Jay

Jay

  • Commented on Policy change: future US visits
    Real quantum computing will probably ... require Strong AI to program them That's the real secret to quantum computing. If your AI can pass the Turing Test, it can fool humans. Then it can make up an answer and tell...
  • Commented on Policy change: future US visits
    To elaborate a bit: My resume includes stints at five research-oriented startup companies and a couple of government labs. I've personally spent a few million dollars of other people's money trying to improve various technologies, to no practical effect whatsoever....
  • Commented on Policy change: future US visits
    Frankly, if we had stopped all technological and agricultural development in 1970, we'd have starved (for gigacide levels of starvation) by 1990; the Green Revolution — which most of us never even noticed — saved us. That's the nature of...
  • Commented on Policy change: future US visits
    Fair enough. I think my point about the relative tractability of the causes still holds....
  • Commented on Policy change: future US visits
    The Third Reich is a limited model for thinking about current politics. On a worldwide scale, Hitler was an unforced error. WWI reparations devastated Germany, and German politics turned negative-sum. After the war, it was relatively easy to solve the...
  • Commented on Policy change: future US visits
    It's probably true that Bangladesh is fucked, but it was fucked before Trump got elected. Obama didn't save them, and there's little reason to believe Hillary could have. It was a bipartisan, multipolar fucking. It seems like, to a lot...
  • Commented on Policy change: future US visits
    In most of the EU, social democracy is the norm. Why not in the UK ... honestly I don't know. It probably has a lot to do with how moneyed elites were destroyed on the Continent by any or all...
  • Commented on Eleven Tweets
    Micropayments (that is, payments below a buck or two) have been tried a bunch of times, and they never really worked. The main reason is that the decision to pay money for something, regardless of the cost, triggers a certain...
  • Commented on Eleven Tweets
    if you're not paying for the product, you are the product. Another facet of the problem is that, when advertisers are footing the bill, not all viewers are equal. Viewers who respond to advertising in measurable ways are much more...
  • Commented on The Day After
    Personally, I voted for Pastel Thatcher, but you have probably guessed how I feel about that. I would have much preferred Bernie. Two thoughts: Americans tend to be optimists. This means that we usually, as a group, pick the devil...
  • Commented on What else can you do with a Big Dumb Booster?
    I did molecular beam epitaxy for a couple of years at the US Army Nightvision Lab. I've heard of wake shield MBE as a concept, but there wasn't (at least circa 2004) any real interest from the community. For the...
  • Commented on Why Should You Care About Virtual Reality? Because It's A Source Of Hope.
    You could probably use VR to get rid of the other major cost of business travel - the traveler. The VR avatar doesn't have to look anything like the user. Throw in a little audio processing to get rid of...
  • Commented on A game of consequences
    politics determines which part of the economy gets externalized, and which part gets counted. That turns out to be pretty critical. Very true, and relevant to the discussion a few posts up. Trade and immigration offer great benefits to residents...
  • Commented on The unspeakable truth
    It seems like this is causing the same sort of loss of faith in humanity that I experienced when Bush was re-elected. I'd like to tell you that it gets better with time. I can't....
  • Commented on A game of consequences
    Back to the OP, I suggest you check out Fukuyama's Origins of Political Order. It won't answer your question, but it will help explain why so many of us don't think the question can be answered in the way that...
  • Commented on A game of consequences
    It depends on the energy and type of the radiation. Our dead skin layers will stop alphas. Betas and gammas come in energies from ones that are stopped at the skin level (there are gamma rays that have energies as...
  • Commented on A game of consequences
    As I understand it, roaches are relatively insensitive to radiation because their shells stop low-energy radiation and they're small enough that most high-energy radiation just passes through. The first adaptation we copy when we put on clothes, but the second...
  • Commented on A game of consequences
    I've been involved in several technical projects that went bad, and this thread brings back memories. I'm hearing about a bunch of pyschological and sociological constraints that are pulling in opposite directions. The economic and biological/ecological constraints haven't really been...
  • Commented on Cytological Utopia and the rapture of the eukaryotes
    The third best documented species on the internet is probably vampires. The simulators might have a learning curve....
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    You might want to check out the works of Ken Hite and/or Robert Anton Wilson. They go for the same sort of effect as HB, but IMHO did it much better....
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    Not an official entry, as author is American. Cryptonym: STRIATED LEATHER PEACOCK Item: Diagnostic manual for esoteric mental disorders This document, based on the DSM-IV manual of psychiatric disorders, attempts to classify and suggest treatments for the various and severe...
  • Commented on Updating a classic
    All purchases, no matter how trivial, will need the signature of three senior managers Preferably Jesus, Elvis, and Jimmy Hoffa....
  • Commented on Updating a classic
    Occasionally the company will get operating system updates. You know, the "Do not turn off or unplug your computer" type. That's a good time to trigger the circuit breaker....
  • Commented on Updating a classic
    All employees must choose passwords consisting of 16 or more characters containing uppercase, lowercase, digits, and punctuation. These passwords must be changed once a week. And if the complaints get bad enough, cave in and set every password to "password"....
  • Commented on Updating a classic
    If you've ever read The Mythical Man-Month, you know that coordination-intensive jobs often get slower when new personnel are added. Getting everybody on the same page takes quadratically-scaling time. So find your most critical project, and add about five times...
  • Commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
    I was staying away for a while, but I thought you all might like to know that we're apparently living in the Chthulucene epoch. http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/anthropocene-capitalocene-chthulucene/ http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-dawn-of-cthulhucene-retrospective.html I now humbly return to time-out...
  • Commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
    You realize those "flowers" are babies, right? What you're describing is less "philosophical debate in the Athenian agora" and more "Battle Royale High School"....
  • Commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
    I know. I was just trying to play along with her whole "what if Max Headroom read way too much Chomsky" conceit....
  • Commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
    No surprise. You don't bring Carly on board if you're not planning layoffs....
  • Commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
    Yeah. What Pigeon said....
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