Our leaders and the Russian and Chinese leaders seem to be trying their level best to stir shit up again and start a second Cold War, and the Chinese have a space program that (comparatively) is progressing nicely. I could see us with a real second space race within the next decade, provided we don't blow ourselves all to hell sometime sooner.
I can definitely imagine the national pride issue coming back to space travel and exploration. Of course, the downside of that is that it'd be militaristic space travel, which makes our global suicide that much more likely.
Don't send humans, send simple, tough life-forms and see what comes back a million or a 100 million years hence. From our planet a cloud of spores, little spaceships loaded of virii and bacteria, should burst forth travelling out on trajectories to collide with other heavenly bodies, just to see what grows there
Two problems... 1.) an alien race comes here and kicks our ass for sending biological weapons to their planet that wiped out half their population cause they had no immunities to it, or 2.) 100 million years from now the Cold and Influenzi races come back and go to war with the Cockroche and Ante races who've inherited the world from us.
Of course, scenario 2 doesn't worry me too much because humanity would be dead by that time, and scenario 1 doesn't bother me because I find it kind of funny to picture, and because I'll be dead by the time it happens.
If the Europeans had had the technology to send robotic missions to the new world at 1% of the cost of sending manned missions, it would have made perfect sense for them to do so first.
"What the hell? Those aren't the Indies, there's no gold and spice, and all they have are buffalo and strange savages. Why bother going all the way across the ocean for that?"
Would have been a lot like how most people look at colonizing the Moon and Mars: doesn't seem like there's anything overtly useful there, so why bother going?
Of course that point doesn't apply to space exploration, but I'm just pointing out that it's not a given that exploration in blissful ignorance was going to end with the Europeans benefiting.
I don't know that it doesn't apply to space exploration. There may be, at the risk of sounding sensational, alien virii out there capable of doing our race in, just sitting in stasis on the Moon, or in the asteroid belts, or stuck to a comet. Not saying it's likely, or even a good reason to avoid going, but it is somewhat of a possibility.
It's be like making Paranoia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_RPG/ for both of the posters on/. unfamiliar with RPGs) into a movie about five astronauts who are trapped on a space station run by a computer with an AI that's gone out of control...
...or like making the Metroid movie be something about a robot cowboy angel who teaches a baseball team the true meaning of Christmas. (Penny Arcade reference)
Yes. You aren't fooling a human, you're fooling a spambot. Of course, the more sophisticated spiders are programmed to find ways around that, but it's still moderately effective. It's like anti-bacterial soap, some % of the bugs get through your defenses regardless, but it's considered preferable to having all of them make it through.
If you consider the movie a scientific comedy, that exchange was hilarious. I know I was sure laughing my ass off for it. Best pickup line ever, try that at a bar and see how fast you get laid, or get your testicles kicked up into your pelvis. The dialogue in Logan's Run is so bad it's good. I'm trying to find the novel for comparison though, with the realization that they are very very different things. I heard they're making a remake soon, one based more closely on the book (like with 21 as the age of termination).
Fish, plankton, sea greens... protein from the sea!
You can't fix stupid. There's not a pill you can take, there's not a class you can go to. Stupid is forever.
I was homeschooled and therefore received close personalized attention. As an adult, talking to the friends I have who went to public or even private school, the constant I've noticed among the smarter ones is that all of them were horribly and completely bored in high school. Some people are innately brighter then others, some bulbs are just plain dimmer. Our public education system now tries to force children into a single educational standard, an average, which the dimmer ones can't measure up to and the brighter ones are bored to tears with. Ideally, we should have courses individualized to each student, moderately challenging for every individual regardless of their ability level. Of course, we don't do that, we go with the cookie-cutter approach because mass-production is easier and cheaper then custom jobs.
Making things worse, when the dimmer ones are identified the system often times gets brought down to their level, discouraging excellence from the average and the brighter students. On top of that, the brighter ones get teased and ridiculed for being smart. Intelligence is mocked in our society, from the very top on down. Just look at how proud our freaking President is of his lack of intelligence, and look at how demonized the intellectuals are in our country. Observe how much science gets attacked by religion. It's an old story but it keeps renewing itself.
I seem to remember reading a sci-fi story somewhere, possibly one of Asimov's, involving androids and robots in the future. The topic is brought up that, in the story's setting, robots had to be intentionally designed to look unhuman, because people are too disturbed by robots that appear too close to humans. The replies to this article really lend support to the possibility of a scenario like that. I agree with the majority of posters here, an android that looks too much like a human would creep me out, especially if there were a lot of them. If there was just one and it was like Data or something, I may be able to get used to him after a long period of time.
If the androids were clearly artificial in speech and mannerisms, and had that same non-human feel to them that conversations with (and I realize this is an odd comparison) IMbot porn spammer scripts have, I could never get used to them and would always be uncomfortable around them. Uncomfortable customers means low profits for someone seeking to sell these things. I think what we're likely to see is some of these fancy looking models available to the few wealthy who want them, and stripped down "robotic" looking ones doing things like helping out old people and doing maid work around the house. People don't want Data, they want Rosie from the Jetsons.
Ha! Good point. Still, I imagine the Falun Gong worshippers could be happier with the state of things. The governmental style in China is totalitarian, whether it is effective at that or not is debatable.
I think NASA would be talking out thir ass if they tried to imply it couldn't have been done without our support; India is driving the car, we're just packing along a couple of hitch-hikers. More beneficial would be to say it was a cooperative effort, not that they needed us.
I'm just guessing that the sentiment at NASA is "already been there", I personally think it's a pretty cool idea and one that will advance human knowledge and be a good first step in the eventual colonization of the Moon. The more we know, the better we'll be able to do it. Hell, maybe they'll find something really cool and useful there, and it will provide incentives for colonization.
I just think it's neat that India is sending a mission to the moon, allbeit an unmanned one. And for all the outsourcing jokes, the fact that it's NASA getting payload space from India seems to make NASA seem like more of a joke. Of course, to them it probably is a joke, since they've already been there. It looks like, with the ESA and Bulgaria also sending payloads, the better joke would be one about the Indian mission being like a taxi driver. If it was Indian astronauts in a NASA shuttle, then there'd be a good opportunity for outsourcing jokes.
I wonder who the next nation to walk on the moon will be?
That would only be because you've probably never met George Bush in person, who said "There ought to be limits to freedom." during the 2000 elections when he was angry about a website that parodied him. Any Republican who wants to ban pornography or "obscene and immoral things" is anti-free speech. And there's a few Demcorats like that too, I have no doubt.
Freedom of speech itself is a joke in the U.S., just look up U.S. Code, Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 71 and pursuant articles, which is all the parts of the law that make sending pornographic materials through the mail illegal. Section 1461 forbids mailing any obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance; it also forbids mailing any article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use, however you choose to define that. So you can't legally mail your wife a sex toy if you're on a long business trip or something. You also can't legally mail a naked picture of anything. What's the punishment if they catch and prosecute?
Fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both, for the first such offense, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both, for each such offense thereafter
Yeah, anybody who thinks the U.S. government censors political content should just go to http://www.dailykos.com/, if we were anywhere close to being like China with regard to snuffing political dissent, that site wouldn't exist and all of us who post there would be jailed.
I'm sure they would. Governments tend towards whatever gives them more control. I don't think there is a single politician in office anywhere who isn't there because he likes the power and prestige of the office, and who would turn down anything that gave him more. I suspect that the only reason we don't have this is because each party in our government fights to keep the other from getting an advantage over them.
Slashdot Mirror
Our leaders and the Russian and Chinese leaders seem to be trying their level best to stir shit up again and start a second Cold War, and the Chinese have a space program that (comparatively) is progressing nicely. I could see us with a real second space race within the next decade, provided we don't blow ourselves all to hell sometime sooner.
I can definitely imagine the national pride issue coming back to space travel and exploration. Of course, the downside of that is that it'd be militaristic space travel, which makes our global suicide that much more likely.
Don't send humans, send simple, tough life-forms and see what comes back a million or a 100 million years hence. From our planet a cloud of spores, little spaceships loaded of virii and bacteria, should burst forth travelling out on trajectories to collide with other heavenly bodies, just to see what grows there
Two problems... 1.) an alien race comes here and kicks our ass for sending biological weapons to their planet that wiped out half their population cause they had no immunities to it, or 2.) 100 million years from now the Cold and Influenzi races come back and go to war with the Cockroche and Ante races who've inherited the world from us.
Of course, scenario 2 doesn't worry me too much because humanity would be dead by that time, and scenario 1 doesn't bother me because I find it kind of funny to picture, and because I'll be dead by the time it happens.
If the Europeans had had the technology to send robotic missions to the new world at 1% of the cost of sending manned missions, it would have made perfect sense for them to do so first.
"What the hell? Those aren't the Indies, there's no gold and spice, and all they have are buffalo and strange savages. Why bother going all the way across the ocean for that?"
Would have been a lot like how most people look at colonizing the Moon and Mars: doesn't seem like there's anything overtly useful there, so why bother going?
Of course that point doesn't apply to space exploration, but I'm just pointing out that it's not a given that exploration in blissful ignorance was going to end with the Europeans benefiting.
I don't know that it doesn't apply to space exploration. There may be, at the risk of sounding sensational, alien virii out there capable of doing our race in, just sitting in stasis on the Moon, or in the asteroid belts, or stuck to a comet. Not saying it's likely, or even a good reason to avoid going, but it is somewhat of a possibility.
My mind is going... I can feel it. Must be my secret mutant power! We're all becoming Paranoid!
I've got one for all my rams and horses!
It's be like making Paranoia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_RPG/ for both of the posters on /. unfamiliar with RPGs) into a movie about five astronauts who are trapped on a space station run by a computer with an AI that's gone out of control...
...or like making the Metroid movie be something about a robot cowboy angel who teaches a baseball team the true meaning of Christmas. (Penny Arcade reference)
Glad my AV software was on the ball. Hope there wasn't something else there that it missed though.
Squeak squeak click squeak click click squeak ee-oo ee-oo click
Translation: I for one welcome our dolphin overlords.
Yes. You aren't fooling a human, you're fooling a spambot. Of course, the more sophisticated spiders are programmed to find ways around that, but it's still moderately effective. It's like anti-bacterial soap, some % of the bugs get through your defenses regardless, but it's considered preferable to having all of them make it through.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spambot/
If you consider the movie a scientific comedy, that exchange was hilarious. I know I was sure laughing my ass off for it. Best pickup line ever, try that at a bar and see how fast you get laid, or get your testicles kicked up into your pelvis. The dialogue in Logan's Run is so bad it's good. I'm trying to find the novel for comparison though, with the realization that they are very very different things. I heard they're making a remake soon, one based more closely on the book (like with 21 as the age of termination).
Fish, plankton, sea greens... protein from the sea!
I expect a majority of /. readers are familiar with the movie.
I'm just about to hit Red 4. Time to start looking for Sanctuary!
...which everyone else simply steps over.
Nerd moment incoming
BTW, it's duergar, not dreugar. [/nerd]
Depending on where in the Milky Way Galaxy, it could be the death of us all...
millions and possibly billions of years from now.
You can't fix stupid. There's not a pill you can take, there's not a class you can go to. Stupid is forever.
I was homeschooled and therefore received close personalized attention. As an adult, talking to the friends I have who went to public or even private school, the constant I've noticed among the smarter ones is that all of them were horribly and completely bored in high school. Some people are innately brighter then others, some bulbs are just plain dimmer. Our public education system now tries to force children into a single educational standard, an average, which the dimmer ones can't measure up to and the brighter ones are bored to tears with. Ideally, we should have courses individualized to each student, moderately challenging for every individual regardless of their ability level. Of course, we don't do that, we go with the cookie-cutter approach because mass-production is easier and cheaper then custom jobs.
Making things worse, when the dimmer ones are identified the system often times gets brought down to their level, discouraging excellence from the average and the brighter students. On top of that, the brighter ones get teased and ridiculed for being smart. Intelligence is mocked in our society, from the very top on down. Just look at how proud our freaking President is of his lack of intelligence, and look at how demonized the intellectuals are in our country. Observe how much science gets attacked by religion. It's an old story but it keeps renewing itself.
I seem to remember reading a sci-fi story somewhere, possibly one of Asimov's, involving androids and robots in the future. The topic is brought up that, in the story's setting, robots had to be intentionally designed to look unhuman, because people are too disturbed by robots that appear too close to humans. The replies to this article really lend support to the possibility of a scenario like that. I agree with the majority of posters here, an android that looks too much like a human would creep me out, especially if there were a lot of them. If there was just one and it was like Data or something, I may be able to get used to him after a long period of time.
If the androids were clearly artificial in speech and mannerisms, and had that same non-human feel to them that conversations with (and I realize this is an odd comparison) IMbot porn spammer scripts have, I could never get used to them and would always be uncomfortable around them. Uncomfortable customers means low profits for someone seeking to sell these things. I think what we're likely to see is some of these fancy looking models available to the few wealthy who want them, and stripped down "robotic" looking ones doing things like helping out old people and doing maid work around the house. People don't want Data, they want Rosie from the Jetsons.
The internet is really really great...
0 642417046&q=world+warcraft+porn/
For Porn!
I've got a fast connection, so I don't have to wait...
For Porn!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=799764605
Watch it! Not dirty, unless pervent, porn, and masturbation are dirty words for you or your workplace. Visuals are clean.
Ha! Good point. Still, I imagine the Falun Gong worshippers could be happier with the state of things. The governmental style in China is totalitarian, whether it is effective at that or not is debatable.
I think NASA would be talking out thir ass if they tried to imply it couldn't have been done without our support; India is driving the car, we're just packing along a couple of hitch-hikers. More beneficial would be to say it was a cooperative effort, not that they needed us.
I'm just guessing that the sentiment at NASA is "already been there", I personally think it's a pretty cool idea and one that will advance human knowledge and be a good first step in the eventual colonization of the Moon. The more we know, the better we'll be able to do it. Hell, maybe they'll find something really cool and useful there, and it will provide incentives for colonization.
I just think it's neat that India is sending a mission to the moon, allbeit an unmanned one. And for all the outsourcing jokes, the fact that it's NASA getting payload space from India seems to make NASA seem like more of a joke. Of course, to them it probably is a joke, since they've already been there. It looks like, with the ESA and Bulgaria also sending payloads, the better joke would be one about the Indian mission being like a taxi driver. If it was Indian astronauts in a NASA shuttle, then there'd be a good opportunity for outsourcing jokes.
I wonder who the next nation to walk on the moon will be?
That would only be because you've probably never met George Bush in person, who said "There ought to be limits to freedom." during the 2000 elections when he was angry about a website that parodied him. Any Republican who wants to ban pornography or "obscene and immoral things" is anti-free speech. And there's a few Demcorats like that too, I have no doubt.
a pter71_.html/
Freedom of speech itself is a joke in the U.S., just look up U.S. Code, Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 71 and pursuant articles, which is all the parts of the law that make sending pornographic materials through the mail illegal. Section 1461 forbids mailing any obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance; it also forbids mailing any article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use , however you choose to define that. So you can't legally mail your wife a sex toy if you're on a long business trip or something. You also can't legally mail a naked picture of anything. What's the punishment if they catch and prosecute?
Fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both, for the first such offense, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both, for each such offense thereafter
Reference: http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/title18/parti_ch
Yeah, anybody who thinks the U.S. government censors political content should just go to http://www.dailykos.com/, if we were anywhere close to being like China with regard to snuffing political dissent, that site wouldn't exist and all of us who post there would be jailed.
I'm sure they would. Governments tend towards whatever gives them more control. I don't think there is a single politician in office anywhere who isn't there because he likes the power and prestige of the office, and who would turn down anything that gave him more. I suspect that the only reason we don't have this is because each party in our government fights to keep the other from getting an advantage over them.
You realize of course that we can't really trust what you say.