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Comment Re:Building blocks origins (Score 2) 18

Well, first of all, hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, and carbon makes up something like 0.5% of the total observed mass of the universe (it's the fourth most common element), so along with other trace elements like sodium, phosphorus and the like, we're simply looking for places where there is sufficient energy to create the necessary reactions to produce organic compounds. No lack of energetic sources, in particular stellar system formation. Indeed many comets and asteroids host a lot of precursors, indicating that some fairly sophisticated organic chemistry was going on early in the solar system's development.

Comment Re:life came from organic compounds (Score 3, Interesting) 18

Panspermia would require that life itself was raining down on the terrestrial planets. Precursors would simply indicate there were a lot of strange and complex organic compounds falling on to the surfaces of planets like Earth, Mars and Venus, and were also likely constituents of bodies like Europa and Titan (well, we know Titan is covered in a literal hydrocarbon stew). What this discovery indicates, at the very least, is there was indeed a lot of organic compound in the early solar system and these organic compounds, at least on Earth, led to abiogenesis. Panspermia would advocate abiogenesis happened at some undetermined point further back.

If we find other life in the solar system, such as in Europa's or Ganymede's oceans, and it has DNA or some very close relative, with similar translation and transcription systems as we find in archaea and bacteria on Earth, then that would be a very strong argument that life in the solar system had a common origin. If however, there is no clear relationship between the two populations; say, they use something similar to DNA, but the genetic codes are different (all extant life on Earth uses the same canonical genetic code mapping codons to amino acids, strongly suggested the canonical code evolved prior to the Last Universal Common Ancestor), then we're very likely looking at an example of convergent evolution, and not in fact at two related populations.

Comment Re:More Heinlein than Bond (Score 1) 134

My recollection of the Heinlein version was that service was a requirement of voting and the government had to bend things for people with limitations... But he may have approached the theme in various ways in various books.

The version I would favor would have involve options, but the length of time would vary to balance things out. If they want more people in the military, then they shorten the time period until they attract more people. However I'm not sure if that approach would lead to mathematical convergence or divergence...

Comment Re:From THIS government ?!? (Score 1) 166

Of course, I'd trust this government to honour the decision of the courts and pay back what they've unfairly taken. There are SO MANY things I trust them on....

Quoted against the censor mods. On the substance, I won't be surprised if the main result is a bunch of "Your check must be in the mail" lawsuits from companies waiting for the check...

Comment But what do they do? (Score 1) 2

You piqued my curiosity, but not enough to do a bunch of reading on the lack of clarity...

However I will say that I think there is a kind of creativity which involves combining older ideas in new ways.

Sorry, but no more time just now, so I guess this should be filed under "mostly an ACK".

Comment Re:Human extinction. Is that enough so-what for yo (Score 1) 86

Mostly the ACK, but perhaps my personal problem that I have not been interested in any of those three stories, though I may have read a book version of Jurassic Park... I'm pretty sure I've seen a book called "The Godfather" and that the cover said it was related to the movie, and I can't recall any book version of Fight Club. I'm not sure if it matters, but were these books written before or after the movies? My thesis would be that a seminal book will get squeezed when it becomes a movie, but going the other way it will be hard for the book based on the movie to expand the ideas and stay on script, so to speak.

Comment Re:Human extinction. Is that enough so-what for yo (Score 1) 86

I don't watch many movies. Never watched many, and far fewer lately. However I am unable to recall an example of a movie that I thought was better than the book. Most often I felt like the movie eliminated many of the imaginative possibilities of the book. Largely a matter of bandwidth? Movies flood the zone, filling both the visual and audio channels and requiring almost all of your mental capacity to keep up. More so as the effects have become more special and dazzling. For books you have to do most of the mental work yourself and I think that's a fundamentally healthy kind of mental exercise.

Do you have some movie in mind that you think was better than the book?

Comment Human extinction. Is that enough so-what for you? (Score 1) 86

Actually the frightening part of the story is that the fastest was remotely operated. Humans today, but operated by a malignant ASI tomorrow. Well, hopefully not tomorrow. I'd prefer not to see the end of this story and I'm hoping to be around tomorrow and even for a few more years. But RSN?

Too many books could be cited, but it's not like today's Slashdotters seem to have much interest in books. Can't resist a recent one with high relevance to this story: Army of None by Paul Scharre about autonomous weapons. Yes his focus was on the autonomous ones, which look bad, but I think they will obviously be lighter, faster, and just more dangerous if the intelligence part is remote, hidden, and harder to attack.

Why would the ASI do it? Would you trust us humans with your survival? As we grub about for money and sex? Just now working on "Facebook Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Nuclear Reactors" about how we humans are getting used as fuel in viral websites that aren't ending well... And I can't think of any website these days that is doing much to make me into a better person. But do I need that as much as Zuck? So I believe some wannabe Bond villain is going to unleash his malevolent ASI when it promises something like "Today I could kill all the other ASIs" or "I can get all the money in the world for you."

Comment I call dupe! (Score 1) 88

Going back about 20 years when the idea was to make new Abbott and Costello movies...

And think of all the new books that could be added to your favorite imaginary universe. Replicating the original author's style far beyond our poor human power to add or detract from the style, or even detect that it isn't the original author.

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