Once man learned to manipulate his environment rather than evolve to fit it, the rate of human evolution slowed down. Not only that but it started going in strange directions. Don't worry. Evolution is slow. Unless civilization remains unchanged for thousands of years, it won't be an environment to adapt to.
Sure, evolution is having a little fluke today. But society will either:
A) collapse before evolution have had time to make any difference.
B) give us genetical engineering to void evolution completely.
That explains why the Swedish movie industry, instead of the evil capitalist studio system in Hollywood, USA, dominates the global market for movies. Acutally, I think they dominate due to the enormous demand for swedish-speaking movies.
Are wireless devices going to cause the plane to crash or not? No.
But imagine a plane full of passengers with everyone talking on their mobiles with their parents, children or partners. Instead of calling people before boarding, everyone would wait until they had found their seat, and probably keep going until after takeoff.
I've always considered of it as an excuse, to prevent people from wasting time in a business where a 10 minute delay on your takeoff is a very bad thing. Maybe I was right.
I don't think population denisities are the real issue. You get broadband where people are willing to pay for it. And it seems to me that americans simply are less interested.
My parents live in Norway. (#10? What?! Damn you, Sweden!) Countryside. 2000 people town. 200 meter to the neighbour. Most people there had ADSL availiable years ago. Last summer a company put up a radio antenna on a hilltop and provided wireless broadband to the rest.
I think every farm boy there is connected, and pretty familiar with computers/Internet. My nephew is an elementary school student in said town. Most of his classmates seems to be connected, playing flash games and chatting.
People who start out as active young children are probably more likely to stay active into adulthood, at least moreso than less active kids. I think you missed a point: "The most important thing (was) if you added the in-school activity to the out-of-school activity, they were exactly the same."
According to the study, fitness programs DOES NOT increase activity in children. If that is true, why should it increases activity in adults? It seems you are just assuming it could "potentially" be a good thing.
Don't get me wrong, I think sports is good and am not convinced by the article at all. For one, they seem to call everything 'activity' - no difference between hard workout and long rests, as opposed to many small movements.
However, maybe any money spent on a fitness program could be equally well spent on a food program. Is there a lot of focus on "eating right" in UK schools? How about american schools?
Is it funny, or deeply disturbing, to quote Lovecraft with the article?
In that case, maybe this next round of evidence will have to be not only beyond anything we know but also beyond anything we know how to know.
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
we're not even made of the same stuff as most of the rest of everything. "We're just a bit of pollution," (...)
"If you got rid of us, and all the stars and all the galaxies and all the planets and all the aliens and everybody, then the universe would be largely the same. We're completely irrelevant."
"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
If they marketed it as ultra-quiet PC's, I might be more interested. But that would be for the purpose of removing fans, not supercharging my memory. more interested in quiet and energy-efficient solution than clock speeds that moore-ishly will be on sale in a few months.
And some people would prefer if we hug trees instead of pondering how to spend more power to remove the heat from all the power we're pumping into our gaming rigs.
Hmm... wonder how many comments we'll get with 'afraid of water' and 'liquid nitrogen'...
"Those who refuse to take the treatment will die off in a generation."
Won't someone think of the children? Err... I mean, those who refuse will still have babies, unless you are suggesting some rather drastic measures.
Death is a feature, to make room for the next generation and speed up evolution. Everyone living forever AND having children just won't work, you know. Not to mention all the time that would be wasted if humanity was reduced to a bunch of grumpy 500-year-olds talking about how much better things were in the past. (Transhumanists, beware!)
Finally: Technological advances are not always as great as they seem to be. Read up on DDT, maybe.
And just how would you deal with a global road shortage? Imaging not being able to take the car to the supermarket down on the corner! Starvation, my friends.
Seriously, are we predicting the end of human civilization because we have an infinite demand for youtube and P2P? It's a non-issue. Get any major trouble with congestion, and broadband subscribtions would simply fall back to capped bandwidth.
The article seems to ignore the fact of all-we-can-eat subscribtions. And then worries about how we're running amok with it. Duh. Because it's free, stupid.
However, to prevent the imminent destruction of humankind, I propose:
1: That damn dirty pirates only download things they're actually going to watch, instead of attempting to build a local copy of media history. (Est. bandwith savings: 60%) 2: That governments introduce makes it a felony to upload tasteless content on youtube. (Est. bandwith savings: 30%) 3: That the US declares War on Spammers and puts its military to some proper use. (Est. bandwith savings: 20%. And world peace)
Yes, a bomb can look in many different ways. Except Lite Brite, which is just stupid.
For your analogy about blending in on a street, these things would be more like running up to everyone and yelling them in the face that they should pay attention to you. While it could possibly seem like a very clever plan to make everyone ignore you, I'd call it pretty stupid.
But I'm sure any terrorists are happy. Good to know that highways and subways can be shut down with a few well-placed blinking lights, eh? Unless some jackass teenagers makes a new sport out it first. In either case, enjoy!
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, evolution is having a little fluke today. But society will either:
A) collapse before evolution have had time to make any difference.
B) give us genetical engineering to void evolution completely.
It's a non-issue.
But imagine a plane full of passengers with everyone talking on their mobiles with their parents, children or partners. Instead of calling people before boarding, everyone would wait until they had found their seat, and probably keep going until after takeoff.
I've always considered of it as an excuse, to prevent people from wasting time in a business where a 10 minute delay on your takeoff is a very bad thing. Maybe I was right.
I don't think population denisities are the real issue. You get broadband where people are willing to pay for it. And it seems to me that americans simply are less interested.
My parents live in Norway. (#10? What?! Damn you, Sweden!) Countryside. 2000 people town. 200 meter to the neighbour. Most people there had ADSL availiable years ago. Last summer a company put up a radio antenna on a hilltop and provided wireless broadband to the rest.
I think every farm boy there is connected, and pretty familiar with computers/Internet. My nephew is an elementary school student in said town. Most of his classmates seems to be connected, playing flash games and chatting.
if things and stories in slashdot goes like that im gonna quit sex and just read slashdot.
Substitute "sex" with "browse for porn" and it all makes sense.
"The most important thing (was) if you added the in-school activity to the out-of-school activity, they were exactly the same."
According to the study, fitness programs DOES NOT increase activity in children. If that is true, why should it increases activity in adults? It seems you are just assuming it could "potentially" be a good thing.
Don't get me wrong, I think sports is good and am not convinced by the article at all. For one, they seem to call everything 'activity' - no difference between hard workout and long rests, as opposed to many small movements.
However, maybe any money spent on a fitness program could be equally well spent on a food program. Is there a lot of focus on "eating right" in UK schools? How about american schools?
In that case, maybe this next round of evidence will have to be not only beyond anything we know but also beyond anything we know how to know. "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." we're not even made of the same stuff as most of the rest of everything. "We're just a bit of pollution," (...)
"If you got rid of us, and all the stars and all the galaxies and all the planets and all the aliens and everybody, then the universe would be largely the same. We're completely irrelevant." "We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
If they marketed it as ultra-quiet PC's, I might be more interested. But that would be for the purpose of removing fans, not supercharging my memory. more interested in quiet and energy-efficient solution than clock speeds that moore-ishly will be on sale in a few months.
And some people would prefer if we hug trees instead of pondering how to spend more power to remove the heat from all the power we're pumping into our gaming rigs.
Hmm... wonder how many comments we'll get with 'afraid of water' and 'liquid nitrogen'...
"Those who refuse to take the treatment will die off in a generation." Won't someone think of the children? Err... I mean, those who refuse will still have babies, unless you are suggesting some rather drastic measures. Death is a feature, to make room for the next generation and speed up evolution. Everyone living forever AND having children just won't work, you know. Not to mention all the time that would be wasted if humanity was reduced to a bunch of grumpy 500-year-olds talking about how much better things were in the past. (Transhumanists, beware!) Finally: Technological advances are not always as great as they seem to be. Read up on DDT, maybe.
And just how would you deal with a global road shortage? Imaging not being able to take the car to the supermarket down on the corner! Starvation, my friends.
Seriously, are we predicting the end of human civilization because we have an infinite demand for youtube and P2P? It's a non-issue. Get any major trouble with congestion, and broadband subscribtions would simply fall back to capped bandwidth.
The article seems to ignore the fact of all-we-can-eat subscribtions. And then worries about how we're running amok with it. Duh. Because it's free, stupid.
However, to prevent the imminent destruction of humankind, I propose:
1: That damn dirty pirates only download things they're actually going to watch, instead of attempting to build a local copy of media history. (Est. bandwith savings: 60%)
2: That governments introduce makes it a felony to upload tasteless content on youtube. (Est. bandwith savings: 30%)
3: That the US declares War on Spammers and puts its military to some proper use. (Est. bandwith savings: 20%. And world peace)
Yes, a bomb can look in many different ways. Except Lite Brite, which is just stupid.
For your analogy about blending in on a street, these things would be more like running up to everyone and yelling them in the face that they should pay attention to you. While it could possibly seem like a very clever plan to make everyone ignore you, I'd call it pretty stupid.
But I'm sure any terrorists are happy. Good to know that highways and subways can be shut down with a few well-placed blinking lights, eh? Unless some jackass teenagers makes a new sport out it first. In either case, enjoy!