Re:Wolfram's new book and my thoughts on reality
on
Wolframania
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I went to a Quantum Approaches to Consciousness meeting at NAU. One current popular theory is that matter in the universe is an uncollapsed wave equation with infinite extent until some form of consciousness observes the matter in question - it is the act of observation that collapses the quantum wave equation.
While this is not my field, it is close (I have published in both quantum mechanics and biochemistry and my PhD is in biophysically related field), and I would caution interest in so called quantum consciousness. Not because it is necessarily wrong, but because many of those who believe it want to believe it so much that they are incapable of changing thier mind. (The cold fusion field has similar zealots)
I couldn't care less about most wireless communications nor could I care about Ham radio operators. I do care, however, very strongly about regulation of the Internet and the views of the FCC on it. IMO, The FCC would love to get its fingers into that pie.
But I shudder at even a suggestion that the internet needs to be regulated, for it shares none of the common issues usually brought up in radio communication.
But he does indirectly identify that the thought has crossed minds when he measures the reaction (pg 69):
Nonetheless, government licensing of Internet users would be abhorred as a violation of God-given inalienable rights
But later, he brings up the scarce resources argument, just the thing regulators like to hear (pg 70):
The large volume of unsolicited email ("spam") distributed on the Internet essentially creates noise in Internet users' mailboxes and causes inefficient use of personal attention, a scarce resource. [Later he points out that most wouldn't like gov't removal of such noise]
If the FCC is truely considering the notion of internet regulation, we need to nip that in the bud here and now. He is correct that most of us, IMO, would be p*ssed.
As much as they might *want* to be in the internet space, the FCC needs to reflect on its opinion that regulation is even a public policy issue. Because it is not a scarce resource nor is it any of thier business. By even debating this issue, I worry that we might somehow legitimize the suggestion.
You forgot that it is not okay for Anakin to go back to save his woman because it isn't an important goal, but it is okay for yoda to let dooku go to save anakin from a falling metal pillar.
You know using its reasoning it probably could come up with this exact response on its own, especially if it has knowledge of 2001...
Cyc is AI computer -> HAL is AI computer -> HAL doesn't open doors obediently -> AI computers don't open doors obediently -> Therefore Cyc doesn't open door obediently.
You make some pretty broad statements here, and, IMO they suggest you either make these statements too lightly or you really don't understand journalism. On some level articles written by journalists are simply an array of collected facts, organized in such a way as to tell a story.
/.'s (and to a lesser extent k5) problem is that often the story is one fact and the link is simply to a single other piece of journalism. When multiple links are collected, as is also often the case, the story enters a gray area.
I am not a journalist. I am a scientist. I have, however, written several stories for the stanford daily as an interesting side project.
K5 stories are often researched and contain many facts pulled together into a new and interesting way.
Just because you link something on the web doesn't make it *not* journalism. BTW - As much as some/.'ers don't like to admit it, Jon Katz is the closest thing/. has to a journalist.
Actually, the best/. example of giving up spoilers is in this story. When 'Taco posted a story that was annotated with "minor spoiler" but contained a rather major one. Too bad the movie sucked.
Oh, god no! I hope they don't start doing anything like that here. The best manuals are concise and very clear. I don't want to read alot, I want to find the answer I'm looking for and absorb it in the shortest possible amount of time.
Adding jokes, dilbert cartoons, puns would, in my opinion take away from that. I have comics taped to my monitor because they are funny, I have manuals on my shelf because they give me information. Don't make me put manual pages on my monitor or comics on my shelf.
Does this mean that we can figure out what the following phrases actually mean(?): a.Someone set up us the bomb, b.Main Screen turn on, c.All your base are belong to us.
I guess that would require a Japanese->English->Japanese translator.
In defence of palm, I think we should remember how much abuse palms take. I have a Vx that has worked constantly. It sometimes is in my pocket, in my hot car in summer, dropped and and otherwise abused. We take a bit for granted, I think, on how much sh*t we give our little pda's and expect them to work perfectly all the time.
Ever noticed how computers seem to crash more when you seriously kicking them around (as opposed to just using word)?
technology that can be combined with daily tests of the athletes to determine patterns which occur right before a player gets injured.
Wow, and do you know what the computer is going to say? That people are most likely to get injured when taking RISKS! More risks, more likely injured. Big surpise, next we are going to try and predict who is likely going to get injured in a shootout based on information relaying where the guns are pointed!
I thought Jar Jar dies in Ep III. Maybe now he is just lobotamized and he forgets to shave. No more "Meesa please", just growls and undiscernable barks. Jar Jar is dead, long live Jar Jar!
As others have correctly pointed out, this isn't cloning. they are taking the genes of an organism and assembling them on an "artificial" chromosome.
The technology to do this is really in its infancy. Few other, if any, organisms have been prepared this way (to my knowledge), including the lowly bacteria (several orders of magnitude easier). The only research I know of that really has had success is the reduction of E.coli genome as published recently in Genome Research.
I highly doubt that we understand the marsupial genome enough to assemble it together in a way that will "work" (an enormous project by itself). This all has to be performed before the difficult cloning event (cloning the "artificial" genome into another working host cell).
While I believe the technology will be available, it will be a long time before we actually see this projects completion. To get there it is going to require a lot of grunt work. And unlike programming, bugs will be *very* difficult to weed out. If it doesn't work it might be because gene #1 and gene #23,423 aren't next to each other. How would you find this out? I applaud the effort, but I think we need to have a model of this technology on a simpler organism (not extinct) before anyone should spend crap loads of $$$ on a potential dead end.
It does not take up any of your recording capacity - it is stored in a seperate reserved space. You still have 40 hours of recording capacity on a standard TiVo.
Big Deal. Lots of companies do crappy little things like this. Your Tivo hasn't changed, functionally. Complain when you come home some day and find your kids watching pr0n you didn't ask to recorde...
-Sean
I think we all know what will happen...
on
Resurrecting NEAR
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· Score: 2, Funny
I think we all know what will happen when they make contact:
NASA Operator: What happen? NASA Operator 2: Somebody set us up the bomb NASA Operator: We Get Signal! NASA Operator 2: What? NASA Operator: Main Screen Turn On. NASA Operator 2: Its you! NEAR Probe: How are you gentlemen? NEAR Probe: All your base are belong to us.
(cheezy techno starts now...) -Sean
The third method of IP protection
on
Fair IP Laws?
·
· Score: 2
A problem with this that there is an implicit third way of IP protection (the other two are copyrights and patents) and that is secrets. If IP laws are removed then companies will just shut up. It is for this reason that our current IP laws foster innovation and likely stimulate thinking.
With patents we have a public record of innovation, so that when companies get bored of researching something we all know about without them having to do anything.
1. Buy a pair of headphones 2. Buy a laptop 3. Build a 802.11b wireless net for your apartment/home/domicile 4. Share/nfs/serve your mp3's from your desktop. 5. Retrieve/mount/client your desktop's mp3s from your notebook. 6. Enjoy music
Peruvian Congressman David Villanueva Nuñez made exactly this argument:
To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*.
In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.
The flaw here is that for windows code to posess the powers they imply, it would need to be a state secret. Perhaps it should be illegal to distribute mission critical osc across us boundaries? Windows code a state secret? I think not, anyone can reverse compile machine code.
Micro$oft should realize that governments do not like security threats they are not able to evaluate themselves. The NSA, for example, cannot sit and tinker with windoze's security holes the way they can with OSC (open source code)...
Slashdot Mirror
I went to a Quantum Approaches to Consciousness meeting at NAU. One current popular theory is that matter in the universe is an uncollapsed wave equation with infinite extent until some form of consciousness observes the matter in question - it is the act of observation that collapses the quantum wave equation.
While this is not my field, it is close (I have published in both quantum mechanics and biochemistry and my PhD is in biophysically related field), and I would caution interest in so called quantum consciousness. Not because it is necessarily wrong, but because many of those who believe it want to believe it so much that they are incapable of changing thier mind. (The cold fusion field has similar zealots)
-Sean
885 grams == 1.95 pounds
This article is a bit of a ridiculous pitch, here are Other machines come close:
The Dell X200 = 2.8 pounds (800 MHz processor, 12.1)
Fujitsu Laptops (Various w/Transmeta) - P1000 is 2.2 pounds, $1299 starting
The Toshiba Portege - 2.6 pounds PIII750, bit expensive, $2199
-Sean
Ok, so in other words, if I _OWN_ something (a CD), I have to PAY someone else for the right to sell it?
M$ thinks so.
-Sean
I couldn't care less about most wireless communications nor could I care about Ham radio operators. I do care, however, very strongly about regulation of the Internet and the views of the FCC on it. IMO, The FCC would love to get its fingers into that pie.
But I shudder at even a suggestion that the internet needs to be regulated, for it shares none of the common issues usually brought up in radio communication.
But he does indirectly identify that the thought has crossed minds when he measures the reaction (pg 69):
Nonetheless, government licensing of Internet users would be abhorred as a violation of God-given inalienable rights
But later, he brings up the scarce resources argument, just the thing regulators like to hear (pg 70):
The large volume of unsolicited email ("spam") distributed on the Internet essentially creates noise in Internet users' mailboxes and causes inefficient use of personal attention, a scarce resource. [Later he points out that most wouldn't like gov't removal of such noise]
If the FCC is truely considering the notion of internet regulation, we need to nip that in the bud here and now. He is correct that most of us, IMO, would be p*ssed.
As much as they might *want* to be in the internet space, the FCC needs to reflect on its opinion that regulation is even a public policy issue. Because it is not a scarce resource nor is it any of thier business. By even debating this issue, I worry that we might somehow legitimize the suggestion.
-Sean
You forgot that it is not okay for Anakin to go back to save his woman because it isn't an important goal, but it is okay for yoda to let dooku go to save anakin from a falling metal pillar.
-Sean
You know using its reasoning it probably could come up with this exact response on its own, especially if it has knowledge of 2001 ...
Cyc is AI computer -> HAL is AI computer -> HAL doesn't open doors obediently -> AI computers don't open doors obediently -> Therefore Cyc doesn't open door obediently.
-Sean
What do you think about imposing our morality on an AI?
They probably did this because it kept telling them to f*ck off.
-Sean
Slashdot isn't journalism. Kuro5hin isn't journalism.
/.'ers don't like to admit it, Jon Katz is the closest thing /. has to a journalist.
You make some pretty broad statements here, and, IMO they suggest you either make these statements too lightly or you really don't understand journalism. On some level articles written by journalists are simply an array of collected facts, organized in such a way as to tell a story.
/.'s (and to a lesser extent k5) problem is that often the story is one fact and the link is simply to a single other piece of journalism. When multiple links are collected, as is also often the case, the story enters a gray area.
I am not a journalist. I am a scientist. I have, however, written several stories for the stanford daily as an interesting side project.
K5 stories are often researched and contain many facts pulled together into a new and interesting way.
Just because you link something on the web doesn't make it *not* journalism. BTW - As much as some
-Sean
Actually, the best /. example of giving up spoilers is in this story. When 'Taco posted a story that was annotated with "minor spoiler" but contained a rather major one. Too bad the movie sucked.
Does this make me a criminal?
No, but their use of your credit card #'s might make you look like one.
-Sean
Slashdot is like a giant op-ed piece ...
-Sean
Oh, god no! I hope they don't start doing anything like that here. The best manuals are concise and very clear. I don't want to read alot, I want to find the answer I'm looking for and absorb it in the shortest possible amount of time.
Adding jokes, dilbert cartoons, puns would, in my opinion take away from that. I have comics taped to my monitor because they are funny, I have manuals on my shelf because they give me information. Don't make me put manual pages on my monitor or comics on my shelf.
-Sean
Does this mean that we can figure out what the following phrases actually mean(?): a.Someone set up us the bomb, b.Main Screen turn on, c.All your base are belong to us.
I guess that would require a Japanese->English->Japanese translator.
-Sean
In defence of palm, I think we should remember how much abuse palms take. I have a Vx that has worked constantly. It sometimes is in my pocket, in my hot car in summer, dropped and and otherwise abused. We take a bit for granted, I think, on how much sh*t we give our little pda's and expect them to work perfectly all the time.
Ever noticed how computers seem to crash more when you seriously kicking them around (as opposed to just using word)?
Just a thought....
-Sean
technology that can be combined with daily tests of the athletes to determine patterns which occur right before a player gets injured.
Wow, and do you know what the computer is going to say? That people are most likely to get injured when taking RISKS! More risks, more likely injured. Big surpise, next we are going to try and predict who is likely going to get injured in a shootout based on information relaying where the guns are pointed!
-Sean
-Sean
while the country waits for long-term storage solutions, such as carbon nanotubes.
.
I can't wait to take a picture of that
I thought Jar Jar dies in Ep III. Maybe now he is just lobotamized and he forgets to shave. No more "Meesa please", just growls and undiscernable barks. Jar Jar is dead, long live Jar Jar!
-Sean
Does this mean I could sue /. everytime an AC calls me a linux-loving fag?
-Sean
As others have correctly pointed out, this isn't cloning. they are taking the genes of an organism and assembling them on an "artificial" chromosome.
The technology to do this is really in its infancy. Few other, if any, organisms have been prepared this way (to my knowledge), including the lowly bacteria (several orders of magnitude easier). The only research I know of that really has had success is the reduction of E.coli genome as published recently in Genome Research.
I highly doubt that we understand the marsupial genome enough to assemble it together in a way that will "work" (an enormous project by itself). This all has to be performed before the difficult cloning event (cloning the "artificial" genome into another working host cell).
While I believe the technology will be available, it will be a long time before we actually see this projects completion. To get there it is going to require a lot of grunt work. And unlike programming, bugs will be *very* difficult to weed out. If it doesn't work it might be because gene #1 and gene #23,423 aren't next to each other. How would you find this out? I applaud the effort, but I think we need to have a model of this technology on a simpler organism (not extinct) before anyone should spend crap loads of $$$ on a potential dead end.
-Sean
It does not take up any of your recording capacity - it is stored in a seperate reserved space. You still have 40 hours of recording capacity on a standard TiVo.
Big Deal. Lots of companies do crappy little things like this. Your Tivo hasn't changed, functionally. Complain when you come home some day and find your kids watching pr0n you didn't ask to recorde...
-Sean
I think we all know what will happen when they make contact:
NASA Operator: What happen?
NASA Operator 2: Somebody set us up the bomb
NASA Operator: We Get Signal!
NASA Operator 2: What?
NASA Operator: Main Screen Turn On.
NASA Operator 2: Its you!
NEAR Probe: How are you gentlemen?
NEAR Probe: All your base are belong to us.
(cheezy techno starts now...)
-Sean
A problem with this that there is an implicit third way of IP protection (the other two are copyrights and patents) and that is secrets. If IP laws are removed then companies will just shut up. It is for this reason that our current IP laws foster innovation and likely stimulate thinking.
With patents we have a public record of innovation, so that when companies get bored of researching something we all know about without them having to do anything.
-Sean
1. Buy a pair of headphones
2. Buy a laptop
3. Build a 802.11b wireless net for your apartment/home/domicile
4. Share/nfs/serve your mp3's from your desktop.
5. Retrieve/mount/client your desktop's mp3s from your notebook.
6. Enjoy music
(From a story posted here)
Peruvian Congressman David Villanueva Nuñez made exactly this argument:
To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*.
In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.
The flaw here is that for windows code to posess the powers they imply, it would need to be a state secret. Perhaps it should be illegal to distribute mission critical osc across us boundaries? Windows code a state secret? I think not, anyone can reverse compile machine code.
Micro$oft should realize that governments do not like security threats they are not able to evaluate themselves. The NSA, for example, cannot sit and tinker with windoze's security holes the way they can with OSC (open source code)...
-Sean
Don't worry! Its all OK. Geez, didn't you even read the article? See it says right here:
/.'s unwarranted rants.
Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said Kempin's memo was "irrelevant" because the company never acted on his ideas.
I knew this was another one of
-Sean