Cloning a human from embryo would however be good criticism of the position that non-physical souls exist. Cloning is a purely physical action, and therefore could not divide/duplicate/create a soul. Nevertheless it creates a human, therefore belief in the existence of the soul is irrational.
Following Rene Descartes' definition, a soul (at least the "mind" part) is a thinking, unextended entity. Unextended means that it has no physical properties (otherwise we could detect it with our instruments), and no spatial location.
Having no physical properties unfortunately means that physical events (cloning) cannot affect the soul. The reverse problem is the "interaction enigma" criticism, which holds that mental events (such as willing to move a finger) cannot affect the physical realm. Any mechanism which did so would give the soul physical properties and thus make it physically detectable.
Therefore, non-physical souls do not exist.
Other philosophers (fans of Descartes) tried to get around the interaction enigma with "parallelism", which holds that God set things up so that mind/body events are synchronised (like clocks or swimmers) so that mental events happen in parallel with physical ones. However this contradicts our fundamental conviction that mental events (willing the finger to move) _cause_ physical ones. Other fundamental convictions include things like the belief in an external reality, and one would need a conclusive proof of parallelism (i.e. a conclusive proof of the existence of God) to warrant giving up a fundamental conviction.
I hope you can see why I can believe that non-physical souls do not exist, without resorting to faith.
The original peppered moth research was fundamentally flawed and it's one of the creation "scientists" favourite tar brushes for painting all of evolution.
It remains an example of natural selection, but not evolution.
Evolution in general requires reproduction, mutation and selection. The peppered moth story is missing the mutation element - both varieties were around before the industrial revolution.
You have no idea who I am. You have no idea how I think.
Let us maintain the status quo in that respect:)
I don't have a problem with you, rather with the way the world is - that's all. In relation to the original post, it does remain that sexual harrassment is a big discouragement for women in traditionally male-dominated areas on and off the internet, and men are responsible. It's not about PC, it's about respect.
I guess considering the response it generated, someone should mod my post flamebait in hindsight. At least people are paying attention. It is far worse to be ignored.
Not to mention offtopic. Considering the emotions surrounding this (offtopic) issue, I would encourage Slashdot to run a separate news item on it.
It's probably a good way to do it. Don't call it bribery / corruption / anything-that-might-get-you-into-court, but state the facts in such a way that the reader draws the desired conclusion for him/herself.
Certainly a far better approach than the ranting with minimal support that makes up much FUD.
Use stretching, but store after a random number of hashes spanning an order of magnitude. That way incorrect passwords will always take the longest amount of time to check.
Alert! That quantum entanglement can be used to transmit information faster than light is a common misconception.
You don't "change the spin" - the spin takes on one or another state with certain probability, and for the entangled particle on mars the opposite spin is observed. No information is transmitted in the process.
Slashdot Mirror
Cloning a human from embryo would however be good criticism of the position that non-physical souls exist. Cloning is a purely physical action, and therefore could not divide/duplicate/create a soul. Nevertheless it creates a human, therefore belief in the existence of the soul is irrational.
Following Rene Descartes' definition, a soul (at least the "mind" part) is a thinking, unextended entity. Unextended means that it has no physical properties (otherwise we could detect it with our instruments), and no spatial location.
Having no physical properties unfortunately means that physical events (cloning) cannot affect the soul. The reverse problem is the "interaction enigma" criticism, which holds that mental events (such as willing to move a finger) cannot affect the physical realm. Any mechanism which did so would give the soul physical properties and thus make it physically detectable.
Therefore, non-physical souls do not exist.
Other philosophers (fans of Descartes) tried to get around the interaction enigma with "parallelism", which holds that God set things up so that mind/body events are synchronised (like clocks or swimmers) so that mental events happen in parallel with physical ones. However this contradicts our fundamental conviction that mental events (willing the finger to move) _cause_ physical ones. Other fundamental convictions include things like the belief in an external reality, and one would need a conclusive proof of parallelism (i.e. a conclusive proof of the existence of God) to warrant giving up a fundamental conviction.
I hope you can see why I can believe that non-physical souls do not exist, without resorting to faith.
The original peppered moth research was fundamentally flawed and it's one of the creation "scientists" favourite tar brushes for painting all of evolution.
It remains an example of natural selection, but not evolution.
Evolution in general requires reproduction, mutation and selection. The peppered moth story is missing the mutation element - both varieties were around before the industrial revolution.
recent articleLet us maintain the status quo in that respect :)
I don't have a problem with you, rather with the way the world is - that's all. In relation to the original post, it does remain that sexual harrassment is a big discouragement for women in traditionally male-dominated areas on and off the internet, and men are responsible. It's not about PC, it's about respect.
I guess considering the response it generated, someone should mod my post flamebait in hindsight. At least people are paying attention. It is far worse to be ignored.
Not to mention offtopic. Considering the emotions surrounding this (offtopic) issue, I would encourage Slashdot to run a separate news item on it.
"It's not mens fault that no women get into those fields"
:P"
A search engine will tell you that sexual harrassment is a big problem for women online.
"TRUST ME. THEY'RE MORE THAN WELCOME.
I think the attitude speaks for itself.
It's probably a good way to do it. Don't call it bribery / corruption / anything-that-might-get-you-into-court, but state the facts in such a way that the reader draws the desired conclusion for him/herself.
Certainly a far better approach than the ranting with minimal support that makes up much FUD.
Idea! (may not be new)
Use stretching, but store after a random number of hashes spanning an order of magnitude. That way incorrect passwords will always take the longest amount of time to check.
Alert! That quantum entanglement can be used to transmit information faster than light is a common misconception.
You don't "change the spin" - the spin takes on one or another state with certain probability, and for the entangled particle on mars the opposite spin is observed. No information is transmitted in the process.
A layman-level explanation:
"Curious about astronomy? Ask an astronomer!"