"LOL and EW all at once."

Yeah exactly. Its effectively an animatronic sex toy, like some kind of inflatable doll (that's not inflatable). Funny how it doesn't take long, for some human behaviour, to decend to, great, I can make a robot! ... now what can I do with it?... I know, I can shag it!

So much for noble goals, like robots helping humanity. :)

"the Internet counters this empowerment of sociopaths by increasing the opportunity for exposure to different ideas"

I agree with you, but your position is fundamentally flawed, as you have not looked at the bigger picture, which is needed, when dealing with someone like Hitler. You focus on everyone discussing at the same level on a forum, but someone who seeks power over others (like Hitler did) doesn't think about playing by the same rules as you and everyone else.

If you truly want power, you seek to control the company that provides the entire forum or better still, you seek political power, to give yourself the power, to control all companies that provide all forums, in your country. Or better still, you seek political power, to control all companies in your country, that provide any kind of Internet access to any website anywhere in the world.

Hitler and people like him, are so angry and arrogant towards others, that they care little for the views of others. This behavior often pushes them away from (as they see it) wasting their time listening to the views of others (who disagree with them). (Ironically it creates a feedback behavior, where the less they listen to others, the more they think they are correct all the time, as they can never learn they are wrong).

Someone who seeks real power, plays by entirely different rules. They are not interested in individuals and their point of view on a forum. An individual has no power *on their own*. A large group of people however, has power. The people who seek real power, seek to control groups of people. By controlling the point of access to the Internet, they can hide their entire country, from any view which differs from their own. The news this year, about many forms of Internet controls, proves this is what is happening, even now. Many countries are working towards finding ways to censor views, that differs from their own point of view, of what they consider acceptable. Plus some countries are also seeking to monitor everything people say and view online (like for example, the UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's total Internet Database plan and the Phorm ISP built in spyware, ironically setup also in the UK, the home country of George Orwell). These databases and Phorm like ISP spyware style companies, provides the means to workout which political group everyone fit into. Then these groups can be dealt with, usually by divide and conquer tactics, to fragment the groups, to make them all feel that they cannot make a difference and have other things to worry about in their lives. (In the case of Hitler, he wouldn't try to divide up or hold opponents back, he would have just kill off all opponents he could find).

Which brings me back to your point,
"the Internet counters this empowerment of sociopaths"
No, the Internet provides a means for sociopaths *in power* to monitor, profile and then control and so effectively silence everyone who they do not want speaking out.

" by increasing the opportunity for exposure to different ideas"
No, the Internet provides a means to censor out all views, that the ones in power, do not want their people to see. So while you are right (in theory) about sociopaths using discussion forums, being exposure to different ideas, you are totally wrong, (in practice) as sociopaths like Hitler, play by entirely different rules. In their hands, the Internet greatly boosts the empowerment of sociopaths *in power* .

Note to mod, that post wasn't redundant!. Its totally relevant and on topic. Either there is a Cyberwar or there isn't?. We come here to discuss ideas and opinions. My opinion is that there is no real Cyberwar, any more than at any other time and instead, a lot of the talk about this scare story, is being driven by parts of the media, using it to gain more marketing attention. (Of course this part of the discussion, then fits into a bigger picture, of the governments also playing along, pushing the same story, from their own point of view, for their own gain, but that is another part of the wider discussion. (Note to mod, as I added about governments above *after* this post). This post was specifically about discussing in more detail, the role of the media and the game they are playing, with distorting the truth, for their own gain, resulting in them, keep pushing misinformation.

Misinformation is a major issue and major problem, as its constantly highlighting how distorted some aspects of the news is becoming. This Cyberwar story is a good example. We are not being feed the whole truth by the media. They are distorting the news, for their own gain. Media misinformation is a very big problem in itself.

"governments around the world are trying to stick their noses"

I totally agree with this. The governments are stoking fears and the media are playing along, as they can use fear stories to sell more media. This Cyberwar story has been brewing for months in the media, now the governments are brewing it up to the point they can start to bring in controls, to help save us all from this "growing problem", as they so often call these kinds of manipulation stunts.

Its not so much the governments and media are working together. Its more a symbiotic like relationship, where media and governments both feed us with the same stories, for their own gain. The media gain attention and so more sales with fear stories, while the politicians gain greater power, to control others. Of course, the extra control we are told, is to help us all escape the fears they keep telling us about.

Its a disturbingly insidious feedback loop thats emerging between large scale corporate media organizations and ever better political manipulation techniques ... so how long before the companies start offering to sell governments "solutions" to this problem. Then they can all get rich quick, setting up new government departments and expanding others etc..

"There is no "cyberwar". BusinessWeek is losing it."

Unfortunately the word "Cyberwar", when used by non-technical news companies, is often used to (wrongly) imply organized big scale attacks, as if its a military style war/attack. Its far more likely just mostly isolated young (and/or misguided older) hackers on all sides, having a go at hacking/annoying the opposing sides. Not much different from kids throwing stones at the other side, just the 21st century version of it.

But then we live in a time of media organized waves of ever more fear and paranoid, so things get blown up out of all proportion by them, (for their own gain). BusinessWeek is just playing along to the common theme of selling a story of fear and paranoid, to get peoples attention. Sadly this marketing/PR tactic works. Now people are discussing Cyberwar and in the process BusinessWeek is gaining greater attention. Its not about Cyberwar, its about BusinessWeek's need for attention.

I wish companies would stop playing this fear manipulation game, to get attention. But then I guess all the time this method works, they will keep exploiting it, for their own gain ... so we have to keep enduring this constant background misinformation static noise.

The Steam/online distribution model, does have some major cost advantages over shop sales. Making CDs/DVDs requires long lead times, from manufacturing order time, to distribution to shops and its always a gamble, as to how many of the final CDs, they will sell in shops, before they end up discounted, in the bargain baskets. So what often happens, is CD re-ordered manufacturing runs don't happen, unless its a clear sales leader.

But the biggest advantage the Game Industry has is a psychological advantage during a recession (Well advantage in the longer term, of say the next year). Its been shown in the past, that during downturns/smaller recessions, software sales are not hit as hard as most other industries. What is hit harder is hardware sales, as people hold onto what hardware they have. The theory I've heard put forward to explain what's happening, is people in bad times, use software entertainment as a bit of a release from their worries, to have a bit of fun.

The games industry tends to do ok in downturns (even though sales are still lower). (Of course, bosses use downturns as an excuse to cut staff, after games are finished and before they get new game development deals signed up with publishers, but thats another issue).

The thing is though, this is by far the biggest recession the games industry has ever had to endure. It seems currently a lot of people are effectively holding their breath (so to speak, in the past 2 months) waiting to see how things develop. So they are currently holding on to their money. Which is currently stifling the sales of most products. But as things ease off in the next few months, I would hope things would improve and software sales don't suffer to much. There is however one major problem, that in the short term, its likely to delay an improvement for software sales. Unfortunately software sales are hugely biased by seasonal sales, in the run up to Christmas. Sales after Christmas collapse for a few months. (Collapse that is for all but the biggest high profile software releases). So many companies are going to have to earn enough this Christmas, to tide them over for a few months in the new year.

This start of the recession, stifling the sales in the run up to Christmas is a big worry, as its likely to have a major impact on weaker retailers (and other companies) in the few months after Christmas.

"I thought Neanderthals actually had *bigger* brains than we do."

An Elephant has a much larger brain than a human. That doesn't make Elephants more intelligent than humans.
e.g. http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Elephant-intelligence

... unless that is, Elephants are so intelligent, that they can hide their intelligence from us! :)

Anyone viewing this, shows what you are like...
http://slashdot.org/~yttrstein/comments

On this discussion, its very evident from the tone of your comments and their number, that you wish to suppress any discussion on personality disorders.

Its also clear the general level of your comments is low, at times arrogant, and entirely meaningless.

Therefore, going back to you comment, "Tell me, which disorder do you have". I don't have a disorder, but I suspect you know this, but you evidently do. Your have tried very hard to suppress any discussion about personality disorders.

Which is interesting, when I refer you back to one of your previous comments, "I actually did some work with Chiou and Howard on traumatic dissociation."

I suspect you lied. You know very little psychology. Based on your current profile, you are more likely to be a patient.

Its also clear you are a troll.. (therefore showing signs of NPD and HPD attention seeking), For example, your recent post history,
You scored, 2 trolls, 3 Offtopics, a Flamebait and a Redundant. Also no comment is voted higher than 3, so clearly other people also think most of your comments are arrogant, meaningless troll comments.

Here's your recent post history...
Re:Cluster B personality disorders Tuesday November 25, @03:00AM 1
Re:Cluster B personality disorders Monday November 24, @10:36PM 1 1
Re:Cluster B personality disorders Monday November 24, @10:35PM 2, Interesting
Re:Not where I work, and not me... Monday November 24, @08:47PM 1 1
Re:Cluster B personality disorders Monday November 24, @08:40PM 2, Interesting
Re:Cluster B personality disorders Monday November 24, @06:58PM 2 3, Interesting

Re:No. Monday November 24, @06:54PM 2, Funny
Re:Not where I work, and not me... Monday November 24, @06:35PM 2 1

attached to Verizon Employees Fired For Snooping Obama's Record
Re:touchy feely felt fedoras Monday November 24, @07:52AM 1
touchy feely felt fedoras Sunday November 23, @03:18PM 1 1, Troll

attached to Red Hat's Max Spevack On Defending Linux Freedom
Re:Yep. Sunday November 23, @06:11PM 1
Re:Yep. Sunday November 23, @02:36PM 1 -1, Offtopic
Re:Yep. Sunday November 23, @03:26AM 1 -1, Offtopic
Re:Yep. Saturday November 22, @08:29PM 1 -1, Troll
Re:Yep. Saturday November 22, @07:26PM 1 3, Insightful

attached to Can You Be Denied the Right To Support OSS?
Re:Filed Under the NYT's "Fashion & Style?" Sunday November 23, @03:30AM 1, Offtopic
Re:Filed Under the NYT's "Fashion & Style?" Thursday November 13, @06:42PM 2 -1, Flamebait
attached to Mind Control Delusions and the Web
Re:Google is too hi tech too... Tuesday November 11, @01:43PM 2
Re:Try YouMail... Tuesday November 11, @01:41PM 2
Re:Try YouMail... Tuesday November 11, @01:40PM 1 2
attached to Where Have All the Pagers Gone?
Re:All together now *Sunday November 23, @03:37AM 2
Re:All together now *Monday November 10, @07:31PM 2
Re:All together now *Monday November 10, @01:51PM 1 1, Redundant

"but celebrities hardly have any privacy"
That's the way many celebrities like it. Many of them want attention. Its typical HPD behaviour. (Just compare for example, the behaviour of Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. They each show (HPD) Histrionic personality disorder behaviour, i.e.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histrionic_personality_disorder

"erosion of privacy"
Its disterbing this company has such useless protection on data, that employees can just lookup the details like this on anyone. These companies seem to treat everyones privacy with complete contempt. They are all far more interested in profit, than privacy and privacy is something they are all too often selling, for their own profit.

"Same thing".

Not exactly the same, but are high probability (not all, but many) of being a form of cluster B personality disorder.

celebrities, politicans and criminals ... i.e. all cluster B personality disorders.

celebrities - Predominately HPD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histrionic_personality_disorder Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention-seeking, including an excessive need for approval and inappropriate seductiveness, usually beginning in early adulthood.

politicans - Predominately NPD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the diagnostic classification system used in the United States, as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy."

criminals - NPD and ASPD (which is effectively extreme NPD).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspd The essential feature for the diagnosis is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.
Whats also interesting is you can have combinations of these, so a HPD who is also NPD etc. (For example, an ASPD who is also a HPD is very bad news, as they seek to demonstrate (i.e. seek attention) to show they have power over others around them).

"will not result in any more genetic diversity than 10"

In the future, maybe genetic diversity will become old school thinking?

This is exciting science/scifi?!? ... I want to retrain to become a Genetic Programmer, that way I can code up my own pet Godzilla! :)

"I would guess: outside the container!"

Found it!

"It's not even a slippery slope. It's an outright lie. Just because something isn't illegal, doesn't mean that we don't want to hide it."

Could you obfuscate that with some more negatives please ;) ... joking aside, unfortunately there are people who do believe the political PR smoke screen, "if you are innocent, you've got nothing to hide". They fail to see its a lie used to cover up the power seekers goal, of bring in ever more controls, to gain more power.

It is however a slippery slope, as it can (and is) used in varying degrees and over time. But the bias is always in one direction, which is towards their need to seek ever more power. Its their overall goal.

"you have nothing to hide, right"

That idea is an extremely slippery slope, that is all too often used to extend ever more control over people. For example, one of the fundamental principles of law, is someone is innocent, until proven guilty. But by applying the idea, "you have nothing to hide", it means anyone suspected (in this case, by automated profiling) of being a criminal, now needs to prove they are innocent. It means if you are a false positive, then you will be stopped from what you are doing and interrogated and even your house and belongings can be searched, until you can prove you are innocent. While all this is happening, you will also have no privacy at all and your freedom is removed from you while you prove you are innocent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocent_until_proven_guilty

So over time, as they add ever more automated profiling, they get ever more ways to get more people caught up as false positives. That's ever more people, being deprived of freedom, until they can prove their innocence.

The route to a totalitarian society, is via people using the idea of, "you have nothing to hide". Yet ironically, all too often, its the minority of people who have power in (ever more) totalitarian style societies, that are able to cause the greatest injustices to their powerless minions. They cause their harm through multiple means. Some are self-righteously ignorant of the harm they cause. Others deliberately seek to exploit their position of power, for their own gain.

The real danger is this minority of people (in ever country) who seek to dominate and control others. This applies to people who seek political or business power over people and ironically terrorists also seek to dominate and control others, into their twisted points of view, for their groups gain. In the case of the terrorists the gain they seek is for their own side, (even if their lower foot soldiers don't gain) as they see it as a battle for their point of view. In the case of political or business power, the gain is directly for them.

The majority of us who don't seek power over others, are simply caught up in an endless power struggle, throughout history between different minority groups, who do seek power and so seek to get others on their side, to boost their own power and to overthrow the other power seeking groups.

Therefore, "you have nothing to hide", is wrong. Everyone has something to hind from some of these groups, who seek power. Because some of the groups will use anything they learn to gain power over people and the more extreme they push towards a totalitarian controlled society, the more they can exploit, stop, search, detain or interrogate, you and your family. That's not the kind of world I want to live in. Plus once these laws are passed, they can be used by any new party getting into power later on. Imagine what power some more extreme groups would do, if they gained access to this kind of power in the future.

For example, in the UK, http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00065/cartoon291008_65504a.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqui_Smith "As the UK Home Secretary, she has been noted for advocating strongly authoritarian policies."

"Authoritarian", in her case, as in extremely arrogant, self-righteous, self-serving, power seeking, contempt for the views of others. She is a great example of how power corrupts and she is dragging the whole UK into her own total police state hell.

For example, in the UK, even some companies can legally break into peoples homes.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/bills/article.html?in_article_id=427634&in_page_id=510
That's a great example of how so called free socities can change into Authoritarian police states. Any move towards authoritarian power can (and will by some) be exploited, for the gain of a minority with the power.