Here's the 'two' in the one-two punch that starts with terms like 'minor attracted adult': "you just hate and fear us because we're different."
I don't see how you can undermine this kind of argument for one group and not for another. Just as you seem to have good reasons for thinking pedophilia is wrong, and having those reasons does not mean you hate and fear them because they are different, one may have legitimate reasons to oppose homosexuality as an societally endorsed identity just as well. Opposing homosexuality does not mean you hate and fear them, yet you seem to be implying this was a valid claim for homosexuals to make while it is not for pedophiles. I don't understand this.
I still think this guy has a point. Your post only makes sense if one accords with the underlying values. At its core, your post is simply
a statement of the current cultural morality.
it was about the use of language to normalize something that's widely considered to be wrong (and how we should fight that normalization)
The same language was used to normalize something that was widely considered to be wrong in the case of homosexuality. To say that this is valid in one case but not the other is merely a statement of morality.
Methinks this guy (based solely on the responses posted here, mind you) belongs in the PR department, rather than heading up a software creation department
Not only that, they are not genetically isolated. All it takes is Thomas Jefferson to screw some slaves every once in a while and we all stay part of the same species...
However, the real challenge still remains for the actors: generating a facial expression intentionally usually does not produce the same muscle contractions that spontaneous emotions do. Thats the whole difficulty with acting, you can't make your face do what you think happens when someone is angry, you have to get angry and let your face do its thing.
This was not EEG. It was ECoG - electrodes on the cortex itself. You can record spikes with this technology. It's not clear from the article how this was set up or what parameter was feeding into the control mechanism, but it certainly would have been possible for them to use spike frequency.
There have been several studies to do this with EEG (surface based electrodes). What is new here is that the electrodes are implanted into the brain, so the signal is much better (it doesnt have to diffuse through the scalp). The EEG cursor control studies Ive read did not achieve the kind of control this kid is showing even with extensive practice.
It's not one or the other. The computer surely decodes some aspect of the signal (average firing rate, or something like that) and the person would fine tune his control based on feedback.
I bet the reason they used the tounge and hand rather then left hand\right hand is because they don't have the resolution on the grid to be able to differentiate the two.
It's not clear from TFA whether information from tongue & hand were aggregated or were independent sources of control. But the reason you would use these two effectors is because there is a disproportionate amount of cortical surface devoted to the tongue and hand (because of the fine control we have over them). Left and right hand would require electrodes in both hemispheres, which I doubt they had - usually you know at least the hemisphere of origin of an epileptic seizure. Looks from the video like he has electrodes in his left hemisphere and is using his right motor cortex to control the game.
Isn't this effectively a way of measuring quantum information without destroying it? You copy the info then measure it on the copy, not the original so the original retains its state?
I do not think this law suit is a good idea, but I think your comment is a little naive. The definition of choice is really not that cut and dried. There are all sorts of influences on our behavior that we may not even be aware of. Your experiences and your culture can raise you with a value system that makes many choices so likely to be made that it is a stretch to call them choices.
You have to remember that imitation is one of the most basic forms of human learning. Newborn infants are able to imitate facial expressions moments after emerging from the womb. Our brain contains "mirror neurons" - motor neurons in our own brain that fire when we watch someone perform an action. We come to walk and talk like the people around us. Watching someone do something is very similar to doing it - this is part of why we identify we protagonists in movies and video games.
I'm all for encouraging individual responsibility, but if you think that taking the perspective of someone committing violent acts on a daily basis has no effect on a person I challenge you to explain how that is possible.
i wonder if the distance also varies with the player's cultural background. For example, I noticed traveling in India that the expected amount of personal distance was much less than in America. Haven't read the article, so maybe they talk about this.
However, there's something I don't like about the prison analogy. There's no doubt the game is habit-forming, but it is not like prison in some very important ways -- you stopped playing by choice, for example.
In fact the ways in which the WoW community is like a prison community are some of the reasons I like it. You come in contact with all kinds of people you would not have come into contact with in the outside world. It is a great equalizer - whether you are a doctor or janitor, if you are level 60 in the game you are level 60. I have formed relationships with people and then been surprised to find out they were half or double my age - there are real advantages to these relationships, you get a different perspective that you don't get from interacting with people who are just like you. And most of the time, in the real world, we tend to come in contact with people who are more or less like us. We work at places where everyone has a similar job - we have friends who are close to us in age, income, etc. Not so in WoW.
This is a time when bias is turned up so that we have fewer misses but more false alarms. This is
what tends to happen when a miss is very expensive, which it is in the case of airplane security. The price of having
fewer false alarms is greater potential for a miss. We are not as concerned with our accuracy in finding a terrorist as we are
in making sure we don't miss one.
Slashdot Mirror
I think by "expect" he means "want but don't get".
Not only that, they are not genetically isolated. All it takes is Thomas Jefferson to screw some slaves every once in a while and we all stay part of the same species...
Yeah thats a really good point, you only have to get what you want once and you can re-use it.
However, the real challenge still remains for the actors: generating a facial expression intentionally usually does not produce the same muscle contractions that spontaneous emotions do. Thats the whole difficulty with acting, you can't make your face do what you think happens when someone is angry, you have to get angry and let your face do its thing.
I am going to send the IRS 3 gold every time I sell a Flask of the Titans.
In the same way asking a community to volunteer stories of divorce will give no unbiased information as to the rate of divorce.
This is shaping up to be a great thesis...
This was not EEG. It was ECoG - electrodes on the cortex itself. You can record spikes with this technology. It's not clear from the article how this was set up or what parameter was feeding into the control mechanism, but it certainly would have been possible for them to use spike frequency.
There have been several studies to do this with EEG (surface based electrodes). What is new here is that the electrodes are implanted into the brain, so the signal is much better (it doesnt have to diffuse through the scalp). The EEG cursor control studies Ive read did not achieve the kind of control this kid is showing even with extensive practice.
It's not one or the other. The computer surely decodes some aspect of the signal (average firing rate, or something like that) and the person would fine tune his control based on feedback.
Do people get to keep the light they pay for then?
Isn't this effectively a way of measuring quantum information without destroying it? You copy the info then measure it on the copy, not the original so the original retains its state?
Who is this Al fellow and why is slashdot following his career moves?
I do not think this law suit is a good idea, but I think your comment is a little naive. The definition of choice is really not that cut and dried. There are all sorts of influences on our behavior that we may not even be aware of. Your experiences and your culture can raise you with a value system that makes many choices so likely to be made that it is a stretch to call them choices.
You have to remember that imitation is one of the most basic forms of human learning. Newborn infants are able to imitate facial expressions moments after emerging from the womb. Our brain contains "mirror neurons" - motor neurons in our own brain that fire when we watch someone perform an action. We come to walk and talk like the people around us. Watching someone do something is very similar to doing it - this is part of why we identify we protagonists in movies and video games.
I'm all for encouraging individual responsibility, but if you think that taking the perspective of someone committing violent acts on a daily basis has no effect on a person I challenge you to explain how that is possible.
Yeah, who would do such a reckless thing? It's like bungee jumping for christ's sake!
i wonder if the distance also varies with the player's cultural background. For example, I noticed traveling in India that the expected amount of personal distance was much less than in America. Haven't read the article, so maybe they talk about this.
Very interesting post.
However, there's something I don't like about the prison analogy. There's no doubt the game is habit-forming, but it is not like prison in some very important ways -- you stopped playing by choice, for example.
In fact the ways in which the WoW community is like a prison community are some of the reasons I like it. You come in contact with all kinds of people you would not have come into contact with in the outside world. It is a great equalizer - whether you are a doctor or janitor, if you are level 60 in the game you are level 60. I have formed relationships with people and then been surprised to find out they were half or double my age - there are real advantages to these relationships, you get a different perspective that you don't get from interacting with people who are just like you. And most of the time, in the real world, we tend to come in contact with people who are more or less like us. We work at places where everyone has a similar job - we have friends who are close to us in age, income, etc. Not so in WoW.
A truly silent home theatre system? Hope it comes with closed captioning...
I think of it in signal detection theory terms.
This is a time when bias is turned up so that we have fewer misses but more false alarms. This is what tends to happen when a miss is very expensive, which it is in the case of airplane security. The price of having fewer false alarms is greater potential for a miss. We are not as concerned with our accuracy in finding a terrorist as we are in making sure we don't miss one.
"They claim proof that it's real, but they have no mention of proof of what it actually is."
What kind of an answer would be satisfying there? It seems to me that we don't know what regular matter actually is.