You can't have a meaningful dialogue with someone who is lying.

It's not money you are spending, it's your time. This is the classic Gambler's Fallacy with, I dare say, a touch of the "I'm not going to find anything/anyone else". Without knowing more I'm going to take a punt and suggest it's not her you like or care for but an idealisation that you have built. Perhaps a 'potential her' or 'she as she might be'. While you are pouring your life into this you are missing opportunities that might actually bear fruit.

If you are talking about it, that's fantastic. Keep at it. Talk to people you can trust. Part of you is concerned. Nurture that part.

In any event, may I suggest you take a break. Find another escort and see her regularly enough to get over the 'strange and new'. See if and how that changes your perspective and how your current companion reacts.

Thanks for your reasoned and informative reply.

I've read the bible. Several versions (raised Christian). I've read parts of the Quran - not the whole thing. I've a nodding familiarity with most of the major faiths, a fair chunk of various sects and 'heresies' and various philosophies.
I've seen suggestions that god is the system. That god is the universe. That god is the indefinable 'something' that arises out of the complexity of sufficiently advanced systems. It's not new. It's not particularly radical. It may be new to you and if so I wish you well exploring the idea and the implications. The quest for knowledge is more important than the answers you find, IMHO, just don't get too attached - the Dao you can see is not the true Dao, don't you know.

I am not asking for citations expressing these ideas or sentiments. I am asking, specifically, for something to back up the claim that 'Science' has identified something akin to a hive mind and that this is god.

To your implication - you can skim religions looking for common elements. You'll find rules of communal behaviour, standards of ethics and morality and the like and from them you can try to extract a kind of unified meta religion. What you end up with says more about the basic necessities of humans living with each other in groups larger than tribe or small village than about any underlying universal truth.

You can also try and find the minimal definition for 'god' that doesn't contradict any of the big monotheisms which isn't too hard as they have all influenced each other and/or absorbed traits of the others. But even that fairly broad sketch has to be made very vague before you get to the point where you can say that a modern version of the 'universal unconscious' is the 'god' that the major religions describe.

Want to get a buzz contemplating your part in a system that may already be exhibiting signs of order at a level beyond the one at which you are personally aware? Go for it. Try to claim that 'science' has 'identified god' and I'm going to suggest that your need for 'proof' to bolster your own lack of faith is manifesting as aggression when questioned or challenged.

Or maybe you're just an Internet Tough Guy. Who knows?

These words do not mean what you think they mean.

I love systems that give rise to emergent behaviour at sufficient levels of complexity. I have no problem seeing the interactions of people as giving rise (having already started to give rise?) to something like this. I'm not sure if that's what you mean by a 'spirit of consciousness', but it's the most ... generous interpretation I can come up with.

In any event calling that 'god' is ignoring the very different definition of that word that most people have and comes across as dishonest. I would be interested in a citation or link to what you are claiming as 'fact'.

This is an interesting examination of the data that I presume you are referencing - http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/07/18/3546884.htm

Briefly, total cycling is up but it looks like per capita trip length is down. The assumption is that it is most likely MHL and lack of infrastructure. However, once you account for the aging of the population, that drop disappears and the impact of MHL goes with it.

Just FYI - the model M13 (with trackpoint) came in black with black keycaps - http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/categories.main/parentcat/9244

From your sig listing puppets ...

raiigunner and red4men look like they were designed to troll http://slashdot.org/~railgunner and http://slashdot.org/~red_foreman both of whom I came across posting in HiLJ's journal some years back. IIRC they both got into some fairly heated discussions with HiLJ back when he was more coherent.

I doubt there's anything to it, but it's odd to see those names again in this environment.

Sounds like you are maintaining a 'list of hate'. You talked about it back in April. I think the specific post has been deleted or redacted - I guess that makes it easier to shift position when you feel you need to and makes it easier to re-interpret the past so that it supports your current version of events.

Do you realise the irony of this statement in light of your claims of stalking? This constitutes more of a 'credible threat' than anything anyone has posted, here, to you.

Just to be clear, I don't think this is a credible threat, it's just closer to one than what you have been able to point to.

Oh I will. Statistically I've got anywhere from 30 - 50 years (given country, gender, current age, family history etc.). Given that the average age of death of male homeless in the US is early 40s, I'm backing me to outlive you. And yes, I know you 'make fast' and think you could pass for a man in his 20s.

Is this anything like you looking for work 6-7 years ago - where you wouldn't change your resume to meet current standards, or meet some of the people that various folks on this forum organised for you? Is it anything like you waiting until "suitable interest is generated and representation is made available" with respect to your stalking and your hope(?)/expectation(?) that 'someone' would do something about it? Or is your 'plotting' more like you waiting for god to 'gift' you with a home, a partner, a life ...?

'Cos, you know, your success rate, so far in terms of plot-to-fruition is about zero.

Look, I'll give you a hand - I'm in Australia (as I have mentioned and as you may gather from my spelling). Last news report I saw that mentioned prices suggested that hiring someone to perform a 'hit' was of the order of $5-10k. You could scrounge that up in about 5 years of begging (assuming about $20 per week). Maybe a bit more for the flight over. Hell, you could cut that right down by doing the 'work' yourself. You let me know when you're in Oz and I'll drop you my address.

If you're talking something more ... nebulous, I quit believing in your god some years ago. On the off chance that he/she/it does exist, send them 'round. There's some shit I want to 'talk' to them about.

Late reply, I know, but in case you are checking ...

The "Couch to 5k" program is designed to take you from not running to running 5km/3m. You start with intervals of running and walking and slowly increase the running portion. You can run at whatever pace you like and either measure your 'run' portions by the time you take or the distance you cover.

It was a great way for me to get back to running without over-straining and to introduce someone who had never run and found running uncomfortable and undesireable.

http://www.c25k.com/

I have a tiger-repelling rock you may be interested in ...

Late reply, but wanted to address the suggestion

Thank you - I realise that /. is hardly representative, that's actually what I am after. Subject and comments correlate with what interest I have and I prefer a known bias to something that may be better balanced and more comprehensive, but where I am less certain and less able to determine the bias(es).

I'm not from the US. A lot of my understanding of current political issues within the US come from this site. I find considerable value in reading the comments of nerds to issues that may not, in themselves, be News _for_ Nerds.

So add my vote to those saying that this _is_ the sort of thing I want to see on Slashdot (within reason, buyer beware, etc.)

As a non-USian, thank you for this insight.

People who pirate your game are not your customers. The number of people who, in the absence of an easily available pirated copy will instead purchase the game is vanishingly small.

A number of games have been released with no DRM. They have been pirated, heavily. Some have even been available for free. Piracy is not tied to the existence of DRM or even the ease/availability of the original. Piracy exists as a social phenomenon independently (or perhaps, intertwined with) the material being copied.

Finally, many games that have been released DRM free and/or at significant discounts to their launch price have shown an increase in sales - massive increases in some cases. From this, it seems to me that the key to piracy, the cost of development, DRM and customers is to recognise that chasing/preventing piracy is a cost with almost no return; that if you want to increase revenue by increasing customer base, then the largest group of potential customers are those who are currently not purchasing based on price.

Will this save a non-selling but technically or artistically excellent game? Maybe. But increasing DRM on the same game most certainly will not.

I would argue that $0.60 is the value people ascribe to the _promise_ that their privacy will be protected. How many times have we seen those who have made such promises fail to keep them - either by accident, attack or incompetence? Enough to make most other such promises seem pretty close to worthless.

Rich and poor are part of something that is close to a zero-sum game. For the rich to be rich, a lot of someone-elses need to be poor. To the extent that this is the inevitable outcome of people of different ability and circumstance, I agree there should be no foul. Beyond that, attempting to maximise personal gain, even while within the 'legal rules' is likely to cost someone, everyone or some combination in between. More, by working those rules as hard as they can, they become at least partially responsible for the ever growing body of law.

Finally, if you are describing their behaviour as "understand[ing] the [ethical] rules and ... what you can do with them" you are either missing the point of ethics or have a profoundly cynical view of what ethics are.