/sci/ - Science & Math

If we can do it, using, say, the DNA of a child Neanderthal, why not?

As long as there is a family willing to raise him/her in the best environment possible, why not? If the kid turns out to be marginally intelligent, like a gorilla, they can be raised like all "special" people. If they're smarter than modern humans, so much the better. If they're average, we learned something cool.

In theory, this is awesome; it flushes the solar industry with money and encourages new growth.

At the same time, it's also government legislation, so, no matter how good the intentions, it's going to cause terrible shit to occur. Contractors will use sub-par solar panelling, pollution from developing the panels will jump, and, about 25 years later, batteries and solar panels for the entire country will need to be disposed of. And don't even get me started on the special interest groups and organized crime networks who'll get in on the action, or on the end cost to consumer.

Still, I'm optimistic. Who know what tech we'll have to deal with it by 2055? It could be a disaster, but it might not be; no way to tell yet. The certainty is that it'll at least increase competition for solar panels, and make them better, at the price of extorting the customer.

An extremely efficient machine is still not a perpetual motion machine.

They're also useless for power generation, because you can't get out any more energy than you put in.

>>3104008

How can you prove any given man is capable of love in the same way another man is? How do you define love?

Gotta answer those before you can ever ask those sorts of questions.

Now, enjoy a non-stop thread of Bitches and Whores.

Far easier to find a way to emulate the brain and store it in a robotic body.

And when that's the far easier option, it says something about how far we are from neogenetic lifeforms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDiDK_yBCw0

Just felt like sharing this.

>>3103180

Why do you doubt it? The technologies to preserve a human life are rapidly expanding in number, and will only improve with the advent of nanotech. Even before that, regeneration using stem cells to restore lost brain cells, gene therapy to restore lost telomeres, and, of course, organ growth using the patient's own cells allow greatly extended lifespans. Your body would be comparable to that of a thirty year old's.

You don't need to live forever, at least immediately; just long enough for it to be possible to do so.

Try it with cat urine, the result is much more likely. Not sure how much more, though.

>>3103147

What makes you say that? If you're about 20-40 now, and you live to be 60-80 (and have at least average health and a decent income), you've got a good chance of immortality.

>>3099158

I've been checking it out and loving it. Learning things I didn't know, relearning things I'd forgotten. It's even more fun using my tablet and doing all the problems in the exercise area by hand.

>>3099168

Skilled trades are really the way to go for anyone who doesn't want to work in things like science/engineering. We need more plumbers, electricians, stone masons, etc.

I've seen so many people go to university for degrees they don't want and will never use more or less just because it's what everyone else does. Meanwhile, I'm at a college, getting useful skills, and I'm already doing on-the-job training doing media production. It's what I want to do, I love doing it, I can make a living doing it, and, more to the point, when someone asks me "What can you do?", my answer will be something besides "Well, I got this Bachelors at X University."

Is it for everyone? Fuck no, nothing's for everyone except breathing air and drinking water. However, getting trained in a skill you enjoy will bring you more happiness and wealth than spending four years bored to get a piece of paper that qualifies you to do secretarial work.

I had Japanese food.

>>3099126

Wait, you admire them for this?

I'd blame the economy, just because that seems the most straight-forward answer, especially if this is felt more sharply in the US than anywhere else.

>>3099064

Maintenance robots can either repair themselves or be repaired by other maintenance robots.

I agree with the idea that automation is the future, but I'm of the opinion that the real power of automation will be when specialized factories become generalized factories. When you have machines that can assemble anything, from a coat hanger to a car to a computer chip, the need for large factories essentially evaporates. Why move tons of the finished product when you can build things on site and effectively reduce your shipping costs by a factor of ten or more. Why stock a huge store when people buy online anyway and you can pass the savings along to undercut your competition?

This level of automation will put a lot of people out of work, however, and that's ignoring all the other forms of automation (such as, say, automating fast food restaurants) that will put millions out of jobs.

The future's not going to be easy. It's gonna kick society in the chest. The only upside to this is that brand names become worthless when some guy has a blueprint that a local fabricator store can print for a small fee, which you can buy and use for a tenth what the corporate version costs. Might not be as good, but it works, it costs a fraction of the price, and you can make a new one if it breaks.

>>3089583

I'll have to disagree with your point that this is one in a million, or stitched together. The technology takes training and is far from perfect, and it still has a rather obvious delay.

However, it's far from a "lucky fluke".

>>3089491

It is. We had a thread about it earlier today, I believe.

>>3089503

.... That would be all kinds of hilarious.

Also, these May 21st nuts do not represent all Christians, or anyone who's actually even read the Bible...

We welcome you, Earth-NASA and Earth-SpaceX....

>>3088182

There's a difference between ice bombardment and just hurling Mars into it. The former doesn't turn the entire planet into a big ball of magma and vent off atmosphere into space, along with all the other problems that would cause ("In other news, Paris is no more. The city of lights was snuffed out today, as...").

Still, Venusian biospheres would be interesting. The surface temperature for a terraformed Venus would likely be quite warm, after all, and we all know what warm, wet environments do for biodiversity.

And there isn't even a reason for "one or the other". Venus will likely be a very watery planet once its atmosphere condenses, with lots of islands and archipelagos (and we can always make more once it's established). That means a LOT of potential ecosystems.

>>3088115

I recognize how utterly stupid this is, but... All the same, that actually sounds kind of cool.

Damn. Sooner than expected, too.

The technology's got a ways to go, but it's really getting there.

>>3073754

I never said all force is innately bad. However, there is no government that, to my knowledge, offers its citizens a social contract to sign to consent to the various aspects of it.

>>3073783

Coercion is the use of threats, by any number of means, to get someone to abide by your directives/laws/whims, without their prior consent. This differs from contracts, as Liberty mentions, wherein force may be used but it is not coercion, as you have already given your consent.

>>3073620

All states derive their power from the populace, just as any coercive force requires the cooperation of the victim. A person who threatens you with a gun and demands information from you is using force to coerce you, but they still cannot succeed without your assistance.

Any government, besides those with a literal social contract (which, to my knowledge, do not exist today), is a coercive force, demanding your obedience via threats.

>>3073646

I specifically differentiated between two terms but also pointed out that they are not mutually exclusive. However, a person or entity that creates and enforces laws must use force to do so, by definition, even if the majority of citizens consent to them.