Random Thought

Cool...but expensive. I realized one thing - we will never see stuff like this until...both the manufacturing and the design are done by computers. Humans are just not efficient enough. The design of a car like that cost millions cuz a group of guys with huge salaries will work like year on it. That's why i believe in computers - i believe soon there will be programms and processing powers enough for complete ultra efficient engineering all done by computer programm. All you'll have to do is imput initial desires like "fuel economy, sports looks, design type (cab forward/classic/etc) and choose among few end results.
The programm will have a huge database of all parts, be it mechanical, electrical, computer chips or materials so it will be able to calculate precise cost of manufacturing as well... It will be so, no second thoughts, only matter of time.

Now, what worries me...what will all the people do? Such a production can be owned and operated by 1 man so either he or those who make programms like that will be super-rich?
I also suspect the programm like that will be made by another programm (like Matrix Architect) which will be actualy a powerfull AI (even though not necessery true AI, just a huge database and physical modeling engine)... Imagine all this is real - we'll have to re-think our economy..

Well, just a flow of thoughts i hade for a long time

AlexT wrote:The design of a car like that cost millions cuz a group of guys with huge salaries will work like year on it.

The salaries are not the costly part, it's the cost for testing and producing parts and electric bill for super computers.

All you'll have to do is imput initial desires like "fuel economy, sports looks, design type (cab forward/classic/etc) and choose among few end results.

You mean genetic programs etc like Naro? Well, it's all about physics and definitions of techs and lots of time to do the calculations. Right now that's a long way to go...

Now, what worries me...what will all the people do? Such a production can be owned and operated by 1 man so either he or those who make programms like that will be super-rich?

Nope, they still need to pay for production, and competition will still exist so it's all relative.

I also suspect the programm like that will be made by another programm (like Matrix Architect) which will be actualy a powerfull AI (even though not necessery true AI, just a huge database and physical modeling engine)... Imagine all this is real - we'll have to re-think our economy..

Bingo! (see compiler building, genetic programming)
Self awareness -> Skynet

Well, just a flow of thoughts i hade for a long time

Keep them coming!

U sure know more about these things, i have no idea how far are we, but somehow i feel like it's the area we (makind) need to focus on - we already mastered whatever human hands/brain can do and it will take ages to realy advance further with what we have. To build better, more efficient world we need to process and coordinate huge amouns of information to consider every factor and not just those immediate ones.It's not necessery SkyNet - we need calculations and modeling and not computer global goverment - the real people will make decisions based on machine's calculations. Provided there's more than 1 such machine so that other one can check if calculations are correct and if some humans are not manipulating it
A funny thing - not only Skynet comes to mind. I just realized if there's a programm capable of advanced engineering we can send it as some robot to moon/mars so that it builds itself an army of other robots and start building stuff for humans - fully automated mining or ship building... the Terraformers aka Xenon from X3

As for processing power - it grows very quickly these days especialy in relatively new field of GPU (videocard) processing - it seems those GPUs are realy good for processing huge amounts of information (which is exactly what we need for physics/genetic/molecular/whatever modeling) leaving CPUs in charge of more complex mathematical operations - a perfect union of raw calculation power and smart and still very fast processors...
If there are computers capable of modeling nuclear blast and stuff - designing a car is not harder. I'm sure i read about it somewhere - such programms are already being developed and they don't even need supercomputer - the task is no harder than rendering a good movie like Avatar...

I don't think you should worry about all that stuff.

Humanity will nuke itself out of civilizations, and most likely existence, long before 'Skynet' has a chance.

Well, we are close to reaching the limit of our thinking capacity, but we can still make some progress in math. Physic is pretty much stalled...we may rediscover something or create a new understanding. Anyway, there is still lots left to discover, optimize and refine in the world of building, composing things.

AlexT wrote:- we need calculations and modeling and not computer global goverment - the real people will make decisions based on machine's calculations. Provided there's more than 1 such machine so that other one can check if calculations are correct and if some humans are not manipulating it

That's like the MAGI computers in NGE. Humans build them so there is always a chance it will be manipulated.

A funny thing - not only Skynet comes to mind. I just realized if there's a programm capable of advanced engineering we can send it as some robot to moon/mars so that it builds itself an army of other robots and start building stuff for humans - fully automated mining or ship building... the Terraformers aka Xenon from X3

Bingo! "robots" are likely to be the first interstellar representatives until we got faster than light drives. Like the automatted factories in macross; nanites terraforming in Nadesico/Star Trek, several scifi movies....
Actually, we have been working on intelligent material since ever I can remember, around the 90's; as well as self composing nano technology.

As for processing power - it grows very quickly these days especialy in relatively new field of GPU (videocard) processing - it seems those GPUs are realy good for processing huge amounts of information (which is exactly what we need for physics/genetic/molecular/whatever modeling)

Well, their calculation units and bit width is small=simple so they are not up to scientific standard yet. The next precision step would be 512 bit but current processor have 256 bit at max. Hence, the true super processors are NEC's SX-9+ or IBM's Power-series etc.

I'm sure i read about it somewhere - such programms are already being developed and they don't even need supercomputer - the task is no harder than rendering a good movie like Avatar...

Yes, it's a math problem, but at a level where there is only a minor number of people can do.

tanis1lionheart wrote:I don't think you should worry about all that stuff.
Humanity will nuke itself out of civilizations, and most likely existence, long before 'Skynet' has a chance.

Do not underestimate humans - we're so bad because of our creative potential - all the evil stuff comes from the same energy the good stuff comes too. Meaning - there's at very least the same amount of good things happening
As for wars and nukes - the less of the old style people out there the less likely it is to happen - we need to get rid of all those sad, depressive, old thinking types holding on their stereotypes, ideology... Those who just can't set their minds to think like everything is relative and nothing is constant - they want constant things, something other to hold into but themselves.

Because mankind is so largely dominated by normal people it must be ruled! *WHAHAHAHA*

So you see, whereever you look it all turns to the same circle of 'hell'.
The ideal state is rare or simple: there is only one path, hence, easy to miss.

Although, the thoughts for something constant and stable lead to stagnation, they stem from the wish for selfish peace. It's not much but that's the only relyable source for hope. Then to a lesser inprobable extend there is love. Imho it's no coincidence that the relationships between love and hate, and good and evil are pretty much the same. u_u

This means, as we are now there is no way all the fun can be exterminated. Therefore, becoming a hero is no dream but reality! The same goes for villains, thought, but it's better being a hero because you can do anything and still be praised. *BWHAHAhaha**EBIL grin*

I'm more worried about mundane things myself.#3 on my list of New Year's Resolutions is learning Japanese.I already have a good start with Kana(got a copy of Manga University's Kana de Manga),what I need is something similiar for Kanji and vocab.

Hmm, well, there isn't really a perfect kanji book. In any case, you must practice a lot with and recognizing and writing to get it down. It's tedious but the best way to memorize. Some people make a list of word sthat have a specific kanji and try to learn to recognize the words & the kanji. As a beginner you should start making lists according to your own learning technique. I still have trouble to identify them all exactly, but I do think I know them.

these books
New Japanese-English Character Dictionary ISBN:0844284343
Essential Kanji by P.G. O'Neill

Anyone still in school with an .EDU email ?

I'd like to try and get a Windows 7 discount through you.

*

Well what I'm looking at is here: http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx

The Windows 7 Professional for $30.00 - which clicking will provide you with an "enter your email"
page.

Basically I need 1 copy, and can pay by Paypal, Google Checkout, etc.

Well, I should have serval edu addresses but since they reset each semester I never used them or set them even up. *ducks*

Anyway, Microsoft is not selling the all in oe for families anymore, maybe there is also some change to the student version *shrug* I wouldn't wonder since everyon now wants to sell partials.

So, Ady Gil (formerly Earthrace) finally sunk! Imho no wonder, I'm actually surprised it was seaworthy. Small list of good weather ship problem.
Google calls its new phone a superphone! <_<

Well there's no real difference to me, I just want to try and get 7 cheaply reather than be stuck with Vista on the laptop I brought in.

Was you Vista pre-installed? It's s hame they don't offer any "upgrade..."
I heard some places offer it for free

Btw, i wanted to try installing Mac os X on my PC as second system - after all it's the OS which has most really useful software available for it after win (photoshop, games etc.) but after reading many in-depth reviews i realized macosx is far from being as nice and rock-stable as some fans claim it to be -there's many problems... So i realized i'm fine with rock-stable win7 which run everything.

I was also surprised there's no Photoshop CS4 version for Mac but then i read why it happened -when
Adobe was about to release 64 bit version Apple decided to change
it's plans for OS core and so the 64 bit mac version could not work so
Adobe abandoned 64 bit support for macs and said that if they do
something like this again - they'll stop making products for mac.
This is a good illustration of what comes with closed platform ruled by bunch of money hungry guys. Linux FTW

Anyway, let's talk about Apple

Spoiler:

MS wanted to get money for non-sold vista, and introduce high price tags for little more....that's the future of software.

Spoiler:

How's winter over your place? It's freezing over here, although, it's still warmer than in the past. I guess this will be normal since we got more warm air coming up north to be cooled and come back (see geography/physics 101).

I think I'm going to get myself an external 1TB or 2TB, although, I think 4 would be better. They are now affordable and it's a bit safer to keep data there.

I got at least 4 inches outside of snow.. it's butt cold inside, colder outside.
Look up louisville, ky...

I'd like to get about 3 TB internal, which I'd eventually move to a nas, but I missed a deal on 1.5 TB WD drives before Christmas.

About same here, when I was a pre-schooler the snow was at least half a yard high and stacked up to a full yard or more.

Well, it's way past time when I had enough internal connections...I have two old drives lying around. I was thinking of building an external hub for them, but even an empty one was pricy.
Anyway, I'm eyeing the WD 2TB My Book at fry's and also found the world edition II.
I'm not quite sure about the technical details. Maybe I'm wrong but the ads seems to suggest the WEII has double drives for backup purposes...

Buy a dock... like an esata compatible one.. about $15... then just get internal drives
if you're not abusing them like toting them around with a laptop.

It'd be a lot cheaper than what you're looking at there.

Well, the cheap ones are only for two drives and are quite big, while the more usefull ones are expansive :/ Need to keep hunting at newegg. -_-

Summer of Innovation; seem like NASA works hard in the education sector these days.
Recently they recruited the students to count the moon craters. (cheap slaves)

The french government now plans to tax online companies. Heh, it may not be long until they tax everything as I predicted years ago. :/

Aside from normal news from Iran it seems they have run more and more military hitech announcements. Well, most of them look like they do something other than the fakes and reused (same) among chinese and russian posters. Anyway, it seems the stealth ship I posted for you (AlexT) is a chinese one. They actually have a real patrol boat version for prototyping. While checking it out it seems there is also lots of talks about stealth carriers.

If the people allow it to be taxed... it will be taxed eventually.

Very simple principle that is perfectly accurate.

What exactly they gonna tax - does it include someone selling something on eBay or just internet commerce like small store/services sites?
Also a question - how's the situation with torrents in US? They say ISPs start to block you or put some snifer on your port or anything else? What about other parts of the world?
Almael: It's is hard for me to believe those boats can be real stealthy. More like "it won't hurt if they'll have lower signature".

Spoiler:

Unfortunately lately all the "fun" is moving closer to us and i think these elections we'll have very soon is possibly one of the events in a chain...
And i have a feeling that you'll have some new stuff to watch on CNN and analyze before even 2012...If not - we'll have a pretty good decade after all...
But just in case i once again i feel like maybe i should go live somewhere else? Like Japan Unfortunately language would be a problem ...

Well, it seems they want to tax everything no matter where they are located.

Spoiler:

Well, I haven't heard much on your candidates, I only saw around the lands... Russia still makes some problem with the supply of gas but since europe has made some treaties their treats doesn't have much effect except for your country, though.
Last time russia announced wanting to hit a dangerous asteroid. I hope it won't backfire and hit us.

There is no safe place down on this planet, we need starships!

I think that ironically it might he colder in Florida than up here right now.Currently we're about 40 degrees above.I read where they had flurries around Orlando.Maybe the axis titled and now all the warm spots are gonna be cold and all the cold spots are gonna be tropically warm!Yeah...summer in the baskness and warmth of the Arctic Air!!!!
As far as what's happening to the economy...I can't see how anyone can be so stupid as to think spending all that money isn't going to end up doing anything but put the U.S.further in debt and raise the deficit higher.

Want to spend next summer in Anartica?

Also a question - how's the situation with torrents in US? They say
ISPs start to block you or put some snifer on your port or anything
else? What about other parts of the world?

Well, as far as i know that's not put in law yet anywhere. The law in question is being discussed by every nation with british leading it. If one agrees everyone will follow but not yet. Also they have come to their senses and don't catch every joe but the seeders/providers.