I'm not entirely sure I understood the article, mind you. But if time is viewed as a reflection of the lengths/relationships between particles, then Einstein's "time is relative to gravational field" is simply a statement that the length between particles will be different depending on what kind of gravational field the particles are in.
I think I sprained my brain on that one. Anyway, I remember reading somewhere that physicists aren't describing the universe anymore, they're describing the way humans perceive the universe -- which is not necessarily the same thing. Sort of like how in the movie Matrix, the humans perceive a spoon, but there is no spoon there, only lines of code.
I have to go roll around on the floor making quiet noises of pain and confusion now...
And will we be able to engineer children to like the activity for which they are designed...
The full potential horror that's available with this kind of idea is probably more than we can imagine. Think about children who have been designed to enjoy (ahem) "being with" pedophiles... wouldn't it be tempting to society to provide the pervs with ready-made victims, to keep the "real" children safe? Will there be kids designed to like crawling around in small dark places... perfect for coal mining, eh? The perfect part is, you can design beings that have few if any recognized rights (in the US at least) for the first 18 years of their existance. Oh, there's a thought -- design them for a life expectancy of 16 years, to avoid potential lawsuits when they hit majority age.
This issue goes far beyond what loving parents would want for their children. Sends shivers up my spine, it does...
The recent change in export laws was to allow crypto-enabled applications to be exported from the US. Now they're saying that it's only for "shrink wrapped" applications, not the source code. So you can't ship the code with the app. So? Put the non-crypto parts of the source with the app, and ship it out -- no violation of the law (assuming you've met whatever regulations still govern shipping compiled apps). Then put the crypto parts of the source code on a web server in a country that doesn't give a crap about paranoid levels of control like the US does. You've got your app, you can ship it anywhere, all the source is available to anyone. Open source isn't about the source code being on the same physical CD, it's about it being available, period. It's inconvient to do it this way, yes, but it's a whole lot more effective, IMO, then lobbying a government that doesn't give a crap what people want.
I don't see what the problem is. So you can't export open-source crypto. Big deal -- import it instead. Pick a country (or countries) that isn't interested in trying to control this stuff, and find some programmers there willing to open-souce their crypto software. Even if they screw it up at first, just email them bug fixes (a couple of lines at a time, if need be to conform to whatever silly laws your country has at the time), and eventually you'll have damn strong cryto.
Laws like this are like flaws in an OS. You can waste your time wailing about the fact that the flaw is there; you can waste your time begging for the flaw to be repaired; or you can code around it, and make the flaw irrelevant.
William Gates III will die.. lets face it he can't live forever:) lets hope he takes his os with him
I'm sure Mr. Gates has already made arrangements to sell tickets to the long line of people who will be wanting to dance on his grave. (Anything for a buck.)
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not entirely sure I understood the article, mind you. But if time is viewed as a reflection of the lengths/relationships between particles, then Einstein's "time is relative to gravational field" is simply a statement that the length between particles will be different depending on what kind of gravational field the particles are in.
I think I sprained my brain on that one. Anyway, I remember reading somewhere that physicists aren't describing the universe anymore, they're describing the way humans perceive the universe -- which is not necessarily the same thing. Sort of like how in the movie Matrix, the humans perceive a spoon, but there is no spoon there, only lines of code.
I have to go roll around on the floor making quiet noises of pain and confusion now...
Dear Mr. Gates,
:-)
DIE! DIE! DIE! WHY WON'T YOU DIE?????
Well, it is a question...
And will we be able to engineer children to like the activity for which they are designed...
The full potential horror that's available with this kind of idea is probably more than we can imagine. Think about children who have been designed to enjoy (ahem) "being with" pedophiles... wouldn't it be tempting to society to provide the pervs with ready-made victims, to keep the "real" children safe? Will there be kids designed to like crawling around in small dark places... perfect for coal mining, eh? The perfect part is, you can design beings that have few if any recognized rights (in the US at least) for the first 18 years of their existance. Oh, there's a thought -- design them for a life expectancy of 16 years, to avoid potential lawsuits when they hit majority age.
This issue goes far beyond what loving parents would want for their children. Sends shivers up my spine, it does...
The recent change in export laws was to allow crypto-enabled applications to be exported from the US. Now they're saying that it's only for "shrink wrapped" applications, not the source code. So you can't ship the code with the app. So? Put the non-crypto parts of the source with the app, and ship it out -- no violation of the law (assuming you've met whatever regulations still govern shipping compiled apps). Then put the crypto parts of the source code on a web server in a country that doesn't give a crap about paranoid levels of control like the US does. You've got your app, you can ship it anywhere, all the source is available to anyone. Open source isn't about the source code being on the same physical CD, it's about it being available, period. It's inconvient to do it this way, yes, but it's a whole lot more effective, IMO, then lobbying a government that doesn't give a crap what people want.
I don't see what the problem is. So you can't export open-source crypto. Big deal -- import it instead. Pick a country (or countries) that isn't interested in trying to control this stuff, and find some programmers there willing to open-souce their crypto software. Even if they screw it up at first, just email them bug fixes (a couple of lines at a time, if need be to conform to whatever silly laws your country has at the time), and eventually you'll have damn strong cryto.
Laws like this are like flaws in an OS. You can waste your time wailing about the fact that the flaw is there; you can waste your time begging for the flaw to be repaired; or you can code around it, and make the flaw irrelevant.
William Gates III will die .. lets face it he can't live forever :) lets hope he takes his os with him
I'm sure Mr. Gates has already made arrangements to sell tickets to the long line of people who will be wanting to dance on his grave. (Anything for a buck.)