asgard1024

81 ms·

1. 631.▲
   by asgard1024 13y ago

   Thanks. :-)
2. 632.▲
   by asgard1024 13y ago

   I like it a lot. I wish there would be solution to tie this with say Google Glass, and be able to go on a walk or sit in the woods and code or make notes with it, hands free. Or while doing cooking or laundry, etc. It's unfortunate he
3. 633.▲
   by asgard1024 13y ago

   But there is also an issue of freedom and trust. Sure, you could provide "endless happiness" by making everyone stoned, but what freedom that is? The point isn't to implement majority rule on every micro decision; people are
4. 634.▲
   by asgard1024 13y ago

   Or maybe they decided to stick with it because it advances their own interest. How very convenient, to teach Ivy League graduates that Ancient Greece can be generalized but modern Switzerland or Iceland (or many U.S. States) are isolated, c
5. 635.▲
   by asgard1024 13y ago

   East Germany was only called "democratic republic", in reality it was neither. The fault isn't within those terms; the fault was that calling it that way was simply a lie. You also ask: "Why should individual sovereignty
6. 636.▲
   by asgard1024 13y ago

   If we really lived in democracy, it wouldn't have to be that way. We would just accept defeat if majority would disagree. That's what people in Switzerland do. You just hid the contradiction of "benevolent dictator" into
7. 637.▲
   by asgard1024 13y ago

   Failure to introduce democracy is not the same thing as failure of democracy. Just like a failure to implement encryption doesn't mean that encryption is a failed concept. Can you provide example of democracy brutal to minority? Which
8. 638.▲
   by asgard1024 13y ago

   Annoying to whom? The problem with that example is that we don't have, I believe, enough information to really tell what happened. I am not sure, for example, if the "voting" on that matter would really pass the scrutiny. May
9. 639.▲
   by asgard1024 13y ago

   Every society is subject to the problem you are talking about. That's why humans actually evolved to go at lengths to punish anybody who does defect. Without this sense (for fairness), no society could function. And as you correctly po
10. 640.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    So what if they wouldn't stop protesting? What does it mean, allow to protest peacefully? Like a free speech zone? But isn't this "weighing" you talk about just a form of voting? If he caves in based on public opinion, t
11. 641.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    I can give the evidence. In Switzerland, it took very long time to enact laws for protection of minorities. Progressive politicians in other countries enacted these much sooner. It's also empirically true that direct democracies tend t
12. 642.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    I read his article, but I didn't get his point, and you're basically explaining the reason why. He is not correct in lumping all those together in his analysis. Maybe he could say "Western democracy". I agree that these
13. 643.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    No, it would not. The all-knowing philosopher (AKA enlightened dictator) would basically amount to democracy. Let's say this philosopher wants to do something which is undeniably correct, but majority of people still disagrees with it,
14. 644.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    Is he talking about democracy as an ideal or democracy as commonly implemented? These are two very different things.. The ideal is to give everyone the same say in what laws should govern the society. In my view, that ideal isn't overr
15. 645.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    How does that work for SQLite 3, which _is_ part of Python library? I would actually prefer to have numpy included before those statistics functions.
16. 646.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    Victor who? I have a book about Emmanuel Goldstein in my library. Funny thing, the dictator's name didn't make it to the book.
17. 647.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    I like the idea, and the hardware seems good, and I could afford it, but the real turn-off for me is that it's just a one-time thing. If I am going to commit myself to another mobile platform (although I use Xubuntu on the PC), I want
18. 648.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    First of all, sentience of beings is not a necessary condition for the simulation to be borderline unethical. No other species on our planet is sentient, yet many people don't consider hurting these for fun to be moral. I was joking of
19. 649.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    Are you sure? Since version 1, they can recognize themselves in a mirror.
20. 650.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    He was a famous Arabic mathematician, a pioneer of algebra and algorithms (both named after him). (Just kidding. I also didn't know the answer, not having read SICP, this would be my guess, but I believe axblount is right.)
21. 651.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    Though will mostly repeat what others have said, here it is: ANSI Common Lisp from Paul Graham is also a good CL textbook. I bought it as a complement to Practical Common Lisp and it also has a nice quick reference at the end. Having read b
22. 652.▲
    by asgard1024 13y ago

    Hardest? Are you kidding me? A computer can solve these quite easily. If you want really hard logic puzzles, get puzzle books from Peter Winkler (such as Mind Benders or Connoiseur's Collection). These sometimes even contain unsolved p