I had a pretty abysmal public school experience through elementary. And, quite frankly, I didn't start actually socializing with other kids until my parents started homeschooling me. Admittedly, it was only for a couple years, and I went to a public high school, but all of the friends I made while homeschooling had zero problems developing normal nerd-level social skills. Socialization isn't really something you can teach, considering it's so deeply instinctive to us as humans. Albeit, under extreme circumstances, kids struggle with it, but I wouldn't worry. Maybe someday it'll just make for a good story.

Oh, well then your comment adds absolutely nothing to this thread. This is something we all already know. C# (and .NET, and CLR) is the new kid on the block, of course it's not going to have the same market presence as Java. But I'd argue that that's the primary impetus behind opening it up: the common excuse for why people don't use .NET is because it's tied to Windows.

And there's the irony: Java got successful enough to rest on its laurels in lieu of external competition. Then it got tossed around around between companies, so it hasn't had a smooth existence. For instance, C# has had lambda expressions since 2007 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_%28programming_language%29#Versions). Java finally got lambdas literally just this year. Now, admittedly, they are two very different languages when it comes to design philosophy, but their markets do overlap, and these features are incredibly useful in those markets.

In which ways? C# has historically been years ahead of Java in terms of features and flexibility. Now, if you want to argue about JVM vs. .NET, then you might have an argument.

But the question remains: are they imbeciles in Science education (the subject of the survey itself), or reading comprehension? I'm willing to bet there's a healthy mix of both, skewing towards the latter if you sample the Slashdot crowd ;)

Is that an axiom? Or a conjecture?

I'd argue that (if we're going down the path I think you think you're trying to go) a "purer" state is the absence of opinion or naïveté. But that never lasts very long, now does it? So, what fills that innocence? The worldly wisdom of *insert philosopher here*? Or the still, small voice of a real-actual God?

Yup, exactly!

Restaurants, for the most part, are in the business of more than just serving food, they're also in the business of a hospitable, cultural experience. If said cultural experience is disrupted by something--even if it's as innocent as the natural curiosity that goes with seeing something as novel as Google Glass headset--then it's in their best interest to mitigate that disruption. Why do you think they say "no shirt. no shoes..." in the first place? Obviously, there is no law against walking barefoot, but, in most western cultures, it's considered rude to do so. Of course, this pattern changes depending upon cuisine/culture, so don't be offended if you're asked to remove your shoes when entering that authentic Japanese restaurant.

tl;dr: Google Glass headsets will be considered rude until they've been integrated into a culture as normal. If you're not sensitive to that culture's norms or etiquette, then you don't deserve to enjoy it.

It is incredibly important. At the very least, it's proof that the problems associated with fusion power are solvable. But most importantly, this news will funnel more cash towards further fusion research, further accelerating progress towards real actual power plants.

Okay, admittedly, that came off a bit more abrasively than intended...

The only validity IQ has, in my mind, is that it could possibly loosely correlate to a more accurate metric such as active cerebral neurons, or something of that sort. Anything more than that is comparing apples and oranges: it's a bit simplistic to place a brilliant composer in the same category as a Nobel laureate, as both are quite valuable to society in very different ways.

Yup, obliviously splitting hairs.

Yes, the argument is, in fact, justified.

P.S.: Yes, I'm aware anyone with half a brain can simply link to Wikipedia. I just don't feel like reiterating widely-known arguments.

To give you the benefit of the doubt: the parent is using the 170 IQ points figure relative to the current average intelligence of people.

Of course, if you're actually splitting hairs, then we could start talking about how the IQ metric, to begin with, is antiquated BS. But, of course, we won't have to go there, right?

I see your point, and tend to agree, however saying...

...kind of makes your original argument a bit moot, considering the proposed mathematical model really only applies to QM interactions ;)

So, to reiterate, is the Singularity near? A little more so than it was yesterday, but that's just about it.

P.S.: Sorry if it seemed like I was stealing your fire. I, too, have to wonder what feats this and other related new Maths are capable of accomplishing.

You miss the point: until we can violate the current model of relativity (i.e. somebody invents a Tachyon-based computer), or something equally as wild, there is no way to "shortcut" our way into simulating interactions at that level with that kind of scale without spending orders of magnitude more, in this case, space-time.

To put it another way: you can't use Newton's Law of Gravitation to derive a general solution to a problem set up by that very equation.

Or, to stretch the analogy even further: you can't use a word in its own definition.

The problem with this statement: Moore's Law was formulated (as an empirical approximation) in the current age of Physics. Simulating any meaningfully complex high-level system, such as intelligence, with particle-sized granularity/precision requires Physics that delves deeper than those particles themselves; i.e. simulating particles with particles is, well, just plain redundant, and might as well just be done experimentally.

Exactly. The point of the ruling (or what I'm reading of it) is to indicate that both parties share responsibility if there's, say, an active conversation on the road.