Comments by "kd1s" (@kd1s) on "Big Think" channel.

  1. Now extend that concept to belief in God and the Bible. You see where I'm going here. 
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  2. Ok - first let me get this out of the way. I'm gay - have been my entire life. So I have number of female friends and I've found over time that as far as libidinous actions and thoughts go, women are exactly equal to men. But our society stamped it's imprimatur on all of us to believe the fiction of monogamy. It's interesting.
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  3. What bothers me more is after Cain slay Abel - when he goes out of the garden to the east in the land of Nod where he finds and knows his wife, has kids etc. So who were those other people in Nod?
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  4. Ah, this describes blamestorming.
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  5. But will it run under Linux?
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  6. Well where I live and work both have full employment non-discrimination. And just recently the state where I live has banned conversion therapy.
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  7. If we could get it down to $50 per class as he says I'd be willing to say go for a PhD.
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  8. Yeah - humanity is about to undergo a major shift - when we can cure most diseases - prevent or reverse aging, etc. it's a whole different ball game.
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  9. The Democratic party had a candidate that could have trounced Trump - except for the expectation that Hillary Clinton would win. That person was Senator Bernie Sanders.
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  10. What it's basically shown us is that cops are essentially, to use that old term, pigs.
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  11. I'm in the I.T/I.S. field and I can tell you - the day we can upload our consciousness is the day we get teleportation. Because both will require very fast, very deep memories and digital storage. We don't have that quite yet but we're getting there.
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  12. My hubbie got diagnosed with diabetes. We now have embraced the Keto diet and I gotta say we've lost a ton of weight. And I find it highly suspicious that she's pushing exercise - I've dropped a bunch of weight without exercising. And note - she doesn't present her bona fides.
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  13. Having done the double slit experiment for myself I note the wave like nature of phtons kind of points to string theory. Naturally I get the description of all matter being comprised of vibrating particles. It is so cool.
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  14. In the I.T. sphere there are daemons. Abbreviated of course as init.d, systemd et al.
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  15. In my case I apply a system where I occasionally give to an org that helps gay kids, or an example recently I was at a fast food place. Young man asked if I'd buy him some food. So I told him order what he wanted and paid for it. He was rail thin and it was clear food was an issue and that's here in the United States.
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  16. What you are espousing is called compromise. We're lost that component as a society.
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  17. Oh I am fucking good enough. If you disagree my fist knows just where to land to cause maximum damage.
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  18. Yes indeed. I truly believe that liquid water exists throughout the galaxy. And if that's so well there's the Drake Equation - and we're filling in values for many of the variables in that one. What the Drake Equation says is the probability for intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy, Universe, Dimension etc.
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  19. Mostly I've interacted with reform Jews. Decent people - not much different than myself. Same is true of black people, people from India, etc. And when I ran my genetic profile found out I have Ashkenazi ancestry too. Imagine.
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  20. My cousin is disabled - and me I have only partial hearing. So we have both visible and invisible disabilities. Imagine that.
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  21. I'm gay and haven't suffered discrimination because of it. But then I'm the type that if you make it an issue you're gonna have to deal with the ration of shit about to be rained upon you. And in my office where I work - a place with a couple hundred people there are two of us known gay.
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  22. Oh I've been through the gamut of interviewing over my career. There's been what I term star chamber, comfie interviews, and all manner in between. But the jobs I enjoyed are the ones where we did in fact go out for a meal.
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  23. Another line of thought - think about the drones we're using. People know they are made in the U.S. Even when they kill members of those peoples families. So our kinder, gentler warfare will breed the next generation of disgruntled natives.
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  24. Well you could change the lobbying issue with a constitutional amendment.
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  25. From finding out there are other galaxies and now of course we know there are planets orbiting distant stars. It's awesome.
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  26. That's why I've always maintained that education needs to be both structured and unstructured. 
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  27. in my case one issue I always had with the mathematics we were taught was it never touched on the reasoning behind it. I'm now reading about Topology and it's proofs which I find more interesting and more explanatory of what I've learned.
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  28. I burned on GTA - moved on to Bioshock and Fallout.
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  29.  @Anomalous_Ape  I detect a large amount of bovine effluvia in the video. I mean come on, I've dropped a ton of weight and feel good. I'll stay on the Keto diet - and in fact I do veggie, fruit and protein. Just cut the sugar and carbs.
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  30. One fantasy I have is having a time machine and going back in time to the 17th century and bringing modern weaponry with me. Then killing the governors of communities that were religious crazies. Think John Calvin.
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  31. I'd be pursuing philosophical, electronics, etc.
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  32. Oh I've long known money is an abstract concept. And that we are living with a fiat currency in the U.S. - because money isn't really backed by anything since the 1970's. Thing is most people don't understand that.
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  33. Part of why I burnt out on my first brush with college was the schooling from high school. We read a lot of the classics - The Canterbury Tales, Lord of the Rings, Brave New World, 1984, the Greek tragedies, etc. Yes, I got a neo-classical education in high school.
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  34. Well we all need to lobby our elected officials to start direct subsides for electric vehicles. That would encourage adoption more than incentives.
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  35. And meanwhile in the U.S. we have Trump who is doing everything he can to create more sick and poor people.
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  36. Definitively God is not omniscient. He'd have known Cain would slay Abel, he'd have known Eve would be beguiled by the serpent who is a metaphor for Satan. And even Satan is borrowed from Zoroastrian beliefs - it came out of Persia or modern day Iran. So there's my conception of what that puny god is. And then there's the question of evil - could God not have prevented the rebellion of the angel who became the devil? Then he is not omnipotent.
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  37. Recently drove a 2017 Subaru - the steering, brakes and accelerator are all controlled by servos and steppers. And I recall a youtube video where a Jeep's secret cell number was discovered. They could shut down the engine from remote. Now of course I'm sure it goes farther. And we need to lean on our government officials to craft regulations for Security and Info Security on motor vehicles. Probably best way to do that is hack one of our elected representatives cars. That would send the message.
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  38. I don't see why China is so concerned about a nuclear armed Korea - I mean as it stands Kim Jong Un if he was truly mad could turn on his masters in China too. That would be an interesting gaming simulation to play out. And I think Kim Jong Un knows that if he attacks South Korea, or Guam or what have you - the U.S. will lay waste to Pyongyang within 30 minutes. Because most of our nuclear arsenal with thanks to former President Jimmy Carter - most that that arsenal is on submarines.
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  39. +Introgauge .C As I said earlier you really are a perfect example of the shitstains of America.
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  40. +Matt Oh - several of my female friends - they have sexual conquest down to a science. I kid you not - makes me look like a fucking prude.
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  41. But if you used checklists and expert systems there'd be precious little need for the actual doctors, all you'd need is basically technicians. 
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  42. Of course it will work - a radiometer works right? So this light sail should be a success. It's why I contributed to the project.
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  43. The U.S. is defined by wheat, corn and rice. We grow more of it than anywhere else in the world, specifically corn.
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  44. Interesting talk. I've gone out and done program reviews in schools. That stretched me somewhat but I was told that my reports raised their interest because I laid it out for all to see. And what field and position am I in, I.T. manager.
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  45. What's more amusing to me is the difference between Sunni and Shi'a - it comes down to order of succession of the prophet.
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  46. I work for a digital marketing company. Love working there too. They treat us pretty well.
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  47. Big John Structured as in reading, writing and arithmetic. Unstructured in writing, discovery, etc. 
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  48. I was a Catholic - including the first twelve years in Catholic schools. But I found my way clear of all that and am now an atheist. Realized there was no god, devil, heaven, hell. Read the entirety of the KJV. All of religions, be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, even Hindu are based on only so much bullshit.
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  49. Unless of course you happen to be Italian American - we just don't care.
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  50. I've been to presentations and other events with conservatives. I'm polite about it. It's just later on I might do a blog post disputing what they said. I've even taken the opportunity to call the ex-President an anal sphincter. I've even disagreed with some fellow liberals too. And I operate from the perspective that those I disagree with might be like a stopped clock and maybe right twice a day.
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  51. Sir, Ma'am, Madam - that's what I learned a long time ago. Most respectful salutations. Or I can default to Spanish Senor, Senora, Senorita, Usted, Ustedes, etc. And if it's less formal, dear or darling or Mister etc. Easy. Did I mention I'm in my 50's - and if anyone other than the person I love called me honey, sweetie, baby etc. they're gonna get popped for it.
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  52. Right and what happens when you lose faith completely?
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  53. I don't believe there's an afterlife at all. However I do know we have the technological mens to extend lifespans out to 150 or more years. Go lookup Aubrey DeGray
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  54. Well yeah the original Puritans were the religious misfits of Britain. And the founders of the country weren''t in any way Christian - the best could be said is they were deists. I mean come on just lookup the Jefferson Bible.
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  55.  @ikemadi6265  Oh I know that. Same with robotics - the robots are interesting in that they're gaining freedom of motion and humanistic elements. But power is still an issue. Battery storage needs to jump forward dramatically for robots to be a real thing in our lives.
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  56. Yeah - it takes a long time to develop a sense of empathy and morality. But religion has pretty much no exclusive domain over that.
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  57. I believe there is much more about it. For example I was an only child yet turned out gay. Now the uncle thing - yeah got that down. To the point where our nephew is likely going down the same path I did as far as education and career.
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  58. Yep make all that money and of course you become a libertarian. What astounds me is young, broke people that are libertarians. And of course Mackey made even more when he sold out to Amazon.
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  59. +Introgauge .C Oh we resort to ad hominem - well you're a fucking nitwit.
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  60. +Introgauge .C I'm not a woman. I'm definitely male and been in a relationship with another man for 20+ years. And I'm not one to be messed with.
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  61. +schroeder666 Here's an anecdote I'm sure you love. Imagine having lunch every day with a woman who regales you with tales of her sexual activities. Egad! Of course she knew I was gay so that might have something to do with it. But it's not just that one. There've been friends of mine over time - and if you listen carefully they'll TELL you who they're fucking. Seriously.
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  62. In my case been in front of a screen since i was 13, I'm four decades older now. Cell phones don't present any particular challenge for me, nor POS terminals in stores. And yeah I'm in the I.S./I.T. field.
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  63. The real reason we haven't cured cancer is because there isn't enough profit in doing so. 
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  64. Simar Sran Ever worked for a corporation? If so you'd know they are ruled by one thing only, the profit motive. Which is why having people taking chemotherapy garners more profit than say curing the disease outright. And so greater profit is made but outcomes will be questionable. That enough proof for you? 
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  65. ***** Nice ad hominem there. Are a shill for the pharmaceutical industry by chance? Because you certainly sound like you are.  And if we're going to resort to ad hominem, I hope you suffer a diurnal anomaly. 
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  66. Actually you can completely block facebook''s ads with two Chrome Add on's. ScriptSafe and AdBlock.
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  67. And then there are people like me - I'm tail end of the Baby Boom - but around screens since I was a young teenager. And now with over 20 years of experience in the Information Technology and Information Security business you cannot pry the screen away from me. However I know when to put it down.
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  68. There's a great movie from the 1970's called Colossus: The Forbin Project. It's about an AI that gets rather insistent.
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  69. And recall - the banning of tetraethyl lead in gasoline didn't happen until the 1970's. So it explains part of the increase in crime.
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  70. Hate to break it to him but the Internet has been around far longer than 15 years. Try double that.
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  71. Well as the video says, deeply listen and then ask if you might explain your position.
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  72. The current CEO of the company I work for is Italian-American like myself and my office-mate. It's like old paisans around there and he respects my opinions - why - because he knows I listened to him.
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  73. I still remember from school - I was tested out the wazoo. I had very high abstract reasoning. Still do.
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  74. I don't qualify for tax cuts, I make too much. So my average federal is $15K to $20K. It irks me.
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  75. Dear god no, not Pacal's Wager again! And I'll offer two passages from Genesis - first 3:22 - who the hell was Us? And now flip to 4:16-17 - who were the other people in Nod? If you can answer them that's my wager to tell you your religion is full of shit.
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  76. Interestingly I've been the same weight for over 20 years. It doesn't go up or down.
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  77. +metric man Assumes I wear a fedora.
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  78. Or you could be me - who sand bagged my boss just enough that he's no longer with the company.
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  79. Well skepticism and critical thinking - I got mine through private schools, in fact Roman Catholic schools. See, they said we couldn't apply the smell test to religion. Ha!
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  80. One of the reasons I live on a hill is because I know my city will be mostly underwater in the future. Back in 2010 we got a little preview of that when record rains overflowed the Scituate Reservoir and the water coming out the spillways came right back down into the Woonasquatucket river. To the point where the valley nearby was flooded with at least a couple feet of water and as you went further west the flooding was up to the roof line of some homes.
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  81. Computational ethics won't work. Why, because ethics required intelligence and we don't have true AI yet.
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  82. New forms of entertainment? Um, jazz was largely fueled my usage of marijuana. It's beautiful and very American. 
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  83. Thanks. Yeah I have Bioshock, Bioschock 2 and Fallout IV on my PC. Plus I have an NES emulator and a bunch of NES games installed too.
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  84. But but but - DC is dangerous. But yeah I agree - the generation of AC power is too complex. And DC to DC converters would be all that's necessary for home usage. Note I said converter and not inverter.
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  85. Yeah I've read the KJV and honestly almost the entirety of the Old and New testaments are chock a block full of some pretty horrid stuff.
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  86. Oh I got quite a few of those intelligence markers.
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  87. boggisthecat Precisely! It's how I ended up doing what I do vis a vis computers. 
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  88. Oh and I've been in interviews where I flat out told them sorry - not interested. And as I said, I'm an I.T. Manager that knows how to say no.
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  89. We're mostly made of C-H-N-S-O - all things that were fused in old stars eons ago. And if you really think about it, I'm pretty certain we're not the only planet with life on it in the Universe.
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  90. And some of us went into other engineering disciplines - particularly with computers. Hence why today I am known as a Senior Linux Engineer.
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  91. What Nick is describing sounds awfully like a linear motor.
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  92. i dare say the I.T./I.S. field is like that too. Particularly on the systems side.
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  93. But this is just basing it on a toy. But how do you now that a robot can't have an empathy and feelings? That's the part that really scares me.
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  94. In essence it eases the way money flows but with full audit included. I'm lightly invested in one cryptocurrency and I gotta say so far it's increased in value by 300% in four months. Not bad.
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  95. If a machine has consciousness and can feel pain does that make us their gods?
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  96. What is mid-life when your projected lifespan is over 100 years? I say that because that's what I found out when I ran my genome. And what I know of technology is that we are pushing out the age of death by decades. Just 150 years ago you pretty much died at 50. But with the medical tech, even rudimentary things like vaccination - has extended lifespans. Now of course we can edit genes, and even 3D print organs with vascular structures in them. I mean we've been printing esophaguses, bladder, etc. for years. Now we're entering the age of custom printed organs. Just imagine what that will change. And we're getting ever close to being able to connect the brain with computers. That's fascinating too.
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  97.  @OfMiceAndMegabytes  Oh I don't know about that. Imagine an investment you bought at say $500 today would be worth a few million just fifty years out. Or a hundred. Think too how much tail you could chase if you had your health for the majority of the time.
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  98.  @mfmageiwatch  Well that's just how I learned long ago.
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  99.  @mfmageiwatch  Dear in my view is acceptable. A formal business letter starts with the term so there's that. Honey implies sweetness and so on. Dear does not.
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  100.  @mfmage  Yes of course. I've always felt a little uncomfortable using it to start a letter though.
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  101. Think of it this way, on some of those worlds it may be the reptilians.
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  102. So if my phone is a dopamine pump my laptops yes plural must be too. But then it's part of my profession. And I deleted Facebook and it's stupid messenger app from my phone.
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  103. In essence Republicans now become the wingnut party. Lovely.
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  104. I want a chickenosaurus!
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  105. I scored 33: A first- generation upper-middle- class person with middle-class par- ents. Range: 11–80. Typical: 33 Which is interesting. Because I've been upper to lower middle class throughout my life. Part of it is because I'm an Engineering type. We march to a slightly different drum.
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  106. Kind of like here in Rhode Island where the Capitol city (Or should that be Capital - money grab) where they installed speed cameras in certain locations. I advocate that it violates the 6th amendment in that we have a right to face our accuser - how do you face an accuser that is a machine and software?
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  107. Well - but tell me how are the radars on those calibrated? I mean I've actually seen for instance red light cameras. They just trigger randomly. And I would in fact force the government in court to present that evidence.
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  108. Oh I agree on that one. Thanks!
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  109.  @theimmortal4718  No, electric. It's the most efficient way to propel a vehicle. That said I understand - but with advances in power generation technology. So your thinly veiled ad hominem joke well it falls flat.
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  110.  @theimmortal4718  Chevy Bolt is 1.5 tons. A Tesla Model 3 is 1.6 to 2 tons. And you clearly don't know what it is I'm talking about here. Ever see an electric car smoke the heck out of cars with IC engines? I have. Power/weight is meaningless there.
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  111.  @theimmortal4718  the Chevy Volt (capitalization counts) is a hybrid I know. The Bolt with a B is a pure electric vehicle. They're less complex than an IC engine. Now hybrids yes I agree - more complex. But a pure electric is simpler.
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  112.  @theimmortal4718  Oh that's nice to know. It's funny people who proclaim their expertise in my opinion are trying to compensate or some lack thereof. One of the reasons Electric cars aren't taking off because there aren't enough players in the U.S. plus prices are still on the high side. But direct government subsidy would help there.
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  113.  @theimmortal4718  I do wish you'd learn to separate a paragraph. That said - think about how much the engine for a tractor-trailer weighs. Then add in fuel weight etc. How much does it come to when calculated? Now nearest I can calculate is 80,000lbs, now lets tackle fuel - a gallon of diesel is 6.943lbs - most trucks have about 200 gallon capacity so total weight is 1388.6lbs. For comparison a battery pack on a Tesla weighs 1,200 pounds. Now I assume on a semi-tractor it'd require maybe twice that. But the engine alone on a Semi-Tractor is 2,880lbs. An electric motor for automotive use is 70lbs and at 100% torque on power up. So as you can see lets do a bit further for a semi-tractor in electric. 2400 pounds of batteries and even if it has 2 electric motors it's 140lbs. So we get a total of 2,540lbs. So now we have comparison. The fuel and motor for a Diesel powered truck would be 4,286.6lbs While the all electric is 2,540lbs which is a difference of 1,728.60lbs. The above is just back of envelope calculation. But I'd imagine the margin of error in it is likely 10-20%.
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  114.  @theimmortal4718  As I mentioned, back of envelope calculation. https://www.truckinginfo.com/156044/driving-on-kilowatts
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  115. @Adam George Well there's that. One other thing I know in some communities is that the tax revenue for cars is declining. So too the dependence on gasoline taxes. And with cars becoming increasingly connected which gives me a very uneasy feeling since I know security wasn't job one, I give it a few years before we start getting taxed per mile driven. I see that because IC engines have become as efficient as they an be and hybrid and electric vehicles are only going to accelerate the loss of gasoline tax revenue. Perfect example, state I left the public transit agency tied it's revenue to 2 cents a gallon of gasoline tax. But with fewer people driving, and more efficiency in transport systems the transit agency is perpetually cash poor.
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  116.  @theimmortal4718  As I've now said in many postings on this it was a quick and dirty calculation. And consider the electric motors only weigh 70lbs each. Even four of them would only be 280lbs. And even if the batteries weighed roughly 20,000lbs it'd still be lighter than the IC motor and fuel necessary to run it. Plus the environmental benefits if we were to achieve conversion to electric vehicles would be great. Or are you one of those people who doesn't believe in man made climate change?
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  117. One other fact that emerged from the Brexit vote - the urban areas voted against leaving the E.U. while the suburbs and rural communities overwhelmingly voted for leaving the E.U. In a way it's comforting that even the UK is as fucked up as the United States is.Oh and here's my prediction as to what will happen to Britain, Whales, and Ireland - when they leave the E.U. they'll start paying tariff on goods that will cause mass inflation. Mass inflation leads to a society in which a despot can arise. And the U.K. in general has nukes.
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  118. Yep - the suburbs are a cancer on society.
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  119. Yup - I realized I had some relatively dim bulbs teaching math, they didn't love the subject.
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  120.  @ikemadi6265  Yes indeed. I'm aware of the limitations of I.T. systems and robotics. But even now I see we have some tech that reminds me of the Jetsons - we're staying with a friend right now and the alarm system - where in the past they beeped out their warnings, now they speak. Whenever a door is opened it clearly says "Front Door", "Back Door", "Garage Door". I find it hilarious.
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  121. You can thank John Calvin for the bizarre categorization of sexuality. In my opinion religion screws up so many things. I often fantasize what would have happened has the myth of the Christ not existed.
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  122. Indeed, deliberate ignorance is a hard one to overcome. Ridicule however is a useful tool to be used with the willfully ignorant.
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  123. You are completely unhinged. Or have you not scene the following: a) Orbital photographs of the Earth b) See sun rise, high noon and sun set. c) Seen the phases of the moon d) Seen eclipses e) See the arc of the Milky Way right ascend through the sky.
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  124. Well - sometimes it is amusing to feed the trolls. Because they'll eventually resort to ad hominem at which point they forfeit the argument.
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  125. I want an AGI that has a huge, red power off button. That'd teach that AGI who was boss.
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  126.  @ThisOldChris  And also require that the AGI does not have the ability to control it's power or any human dependent systems and it understands humans can terminate its life. That should do it.
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  127. The issue i have with science and religion is this. Religion stopped looking for answers 2000 years ago. Thus my non belief in any deity.
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  128. Consider if you will a single ballistic missile submarine. That caries 24 missiles, each with 8 independently targeted warheads. That's 192 targets we can hit with one submarine. So if Kim Jong Un doesn't know, he launches on South Korea, Guam, Japan, or any other friend of the U.S. I can pretty much guarantee Pyongyang will be a glowing parking lot within 30 minutes.
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  129. Interesting perspective on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Someone I would hope eventually will pull the plug on both misadventures.
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  130. The issue is corporations should not have personhood. It's a false notion originating in the 19th century that needs to be abolished.
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  131. All I know is all the Marvel properties have been made into live action series on Netflix.
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