I'm not sure if you are agreeing with me or not, but I'll try to explain my point better.
We, humans cannot "create" anything, we simply lack that capacity, for example;
imagine a color you have never seen
It is imposible. What we call inventions are nothing more than dicoveries, and a discovery is nothing more than unification of previous ideas applied in a new way. Everything we do at some deep point is imitating nature. We humans are expert nature imitators, what took nature thousands of year we imitate in hundreds of years, tens of years, and lately, years. The more knowledge we have of ALL aspects of nature the more we can unify ideas, making our versions of it replacing, what ever nature did in this planet. We humans are an extension of nature, I dare to say that our intelligence is nothing but nature's evolution.Humans have an unpararelled ability to "naturally select" the best ideas for our own perceived benefit.
Since we are expert at applying nature for own survival, we got to a point in which we decided to duplicate our own brain, thought or conciousness, and the byproduct of that are computers, and maybe eventually AI. Of course we might fail, we might not be such good imitators after all and we will be naturally selected out, but until now it has worked. It's all a big circle.
I feel like a crazy man posting this cause I admit that it does seems a little far out there, but so far I cannot disprove it, and makes sense to me.
agreed. I think is important to point out the role of technology in all of this. Computer power and telecomunications are the tools of this "new order". I think all slashdoters should keep this in mind as a lot of slashdotter develop technology that could later be applied for monitoring and policing the american people. The truth is that technoheads and scientist have created this technology with the good of humanity in mind but it has been put to a perverted use. I think whats ocurring right now is a natural process. People in power want more power, and technology has opened the flood gates towards that power.
What will happen next no one knows but if history repeats itself, there will be a massive abuse of this power and dark times are ahead of us as you can probably predict. The good thing is that every action has a reaction so forces will eventually emerge against the abuses of the "government". That is unless the think tanks that control government policy are able to maintain a balance between control and freedom that will prevent a real revolt.
I dont think there is much any of us can do as the danger is just theoretical in nature. Only people that are concerned for the future implications of this power are now activist or willing to do something about it, and that is a very small minority. If our fears ever come true then there will be enough of a force to fight back. Until then my only concern is my security and the security of my family, which is not directly threatened by the new fascist america as long as I dont fight the system. Priorities are a pain in the ass
It does seems like the game is much longer than the demo points at. During the demo he keeps pointing out that you need to "buy", mutations, upgrades, designs and technology. It seems to me that to buy anything you need currency, earning that currency is the whole point of the game. You do whatever task is needed to earn money so you can upgrade your cell/vertebrate/city/world/galaxy. The whole success of the game depends on how fun is earning that money. I'm a big fan of all the Civ games as well as sim city and it seems to me that this game has the same appeal. I'm looking forward to try this game, which brings me to my next point, piracy.
This game seems like a good way to avoid piracy without making your clients upset. Since the game is constantly downloading and uploading content to a private server, it's seems like pirating this game will leave you with an incomplete game if playable at all.
That is indeed the real question, but we can't do much about it, can we.
It is already felt here, even amongst nerds that ought to realize how so many things are conected. Too much power.. even if for a "good" cause can indeed be dangerous.
The monopoly idea worked out pretty good for Microsoft, their goal was to make money and grow. They did pretty well at that. Could it work the same way for a charity? As long as "improving society" remains as the goal, maybe it will work too.
The real question is, what is "improving society"?
Trying to keep it short,
Are you implying that the reason Buffet gave his money to the Gates foundation is that they both share the belief that education and the Internet is the best solution for society's problems? Thats the conclusion I arrived before reading your very interesting post and was confirmed by all the articles.
Even if my conclusion is wrong the articles were extremely interesting. Thanks.
but there is usefulness if your belief in god fuels your curiosity about the universe.
I believe that God=universe, he doesnt make it work, he IS IT. By understanding the universe we are understanding the nature of God himself. I could even say thet God is a placeholder for missing knowledge at any level. Once a question has an answer it displaces the magical properties of God with a reapetable pattern. I think fear of the unknown applies to knowledge and it gives me comfort to know that there is already an answer for eveything... we just have to find the right question.
How my beliefs apply to string theory, I dont know enough about it to say.
That may be true but the fact is that the "terrorists" now know that their calling patterns are potentially being monitored. So if they were dumb enough to think that their calls were not being monitored before, now they know to be careful when to place a call and to who, or maybe just use pre-paid disposable phones or phones from the black market. Regardless whether the information was given to the NSA or not, is not a secret anymore, the smart criminals we are dealing with will assume they received it whether the NSA admits to it or not. IMHO if they were using this program for antiterrorism purposes, it's naive to pretend the terrorist aren't taking measures against it.
It doesn't matter anyway; American apathy towards this is what's dictating the outcome of it. The only thing that will come out of this is a good precedent for more intrusion and monitoring. Piece of advice, play by the new rules or suffer the consequences (defamation, less employment opportunities and constant fear of the government). But who cares at least we will retain our standing as a superpower
frankly, sometimes I think that maybe this is not that bad. If you are a terrorist, child molester, electronic pirate , or have political aspirations contrary to the current powers(not good, I know it) then this is bad news. OTOH Giant corporations and special interest groups have nothing to fear. They should have access to the same information. After all, they all own congresspeople. Competing corporations will use this information the same way nukes have been used, I know you are doing this but you know I'm doing that, so none of us can use it.
In a certain way whats going on right now is the will of the people. Corporations, thanks to a free market cater to the people . As evil we try to make em look, they just want to sell whatever they sell to us. So every political purchase they make is with the purpose of making money, the only way they make money is by catering to the public. We vote with our own wallets.
In reality is to the benefit of the ones in power to make sure we the people are happy. How do you make the public happy, cheap food and housing, and as many luxuries as you can. So in the end your family might be better off this way. Maybe democracy was overrated and this new order thats emerging is going to bring better quality of life for most of us.
I can't believe I'm writing this but, change is coming, and I'm trying to be an optimist. Maybe one day I will be happy trading real freedom for an HDTV and ultra high speed conection.
If the people that are working for you dont know its a secret they wont care about telling anyone. The worst way to keep a secret is making it obvious that there is a secret. From my experience I've learned that if you pretend it is not secret then it will become a well kept secret. for example area 51 is a horrible way to keep a secret. Everyone that works there knows it is a secret so sooner or later it will stop being a secret. I really want to go deeper into this but the only use will be to get me in trouble. Go ahead mod me down now... I guess some of you will understand the concept I'm trying to explain.
News like this is music to the ears of the enemies of this country (foreign and domestic). We officially have no real freedom. I already knew that I had to keep my political views relatively private (no picketing or getting involved in 3rd parties like the green party or libertarian) but that is not a reality anymore. I can't have a political conversation over e-mail, forum or phone without the chance of the government recording it. After I'm in a database for having radical thoughts, (that the US is not a democracy) I can forget about having political aspirations, or high level work in corporations or government. Its either play by the rules or ??????
Can anyone think of a REALISTIC way of not becoming a police state? There is simply no way that we can fix it by voting (it cannot be accounted properly). I'm very scared to say this, but the only way I can see to escape this reality is by a NO VOTE campaign. Voting for anyone is saying that the system work. If enough people didn't vote the system would have to change. But then again, that is not a real possibility, VOTING is good, even if you vote for a tyrant (according to the government).
Call me what you want but I have decided to become part of the system. I will graduate and go on to work for a giant corporation (AKA, the real government). My plan is to make as much money as I can and buy me a politician or two. That's the only way I can have a real say in this country. It is true that by to a lot of money and keep it, I will have to run over many, many people, and cheat, and make use of slave labor in other countries, and maybe even buy background information on other people so I can legally blackmail them... but so is the system. F**k being moral... I have to look out for my family and me. Good luck everyone... We WILL need it.
Is it just me or a law like this is just a police state waiting to happen? This type of information would be ideal for the profling of american citizens. I imagine this works a lot like spyware. It learns from the website you visit and from there computers put you into different categories. If we are lucky it will be something like:
Cat I. Terrorist
Cat II. Child molesters
Cat III. Everyone else
Regretably once that system is in place what will happen is this.
Cat I. Terrorist
Cat II. Child molesters
Cat III.Dangerously liberal
Cat IV. Dangerously conservative
Cat V. Too smart
Cat VI. ????
From there on, all they have to do is keep all the dirt they can on the subjects. If they ever present a problem for the goverment( by voicing their opinions), discredit them. Voila, they have absolut power. All they have to do is keep gas cheap, TV entertaining and food plentiful an the rest of the american citizenry will follow in line.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not sure if you are agreeing with me or not, but I'll try to explain my point better.
We, humans cannot "create" anything, we simply lack that capacity, for example;
imagine a color you have never seen
It is imposible. What we call inventions are nothing more than dicoveries, and a discovery is nothing more than unification of previous ideas applied in a new way. Everything we do at some deep point is imitating nature. We humans are expert nature imitators, what took nature thousands of year we imitate in hundreds of years, tens of years, and lately, years. The more knowledge we have of ALL aspects of nature the more we can unify ideas, making our versions of it replacing, what ever nature did in this planet. We humans are an extension of nature, I dare to say that our intelligence is nothing but nature's evolution.Humans have an unpararelled ability to "naturally select" the best ideas for our own perceived benefit.
Since we are expert at applying nature for own survival, we got to a point in which we decided to duplicate our own brain, thought or conciousness, and the byproduct of that are computers, and maybe eventually AI. Of course we might fail, we might not be such good imitators after all and we will be naturally selected out, but until now it has worked. It's all a big circle.
I feel like a crazy man posting this cause I admit that it does seems a little far out there, but so far I cannot disprove it, and makes sense to me.
agreed. I think is important to point out the role of technology in all of this. Computer power and telecomunications are the tools of this "new order". I think all slashdoters should keep this in mind as a lot of slashdotter develop technology that could later be applied for monitoring and policing the american people. The truth is that technoheads and scientist have created this technology with the good of humanity in mind but it has been put to a perverted use. I think whats ocurring right now is a natural process. People in power want more power, and technology has opened the flood gates towards that power.
What will happen next no one knows but if history repeats itself, there will be a massive abuse of this power and dark times are ahead of us as you can probably predict. The good thing is that every action has a reaction so forces will eventually emerge against the abuses of the "government". That is unless the think tanks that control government policy are able to maintain a balance between control and freedom that will prevent a real revolt.
I dont think there is much any of us can do as the danger is just theoretical in nature. Only people that are concerned for the future implications of this power are now activist or willing to do something about it, and that is a very small minority. If our fears ever come true then there will be enough of a force to fight back. Until then my only concern is my security and the security of my family, which is not directly threatened by the new fascist america as long as I dont fight the system. Priorities are a pain in the ass
It does seems like the game is much longer than the demo points at. During the demo he keeps pointing out that you need to "buy", mutations, upgrades, designs and technology. It seems to me that to buy anything you need currency, earning that currency is the whole point of the game. You do whatever task is needed to earn money so you can upgrade your cell/vertebrate/city/world/galaxy. The whole success of the game depends on how fun is earning that money. I'm a big fan of all the Civ games as well as sim city and it seems to me that this game has the same appeal. I'm looking forward to try this game, which brings me to my next point, piracy.
This game seems like a good way to avoid piracy without making your clients upset. Since the game is constantly downloading and uploading content to a private server, it's seems like pirating this game will leave you with an incomplete game if playable at all.
That is indeed the real question, but we can't do much about it, can we. It is already felt here, even amongst nerds that ought to realize how so many things are conected. Too much power.. even if for a "good" cause can indeed be dangerous.
The monopoly idea worked out pretty good for Microsoft, their goal was to make money and grow. They did pretty well at that. Could it work the same way for a charity? As long as "improving society" remains as the goal, maybe it will work too.
The real question is, what is "improving society"?
Trying to keep it short, Are you implying that the reason Buffet gave his money to the Gates foundation is that they both share the belief that education and the Internet is the best solution for society's problems? Thats the conclusion I arrived before reading your very interesting post and was confirmed by all the articles. Even if my conclusion is wrong the articles were extremely interesting. Thanks.
but there is usefulness if your belief in god fuels your curiosity about the universe.
I believe that God=universe, he doesnt make it work, he IS IT. By understanding the universe we are understanding the nature of God himself. I could even say thet God is a placeholder for missing knowledge at any level. Once a question has an answer it displaces the magical properties of God with a reapetable pattern. I think fear of the unknown applies to knowledge and it gives me comfort to know that there is already an answer for eveything... we just have to find the right question.
How my beliefs apply to string theory, I dont know enough about it to say.
That may be true but the fact is that the "terrorists" now know that their calling patterns are potentially being monitored. So if they were dumb enough to think that their calls were not being monitored before, now they know to be careful when to place a call and to who, or maybe just use pre-paid disposable phones or phones from the black market. Regardless whether the information was given to the NSA or not, is not a secret anymore, the smart criminals we are dealing with will assume they received it whether the NSA admits to it or not. IMHO if they were using this program for antiterrorism purposes, it's naive to pretend the terrorist aren't taking measures against it.
It doesn't matter anyway; American apathy towards this is what's dictating the outcome of it. The only thing that will come out of this is a good precedent for more intrusion and monitoring. Piece of advice, play by the new rules or suffer the consequences (defamation, less employment opportunities and constant fear of the government). But who cares at least we will retain our standing as a superpower
frankly, sometimes I think that maybe this is not that bad. If you are a terrorist, child molester, electronic pirate , or have political aspirations contrary to the current powers(not good, I know it) then this is bad news. OTOH Giant corporations and special interest groups have nothing to fear. They should have access to the same information. After all, they all own congresspeople. Competing corporations will use this information the same way nukes have been used, I know you are doing this but you know I'm doing that, so none of us can use it.
In a certain way whats going on right now is the will of the people. Corporations, thanks to a free market cater to the people . As evil we try to make em look, they just want to sell whatever they sell to us. So every political purchase they make is with the purpose of making money, the only way they make money is by catering to the public. We vote with our own wallets.
In reality is to the benefit of the ones in power to make sure we the people are happy. How do you make the public happy, cheap food and housing, and as many luxuries as you can. So in the end your family might be better off this way. Maybe democracy was overrated and this new order thats emerging is going to bring better quality of life for most of us.
I can't believe I'm writing this but, change is coming, and I'm trying to be an optimist. Maybe one day I will be happy trading real freedom for an HDTV and ultra high speed conection.
Little hint about goverment secrecy.
If the people that are working for you dont know its a secret they wont care about telling anyone. The worst way to keep a secret is making it obvious that there is a secret. From my experience I've learned that if you pretend it is not secret then it will become a well kept secret. for example area 51 is a horrible way to keep a secret. Everyone that works there knows it is a secret so sooner or later it will stop being a secret. I really want to go deeper into this but the only use will be to get me in trouble. Go ahead mod me down now... I guess some of you will understand the concept I'm trying to explain.
News like this is music to the ears of the enemies of this country (foreign and domestic). We officially have no real freedom. I already knew that I had to keep my political views relatively private (no picketing or getting involved in 3rd parties like the green party or libertarian) but that is not a reality anymore. I can't have a political conversation over e-mail, forum or phone without the chance of the government recording it. After I'm in a database for having radical thoughts, (that the US is not a democracy) I can forget about having political aspirations, or high level work in corporations or government. Its either play by the rules or ??????
Can anyone think of a REALISTIC way of not becoming a police state? There is simply no way that we can fix it by voting (it cannot be accounted properly). I'm very scared to say this, but the only way I can see to escape this reality is by a NO VOTE campaign. Voting for anyone is saying that the system work. If enough people didn't vote the system would have to change. But then again, that is not a real possibility, VOTING is good, even if you vote for a tyrant (according to the government).
Call me what you want but I have decided to become part of the system. I will graduate and go on to work for a giant corporation (AKA, the real government). My plan is to make as much money as I can and buy me a politician or two. That's the only way I can have a real say in this country. It is true that by to a lot of money and keep it, I will have to run over many, many people, and cheat, and make use of slave labor in other countries, and maybe even buy background information on other people so I can legally blackmail them... but so is the system. F**k being moral... I have to look out for my family and me. Good luck everyone... We WILL need it.
Is it just me or a law like this is just a police state waiting to happen? This type of information would be ideal for the profling of american citizens. I imagine this works a lot like spyware. It learns from the website you visit and from there computers put you into different categories. If we are lucky it will be something like:
Cat I. Terrorist
Cat II. Child molesters
Cat III. Everyone else
Regretably once that system is in place what will happen is this.
Cat I. Terrorist
Cat II. Child molesters
Cat III.Dangerously liberal
Cat IV. Dangerously conservative
Cat V. Too smart
Cat VI. ????
From there on, all they have to do is keep all the dirt they can on the subjects. If they ever present a problem for the goverment( by voicing their opinions), discredit them. Voila, they have absolut power. All they have to do is keep gas cheap, TV entertaining and food plentiful an the rest of the american citizenry will follow in line.