Considering that the article states that this gene lowers the average IQ of the remarkably small sample group, I think we now know two people who don't have the gene.
(Please don't hit me)
So, in the future life will be like a small high school where everyone has cell phones?
Game designers won't own it. Who is most "popular" in high school? It isn't the teachers or the administrator, or their children. The teachers and administration designed the system (replace "teachers and administration" with "board of education" if you prefer). While the writer in the example gave other writers a higher credit score with Wal-Mart, no matter how much pain is taken by the administration, they have very little measurable influence on their children's (or favored student's) social success. Granted, they can influence academic success or athletic success, but these are not analogous to the reputation upon which the new economy is to be based. I don't think the designers of this new system will be able to make their legacy's lives any easier, either.
I also disagree with the idea tha game designers will be in charge of design; I think it's more likely to be future equivalents of web developers.
There were bird's-eye view RPGs for both the NES and SNES. Granted, not exactly Shenmue-like; they were closer to Shadowrun or Legend of Zelda with less combat. Still....
How, exactly, will data collected on Mars help us get to Mars? We know that:
It's a long way off.
There's not enough air.
There's a whole bunch of not enough air between here and there
Radiation and meteoroids are a problem.
There are dust storms
From the rover, we've learned that.... we can have a rover up there for a long time. And where some rocks are. Did I miss anything? I love the idea of going to Mars, but until we can send some very capable robots or humans to do more in-depth geological analysis, I don't see how this will help us get there or build there.
What parent refers to is most useful when the blood withdrawn to be re-injected is taken at as high an altitude as possible after a minimum of two weeks. This results in a higher red blood cell count, which obviously allows more O2 and other goodies to reach the muscles. There's a medication sometimes given for anemia (or perhaps it was diabetes, I can't remember) which increases red blood cell production almost without bound- the blood thickens until it is almost like honey, which places strain on the heart. Neither of these methods can be detected by standard drug tests. If you just inject more blood from the same elevation, you mostly just get higher blood pressure.
What grandparent refers to would require the ability to grow new cappilaries; the article only mentions arteries and veins. So this can help sick folk, but probably is not of much use to athletes.
Most of what Parent says is true- for the applications in question (home use, vehicle use, consumer use in general) the cost of solar cells is the limiting factor. However, this is DARPA we're talking about here- as well as a bunch of commercial clients. The applications mentioned in the article (primarily the military) rely heavily upon efficiency and not so heavily upon cost efficiency. Yes, it would be nice if GI Joe's GPS solar cell only cost fifty cents, but if it weighs a hundred pounds? I'd rather have a five-hundred dollar solar cell producing enough in half a pound. Efficiency is important in some areas, cost effectiveness in others. Research into efficiency isn't a total waste.
It's actually never legally allowed to require a social security number; "they" can request it, but not demand it, unless "they" are a government agency (and at least in MT, the DMV doesn't make you give them one for a driver's license). Most things are therefore doable without; in fact, on various forms, I give any of three different names (with or without my middle name, or with middle and first transposed) with my SSN. Nobody ever gets mad at me for it, even though my social security card only lists the "right" one.
Incidentally, Richard Nixon's social security number is 567-68-0515; there are many cases where a given agency doesn't actually need your number, and it's perfectly appropriate to give them his instead. Have fun.
I paid $40 for Firefly on DVD after seeing Serenity. Granted, the stuff available for the iPod video is no Firefly, but consider: people are willing to shell out a hundred bucks a season for the Star Trek DVD sets, perhaps $40 for That 70s Show or something similar. That works out to a bit more than $1.99 an episode, especially for Star Trek and Firefly. The DVDs have special features, but I don't care about them; they have DRM, of course, and that does bother me. The portability, price, and not having to drive to the store make the iPod video seem worthwhile to me.
If only I was willing to buy an apple product and be a clone of everyone else.
Competition is a very good thing for the consumer. Products are provided more cheaply, they're better, and if company A does something you don't like, you can switch to company B. This is the major problem with the OS market (everyone using Microsoft kills innovation), the Browser market (although innovations are starting to show up), the Word Processor market (Word is surprisingly good for a Microsoft product, but not as good as it would be if anyone else could get a foothold ten years ago), and the modern search engine.
Yeah, we all love Google. Years ago, I used Yahoo, and it took much longer to find information on any subject. Google changed that; now it's easy to find massive volumes of information. What if you're looking for some esoteric detail about the term you're searching for? For instance, I looked for information on the Quaker Oats entry into the videogame market yesterday, and could only find mention that it happened. There were no mentions of specific games, systems, or any other useful information. I learned that the Quakers aren't associated with the company, that the guy on the package isn't William Penn, and that Pepsi owns them. Nothing about Videogames, other than the stuff in the NES 20th anniversary article.
Now, there isn't a lot of demand for searches for cereal company games, but there are other things that people want to know that get lost in the ocean of information. Pages duplicate each other's information, no matter how hard Google tries to exclude similar pages (Repeat search with the ommitted results included?). Right now, Google doesn't need to be any better, because there's nobody who comes close. Nobody has the resources to, because they bought all the talent. If, however, Microsoft tries to compete, the only way to do so is to be better. We'll have an actual battle, because Google is too entrenched to quash like other Word Processors. Somebody will make an intelligent search engine with grammar recognition and only display pages with different information. Microsoft trying to make a search engine is a good thing.
I'm reminded of DARPA Grand Challenge 1. This, though, seems quite a bit easier than autonomous vehicles- perhaps not the tether, but the climbers seem straighforeward. Are solar panels really that heavy? Are they that inefficient? The article says there was only a six-month time period between the contest announcement and the contest, but there isn't much in the way of new technology needed here. What gives?
We've known for a long time that extremophiles (organisms capable of surviving in extreme conditions, often incapable of surviving under human-friendly conditions) exist, and speculated that such life is the kind we'd find on other planets. However, this type of thinking (not necessarily PNA life; I think the slower diffusion inherent to fatty acids relative to water will mean that this new life-form is only useful as a test) allows us to produce extremophiles more exotic than what we see on Earth. All known life is DNA-based, and cannot survive in situations where DNA is for some reason broken up (hostile chemicals, high-evergy environments, low-energy environments, and the like). Imagine, however, life based on elements solid at room temperature and liquid at higher temperatures living on Mercury, where water can't be liquid; or life based on liquid oxygen or hydrogen, living far from any star, surviving distances between star systems without life support.
This also challenges (traditional) creationism. If we can make life to exist anywhere, that means that the argument about Earth's specialization as a life-bearing planet is meaningless. This doesn't mean that God doesn't exist or that he is dead, merely that he doesn't have to exist. However, it gets rid of the creationism Trump Card so often played by precocious high-school students in Biology class.
Conversely, if we find that we can't make life at all, or can only create PNA life, and can't manage artificial DNA life, it could turn evolutionary theory on its head. If we can't make life in a lab, how could we expect it to happen outside a lab? This would get rid of the Trump Card so often played by precocious devout atheists in High School biology classes.
This is quite true. Not only is it rare and difficult to catch, it cannot spread from human to human, period. It does spread from bird to human, and there is a danger of mutation, but normal flue is more dangerous and a mutation to make it even more dangerous is more likely. Be not afraid of bird flu.
None of the listed errors are fatal, except for the Tekken 5 freeze (doesn't every system hang from time to time?); while they are annoying, this is certainly livable.
Oh, wait, this is Sony? Those bastards! Selling broken products is wrong! We should sue them!
The problem isn't that this one particular rat can self-fertilize, but that this means that rats can jump from island to island, specifically, to happy-special-rat-free island from evil-nasty-screwed-over-extinct-native-species-rat -filled island.
Aw, crap. Now rats can swim 400 meters. That means we can't just clear one island of rats, we'll have to clear every island within 400 meters of rats. Jeez, now we'll never get rid of them.
Have you ever played Chrono Trigger? The "loose end" that you mention is tied up quite nicely in one of the dialogs. Lavos is just one of its race, a race that keeps humans (and the inhabitants of other planets) like humans keep cattle, only we're intelligent and cows just taste good.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering that the article states that this gene lowers the average IQ of the remarkably small sample group, I think we now know two people who don't have the gene. (Please don't hit me)
Game designers won't own it. Who is most "popular" in high school? It isn't the teachers or the administrator, or their children. The teachers and administration designed the system (replace "teachers and administration" with "board of education" if you prefer). While the writer in the example gave other writers a higher credit score with Wal-Mart, no matter how much pain is taken by the administration, they have very little measurable influence on their children's (or favored student's) social success. Granted, they can influence academic success or athletic success, but these are not analogous to the reputation upon which the new economy is to be based. I don't think the designers of this new system will be able to make their legacy's lives any easier, either.
I also disagree with the idea tha game designers will be in charge of design; I think it's more likely to be future equivalents of web developers.
There were bird's-eye view RPGs for both the NES and SNES. Granted, not exactly Shenmue-like; they were closer to Shadowrun or Legend of Zelda with less combat. Still....
From the rover, we've learned that.... we can have a rover up there for a long time. And where some rocks are. Did I miss anything? I love the idea of going to Mars, but until we can send some very capable robots or humans to do more in-depth geological analysis, I don't see how this will help us get there or build there.
Seems to me that Foundation is on the list. I'd put it higher, myself, but it's there.
The article doesn't say anything about forcing people to pay on a metered scale- it's an option.
What grandparent refers to would require the ability to grow new cappilaries; the article only mentions arteries and veins. So this can help sick folk, but probably is not of much use to athletes.
I just hope that the US doesn't adopt this idea.
Gimp
I can finally find the old Zelda dungeons without wandering around aimlessly for an hour.
Most of what Parent says is true- for the applications in question (home use, vehicle use, consumer use in general) the cost of solar cells is the limiting factor. However, this is DARPA we're talking about here- as well as a bunch of commercial clients. The applications mentioned in the article (primarily the military) rely heavily upon efficiency and not so heavily upon cost efficiency. Yes, it would be nice if GI Joe's GPS solar cell only cost fifty cents, but if it weighs a hundred pounds? I'd rather have a five-hundred dollar solar cell producing enough in half a pound. Efficiency is important in some areas, cost effectiveness in others. Research into efficiency isn't a total waste.
So mod me troll.
Given that we all know earth is the center of the universe and therefore the first part of it, shouldn't all the light be moving away from us?
Incidentally, Richard Nixon's social security number is 567-68-0515; there are many cases where a given agency doesn't actually need your number, and it's perfectly appropriate to give them his instead. Have fun.
If only I was willing to buy an apple product and be a clone of everyone else.
These are non-fatal. The wrong music plays? The movie has a problem? "Fatal" causes death.
Yeah, we all love Google. Years ago, I used Yahoo, and it took much longer to find information on any subject. Google changed that; now it's easy to find massive volumes of information. What if you're looking for some esoteric detail about the term you're searching for? For instance, I looked for information on the Quaker Oats entry into the videogame market yesterday, and could only find mention that it happened. There were no mentions of specific games, systems, or any other useful information. I learned that the Quakers aren't associated with the company, that the guy on the package isn't William Penn, and that Pepsi owns them. Nothing about Videogames, other than the stuff in the NES 20th anniversary article.
Now, there isn't a lot of demand for searches for cereal company games, but there are other things that people want to know that get lost in the ocean of information. Pages duplicate each other's information, no matter how hard Google tries to exclude similar pages (Repeat search with the ommitted results included?). Right now, Google doesn't need to be any better, because there's nobody who comes close. Nobody has the resources to, because they bought all the talent. If, however, Microsoft tries to compete, the only way to do so is to be better. We'll have an actual battle, because Google is too entrenched to quash like other Word Processors. Somebody will make an intelligent search engine with grammar recognition and only display pages with different information. Microsoft trying to make a search engine is a good thing.
I'm reminded of DARPA Grand Challenge 1. This, though, seems quite a bit easier than autonomous vehicles- perhaps not the tether, but the climbers seem straighforeward. Are solar panels really that heavy? Are they that inefficient? The article says there was only a six-month time period between the contest announcement and the contest, but there isn't much in the way of new technology needed here. What gives?
Welcome our new high-efficiency processor overlords.
We've known for a long time that extremophiles (organisms capable of surviving in extreme conditions, often incapable of surviving under human-friendly conditions) exist, and speculated that such life is the kind we'd find on other planets. However, this type of thinking (not necessarily PNA life; I think the slower diffusion inherent to fatty acids relative to water will mean that this new life-form is only useful as a test) allows us to produce extremophiles more exotic than what we see on Earth. All known life is DNA-based, and cannot survive in situations where DNA is for some reason broken up (hostile chemicals, high-evergy environments, low-energy environments, and the like). Imagine, however, life based on elements solid at room temperature and liquid at higher temperatures living on Mercury, where water can't be liquid; or life based on liquid oxygen or hydrogen, living far from any star, surviving distances between star systems without life support. This also challenges (traditional) creationism. If we can make life to exist anywhere, that means that the argument about Earth's specialization as a life-bearing planet is meaningless. This doesn't mean that God doesn't exist or that he is dead, merely that he doesn't have to exist. However, it gets rid of the creationism Trump Card so often played by precocious high-school students in Biology class. Conversely, if we find that we can't make life at all, or can only create PNA life, and can't manage artificial DNA life, it could turn evolutionary theory on its head. If we can't make life in a lab, how could we expect it to happen outside a lab? This would get rid of the Trump Card so often played by precocious devout atheists in High School biology classes.
Why is parent flamebait? For that matter, why is it troll?
This is quite true. Not only is it rare and difficult to catch, it cannot spread from human to human, period. It does spread from bird to human, and there is a danger of mutation, but normal flue is more dangerous and a mutation to make it even more dangerous is more likely. Be not afraid of bird flu.
Oh, wait, this is Sony? Those bastards! Selling broken products is wrong! We should sue them!
The problem isn't that this one particular rat can self-fertilize, but that this means that rats can jump from island to island, specifically, to happy-special-rat-free island from evil-nasty-screwed-over-extinct-native-species-rat -filled island.
Aw, crap. Now rats can swim 400 meters. That means we can't just clear one island of rats, we'll have to clear every island within 400 meters of rats. Jeez, now we'll never get rid of them.
Have you ever played Chrono Trigger? The "loose end" that you mention is tied up quite nicely in one of the dialogs. Lavos is just one of its race, a race that keeps humans (and the inhabitants of other planets) like humans keep cattle, only we're intelligent and cows just taste good.