Sayonara

This is a bit like the Terminator 3 problem. A lot of people have asked the question "how can there be a third film? Surely SkyNet never gets built, because the arm and the chip were destroyed". Well, leaving aside the fact that an arm was torn off and left in the steel mill at the end of T2, and also ignoring the endoskeletons that were test-chronoported back in time in "Cybernetic Dawn", the explanation is fairly obvious. The stable timeline sees Miles Dyson designing the neural processor chip in 1995, based on the technology salvaged from SkyNet's 1984 mission. Since SkyNet cannot exist without being designed and built, logic suggests that SkyNet's interference in 1984 did not cause its own creation, but simply advanced the timetable. In other words, had Cyberdyne systems not designed the neural processor, eventually someone else would have. SkyNet simply changed the dates inadvertently. And since from SkyNet's point of view the change was made in the past, and from our point of view as an objective observer this point is the present, we have no idea what the original genesis timeline of SkyNet looked like. Remember that SkyNet's objective in 1984 and in 1995 was to terminate human targets - not to seed the technology required to guarantee its own creation. Destroying all the technology SkyNet sent back the instant it arrived in the past would not prevent the computer's creation, and SkyNet knows this. A machine capable of designing its own chronoporter would have an intrinsic understanding of the irrelevance of translating temporal 'markers'.

Hardly. It's nothing new. In fact the grandfather paradox, as this is an instance of, isn't the best regarded proof for the impossibility of time travel. Most people with the faintest notion of temporal mechanics laugh at this theory in much the same way that one would laugh at people who claim "you lose 70% of your body heat through your head".

You can pretty much run anything you like on Linux as long as you know what you're doing and aren't a dribbling retard. Being able to spell words longer than "notepad" properly helps. Having said that I much prefer Windows. If I want to use Maya, I want to use it NOW. Not after a few days of twiddling with configs and looking up how-to articles.

You understood all that?

The permissions in this forum aren't set properly, afaik. (Allow delete: User)

Do you mean 'nuke', or just 'attack'? You're confusing things!

A weapon that is used to nuke somebody is, by definition, a nuclear weapon.

Get a fan with fluid bearings. They are cheaper than the alternatives and very quiet.

It was a gas based on fentanyl, a strong opium-based drug used for putting people to sleep before operations.

If that's the best they can do, an image called 'disney.jpg' that would take me 10 minutes to better in Photoshop (including NASA watermark and time indexing), then I wouldn't get your hopes up that they have any proof. People will always make crap up and then lie about the number of hits they get. It's the universal truth of the web.

No.

I don't see the political threat. (Zombies don't vote)

It's not.

I have to say I agrre with Fafalone and Bucks on the chances of life off Earth, and the likelihood of aliens not being able to pilot their own ships.

Considering you believe aliens regard America as being the most intelligent nation on Earth, you aren't making much of an effort to be an ambassador for your people. See my 21 yr old sister semi-naked here.

Just in case you delete that post, I took the liberty of quoting it. This is flagrant trolling and country-bashing, all rolled into one post, along with a personal attack. If you have an opinion you want to express, do it in a civilised fashion. And do try to recognise the difference between "nation" and "government". ps - Simpsons racial generalisations == demographic fact. You are teh winnar!!!

Additionally, at no point did I make the argument that America is dangerous because they are powerful. In fact, at no point in this thread have I provided any sort of commentary on America's might. Putting words in my mouth = bad, mm'kay?

"Well you're wrong". Obviously the best argument for anything ever. I am extremely disappointed that you would let stomach-churning patriotism get in the way of your ability to take an objective view, Fafalone.

Please delete your account.

That is not a valid line of argument. I said the most dangerous.

Also, don't forget that you could just as easily apply the same argument to Iraq.

I would hardly call it ignorance. You are the only western country that will not allow independent weapons inspectors in to observe your conventional, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons facilities. I don't see how this makes you any safer than, say, Iraq.

In all likelihood cloning Michael Jordan would not produce a great basketball player.

If you two had stayed on topic this thread might have held my interest. And if there are aliens investigating the USA it's because you are the most dangerous country on the planet. It doesn't take a lot of working out. [edit] Additionally, if you class Americans as a single race (see quotage in Blike's post, below) then you obviously haven't thought it through very well.

I can see why you might want to clone extinct animals - learning about their genetic structure, behaviour and ecology would tell us a lot about past ecosystems. But why the **** would you want to clone Micheal Jordan? Really, why?