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WBraun
climber
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Dec 21, 2014 - 03:31pm PT
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Yep .... that's what ducks do .....
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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Dec 21, 2014 - 04:04pm PT
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UN6OsJrE2k
[Click to View YouTube Video]
It's a pity it takes a relatively strong background in a combination of electronics, programming and the basic sciences (all three - physics, chem and biol) for people to really understand, and/or to take a deep interest in, what's going on here. And regards the implications, too.
Maybe future generations will be even more excited about these goings-on though. We can hope.
These stories make me miss electronics from bitd, the everyday hands-on work in front of power supplies, oscilloscopes, soldering irons, wire wrap boards, etc. Do they even use wire wrap anymore, lol!
Love the video around 1:15, so cool!
Imagine someday having nothing in your toolbox out in the garage other than a swarm of megabots (cf: kilobots; 10c/100). Suddenly you have a need for an 10" crescent wrench, you inform Siri, and before you can even get your pants on to hit the garage, the megabots have fashioned one for you that's ready to go. Ah, the good life!! :)
.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExZ0i04pSeY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5B_R3n_YHs#t=136
Animals have minds.
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Ward Trotter
Trad climber
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Dec 21, 2014 - 05:24pm PT
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Winter Solstice
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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Dec 21, 2014 - 11:56pm PT
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Happy Solstice, Ward!
re: free will
"So I’ll start off by saying that this was the best discussion of free will I’ve ever observed..."
http://danielmiessler.com/blog/sam-harris-vs-bad-wizards-free-will/
If I had a daughter, and a drunk man killed her with his car, I would anticipate holding two things in my mind simultaneously...
(1) This man is a moist robot comprised of big bang matter vibrating according to the laws of physics. His genetics, chemistry, upbringing, education, and general circumstances turned him into a projectile aimed at someone I care about. He too is a victim.
(2) SO F*#KING WHAT? In THIS world, Sarah is gone. In MY world, my wife is devastated. In the REAL world, I’ll never see her laugh again. F*#k this guy, I want to be left in a room alone with him for an hour. I will make him feel the pain he has caused. I will make him know what we have lost.
....
The rfl post is a reminder. If you care about the contents here, remember to save it. Hit the show all and save. Doesn't take much effort, memory or time. "Show all" won't work (show all) with threads larger than 10k posts so I decided I won't post anymore to those.
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MikeL
Social climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 22, 2014 - 07:36am PT
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Jgill: No-thingness slips seamlessly from my attention until someone conflates it with the hypothetical void beneath all substance, a notion entertained as energetically by young physicists as was the aether by their predecessors. To which I say: maybe, maybe not. How can you be so certain?
Good morning, and nice language, John. I appreciate your response. (Yours, too, MH2.)
I’ve been divorced a couple of times (slow learner), and perhaps due to some active military experience and psychological predispositions, I’ve often gotten the complaint in life that I was not in touch with my feelings. I said I didn’t know what the heck people were talking about. I had feelings, I felt them, and I thought I was expressing them appropriately at the time and place when they were happening. My past partners all said, “bullsh*t.” I thought my partners (women) were TOO emotional, and that I had proper balance. They seemed to live in a world that was pretty much made up as far as I was concerned. (I mean, what’s up with all those emotions? What real good do they do?) My world was concrete, serious, and more balanced. Theirs was, well, . . . not reflective of what was right in front of me.
You go to a new country or find yourself in a new culture (community, industry, organization), and you are dis-oriented to find that the new environment is strange and “unenlightened.” What the heck are people talking about or referring to? Why do they value what they do? Why do they believe what they do? Are they serious? Don’t they know . . . ?
Sure, something like “no-thingness” (your language) doesn’t make any sense. I get it. I get that people in different places or environments talk about things that I do not sense or perceive. I ask them about it, and they talk, but I don’t get it. But, there are many people talking about IT (whatever), and it may get me thinking and feeling.
I appreciate your views. There’s nothing that can be said or explained about no-thingness (especially conceptually). The only thing that can seem to be said is via negativa. IF there are things that you are aware of, then what would be the ground for the things? What would be a context for “things?” Maybe space?
What’s space?
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MikeL
Social climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 22, 2014 - 07:49am PT
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Marlow: More merry-can logic: If the first mover were a real masterbrain everything in this world is perfect, and since there's a lot of suffering in this world and everything is made to bleed, bleeding and suffering is perfect and there's no need for nirvana, just accept suffering and bleeding as perfect. Vote Republican... Yer gonna die…
This is difficult for me to follow, Marlow. I don’t think you're clear about what you are arguing against. Could you say what you are for, instead?
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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Dec 22, 2014 - 08:17am PT
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Norton, here's more of the lib vs lib (aka hot lib on lib action!) regards Islam, thought you might like...
'The Great Betrayal' - the betrayal of secular liberalism by the relativist left
http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/5886/full
"when fanatics from the Islamist religious Right took over Birmingham schools, the teaching unions, Labour councillors and the liberal press did everything they could to cover up a plan to impose a reactionary education on British children. Unions did not defend secular teachers when hard-line governors forced them out. Supposed leftists did not worry that governors were making a "sustained and coordinated" effort "to force the segregationist attitudes and practices of a hard-line and politicised strain of Sunni Islam" on British boys and girls, as Birmingham City Council's inquiry put it. Right until the moment when they could no longer deny the truth, they claimed the scandal was an Islamophobic plot, manufactured by Conservatives trying to exploit racial tensions."
re: Nasser Muthana...
"You could not find a less likely example of the left-wing fantasy of the misguided extremist driven to violence by the "root causes" of poverty, disenfranchisement and marginalisation."
"The only left-winger I have seen attempt to explain the double standard is Nick Ryan of Hope not Hate. He deserves credit for his frankness, but his argument had no coherence. He said that Muslim communities were "immature" — thus infantilising Muslims and treating them with a condescension he would never apply to whites. He said that Muslim ultra-conservatives should be our allies if they are against violence — thus abandoning all who suffer because of ultra-conservative ideas. He said that if anti-fascists tackled Muslims whose ideas mirrored those of the white far-Right, "we're just going to end up pushing all Muslims further away" — thus aping the arguments of Islamophobes who treat Muslims as a monolithic bloc. And disgracefully but predictably, he dismissed liberal and left-wing Muslims and ex-Muslims as an unrepresentative minority it was a waste of time supporting."
"...I must face the fact that there is a vast woozy mass of liberal-leftists who will never change, and would not fight back even if a bomb exploded in their own back yard."
.....
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light," said Max Planck, "but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
In all but the most obvious in-your-face cases, sure seems Max was right here.
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WBraun
climber
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Dec 22, 2014 - 09:35am PT
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Fruitman on his way to save the world .....
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Dec 22, 2014 - 10:11am PT
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PsP, Thank you for all that!
maybe exactly what i was looking for
i asked Santa last night for Merton's book
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paul roehl
Boulder climber
california
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Dec 22, 2014 - 10:26am PT
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Wonder who's lived a better life, who's had a more fulfilling life, some Druids moving a 55 ton rock around as they honor the return of light (Stonehenge). Or some physicist about to fire the big collider and unlock what he believes to be the inner structure of the universe.
And what's the real difference between those two "machines?" What's the value of the knowledge they yield?
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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Dec 22, 2014 - 10:38am PT
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I think we go w what we're given, Paul.
Wonder who's lived a better life, who's had a more fulfilling life, some 19th century cowboy-climber moving through unknown rock as he and others successfully escape a band of angry Indians below; or some physicist-climber about to fire the Royal Arches in Yosemite with a pretty girl and a brand new Beal rope and two brand new BD cam sets.
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jstan
climber
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Dec 22, 2014 - 10:40am PT
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And what's the real difference between those two "machines?" What's the value of the knowledge they yield?
If I may I will speak only for myself. Stonehenge and other such monuments are devices that help people organize themselves and are a concrete representation of the feelings people gain from that organization. Once built it is built.
Knowledge on the other hand is like the footing for a building for which there is no expected end. No matter how many stories you build on that footing, there is no end to the process. Out of it we gain ever truer integration into the real world in which everyone lives.
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Dec 22, 2014 - 11:51am PT
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Americans didn't invent Catholicism so perhaps that's why many don't understand the deeper meaning behind confession and rosaries
i got confession down. first to myself, then to our lord, then to others. This path leads to complete forgiveness. which is the first step to Holiness. the holier i become the closer God allows me to approach. i have been blessed with many gifts all by using only words. N0 rituals, ceremonies, symbols, or pictures. no beads, or men hanging on a cross, or magic underwear. Things you can see and hold may be tools for some, but i've also seen them to be stumbling blocks for others.. i say get rid of them as soon as possible! None of them are Holy or can be used by the Holyspirit.
Really weren't they just tools in ancient days used to get a message across because no one could afford a bible, or new how to read.
Words,words,words, and Sounds, thats all we need today for eternal salvation!
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Tvash
climber
Seattle
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Dec 22, 2014 - 11:52am PT
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Experimenters identify neural markers for generosity in children:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141219103948.htm
Hey Blue - what if 'others' don't choose to forgive you?
Then what? Still completely forgiven?
Salvation by self affirmation sound byte. "I forgive me!" Very post post post modern.
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Dec 22, 2014 - 12:01pm PT
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And what's the real difference between those two "machines?
prolly just the amount of destruction to the envirnment it took to produce them, then the amount of hazardous waste they'll leave behind when they rust and fall apart.
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Dec 22, 2014 - 12:13pm PT
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some people think being judgemental is being God-like.
when really that's satan's job.
Jesus taught forgiveness is God
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Tvash
climber
Seattle
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Dec 22, 2014 - 12:22pm PT
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Until the Judgement Day, I reckon. Then judgement and punishment is decidedly God's job.
Or something like that...
Here's a simple judgement test:
"I'm not a sinner"
What do you think of my self assessment, Blue?
Yeah, that's right. FEEL IT.
As an atheist, my very existence is a sin. I don't even need to lift a finger in Satan's direction to be damned to Hell.
Damnation is easier that way.
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Dec 22, 2014 - 01:00pm PT
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I don't believe God is into checks and balances. It's not Holy!
Someone else will do that.
When God reboots the universe, some will go with Him.
some will go with satan.
Right now you have a choice.
Depending on what you know.
After all, feelings are an aftermarket product of what you know.
Cheers!
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Tvash
climber
Seattle
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Dec 22, 2014 - 01:04pm PT
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Nope. Maybe you're not a Christian, cuz yours is not the way it's gonna go down. Who came up with this new "Judgement-free Christian Bible?" Must be a lot of redaction bars in it.
Or you're creating your own religion to suit you. Worry not - every single religious person is doing the same.
Revelation 20:11-15
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
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