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Comment Well, not unreasonable actually (Score -1, Troll) 223

So it looks like they got rid of a bunch of DEI positions (good riddance), and the chief scientist, Katherine Calvin.

I wondered about that one though, so looked into her bio, thinking maybe she was a specialist in exploring planets, or rocketry, or astronomy. But no, she was none of those. She is a climate change specialist. That is fine, climate change is important (and real), but it is only (loosely at best) related to NASA's mission, which is to explore space, other heavenly bodies and astronomy. Climate change (on Earth) isn't really part of that mandate in any part of a central way.

Her role is much more suited in something like the EPA (environmental protection agency)..etc. That is where she needs to apply.

Hopefully the next chief scientist would be more specialized in what NASA actually does, and be an astronomer, an astronaut, or a rocketry or interplanetary sensing specialist, or something else of the sort..

I don't really see a problem with any of these staff changes / layoffs as explained in TFA

Comment This is the "British Disease" (Score 1) 244

This is the "British Disease". Its root cause has nothing to do with immigration (though the additional influx of people with nowhere to put them may exacerbate it) and has been around for decades there.

Basically, British society and government has gotten so embroiled in bureaucracy that nothing can get done. To many "reviews", "consultations", "evaluations" and "impact assessments" and giving fair time and resources to those who oppose projects, that nothing can ever get built, nothing can get completed, especially buildings and infrastructure projects (train lines, highways..etc). Its all bogged down in management consultants, lawyers, "advocates" and pencil pushers.

The USA has it too to a bit of a lesser degree, but it is getting worse here too. (see High Speed Rail in California, getting approval to build new housing in cities where there are housing shortages..etc)

Comment Maybe the increase is due to DEI? (Score 1) 112

According to the TFA, rates of not getting hired went from 4% to 15% from the top MBA schools over the last few years.

One thing I have noticed when interviewing candidates recently, is that there are now grads from "good schools" who obviously during the interviewing process, are not even minimally qualified for any MBA job (or any other professional job) at all.

These candidates have been almost without exception minorities (except east Asian) or "immigrants" (illegal or otherwise, as places like California do have programs to get them into university and pay their tuition regardless of legal immigration status).

This was not the case at all decades ago when anyone (of any race or ethnicity) with a degree from a good school had at least minimum competence in interviews and would have made great new grad hires.

I know there has been a big boom of these type of admissions (DEI) of people otherwise not at all qualified to get in to good schools. Perhaps this explains some (or most) of the % increase?

Other hiring managers are maybe also seeing through the school degree name, and realizing that a % of the candidates they are interviewing despite "graduating" are absolutely not qualified due to alternative "measures of success" or DEI used by universities in recent years when selecting students that have nothing do to with competence or success in the business world?

Comment Re:Online dating goal is to keep you looking (Score 1) 158

Ok, and what about men who are interested in dancing, or computers or archery or whatever are there for dancing or computers or archery or whatever and not to be pestered by lunatics, psychos and other assorted 'professional victims'.

Oh, well that's just men, so that's not important I suppose. Always "believe the woman" and all that, I know..

Comment Re:Online dating goal is to keep you looking (Score -1, Troll) 158

Above poster is actually right, in the USA at least. Many social groups (dance groups, clubs..etc) now have 'codes of conduct' that have been written by people on the extreme left woke scale that everyone needs to agree to to be able to join the group/club.

These "codes of conduct" are written in such a way that (usually) women are not responsible for anything they do or problems they cause, often with an "always believe the woman" sort of clause in it. It is always the man's fault (or white person's fault..etc) no matter what happened and no matter what anyone did (or didn't) do.

Woke has gotta go.. the sooner the better.

Comment Need google-translate "Lawyer--English" (Score 1) 133

This is a job either for AI (well maybe not...hallucinations), or google translate, for a new language called "lawyer".

(anyone remember the unix command line program 'jive'? it converts English into jive (sort of 'ebonics' of the 1960s), it was funny as hell, but actually quite good!

Comment Physical basis for "consciousness" has been found (Score 1) 66

Earlier this year, important clues to the physical basis for consciousness have been found (and none of these are in current AIs). Recent experiments have shown that consciousness has a quantum basis.

1)Experiment #1: Xenon quantum anesthetic effects
It has been found that Xenon gas acts as a very effective anesthetic. It has been found to work by disturbing quantum effects in microtubules. Interestingly, isotopes of Xenon (which are chemically identical but have different quantum effects) were not as effective as an anethetic. This indicates that anesthesia (Xenon at least) disrupts consciousness via quantum effects, not chemical effects as one would have normally expected. Start with this article, but there are many others now, especially this year from reputable journals.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticle...

2)Experiment #2
Microtubules in the brain have been shown to have quantum effects. This was very unexpected as quantum entanglement has only been shown in very small molecules, whereas microtubules are very large. Not only that, but the larger the microtubule, the larger the quantum effects, which is not what had been found with other molocules. Roger Penrose (Physicist) and Stuart Hameroff (Neurologist) have been involved in a lot of this work (#1 above and #2).

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedaily.com%2Fr...

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Flegacy.cs.indiana.edu%2F...

In short, the proposal (now backed with experimental evidence) is that consciousness arises from quantum effects in neurons, in particular microtubules. Disrupting these quantum effects (with certain Xenon isotopes) also disrupts consciousness. At that point, the subject is as inanimate as a chair or a shirt, just an object with no senscience.

Given the physical mechanism of consciousness is now starting to be known, it should be possible to manufacture machines that do exhibit similar quantum effects in their processing units, which will make them 'conscious' just as we are, like in the film A.I.

At that point, we'll have to think about these things, but with the current A.I.s using classical computation on classical CPUs..no they are not conscious at all.

Why did 'consciousness' evolve this way? I am not sure, but I am guessing that the computational power of quantum computing in organisms is far more efficient than classical computing (think brain weight, energy requirements), so it evolved, and 'consciousness' is a side effect of it.

Comment Re: I don't understand (Score 1) 1605

This was happening in northern California this past week to a family member.

You go to the poll, tell your name, you get to vote under that name. No ID check, no nothing.

And this person was only physically at that polling station because their 'mail in ballot' had been stolen from their mailbox along with all the neighbors the week before.

So yes, ID checks are needed, and some places like California are not doing it.

Comment Re:Housing cost is the easy one to solve (Score 1) 230

Solution to this is to "passport bro". It is well known at this point that most of the women in the US are going for only the top 20% of men (appearance, wealth, height). There is lots of research now on this topic (google "hypergamy"), leaving women sharing their man with other women, while the other men are getting mostly nothing. Mostly you can blame "apps" for this, as it makes the dating market extremely liquid compared to the past days pre-"app". It is also why women in the US generally rate around 80% of men in the country as "below average" (yes really!)

However.. Being employed in a good job, reasonable character is more than enough to get you nice very women who will be faithful and want to date you / marry you from pretty much anywhere else in the world (i.e. Eastern Europe, Thailand, Japan, Philippines, south America..etc..). If you have a job that can be done remotely, or can take time off to meet them, this is the way to go. American men, even 'average ones' are very extremely highly valued everywhere in the world.. except in America.

I did this (I'm very short by US standards, and bald.. both things I cannot control so I had a lot of trouble dating in the USA). I went overseas and do not regret it one it, it really is a lot different once you leave the country and any man who is otherwise good quality and is having trouble dating in the USA should do the same. You won't regret it.

Comment Another kid did this in 2018 (Score 5, Informative) 87

This has been done before (a few times actually). Its called a 'fusor', and you do it with high voltages working sort of like a CRT.

A great web page explaining the device that a particular kid made and got working is here:

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffusor.net%2Fboard%2Fviewto...

Comment Re: Did they actually keep any copies? (Score 1) 81

But don't humans do the exact same thing when they 'remember' what is in a video?

The way human brains learn and retain something and the way AI's do it is pretty much identical. Why distinguish one from the other? If it is not allowed for AIs, then shouldn't it be banned for humans too?
 

Comment Did they actually keep any copies? (Score 4, Insightful) 81

So did they actually 'keep' any copies of the videos, or just 'watch' them for training (i.e. the exact same way humans do when learning from something on youtube).

Because, if their AI is just 'watching' them the same way humans do, then it is not 'piracy', but just the same things normal people do (watching youtube to gain skills, learn about topics...etc.). How is it different really?

Comment Re:Meanwhile (Score 1) 35

Here you go:

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforward.com%2Fnews%2F62741...

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus...

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Fp...

They got him removed at the primary, so now he won't appear on the ballot anymore for the general election. No one will be able to vote for him now in the general.

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