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News Briefs 24-06-2009

Dig in.

Thanks Greg, Kat, and Ross.

Quote of the Day:

You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’
But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw, from “Back to Methuselah”

  1. Hitler’s Stealth Fighter
    Looks like an interesting program, but there’s something I don’t understand:

    i don’t understand why the engineers of Northrop Grumman had to build their prototype of the Horten fighter from scratch, measuring the original stored in a warehouse.

    Couldn’t they had used the blueprints and models that are surely stored at the facilities of their OWN company?

    What, are they trying to make us believe that the wingless prototypes Northrop tested in the 40s and 50s had nothing whatsoever to do with the Horten brothers’ concepts, and that Jack Northrop came up with the same idea all on his own? Hasn’t Nat Geo heard about something called “Operation Paperclip”?

    PS: The fact that the Horten bros made their planes with wood immediately makes a word pop up in my head: Roswell 🙂

    —–
    It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
    It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

    Red Pill Junkie

  2. Darpa’s Godware
    Lemme get this straight: Darpa wants to create synthetic organisms capable of true intelligence… in order to make war.

    Can anyone see the fallacy in this sophism?

    —–
    It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
    It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

    Red Pill Junkie

    1. why not?
      Two things:

      One, DARPA invests in lots of research, not only stuff targeted for war efforts. ONR supported some of my research, which had nothing to do with weapons. Of course a lot of advances in technology has multiple uses, which is why the military is doing this.

      Two, nature has successfully made all kinds of intelligent orgamisms that are useful to make war. Seems like a promising approach.

      —-
      It is not how fast you go
      it is when you get there.

      1. I’ll tell you why not
        We’ve had this conversation before. To me, war and violence are not exactly the pinnacle of intelligence.

        So maybe DARPA’s plans to create their AI soldiers will backfire when the droids compute that the best strategy would be to eradicate all the silly humans.

        —–
        It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
        It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

        Red Pill Junkie

        1. We poisoned their asses…with poisonous gases
          [quote=red pill junkie]So maybe DARPA’s plans to create their AI soldiers will backfire when the droids compute that the best strategy would be to eradicate all the silly humans.[/quote]

          For the second time this week I feel compelled to link to a Flight of the Conchords clip: The Humans Are Dead.

          Binary solo!

          Kind regards,
          Greg
          ——————————————-
          You monkeys only think you’re running things
          @DailyGrail

          1. We poisoned their asses…with poisonous gases
            Has been done. In particular, the algae poisoned the earth’s oceans and atmosphere about 2 billion years ago, resulting in a mass extinction of peaceful species.

            Today we survive by breathing their excrement.

            And Greg is correct, we monkeys don’t run things. It is the plants, all the way down to single cell algae. They run things 😛

            —-
            It is not how fast you go
            it is when you get there.

        2. war and violence and intelligent pursuits
          [quote=red pill junkie]To me, war and violence are not exactly the pinnacle of intelligence.
          [/quote]

          Of course this is true from a moral point of view.
          It looks like war (organized violence) and intelligence are along for a shared ride, fairly independent of the level of intelligence. Violence is always there, even vegans live only by death. Any animal life lives by death.

          Some of the most beautiful art and some of the most significant research and technological advances were done in Italy during the Renaissance, as just one example. This was a time of many wars.

          Which came first, the wars or the advances on every front of intelligent pursuits ? I don’t know.

          Probably it is a positive feedback loop.

          And yes we had this sort of discussion before. I favour finding challenges other than war, like space exploration.

          We can abuse the military budget for that, no?

          PS:

          the purpose of DARPA and similar organizations, in many countries, is not to start wars. It is to win.

          —-
          It is not how fast you go
          it is when you get there.

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