Re:Self-awareness does not necessarily grant right
on
Legal Rights for Computers
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
" I had a couple of dogs that seemed to me to be self-aware. They did not have the same legal rights I did as far as I know." But dogs do have some rights, which brings up another interesting question that the article just barely touches on. Human rights for AI might be a long way off, but how long until there are laws against Cruelty to AIs?
(If I tie firecrackers to an AI's tail recursion will I be arrested?)
"He did get served with a civil suit by Nicole's family. That they did win. So he didn't escape punishment like anyone reading your post would otherwise conclude. " So? He's still free and better off than I am. I don't consider my life a punishment, so why should I consider his life a punishment? Murderers are supposed to rot in jail. If they don't, they've gotten away with murder. This is not a dificult concept.
That's right. Self experimentation of that sort is worthless for exactly the reasons you just described. Illnesses have various impacts and strengths and are never the same twice. How can you decide what was 'cured' by the drug and what was just natural healing? Besides that, whichever cure you belive in the most is going to have a much stronger placebo effect. The placebo effect is only amplified by the lack of rigor in this sort of self experimentation.
To test this sort of thing you need larger studies so you can observe large groups of people and take averages. That's the only way you can get something even approuching accurate.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not against some individual experimentation. If you want to find out which razor gives you the best looking shave, then the best place to try it out is your own face.
Or even if you're looking for the drug that works best on your headache. (Because lets face it, a placebo effect is more than welcome when you've got a headache.)
But that form of informal self-experimentation doesn't help you learn anything scientificly. It just helps your form an opinion.
Re:A physicist's view on homeopathy
on
Bad Science Awards
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
"but what about babies with colic? " Placebo effect does not just refer to the effect on the patient. There is also an effect on the diagnosing parent/doctor/veterinarian.
But if you have double-blind studies you'd like to tell us about, please feel free.
"though I do know an excellent one for the flu." Occasionaly I think I'm getting the flu, but after a day or so's rest I feel much better. It's easy to see how a homeopathic cure could convince me I'd recovered from the flu in record time.
Are you sure "hypothetical" is the word you're looking for?
If you're giving a list of real world examples to support your argument, they can't be "hypothetical" because then your whole point is lost.
This post is completely accurate because I checked it with God before posting it and he said it was cool. (Note: Hypothetical argument, so don't call me on this.)
Also, The Bible says I'm right. (Note : Also hypothetical, so don't bother looking this up.)
The point is that sending a shipping container to New York City could cost less than $10 grand. Not only that with a little cleverness you could probably hide the origins of a shipping container.
A missile would cost a good deal more than that. America would almost certainly know you were building it. And launching it would be the same as putting up a giant "Bomb Me!" sign.
It'd be like giving our police officers magical armor that only defended them against crossbow bolts. Sure, a crossbow can certainly kill a man. And I certainly wouldn't want America's finest to be killed. But there's just no point investing big money in crossbow protection when there are so many easier ways to kill a cop.
"When that threat is the total destruction of the US, then yes we throw whatever we need to at it." I 'd like to know what NASA is doing about the possibility that the Sun will go Nova, a rouge black hole or neutron star will yank us out of orbit, or an asteroid will bring an alien bacteria to destroy all terrestrial life.
These are all possible methods of the total destruction of the United States. Why are we not spending billions to prevent or mitigate them?
Not to mention a global climate change brought about by global warming. America's economy is dependent on it's major ports and major cities. When the sea-level rises we could well be totally fucked. And that's before a world war breaks out. I wouldn't say this is the most likely scenario , but it's far more likely than a missile attack.
We could play this game all day. Everyone can think up dozens of ways that the U.S.A. could be totally destroyed.
"When does it become worth it for us to spend the money on a warp drive project?" After someone figures out how to make one work. Begining construction before you know how to build a thing is not a good plan. Especialy when you're talking about a gazillion dollar program.
Doing research on (currently) impossible things, now for that you can make some strong arguments. But doing construction on (currently) impossible things is just an excuse to spend money.
The Missile defense program doesn't even work right in computer simulations. So, why are they building giant missiles?
Are you arguing for or against my idea of buying Alex Chiu Immortality rings for all U.S. Citizens? I can't tell.
Anyway, By the time those goals were even close to being within our grasp knowledgeable scientists knew it. The fact of the matter is that the Missile Defense Program is an engineering program with the science not backing it up. The moon shot worked because the science behind it was well understood and because there was generally understood theory that showed it was possible. If Kennedy had asked NASA to build him a warp drive instead, it would have just been a money hole.
" In the 1500's scientists said the world was flat. " Name one.
Re:Irrelevant preaching in "Jurassic Park"
on
Emergence
·
· Score: 1
There were also rather obvious design flaws in the Dinosaur tracking systems, so that even once they were back online they were not accurately tracking the dinosaurs.
You could argue that the trusted insider that goes bad is part of the larger "complex system" of an amusement park, but The only real example of biological complexity I can think of was the fact that some of the animals were reproducing. But again, this was only a problem because the computer system was flawed and not properly tested..
What's the cost of a missile compared to the cost of bringing a warhead to Las Vegas on a truck?
This isn't science. Real scientists have said again and again that the whole missile defense system doesn't work and won't work for the forseeable future, and even if it did work it'd be trivial to defeat and confuse with new missiles. People working for the Pentagon call this "Job Security".
Personaly I think it'd be cheaper and at least as useful to buy everyone in the U.S.A. Alex Chiu's Immortality Rings. Scientists say it doesn't work, but then scientists say there's such thing as Global Warming, so what the hell do they know? They obviously don't care about American lives.
This didn't even start as a decent awards show because it was put together by a cable network for the sole purpose of being an advertising laden extravaganza.
The reason people give some sort of credence to the Oscars is because they are for and by the film industry. They were giving out Oscars before the average member of the public knew what an Oscar was.
If we want a real TV awards show for video games we need one that comes from the industry itself and is then televised by some network.
If we have to have a TV award show for video games, then I'd want them to simply televise this : The IGDA's "Game Developer's Choice Awards"
I have here an implementation of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System's specification.
It's pretty cool. The best part is that instead of implementing the spec with hardware, it implements it with software.
I am, as we speak, using this implementation to run software written for the SNES spec. Namely, CHRONO_TRIGGER.smc which I obtained through entirely legitimate channels.
You are correct. But who cares? You're just saying that the world can't support thousands of encyclopedias regardless of whether they're open or closed.
So What? How many do we need?
Certainly no one is suggesting that every collaborative site on the Internet is interesting, useful, and accurate. But Wikipedia is.
Slashdot Mirror
" I had a couple of dogs that seemed to me to be self-aware. They did not have the same legal rights I did as far as I know."
But dogs do have some rights, which brings up another interesting question that the article just barely touches on. Human rights for AI might be a long way off, but how long until there are laws against Cruelty to AIs?
(If I tie firecrackers to an AI's tail recursion will I be arrested?)
What percentage of columbus's crew and officers do you think was educated in Astronomy and Geography?
Brain Surgery cannot be emailed to America from Taiwan.
Completed computer programs can.
"He did get served with a civil suit by Nicole's family. That they did win. So he didn't escape punishment like anyone reading your post would otherwise conclude.
"
So? He's still free and better off than I am. I don't consider my life a punishment, so why should I consider his life a punishment?
Murderers are supposed to rot in jail. If they don't, they've gotten away with murder. This is not a dificult concept.
That's right. Self experimentation of that sort is worthless for exactly the reasons you just described.
Illnesses have various impacts and strengths and are never the same twice. How can you decide what was 'cured' by the drug and what was just natural healing?
Besides that, whichever cure you belive in the most is going to have a much stronger placebo effect. The placebo effect is only amplified by the lack of rigor in this sort of self experimentation.
To test this sort of thing you need larger studies so you can observe large groups of people and take averages. That's the only way you can get something even approuching accurate.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not against some individual experimentation. If you want to find out which razor gives you the best looking shave, then the best place to try it out is your own face.
Or even if you're looking for the drug that works best on your headache. (Because lets face it, a placebo effect is more than welcome when you've got a headache.)
But that form of informal self-experimentation doesn't help you learn anything scientificly. It just helps your form an opinion.
"but what about babies with colic? "
Placebo effect does not just refer to the effect on the patient. There is also an effect on the diagnosing parent/doctor/veterinarian.
But if you have double-blind studies you'd like to tell us about, please feel free.
"though I do know an excellent one for the flu."
Occasionaly I think I'm getting the flu, but after a day or so's rest I feel much better. It's easy to see how a homeopathic cure could convince me I'd recovered from the flu in record time.
"Ok then produce me an APE and make it into a man. "
In other news, I won't belive the sun is hot until someone brings it to me.
"GPS is a military system the government allows the public to use free of charge (other than the taxes supporting the gov)."
Oh! How Generous of them!
Are you sure "hypothetical" is the word you're looking for?
If you're giving a list of real world examples to support your argument, they can't be "hypothetical" because then your whole point is lost.
This post is completely accurate because I checked it with God before posting it and he said it was cool. (Note: Hypothetical argument, so don't call me on this.)
Also, The Bible says I'm right. (Note : Also hypothetical, so don't bother looking this up.)
The point is that sending a shipping container to New York City could cost less than $10 grand.
Not only that with a little cleverness you could probably hide the origins of a shipping container.
A missile would cost a good deal more than that. America would almost certainly know you were building it. And launching it would be the same as putting up a giant "Bomb Me!" sign.
It'd be like giving our police officers magical armor that only defended them against crossbow bolts. Sure, a crossbow can certainly kill a man. And I certainly wouldn't want America's finest to be killed. But there's just no point investing big money in crossbow protection when there are so many easier ways to kill a cop.
"When that threat is the total destruction of the US, then yes we throw whatever we need to at it."
I 'd like to know what NASA is doing about the possibility that the Sun will go Nova, a rouge black hole or neutron star will yank us out of orbit, or an asteroid will bring an alien bacteria to destroy all terrestrial life.
These are all possible methods of the total destruction of the United States. Why are we not spending billions to prevent or mitigate them?
Not to mention a global climate change brought about by global warming. America's economy is dependent on it's major ports and major cities. When the sea-level rises we could well be totally fucked. And that's before a world war breaks out. I wouldn't say this is the most likely scenario , but it's far more likely than a missile attack.
We could play this game all day. Everyone can think up dozens of ways that the U.S.A. could be totally destroyed.
"When does it become worth it for us to spend the money on a warp drive project?"
After someone figures out how to make one work. Begining construction before you know how to build a thing is not a good plan.
Especialy when you're talking about a gazillion dollar program.
Doing research on (currently) impossible things, now for that you can make some strong arguments. But doing construction on (currently) impossible things is just an excuse to spend money.
The Missile defense program doesn't even work right in computer simulations. So, why are they building giant missiles?
Just ten? You're letting him off easy!
If each of the twenty-five students needs ten unique finds, I'd like to see the professor's Two-Hundred and Fifty.
Are you arguing for or against my idea of buying Alex Chiu Immortality rings for all U.S. Citizens? I can't tell.
Anyway, By the time those goals were even close to being within our grasp knowledgeable scientists knew it. The fact of the matter is that the Missile Defense Program is an engineering program with the science not backing it up. The moon shot worked because the science behind it was well understood and because there was generally understood theory that showed it was possible. If Kennedy had asked NASA to build him a warp drive instead, it would have just been a money hole.
" In the 1500's scientists said the world was flat. "
Name one.
There were also rather obvious design flaws in the Dinosaur tracking systems, so that even once they were back online they were not accurately tracking the dinosaurs.
You could argue that the trusted insider that goes bad is part of the larger "complex system" of an amusement park, but The only real example of biological complexity I can think of was the fact that some of the animals were reproducing. But again, this was only a problem because the computer system was flawed and not properly tested..
Bah. Botched my bold tags. Sorry.
What's the cost of a missile compared to the cost of bringing a warhead to Las Vegas on a truck?
This isn't science. Real scientists have said again and again that the whole missile defense system doesn't work and won't work for the forseeable future, and even if it did work it'd be trivial to defeat and confuse with new missiles. People working for the Pentagon call this "Job Security".
Personaly I think it'd be cheaper and at least as useful to buy everyone in the U.S.A. Alex Chiu's Immortality Rings. Scientists say it doesn't work, but then scientists say there's such thing as Global Warming, so what the hell do they know? They obviously don't care about American lives.
"Where is your logic in that?"
The logic is that SUVs are the only type of vehical the American automobile industry consistantly turns a profit on.
And if people stoped buying SUVs all those Mexicans that make American cars would be out of a job!
You might be able to see it right after sunset as it catches the sunlight against a dark sky.
There are some satelites you can see this way. The space station is easily visible if it's overhead right after sunset.
You probably wouldn't be able to tell it was an internet blimp though.
Alternativly, that's how SpikeTV thinks of it's own viewers.
This didn't even start as a decent awards show because it was put together by a cable network for the sole purpose of being an advertising laden extravaganza.
The reason people give some sort of credence to the Oscars is because they are for and by the film industry. They were giving out Oscars before the average member of the public knew what an Oscar was.
If we want a real TV awards show for video games we need one that comes from the industry itself and is then televised by some network.
If we have to have a TV award show for video games, then I'd want them to simply televise this : The IGDA's "Game Developer's Choice Awards"
For the people who can't understand sarcasm, that last line should probably end with "WINK! WINK! WINK!".
I keep forgetting that some people seem to filter out sarcasm at the router or something.
I have here an implementation of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System's specification.
It's pretty cool. The best part is that instead of implementing the spec with hardware, it implements it with software.
I am, as we speak, using this implementation to run software written for the SNES spec. Namely, CHRONO_TRIGGER.smc which I obtained through entirely legitimate channels.
You are correct. But who cares? You're just saying that the world can't support thousands of encyclopedias regardless of whether they're open or closed.
So What? How many do we need?
Certainly no one is suggesting that every collaborative site on the Internet is interesting, useful, and accurate. But Wikipedia is.
Not making the game.
Describing the game as though the concept were dificult to comprehend.
I personaly would have said "sarcasm" not "irony", but the two concepts overlap a bit.