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"Distractions"? Distractions from what? You're idealizing life. There's no goal; we don't get points for making it to outer space or for reaching a singularit

"Distractions"? Distractions from what? You're idealizing life. There's no goal; we don't get points for making it to outer space or for reaching a singularity or for uncovering the secrets of the universe. You get a certain number of years to fill up with "distractions", and then you die. You may not appreciate sports, but they bring joy to millions of people -- probably to many millions more than NASA does, and in a greater capacity. Denigrating that is extraordinarily narrow-minded.

rms 17y ago
>There's no goal; we don't get points for making it to outer space or for reaching a singularity or for uncovering the secrets of the universe. I disagree. There are distinct levels: Type 0, 1, 2, 3 and beyond if we're not limited to the universe at hand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
- trominos 17y ago
  So you're saying that there is some fundamental, a priori reason for humanity to aspire to a higher level on this scale than it currently occupies? What?
  - pj 17y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_Destiny http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_Destiny In the old days, it was the quest to expand the U.S. from the atlantic to the pacific, but the pacific wasn't quite far enough. Now we must expand into the farthest reaches of space.
pj 17y ago
I think the goal would be to find a way to bring similar joy to millions that has a lasting positive effect, rather than two hours of entertainment. I'm not denying that millions are entertained by sports, but it isn't "work" in the sense that work = force * distance. Distance in sports is zero, so it's a lot of force, but nothing comes of it. It doesn't go anywhere. There are lots of joyful things, entertaining things, that actually move society and life in a positive direction. We need to spend more time celebrating those things and the heros of science and math for our kids. If parents celebrated winners of the science olympiad as much as they celebrate michael phelps, then the world would be a very different place. I think part of the difference is that with sports, you can see that it takes a lot of energy to train to win a swim match, but you can't see the energy expended to win a science competition. Intelligence is something we believe you either have or do not have regardless of the amount of training, but that's just not true. It takes a lot of work and training and accomplishment to be a great scientist, just like it takes a lot of work and training and accomplishment to be a great athlete.

rms 17y ago

>There's no goal; we don't get points for making it to outer space or for reaching a singularity or for uncovering the secrets of the universe. I disagree. There are distinct levels: Type 0, 1, 2, 3 and beyond if we're not limited to the universe at hand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

trominos 17y ago
So you're saying that there is some fundamental, a priori reason for humanity to aspire to a higher level on this scale than it currently occupies? What?
- pj 17y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_Destiny http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_Destiny In the old days, it was the quest to expand the U.S. from the atlantic to the pacific, but the pacific wasn't quite far enough. Now we must expand into the farthest reaches of space.

pj 17y ago

I think the goal would be to find a way to bring similar joy to millions that has a lasting positive effect, rather than two hours of entertainment. I'm not denying that millions are entertained by sports, but it isn't "work" in the sense that work = force * distance. Distance in sports is zero, so it's a lot of force, but nothing comes of it. It doesn't go anywhere. There are lots of joyful things, entertaining things, that actually move society and life in a positive direction. We need to spend more time celebrating those things and the heros of science and math for our kids. If parents celebrated winners of the science olympiad as much as they celebrate michael phelps, then the world would be a very different place. I think part of the difference is that with sports, you can see that it takes a lot of energy to train to win a swim match, but you can't see the energy expended to win a science competition. Intelligence is something we believe you either have or do not have regardless of the amount of training, but that's just not true. It takes a lot of work and training and accomplishment to be a great scientist, just like it takes a lot of work and training and accomplishment to be a great athlete.