April 04, 2008
daily UTC chat log for Anywherebb (Postline 6.1.30)
19:39, Raptorjedi> It was 19:33 when I started :P He probably just timed out as I said it.
19:40, Ponder s> That makes more sense. I had been a little confused.
20:01, Xenomorph> I think we have enough for the Paranoia turn now ;)
20:02, Ponder s> Me too!
20:02, Hello! :)> :D Traitor accusations ftw!
20:02, Ponder s> Does my turn that I posted right at 20:00 still count?
20:03, Xenomorph> I guess I'll let you off for that one. :)
02:13, Trad.a> the phase "We will never escape us" has never been uttered on the nets before.
02:13, Trad.a whispers: has now :P
03:34, Chad> That CJ7 movie was pretty good.
03:50, Raptorjedi> If you want a good movie, watch The Man From Earth
03:52, Raptorjedi> It's an independant film with some good (and recognizable) actors that tells an amazing story despite the fact that it takes place in a small house and the front yard.
03:54, Raptorjedi> The screenplay was written by the same guy who wrote the short story It's a Good Life, which eventually became an episode of The Twilight Zone. It's the one with the kid who sends people to the cornfield.
04:00, Zjc92> Hm, it appears someone is parking on anywherebb.com again. Have to wait and see what happens. :\
04:02, Raptorjedi> No one is parking it
04:02, Raptorjedi meant: on it
04:03, Raptorjedi> I'm ON anywherebb.com
04:03, Zjc92> Ah, it must be me then. :P
04:03, Raptorjedi> It's likely that your DNS simply hasn't updated yet
04:04, Zjc92> Right.
04:04, Raptorjedi> It should be back to normal in a few days
04:05, Raptorjedi> Netflix is kinda dumb :P They have Ghostbusters filed under Alien Science Fiction
04:05, Zjc92> The Man From Earth...sounds interesting...and a little weird. :P
04:05, Chad> Ghost are aliens!
04:05, Zjc92> Well, it's not TOO far off, comedy/sci-fi, I guess. :P
04:06, Zjc92> ALIEN GOASTS
04:07, Chad> Alien Goats? OH NOES!
04:07, Raptorjedi> It is interesting. It reminded me a lot of Poul Andersons The Boat of a Million Years
04:07, Raptorjedi> Which was a great book
04:09, Zjc92> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHxyZaZlaOs ZOMBIE GOASTS
04:10, Raptorjedi> There are animals that are, in a way, biologically immortal, so I guess it COULD be possible that there are (or were) Humans who are too.
04:11, Zjc92> Well, in a SENSE, but everything dies eventually, in some way or another.
04:12, Raptorjedi> Turritopsis nutricula (a type of jellyfish) actually reverts back to it's polyp stage after becoming sexually mature, and that process continues on indefinately
04:13, Raptorjedi> And Hydras never age, so they can only die when something kills them or they starve or whatever.
04:15, Zjc92> Well, yeah, but things will ALWAYS die. It's just nature. :P
04:17, Raptorjedi> Yeah, but in theory, if you kept one in a tank without predators and in a properly controlled environment with regular feedings, they should live forever
04:18, Raptorjedi> The only things stopping them is getting eaten and getting sick :P
04:19, Zjc92> Who knows though? Everything evolves and changes, and it all just...yeah. :P
04:20, Zjc92> So a few things live forever, some things don't, some planets have life, some don't...
04:20, Zjc92> The universe seems pretty hit and miss. :P
04:20, Raptorjedi> And as a species, we are pushing towards a Technological Singularity. By that time smart machines will be making smarter machines faster than we could make the first smart machine
04:20, Raptorjedi> So if all goes well, in a hundred years machines will have solved that problem for us :P
04:22, Zjc92> And solved all the problems the solution creats, etc. etc. :P
04:22, Zjc92 meant: creates
04:23, Raptorjedi> Well, in theory, a smart machine making itself smarter will also be doing things like curing disease, and inventing better things faster than we can.
04:23, Raptorjedi> So if such a thing DOES happen, we would have an explosion of technology that before then was limited to science fiction
04:26, Raptorjedi> Thankfully, people made up things like Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, and The Matrix as an example of what would happen if we didn't monitor said technological growth :P\
04:29, Zjc92> Exactly the point I was going to make. :P
04:31, Raptorjedi> I figure as long as we throw in the three laws, and make it so they can't ever be changed, we'll be safe.
04:31, Raptorjedi> BUT, not constructing those kinds of machines for use in wars will help too :P
04:39, Cryoburner> But would a truly 'smart' machine want to cure diseases.
04:40, Raptorjedi> I guess that would depend on its motives, original programming, and how it was treated.
04:41, Cryoburner> The balance of the planet is already thrown off in favor of humans, so helping humans live longer could deteriorate the planetary ecosystem further.
04:42, Raptorjedi> Though in theory, the machine could fix that too :P
04:43, Cryoburner> From a human standpoint, curing diseases might be seen as a good thing, but a smart machine wouldn't be a human.
04:44, Cryoburner> Yes, the machine could eliminate all humans when they reach twenty years of age. :)
04:44, Raptorjedi> Well that particular problem is easily prevented. :P
04:44, Sirpaper> So, I'm eliminated? O_O
04:44, Cryoburner> How? The machine is smarter than you. :)
04:45, Raptorjedi> First, it shouldn't have direct contact with things like the internet. It also shouldn't be given too many freedoms when creating new machine intelligences
04:46, Raptorjedi> The first one should be in a contained, and cut off environment.
04:46, Cryoburner> I don't think it would really be a smart machine then.
04:46, Cryoburner> If cut off from the outside environment, it probably wouldn't be all that useful.
04:46, Raptorjedi> Well, sorta.
04:47, Raptorjedi> Not completely cut off, it would still interact with humans.
04:47, Raptorjedi> But we don't need a Skynet situation
04:47, Cryoburner> In order to make good decisions, it would need to know as much as possible.
04:48, Raptorjedi> Because with Skynet, they just built it and connected it to EVERYTHING and then turned it on, without any sort of testing :P
04:49, Raptorjedi> Well we would feed it with information. I guess what I'm saying is simulations would need to be run
04:49, Cryoburner> I don't think it would take long for our machine to end up accessing the outside would, anyway.
04:50, Raptorjedi> If it was introduced to violence, and warfare, what would it do? That kind of thing would be important to know before giving said hypothetical machine greater freedoms
04:50, Cryoburner> It seems inevitable that someone would eventually feed it information that could cause it to turn away from supporting humans.
04:53, Chad> I am borg.
04:53, Raptorjedi> In a close enviornment, if it did get introduced to something like that and did turn away, it could just be shut off.
04:54, Raptorjedi> Giving it access to everything availiable right from the start would probably end worse.
04:55, Raptorjedi> Feeding it information, and talking with the machine about it would be similar to teaching a child in school, in my opinion anyway.
07:53, Cryoburner> A murderous child who wants your soul!
07:58, Cryoburner whispers: He has knives for arms and the ability to read your mind.
08:01, Raptorjedi> And he has rabies... robot rabies
08:07, Cryoburner> They really shouldn't have let those stray Roombas into the hive mind facility.
08:55, Zjc92> I love Roombas! :D
08:56, Cryoburner> Even rabid, soul-starved Roombas?
08:57, Zjc92> ESPECIALLY those.
08:58, Zjc92> Holy crap, I used my shift key so much I broke it.
08:58, Zjc92> In not even 6 months.
08:59, Cryoburner> Maybe it's just stuck. Try tapping it a few times.
09:10, Zjc92> Did that. That's ok, this keyboard sucks, i'll get a new one soon. :P
09:24, Starchaser> OMG!!! I'm online
12:03, Cryoburner> Welcome to the information superhighway!
14:04, Megagun> Speed limit: 1 kilobyte per second!
14:08, Ponder s> Oh no, that's much to slow! It's an information AUTOBAHN! No speed limits!
14:54, Raptorjedi> Think of the accidents.
14:55, Raptorjedi> "Slashdot down today as a 300 computer pileup on that part of the information Autobahn locks up the internet. Affected sites that can't be reached are believed to be in the thousands."
15:03, Cryoburner> Nice... Microsoft extended sales of Windows XP for low cost computers for another two years. :)
15:04, Cryoburner> I think it's mostly intended for things like OLPCs that can't run Vista, but that means OEM copies should continue to be available from places like Newegg.
15:17, Cryoburner> I can't imagine Vista being sold for even half as long as XPs lifespan.
15:20, Cryoburner> Vista is like the new Windows Me. I don't see too many people buying it after 2010, when Windows 7 should be available.
15:23, Chad> Hopefully 7 is better then Vista.
15:38, Cryoburner> I'm guessing it will probably run with similar performace, but it will hopefully have more useful features.
15:39, Cryoburner> Vista just adds a bloated interface without adding much new content.
15:41, Cryoburner> By 2010, even low-end systems should be able to run Vista well enough, and driver support should also be improved.
15:43, Cryoburner> Windows 7 is based off Vista though, so it will likely replace it easily, without the two existing side by side for any length of time.
18:12, Buuks> But what is low-end in 2010?