EdEarl

I've had more power supplies fail than any other.

Dolphins are quite smart, communicate among themselves, and are inventive (youtube video). Dolphins, orcas and sperm whale are all toothed whales; thus, related like chimps, humans and gorillas. In fact, the similarities between apes and toothed whales has been discussed. Dolphins, at least, are considered self aware because they recognize themselves in a mirror. A reported phenomenon is that sperm whales did not usually attack men who pursued them in whalers (also called whaleboats) that were large rowboats. Older males are solitary, but females and younger males live in pods. If a human in a group is attacked, the group will often attack the attacker to defend everyone in the group. Although any one of the sperm whales could easily destroy a whaleboat, they typically did not. I think this phenomenon highlights a difference in the way people and other animals think. People are vengeful, but animals are not AFAIK. Since vengeance is often a conscious premeditated thought, sometimes followed by action, our conscious thought process seems to be unique.

Estimates vary on how quickly AI and robots will take our jobs. A report on CNBC predicts that half of all jobs will be done by AI within ten years. I know the US military is actively automating. Japan is automating to be able to care for an ever aging population. Corporate automation is charging towards using robots to do more and more things. Robots don't pay taxes, thus, the trend for job loss to AI and robots affects tax revenues. I couldn't find an estimate of how many jobs have already been displaced by automation, but I believe it is happening now. One of the most advanced areas of automation is car autopilots, which are now very good and improving. When laws change to allow autopilots without a human driver, driving jobs will be lost, several million in the US and many more around the world. In the not too distant future, people will not have jobs, and will be unable to pay taxes. Either AI and robots take care of everyone, or people die en masse. If half of our jobs are automated in 10 years, all of them will be automated within the next decade. Assuming that estimate wrong and it takes twice as long, full automation will occur by 2047.

Poor thing, she should have eaten less meat and watched her weight. Today I learned that Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO) is spending a $B per year to put a base on the moon built by robots.

IMO our spirit exists while we live, but not after. The only thing I can imagine as similar to reincarnation is that our atoms are reused to make plants, animals and other stuff. The closest we have to an afterlife is memories of us in friends and family. However, someday soon, it may be that we connect our brain to the internet, and start a simulation of us, which may exist in a computer for millennium. The simulation (an AI entity) would not be able to determine if it were real or simulated, and it might think it was normal to live thousands of years; is this an afterlife? Suppose, the AI of us, loaded itself into a body created by nanotechnology, that looked and felt like a person; would this be an after life?

AI systems are made of artificial neurons in a complex network; that is, they simulate biological brains to some extent. Thus, a neural net like AlphaGo, that played Go with a world champion and won 4 of 5 games, is trained to play Go, not programmed. Moreover, it can be trained to do virtually anything a person can do. However, our computers are too small and slow to train it to do everything a person can do, and we may not understand how to make a conscious AI and other AI features.

You can modulate both sidebands with different messages to increase the bandwidth.

The smallest brain I've heard of is in a fairywasp, which IIRC has about 100,000 neurons and the nucleus shrink as it matures. These are the smallest of insects, being the size of a large amoeba.

Do you think indifference curves would help an automobile autopilot make decisions about road conditions, signs, other autos, etc? It seems autopilots will be our first big use of AI. It is available in some cars now, e.g., Tesla, and will probably be generally available by 2021. Laws will have to change for autopilots to drive unassisted, but corporate power will make that happen. See autopilot video.

Just as people can learn and use indifference curves, a conscious AI could learn and use indifference curves. Thus, special programming to predisposition AI to use indifference curves is not actually necessary. If there is research that indicates indifference curves will make a superior AI, please provide a link.

I learned that practicing mindfulness meditation can be done for only one breath; simply focus on taking a deep breath of air and exhaling. Repeat throughout the day, every day. Ref: GoogleTechTalk on youtube, Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation. The speaker, Philippe Goldin PhD, is an associate professor at UC Davis School of Nursing. His postdoc work studied attention, mindfulness and brain systems, including the effects of mindfulness meditation on brain activity and plasticity.

I learned that Scholz’s Star passed through the Solar system (about 50,000 AU) about 70,000 years ago, and it is now about 20 ly distant. Other stars will pass nearby in the future.

It's hard to separate the sciences as most useful and interesting. Each person will decide which is most interesting. Moreover, most useful is confounded by the interactions of many sciences. For example, electronics is necessary to build instruments for astronomers, mechanics is necessary to build massive enclosures, optics is used to make mirrors and lenses, and computer science is used to make user friendly interfaces and software to operate telescopes.

My wife found something on youtube that seemed like Russia was moving into Latvia and Estonia, but I can't find it. I may have asked about nothing. It is a fake report, saying war has broken out. See youtube :Live Breaking News from London 27th June - Russian. It was published to youtube 3 months ago.

What the hell is Putin doing?

Despite the oligarchs owning many news organizations that publish their propaganda, and despite paying politicians to vote for their agendas, this horrific bill may not pass into law. Unfortunately, the battle continues; perhaps we are at the "end of the beginning" (Churchill) of the battle. We are, I think, living in interesting times, and they're getting more interesting. This battle is central to a free press and our understanding of truth, lies, propaganda and fake news. Fortunately, building a wall around the truth is impossible; truth tunnels through barriers. See (Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press, Netflix) We must win this battle and recover justice from the oligarchs who would take food from children and kick old people out of nursing homes so they can become richer. Who are the freeloaders of whom HB of CJ speaks. Does he mean the oligarchs who want billions of dollars from us (about $100 per US citizen), or does he mean the children and invalids who must be helped. Perhaps he means the few people who defraud welfare and cost about $1.19 per person in the US. Not only must we struggle to find the truth, we must decide whether to seek justice and to be ethical. It is my hope that truth, justice and good ethics prevail. $355,7 million is about $1.19 per year per person saved by SSA by fraud settlements/judgments. Edited to improve calculations.

HB of CJ Minimum wage = $7.25 Income per week = $290 per week, which is about $15,000 per year. I found an apartment nearby for $900 per month, which is 10,800 per year. That leaves about $4,200 for food, clothing, transportation, and health care. The average cost of a hospital in the US is about $2000 per day. The average cost of a non-fatal car accident is over $60,000. The average cost of cancer drugs per month is $10,000. Perhaps you were ignorant of these facts, if so, you now know. When you know it is impossible for many workers to afford medical care in the US, then telling someone to save money for health care is simply cruel.

It is easy to prepare a healthful vegan diet; a salad, sweet potato, beans, corn and peppers are a reasonable staple diet. You'll need a B12 supplement, also. The reason people say vegan might help feed the world, is that animal husbandry takes up far more land and water than a vegetable crop. Some land is not suited to growing vegetables, and can be used for cattle. However, vast amounts of land are used to grow animals for food that could be used to grow vegetables. Thus, people think changing that land use would produce more food and we could feed the world. There is more than a grain of truth to it; however, I think we already have enough food. Moreover, some things, lettuce for example, are now being grown indoors in automated factories, which requires very little land since factory farms can be built in tall buildings. We could even grow food on barges in the ocean. I think there several ways to assure adequate food without using more land, but land is still the most economically viable place to grow many crops, but that will change. We just don't have the good sense to keep people from starving.

Anyone who seriously wants to change their diet can; although, it isn't easy, it is a simple process. Just quit eating "whatever" and substitute something else. For example, stop eating cheeseburgers and hamburgers, and eat home cooked food instead. You may stumble and eat another cheeseburger; don't make it a habit. Get back on home cooked food again. You reduce the frequency of eating cheeseburgers, and eventually, you will have gone five years without a cheeseburger. One day you will realize you don't crave cheeseburgers any more, and they may taste a little odd if you take a bite. Good luck, going through withdrawal is a bitch, even for a cheeseburger habit.

There's a move to remake the Democratic party, called Justice Democrats. They considered making a "progressive" party, but decided it would be better to eliminate the centrists democrats that are beholding to corporate money.

To be honest, that is bigoted.

It's not vegan, but very close.

As you have discovered, there are unabashed meat eaters here. ATM we probably could feed the world with current food output. But, having enough food doesn't seem to be the issue. In the US, far more food is tossed into the trash than is needed to feed the hungry. Yet, the GOP congress wants to stop programs that feed children and the elderly. The US can afford it, but the 400 wealthiest people in the US want billions of dollars in tax cuts, and they are happy to see people starve to death to get the tax cuts. When humans become angels, everyone will eat.

I suspect some Christians believe we are experiencing end of days; thus, there is no reason to be concerned about climate change. Others won't vote for a party that supports planned parenthood and abortion.

I've put my senators and representative phone number on my phone so I may call and leave a message. Afterward, I called each of them with a message about voting against them if they vote to pass the GOP health care bill.