Some things within man grow beyond the point of maintenance, such as our minds. Certainly, there exists extensive data on the function of the mind, but not on its limitations. Some cognitive psychologists would argue that the human mind only has enough "space" to store one to two hundred years worth of memories, negating man's ability to cogitate in his immortality.
But the real issue here is one you touch upon in your expansion of the concept of growth: the necessity of death. Some might postulate that in the "primordial soup," life first found itself immortal, and stagnant. Those random mutations wherein death blossomed left more room for future generations, ultimately evolving evolution. Without death, there is no evolution. Some might argue that we as a species are beyond the need for evolution, but here the point of the cognitive psychologist comes salient once more: humanity is limited to a scant few centuries, regardless of bodily harm or the lack thereof. Thus we are under-evolved for immortality. In IT terms: our minds are not scalable enough to cope with immortality.
like, if someone just posted the source code to a p2p app, and explained how to compile it in simple terms, they aren't distributing an actual application, just text.
then banning p2p software would be like banning certain books because they're evil and destroying society! but, like, 90% of laws never actually go through.
shlain hypothesises in Alphabet Versus the Goddess a right/left brain distinction mirroring the science/religion war and ultimately defining modernism/postmodernism. the body, mind and soul, where the right brain can be defined as the soul and the left the mind (perhaps the autonomic nervous system is the body?). the soul (or right brain) is responsible for emotions and desires and drives, whereas the left brain is responsible for rational thought.
and important point was that women tend to be more right brain centric, whereas men tend to be more left brain centric (mri data and whatnot aparantly backing this up).
this harvard guy seems to be along those same lines. atleast, the brain thing.
im fairly certain that the vast majority of time where "life" existed in any form, it was learning how to reproduce itself and evolve (prolly took a while to stumble upon the whole "dying promotes change" accident). are billions of years and a little luck (in that there are so very many places life might occur, thus its more likely to occur in atleast one place than none, thus "luck" of sorts, wow that explanation of luck took too long) too far fetched?
and i disagree about the vcr, in that that argument (as well as mine, unfortunately) is biased through the eyes of a very complex biological mechanism. the materials necesary to build a vcr are rare and often not naturally occuring (plastic, diodes, sodered-on components, etc) and thus much more complex in construction than a simple mitochondrial cell.
colleges produce more patents than IBM every year.
and patents arent a bad thing.
in the hands of the ex-college kids, they are exclusive patents, to which only they have the rights (or the company they sell the patent to). IBM on the other hand tends to have those patents where its like "isn't this a neat idea? give it a shot!"
usually im more coherent, i just got off cs:s after playing fer like 6-7 hours, lol
south park taught me about tolerance of other peoples lifestyles/viewpoints/religions (the mormonism one was a big eyeopener for me), taught me responsible use of drugs and alcohol, and taught me how to use foul language in an appropriate manner.
hey, im eighteen, im becoming a third generation software engineer (my grandpa worked for the navy and such) and i was introduced to computers when i was really little. when i was eight, i put together my own and taught myself to code on it. i tellsya, i have a much deeper appreciation for literature and art than my computer-illiterate peers. hell, i love opera (been to like 20 now, lol), and so do a significant number of my computer geek buddies. the people i know who weren't exposed to computers when they were younger go to concerts instead. lol.
i think it has to do with the math. theres something fundamentally balanced that i see in a lot of art, and my exposure to computers (especially programming) gave me a fine tuned sense of that kind of balance. not to mention the exposure to the precepts of logic, something some people don't get until high school (damn the man!).
computers are a tool, not an end. i think that's key. otherwise, computers are good for kids!
oh, and disregard my sig in relation to computers, as its an allusion to lotringer/baudrillard and not explicitly refering to internet porn. lol.
but its in-depth gameplay far surpasses the level of simple fps. the level of simulation is on the scale of an entire city! it may be an fps ui, but the game itself is no shoot'em up!
as a friendless loser, i watch a lot of anime, and i must say i find studio ghibli films to be somewhat lacking. i mean, the art is okay (a lot of anime has really good art, flcl for example), but the application of the story lines is sub par.
everyone seems to like'em, but personally ive been pretty dissappointed by everything they've done.
i daresay that your analysis of the laws is quite fair and prudent, but i would expand the arguement that on a purely metaphysical level, nothing anyone has ever created or ever will create is in any way original.
if the creation is not based on a study of pre-existing art (or prior art, maybe?), then it comes from within the human mind, something well within the copywright of god (or evolution as your fancy sways).
thus the point is moot, and copywright law becomes absurd, unless someone can prove that they should have more rights than either of those creative agents.
thats what i was gonna suggest, as well as free media (movies/music) that is not copywrighted is often most easily spread via bittorrent or other p2p clients.
this is especially true for small organizations who can't afford the bandwidth/server power necessary to send their art to the masses. in cases such as this, bittorrent is an invaluable tool!
...i suggest a nifty ergenomic dvorak keyboard, you can get it on ebay fer a bit:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&cate gory=51083&item=5149151249&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
theres always alienware et al, altho im not certain you can get just a case...
i also suggest getting a wireless gyro mouse. again, i suggest ebay as a good source for one of them pretty cheap.
neat idea, but i contend that although the dissonant chords give a song charactor, the major and minor chords are the ones that sound "pretty" to any ears, not just westerners.
damn i wish i was better at citing these things, but ive not-too-recently read an article about some hippie folk singer guy moving to taiwan or some asian place (as in, a place in asia?), and finding that their traditional music easily matches up with many ideas of western music... in that, it had all the "pretty" sounds we have. this suggests, atleast to me, that music is a-cultural (is that a word?).
ive seen a couple old-school cantonese operas, and i must say they're pretty crazy sounding to my ears, but they aren't just random noise like much of the computer generated music you run across. there exists some beautiful sound in it, regardless of the significant culture barrier.
well, there we go! a realy musician! thank you for kicking my ass. seriously, i much appreciate this.
as for my point concerning this music, what are your thoughts? would you agree there lies some sense of "harmony" (a word i admit i cannot properly use) that is ignored? would you do something different in the process to create this music?
theres been a recent study at some uc college (forgot which) showing that tonal music promotes the growth of plants (atleast the species tested) and atonal music actually shows signs of inhibiting said growth.
to do a mathematical analysis of tonal and atonal music, there isn't a significant difference (atleast with good atonal music, which is hard to come by) suggesting the difference lies within our biology.
the reason this music seems so repulsive is likely the fact that the computer only studied the music.
in the middle ages, back when that root of all evil the christian church (catholic? same thing) ruled europe, certain chords were deemed "dissonant" because priests didnt like the way they sounded. i believe it all started firstly with the "devil's" chord. anywho, any competant musician can tell you that its really hard, maybe impossible, to write good music using dissonant chords.
i think it was mozart, maybe bach, who tried to write a symphony using dissonant chords. but he could not.
in much computerized music, and indeed in this music, dissonant chords find free reign, possibly due to a sense of anti-inhibition and free spirit-y-ness (okay, i made that word up, but you should understand what i mean) on the part of the programmer, or maybe just a lack of experience in creating music.
maybe this kind of thing would turn out better if the computer started from the beginning, and used the conventions, before trying to break them.
isn't that the rule about learning to code? and about learning to write?
if you think im making shit up, you can always check my facts yer selves, you lazy punks! wikipedia roxorz!
excuse me if im wrong, but when one window occludes another, is it not considered to be in front of it? and (in windows atleast) there is some place where that occlusion is refered to as the "z axis". Window utilizing guis are 3d uis. a command prompt, as it lets you see a little bit back in time, is a 2d ui.
Slashdot Mirror
But the real issue here is one you touch upon in your expansion of the concept of growth: the necessity of death. Some might postulate that in the "primordial soup," life first found itself immortal, and stagnant. Those random mutations wherein death blossomed left more room for future generations, ultimately evolving evolution. Without death, there is no evolution. Some might argue that we as a species are beyond the need for evolution, but here the point of the cognitive psychologist comes salient once more: humanity is limited to a scant few centuries, regardless of bodily harm or the lack thereof. Thus we are under-evolved for immortality. In IT terms: our minds are not scalable enough to cope with immortality.
i wouldnt buy it... id just get it off eDonkey like i do with all my books =p
then banning p2p software would be like banning certain books because they're evil and destroying society! but, like, 90% of laws never actually go through.
and important point was that women tend to be more right brain centric, whereas men tend to be more left brain centric (mri data and whatnot aparantly backing this up).
this harvard guy seems to be along those same lines. atleast, the brain thing.
get off my intarweb!
and i disagree about the vcr, in that that argument (as well as mine, unfortunately) is biased through the eyes of a very complex biological mechanism. the materials necesary to build a vcr are rare and often not naturally occuring (plastic, diodes, sodered-on components, etc) and thus much more complex in construction than a simple mitochondrial cell.
and patents arent a bad thing.
in the hands of the ex-college kids, they are exclusive patents, to which only they have the rights (or the company they sell the patent to). IBM on the other hand tends to have those patents where its like "isn't this a neat idea? give it a shot!"
usually im more coherent, i just got off cs:s after playing fer like 6-7 hours, lol
i hope it doesn't get taken away...
i think it has to do with the math. theres something fundamentally balanced that i see in a lot of art, and my exposure to computers (especially programming) gave me a fine tuned sense of that kind of balance. not to mention the exposure to the precepts of logic, something some people don't get until high school (damn the man!).
computers are a tool, not an end. i think that's key. otherwise, computers are good for kids!
oh, and disregard my sig in relation to computers, as its an allusion to lotringer/baudrillard and not explicitly refering to internet porn. lol.
ya, i agree, its pretty damn easy to take an axe from the hardware store and just start chpping up ppl.
but its in-depth gameplay far surpasses the level of simple fps. the level of simulation is on the scale of an entire city! it may be an fps ui, but the game itself is no shoot'em up!
what about stalker!?!?
i meant flcl as an example of good anime artwork
everyone seems to like'em, but personally ive been pretty dissappointed by everything they've done.
if the creation is not based on a study of pre-existing art (or prior art, maybe?), then it comes from within the human mind, something well within the copywright of god (or evolution as your fancy sways).
thus the point is moot, and copywright law becomes absurd, unless someone can prove that they should have more rights than either of those creative agents.
this is especially true for small organizations who can't afford the bandwidth/server power necessary to send their art to the masses. in cases such as this, bittorrent is an invaluable tool!
its "dvorak ready"
...i suggest a nifty ergenomic dvorak keyboard, you can get it on ebay fer a bit: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&cate gory=51083&item=5149151249&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
theres always alienware et al, altho im not certain you can get just a case...
i also suggest getting a wireless gyro mouse. again, i suggest ebay as a good source for one of them pretty cheap.
damn i wish i was better at citing these things, but ive not-too-recently read an article about some hippie folk singer guy moving to taiwan or some asian place (as in, a place in asia?), and finding that their traditional music easily matches up with many ideas of western music... in that, it had all the "pretty" sounds we have. this suggests, atleast to me, that music is a-cultural (is that a word?).
ive seen a couple old-school cantonese operas, and i must say they're pretty crazy sounding to my ears, but they aren't just random noise like much of the computer generated music you run across. there exists some beautiful sound in it, regardless of the significant culture barrier.
ive been using packetnews lately, as they have a torrent feature up now
as for my point concerning this music, what are your thoughts? would you agree there lies some sense of "harmony" (a word i admit i cannot properly use) that is ignored? would you do something different in the process to create this music?
to do a mathematical analysis of tonal and atonal music, there isn't a significant difference (atleast with good atonal music, which is hard to come by) suggesting the difference lies within our biology.
the reason this music seems so repulsive is likely the fact that the computer only studied the music.
in the middle ages, back when that root of all evil the christian church (catholic? same thing) ruled europe, certain chords were deemed "dissonant" because priests didnt like the way they sounded. i believe it all started firstly with the "devil's" chord. anywho, any competant musician can tell you that its really hard, maybe impossible, to write good music using dissonant chords.
i think it was mozart, maybe bach, who tried to write a symphony using dissonant chords. but he could not.
in much computerized music, and indeed in this music, dissonant chords find free reign, possibly due to a sense of anti-inhibition and free spirit-y-ness (okay, i made that word up, but you should understand what i mean) on the part of the programmer, or maybe just a lack of experience in creating music.
maybe this kind of thing would turn out better if the computer started from the beginning, and used the conventions, before trying to break them.
isn't that the rule about learning to code? and about learning to write?
if you think im making shit up, you can always check my facts yer selves, you lazy punks! wikipedia roxorz!
http://home.comcast.net/~jyavner/myer/
but im more than mildly appalled that they would name the file esad.
excuse me if im wrong, but when one window occludes another, is it not considered to be in front of it? and (in windows atleast) there is some place where that occlusion is refered to as the "z axis". Window utilizing guis are 3d uis. a command prompt, as it lets you see a little bit back in time, is a 2d ui.