EdEarl

If you suggest that God will strike me down, I fear not. If you are threatening me, may I remind you that God forbids murder, that doing so proves religion tempts people to do bad things, and that I am an old man who will die soon anyway.

Any electrochemical process, even biological ones, can be simulated to some degree of accuracy. Limited simulations are already being done by researchers.

Current intelligence gathering is primitive, and future technology will make wire tapping seem innocuous. Consider the weak signal astronomers select from background noise, and consider that technology applied to sound and voice, with microphones scattered everywhere on public property. Of course, scattered with those microphones will be cameras. Given video, audio and sonar signaling technology this surveillance network will be nearly invisible and redefine privacy.

IMO the skirt is part of a hovercraft.

If you have not seen this video, you might find it interesting. It is not specifically about elephants, but about grazers and ecology of grasslands.

The governments have tons of information available on the internet via facebook, twiter, forums, shopping, and other sources, which depreciates the intelligence value of telephone information.

You have asked questions about artificial life and about God. One has some basis in science and the other does not. Science is based on group consensus; although, some parts of science are being debated. Issues of God are specific to Religion; no global consensus exists, and I am inept to discuss God. However, I am among those who believe Artificial General Intelligence will eventually exceed human intelligence in some ways, especially rational thought processes. I also believe that robot bodies with the implied emotional content will be developed, at least for research. However, I doubt full body-emotional emulations of people will be as important as AGI robots limited emotions, at least unless/until robot evolution becomes important. This video explains an important advancement in AGI.

Perhaps you refer to this

Some things can never be answered, for example, "Is there a God." Some computer algorithms cannot be calculated, because no matter how fast a computer exists, the answer cannot be calculated. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-complete Quantum mechanics tells us there are random things that defy prediction. A theory of everything has some limits.

Please do not SHOUT. (use all caps) You cannot get something from nothing. You are trying to design a perpetual motion machine, which cannot ever work no matter how you try to do it. You cannot get something from nothing. NEVER, EVER! It is a law of the Universe, always true, cannot be ignored or broken by anyone anywhere.

Astronomers have been working on measuring distances for quite a while. It has been a challenge. Distance to some of the nearest stars is calculated by triangulation, as surveyors do to measure distances on earth. This method uses trigonometry. Type 1a supernova always explode with the same brightness; thus, they are used as a standard candle to measure distances to galaxies that contain them. See video. Using the distances to various galaxies, the amount of redshift in light from these galaxies is calibrated. Now redshift can be used to measure the distance to galaxies. Next, the redshift to the most distant galaxies is recorded and used to determine their distance from us. http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/rpXBAFJ2KUI/mqdefault.jpg http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2011/12/14/sn-2011fe/ I am not an expert, but believe this to be fairly accurate. Someone may teach me a bit more if I am wrong. If you want more detail, please ask questions.

The Horseshoe Crab has blue blood because of copper.

It is confusing that gravitational attraction at the center of a sphere (the earth) is equal in all directions yet pressure is not zero. However, even a millimeter off center, gravitational attraction is not equal in all directions, which contributes to pressure not being zero.

Hi, sorry I am unable to answer your questions. Maybe someone else can. Just wanted to welcome a new member.

IMO organic foods are best. My imagination says 3D printing of food will make it taste like paper.

History can be good background info to support an argument about the OP. A free market without bribery, subsidies, graft, and corruption is utopian, but we must deal with reality. The oil industry is subsidized in both obvious and subtle ways. Sometimes it is necessary to level the playing field by subsidizing otherwise unprofitable competition. Ideally, politicians would select the ones that will ultimately out compete oil and be green. However, politicians are notoriously bad about making rational choices, even if they had a crystal ball that could identify the best alternative to oil. And, there may not be any alternative to oil that is capable of competing on a level playing field at this time. IMO there is, but one cannot know because the economy is complex. We can simplify by ignoring the big picture and narrowing our focus; thereby, learning more detail about specific subjects. For example, focusing on technological issues concerning of petroleum replacements. After learning low level details we can better understand higher level issues (e.g., economic interactions.) I believe Elon Musk (Tesla CEO) is successful because he is a physicist, engineer, and businessman. He analyzed first principles of electric cars to decide whether there could be an economically viable business that manufactured electric cars...not as simple as this sentence makes it sound Solar is inevitable. In one way or another the Sun (or another star) provides (has provided) all the energy we use. Oil is stored solar energy and fission is possible because some star made the fissionable material. Solar thermal and windmills are currently very good alternatives to oil, and IMO more economical (debatable). PV is pretty good and getting better and more economical. Geothermal is a bit scary. Some potential geothermal locations have been tested with pilot wells, and abandoned. Geothermal requires putting explosives into the wells and cracking the rock, which sometimes increases earthquake activity. At one time I thought putting lots of geothermal plants around Yellowstone might reduce the possibility of an eruptions, but now I think it is probably a bad idea. Maybe a combination of nanobots used to make a manifold in the rocks, instead of explosives, will make geothermal safer. I am undecided about its future.

The great Sci-Fi authors, who were good at predicting the future, Mary Shelly, H.G. Wells, Jule Verne, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, etc., often missed the technology but predicted a need that would be satisfied by some technology. For example Wells wrote about a fast mail system (analog to email) that used evacuated pipes with mail sent in capsules (similar to systems used in some drive up banking stations). There is a good documentary, Profits of Science Fiction, you may find interesting and informative.

I would like to note one example of a person who is both religious and rational; that is, not secular and rational. He is Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, whose quotes indicating rationalism are in my sig. below. On the other hand, I do not wish to minimize the important part secularization has played in supporting and teaching rational thought and advancing science. I fear emotions are rising.

I read somewhere (or maybe dreamed) a long time ago that shopping is a modern analog to gathering (hunter-gatherer). In other words, the activities are similar. One leaves their home and roams among nearby fields (stores) looking here-and-there for a reward (food or whatever) that one may take home to share with family or consume immediately. Thus, some parts of life remain unchanged while others do change.

IMO Each has a state of mind that helps interpret communication, and different people understand subtly different things in the same communication; thus, misunderstanding is easy and understanding is hard. Lawyers and politicians must be great communicators, while scientists need to be precise. Consider agreeing to disagree but not be disagreeable.

LNB, LCL, LFC, LI, a.g.l, cste, q, and gamma?

TY iNow, It is a very rosy story, the people don't want to hear about pitfalls. Transition from today until we arrive in tomorrow is uncertain. It is an intricate puzzle that depends on the timing of many things. Some of them are: singularity, climate, mountain glaciers, renewables, businesses, governments, nanotechnology, circuits, robotech, economy, and desertification. Exactly, and the Open 3D printers are in their earliest stages, but have great promise. Re: links in the OP. The initial development is difficult, but once they can make parts for themselves, their use should accelerate.

Unfortunately, it is biased because posters put duplicates, and there are too many pages to look at and vote on. Many people will look at a few pages and quit. A good idea with poor execution.

No. Two things have been indirectly observed that do not interact with photons (i.e., electromagnetic radiation including light, reason for calling them Dark). DM exhibits gravity (reason for calling it Matter), and DE exhibits a force opposing gravity (reason for calling it Energy). Otherwise, not much is known about them.

Some carpet is made of plastic or similar synthetic fiber.