Queue on 27/8/2010 at 13:36
[Edit, but in a new post. Cool, huh?]
Quote Posted by catbarf
Larry Niven wrote a series of books called the Man-Kzin Wars based upon this premise. In the far future, humans have put aside their differences and become a peaceful utopia....
The only problem with these far-future-humans-living-in-utopian-harmony scenarios is that humans would
rather destroy each other than put aside petty differences. It's just what happens when dealing with mostly irrational beings that are both tribalistic and self-centered, and at times too intelligent for their own good.
I remember early on that it was widely thought that the internet (along with all these other advances in technology and communication) would be the catalyst in facilitating our progression toward a "global harmony" by creating a sense of global community. Instead, our advances in all this wonderful technology is mostly used for downloading bestiality, stealing someone's art, buying glow in the dark condoms, sending inane messages back-and-forth coded in grammar so bad that any alien species that may one day dominate the planet could only conclude that we all had a collective stroke, and sniping at each other over the latest shitty movie to come along.
And we haven't even bothered to build a descent spacecraft since the 70s, instead having spent all of our efforts focusing on an extraplanetary kite that can do nothing more than spin round and round.
Misinformation: The space shuttles cannot fly out to intercept anything, as seen in the movies. They can only orbit. If a killer asteroid were to suddenly come along, we would be fucked.
As far as I'm concerned, the aliens can have the place.
And why does the sun sound so Jewish?
catbarf on 27/8/2010 at 13:52
Quote Posted by Queue
The only problem with these far-future-humans-living-in-utopian-harmony scenarios is that humans would
rather destroy each other than put aside petty differences. It's just what happens when dealing with mostly irrational beings that are both tribalistic and self-centered, and at times too intelligent for their own good.
I agree, it's a contrived scenario, what's interesting is what he does with the technology.
Quote Posted by Queue
Misinformation: The space shuttles cannot fly out to intercept anything, as seen in the movies. They can only orbit. If a killer asteroid were to suddenly come along, we would be fucked.
I wasn't aware of this, they don't have enough delta V to enter a Hohmann transfer orbit?
demagogue on 27/8/2010 at 14:07
I got to talk with the lecturer (V.S. Ramachandran) at a book-signing fest by whatever publisher it was for his book on consciousness. Authors would talk about their books and then sit behind a table and you could talk to them or get them to sign your book or whatever, and there were 10 or 15 authors there, many with quite long lines. But I noticed not a single person was in his line; he was just sitting there lonely... And I thought, wow, this is IMO the single most interesting author here by far and no one is talking to him, so I took the opportunity of talking with him a little about consciousness. Really cool experience.
*Zaccheus* on 28/8/2010 at 19:34
Quote Posted by Queue
I'm sure that most of you just thought the same thing as I when I heard that:
Metropolis is
NOT a Hollywood film. It's one of the greats (though a late entry) of German Expressionism, from Ufa--about as far from Hollywood as one can get.
Ich fuehle Deinen Schmerz.
Quote Posted by catbarf
Technically yes, but gases disperse so rapidly in a vacuum that the gas would likely be too thin to support combustion by the time the first spark is becoming a spreading fire. In any case it would be a quick puff and flash of light, but it wouldn't resemble a fire or explosion.
Wouldn't the rapid expansion of the gas cause it to actually cool extremely rapidly?
(
http://home.howstuffworks.com/refrigerator4.htm)
Quote Posted by JACKofTrades
when did didn't become diddent
It diddint.
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
Back to electric misinformation. Here in Europe, it is common to say "230 volts are deadly", but in reality, it's not the voltage that kills you (I've been subjected to it once and just felt a bit of a sensation). It's the electric current.
That's exactly like saying it's not the fall that kills you, it's the impact. ;)
The most important thing is actually the electrical resistance. I = U/R ... so given the body's internal hand-to-hand resistance of 1KΩ, 240V would result in 0.240 A - more than enough to kill you.
However the
skin has a much higher resistance!
Now, the actual resistance of an object depends directly on its diameter. So ... if you have dry hands and touch the ends of some thin wires, you'll fare much better than if you soak your hands in saltwater and grab two larger wires with the full palm of your hands.
zombe on 29/8/2010 at 05:40
Quote Posted by *Zaccheus*
... 0.240 A - more than enough to kill you.
Unless the current is of very high frequency - rendering it harmless [electrons don't travel enough in any direction]. Had ~2A run trough my body as part of a demonstration in a introductory course at uni + relevant practical part of finding out the resistance of your own body at different frequencies (with the, admittedly not terribly accurate to say the least, goal of determining the resistance of your internal organs vs skin). Oh, fun times.
Martin Karne on 29/8/2010 at 05:49
Human body resistance is much of a variable to determine that simplistically.
When you are covered in sweat, when you're angry, or happy, things like that can affect your bodily resistance.
Having survived many voltages including 30-40KV (small currents only) I can tell you people working in the electrical power distribution industry ain't that lucky sometimes (110KV and higher), and many simply die instantly for a small mistake or get their arms or/and legs burnt to a carbon leftover of what was an able limb before.
As a matter of fact 20KV with enough current to spare is more than adequate for some human roasted meat.
zombe on 29/8/2010 at 06:33
Quote Posted by Martin Karne
Human body resistance is much of a variable to determine that simplistically.
Are you referring to my post? If yes then, obviously, the result was irrelevant - and therefore the accuracy of it was equally irrelevant (and in fact, complete failure to determine anything could still net you an 'A' grade [not at that particular assignment, but you get the idea] - have got many 'A's that way over the uni years). What (and even if) you can determine - is student's problem ;)
SubJeff on 29/8/2010 at 09:05
Actually its the frequency off mains power that makes it dangerous, not the voltage or the current. 50Hz is a bad frequency for cardiac muscle, some would day the prefect frequency for a mess up.
Namdrol on 29/8/2010 at 10:27
Back to the mirror neurons, I find this whole line of research fascinating, especially when connected to the work Davidson has been doing with trained mediators at the fmri lab in Wisconsin.
If the findings (which over the past couple of years are starting to flood out of labs all over the world) prove a good current model, then our whole understanding of the mechanics of individual 'thought' are due to shift.
And you know what really is fascinating? These so called 'empathy neurons' seem to be lacking in people with an autistic diagnosis.
