Re:Got my OLPC a few days ago
on
Negroponte vs Intel
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· Score: 2, Informative
I agree 100% about your assessment of the hardware and the software. The build that was delivered with the Give 1-Get 1 hardware was weak. In many ways it was a beta, at best. BUT, in my opinion this isn't so bad since all the software is FOSS. I can wait another 4-6 months for the project to clean up the software and then I'll download the updates. No big deal. And heck, you can contribute by submitting bugs, enhancement suggestions, and code to the project. I think that's pretty cool!
In the real world we are not limited by screen size.
Translucency gives you another dimension of visibility for those documents/windows/etc that you only need awareness of, and not your full focus. That said, it's still probably 75% eye candy and 25% functional.
The question of whether we're better off with religion or not I would certainly leave up in the air. To the extent that religion may cause people to reject objective reality, it's probably a net negative. However, it may be a net positive in that it tends to codify behaviors that are conducive to healthy societies (and I think that there are obvious reasons for that). I would argue strongly that using religion to inform government policy in a pluralistic society is a bad idea and that a secular government is the only way to create a stable long term government in any society where more than one religion is represented, but that's another question.
Religion is good at getting people to do things that they might not otherwise do.
There are so many reasons why humans do "irrational" things, though. Even if religion is number one on this list, the list is long and varied. People do irrational things for wealth, fame, because they're hungry, because they're high, because they want to win their Tuesday night softball game... etc.
If all religion is, is one source (of a large number) of motivations, to sometimes make people act in a negative way against their fellow person, then I'm unconvinced that we should all be atheist. I need better evidence then that.
Should one's belief system be dictated by appears to be "good" for society or by what appears to be factually correct?
So if it's "factually correct" based on the science of economics to, euthanize people with an IQ under 60, in order to create a more efficient and productive society, that would be OK with you?
And besides aren't atheist making a value judgment when they argue that to raise a child in a theistic belief system is "bad" for the child...
My argument isn't that atheism causes societies to support mass murdering tyrants.
It just seems to me that there is an assumption that if human societies just stopped propagating religion, then many social ills would be resolved. If that's not the case, then why argue for atheism over theism.
If that is the case, why isn't there any evidence that an atheist populous would result in a better society? What is that argument based on? Theory? Hypothesis? Faith?
Since everyone is into evidentiary proof, could someone please prove to me the joy, peace, and enlightenment an overwhelming atheist society can bring, by providing me with an example of such. A few widespread cultural atheist examples that I can think of are Hitler's Germany, Communist Russia, and Communist China. Am I missing something?
Well, I do know that my one experience similar to this AOL cancellation phone-adventure was when I tried to cancel an MBNA credit card, back when I was in college. The CS dude gave me a long run-around which included the alternative of throwing the card in a drawer in case of emergency, instead of cancelling the account. Finally, when he agreed to go through with the cancellation I got the old, "you'll regret this" speech. Needless to say, I haven't given MBNA any of my money since.
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I agree 100% about your assessment of the hardware and the software. The build that was delivered with the Give 1-Get 1 hardware was weak. In many ways it was a beta, at best. BUT, in my opinion this isn't so bad since all the software is FOSS. I can wait another 4-6 months for the project to clean up the software and then I'll download the updates. No big deal. And heck, you can contribute by submitting bugs, enhancement suggestions, and code to the project. I think that's pretty cool!
This is suppose to be a READING device and it's got a keyboard that takes up like 30% of the surface area... That seems like very bad design to me!
What about Global Warming? As the planet has been warming and CO2 in the atmosphere increasing, violent crime has been decreasing. What do we do now?
In the real world we are not limited by screen size. Translucency gives you another dimension of visibility for those documents/windows/etc that you only need awareness of, and not your full focus. That said, it's still probably 75% eye candy and 25% functional.
If all religion is, is one source (of a large number) of motivations, to sometimes make people act in a negative way against their fellow person, then I'm unconvinced that we should all be atheist. I need better evidence then that.
Why do you believe this? What scientific proof do you have to make such a statement?
So if it's "factually correct" based on the science of economics to, euthanize people with an IQ under 60, in order to create a more efficient and productive society, that would be OK with you?
And besides aren't atheist making a value judgment when they argue that to raise a child in a theistic belief system is "bad" for the child...
My argument isn't that atheism causes societies to support mass murdering tyrants.
It just seems to me that there is an assumption that if human societies just stopped propagating religion, then many social ills would be resolved. If that's not the case, then why argue for atheism over theism.
If that is the case, why isn't there any evidence that an atheist populous would result in a better society? What is that argument based on? Theory? Hypothesis? Faith?
Since everyone is into evidentiary proof, could someone please prove to me the joy, peace, and enlightenment an overwhelming atheist society can bring, by providing me with an example of such. A few widespread cultural atheist examples that I can think of are Hitler's Germany, Communist Russia, and Communist China. Am I missing something?
Well, I do know that my one experience similar to this AOL cancellation phone-adventure was when I tried to cancel an MBNA credit card, back when I was in college. The CS dude gave me a long run-around which included the alternative of throwing the card in a drawer in case of emergency, instead of cancelling the account. Finally, when he agreed to go through with the cancellation I got the old, "you'll regret this" speech. Needless to say, I haven't given MBNA any of my money since.