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Comment Re:No mysteries solvable within a lifetime (Score 1) 292

The mods deem this insightful?

On slashdot, the vast majority of mods are of the form "agree / disagree." "Insightful" usually means "that's exactly what I think, too." There's very little correlation between up moderation and quality, primarily because moderation is unaccountable, but also because the moderators are selected without regard for skill or ability in the area of, you guessed it, moderation.

Comment Re:Neuroscience/AI? (Score 1) 292

Strong AI is possible, guaranteed. You're one example of it. The word "artificial" is utterly misleading. All it really says is "we know it exists in animals, and we choose to call any other example artificial, even if we're emulating the biological example."

There's nothing magical about the brain or brainops, superstition notwithstanding. It's just physics like everything else. Technology will get there, it's as inevitable as any other technology already invented, only more so, due to the immense potential for advancement on every front.

Presuming, of course, that we don't destroy ourselves before we get there. Sigh.

Comment Things like the LHC? (Score 1) 292

The existence of the LHC, as well as the type of discoveries made due to the LHC, in no way preclude discoveries elsewhere.

And as they would be discoveries, there's no saying if some are, or aren't, going to occur.

Inasmuch as cosmological theory is in complete disarray at this time -- "dark this" and "dark that", no certain knowledge of how the universe started -- added to which the fact that we can't yet see other worlds (but the tech to do that is approachable, given the appropriate industrial base), I think it's more than a bit premature to declare things like the LHC the last bastion of physics discoveries.

Comment Horgan is sans clue IMHO (Score 3, Interesting) 292

Just off the top of my head, we can reasonably expect (meaning, we're still short of) fundamental discoveries and/or basic technological developments in) artificial intelligence, mind download/upload to any degree, human augmentation (bio, mechanical, information processing, communications), animal augmentation, medicine of all kinds (in the areas of "how we work" and "how to keep us working" almost *everything* remains to be discovered), life extension, genetics, space drives, fusion technology, 3D printing / assemblers, nanotechnology, energy storage (ultracaps etc.), long baseline observing tech, canned learning, synthetic meats, holography, gravity...

And that's just a few of the areas we know about. No one knows what new things may be discovered by further exploration of space and the solar system, the sea floor, the earth beneath us, the various and sundry signals and noises that we can detect from elsewhere, and the ideas that spring solely from thinking about what we already know or suspect...

From my POV, both fundamental and technological development has usually seemed to manifest in a pyramidal fashion; one develops at least part of one level before you get to work on the next. With that in mind, I'd venture that we won't slow down either discovery or invention of things new until we cease discovery and invention among things known. And I don't think that's anywhere in sight.

But... then there are all those ideas in the SF lexicon, at least some of which are no doubt going to show up, either in the manner imagined or via some other mechanism. Frederick Pohl's "Joymaker" basically predicted the modern smartphone (except his device did some extra things we can't duplicate yet... like keep your up-to-date mind on file elsewhere as a backup); Arthur Clark nailed the whole geostationary communications satellite thing, William Gibson gave us a vision of networks that we still haven't even come close to (and I sure wish we would); Robert Heinlein came up with the waldo. There are plenty of ideas that seem like they *ought* to be possible, too, but don't appear to be so as imagined -- but that doesn't mean there isn't another way to get to those goals. Transporters, effectively FTL transport, levitation, etc.

Comment 1899 issue of Punch Magazine: (Score 2) 292

It was a joke then....

In an imaginary humorous conversation, someone asked "Isn't there a clerk who can examine patents?" The reply was "Quite unnecessary, Sir. Everything that can be invented has been invented.*"

...and it's still a joke.

* incorrectly attributed to Charles H. Duell, commissioner of US patent office in 1899

Google

NYC Considers Google Glass For Restaurant Inspections 104

New submitter TchrBabe writes: "NYC is now considering equipping its Health Department inspectors with Google Glass to provide a record of restaurant inspections. 'A yearlong pilot program would require 10 percent of the 160 health inspectors to wear video devices — including, possibly, the much-maligned Google goggles — under legislation to be proposed Thursday. "I think it would limit the abuses on both sides of the table, and it would allow for a more objective view by the judge on the violations that have been cited," said bill sponsor Vincent Ignizio.'"
Google

Google: Teach Girls Coding, Get $2,500; Teach Boys, Get $0 673

theodp (442580) writes "'Public school teachers,' reads the headline at Khan Academy (KA), 'introduce your students to coding and earn $1000 or more for your classroom!' Read the fine print, however, and you'll see that the Google-bankrolled offer is likely to ensure that girls, not boys, are going to be their Computer Science teachers' pets. 'Google wants public high school students, especially girls, to discover the magic of coding,' KA explains to teachers. 'You'll receive a $100 DonorsChoose.org gift code for every female student who completes the [JS 101: Drawing & Animation] course. When 4 or more female students complete it, we'll email you an additional $500 gift code as a thank-you for helping your students learn to code.' While 'one teacher cannot have more than 20 of the $100 gift codes activated on their DonorsChoose.org projects,' adds KA, 'if the teacher has more than 20 female students complete the curriculum, s/he will still be sent gift codes, and the teacher can use the additional gift codes on another teacher's DonorsChoose.org project.' So, is girls-are-golden-boys-are-worthless funding for teachers' projects incongruent with Khan Academy's other initiatives, such as its exclusive partnership with CollegeBoard to eliminate inequality among students studying for the SAT?"

Comment Re:Whoa (Score 2) 322

A cop is no more able to injure you and get away with it than anyone els

Now you're just completely hallucinating.

Here's the face of that: http://www.cato.org/raidmap.

Cops get away with injuring people all the time, both on the street and in custody, not to mention via proxies in prison.

How will you ever get rid of the bad actors if you make it horrible job for anybody who might replace them?

I didn't make it a horrible job. They did.

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