I always find these "OMG new chatbot is practically human!" posts pretty disappointing. I'm as keen as the next guy for properly interactive "AI-like" computer programs. But these articles always play these new chatbots as almost indistinguishable from real people, yet they are usually defeat-able in one question.

One of the things _none_ of these bots do well is abstract reasoning. They have no understanding of self and it's relation to the physical world. As such a simple sentence like "If you and I are holding hands, whose hand am I holding?" will send them in to a nonsensical spiral. We are still no-where _near_ a convincing "chat human" and these articles always make it seem like we're but a few short lines of code away from sex bots that can fulfil all our interaction needs.

Try the sentence above with any chatbot you like. It's an instant killer. Hell, I'd be happy if someone would just add it to their "rote replies" DB so it answered correctly. The first time that happens I think I'll call over in amazement.

He' been saying that telomerase lengthening is a good area of research for life extension for years and years. It's good to see one of his 7 therepudic targets for immortality verified.

I must admit that I'm surprised that in nearly 200 comments there have only been a couple of mentions of Permaculture. I would have expected that the highly systematic and evidence based approach to sustainable high yield food cropping would have been right up the slashdot crowds alley.

They are already turning this kind of environment into productive landscape in even harsher climates than Africa (the very salty depleted areas of low lying jordan for example) Look on youtube for "greening the desert" (over view here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk).

Permaculture (while it has it's hippy adherents) is moslty based in very well understood horticultural and scientific processes for repairing damaged landscapes in a rapid and sustainable way using pioneer species that not only stabalise the environment but enhance it. (Natural Nitrogen fixing precursor species) alongside cheap human manageable earthworks and seed planting techniques.

I highly recommend any geek interested in ecological revitalization read up on and get into permaculture.

This sounds like a perfect recipe for meat puppets and remote crime!

True, But many Christians hold that "Without the bible there can be no morality". They use this as a justification for the rightness of their religion. Most of them are completely unaware that there were complete and consistent moral systems hundreds if not thousands of years before the bible was written. I've met quite a few of the "if the bible didn't exist we'd all be rioting in the streets crowd. You ask them how did society work before the bible and they turn their head to the side like a confused dog and say "BEFORE the bible?" Like that's an impossibility.

You're right! Where would we be today without the Dark ages? The Crusades? The AIDs epidemic in Africa? The Inquisition? The Salem Witch burnings?... Why... why... we'd be.... centuries more advanced probably.

Only 15% see religion and science as in conflict because the other 85% see religion as irrelevant....

Have you seen "YubiKey" : http://www.yubico.com/yubikey I use this for pretty much all my authentication now. (where posible) You can either let it auth off their servers or if you don't trust them (I don;'t) you can generate your own auth server for your key or even local auth or flat password. It's pretty cool and you could use it to generate a auth key for the applications you list. But yea.. it's the way to go. No wallet access without me pushing the button on my yubikey.

I would say that the future of _America_ looks more like a combo of those two movies. I've now lived in the USA and many countries overseas and in my experience America seems to be the only country that really really glorifies mindless patriotism over education.

That's because you shouldn't eat diet food.. It's pre-packaged crap for people who are too lazy to learn how to cook properly for themselves.

Shortcuts are never tasty

I highly recommend getting a book called "The Okinawan Program" which is a study of some of the healthiest people on the planet and their diet and lifestyle.

It contains some delicious healthy recipes that leave you feeling very full, are exotic and tasty as hell and yet keep you below that horrific calorie level needed for weight loss

To take what someone said earlier and expand on it. "Stop eating so much fatty, and learn to cook!"

Geee... let me see... "without changing their diets" Could this perhaps be it?

"I'm burning 300 calories a day in excersise and taking in 2000 a day in whoppers. Why can't I lose weight?"

Science fail!

Idling? Dude.. it's an ELECTRIC CAR! The engine doesn't "turn over" when you're not moving. Charge is used when you move, an/if you're running internal electronics (air con etc) if you're in a traffic jam.. just turn it off. It's not like you have to "re-start the engine" when it's time to move.

As a British Citizen who lived in NZ for 15 years and is now trying to get permanent residence in AU I have to call "bullshit" on point 2 there. I've been trying to dig through the red tape here in AU for 8 months with little luck. Getting a Green card in the US was a snap by comparison. Even after living over half my life in NZ they treat me here like I've just shown up on Easter island in a boat speaking Arabic.

I remember someone telling me once that we are going about this whole "space travel" thing all wrong.

Apparently all we need to do is tell the Japanese that we have discovered a planet on the other side of the galaxy populated only by tentacle monsters and schooolgirls and they will have the speed of light problem licked by the end of the month.

It actually makes perfect sense if you look upon acceptance of religion as a really deep seated fear of the "ending of self".

Because they are so afraid of dying or ending, they cling to religious belief to make them feel better that they will "continue after death". But deep down they don't truly _feel_ that certainty. So they fight death with all the fear that drove them to religion in the first place.

Those of us who have accepted that death mean the ending of self don't _want_ to die. But we've accepted it becasue we are no longer _afraid_ of it.

Saddened by it, yes. Want to avoid it, yes. But terrified of it to the point that we will lie to ourselves about the existence of an afterlife?

No.