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Comment Re:Two things (Score 1) 85

(or is it discovered inside the human mind? I'll let you figure that one out).

There's not even an argument there. Current scientific knowledge indicates strongly that our brains are wired for language processes, but not for a specific language.

What you're referring to as the creation of an algorithm is simply the creation of the description of the algorithm which is a different thing to the creation/discovery of the algorithm.

No. You are trying to introduce some kind of strange sideways category. Or maybe it is the word "algorithm" that's causing the confusion here. I've described my view, how about you describe yours?

Comment Re:You've forgotten 1 thing Tom (Score 1) 103

The real world is not that simple.

There are some psychopaths, especially in politics, who are not driven by money but by power and control. They've intentionally moved into politics because of that. Merkel is actually a good example of that, she spends considerable amounts of her efforts on getting rid of every potential rival around her, and she's quite good at it. She's the most popular politician in Germany largely because she's made sure all the others woke up to a knife in the back one day.

These kinds of people are not looking for big money, and are not easily bought, because they're looking for a different drug.

Comment Re:no surprise (Score 1) 103

No, I mean 2 decades. Adenauer was before my time, what I know about him is from history books and I don't trust them on the details.

But we also had Brand and Schmidt, for example. We had Kohl who, even though I massively disliked him, cannot be said to have been anyones pet. And SchrÃder was... not exactly great, but he did have the guts to stand up to Bush and tell him that his war in Iraq is stupid and we will have no part in it.

Comment Re:no surprise (Score 1) 103

Since they are at least allegedly on my side, I'd rather have them be competent.

Even if they were my enemies, I'd rather have that. I've been in competitive environments professional, and I don't mean trying to look better than your co-workers, I mean negotiations and court cases. I would choose a competent, professional enemy over a bumbling idiot every day. Maybe I can't fool him as easily, but I will get more, faster and better results. The idiot is only good when you want a quick win. If you're shooting for the long term, take a competent enemy, it'll be less trouble and you can focus more on your actual goals.

Comment Re:no surprise (Score 1) 103

No, if I want to say I don't like her, I will say I don't like her.

I don't like her.

She is an american lapdog in many ways. In her entire time as chancellor, I cannot remember one time where she stood up for the interest of her country (that she swore an oath to protect) when it was in opposition to american interests. When it was discovered that the NSA had tapped her phone, which quite frankly should be a major diplomatic incident, her reaction was a stern phone call with Obama. She has brought the IWF into inner-european issues (I hope I don't have to explain that the IWF is about as pro-american as it gets). She is either incredibly incompetent or willingly accepted CIA activities such as abductions and what the media calls "torture transports". When a german national was caught in that net, and released after 3 years of Gitmo with no charges, her government did everything it could to obstruct justice.

Do I need to go on or is that enough?

Comment Re:Two things (Score 1) 85

Again, I think you are mixing different levels of abstraction here.

Let's, for simplicity sake, take an extremely simple algorithm as an example: 1+1=2

Person A writes it down as a purely mathematical description, finds out he can draw nice conclusions from it and generally enjoys it in the sphere of pure math. It was created, no doubt.

Person B does not ever spot "1+1=2" anywhere in nature. What person A spots is that if he has one stone in his hand, and he adds a second one, he now has two stones in his hand. That is the natural process. "1+1=2" is not that process, but an abstract description of the process. If person B were to abstract (that is the creative part) and write it down, he would still be creating the 1+1=2 formula.

The difference between these two persons is not that one created and the other discovered. The difference is how their creative process got started.

You discover a new species of snake on your jungle trip. You create a name for it. Same thing with math, really.

Comment stupid (Score 1) 218

I hate /. videos. They're totally pointless because they convey no information that you couldn't push faster and more efficiently with a few screenshots and a transcript. They're just lazy journalism - a real journalist would take this, sit down with it and make a proper article out of it.

Here's a video where you can actually see the thing drive, as well as a bit of its interior workings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

There's more on Youtube and probably elsewhere. It's a pretty cool concept actually, the stupid video doesn't do it justice.

Comment no surprise (Score 2) 103

Sadly, this kind of stuff has been modus operandi for Germany for two decades now. You see, there's a whole generation that was raised on the concept of "our american friends". And that generation is in power now.

You see it in Merkel, who is basically a lapdog to America.

You see it in our financial industry, which was basically sold bridges by "our american friends" - guess who sent 400 million to Lehman Brothers literally (not metaphorically, literally) the day before they collapsed? Correct, a german bank.

And you see it in your secret services, which are basically a laughing stock the world over, but try to pretend they can play with the big boys. When in fact they can't even convince our own government members to actually use the cryptophones that they developed for them. *facepalm*

We are doing some really cool stuff over here, but our people in charge are idiots.

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