Atreides

I think the point's filtering straight to relevant options rather than going through the Type of action -> Spell -> Finger of Death thing which makes a lot of sense. It's a filtered to-the-point menu less the circle.

In broad daylight.

Bye

I think JE's finally back in his stride with this It is a mystery.

That's a good point.

What's with the hazy effect anyway? My guess is they need a way to stop rendering scenery after a certain distance so that the computer dosen't blow up.

I split this from my vs thread. Alan Turing the Brittish mathematician said if you could have a conversation with AI and you couldn't tell the differentiate it with a human you're onto something. Expand that to interaction, expression and emotion. If an android replicates everything perfectly - till one of the most complex emotions of all - love is it really love? Could you love it/him/her/them? Put it this way - if you met someone and found your soulmate, would it matter to you if you found out that it was soulless? Would you change your mind? Would it matter? I don't think the issue would matter so much for sex unless your intention is reproduction. People enjoy porn and erotica just fine without any emotional attachment. The perfect avenue of release (no pun intended. Seriously.) with no strings attached. Or does it?

I just realised that the robot overlords could control our numbers in a more enjoyable way than the Terminator scenario. Think Fry's Lucy Liu in Futurama. Pleasure/love golems/androids. I used pleasure/love because different people will be in for different things but the outcome's the same. Your soulless soulmate or the perfect pasionate lover(s). The robots will use the basic urges life has embedded in us through the years to control our numbers. Of course that raises the question whether an artificial lover is any less real than a human one. I could imagine the perfect romance in every way, but then I'd look into their eye as a window into my soul and feel the emptiness echo.

I don't think the NWN2 online experience is similar to MMOs. We'd be running a finite module with a DM so it's a tighter experience. Btw I hope the friendly fire option'll be on.

Computers: We've had computers for 70+ years, longer if you count Babbage's counting machine. Maybe 30 since they started shrinking them and well, computers have infiltrated every part of our lives. If they all went off we'd be going blind. We wouldn't know what to do. No money (food etc), transportation, utilitites blah blah. Stone age. That's just shown us how dependent to them we've become in just 30 years. What future does AI have for us? A master race with our time in the sun over? Genetics: In the other corner we have genetics. When we know enough in the future we can manipulate what we want life to be. The genetic potential to be "Better", stronger, more beautiful, smarter etc. Gattaca suggests society could be segregated with Homo Sapiens v 1.1 taking over. And why stop there? Why do we even need to resemble Homo Sapiens in all but name? Why evolve when we can make leaps? Anyway who'd you back, technology or a genetic master race to reign supreme in say the year 3000?

At least I got to see the content this time Nice iron golem.

Sounds fun, but with my internet setup and probable system at the time I'm not sure how it'll work out.

Missy's cool. If I need any dog advice I'd ask her.

Thetan-chan is not amused.

Al Gore stole the internets from aliens!

Same here.

Wikipedia?

I think they got picked up on Episode IV. That's the part where Obi-Wan went about shutting down the generators so they could hike it while the rest rescued Leia. Of course they then led the Empire straight to Yavin IV but that's basically it.

Besides the conflict of interest (I'm not sure why you're so keen on oil companies being the ones that pioneer alternate energy sources) there's the question whether it makes business sense for them to go into new tech. They know how to prospect, extract and distribute oil. That's what they do better than anyone else and that's where they get their advantage. There may not really have a relative advantage to others if it's planting corn on a large scale and extracting the ethanol because they hardly know anything about it. From a shareholders point would they want the oil companies to diversify? The shareholders can drop some shares in the oil companies and invest in alternate fuel source companies if they want - doing the diversification themselves. It's been a relatively recent trend where shareholders prefer to diversify their own portfolios than have companies do it for them.

I think the oil companies would have the advantage and experience of having a solid distribution network - their gas stations and delivery etc. The thing that gets me is that the possible conflict of interest. I'm not familiar on who's funding the research among academic circles and research companies. Probably the government largely?

Which major players? The oil companies or companies in general? It's an interesting question whether the major oil companies should be the one doing the research. They specialise in oil and they might not be the most efficient dudes to go into the alternate fuel business. Having said that, I could see them eventually developing an alternate fuel branch when/if they're convinced the time's right. The thing is is that what's good for the country? There's a conflict of interest if the alternate fuel branch of say Shell collaborates with the main oil branch to maximise profits (say by delaying the release of new tech). Independent companies would probably avoid those questions, and if anything they might be pressed harder to compete with the oil companies. Eventually it'll again come down to whether it makes financial sense to make the switch. With all the pain from seeing China (and soon India?) make everything for cheaper I don't think US companies will be eager to switch to tech that'll cost more - effectively giving the Chinese a bigger advantage. The good that might come out of it is that the US might be a leader in alternate fuel research and infrastructure and when the crunch time does arrive the US will have the advantage of having most of the stuff online while the rest of the world plays catch up.

I agree it makes sense to spend now on R&D. Spend lots now because it's obviously too late to spend on R&D once the sky falls. It makes economical sense to invest in R&D. What I'm suggesting is that people won't actually make the major shift itself until it's economically reasonable to do so.

They'll hamper alternate sources, but not in the way you may expect. As long as they supply oil and it's cheaper than the alternative (unit for unit of energy) there won't be a strong shift to the new tech.

Has to be. I bet he sings in French too. Anyway I play indoor soccer and get absorbed in the game which may or may not be good. It takes my mind off other things so I guess it works.

Sounds cool. Mini wind-mills with blades that chop off anything that come within range. I bet people'd gtfo of the way so you can go faster too on your way to warp speed. Hook me up Scotty.