Several problems with this post:
You say cows and pigs are "much more intelligent" than newborns. You then go on to imply that it either a. it should be acceptable to kill babies that can't pass the mirror test or b. it should be unacceptable to kill cows and pigs.
First to address the latter, the line you propose to draw is if a creature can or can't pass the mirror test. Yet in the wikipedia article you link, it gives no indication that pigs or cows can pass that test. So without any other evidence, I have to assume you feel a. that it should be acceptable to kill babies that cannot pass the mirror test.
Now this has problems of its own, who is to say that passing the mirror test makes something self-aware. Is being able to visually identify oneself enough to justify self-awareness? Assuming the mirror test does always indicate self-awareness, that does not mean failing it indicates a lack of awareness. As you say, babies can't visually identify themselves.. but neither can the blind, or people who suffer from other kinds of brain or maybe just damaging an eye such as visual agnosia (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat).
I've met blind people that are plenty self-aware as well are the people with brain damage in that book. So, as your wikipedia article says, perhaps this isn't a good place to draw the line as there are more ways to be self-aware than just visually.
Which brings me to my bigger point, how can we safely say if anything is self-conscious or not and then use that as a basis of saying whether it is okay to kill. Do you really know that a 6-month year old isn't conscious.. sure enough to kill? How about a 1 month? How about when they are still in the womb? Can we even say plants aren't conscious? Perhaps a tree is aware of itself in a way we just can't understand or even in a way we can understand but just don't see it that way because of our biases about consciousness (I can support this statement if someone desires)
So how is it that in chess you are not directly competing against each other? I actually get quite heated in a chess game.. but on to the bigger point. While adrenaline might be a factor, it is really a small factor compared to the bigger picture. Countless studies have shown that even after just viewing violent content people have a greater tendency towards agression or mimicking behavior. (The bobo doll experiment has been done again and again with the same results with children, just to name one experiment) Personally I don't believe this means that violent games or movies should be banned, in the end it is the person's own choices and mental state that make the decision to harm someone. But I think it is worth a look to see if one can identify any more possible influences that could be identified by observing how one plays violent games that might help identify unstable people so they can be helped.
Leaked source code hurts a company not because they no longer have a copy of the code, but because the thousands of man hours that went into writing have been partially wasted. The code now needs to be rewritten to protect it from potential hackers and cheaters who will have a much easier time now that they know the inner workings of the code (remember the hl2 source leak?) Not to mention a rival company has acquired for free all your hard work and could effectively release a game very similar to lineage iii (it'd probably have to be free to avoid legal action.. IANAL) and hurt your potential sales. But there are many other reasons as well, but it boils down to: theft of intellectual property is indeed a loss despite what whoever modded parent insightful thinks.
The PS3 actually has some more edge on both the Wii and the 360 because it comes with rechargeable batteries, while for the 360 you have to purchases rechargeable packs seperately, and i'm not sure if the Wii has an official rechargeable option.
The reason bands and sporting events don't sell their tickets in an auction type style is because they want to give a somewhat fair chance to everyone to attend the event, not just the rich. Because doing so would alienate a large portion of their fans. In the same way if sony sold their ps3's in auction format they would in fact be hurting their consumers by making them pay more. As we already know, selling consoles isn't about making a profit, it is about getting the consoles into enough people's hands so they can buy games.
While initial profit seems beneficial, losing customers hurts in the long run.
I fear this rumor is untrue, well at least where they say there will be no 20 gig units in the U.S. The gamestop near me claims they only have 20 gig units.
What do you know about logic? You can construct a valid argument based on any premise you desire. A false premise does not imply a false conclusion and actually when performing a proof by contradiction you have to assume a false premise to reach the true conclusion.
Take these to premises (In logic they are usually called Assumptions)
1. Assume all fish can fly
2. Assume all robins are fish
3. Therefore all robins can fly
That is a valid argument and a true conclusion based off untrue premises.
I think a course in logic should be a requirement before stepping onto any forum.
Water is renewable, but the lifecycle of water is very different for different sources.
Groundwater, where most of the water will be drawn from in order to water these crops, has a residency time of 100-200 years before it can come back up and be used as water again.
So the water you talk about will be very expensive, not just from desalinization, but from the cost of transporting water to other places. (Most crops aren't grown near the ocean)
I have no problem with this submission under 'politics' or maybe even 'yro' but this was not a question in any sense. The poster already had his opinion on the matter and was simply trying to get more people upset over this. It is a clear example of an agenda being pushed.
I am wondering why askslashdot is being used to push agendas/post news stories, i know this isn't a new thing, but aren't there real questions to be answered? Why couldn't this story just be a normal news submission?
I agree Aeris death was just a bunch of BS. Plus I was much more interested in Tifa. Why would I be sad over losing Sticks-Mc-Gee when I had the Tifa's blessed chest to help me through it.
I can't believe people cried for aeris death, it may have been sad.. but aeris.. really? you hardly knew her.
Slashdot Mirror
Somehow my link got eaten: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Several problems with this post:
You say cows and pigs are "much more intelligent" than newborns. You then go on to imply that it either a. it should be acceptable to kill babies that can't pass the mirror test or b. it should be unacceptable to kill cows and pigs.
First to address the latter, the line you propose to draw is if a creature can or can't pass the mirror test. Yet in the wikipedia article you link, it gives no indication that pigs or cows can pass that test. So without any other evidence, I have to assume you feel a. that it should be acceptable to kill babies that cannot pass the mirror test.
Now this has problems of its own, who is to say that passing the mirror test makes something self-aware. Is being able to visually identify oneself enough to justify self-awareness? Assuming the mirror test does always indicate self-awareness, that does not mean failing it indicates a lack of awareness. As you say, babies can't visually identify themselves.. but neither can the blind, or people who suffer from other kinds of brain or maybe just damaging an eye such as visual agnosia (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat).
I've met blind people that are plenty self-aware as well are the people with brain damage in that book. So, as your wikipedia article says, perhaps this isn't a good place to draw the line as there are more ways to be self-aware than just visually.
Which brings me to my bigger point, how can we safely say if anything is self-conscious or not and then use that as a basis of saying whether it is okay to kill. Do you really know that a 6-month year old isn't conscious.. sure enough to kill? How about a 1 month? How about when they are still in the womb? Can we even say plants aren't conscious? Perhaps a tree is aware of itself in a way we just can't understand or even in a way we can understand but just don't see it that way because of our biases about consciousness (I can support this statement if someone desires)
So no, your post failed at being logical.
So how is it that in chess you are not directly competing against each other? I actually get quite heated in a chess game.. but on to the bigger point. While adrenaline might be a factor, it is really a small factor compared to the bigger picture. Countless studies have shown that even after just viewing violent content people have a greater tendency towards agression or mimicking behavior. (The bobo doll experiment has been done again and again with the same results with children, just to name one experiment) Personally I don't believe this means that violent games or movies should be banned, in the end it is the person's own choices and mental state that make the decision to harm someone. But I think it is worth a look to see if one can identify any more possible influences that could be identified by observing how one plays violent games that might help identify unstable people so they can be helped.
Leaked source code hurts a company not because they no longer have a copy of the code, but because the thousands of man hours that went into writing have been partially wasted. The code now needs to be rewritten to protect it from potential hackers and cheaters who will have a much easier time now that they know the inner workings of the code (remember the hl2 source leak?) Not to mention a rival company has acquired for free all your hard work and could effectively release a game very similar to lineage iii (it'd probably have to be free to avoid legal action.. IANAL) and hurt your potential sales. But there are many other reasons as well, but it boils down to: theft of intellectual property is indeed a loss despite what whoever modded parent insightful thinks.
So please, mod parent funny.. but not insightful.
The PS3 actually has some more edge on both the Wii and the 360 because it comes with rechargeable batteries, while for the 360 you have to purchases rechargeable packs seperately, and i'm not sure if the Wii has an official rechargeable option.
I suppose only on slashdot is a hypothetical question beyond the mental capacity of its readers.
What information made the parent informative?
The reason bands and sporting events don't sell their tickets in an auction type style is because they want to give a somewhat fair chance to everyone to attend the event, not just the rich. Because doing so would alienate a large portion of their fans. In the same way if sony sold their ps3's in auction format they would in fact be hurting their consumers by making them pay more. As we already know, selling consoles isn't about making a profit, it is about getting the consoles into enough people's hands so they can buy games.
While initial profit seems beneficial, losing customers hurts in the long run.
I fear this rumor is untrue, well at least where they say there will be no 20 gig units in the U.S. The gamestop near me claims they only have 20 gig units.
What do you know about logic? You can construct a valid argument based on any premise you desire. A false premise does not imply a false conclusion and actually when performing a proof by contradiction you have to assume a false premise to reach the true conclusion.
Take these to premises (In logic they are usually called Assumptions)
1. Assume all fish can fly
2. Assume all robins are fish
3. Therefore all robins can fly
That is a valid argument and a true conclusion based off untrue premises.
I think a course in logic should be a requirement before stepping onto any forum.
Somehow I doubt that fanboys are going to stop buying Halo because of this small incident. The only reason that mod was popular was because of Halo.
people aren't getting the joke
Water is renewable, but the lifecycle of water is very different for different sources.
Groundwater, where most of the water will be drawn from in order to water these crops, has a residency time of 100-200 years before it can come back up and be used as water again. So the water you talk about will be very expensive, not just from desalinization, but from the cost of transporting water to other places. (Most crops aren't grown near the ocean)
Chuck Norris can never be a playable character. Nobody can control Chuck Norris!
Mathematicians do their best work before they hit 30.
I have no problem with this submission under 'politics' or maybe even 'yro' but this was not a question in any sense. The poster already had his opinion on the matter and was simply trying to get more people upset over this. It is a clear example of an agenda being pushed.
you mean a free software application most likely developed by some guy in his garage runs slow!?!?! heaven forbid!
I am wondering why askslashdot is being used to push agendas/post news stories, i know this isn't a new thing, but aren't there real questions to be answered? Why couldn't this story just be a normal news submission?
What kind of self-respected techie doesn't realize a pirated windows disk when he sees it? This story doesn't add up.
hehehehe, is frozen embryos too contreversial to be modded up?
yeah, now that i think about it, the woo-woo-woo sounds weren't really techno music.. Forgive me mate, the 80's were funny times.
Pac-Man is not violent. If anything, the game promotes drug usage. Popping pills in dark rooms with techno music? Come on now.
I agree Aeris death was just a bunch of BS. Plus I was much more interested in Tifa. Why would I be sad over losing Sticks-Mc-Gee when I had the Tifa's blessed chest to help me through it. I can't believe people cried for aeris death, it may have been sad.. but aeris.. really? you hardly knew her.
You sir, are incapable of writing short comments.