an avian brain seems to have extremely useful capabilities and is far, far more compact
Why hasn't anyone tried to model an insect's neurological functions? It seems that a honeybee's neurology would be quite useful in the design of an autonomous aircraft.
Don't give us all so much credit. There are a lot of things hard-wired into an animal's brain that comes from millions of years of evolution, and other things that come from the organism's experiences.
For instance, a heterosexual man can't help but look at a pretty girl, which annoys the hell out of their wives. When I stopped smoking, a year later when I didn't have any craving for tobacco whatever and had no desire to light a cigarette, nevertheless when I walked down the steps at work my hand automatically grabbed the shirt pocket that had held cigarettes all those years.
We are only another species of organism. There's nothing special about us; at least, no more than any other species. We have big brains, so what? We almost became extinct 70,000 years ago despite our big brains.
I am a non-native speaker of English, but I dare say my posts to date on slashdot contain fewer mistakes (perhaps none) than those of most native speakers
I think you're probably right. If one says "loose" once when he means "lose" it's probably the kind of typo anyone can make; I've done it, especially in a hurry. But if he or she says "loose" meaning "lose" several times, (s)he's IMO an illiterate.
I also think there are some morons that think the extra "o" makes them "l33t" and "kewl".
Actually it was humanity that didn't learn. In the Asimov universe, the seroth law caused the Earth to become a radioactive, uninhabitable wasteland, and finally for the galaxy to become a single organism somewhat like Star Trek's Borg, only happy.
That was a bit of irony, since he had a similar scenario in a short story called "green patches" where all the life on one planet was a single organism; it was pretty much a horror story with humanity being saved from this monster on the very last page.
No, this isn't taxation, which actually pays for services. This is protection money, plain and simple.
Yeah, but what they're protecting is themselves against the competetion. Their competetion is the independant artists and labels, who are NOT suing their best customers like the RIAA thieves do.
Under their scheme, they get paid but the indies don't.
No civilized society, he adds, can endure 'purely voluntary payment for art, knowledge, and culture
This is an incredibly ignorant lie. Every society in the world had just such a voluntary system until the advent of copyright in 1662.
he's convinced that the issue of payment for music is nothing less than 'our generation's nuclear power
WTF is that supposed to mean? Ironic though; when nuclear power was first engineered they said it would make electricity "too cheap to meter".
I'd be willing to bet that this sleazy RIAA goon never heard of open source software or copyleft.
In science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction must obey. Introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although foreshadowed in a few earlier stories, the Laws state the following:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first passage in Asimov's short story "Liar!" (1941) that mentions the First Law is the earliest recorded use of the word robotics.[1] Asimov was not initially aware of this; he assumed the word already existed by analogy with mechanics, hydraulics, and other similar terms denoting branches of applied knowledge.[2]
The "zeroth" law was added not long before Asimov's death:
Zeroth Law added Asimov once added a "Zeroth Law"--so named to continue the pattern of lower-numbered laws superseding in importance the higher-numbered laws--stating that a robot must not merely act in the interests of individual humans, but of all humanity. The robotic character R. Daneel Olivaw was the first to give the Law a name, in the novel Robots and Empire; however, Susan Calvin articulates the concept in the short story "The Evitable Conflict".
In the final scenes of the novel Robots and Empire, R. Giskard Reventlov is the first robot to act according to the Zeroth Law, although it proves destructive to his positronic brain, as he is not certain as to whether his choice will turn out to be for the ultimate good of humanity or not. Giskard is telepathic, like the robot Herbie in the short story "Liar!", and he comes to his understanding of the Zeroth Law through his understanding of a more subtle concept of "harm" than most robots can grasp. However, unlike Herbie, Giskard grasps the philosophical concept of the Zeroth Law, allowing him to harm individual human beings if he can do so in service to the abstract concept of humanity. The Zeroth Law is never programmed into Giskard's brain, but instead is a rule he attempts to rationalize through pure metacognition; though he fails, he gives his successor, R. Daneel Olivaw, his telepathic abilities. Over the course of many thousand years, Daneel adapts himself to be able to fully obey the Zeroth Law. As Daneel formulates it, in the novels Foundation and Earth and Prelude to Foundation, the Zeroth Law reads: "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."
Congratulations on your amazing ability to completely disregard any notion of "innocent until proven guilty". By your logic, we could be saving a ton of taxpayer money and dispense with this whole justice system thing we have in the USA. Charge 'em and lock 'em up.
I don't know where you got that idea; one of us was lacking in communication skills and I'm not sure who. Washington (I don't believe I ever met that man) was framed by crooked cops. The other article was about a crooked cop who was pretty much let go without a trial. A dozen witnesses against the man and he's not brought to trial, only pleads to two misdemeanors. That is NOT justice.
You can bet your ass if a dozen women accused you of rape there would be a trial, and their testimony would put YOU in prison. That is, unless you're a cop.
It protects the innocent and the guilty alike. When the defendant pleads the fifth but is convicted, then the fifth has protected the criminal, IMO as it should.
That's both interesting and scary. At least the Brits are honest about their Orwellian laws, unlike us Americans who call the traitorous "cowardly government official self preservation act" the PATRIOT act.
We all have to live by standards (that's why we have law)
perhaps, but that's not why I think we SHOULD have law. IMO we should have law to protect me from you and you from me, not to make us think and act alike. No law should endeavor to protect me from myself; I should have the right to ruin my life any way I see fit.
Well, considering that T-Mobile and Google are corporations and the FCC is a government agency, you don't expect it to have to follow the zeroth law, now do you?
Is the phone's code name "R. Giskard Relentlov" or "R. Daneel Olivaw"??
After my divorce my daughter told me once that my expectations were too high and I should be less choosy. So, she wound up hating both of the two girlfriends I got, both of whom are dying of chirrosis because they would have a beer drank before my coffee finished perking.
I refrain from a rant, but the more police I meet, the more I hate the police.
I don't. Refrain, I mean; here's my rant from January- Police State: In USSA, cops hassle YOU! The police ought to serve a good purpose, protecting us from robbers, thieves, rapists, murderers, etc. But all too often the police themselves are the villians. The last link is about a cop here in central Illinois who was charged with 49 felonies including one count of obstructing justice, three counts of criminal sexual abuse, seven counts of criminal sexual assault, seven counts of armed violence, 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, and 21 counts of official misconduct. He plead guilty to TWO MISDEMEANORS and got off. Anybody else would have been behind bars for the rest of their lives.
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You get the prize for the most on-topic sig this week! For those who have sigs turned off, here it is --
When a dog looks in the mirror
an avian brain seems to have extremely useful capabilities and is far, far more compact
Why hasn't anyone tried to model an insect's neurological functions? It seems that a honeybee's neurology would be quite useful in the design of an autonomous aircraft.
Pray tell, where does this "soul" of which you speak go after we leave this place?
Out to lunch.
Don't give us all so much credit. There are a lot of things hard-wired into an animal's brain that comes from millions of years of evolution, and other things that come from the organism's experiences.
For instance, a heterosexual man can't help but look at a pretty girl, which annoys the hell out of their wives. When I stopped smoking, a year later when I didn't have any craving for tobacco whatever and had no desire to light a cigarette, nevertheless when I walked down the steps at work my hand automatically grabbed the shirt pocket that had held cigarettes all those years.
We are only another species of organism. There's nothing special about us; at least, no more than any other species. We have big brains, so what? We almost became extinct 70,000 years ago despite our big brains.
I am a non-native speaker of English, but I dare say my posts to date on slashdot contain fewer mistakes (perhaps none) than those of most native speakers
I think you're probably right. If one says "loose" once when he means "lose" it's probably the kind of typo anyone can make; I've done it, especially in a hurry. But if he or she says "loose" meaning "lose" several times, (s)he's IMO an illiterate.
I also think there are some morons that think the extra "o" makes them "l33t" and "kewl".
Actually it was humanity that didn't learn. In the Asimov universe, the seroth law caused the Earth to become a radioactive, uninhabitable wasteland, and finally for the galaxy to become a single organism somewhat like Star Trek's Borg, only happy.
That was a bit of irony, since he had a similar scenario in a short story called "green patches" where all the life on one planet was a single organism; it was pretty much a horror story with humanity being saved from this monster on the very last page.
No, this isn't taxation, which actually pays for services. This is protection money, plain and simple.
Yeah, but what they're protecting is themselves against the competetion. Their competetion is the independant artists and labels, who are NOT suing their best customers like the RIAA thieves do.
Under their scheme, they get paid but the indies don't.
This is an incredibly ignorant lie. Every society in the world had just such a voluntary system until the advent of copyright in 1662.
WTF is that supposed to mean? Ironic though; when nuclear power was first engineered they said it would make electricity "too cheap to meter".
I'd be willing to bet that this sleazy RIAA goon never heard of open source software or copyleft.
If it had been me, the dozen witnesses would have gotten a conviction. He didn't even get a trial.
It wasn't then, but the standard lens is 50mm. The 135 mm I had was maybe four inches long.
The "zeroth" law was added not long before Asimov's death:
Congratulations on your amazing ability to completely disregard any notion of "innocent until proven guilty". By your logic, we could be saving a ton of taxpayer money and dispense with this whole justice system thing we have in the USA. Charge 'em and lock 'em up.
I don't know where you got that idea; one of us was lacking in communication skills and I'm not sure who. Washington (I don't believe I ever met that man) was framed by crooked cops. The other article was about a crooked cop who was pretty much let go without a trial. A dozen witnesses against the man and he's not brought to trial, only pleads to two misdemeanors. That is NOT justice.
You can bet your ass if a dozen women accused you of rape there would be a trial, and their testimony would put YOU in prison. That is, unless you're a cop.
Note to editors, please fact check articles before posting summaries
Now that was the funniest part of your post!
It protects the innocent and the guilty alike. When the defendant pleads the fifth but is convicted, then the fifth has protected the criminal, IMO as it should.
Someone posted this link in one of my journals, and it has very compelling arguments against your stance. It's a complete book posted online.
That's both interesting and scary. At least the Brits are honest about their Orwellian laws, unlike us Americans who call the traitorous "cowardly government official self preservation act" the PATRIOT act.
We all have to live by standards (that's why we have law)
perhaps, but that's not why I think we SHOULD have law. IMO we should have law to protect me from you and you from me, not to make us think and act alike. No law should endeavor to protect me from myself; I should have the right to ruin my life any way I see fit.
Well, considering that T-Mobile and Google are corporations and the FCC is a government agency, you don't expect it to have to follow the zeroth law, now do you?
Is the phone's code name "R. Giskard Relentlov" or "R. Daneel Olivaw"??
Which make sit even worse, doesn't it? Rather than just a single crooked cop, you have a single crooked CITY.
It's scary to think about what would happen to me if I tried to do this now.
Especially if your hat had your slashdot user name on it!
He should do some research
I don't have a wife; I've been divorced for five years.
After my divorce my daughter told me once that my expectations were too high and I should be less choosy. So, she wound up hating both of the two girlfriends I got, both of whom are dying of chirrosis because they would have a beer drank before my coffee finished perking.
UKIPO? Is that pronounced "uki-po"? I'd be embarrassed to work for them, even if the job itself wasn't a disgrace.
I looked it up in the dictionary, it's a ski mask. The DEA wore one when he, two FBI guys, and three local cops Jumped and searched me, my car, and my passengers without a warrant last summer.
The two incidents in that journal didn't do a whole lot to earn the police my respect, I'll tell you that.
I refrain from a rant, but the more police I meet, the more I hate the police.
I don't. Refrain, I mean; here's my rant from January- Police State: In USSA, cops hassle YOU! The police ought to serve a good purpose, protecting us from robbers, thieves, rapists, murderers, etc. But all too often the police themselves are the villians. The last link is about a cop here in central Illinois who was charged with 49 felonies including one count of obstructing justice, three counts of criminal sexual abuse, seven counts of criminal sexual assault, seven counts of armed violence, 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, and 21 counts of official misconduct. He plead guilty to TWO MISDEMEANORS and got off. Anybody else would have been behind bars for the rest of their lives.