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Comment Re:I block Flash and Java. (Score 1) 618

1. People claiming to want to study opposing viewpoints are a dime a dozen.

2. Atypical people don't matter anyway.

3. The revenue generated from ads, normalized by adblocking people, is so little that most people would be limited by time to view all the material rather than the money to pay for it. Except for badly scaling pricing models - but when bad models are assumed, any number of things can wrong, viewpoint bubbles are the least of worries.

Comment Re:I block Flash and Java. (Score 1) 618

It would also put viewers in a bubble where they're unwilling to look at a site with opposing viewpoints because they'd have to pay more. It's similar to the purported drawbacks of the Facebook Zero/Internet.org initiative

1. Human psyche isn't amenable to looking at things disagreeing with them. Any system evolved / used by humans will have that problem. Even without internet.org / zero / facebook / lots of paid websites - most people live in their own bubble.

2. Even without internet.org/zero - facebook already puts you into your own bubble. Things similar to those you like are shown more. There is no dislike button for similar deliberate purposes. Facebook blames this on users, but they know that showing you things that you like is a good way to keep you coming back for more.

3. In effect you are saying paid websites would "put viewers in a bubble where they're unwilling to look at a site with opposing viewpoints", whereas without the paid websites they are already in the same bubble. I don't see a difference.

Comment Re: News for nerds (Score 1) 866

They call their god Allah

You say so, you might even believe it. But it is highly misinformed according to many Muslims I know, and also according to a much more popular interpretation of "La ilaha illillah". Allah is NOT god.

That doesn't cancel out and make all of them non-religious groups.

I am not saying that by cancelling they become non-religious. Each individual religious group remains religious.

I am saying that popular disbelief* of Muslims in god makes belief in god wrong. And popular disbelief in Allah by Christians makes Allah wrong according the the wisdom of the crowds.

And by disbelief I don't mean merely indifference. If it were merely indifference, it would not cancel the other group's belief. But they are warned strongly against "false gods" in their gospels and by leaders. I mean active disbelief and denial.

Comment Re:Allowing your mind to close. (Score 1) 361

Not really.

My life definitely took an upturn in late twenties and thirties. Yet I hate most of today's music. My teenage music had both good and bad music according to my present self ~40.

Best music was from 15-50 years before I was born - survival bias definitely plays a role there.

Geeks are stereotypically bullied in their teenage, and then earn better than their bullies - or so the tale goes, though that is not my story. If this has any truth, many slashdotters be similar.

Comment Re: News for nerds (Score 1) 866

You say that people who believe in god do so because they believe a particular historical person is a prophet, that is, a messenger of god.

No I don't say that at all. In fact the reason why they believe in god doesn't matter for this statement at all. I'm saying they believe mutually incompatible things, so "wisdoms of the crowds" are canceling each other.

Comment Re:You dont' need another language to do this. (Score 1) 386

Another example of a language that solved the halting problem is Coq

The "problem" in halting problem is that the "language" should be Touring complete. Otherwise either there is no halting "problem", or it can be said that the problem has been solved in 1930s and 1940s. So Coq "solves" it, by not being Touring complete i.e. there was no problem in the first place for 50 years when Coq was invented.

SQL has existed for a longer time, and is a much better known non-Touring complete, halting problem "solved" language.

Comment Re:garbage under, garbage above (Score 1) 386

You didn't answer the question "Please tell me the living thing that is better at programming than human beings."

You made up another question and answered it - doing a "programming task" that "can be precisely defined".

So groups of humans remain the best known programming machines - where programming is defined as repeatably solving real world problems with computers. Which is what a vast majority of programmers do.

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