It certainly is interesting and very well made, and obviously the Abramic religions have something very appealing or satisfying to human nature. I don't just dismiss them without giving this stuff any thought. I did believe in it all until I was 24, and from 14-24 especially I counted myself as a born again Christian.
I can see some benefits that arise from religion, as you mentioned in another post it's comforting and lets some people deal with the world more effectively since they believe there is someone watching out for them, which allows them to act with more confidence overall, and not take bad times quite so hard.. then there is always the charity work that religions do.
From my own experience I'd have to say I'd prefer that I wasn't brought up to believe any one religion, and that I was given the chance to choose. I know it's basically impossible to bring someone up in an unbiased manner though, and I do still respect my parents for doing what they believed was the right thing..
I used to be a Christian, and most Christians act like everything is "part of God's plan", etc. And there's all that stuff about "hardening Pharaoh's heart" then still punishing the Egyptians for his actions, etc, it's all a bit silly and two faced..
Then why would he feel any need to create time and interact with people in the time flow, or in fact do anything at all if time for him does not exist, and he is unchanging, and perfectly happy with his trinity, ie should not need any outside worship or interaction? I accepted all this stuff as I was taught it growing up, but if I had learned it now I would have dismissed it as quickly as I dismiss any other religion. It's easy to see the flaws if you look at these things from a starting point of them not being true. It's only if you are desperately wanting them to be true that you start to try to deal with inconsistencies and presume that you are the one in the wrong if something doesn't seem to match up. People are always like "yes that's such a challenging passage" rather than just saying "shiiiit, that really doesn't fit in very well with that thing we just studied in church" etc. Bleh. Hit a nerve, I'll stop rambling.
So what you're saying is, god does **** all? And if you happen to do his will, it's only by chance. How would you know when you're not doing his will, or when you are? I love all these rules that have been made so that basically even if god didn't exist, the world would be exactly the same as it already is. Funny, that.
So if I Tivo a soccer match and replay it, then the players have no free will?
Definitely. No matter how many times you play it, they will always do the same thing. What's your argument here? If god controls and knows everything, then anything he changes, he knows the outcome of it, and even if he only sets the initial parameters (though the bible says he does much more than that), he is still knows the outcomes of any changes he makes. He set exactly the ratio of people that would go to heaven/hell, if you believe such things. He created billions of lives that were already condemned. To me that seems a little sick an unecessary.
Just because you feel like you have free will, doesn't mean that your actions are not pre-determinable. Plus I agree with Pojut here. When I was a Christian I felt much more limited because I was always looking for god's will in everything, rather than my own.
So your argument is basically that you break the law all the time, but you'd rather not have anyone notice that you do it? I abhor litter, and I don't think "jaywalking" is illegal in this country as far as I know.
Assault or rape is about the only thing that I'd consider worrying about with someone following me around all day. Otherwise it would simply be amusing and essentially a waste of time for whoever was doing the following.
Like I said, with a person following you around, you then need someone following them around, and so on, and it gets a bit stupid. A monitoring device is indeed more practical, and eventually maybe we all will be chipped.
Hmm, it appears that it does indeed even learn its language online. Still, at least it is able to try to judge between "beliefs" and "facts".
This is a big problem when NELL makes mistakes: the computer incorrectly labelled "right posterior" as a body part. How the boffins laughed.
English is my native and I would consider "right posterior" a valid (if obviously slightly formal and comical) description of the right buttock, so I don't see what's so incorrect about that..
NELL's human handlers had to tell NELL that Klingon is not an ethnic group, despite the fact that many earthlings think it is.
At the moment NELL thinks that the First Amendment is a musical instrument, the Second Amendment is a 'hobby,' and is completely unwilling to admit to any knowledge of the fifth amendment at all. A bit like the recording industry and most lawmakers in the US.
Shit. I feared this day might come. Now the most advanced AI on the planet will be "learning" from YouTube "discussion" and twitter.
It won't know how to use quotes appropriately.
It will confuse than and then.
IT MAY LEARN TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS TO APPEAR "SPECIAL" (WHICH IT CERTAINLY WILL DO).
It will confuse than and then.
It will confuse lose and loose.
It will say it "could care less" or "could give a rat's ass" when it in fact thinks it couldn't care less and wouldn't even consider something worthy of a rat's ass.
And many more! Please form an orderly line and add your own suggestions as to why this could be a very scary idea..
Hopefully it will have a good grounding in logic and the proper use of language before being let loose (hey there's another *adds to list*) online, unlike most people.
Thankyou, that is almost helpful (and I feel better plainly stated rather than vaguely implied). What would you recommend instead?
Most of my projects at work have been Delphi or Perl based, and IMO they are fine for beginners, but I imagine many Slashdotters like to play around with newer IDEs and languages..
it made the sentence hard to parse. At least I lost a while trying to glean what you wanted to say.
WTF. I lost a little more than a while trying to parse "At least I lost a while", since it sounds like you're saying it as if it's a good thing. The "at least" was completely redundant. And your other mistake is glaringly obvious. Good job on looking at the preview.
You hardly have to be "techno-literate" to watch a video. Have you been to YouTube lately? It appears that most of the comments there are made by sub-human troll creatures who think that anything vaguely cool or impressive is "fake".
At least those in court should have some kind of qualification and be able to take appeals into consideration, if anyone actually bothers to fight the ticket.
But in reality it might actually just make people put some effort into parking correctly rather than being lazy. Oh, the horrors!
So, while you'd mind a camera in your house, you wouldn't mind - say - a cop with a camera following you around every time you're outside, recording everything you do and say?
Having someone physically follow you around is different to simply being watched. I would feel much more awkward with someone following me around all day, whether with camera or not, than I would at being observed via CCTV and Satellites all day, which is already a possibility. Being observed is completely different to being physically followed by a stranger, which elicits a fight or flight response, or simply would feel "strange", and above all be a waste of government resources. Plus, who is watching the watcher in that case? If the watcher does something wrong, there is no accountability. Whereas at least with CCTV the watcher cannot rape you from behind a screen.
Yeah, you're meant to leave 15 metres of space at all junctions. I saw some incredibly bad parking the other day where I wasn't sure at first if the driver was waiting halfway through the junction, about to pull out, turns out the car was just parked there driverless, with many other cars parked in front of it over the double yellow lines. It's even worse than the roundabout lane discipline people have.
Your intended point is understandable and probably something that we all thought when reading the summary
Still, being decent at a language and it being your first language are not contradictory things. Thinking he's decent at the language and not knowing much about templates is of course more contradictory, but you certainly don't have to be an expert to be "decent" at something.
Anyway, my point was that guy is obviously aware he has more to learn and is humbly asking us how he can do so. It's an attitude that should be encouraged, and it's sad that the first post is someone trying to insult him, with no actual helpful advice.
Your intended point (while you stated it rather poorly, since it's stupid to suggest someone couldn't be a good programmer in a language simply because it's their first - I am still a "decent" BASIC programmer despite learning many languages since) is understandable and probably something that we all thought when reading the summary, but it does depend on your definition of "decent", and the poster's ability to self evaluate. Usually I take "decent" to mean "average to good". As an "Applied Math grad student" he has already demonstrated good logical ability and therefore probably has the makings of a good programmer.He didn't claim he was amazing, but presumably he can write code that works even if it's not amazingly efficient, and he clearly knows he has much to learn and is looking for avenues to improve.
Rather than simply making obvious criticisms, you could try to help. I unfortunately have very little experience with helping out in open source projects, and have no clue about Mathematics libraries so I can't offer any useful advice, but I'm certainly not just going to sit here and watch while some smug AC takes immature pot shots at a guy who is trying seriously to both better himself and help out other people in the process.
That's good then. The ad made it looks like they were glorifying it all a bit too much. The movie isn't out here in the UK yet, I do want to see it now as I've heard it's actually quite well made, etc.
Yes, you can hide the users who you find annoying by clicking the X on the top right of their status update (when you hover over it). Posting useless garbage is just something people are good at. Look at Slashdot!
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It certainly is interesting and very well made, and obviously the Abramic religions have something very appealing or satisfying to human nature. I don't just dismiss them without giving this stuff any thought. I did believe in it all until I was 24, and from 14-24 especially I counted myself as a born again Christian.
I can see some benefits that arise from religion, as you mentioned in another post it's comforting and lets some people deal with the world more effectively since they believe there is someone watching out for them, which allows them to act with more confidence overall, and not take bad times quite so hard.. then there is always the charity work that religions do.
From my own experience I'd have to say I'd prefer that I wasn't brought up to believe any one religion, and that I was given the chance to choose. I know it's basically impossible to bring someone up in an unbiased manner though, and I do still respect my parents for doing what they believed was the right thing..
Heh, I just said the same thing *high five*
if he didn't then I may still believe in all of it, predestination used to big issue for me :p
I used to be a Christian, and most Christians act like everything is "part of God's plan", etc. And there's all that stuff about "hardening Pharaoh's heart" then still punishing the Egyptians for his actions, etc, it's all a bit silly and two faced..
Yes, the whole concept of a body at all if we really are spiritual beings, is more than a little silly.
Then why would he feel any need to create time and interact with people in the time flow, or in fact do anything at all if time for him does not exist, and he is unchanging, and perfectly happy with his trinity, ie should not need any outside worship or interaction? I accepted all this stuff as I was taught it growing up, but if I had learned it now I would have dismissed it as quickly as I dismiss any other religion. It's easy to see the flaws if you look at these things from a starting point of them not being true. It's only if you are desperately wanting them to be true that you start to try to deal with inconsistencies and presume that you are the one in the wrong if something doesn't seem to match up. People are always like "yes that's such a challenging passage" rather than just saying "shiiiit, that really doesn't fit in very well with that thing we just studied in church" etc. Bleh. Hit a nerve, I'll stop rambling.
As long as they take my preferences and schedule into account, the rape should be a pleasant and convenient experience at least.
So what you're saying is, god does **** all? And if you happen to do his will, it's only by chance. How would you know when you're not doing his will, or when you are? I love all these rules that have been made so that basically even if god didn't exist, the world would be exactly the same as it already is. Funny, that.
So if I Tivo a soccer match and replay it, then the players have no free will?
Definitely. No matter how many times you play it, they will always do the same thing. What's your argument here? If god controls and knows everything, then anything he changes, he knows the outcome of it, and even if he only sets the initial parameters (though the bible says he does much more than that), he is still knows the outcomes of any changes he makes. He set exactly the ratio of people that would go to heaven/hell, if you believe such things. He created billions of lives that were already condemned. To me that seems a little sick an unecessary.
Just because you feel like you have free will, doesn't mean that your actions are not pre-determinable. Plus I agree with Pojut here. When I was a Christian I felt much more limited because I was always looking for god's will in everything, rather than my own.
So your argument is basically that you break the law all the time, but you'd rather not have anyone notice that you do it? I abhor litter, and I don't think "jaywalking" is illegal in this country as far as I know.
I thought the FFMMORPG has already been out for years.. the fact that I don't really care means it makes no odds though.
Assault or rape is about the only thing that I'd consider worrying about with someone following me around all day. Otherwise it would simply be amusing and essentially a waste of time for whoever was doing the following.
Like I said, with a person following you around, you then need someone following them around, and so on, and it gets a bit stupid. A monitoring device is indeed more practical, and eventually maybe we all will be chipped.
native language*
D'oh! I wonder if Nell takes corrections into account.
Hmm, it appears that it does indeed even learn its language online. Still, at least it is able to try to judge between "beliefs" and "facts".
This is a big problem when NELL makes mistakes: the computer incorrectly labelled "right posterior" as a body part. How the boffins laughed.
English is my native and I would consider "right posterior" a valid (if obviously slightly formal and comical) description of the right buttock, so I don't see what's so incorrect about that..
NELL's human handlers had to tell NELL that Klingon is not an ethnic group, despite the fact that many earthlings think it is.
At the moment NELL thinks that the First Amendment is a musical instrument, the Second Amendment is a 'hobby,' and is completely unwilling to admit to any knowledge of the fifth amendment at all. A bit like the recording industry and most lawmakers in the US.
Okay, that stuff is pretty funny :)
Shit. I feared this day might come. Now the most advanced AI on the planet will be "learning" from YouTube "discussion" and twitter.
Hopefully it will have a good grounding in logic and the proper use of language before being let loose (hey there's another *adds to list*) online, unlike most people.
Thankyou, that is almost helpful (and I feel better plainly stated rather than vaguely implied). What would you recommend instead?
Most of my projects at work have been Delphi or Perl based, and IMO they are fine for beginners, but I imagine many Slashdotters like to play around with newer IDEs and languages..
it made the sentence hard to parse. At least I lost a while trying to glean what you wanted to say.
WTF. I lost a little more than a while trying to parse "At least I lost a while", since it sounds like you're saying it as if it's a good thing. The "at least" was completely redundant. And your other mistake is glaringly obvious. Good job on looking at the preview.
You hardly have to be "techno-literate" to watch a video. Have you been to YouTube lately? It appears that most of the comments there are made by sub-human troll creatures who think that anything vaguely cool or impressive is "fake".
At least those in court should have some kind of qualification and be able to take appeals into consideration, if anyone actually bothers to fight the ticket.
But in reality it might actually just make people put some effort into parking correctly rather than being lazy. Oh, the horrors!
So, while you'd mind a camera in your house, you wouldn't mind - say - a cop with a camera following you around every time you're outside, recording everything you do and say?
Having someone physically follow you around is different to simply being watched. I would feel much more awkward with someone following me around all day, whether with camera or not, than I would at being observed via CCTV and Satellites all day, which is already a possibility. Being observed is completely different to being physically followed by a stranger, which elicits a fight or flight response, or simply would feel "strange", and above all be a waste of government resources. Plus, who is watching the watcher in that case? If the watcher does something wrong, there is no accountability. Whereas at least with CCTV the watcher cannot rape you from behind a screen.
Yeah, you're meant to leave 15 metres of space at all junctions. I saw some incredibly bad parking the other day where I wasn't sure at first if the driver was waiting halfway through the junction, about to pull out, turns out the car was just parked there driverless, with many other cars parked in front of it over the double yellow lines. It's even worse than the roundabout lane discipline people have.
Which is why I said:
Your intended point is understandable and probably something that we all thought when reading the summary
Still, being decent at a language and it being your first language are not contradictory things. Thinking he's decent at the language and not knowing much about templates is of course more contradictory, but you certainly don't have to be an expert to be "decent" at something.
Anyway, my point was that guy is obviously aware he has more to learn and is humbly asking us how he can do so. It's an attitude that should be encouraged, and it's sad that the first post is someone trying to insult him, with no actual helpful advice.
Your intended point (while you stated it rather poorly, since it's stupid to suggest someone couldn't be a good programmer in a language simply because it's their first - I am still a "decent" BASIC programmer despite learning many languages since) is understandable and probably something that we all thought when reading the summary, but it does depend on your definition of "decent", and the poster's ability to self evaluate. Usually I take "decent" to mean "average to good". As an "Applied Math grad student" he has already demonstrated good logical ability and therefore probably has the makings of a good programmer.He didn't claim he was amazing, but presumably he can write code that works even if it's not amazingly efficient, and he clearly knows he has much to learn and is looking for avenues to improve.
Rather than simply making obvious criticisms, you could try to help. I unfortunately have very little experience with helping out in open source projects, and have no clue about Mathematics libraries so I can't offer any useful advice, but I'm certainly not just going to sit here and watch while some smug AC takes immature pot shots at a guy who is trying seriously to both better himself and help out other people in the process.
That's good then. The ad made it looks like they were glorifying it all a bit too much. The movie isn't out here in the UK yet, I do want to see it now as I've heard it's actually quite well made, etc.
Yes, you can hide the users who you find annoying by clicking the X on the top right of their status update (when you hover over it). Posting useless garbage is just something people are good at. Look at Slashdot!