--- Quasar Strider <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 9/8/07, Tom McCabe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > > --- Quasar Strider <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > An out-of-context quote does not magically > overrule > > three historical examples. And I can easily > provide > > more: Darwin, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, > Mendeleev, > > etc. > > > Please read some more about Plank. > He tried to fight against Hitler from within the > establishment and all he > got for himself were some dead sons and a ton of > grief. > > Plank was the opposite of most scientists. He did > his most notable > discoveries at a rather old age. > He is one of the reasons we have lasers and quantum > theory today. > > Galileo was sent to a monastery, while saying, "but > it moves!" I believe. > > Darwin was a laughing stock at the time: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Darwin_ape.jpg > > I will grant you Copernicus. He was pretty smooth.
That's not the point. All of them discovered important scientific principles where hundreds of other people had failed. > > Until we stop hoarding academic seats and start > some > > > crop rotation, > > > immortality is a problem, not a bonus. I believe > we > > > should have a mandate > > > limit, like politicians. > > > > Even if you argue that immortality is bad, surely > you > > agree that killing someone instantly with a gun is > > more humane than letting them rot for years in a > > hospital, sometimes in extreme pain, knowing > they're > > going to die. Therefore, if you assume immortality > is > > bad, we should still get rid of aging; we just > need to > > round up all the old people and machine-gun them. > > > Geez, I said mandate limit, not Stalinesque culling. > Say, I have a maximum term limit of 20 years (a > generation) at working in > that profession. Oh, okay. Please be more specific. :) > If I cannot do anything major, it is probably > because I was not actually > that good at it. > Perhaps it is time I learn something else. So I > learn something else for 20 > more years, before going back > to the same profession. 20 is just a number. It > could be 40. Let's say 40. > > What is the fun of doing the same thing for 40 years > in a row? I certainly > hope we have more interests > than that. > > If we can manage do that, I see no problem with even > immortality, although I > see little point in creating a living fossil race of > immortals tired of > blabbing with each other like the old men from the > Muppet Show. The world already has enough in it to keep us occupied for thousands of years to come. > I sometimes > feel like I am one of those old men from the Muppet > Show. There. I just had > another mid-life crisis. Just after my 6 or 7 > previous ones. Like each time > I changed schools, or the first time I shaved my > beard. > > Human neural capacity is limited by the size of the > > birth canal. You can enhance a computer pretty > much > > indefinitely, until you run up against the laws of > QM > > (which we are far from doing). You cannot train a > > worker indefinitely; the best athletes, poets, > etc. > > today have roughly the same skills as the best of > > ancient Greece. The mean has increased, not the > upper > > bound. > > > Yes but the books are getting better. I believe the > Greeks mostly teached > using dialetics. > I am not dead set against enabling people to improve > their bodies. I just > see little point in most of the things being bandied > about as advantages. In > fact, I believe we are still a bit off from the > Greek pinnacle. I suspect we > are weaker than they were at the time. > > > My point is, I believe we are not protected from a > > > mass extinction event. > > > What if the atmosphere just vanished in an > instant > > > or the Sun decided to > > > peter out? > > > What the heck happened to the dinosaurs? > > > > Agreed! To learn more about mass extinction and > how we > > can prevent it, see http://www.lifeboat.com. > > > > Input isn't the problem, it's output. Well, > actually, > > it's output and our ability to process input; our > > brain can't simply dump incoming data into a > storage > > cell for further use, so it must be analyzed in > real > > time, which cuts down dramatically on the amount > of > > information we can actually pict up. > > > In other words, we have a phishing and spamming > filter built in, which kicks > in when we are overloaded. > Autistic children do not. So they communicate by > squeaks. This is not the same thing. If I show you one page of a book, you can see all the words, all at once. But you can't just take a mental snapshot of it, go on to the next page, and analyze it later; you have to read it in real time. > This does not alter the algorithms; it just alters > the > > file's hash. It's the first sentence on > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphic_code, for > > Belldandy's sake. I'm talking about code that can > > alter its own algorithms in an intelligent manner. > > > Ok, you got me on that one, genetic algorithms with > self-modifying code it > is then. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-modifying_code > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_algorithm > > The fitness criteria can be replication speed. So we > can spam the world. There is presumably a good reason why there are no self-modifying viruses. > Who is Belldandy? > > :-) http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belldandy > ----- > This list is sponsored by AGIRI: > http://www.agiri.org/email > To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: > http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; - Tom ____________________________________________________________________________________ Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games. http://sims.yahoo.com/ ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=4007604&id_secret=39837102-a03e7a
