Part of the difficulty developing a system like this is lack of real data. I mean, they've built more of an actor detector than a terrorist detector. Unless you have the biometric responses of terrorists who were actually trying to board a plane you're always going to have high false-positive rates just to be on the safe side.
Rice does some pretty amazing stuff with nanotech-- I got a tour a few months ago of one of their interdisciplinary labs where electrical engineers are working alongside chemists who are collaborating with bioengineers. Really amazing stuff that's way beyond my scope (at least as a sophomore computer engineering major).
Students at Rice are constantly drilled with the buzzword, though, and are probably more tired of hearing it than the rest of the technology world. It's hard to pick up a copy of the school newspaper without finding "NANOTECH" in big, bold letters somewhere on the first three pages.
Now if only we could get our football team on par with the rest of the collegiate world...
This doesn't worry me much... yet. I mean, transgressional fiction was bound to come true at some point. People tend to break out of the cube.
What worries me is that this might be a trend in fiction influencing reality. If Patrick Batemans start cropping up all over the place then we have a problem.
"...But we already know what you are going to do, don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction: the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you to the simple and obvious truth: she is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it."
It's too bad that Richard Smalley, co-discoverer of the buckmeisterfullerene, died a few weeks ago. I'm sure he would have loved to finally see some of his research hitting practical consumer markets.
Rice University hasn't been the same without him. He was sort of a big deal around here.
Isn't fear tied into the limits we put on greed, from material goods to our own sexual desires? If we assume that basic instinct is tied to consume and copulate, what keeps you from consuming as much as you want and copulating with whoever you want?
Fear. Fear is tied into the same logical thought process that governs nearly every decision you make. Fear of death, fear of pain, and fear of getting kicked in the jimmies. Maybe your sarcasm is founded, but you just might be on a rape-and-pillage spree right now if it wasn't for fear of incarceration and repercussions.
What is the difference between "Rage" and "No Fear"? If you don't fear punishment or even death, what's to stop you from becoming a megalomaniacal criminal ready to kill and steal?
I can't wait until the entire British Isle is teeming with people infected with "Fearless." And to think it's all going to start with the wrong group of animal rights activists letting these supermice out.
I was interviewed a few days ago for my local paper with the hypothetical "what if YOUR school instituted RFID tags?" thrown at me. My reply was that in an age where reliance on technology is reaching a dangerous threshold, it'd be wiser to spend the money and resources on a new administrator or teacher instead of tagging students.
I know, at least at my school, we could stand to drop a few laptop computers in order to hire another body to patrol the halls. Sure, cameras and tags might catch everything but how practical is it when one man is responsible for catching every rule breaker?
O' course, the same article stated that my local school board wouldn't mind implementing the system for "safety and attendance." Where's the ACLU when you need them?
Does anyone have a clue as to how hot a room would get operating eight or, sheeze, sixteen theoretical XBoxes?
I would imagine that equatable desktop PCs in a cluster probably have the XBox cluster beat in terms of CPU power delivered per degree, though I could be very wrong. Anyone got any idea?
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Part of the difficulty developing a system like this is lack of real data. I mean, they've built more of an actor detector than a terrorist detector. Unless you have the biometric responses of terrorists who were actually trying to board a plane you're always going to have high false-positive rates just to be on the safe side.
I was going to mark the parent as being "possibly inaccurate," but then I realized I was on the wrong site.
Rice does some pretty amazing stuff with nanotech-- I got a tour a few months ago of one of their interdisciplinary labs where electrical engineers are working alongside chemists who are collaborating with bioengineers. Really amazing stuff that's way beyond my scope (at least as a sophomore computer engineering major).
Students at Rice are constantly drilled with the buzzword, though, and are probably more tired of hearing it than the rest of the technology world. It's hard to pick up a copy of the school newspaper without finding "NANOTECH" in big, bold letters somewhere on the first three pages.
Now if only we could get our football team on par with the rest of the collegiate world...
This doesn't worry me much... yet. I mean, transgressional fiction was bound to come true at some point. People tend to break out of the cube. What worries me is that this might be a trend in fiction influencing reality. If Patrick Batemans start cropping up all over the place then we have a problem.
"...But we already know what you are going to do, don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction: the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you to the simple and obvious truth: she is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it."
It's too bad that Richard Smalley, co-discoverer of the buckmeisterfullerene, died a few weeks ago. I'm sure he would have loved to finally see some of his research hitting practical consumer markets.
Rice University hasn't been the same without him. He was sort of a big deal around here.
Isn't fear tied into the limits we put on greed, from material goods to our own sexual desires? If we assume that basic instinct is tied to consume and copulate, what keeps you from consuming as much as you want and copulating with whoever you want?
Fear. Fear is tied into the same logical thought process that governs nearly every decision you make. Fear of death, fear of pain, and fear of getting kicked in the jimmies. Maybe your sarcasm is founded, but you just might be on a rape-and-pillage spree right now if it wasn't for fear of incarceration and repercussions.
What is the difference between "Rage" and "No Fear"? If you don't fear punishment or even death, what's to stop you from becoming a megalomaniacal criminal ready to kill and steal?
I can't wait until the entire British Isle is teeming with people infected with "Fearless." And to think it's all going to start with the wrong group of animal rights activists letting these supermice out.
Dr. Hoenikker unavailable for comment.
I was interviewed a few days ago for my local paper with the hypothetical "what if YOUR school instituted RFID tags?" thrown at me. My reply was that in an age where reliance on technology is reaching a dangerous threshold, it'd be wiser to spend the money and resources on a new administrator or teacher instead of tagging students.
I know, at least at my school, we could stand to drop a few laptop computers in order to hire another body to patrol the halls. Sure, cameras and tags might catch everything but how practical is it when one man is responsible for catching every rule breaker?
O' course, the same article stated that my local school board wouldn't mind implementing the system for "safety and attendance." Where's the ACLU when you need them?
After looking at that, someone should re-mod all of the references to the Terminator films from Funny to Insightful.
Does anyone have a clue as to how hot a room would get operating eight or, sheeze, sixteen theoretical XBoxes?
I would imagine that equatable desktop PCs in a cluster probably have the XBox cluster beat in terms of CPU power delivered per degree, though I could be very wrong. Anyone got any idea?
"Judge, we have never actually been able to stream ANYTHING to our clients. Just ask our customers!"