I find it boring, because it's three seconds of action followed by much more than three seconds of setting up. This rhyhtm just doesn't capture my attention.
And what is probabilistic about typing or program? You write a loop and it doesn't stop being that loop construct doing a determined thing input values so all programming, all programs, including games are boring?
Programming itself isn't deterministic. There are basically infinitely many approaches to solving a given problem and the interesting part comes from finding the one that is suited best to the given situation.
Running a program that is completely deterministic (including input data) on the other hand is horridly boring after the first time. And running it more than once is more or less redundant.
including games are boring?
Games achieve nondeterministic behavior through different user input and possibly using some form of (pseudo) RNG. A game without nondeterministic user input isn't a game since it's noninteractive.
All movies are boring because you pretty much know what will happen at the end.
Most movies are boring after watching them once, unless you're trying to memorize it or spot details you missed when you watch it he first time.
Music relies on predictable future to be pleasing, it's the root of "rythm".
However, music also relies on subtle differences in each performance, otherwise live music would be completely dead.
And why would the programmer want to make the simulation "more fun" for you?
I never claimed this. The simulation is supposed to be interesting and possibly fun for the customer, not for the simulated entities. Just like an aquarium is supposed to mainly please its owner and not the inhabitants (however, most aquarium owners don't want to see the fish belly-up).
Then you're either very suspicious or lying, and both warrant extra special treatment. Step over here for a minute...
And what constitutes a "Social Media Account"?
If your definition is narrower than the authorities' definition, you're potentially in trouble. So: No, yes and yes.
Does it include ANY website that you communicate, like our very own Slashdot, and any random forum you belong too for hobbies, and GitHub and other sites that facilitate communicating with others over certain topics?
If you don't want to be charged with lying to authorties, yes.
Just make the grace period something that's humanly perceptible, say one second. It'll have the same effect on traffic safety (since someone who doesn't intentionally run red lights won't care how long the grace period is), catch the egregious offenders, and reduce the amount of legal stuff surrounding the tickets (Much fewer discussions about the case if you can say "Hey, we gave you a grace period of one full second and you still got caught.").
Leave the cases within the grace period to actual cops who need to fulfill their daily harassment quota.
maybe something more mundane like the speed of light being the cosmic speed limit is actually a bug,
I'd also consider this a design choice. If the simulation runs on a distributed, parallel system, limiting the rate at which an event in one part of the cluster affect parts of simulation running in other parts of the system simplifies communication... and probably debugging, too.
Nope. A simulation starts with initial conditions that can be set by whoever is running the simulation.
In the simulated universe, the simulation could have been started three seconds ago and signs of earlier events (up to the big bang) are merely due to the chosen initial conditions.
EVERY SIMULATION also has a speed limit. It is the maximum rate of execution of the program
Um.. the simulated entities would not be aware of the speed at which the simulation runs to an outside observer.
And the speed of light would not be a technical limitation of the simulation, but a description of the system being simulated. Someone in control of the simulation could move an object across the universe by twiddling a few variables between two simulation steps. To simulated entities, this would appear as a supernatural phenomenon - magic, divine intervention, you name it.
In EVERY SIMULATION new things come into being, where nothing like them existed before.
Um.. no. Simulations can be horridly boring and predictable. Simulation of a capacitor being discharged across a resistor...it's just a boring exponential decay curve.
Of course, things can be spiced up. By randomness, or chaotic behavior (things that can be described in a comparatively simple formula that cannot be solved analytically).
No, limited precision would correspond to quantization. That is, you can't take a smaller step than 1e-308 meters or such.
Only if it's implemented in a bad way.
If you have a certain amount of memory allocated for storing both location and impulse, but you can dynamically decide how the memory area is split between location and impulse, you'll end up with something like the uncertainty principle.
You can have a high spatial resolution at the cost of a low impulse resolution and vice versa. And before using each value, the computer fills up the unstored bits with RNG noise to make the quantization effect less deterministic; a kind of large scale dithering.
Why would any sane programmer add such ridiculous complex systems both at the very small and very large scale?
The customer demanded an extensive and interesting simulation that nonetheless can run on the available hardware?
Black holes are a bit too common and too obvious to be design bugs. I believe they are intentional, to limit the complexity of the simulation over time.
Something similar goes for the expansion of the universe. It limits the duration of the simulation; once heat death is achieved, the simulation can safely be aborted without inconveniencing any of the (then nonexistent) simulated entities. That may be a somewhat anthropocentric argument, though.
So it must always be simulating these probabilities.
Yes, just think of it as one big sandbox simulation.
since it would be FAR easier to just make it determinate
But determinate things are boring as hell. That might be okay if you're doing a simulation for predictive purposes, but if the simulation is for entertainment, you want randomness, otherwise there's no point.
Hm. Maybe HELL is actually the determinate version of the simulation.
it's simply a cool-sounding idea with absolutely no experimental evidence at all.
Unless the simulation has major bugs, the simulated entities will never be able to prove that they are, in fact, simulated, unless the entity running the simulation allows it.
But the real problem here is the fact that courts just exist to keep people out of prison.
Laws just exist to keep people of of prison. If there were no laws, the executive (in this case: the most violent group) could just lock up everybody else.
But Americans *love* their private health insurance,
They don't love it. They've just been fed enough scare stories about possible alternatives.
but they forget that treating people who present at a hospital is mandatory.
Exactly. If healthcare providers are not allowed to refuse services to anyone who doesn't pay in advance, part of the total healthcare costs will be socialized. Either in an uncontrolled manner, where the costs of nonpayment are just stuck on the bill of someone who can pay (see the US), or in a controlled, transparent manner (see the rest of the first world).
I'm actually a little surprised that ransomware hasn't started dumping illegal images in victim's hard drives, just to discourage them from taking the machine to be fixed.
It has happened. However, the ransomware criminals usually don't resort to this. Extorting money from clueless users gets you one kind of attention; distributing illegal images in the process gets you much, much more attention from law enforcement.
Classic pitfall, since this thinking promotes a pork cycle. If you give any answer, students will flock to these degrees and find out that once they finish their degrees, there will be a whole bunch of people with exactly the same degree competing for exactly the same jobs.
It's like giving a plumber access to your house to fix a plumbing problem, but then he also goes through the underwear drawer in your little girls bedroom as well as through all of your mail on your desk etc etc
That would be harmless! Keeping with the plumber analogy, it's like the plumber planting drugs in your toilet tank and calling the cops on you.
For large-capacity battery storage that does not need to move, high-temperature batteries (sodium-sulfur, ZEBRA, etc.) are cheap and their disadvantages (weight, insulation) are less relevant.
Then again, putting a planet-sized artificial magnetosphere in Mars L1 is pretty much outside our current capabilities. So I assume that if we manage to put the artificial magnetosphere there, our capabilities then will be beyond those we have now.
Slashdot Mirror
Err ... it's deterministic? I didn't know that.
I find it boring, because it's three seconds of action followed by much more than three seconds of setting up. This rhyhtm just doesn't capture my attention.
And what is probabilistic about typing or program? You write a loop and it doesn't stop being that loop construct doing a determined thing input values so all programming, all programs, including games are boring?
Programming itself isn't deterministic. There are basically infinitely many approaches to solving a given problem and the interesting part comes from finding the one that is suited best to the given situation.
Running a program that is completely deterministic (including input data) on the other hand is horridly boring after the first time. And running it more than once is more or less redundant.
including games are boring?
Games achieve nondeterministic behavior through different user input and possibly using some form of (pseudo) RNG. A game without nondeterministic user input isn't a game since it's noninteractive.
All movies are boring because you pretty much know what will happen at the end.
Most movies are boring after watching them once, unless you're trying to memorize it or spot details you missed when you watch it he first time.
Music relies on predictable future to be pleasing, it's the root of "rythm".
However, music also relies on subtle differences in each performance, otherwise live music would be completely dead.
And why would the programmer want to make the simulation "more fun" for you?
I never claimed this. The simulation is supposed to be interesting and possibly fun for the customer, not for the simulated entities. Just like an aquarium is supposed to mainly please its owner and not the inhabitants (however, most aquarium owners don't want to see the fish belly-up).
Then you're either very suspicious or lying, and both warrant extra special treatment. Step over here for a minute ...
And what constitutes a "Social Media Account"?
If your definition is narrower than the authorities' definition, you're potentially in trouble. So: No, yes and yes.
Does it include ANY website that you communicate, like our very own Slashdot, and any random forum you belong too for hobbies, and GitHub and other sites that facilitate communicating with others over certain topics?
If you don't want to be charged with lying to authorties, yes.
Leave the cases within the grace period to actual cops who need to fulfill their daily harassment quota.
I'd also consider this a design choice. If the simulation runs on a distributed, parallel system, limiting the rate at which an event in one part of the cluster affect parts of simulation running in other parts of the system simplifies communication ... and probably debugging, too.
Nope. A simulation starts with initial conditions that can be set by whoever is running the simulation.
In the simulated universe, the simulation could have been started three seconds ago and signs of earlier events (up to the big bang) are merely due to the chosen initial conditions.
EVERY SIMULATION also has a speed limit. It is the maximum rate of execution of the program
Um .. the simulated entities would not be aware of the speed at which the simulation runs to an outside observer.
And the speed of light would not be a technical limitation of the simulation, but a description of the system being simulated. Someone in control of the simulation could move an object across the universe by twiddling a few variables between two simulation steps. To simulated entities, this would appear as a supernatural phenomenon - magic, divine intervention, you name it.
In EVERY SIMULATION new things come into being, where nothing like them existed before.
Um .. no. Simulations can be horridly boring and predictable. Simulation of a capacitor being discharged across a resistor...it's just a boring exponential decay curve.
Of course, things can be spiced up. By randomness, or chaotic behavior (things that can be described in a comparatively simple formula that cannot be solved analytically).
Only if it's implemented in a bad way.
If you have a certain amount of memory allocated for storing both location and impulse, but you can dynamically decide how the memory area is split between location and impulse, you'll end up with something like the uncertainty principle.
You can have a high spatial resolution at the cost of a low impulse resolution and vice versa. And before using each value, the computer fills up the unstored bits with RNG noise to make the quantization effect less deterministic; a kind of large scale dithering.
Why would any sane programmer add such ridiculous complex systems both at the very small and very large scale?
The customer demanded an extensive and interesting simulation that nonetheless can run on the available hardware?
Black holes are a bit too common and too obvious to be design bugs. I believe they are intentional, to limit the complexity of the simulation over time.
Something similar goes for the expansion of the universe. It limits the duration of the simulation; once heat death is achieved, the simulation can safely be aborted without inconveniencing any of the (then nonexistent) simulated entities. That may be a somewhat anthropocentric argument, though.
Yes, just think of it as one big sandbox simulation.
since it would be FAR easier to just make it determinate
But determinate things are boring as hell. That might be okay if you're doing a simulation for predictive purposes, but if the simulation is for entertainment, you want randomness, otherwise there's no point.
Hm. Maybe HELL is actually the determinate version of the simulation.
We could compare it to our own simulations and the bugs in our own computer programs. I'm convinced we could spot things like integer overflow bugs.
Unless the simulation has major bugs, the simulated entities will never be able to prove that they are, in fact, simulated, unless the entity running the simulation allows it.
Oh, and it's simulations all the way down.
Laws just exist to keep people of of prison. If there were no laws, the executive (in this case: the most violent group) could just lock up everybody else.
The location of where you dumped the body also isn't self-incriminating, even if the objects found there might be.
So now you're required to have perfect memory of each and every single password you ever used in your life?
15,000, actually. Or just 1,500 and spend the remaining $2,7M on booze for the victory party.
Yes. The problem with GMOs isn't the GMOs, it's the business model behind them.
They don't love it. They've just been fed enough scare stories about possible alternatives.
but they forget that treating people who present at a hospital is mandatory.
Exactly. If healthcare providers are not allowed to refuse services to anyone who doesn't pay in advance, part of the total healthcare costs will be socialized. Either in an uncontrolled manner, where the costs of nonpayment are just stuck on the bill of someone who can pay (see the US), or in a controlled, transparent manner (see the rest of the first world).
It has happened. However, the ransomware criminals usually don't resort to this. Extorting money from clueless users gets you one kind of attention; distributing illegal images in the process gets you much, much more attention from law enforcement.
Other question: Isn't this considered an occupational injury?
Classic pitfall, since this thinking promotes a pork cycle. If you give any answer, students will flock to these degrees and find out that once they finish their degrees, there will be a whole bunch of people with exactly the same degree competing for exactly the same jobs.
That if, if anything only a small part of the issue.
American cars are built with the needs and desires of American customers, American roads, American gasoline and American parking spaces in mind.
Elsewhere in the world:
a) You don't drive a pickup truck to haul your tools and supplies if you're a small business, you drive a van or an actual small truck.
b) You want a car that fits into the local parking spaces. Which in most places are smaller than American ones.
c) You want a car that's designed for local speed limits, which may be higher than the speed limits in the US.
d) You want a car that makes optimal use of the locally available gasoline. In Europe, that's usually higher octane rating stuff than in the US.
e) You want a stick shifter if you're used to it. Stick shifters are almost nonexistent in the US, while still fairly common in Europe.
f) You may not want an AC, especially in countries that don't become as hot and humid as parts of the US do.
That would be harmless! Keeping with the plumber analogy, it's like the plumber planting drugs in your toilet tank and calling the cops on you.
Stuff like "Code Complete", that don't explain how to write code, but how to write code so it's readable, understandable, debuggable and maintainable.
For large-capacity battery storage that does not need to move, high-temperature batteries (sodium-sulfur, ZEBRA, etc.) are cheap and their disadvantages (weight, insulation) are less relevant.
Seems to work just fine for Earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Or the asteroid belt:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Then again, putting a planet-sized artificial magnetosphere in Mars L1 is pretty much outside our current capabilities. So I assume that if we manage to put the artificial magnetosphere there, our capabilities then will be beyond those we have now.