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Comment Re:I'd be surprised if its only 2 (Score 1) 96

And this study is more about redefining life rather than producing any new information. Not very exciting in science terms.

That seems to be the big thing today. Take something that would seem simple and logical, and redefine the bejabbers out of it. Shuffle, then rinse and repeat.

If we take virus' for instance, are they not acting more like parasites rather than dead minerals - finding a host in order to reproduce, or are perhaps parasites not alive either?

Comment Re:Cue the Tinfoil Hat Anti-vaxxers (Score 1) 201

Always look on the bright side of life.

The problem with this with COVID was that herd immunity is required to prevent the virus spread, and while the virus was spreading there was chance of mutation rendering existing immune responses useless, and also people still got sick because the vaccine wasn't perfect. That's before we consider that some people can't get the vaccine and some people are vulnerable enough that the vaccine itself isn't sufficiently protective.

If people wanted to kill themselves I'm all for it. But I advocate for them eating a bullet and not burdening the rest of society with their suicidal stupidity.

Yes, every word you wrote is true. But unless we force people to get the vaccine using threat of lethal force, some just won't. So we do the best we can.

Comment Re:I'd be surprised if its only 2 (Score 1) 96

Oh my yes. This quote proudly displayed on Watts' own webpage is spot on:

Whenever I find my will to live becoming too strong, I read Peter Watts. —James Nicoll

By the way, you can legally get free copies of the Rifters trilogy (as well as Blindsight and a host of short stories and essays) directly from his website on the Backlist page here. Creative Commons licensed.

Just went there - Thank you sir!

Comment Re:Bugs (Score 1) 75

It *is* understandable. It's also a bar to understanding. (IIUC, the original computer bug was a moth.) But viruses are VERY different from bacteria. They're called bugs because they're all small and at a quick glance you don't even see them. (And entomologists don't even call beetles bugs. Bugs are hemiptera.)

Oh, that seems like thinking people believe that computer virus' are the same as biological virus'.

Kinda like people calling an attractive female a "hottie", but knowing she is the same actual temperature as all other women, unless she has a fever from some illness. From a bug maybe? 8^). This is really not that complicated, and other than people who feel that everything needs heavy categorization, it really is.

Comment Re:Who's providing the "incentive" to do this. (Score 1) 165

If you are treating Windows devices as much like chromebooks as possible (autopilot deploy into S-mode; fairly draconian setup) you can get away with not too much IT; but at that point you really have to ask yourself why you are using Windows devices. Most of the things you actually need windows for don't play all that well with that level of lockdown; and between chromebooks being cheap and defaulting to that level of lockdown without additional effort and the low end Apple stuff being nicer than wintel hardware that costs the same it's a bit tricky to make a strong case for running Windows systems as 'edgebooks'. You can; but it's not a super compelling option.

Definitely not compelling! I can't imagine the level of lockdown to get a W11 system to behave itself.

Yeah, Im still dealing with the Windows 11 apocalypse, messing with update breakdowns, and a worrying new trend - the damn computer is working then failing with no update taking place. One of the "fixes" involved setting up a non-internet connected network to run beside my normal network. But most people expect internet access these days.

Comment Re:Bugs (Score 2) 75

I don't understand the American urge to call everything "bugs". Viruses, bacteria, and insects are different things. Some precision wouldn't hurt.

The back story is occasionally we'd find actual bugs inside electronics. Extended from there to include surveillance devices, which were often small bug like things.

It's a nickname - Sorry that it is not understandable.

Comment Re:Dangers of AI (Score 1) 75

If any coherent society still exists, anywhere in the world, it needs to ban AI, and take an aggressive posture against any other society failing to do so.

The first mistake was to abandon hunter gatherer lifestyle for an agrarian lifestyle. We've been doomed ever since.

Seriously though, students have always cheated - and these were caught, just like all the rest.

Humans have been performing genetic modification ever since we abandoned Hunter gatherer days. Technology is a genie that won't go back in the bottle. A lot of people think the USA "invented" the nuclear bombs. A fission weapon was inevitable after Uncle Albert figured out mass-energy equivalence, with the simple formula e=mc squared. Others knew the formula. Others knew it could be a game changer. Radioactivity pointed to the trigger and energy supply. The Allies spent a lot of time interfering with Germany's efforts during to develop one during WW2.

Point is - this is happening.

The main issue with LLM at present is the concept that we are going to build structures that will have an infinite demand for energy. It is one of those things "How much electricity do you need? answer "How much electricity do you have?" So they look toward re-starting 70 year old nuc plant technology, and using a remarkable amount of cooling water.

Anyone with two functioning brain cells should realize pretty quickly that this is not sustainable. The present day data center concept reminds me of the early days of computing, huge energy sucking heat producing tube based computers, some that required nonstop replacing of the tubes. Then along came transistors, then integrated circuits, eventually almost all of us carrying a computer in our pockets that is so much more powerful then the old Colossus and Eniac, that it is mind numbing to consider the trip from utter secrecy to ubiquity.

I'm pretty certain that the same will happen to LLM's either by miniaturization, specialization, or lack of available energy.

But it is not going to go away.

Comment Re:I'd be surprised if its only 2 (Score 5, Interesting) 96

A chemical system that can reproduce via a stored code and copy that code is the hard part of life , wrapping it inside some sort of bubble its probably relatively simple, and given how small cells are and how large the earth is I wouldn't be surprised if once genetics got going it happened multiple times but only 2 lineages made it through.

I was just about to say the same thing. I would not be surprised if new forms of life arise even now in the benthic environment. Probably not successful, but possibly.

The whole thing about not being able to define life, FTA, is partially, the moving goalposts regarding human created life, and the desire by some to heavily categorize things.

That's how virus' are not considered life even though they evolve, reacting to their environment, and reproduce. They rely on other life to metabolize. Perhaps we've adventurously defined life?

So while very intriguing, we have to determine if this first "life" was "life as we presently define it.

Comment Re:Cue the Tinfoil Hat Anti-vaxxers (Score 1) 201

... and figured they were just being helpful.

Glad to help.

You do you, homie. Your life and choices are yours. And if your choices kill you, that's a you problem.

Funny, seems like everyone near you has been physically wrecked or killed by the vaccine. Cool story bro - Not one of my extended family had an issue with it, although I did have a fever for about 8 hours that three acetominiphen tabs took care of. And had zero complications in the 5 years since.

Racist comment noted.

Comment Re:Cue the Tinfoil Hat Anti-vaxxers (Score 4, Insightful) 201

I got my popcorn ready for all the tin-foil hat wearing anti-vaxxer horse medicine people who will start laying on conspiracy theories about how mRNA is vaccines is new (its not) and that it's a government mind control program, without knowing anything about how mRNA vaccines actually work.

I went from concern that they might get sick and die, to acceptance that it was their choice, to understanding that they were self-culling the herd of stupid paranoid people, and figured they were just being helpful. Always look on the bright side of life.

P.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Martha Lillard passed June 2026 as the last known person living in an iron lung after Paul Alexander spent 70 years in one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... Yeah - good times.

Even stupid people believed in vaccines at one time.

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