing the point, but I'd rather be stuck in traffic in a Mercedes than a Mini :)
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
Yeats's wish, expressed in his poem "Sailing to Byzantium," was a governing principle for those attending the World Transhumanist Association conference at Yale University in late June. International academics and activists, they met to lay the groundwork for a society that would admit as citizens and companions intelligent robots, cyborgs made from a free mixing of human and machine parts, and fully organic, genetically engineered people who aren't necessarily human at all. A good many of these 160 thinkers aspire to immortality and omniscience through uploading human consciousness into ever evolving machines.
The three-day gathering was hosted by an entity no less reputable than the Yale Interdisciplinary Bioethics Project's Working Research Group on Technology and Ethics; the World Transhumanist Association chairman and co-founder is Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom. Dismiss it as a Star Trek convention by another name, and you could miss out on the culmination of the Western experiment in rights and reason.
The opening debate, "Should Humans Welcome or Resist Becoming Posthuman?," raised a question that seems impossibly far over the horizon in an era when the idea of reproductive cloning remains controversial. Yet the back-and-forth felt oddly perfunctory. Boston University bioethicist George Annas denounced the urge to alter the species, but the response from the audience revealed a community of people who feel the inevitability of revolution in their bones.
"It's like arguing in favor of the plough. You know some people are going to argue against it, but you also know it's going to exist," says James Hughes, secretary of the Transhumanist Association and a sociologist teaching at Trinity College in Connecticut. "We used to be a subculture and now we're becoming a movement."
A movement taken seriously enough that it's already under attack. Hughes cites the anti-technologist Unabomber as a member of the "bio-Luddite" camp, though an extremist one. "I think that if, in the future, the technology of human enhancement is forbidden by bio-Luddites through government legislation, or if they terrorize people into having no access to those technologies, that becomes a fundamental civil rights struggle. Then there might come a time for the legitimate use of violence in self-defense," he says. "But long before that there will be a black market and underground network in place."
Should a fully realized form of artificial intelligence become in some manner enslaved, Hughes adds, "that would call for liberation acts--not breaking into labs, but whatever we can do."
But beyond the violent zealots, who are these supposed bio-Luddites? From the right, Leon Kass, chair of the President's Council on Bioethics, rails against transhumanism in his book Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity, and Francis Fukuyama weighs in with his fearful exploration, Our Posthuman Future. From the left, environmentalist Bill McKibben fires Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, a book that reads like a 227-page-long helpless screech of brakes on a train steaming ahead at full power.
They have a case for being somewhat apocalyptic about the convergence of genetics, computer science, nanotechnology, and bioengineering. The outcome is almost guaranteed to strain our ancient sensibilities and definitions of personhood.
For now, though, the dialogue sounds like a space-age parlor game. Why should the noodlings of a relative handful of futurists matter? The easy answer, and that's not to say it isn't a true one: As with science fiction, the scenarios we imagine reflect and reveal who we are as a society today. For example, how can we continue to exploit animals when we fear the same treatment from some imagined superior race in the future?
But the purpose of the Yale conference was direct, with no f
done purposely now to tie in with Terminator 3? :)
both!
Dude, he's Superman, people from Krypton live till they're like 200 or something.
Erin Gray's hot spandex pantsuits from the show?
I'd pay $40000 for CowboyNeal's hoy spandex pantsuits!
$40000, why would anyone spend that much money on something like that? You'd have to have something wrong with you to spend that amount of money...
You should download all your music with Bittorrent :)
NOTE TO RIAA: Only uncopyrighted material of course!
Polticians even believe the voting system is totally secure, and even if it wasn't, it's not up to them to sort it out, it's up to those 'computer people'.
If I got a palm, I'd get one because of its size, if I wanted something more powerful, I'd get a laptop :)
Please note I was only giving my opinion, I'm sure everyone else has opinions over their own
here :)
As I noticed slashdot has taken it's toll on the server
do palms become laptops? If I got a palm, I'd get one because of its size, if I wanted something more powerful, I'd get a laptop. This just seems to me a cross between a palm and a laptop that has none of the benefits of either.
If you dislike the posts he makes, it might be a good idea to set him as a Foe, and browse at Foe -5. That way you will never have to look at his huge limp phallus again!
Ask any Python aficionado and you'll hear that Python programmers have it all: an elegant language that offers object-oriented programming support, a readable, maintainable syntax, integration with C components, and an enormous collection of precoded standard library and extension modules. Moreover, Python is easy to learn but powerful enough to take on the most ambitious programming challenges. But what Python programmers have lacked is one concise and clear reference resource, with the appropriate measure of guidance in how best to use Python's great power. Now Python in a Nutshell fills this need.
:)
In the tradition of O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series, this book offers Python programmers one place to look when they need help remembering or deciphering the syntax of this open source language and its many modules. This comprehensive reference guide makes it easy to look up all the most frequently needed information--not just about the Python language itself, but also the most frequently used parts of the standard library and the most important third-party extensions.
Python in a Nutshell focuses on Python 2.2 (and all its point releases), currently the most stable and widespread Python release. This book includes:
A fast-paced tutorial on the syntax of the Python language itself
An explanation of object-oriented programming in Python, covering both the classic and new-style object models
Coverage of other core topics, including exceptions, modules, strings, and regular expressions
A quick reference for Python's built-in types and functions, as well as the key modules in the Python standard library, including sys, os, time, thread, math, and socket, among many others
Reference material on important third-party extensions, such as Numeric and Tkinter
Information about extending Python and embedding it into other applications
Python in a Nutshell provides a solid, no-nonsense quick reference to information that programmers rely on the most. This latest addition to the best-selling "In a Nutshell" series will immediately earn its place in any Python programmer's library.
Synopsis
In the tradition of O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series, this book offers Python programmers help remembering or deciphering the syntax of this open source language and its many modules. This comprehensive reference guide should make it easy to look up all the most frequently needed information - not just about the Python language itself, but also the most frequently used parts of the standard library and the most important third-party extensions. The book includes: a fast-paced tutorial on the syntax of the Python language itself; an explanation of object-oriented programming in Python, covering both the classic and new-style object models; coverage of other core topics, including exceptions, modules, strings, and regular expressions; a quick reference for Python's built-in types and functions, as well as the key modules in the Python standard library, including sys, os, time, thread, math, and socket, among many others; reference material on important third-party extensions, such as Numeric and Tkinter; and information about extending Python and embedding it into other applications.
Happy?
Heh... another useful book just sprang to mind, try Learning Python. There isn't really much between the two books... although a see Amazon offer a discount, wheras with the other one you don't get a discount... anyways your choice :)
Python in a Nutshell is a great Python book, it really helped me at least!
Well... I can see it's uses for shortening messeges *sort of*, but what else? It's not any use as encryption obviously, I guess just nostalgia?
Is Midori Linux available in English?
I've had numerous recharger packs and they've all had the same recharge times (give or take a few minutes), but for rechargable batteries I'd go with Duracell, as they're more reliable. Hope this helps :)
Do the RIAA really think they can do anything to these networks? Or are they just trying to 'act tough'?
This idea of sharing power throughout countries has already somewhat taken off, for example if England has any excess power, France uses England's power, and visa versa.
And of course it would be lovely for more renewable energy sources to be used!
I wonder if they will connect to Playstation 3s like Neo Geos connected to the Gamecube...
Most interesting is that this device promises Playstation 2 level graphics
Don't they relise that if they do this sales in Playstation 2s will drop to near zero?