TheVat

I've wondered if certain lines of development (body morphology in particular) are more likely paths to a spacefaring tech society. One guess is that you need to be able to make tools and so there's a minimum requirement of articulated appendages, and tech progress is more likely if you're land-dwelling and have a need to make fire. That still allows a vast range of possible forms. I liked the speculation in "Arrival" that the aliens were completely unlike humans but did have articulation at the ends of their tentacles. BTW, some amusing visualizations of aliens are to be seen in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barlowe's_Guide_to_Extraterrestrials

A relative of mine was born in 1988. He plays piano. Clearly this was destined to be. Born '88, and a piano has 88 keys. God reveals things. Still doubting? Then consider this: he developed a fondness for jelly rolls early in life, and Jelly Roll Morton was a famous piano player and composer. Finally, when his mother was pregnant with him, she and his father were driving through Texas and drove through the town of Plano. As they entered, the city sign had a spot of pale dirt on it which altered the lower case L so that Plano looked like Piano. Piano, Texas. It was a sign! Well, it was literally a sign anyway. IOW, people look for signs that will somehow validate their choices and/or elevate their importance, and this is a form of selection bias.

Smoke began seeping from his head....

It says something that the leading proponent of ID, Phil Johnson, is a law professor not a scientist. Nobody can do a bullshit argument like a lawyer. Are you familiar with King of the Hill? There is an episode where Hank has a new assistant at his propane business who constantly makes that's what she said jokes. IIRC Hank finally delivers an ultimatum concerning the assistant's continued employment, capped with "...and that's what I said!" It's hard to resist making them, when that gets into one's head.

Yes, some berm house are made by building up soil rather than major excavation. They're left open on the front but with soil built up everywhere else then stabilized with sod. I was unfamiliar with Disney tunnels, our family was never into theme parks like that. So I looked them up, learned that Walt saw a cowboy walking through Tomorrowland on his way to Frontierland and felt that messed up the guest experience. Which led to the utilidor system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_utilidor_system Sounds like the sort of places people take refuge in an apocalypse novel. Your termite mound sounds similar to the sci-fi concept of the arcology. I have reflected on the inefficiency of having stoves that release their heat into an air conditioned house, or fridges that also do that. In the USA, the range hood is a rudimentary approach which vents some of the heat. In the 19th century through the early 20th here, some homes had "summer kitchens" and a stove would be set up in an enclosed porch so that its heat wouldn't go into the home interior.

Yes, I'm familiar with that "my partner dragged me into this" dynamic. When I first knew my wife, I didn't know she was afraid of heights. I knew that she liked to hike, as did I. But when she went with me on a hike that involved some steep spots and cliffs, I discovered that she had only come along to keep me company and had not realized quite what the hike involved. It is awkward when someone is clinging to the ground and afraid to move in any direction. I had to always position myself so that, in theory, I could catch her or she would at least land on me and that would slow the downward slide. And kept giving reminders not to look down, and pointing out handholds or easier work-arounds. What was so great about her was that, when we were back on safe ground, she was really happy and just got over the scary part, even making jokes about it. Then, some time later, we went hiking and an unexpected thunderstorm rolled in and pelted us with rain, and the situation was somewhat reversed. I hated getting soaking wet (it was cold, too) but she didn't mind in the slightest and was joyful. So, eventually, she passed it on to me and I was enjoying myself.

I guess I'm playing the straight man in this routine, mainly as I'm curious as to where sdd is going with this. The mistranslations are also a bonus, for their giggle factor. Could it relate to optical analogues like this... https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2019.0232 Hawking radiation is unlikely to be measured from a real black hole, but can be tested in laboratory analogues. It was predicted as a consequence of quantum mechanics and general relativity, but turned out to be more universal. A refractive index perturbation produces an optical analogue of the black-hole horizon and Hawking radiation that is made of light. We discuss the central and recent experiments of the optical analogue, using hands-on physics. We stress the roles of classical fields, negative frequencies, ‘regular optics’ and dispersion. Opportunities and challenges ahead are briefly mentioned.

Teaching of such a skill requires understanding nuances of human emotion and behavior. I don't think AI will have that. If you had a student who was trying to conceal that they were frightened, and was more likely to make a mistake underwater because of fear, an AI would not be able to deal with that. A human teacher OTOH shares with the student a basic range of emotions and so could help. Also how could an AI understand what early stages of nitrogen narcosis feel like and how to be aware of symptoms? I'm sure there are dozens of examples. Any activity that is risky to a human, you want a human sharing that risk with you because you both share motivation to keep living.

Seems really similar to this thread you started last year. can you expand a little on what you learned in the past year?

I guess there are political aspects to it but I saw this going more in an engineering (in the broad meaning) direction, on how to adapt to regional temperature changes. For example, would it help to build homes below street level, like berm houses, for more efficient cooling. I know some places, where the water table is high, or the soil is very hard, that would not likely be practical.

First, fire your translation software. Second, you're talking about these? https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/metamaterials#:~:text=Metamaterials are artificial electromagnetic media,endowed with entirely unexpected properties. Not sure what you mean by optical wormhole.

Alcohol prohibition probably had some mitigating effect partly due to the fact that people who were law-abiding and not desperate for a drink simply figured it was easier to follow the law and find other social lubricants. Some drugs, the cohort that uses it is much smaller, less moved by moral arguments and more driven to obtaining it, so legal banning has less effect.

Funny! Hope she did not teach science.

Would south, yuzhnyy, usually be abbreviated with Ю? So they are trying to turn the Amerikanski world upside down?

Cool thread, Mac. The only design scenario that doesn't get shot down by where did the designer come from is one where the universe is a virtual space. And if that were the case, why expend so much coding and processor space on a physics that is needlessly complex? Why millions of macroscopic species, and up to a trillion microbial species? I suppose a virtual design argument could be we need to make a universe that's really interesting and challenging for scientists. A team of alien toy universe builders rubbing their tendrils together and laughing gleefully as one suggests, "let's make the speed of boson propagation so slow that it takes like f__ing forever to get anywhere!" Haven't watched @Genady video yet, so will reply to that later.

Baffling that this kind of drivel isn't in the Trash thread. Why engage with this nonsense?

Yep, and that's the case with many of the theories of consciousness. They just don't offer a basis to empirically test their core assumptions. They are saying we might know what it's like to be a wombat, if we probe neural operations deeply, and I think there are meta science reasons that may never happen. Phenomenal experience (the philosophy term for subjective experience) may be something beyond a purely objective accounting. IIT has not even established that what goes on in the brain is information. (fun fact: wombat poo is rectangular in shape)

It's a similar question to the coastal construction one. Some places draw too many resources to render them viable. And if people are forced by, political/economic boundaries to live in a hot place then architecture should adapt (like your high roofed Lagos pool hall) and not just rely on brute force AC. Also, clothing styles should be in tune with local climate. Traditional European business attire makes little sense in more tropical climes.

Use a Carribean method. Make a voodoo doll of the relative.. Then subject it to harsh peer review.

It also occurred over hundreds of other hometowns, including mine. The moon's shadow tracked over Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina. Sorry, buddy, you're not that special.

The name Albert Einstein can have its letters rearranged to spell nineties table R. Do you realize what this foretold? Neither do I.

There seems to be another possibility. He figured out the puzzle himself, then checked his own answer on the internet, and when he found a verifying page he liked the way it was worded so he copy/pasted that. So he could be honest about solving it but still plagiarized - do you and he communicate in a language that is not his first language?

I did. Back up the thread, eleven posts up. Agreed with Pigliucci on category error, and disagreed with Dennett, Churchland, et al that it's an illusion. There was a whole chat and everything. After two pages touching on subjective experience you stroll in and.... I think my response to that was the soul of restraint, considering. And now I'm done here.

Thanks to everyone who read the thread, and links, before commenting. It really makes for a richer give-and-take between participants. And thanks for reading the part of the thread regarding Pigliucci et al and category errors and qualia.