Deep Thoughts

[W3H5]

SO does that mean the cake is reality?

The cake must be real.

 

[Danoff]

Google glass has been much maligned. But is there any question that augmented reality is eventually going to be the way that all of this works? Your computer displays, your smartphone display, the ability to perform searches in real time to pull up additional information on any real object - even your home television. There's absolutely no reason to think that these are not only irreplaceable by augmented reality, but could be significantly improved via implementation in augmented reality.

Instead of buying a giant TV for your wall, you just tell your glasses that's where you want the TV. The other people at your house do too (or not if they're not interested, but sound would be an issue), and you can share watching a movie on the couch with your family without any compromises compared to that experience now except that your TV is bigger and clearer.

Your smartphone interface could be expanded to whatever convenient size you wanted as well, and can be "mounted" in your car however it's most convenient. Maybe eventually your car actually has very little in the way of physical instrumentation and controls and instead is mapped in augmented reality and is personalizable.

AR isn't really there yet, but when you look at the big picture, how else can it even go?

 

[TexRex]

Your smartphone interface could be expanded to whatever convenient size you wanted as well, and can be "mounted" in your car however it's most convenient. Maybe eventually your car actually has very little in the way of physical instrumentation and controls and instead is mapped in augmented reality and is personalizable.

I'm not sure how I feel about this sort of implementation. Yes, it keeps information in your field of view while looking at the road ahead, but it still strikes me as a distraction.

I don't doubt things are headed in that direction overall, though, and I welcome it.

Anyway...

I recently had a conversation with an old friend, and something that occurred ages ago was brought up. I thought I'd forgotten about it, and it wasn't particularly worth remembering beyond being funny, but even without him bringing it up fully I was immediately transported back.

I got to thinking: "Where exactly do 'memories' go?" and "How little is required to access them?" I didn't need to remember it, but apparently I did regardless.

 

[Danoff]

I'm not sure how I feel about this sort of implementation. Yes, it keeps information in your field of view while looking at the road ahead, but it still strikes me as a distraction.

I don't doubt things are headed in that direction overall, though, and I welcome it.

Anyway...

I recently had a conversation with an old friend, and something that occurred ages ago was brought up. I thought I'd forgotten about it, and it wasn't particularly worth remembering beyond being funny, but even without him bringing it up fully I was immediately transported back.

I got to thinking: "Where exactly do 'memories' go?" and "How little is required to access them?" I didn't need to remember it, but apparently I did regardless.

I recently was making a sandwich and after getting out the bread and preparing to put it in the toaster was surprised to find bread already toasting in the toaster. I thought about it for a second and suddenly the memory of me previously putting the bread in the toaster materialized in my mind. Very weird.

 

[W3H5]

RE: Augmented reality.

The latest iOS update added an AR measuring tool that is scarily accurate on everything I’ve tested it with from sports fields to cigarette boxes and flag poles.

On a side note, I do wonder how many chaps have used it to measure their manhood (not that I have but I’ve been tempted).

 

[Drex124]

On a side note, I do wonder how many chaps have used it to measure their manhood (not that I have but I’ve been tempted).

I hope that instead of giving a measurement it cues a disappointed Siri coming up saying "Oh, well I've seen bigger" or something to that effect.

 

[domalorite]

error post

 

[Danoff]

The "creep" in starcraft was such a cool concept. You can't place zerg buildings on the map unless there's creep there (or it's the one building that can go where creep isn't). Creep is the purple stuff that oozes out around the buildings and takes over the grassy terrain. When you destroy a zerg building, it stops generating creep and so the creep dies out and fades and grass re-appears.

Creep is a decent analog to asphalt or concrete that we humans lay down everywhere we go to keep the ground put. Cities ooze concrete around themselves, and our new structures and cars go on it. Structures even tend to create little concrete and asphalt halos around themselves in the form of driveways and patios. But there's another level to this.

Nature has a better creep - plants (especially grass and other weeds). There are few places where nature's biological creep can't get (like the tops of mountains and the middle of deserts). We humans lay down aslphalt, but what happens to that asphalt if we're not around to maintain it? Nature takes back over, the grass creep popping up from underneath, growing back into our territory, crumbling our pavement.

 

[Danoff]

Your body is designed to get high through sex specifically to turn you into someone who is somewhat out of control of your desires and impulses, in order to propagate genes. If the human body and brain weren't susceptible to euphoria in response to chemical stimulation, our genes wouldn't reproduce - and so naturally that's not how we formed. Your indulgence in the natural states of euphoria (such as through sex and food) or even synthetic forms of euphoria (such as through drugs) is simultaneously taking advantage of and succumbing to your genes' control mechanism over your cognition.

Our brains are basically designed to be incapacitated. Bug or feature? Maybe some of both.

 

[W3H5]

As somebody with a low sex drive (thanks, Obama Prozac!) I’ve noticed a distinct link between sex and violence suggesting to me they come from the same part of the brain. I won’t go into any more detail than that because it would be anecdotal and nobody needs to know about my personal life of women and bar fights.

Anyway, I digress, I wouldn’t say that we’re much different from other species with insatiable sex drives which turn them into deviants when the need to reproduce hits them. At base level it’s the fundamental purpose of being [reproduction] and thus our brains must have a mechanism to ensue this happens by any means, be that the manipulation of our senses or the use of drugs (endorphins).

 

[Lizard]

I wonder if animals have different languages like us?

 

[TheCracker]

I wonder if animals have different languages like us?

It's thought that different pods of Dolphins in differing parts of the world have regional accents - which i guess is the same thing.

 

[Danoff]

I was thinking... a healthy sex life can be an important aspect of long term mental health. I'm pretty sure that means that prostitutes should be considered therapists and should be part of a comprehensive health insurance program.

 

[W3H5]

I was thinking... a healthy sex life can be an important aspect of long term mental health. I'm pretty sure that means that prostitutes should be considered therapists and should be part of a comprehensive health insurance program.

I like way of thinking.

 

[Danoff]

You've no doubt heard that "eskimos" have 50 different words for snow. Apparently this has to do with the way their words can be modified at the root by other words. When I first heard this idea, I was baffled... 50 words for snow? That's crazy talk.

But after living in Denver for a while and dealing with different kinds of snow, I kinda get it. Slushy snow is significantly different than dry powdery snow, and building an igloo out of each would be profoundly different. Frost can also count as snow, and there's a version that's kinda not quite hail or sleet but is actually like just extra-frozen snow. And then there's snow that has been warmed over on the top and refrozen such that it looks almost like a cartoon version of reality. It has a crust on top, like fresh bread or something.

I think maybe those folks were on to something. In fact, even though my life doesn't depend upon recognizing the various qualities and types of snow for building a shelter, I think that I could use a few more words for different kinds of snow.

 

[TB]

I think that I could use a few more words for different kinds of snow.

One nasty four letter "s" word is more than enough for me, thanks.

 

[kikie]

Sometimes my thoughts are so deep, I can't access them.

 

[dlshearon]

Sometimes my thoughts are so deep, I can't access them.

 

[Aphelion]

One of my favorite deep thoughts is this thing I often get when learning about physics and space and such. Im sitting there reading about how wonderful and powerful and beautiful and collosal everything is. You hear about how we have no idea how the fundamental base level of every existing thing actually works, and how we dont understand how so many things came to be. Galaxies that shouldnt exist, things that should exist but we cant find. Things that we can detect but cant see. Things we cant detect and cant see but we know are there. All of this and yet here we are, sitting down here on our lonely planet, bickering, winging and whining about the simple things that we are actually able to understand.

 

[DesertPenguin]

One of my favorite deep thoughts is this thing I often get when learning about physics and space and such. Im sitting there reading about how wonderful and powerful and beautiful and collosal everything is. You hear about how we have no idea how the fundamental base level of every existing thing actually works, and how we dont understand how so many things came to be. Galaxies that shouldnt exist, things that should exist but we cant find. Things that we can detect but cant see. Things we cant detect and cant see but we know are there. All of this and yet here we are, sitting down here on our lonely planet, bickering, winging and whining about the simple things that we are actually able to understand.

We know more about the moon than we do our own deep seas. Its unfathomable

 

[Aphelion]

We know more about the moon than we do our own deep seas. Its unfathomable

Yeah, and we know more about space than we do about our earth 1km deep. There just isnt any easy way to get down there.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Its more about the fact that we've had so much time to figure our own planet out and yet look how much we learn about space in the last 60 years because we actively looked into it. Science needs better funding now more than ever

 

[Danoff]

We know more about the moon than we do our own deep seas. Its unfathomable

I see what you did there. This thought is a little too deep apparently.

 

[W3H5]

I see what you did there. This thought is a little too deep apparently.

You wouldn’t want to get entrenched in those kind of thoughts.

 

[Omnis]

I was thinking... a healthy sex life can be an important aspect of long term mental health. I'm pretty sure that means that prostitutes should be considered therapists and should be part of a comprehensive health insurance program.

Medicare Part DD

 

[Danoff]

I wonder if unions create a more adversarial employer/employee relationship.

I've not had a ton of experience with unions, but I have had a little. And my personal takeaway is that in areas with unions, management is more interested in what the union will let them get away with than keeping their employees happy. I think they know that if the union lets them get away with it, it's the union that will get the blame. Take away the adversary, the pushback, the gatekeeper, and suddenly management comes face to face with directly keeping employees happy rather than keeping union management happy, and I think that changes the dynamic a little bit.

You could argue that the union exists because management wants to get away with whatever they can, rather than the management wanting to get away with whatever they can because the union exists. But corporate culture changes over time, with turnover at management, and somehow an adversarial relationship between employer and employee seems to persist in the union environment.

I have no doubt that unions can create favorable work conditions where they are given monopolies by law. A monopolistic relationship with the rule of law always helps people twist arms in their favor when engaging in the market. But I wonder whether unions do more harm than good for employees in areas where they're not protected. It seems as though what they really do is insulate two parties from each other that really need to reconcile their relationship directly.

 

[TexRex]

It's interesting; I've both [separately] benefitted and been harmed by union efforts as a member of a unionized workforce, and I've observed both the positive and negative influence of a union when I've held management positions. As with so many things, I don't think a good or bad label can be applied on the whole.

 

[Danoff]

What would you do with a fully autonomous RV? I mean, a nice one:

How about one that finds an optimal charging station en-route and charges itself? Imagine yourself hanging out at yellowstone when your busy friend in Seattle says that they have to travel to San Francisco for work. You say, I'll be there tomorrow night to pick you up. You can have dinner and crash on the RV while we drive, and I'll drop you off at work the next morning in time for the work day. Obviously whether or not you do this depends a lot on the cost of tires, electricity, etc. But... holy hell the possibilities.

 

[Dotini]

What is the basis for all reality? Could it be matter? Energy? Or could it be information?

 

[Danoff]

Wouldn't the best computer virus be one that communicated from infected computers to other infected computers? Sharing information about how long it has survived, and what methods it used, such that other computer viruses could learn from its experience. When the signal goes dark, that means the virus was discovered and removed - one more learning opportunity for the rest.

An adaptive AI virus seems totally plausible, and quite scary. And then at the same time, it also seems plausible to use similar adaptive software to detect viruses.