Actually the issue is that they want to charge people for creating treatments from knowledge of genes that they "discovered" (sequenced before anybody else).
The idea itself is ludicrous, as they have simply analysed a pattern existing in nature. I might as well copyright pictures of birds and charge anybody who wanted to put birds in a work of art.
Even if they had a legitimate claim (which they do not) this is data that NEEDS to be public regardless of who discovered what. The information contained in the human genome is a wealth of data about how we work. The implications for medical treatments are priceless and the potential for cures is endless.
No one party should have exclusive rights to this data, it belongs to all of us.
I liked diablo for what it was, a fairly mindless diversion vaguely related to the dungeon crawls I played in my youth. I was not attempting in any way, shape, or form to compare it to a roguelike. Some of the roguelikes are so remarkably evolved that they boggle the imagination (ADOM comes to mind). Diablo is superficial and really doesn't have a lot of depth, but it's sorta fun all the same (just like Q3 is fun although it's mostly just about blowing people up).
Still, they used to have to kick me out of the computer lab at 3 am because of my Moria habit. Diablo never kept me up that late.
Back in my day we didn't have fancy schmancy graphics! We had to use amber text! Sometimes we didn't even have text and to guess what the screen should have been displaying.
We had Moria and we LIKED IT! These youngins think a little demon is tough, BAH! I used to eat ancient multi-hued dragons for breadfast and they coulda kicked that pansy Diablo's ass. You ain't seen nothing until you've had Evil Iggy spit in your eye!
Agreed, however the whistle blower is not always the accusor of a legal case. Unless the person is required as a witness, then they don't need to be involved with legal proceedings at all once they have dug up the skeletons for everybody to see.
Re:What about genetic engenering?
on
Genome
·
· Score: 1
At least a year ago, somebody reported a method for predetermining child sex by sorting the sperm into X and Y groups. If you want a girl you use the X batch, if you want a boy you use the Y batch.
I believe they claimed 98% success (although of course, 50% success is the baseline). So the ability to choose sex is here.
I'm not an expert on the new tech, but I'm imagining the electron gun they're using is probably prohibitively expensive for use with a TV. I'd be surprised if the etching gun sold for less than $50 grand.
Something with that amount of control isn't going to sell cheap.
Synapses, the connections between neurons, are at least partially related to your conciousness if not the entire basis for it. While there is evidence that some of the synaptic connections occur based on genetics alone, a vast quantity can only be formed by experience.
So in order to store your "self" you'd need not only your DNA matrix, but also a complete map of your brain's neurons and synaptic connections.
Also, due to the somewhat random formation of organs, any irregularities (one limb longer than the other, different vision in one eye etc) would not be copied by either method and would necessitate a complete map of every cell in your body. While this may not be directly associated with consciousness, if you have any abnormalities of any glands that produce behavior altering proteins then that would not necessarily be carried over.
The idea that genetics could incorporate the entire contents of our consciousness is implausible for a number of reasons: 1) Our genetic makeup does not change (for the most part) over time. There are isolated circumstance of change to DNA, but not through all cells and not following a pattern (ie. mutation due to radiation). Corrolarry to this is the fact that it would be assumed that additional experience would necessitate additional DNA. No DNA is "gained" through experience, thus this would imply that there is no DNA record of consciousness.
2) Genetic code is too small. The amount of information stored in the average adult brain is vast. The amount of information in our DNA (even if you include mitochondrial DNA) is not nearly enough to account for this information.
Past performance is of no relevance to the current situation. RIGHT NOW the chip company that has their ducks in a row is AMD. Intel, conversely, does not.
I agree that arguments based on "Intel sucks and AMD is the best" are probably misguided if based on some arcane favoritism. It does not invalidate justified criticism however. So the fact that many people are saying "Intel sucks" is justified because at this point in time, Intel does suck. And people following AMD at the moment are also justified, because at the moment AMD is doing good things.
If you're at the horse races, do you put the money on the horse whose name you like or the one you think will win?
I don't know about you, but I'm anti-stupidity. Intel has recently been stupid and deserving of my derision. If somehow they turn around and manage to salvage a seemingly unsalvagable situation then they will deserve my respect.
I'm a geek, I don't give a damn who makes the friggin chip, so long as it's fast, cheap, and I can get my hands on one.
Stupidity deserves derision. I would be just as quick to flame AMD if they were suffering from cranial-rectal inversion as well. And yes, RIGHT NOW AMD is better. That will inevitably change at some point in the future, whether it be due to Intel or some lesser known company.
It's funny, but this is exactly the sort of thing predicted in Van Smith's article article about how Intel is losing their grasp on the market.
I've always been one to buy Intel, but I'm thinking my next box will probably have an AMD chip. I expect AMD will have matching or faster chips within a month or two.
>Maybe one of the anti-censorship groups would be willing to >lock up the patents on censorship technologies.. and only >allow their use when they reduced censorship.
AT LAST! A good use for software patents:)
Oh, that would be a sweet deal if somebody did that, but I expect the relevant patents are taken and if not, there is obviously prior art.
We take guns away from felons because a gun is an instrument used to kill people. Many people are leary enough about letting good citizens carry guns (I won't get into the morality of that), so it's felt that trusting somebody who has known tendencies towards criminal activity with a tool that is primarily a means of killing is not a good idea. Personally, I have no trouble with felons packing guns so long as their crime was not a violent one.
Taking the cars away from drunk drivers is done because drunk drivers have statistically been shown to not learn from their mistakes. It also gives them a chance to finish their counseling/treatment plans before getting back on the road.
The difference between that and a computer criminal is that a computer is not JUST a tool for committing crimes. It is also a means of communication and access and a valid career path that does not require a life of crime.
Incidentally, a thief's "occupation" is theft. A computer hacker can hack legally, a thief cannot steal legally.
I'm not arguing that with you, merely discussing how the law currently works. There are some aspects of our judicial system that I like and some I do not. This would be filed under the latter category.
Well, the only problem that I see with your system (which sounds decent enough) is that I can't see it ever being used.
Given that a library would pretty much have to dedicate a terminal to it, and then you'd have to have people looking at it... I just don't see librarians using it. Given how the AFA feels about librarians (heaven forbid, they give people any information they ask for), it probably wouldn't mean much to their campaigning to have librarians oversee the process. The real problem here is the pro-censorship groups, not the porn.
Solutions provided have to be geared in such a way that they either expose the lies of organizations like the AFA or they provide a way to cut their arguments to ribbons.
This has been mentioned a few times, but the "buglary tools" is only applicable in cases where the tools are used in a buglary. As somebody mentioned, it's just "overcharging" to have cruft to cut away when it comes to plea bargain time.
In many ways this is sort of like piling "tresspassing" on "breaking and entering". If you break and enter, no duh that you're trespassing.
Cracking tools are only illegal when used for illegal purposes.
A simpler approach is to make sure all terminal screens are in high traffic, highly visible areas. If you want privacy you can do it from home. The only tech problem posed by this problem is relocating the terminals and any associated connections.
I believe they did, but it wouldn't matter so many years after the fact. SJG wasn't rolling in the cash, having the equipment and games go missing for any amount of time, let alone the time it was missing, was enough to almost bankrupt them.
Current laws on computer equipment seizure are the same. They can take your computer for "examination" and give it back to you at some indefinite time in the future. They have no limitations on the amount of time they can hold your equipment. Given that most equipment is near useless 2-3 years after initial purchase it's the same as stealing.
Let's not forget that Kevin is forbidden to touch a computer anytime soon. Yet if you kill somebody with a hammer you can still work construction after your 5 years in jail on a plea bargain.
We all know that if he was able to "hack" into the "net" again, he could accidentally trigger massive acts of "cyberterrorism".
Joe Haldeman's "Forever Peace" deals with the issue in a slightly more realistic way. In his novel, people jack in in groups to control a bunch of "soldierboy" robots. When the robots are hurt or killed it doesn't necessarily kill them, but it is very stressful and can cause pain similar to phantom limb syndrome. They lose people to cardiac arrest or stroke occasionally too, due to the very high stress.
The technological premise is somewhat interesting, as it's sort of a cross between machine assisted telepathy (with the others in the platoon) and classic "jacking in". All in all it's probably a better treatment of the subject than the recent X-Files or the entertaining but all too predictable Matrix.
I had the good fortune to go to a high school who's library had a very large percentage of John Wyndham's works. Chrysalids was probably my favorite of his books but worth noting are some other very good titles:
The Midwich Cuckoos - An interesting type of alien invasion
Day of the Triffids - A different sort of apocalypse novel that's a cross between "night of the comet", "Earth Abides", and a "night of the living dead" with plants instead of zombies.
Out of the Deeps - (if memory serves) an alien invasion that also ventures into what might happen to society if the ice caps were to be melted. Unfortunately my library's copy was missing about 60 pages from the middle of the book, so I've never gotten around to reading the entire story.
Re:There is such a thing as too pessimistic
on
Victory in Holland
·
· Score: 1
Don't forget to advocate low cost solutions. Putting web terminals in high traffic areas is a far more effective way of making sure community standards are enforced and doesn't require any technology at all.
A number of other people have posted very lucid arguments as to why you are wrong. To that I would add that in order to enforce community standards it is far simpler to simply ensure that all terminals are in high traffic areas where whatever content is displayed is visible to anybody who happens to wander by. Not only is it more technologically simple (you know how to move funiture right), but it ensures that only the standards of that community are enforced.
Slashdot Mirror
The definition of TOP 50 is actually meaning the FIRST 50. To quote Bennett in an email he sent to several folks this morning:
"Again, we looked at the first 50 sites extracted from the file in order, to avoid
people accusing us of "stacking the deck"."
If they just picked the worst offenders they'd have 100% wrong blocks with a sample of 50 (and probably with a sample of 10000).
It passed in Virginia but has not yet been signed into law by the Governor (late this fall I believe).
Actually the issue is that they want to charge people for creating treatments from knowledge of genes that they "discovered" (sequenced before anybody else).
The idea itself is ludicrous, as they have simply analysed a pattern existing in nature. I might as well copyright pictures of birds and charge anybody who wanted to put birds in a work of art.
Even if they had a legitimate claim (which they do not) this is data that NEEDS to be public regardless of who discovered what. The information contained in the human genome is a wealth of data about how we work. The implications for medical treatments are priceless and the potential for cures is endless.
No one party should have exclusive rights to this data, it belongs to all of us.
Actually, I was just being grumpy.
I liked diablo for what it was, a fairly mindless diversion vaguely related to the dungeon crawls I played in my youth. I was not attempting in any way, shape, or form to compare it to a roguelike. Some of the roguelikes are so remarkably evolved that they boggle the imagination (ADOM comes to mind). Diablo is superficial and really doesn't have a lot of depth, but it's sorta fun all the same (just like Q3 is fun although it's mostly just about blowing people up).
Still, they used to have to kick me out of the computer lab at 3 am because of my Moria habit. Diablo never kept me up that late.
Back in my day we didn't have fancy schmancy graphics! We had to use amber text! Sometimes we didn't even have text and to guess what the screen should have been displaying.
We had Moria and we LIKED IT! These youngins think a little demon is tough, BAH! I used to eat ancient multi-hued dragons for breadfast and they coulda kicked that pansy Diablo's ass. You ain't seen nothing until you've had Evil Iggy spit in your eye!
Agreed, however the whistle blower is not always the accusor of a legal case. Unless the person is required as a witness, then they don't need to be involved with legal proceedings at all once they have dug up the skeletons for everybody to see.
At least a year ago, somebody reported a method for predetermining child sex by sorting the sperm into X and Y groups. If you want a girl you use the X batch, if you want a boy you use the Y batch.
I believe they claimed 98% success (although of course, 50% success is the baseline). So the ability to choose sex is here.
I was lowballing it :)
The idea being that even the most jaded (and rich) of TV viewers probably wouldn't spend more than $50 grand on a TV.
I too think we're probably talking millions, not thousands. It'd be sorta like using an aircraft carrier to do water skiing too (way overkill).
I'm not an expert on the new tech, but I'm imagining the electron gun they're using is probably prohibitively expensive for use with a TV. I'd be surprised if the etching gun sold for less than $50 grand.
Something with that amount of control isn't going to sell cheap.
Synapses, the connections between neurons, are at least partially related to your conciousness if not the entire basis for it. While there is evidence that some of the synaptic connections occur based on genetics alone, a vast quantity can only be formed by experience.
So in order to store your "self" you'd need not only your DNA matrix, but also a complete map of your brain's neurons and synaptic connections.
Also, due to the somewhat random formation of organs, any irregularities (one limb longer than the other, different vision in one eye etc) would not be copied by either method and would necessitate a complete map of every cell in your body. While this may not be directly associated with consciousness, if you have any abnormalities of any glands that produce behavior altering proteins then that would not necessarily be carried over.
The idea that genetics could incorporate the entire contents of our consciousness is implausible for a number of reasons:
1) Our genetic makeup does not change (for the most part) over time. There are isolated circumstance of change to DNA, but not through all cells and not following a pattern (ie. mutation due to radiation). Corrolarry to this is the fact that it would be assumed that additional experience would necessitate additional DNA. No DNA is "gained" through experience, thus this would imply that there is no DNA record of consciousness.
2) Genetic code is too small. The amount of information stored in the average adult brain is vast. The amount of information in our DNA (even if you include mitochondrial DNA) is not nearly enough to account for this information.
Past performance is of no relevance to the current situation. RIGHT NOW the chip company that has their ducks in a row is AMD. Intel, conversely, does not.
I agree that arguments based on "Intel sucks and AMD is the best" are probably misguided if based on some arcane favoritism. It does not invalidate justified criticism however. So the fact that many people are saying "Intel sucks" is justified because at this point in time, Intel does suck. And people following AMD at the moment are also justified, because at the moment AMD is doing good things.
If you're at the horse races, do you put the money on the horse whose name you like or the one you think will win?
I don't know about you, but I'm anti-stupidity. Intel has recently been stupid and deserving of my derision. If somehow they turn around and manage to salvage a seemingly unsalvagable situation then they will deserve my respect.
I'm a geek, I don't give a damn who makes the friggin chip, so long as it's fast, cheap, and I can get my hands on one.
Stupidity deserves derision. I would be just as quick to flame AMD if they were suffering from cranial-rectal inversion as well. And yes, RIGHT NOW AMD is better. That will inevitably change at some point in the future, whether it be due to Intel or some lesser known company.
I've always been one to buy Intel, but I'm thinking my next box will probably have an AMD chip. I expect AMD will have matching or faster chips within a month or two.
>Maybe one of the anti-censorship groups would be willing to
:)
>lock up the patents on censorship technologies.. and only
>allow their use when they reduced censorship.
AT LAST! A good use for software patents
Oh, that would be a sweet deal if somebody did that, but I expect the relevant patents are taken and if not, there is obviously prior art.
We take guns away from felons because a gun is an instrument used to kill people. Many people are leary enough about letting good citizens carry guns (I won't get into the morality of that), so it's felt that trusting somebody who has known tendencies towards criminal activity with a tool that is primarily a means of killing is not a good idea. Personally, I have no trouble with felons packing guns so long as their crime was not a violent one.
Taking the cars away from drunk drivers is done because drunk drivers have statistically been shown to not learn from their mistakes. It also gives them a chance to finish their counseling/treatment plans before getting back on the road.
The difference between that and a computer criminal is that a computer is not JUST a tool for committing crimes. It is also a means of communication and access and a valid career path that does not require a life of crime.
Incidentally, a thief's "occupation" is theft. A computer hacker can hack legally, a thief cannot steal legally.
I'm not arguing that with you, merely discussing how the law currently works. There are some aspects of our judicial system that I like and some I do not. This would be filed under the latter category.
Well, the only problem that I see with your system (which sounds decent enough) is that I can't see it ever being used.
Given that a library would pretty much have to dedicate a terminal to it, and then you'd have to have people looking at it... I just don't see librarians using it. Given how the AFA feels about librarians (heaven forbid, they give people any information they ask for), it probably wouldn't mean much to their campaigning to have librarians oversee the process. The real problem here is the pro-censorship groups, not the porn.
Solutions provided have to be geared in such a way that they either expose the lies of organizations like the AFA or they provide a way to cut their arguments to ribbons.
This has been mentioned a few times, but the "buglary tools" is only applicable in cases where the tools are used in a buglary. As somebody mentioned, it's just "overcharging" to have cruft to cut away when it comes to plea bargain time.
In many ways this is sort of like piling "tresspassing" on "breaking and entering". If you break and enter, no duh that you're trespassing.
Cracking tools are only illegal when used for illegal purposes.
A simpler approach is to make sure all terminal screens are in high traffic, highly visible areas. If you want privacy you can do it from home. The only tech problem posed by this problem is relocating the terminals and any associated connections.
I believe they did, but it wouldn't matter so many years after the fact. SJG wasn't rolling in the cash, having the equipment and games go missing for any amount of time, let alone the time it was missing, was enough to almost bankrupt them.
Current laws on computer equipment seizure are the same. They can take your computer for "examination" and give it back to you at some indefinite time in the future. They have no limitations on the amount of time they can hold your equipment. Given that most equipment is near useless 2-3 years after initial purchase it's the same as stealing.
Let's not forget that Kevin is forbidden to touch a computer anytime soon. Yet if you kill somebody with a hammer you can still work construction after your 5 years in jail on a plea bargain.
We all know that if he was able to "hack" into the "net" again, he could accidentally trigger massive acts of "cyberterrorism".
Joe Haldeman's "Forever Peace" deals with the issue in a slightly more realistic way. In his novel, people jack in in groups to control a bunch of "soldierboy" robots. When the robots are hurt or killed it doesn't necessarily kill them, but it is very stressful and can cause pain similar to phantom limb syndrome. They lose people to cardiac arrest or stroke occasionally too, due to the very high stress.
The technological premise is somewhat interesting, as it's sort of a cross between machine assisted telepathy (with the others in the platoon) and classic "jacking in". All in all it's probably a better treatment of the subject than the recent X-Files or the entertaining but all too predictable Matrix.
I had the good fortune to go to a high school who's library had a very large percentage of John Wyndham's works. Chrysalids was probably my favorite of his books but worth noting are some other very good titles:
The Midwich Cuckoos - An interesting type of alien invasion
Day of the Triffids - A different sort of apocalypse novel that's a cross between "night of the comet", "Earth Abides", and a "night of the living dead" with plants instead of zombies.
Out of the Deeps - (if memory serves) an alien invasion that also ventures into what might happen to society if the ice caps were to be melted. Unfortunately my library's copy was missing about 60 pages from the middle of the book, so I've never gotten around to reading the entire story.
Don't forget to advocate low cost solutions. Putting web terminals in high traffic areas is a far more effective way of making sure community standards are enforced and doesn't require any technology at all.
A number of other people have posted very lucid arguments as to why you are wrong. To that I would add that in order to enforce community standards it is far simpler to simply ensure that all terminals are in high traffic areas where whatever content is displayed is visible to anybody who happens to wander by. Not only is it more technologically simple (you know how to move funiture right), but it ensures that only the standards of that community are enforced.