"how long before we see these things mounted to the top of S.W.A.T. vans for domestic crowd control? And, is that a bad idea?"
It is not a bad idea if you are for the system and the establishment, trying to protect your own interests and the status quo. Fry them hippies.
It is a bad idea if you are not a member of the elite, and you are trying to resist tyranny and fight for freedom and human rights via non-violent civil disobedience. This would only be one more tool for police to potentially abuse, like the tazer which has its good and bad sides.
In addition, there are dozens of other far more toxic materials, like Ricin and Abrin, which can easily be made using common plant material, and are also undetectable as a poison and untraceable.
Even though they were just making a point, it is still funny... "Our stuff isn't good as a poison, but here's some stuff that is!"
If the power of corporations continues to grow unchecked, we could come upon a time when some corporations monitor their employees 24 hours a day, in there homes, at play, wherever, and to do anything outside of the company rules would mean termination. It would be in the company's best interest to do so.
FTA- "...they applied tetrodotoxin (TTX), a neurotoxin that blocks the active release of dopamine, to the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex. TTX caused dopamine levels to drop..."
Lab Rat- "you're totally bumming me out with that neurotoxin, dude."
The elections are a charade. Elections and politicians are in place in order to give Americans the illusion that they have freedom of choice. - George Carlin
The current US political system is not much of a democracy anyway. It is a choice between right and further right.
The power is increasingly shifting from the hands of the US population to those of the establishment - institutions like media, government, religion and business - and will only continue to do so because of the effects of the corporate media over pubic opinion and from the effects of big money on the political agenda of both parties. Not to mention how malleable an entire population can be when it is constantly being bombarded with messages of fear.
He buttressed his explanation of how he crashed the Intel Centrino driver by creating a race condition by flooding it with UDP packets and disassociation requests with links to dumps of crashes he caused using this technique.
Except it's not a very good comparison. He relates Japan to Nintento and two Nintendo consoles to Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Those two consoles where things Nintendo did to itself. Not at all like having someone else drop something on you.
I agree with you, it was a lousy analogy... its just that my sarcasm didn't translate well in written word.
The console wars produced better products, however the Dreamcast was good but it lost anyway
Filtering through those three pages is worth it to get the insightful comparison of failed Nintendo consoles to the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
I haven't yet read this article due to it being slashdotted, but I'm sure it is at least as credible as the story about the new source of free energy from magnets and as accurate as the one that says goldfish are smarter than dolphins.
One of the toughest nuts to crack is what are we going to want to do, that is, what should our goals be.
If you look at most of the goals we have right now, they're pretty mundane and shortlived. Curing disease, stop killing each other, end to hunger, creating objects that we find beautiful and pleasing, creating more living beings like ourselves.
Once we reach a singularity we'll have the technology to do away with all these problem oriented goals and I for the life of me can't really think of any obvious goals past that point. While I agree with the premise that we don't have any reliable way of predicting what our goals will become past the singularity, does anyone have any guesses?
The first noble truth of Buddhism is that all is suffering. Nietzsche (whose philosophy has Buddhist influences) wrote of the will to power of all things. If we think of suffering as being caused by a lack of power, then the amount of suffering one feels is equal to the amount of power one has left to be gained.
After this "singularity" occurs and we have used technology to transcend our organic existence and overcome the plights of present day humans, the only suffering left will be the power not yet possessed. This power will be attainable in the form of technology, or rather, information. New found knowledge will continue to empower whatever humanity evolves into, be it super powerful AI, or perhaps some type of collective intelligence.
So, my guess as to what a possible goal for future civilizations might be, which is the same basic goal as we have now is... to maintain and gain power, and it will happen via the acquisition of new information, i.e. learning.
The idea of building a "new" nuke grinds my gears for 2 reasons:
One, the article mentions how they plan to do this in twenty years. In 20 years, nukes will likely dethroned as the-must-have-weapon for superpowers when new technology brings forth an even more destructive arsenal.
Second, the significant funds that are invested in the war machine are significant funds that could have been used for both foreign and domestic aid. Funds for foreign aid could be used to help to reduce world poverty, which is a precursor to desperate acts, including terrorism. Funds for domestic aid could be used for things like education and health care, which the lack of coincidently ensures an insecure and impoverished portion of the population, and therefore, an ample supply of people who support violence as a solution to problems.
WHY IS NO ONE IN THE MEDIA ASKING THESE QUESTIONS?
No one in the mainstream media is asking these questions because if they did they would lose their jobs. More than 95% of all the media we see (radio, newspapers, tv & movies) comes from one of five media corporations.
These corporations are interested in maintaining and gaining power. They do not want the general population to start asking these questions, so they rarely allow any dissenting viewpoints to enter the mainstream media.
If you want to hear these and other questions being asked, you need to go to independent media sources.
Slashdot Mirror
Aren't the truly hard-core gamers the one's who get doped up and play for 160 hours straight until they drop dead from systems failure?
proving that a watched pot does indeed boil
Hoorah for science!
I'm sick of waiting for the return of my deity.
Laughter is the best medicine... so bring out the nitrous!
"how long before we see these things mounted to the top of S.W.A.T. vans for domestic crowd control? And, is that a bad idea?"
It is not a bad idea if you are for the system and the establishment, trying to protect your own interests and the status quo. Fry them hippies.
It is a bad idea if you are not a member of the elite, and you are trying to resist tyranny and fight for freedom and human rights via non-violent civil disobedience. This would only be one more tool for police to potentially abuse, like the tazer which has its good and bad sides.
From the United Nuclear Polonium-210 webpage:
In addition, there are dozens of other far more toxic materials, like Ricin and Abrin, which can easily be made using common plant material, and are also undetectable as a poison and untraceable.
Even though they were just making a point, it is still funny... "Our stuff isn't good as a poison, but here's some stuff that is!"
Heres some pics of solar flares.
None are the one FTA, but it probably looks like these, only shaped like some sort of a monster.
If the power of corporations continues to grow unchecked, we could come upon a time when some corporations monitor their employees 24 hours a day, in there homes, at play, wherever, and to do anything outside of the company rules would mean termination. It would be in the company's best interest to do so.
Sort of like how they can do drug testing now.
FTA- "...they applied tetrodotoxin (TTX), a neurotoxin that blocks the active release of dopamine, to the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex. TTX caused dopamine levels to drop..."
Lab Rat- "you're totally bumming me out with that neurotoxin, dude."
As a potential solution to rising gun fatalities, maybe we could use it to coat bullets.
The elections are a charade. Elections and politicians are in place in order to give Americans the illusion that they have freedom of choice. - George Carlin
The current US political system is not much of a democracy anyway. It is a choice between right and further right.
The power is increasingly shifting from the hands of the US population to those of the establishment - institutions like media, government, religion and business - and will only continue to do so because of the effects of the corporate media over pubic opinion and from the effects of big money on the political agenda of both parties. Not to mention how malleable an entire population can be when it is constantly being bombarded with messages of fear.
Elections will continue to be stolen.
It could be used to build a robotic popeye.
He buttressed his explanation of how he crashed the Intel Centrino driver by creating a race condition by flooding it with UDP packets and disassociation requests with links to dumps of crashes he caused using this technique.
He said "butt".
In the event that humankind goes extinct, at least we will have left our legacy of garbage on more than just the earth.
Except it's not a very good comparison. He relates Japan to Nintento and two Nintendo consoles to Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Those two consoles where things Nintendo did to itself. Not at all like having someone else drop something on you.
I agree with you, it was a lousy analogy... its just that my sarcasm didn't translate well in written word.
The console wars produced better products, however the Dreamcast was good but it lost anyway
Filtering through those three pages is worth it to get the insightful comparison of failed Nintendo consoles to the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota
I haven't yet read this article due to it being slashdotted, but I'm sure it is at least as credible as the story about the new source of free energy from magnets and as accurate as the one that says goldfish are smarter than dolphins.
On behalf of the little guy everywhere... Give 'em hell, Shawn.
One of the toughest nuts to crack is what are we going to want to do, that is, what should our goals be.
If you look at most of the goals we have right now, they're pretty mundane and shortlived. Curing disease, stop killing each other, end to hunger, creating objects that we find beautiful and pleasing, creating more living beings like ourselves.
Once we reach a singularity we'll have the technology to do away with all these problem oriented goals and I for the life of me can't really think of any obvious goals past that point. While I agree with the premise that we don't have any reliable way of predicting what our goals will become past the singularity, does anyone have any guesses?
The first noble truth of Buddhism is that all is suffering. Nietzsche (whose philosophy has Buddhist influences) wrote of the will to power of all things. If we think of suffering as being caused by a lack of power, then the amount of suffering one feels is equal to the amount of power one has left to be gained.
After this "singularity" occurs and we have used technology to transcend our organic existence and overcome the plights of present day humans, the only suffering left will be the power not yet possessed. This power will be attainable in the form of technology, or rather, information. New found knowledge will continue to empower whatever humanity evolves into, be it super powerful AI, or perhaps some type of collective intelligence.
So, my guess as to what a possible goal for future civilizations might be, which is the same basic goal as we have now is... to maintain and gain power, and it will happen via the acquisition of new information, i.e. learning.
One way that some unscrupulous people bring users to their blogs is through shameless self-promotion.
BTW, my blog is at http://www.u4ya.ca/blog/.
I saw the new nanotechnology building a few months ago... and its a lot bigger than I expected.
The idea of building a "new" nuke grinds my gears for 2 reasons:
One, the article mentions how they plan to do this in twenty years. In 20 years, nukes will likely dethroned as the-must-have-weapon for superpowers when new technology brings forth an even more destructive arsenal.
Second, the significant funds that are invested in the war machine are significant funds that could have been used for both foreign and domestic aid. Funds for foreign aid could be used to help to reduce world poverty, which is a precursor to desperate acts, including terrorism. Funds for domestic aid could be used for things like education and health care, which the lack of coincidently ensures an insecure and impoverished portion of the population, and therefore, an ample supply of people who support violence as a solution to problems.
WHY IS NO ONE IN THE MEDIA ASKING THESE QUESTIONS?
No one in the mainstream media is asking these questions because if they did they would lose their jobs. More than 95% of all the media we see (radio, newspapers, tv & movies) comes from one of five media corporations. These corporations are interested in maintaining and gaining power. They do not want the general population to start asking these questions, so they rarely allow any dissenting viewpoints to enter the mainstream media.
If you want to hear these and other questions being asked, you need to go to independent media sources.
One time I made a phone with nothing but 2 tin cans and a piece of waxed string.
'Anything that comes through (an IP network), we can record'
I'm sure they are just using it to get free porn.