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Comment: Fewer variables improve probability. (Score 1) 344

by Aphoxema (#39812547) Attached to: Is Extraterrestrial Life More Whimsical Than Plausible?

We got where we are thanks to the dead animals time has gifted to us and buried beneath our feet. Going by the inevitable and grim prospect of running out of the good stuff, if our own fate is the likely outcome of sentience blessed with 150 millions years worth of sunlight compressed into goo, then intelligence life is going to be a whole lot harder than even the skeptics want to appreciate.

I think life is very likely. I think us seeing it won't happen. I certain us meeting other, intelligent life in the universe during the tiny window we'll get to survive as a species is simply impossible.

We don't deserve intergalactic travel. Maybe, though, we'll be lucky enough to be a part of the next fossil fuels that kickstarts the next dominant species' intellectual revolution. It would almost be the responsible thing to just decimate the human species now before we waste what fossil fuels are already there so that the next contender has a better chance of unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

Comment: Re:Not so fast (Score 4, Insightful) 295

by Aphoxema (#38638738) Attached to: New Research Shows Cognitive Decline Begins At 45

This isn't really suggesting that all people begin to decline at 45, generally people become more knowledgeable and better able to understand abstract things as they keep adding on the years. Dementia disorders, particularly Alzheimer's, are what is being discussed her and being able to better preempt the diseases with more warning is the benefit of this study.

Really, anyone who throws the idiot blanket over seniors (like I used to) haven't had much experience with healthy and active seniors. There's just a lot of influences convincing most people that being old invariably means incontinence, dementia, sentimentalism, bigotry, an unwillingness to learn and a death-grip on nostalgia.

Even working in nursing homes, where the least functional people tend to find their way to, I've found the most common issue to be physical impairment. This often leads to incontinence because the person could not appropriately eliminate in time, and due to both they often face depression which causes every sort of problem that we perceive to be the norm in old age.

Comment: Re:"almost certainly" (Score 1) 160

by Aphoxema (#38637394) Attached to: No, SETI Has Not Detected Alien Signals From Space

SETI isn't necessarily looking for an intentional signal (though if one weren't intentional it would be unlikely to reach us), just anything that demonstrates artifice. It doesn't have to be something like an alien soap-opera perfectly displayed in NTSC format, but the kind of noise generated by that kind of broadcast is generally different than natural noise.

For one, since we can't test every signal for every kind of imaginable modulation, format, encryption or whatever, we have to look instead for a pattern between what could be real information. Every IP broadcast has plainly readable headers and part of them always begin a certain way, no matter how the information they help deliver is formatted. Every NTSC signal has within them the defining characteristics of the 60 Hertz frequency the information carries.

Whether digital or analog, there always has to be some kind of reliable pattern for the receiver to interpret, but all we can see is "Pattern-noise-pattern-noise". This is why SETI's problem is more of processing power than space to point telescopes at, they use Fourier transformations to attempt to find individual frequencies in a spectrum and then each of those frequencies need to be tested for potential data containers.

Comment: Tough call (Score 4, Funny) 663

by Aphoxema (#38358798) Attached to: Iran Wants To Clone Downed US Drone

IANAL, but according to the precedent set by Keepers Vs. Weepers, I think the US will have a very hard time convincing the courts for the immediate return of their supposed property unless they can get their mommy and daddy involved.

Oh, this was in Iran? Well, we know where this is going. The US will just go over to Iran's house and shoot his parents in the face.

Comment: Just can't win... (Score 1) 585

by Aphoxema (#38141896) Attached to: New Batch of Leaked Climate Emails

The thinking just doesn't follow...
"Global warming may be a bad thing and would require us to take action."
"Global warming isn't happening because we can't absolutely prove it's totally the fault of human activity."

The results of global warming and the cause of global warming are two different arguments, but it's actually evidence that deniers already know global warming is a real threat by trying to suspend the one argument with another. The difference isn't belief that global warming is happening or not; nobody wants it to happen (assuming it will harm us and we're not including misanthropists), some people are just afraid to admit to themselves that the threat is real.

People are pendulums, you push them away and they'll come right back. You can't just show someone evidence and expect them to rationally use it, you have to let them talk long enough for them to hear themselves be wrong.

Comment: Re:Just shoot 'em (Score 1) 349

by Aphoxema (#38052002) Attached to: German Copyright Group To Collect From Creative Commons Event

If the majority are pissed, they will kill you. Don't misuse the democratic system, for when you do, those laws will do nothing to protect you.

If that were the social standard, there would still be slavery, no interracial marriage, women's suffrage, anti-homosexuality laws... either a "pure" democratic system sucks or you don't have a firm understanding of democracy.

Comment: Re:Un-emptyable jars and bottles (Score 1) 298

by Aphoxema (#38051854) Attached to: Scientists Develop Super-Slippery Material

... could be used to coat the inside of bottles and jars to help consumers get all of the food inside....

This was written by someone who clearly doesn't understand the motivations in play in the corporate world. These manufacturers don't want you to be able to fully empty a container.

They could just make the bottle smaller to make up for the excess and save money on production. Also, it's worth way more to be the first ones to "HOLY SHIT GUYS YOU CAN GET ALL OF THE KETCHUP OUT OF THIS BOTTLE" than to earn a part of a percent on waster product. It's why Sun Chips had the God-awful biodegradable packaging, if they do it first then the novelty sells itself. They can always go back and call it Coke Classic, too.

Comment: Re:The United States of China (Score 1) 412

by Aphoxema (#37977114) Attached to: One Tenth of China's Farmland Polluted With Heavy Metals

Hey, wait a minute. We could actually employ people in the USA by rebuilding the manufacturing sector.

And just then I could just see them finding a way to break down the electronic waste we ship overseas and us buying back our own garbage... probably by having the current farmers and factory workers chisel away at the shit.

Comment: Re:Forgetting what "Anonymous" means (Score 1) 397

by Aphoxema (#37919540) Attached to: Anonymous Cancels Drug-Ring Attack

You are way more "delusional" than most of us. You think there is an institution or group on this planet that is 'indestructable'? Almost laughing.. maybe, wishing it were true, but wondering, >what's the difference between having Zeta carved into your forehead or Anon or a Swastika? Not much, me thinking..

Not indestructible, for all I know the people who really contributed to the force of the 4chan-derived Anonymous are already dead.

I'm suggesting that killing Anonymous is a little less like slaughtering livestock and more like clearing a house of cockroaches... even if you burn the house down, they can still escape to infest again.

He missed an invaluable opportunity to hold his tongue. -- Andrew Lang

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