Search found 868 matches
- Sun Apr 16, 2017 1:20 am UTC
- Forum: Serious Business
- Topic: Breaking Up the United States
- Replies: 174
- Views: 25855
Re: Breaking Up the United States
I don't think it would be unheard of for certain sections of the country to go full Fundamentalist Christian Theocracy, for instance. No, that wouldn't happen. Barring an actual successful insurrection by a religious organization, any government with its own bureacracy and power structures already ...
- Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:49 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Why do humans see themselves as different from animals?
- Replies: 35
- Views: 6977
Re: Why do humans see themselves as different from animals?
Because people get mad when I urinate in public.
- Fri Apr 14, 2017 7:41 pm UTC
- Forum: General
- Topic: Postmodern Retro
- Replies: 12
- Views: 3229
Re: Postmodern Retro
doogly wrote:i'm reading it like a retrofuturism maybe?
That was my initial assumption upon seeing the title, until I read the word salad OP.
"Cosmic Grunt" would also be a good name for a band, or perhaps a thirty-minute freeform jazz odyssey.
- Thu Apr 13, 2017 2:19 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 14443
- Views: 2104231
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
I love how every time advertising agencies try to be all "hip" and use random new-fangled Internet thing X , they always make the exact same mistakes over and over. Frankly, they're lucky that making their ad rely on a user-editable source of information only resulted in viewers getting an...
- Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:35 pm UTC
- Forum: Serious Business
- Topic: Breaking Up the United States
- Replies: 174
- Views: 25855
Re: Breaking Up the United States
Well there's something I never thought I'd read on this forum.
- Tue Apr 11, 2017 2:16 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 4636
- Views: 339042
Re: Trump presidency
Is there really anyone who thought: yes, that Trump guy is exactly the type to resist the lure of bombing? Surely you jest, but yes. This has been the first major departure with Trump's "America First" message, and the majority of the Trump supporters I have talked to are shocked that he ...
- Mon Apr 03, 2017 4:40 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: AI discussion from The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 90
- Views: 16834
Re: The Darker Side of the News
But computers can do that; it's simple to write a program that defines its own goals. I can write a program that defines a goal as a random number; I can then have this program try to do a lot of different things to try and reach this random number. I can even have this program remember which metho...
- Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:17 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: AI discussion from The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 90
- Views: 16834
Re: The Darker Side of the News
I don't know how you can get much more vague than that, though? Like, we agree that a brain is a thing in a human skull that lets us think, right? We don't need to have a full understanding of the brain to say that. Similarly, I don't think we need a full understanding of the brain to recognize tha...
- Sun Apr 02, 2017 10:20 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: AI discussion from The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 90
- Views: 16834
AI discussion from The Darker Side of the News
Isn't that effectively what the brain is ? -- an extremely complex, extremely interdependent tool that regulates internal functions while performing pattern-matching operations? That's part of what the brain is, certainly. Maybe it's all of what the brain is. Problem is, we don't have a full enough...
- Sun Apr 02, 2017 9:55 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 3647
- Views: 440230
Re: The Darker Side of the News
Is "thinking" really any different? I posit that it is just a more involved version of the same thing. The more different things you apply pattern matching to, and the more different algorithms you try out (and winnow), the more what you're doing looks like thinking. I see no boundary. Th...
- Sun Apr 02, 2017 3:57 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 3647
- Views: 440230
Re: The Darker Side of the News
What about neural nets that can produce music, or dynamically synthesize voices well enough to fool the human ear? Well, first off, we don't really have those. Algorithmic music comes in two flavors, too-abstract and too-formulaic, and neither would be mistaken for the genuine article (or at least ...
- Sun Apr 02, 2017 2:59 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: British EU referendum in June [update: Leave wins 52% - 48%, politics ensue]
- Replies: 1119
- Views: 133986
Re: British EU referendum in June [update: Leave wins 52% - 48%, politics ensue]
CorruptUser wrote:A half a billion pounds for a design? I know Britain was dumb enough to spend half a million for the godawful 2012 Olympics logo that looks like Lisa Simpson going down on her headless brother, but wow, what's in the water over there?
And that's not even getting started on Britart...
- Sun Apr 02, 2017 2:46 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 3647
- Views: 440230
Re: The Darker Side of the News
The reason people keep saying "AI IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!" is because each time we reach that corner, we move the goal-post to the next corner. Only we've never actually reached that goalpost. We've created systems that can automate a lot of the boring grind, and that's great - but we'...
- Sun Apr 02, 2017 7:48 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 3647
- Views: 440230
Re: The Darker Side of the News
I'll believe that when I see it, and not before. Nobody has ever yet (to my knowledge) created a system that did more than automate the grunt work of science and engineering, and I've yet to see any compelling reason to believe that that will change any time soon. People have insisted that the chang...
- Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:18 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 3647
- Views: 440230
Re: The Darker Side of the News
Liri wrote:It's going to be a difficult road until/if traditional jobs become obsolete and unnecessary. [sing-song]This is why we need a robust safety net/welfare state.[/sing-song]
[sing-song]This is why we need a Butlerian jihad...[/sing-song]
- Sat Mar 25, 2017 10:22 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: ACA Lives For Another Year
- Replies: 93
- Views: 16344
Re: ACA Lives For Another Year
commodorejohn alleges that he was unemployed for 14 months and then further penalized by the ACA's individual mandate. However, the ACA was supposed to have given him a tax-credit to assist him in paying for insurance. Unfortunately I don't recall all the details as this was ~2-3 years ago (fortuna...
- Sat Mar 25, 2017 6:30 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: ACA Lives For Another Year
- Replies: 93
- Views: 16344
Re: ACA Lives For Another Year
The graciousness of my relatives was the only reason I wasn't out of house and home.
- Sat Mar 25, 2017 6:04 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: ACA Lives For Another Year
- Replies: 93
- Views: 16344
Re: ACA Lives For Another Year
As for the ACA fines, there either has to be a driving force to get healthy people to get insurance, or we move to single-payer. As someone who spent a total of about 14 months unemployed a few years back, scraping by on unemployment checks and goodwill from relatives while looking for work, then g...
- Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:48 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: ACA Lives For Another Year
- Replies: 93
- Views: 16344
Re: ACA Lives For Another Year
You have to admire Paul Ryan here. It's quite an achievement to spend seven years talking about doing something without ever coming up for a plan to do it, scramble at the last minute to get something together, manage to craft a bill that alienates half of the Republican party by slashing too much o...
- Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:07 pm UTC
- Forum: Food
- Topic: Volume of the platonic diet
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2921
Re: Volume of the platonic diet
I dunno, but according to Kepler, the relative volumes of the five Platonic food groups are such that they can fit inside one another.
- Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:15 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 14443
- Views: 2104231
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
Couldn't we just finally accept that no 2D rectangle will ever map to a spherical surface without bizarre distortions and, y'know, use a globe instead? I mean, what, we're supposed to be impressed that you switched from one wrong map to another wrong map?
- Wed Mar 15, 2017 5:05 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 14443
- Views: 2104231
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
Just think of the achievements you could unlock!
- Tue Mar 14, 2017 11:57 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 14443
- Views: 2104231
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
I didn't know there was such a thing, but now all I can picture is the inevitable awkward moment where you invite someone over and their phone auto-discovers it.
- Tue Mar 14, 2017 2:09 pm UTC
- Forum: Serious Business
- Topic: Breaking Up the United States
- Replies: 174
- Views: 25855
Re: Breaking Up the United States
Isn't the problem that the parties DON'T want the others to do their own thing? For example gay marriage, neither party accepts the states doing their own thing, both sides won't quit until it's legal/illegal everywhere. Not sure if that would change if the states broke into countries. Yes, that's ...
Re: Free Will
gmalivuk wrote:Sorry, but your friend's right and free will isn't real.
We both know that you're only saying that because circumstances made it inevitable.
- Tue Mar 07, 2017 3:16 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science-based what-if questions
- Replies: 569
- Views: 59203
Re: Science-based what-if questions
...is there some alternate definition of "bidet" of which I'm not aware?
- Tue Mar 07, 2017 4:05 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Oroville Dam (CA) and crumbling infrastructure
- Replies: 36
- Views: 7636
Re: Oroville Dam (CA) and crumbling infrastructure
Yeah, up here away from the major metropolitan centers of the state it's much more red-leaning.
- Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:08 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: How can we experminetly determine the acceleration due to gravity?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 4053
Re: How can we experminetly determine the acceleration due to gravity?
eSOANEM wrote:Turns out the gravity at my university is about 0.5% higher than the standard value.
It's that "freshman 15," y'know.
- Sun Mar 05, 2017 4:59 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 4636
- Views: 339042
Re: Trump presidency
The really funny part is that he should know that the person who stands to lose the most from any investigation of the circumstances surrounding his election is himself.
- Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:09 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 4636
- Views: 339042
Re: Trump presidency
Gosh, what a shocking twist that nobody saw coming. Not sure if you're being dismissive, but it is a pretty big deal that hard proof of him breaking the law has turned up. That was hardcore sarcasm. It is definitely a big deal, it's just amazing what a not-at-all-a-surprise it is when officials of ...
- Thu Mar 02, 2017 7:27 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 14443
- Views: 2104231
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
That...makes a shocking amount of sense.
- Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:47 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 4636
- Views: 339042
Re: Trump presidency
Gosh, what a shocking twist that nobody saw coming.
- Thu Mar 02, 2017 12:48 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 14443
- Views: 2104231
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
Frankly, I'm surprised it's that high.
- Wed Mar 01, 2017 3:05 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 3647
- Views: 440230
Re: The Darker Side of the News
Hoo boy did this discussion just plunge down the rabbit-hole.
- Fri Feb 24, 2017 10:42 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 4636
- Views: 339042
Re: Trump presidency
I have definitely heard exactly that line of argument from various people I know who voted for him, for what that's worth.
Haven't heard it much since he started actually trying to do that shit, though.
Haven't heard it much since he started actually trying to do that shit, though.
- Fri Feb 24, 2017 7:35 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 4636
- Views: 339042
Re: Trump presidency
Why should Trump disavow David Duke's endorsement? It doesn't actually have anything to do with him. He can't help that David Duke likes him. Disavowing him is just a waste of time that gains him nothing, because his critics will just say "Oh well of course he WOULD say that wouldn't he"....
- Wed Feb 22, 2017 6:23 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 4636
- Views: 339042
Re: Trump presidency
Yeah, let's just take a moment here and remember what Nate Silver's prediction for the election was.
- Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:06 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 4636
- Views: 339042
Re: Trump presidency
And second... even if it makes sense to release selected SIGINT for the purposes of investigation, there are proper channels for doing that. Anonymous leaks to the f'king media by random people isn't anything close to the proper channels. Again, the entire problem is that the "proper channels&...
- Thu Feb 16, 2017 8:14 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 4636
- Views: 339042
Re: Trump presidency
The 4th Estate has so far been powerless to stop Trump's rise in any case. I'm not entirely sure what these leaks accomplish aside from proving to Trump supporters that the intelligence services are anti-Trump and are on the side of the liberal media. Well, they got Flynn ousted and lit a fire unde...
- Thu Feb 16, 2017 1:09 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 14443
- Views: 2104231
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
Well, if it's whitetails, they absolutely will go out of their way to get hit, so I'd say it's a fair characterization.