rybosome

33 ms·

361.
by rybosome 11y ago
Citizens of London would likely have felt the same way if they learned about Michael Faraday's experiments with electricity which were funded by the Royal Society, given that electricity was considered a party trick at the time. A gove
362.
by rybosome 11y ago
Nailed it. That's why it matters - without a hunger for knowledge, our species would still be living in caves, pilfering scraps of flesh from carrion. Our desire to understand ourselves and the world we inhabit has lifted us out of the
363.
by rybosome 11y ago
I don't think that philosophical zombies are a nonsensical line of thought at all. As Ray Kurzweil states in one of his books (paraphrasing), "I take it on faith that the universe exists". Accepting the inability to receive p
364.
by rybosome 11y ago
That's my understanding, but it's important to keep this in mind when touting the merits of battery tech. Of course, the battery production and charging process can become drastically more green (and will do so once the Gigafactor
365.
by rybosome 11y ago
When I arrived in a new city and wanted socialization, I'd chat with the people staying in the hostel; with few exceptions, other guests were very pleasant and open to meeting new people. If I wasn't in the mood for chatting, I&#x
366.
by rybosome 11y ago
> An operating system isn't an emergent property of a hard drive. An operating system emerges out of the minds of the many programmers who work on it, out of the interactions these programmers have with each other and with their use
367.
by rybosome 11y ago
Halfway into my fourth year in college, I developed a major funk that led to me failing several classes. My dad took me out to lunch one day for a "what are you doing with your life?" talk. He had been very strict about schoolwork
368.
by rybosome 11y ago
The author's dismissal of the "emergent property" argument on the grounds that it is a convenient explanation without proof is intellectually dishonest. We have no universally accepted, measurable definition of consciousness
369.
by rybosome 11y ago
I thought the entire corp subdomain was not publicly accessible...this is surprising.
370.
by rybosome 11y ago
So the statement "our factory will produce batteries while running solely on renewable power", though potentially factually accurate, is greenwashing?
371.
by rybosome 11y ago
According to this study[0], it takes about 116 kWh of input energy to create a 100 kWh battery, given the materials. The majority of the total energy usage is in material production, not battery production. Assuming Tesla is not making thei
372.
by rybosome 11y ago
Phoenix, Arizona is actually not the most sun-soaked part of the country. The Mojave desert gets a much greater amount of solar insolation[0]. Using those numbers, we can calculate ~511 kWh/m2/year, assuming 15% efficiency as well
373.
by rybosome 11y ago
You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but I think NASA has struck an appropriate balance between skepticism and curiosity. After results claiming thrust from the EM drive were given by paid lab testing and a Chinese study, NASA t
374.
by rybosome 12y ago
This seems more like a bug than something intentional. What I find more interesting (and am somewhat saddened by) is that a bug such as this causes people to leap to the conclusion that it is part of a malicious, anti-competitive plot.
375.
by rybosome 12y ago
I think we could get it right eventually, but the only solution I can imagine seems to be along the lines of a universal basic income, or access to basic resources (food, water, shelter, education, clothing, healthcare, etc.) without cost.
376.
by rybosome 12y ago
I'm not an economist, but my understanding of the massive social impact observed in the Industrial Revolution was not so much that it happened at all, but rather the rapidity with which it happened. We ultimately reached a new, stable
377.
by rybosome 12y ago
Honestly, I agree. In some ways when I think about the future I feel very hopeful; advancements in narrow AI and medical technology in particular are very easy to imagine as beneficial. Mostly though I feel very cynical and depressed by wha
378.
by rybosome 12y ago
"...they must accept higher energy costs and possibly a reduced standard of living in order to combat a threat they cannot directly perceive." That's a tough one. From the perspective of a person whose livelihood depends on C
379.
by rybosome 12y ago
I once got a date because I sent a woman a message with the improper usage of "their" in place of "there", then followed up with a second message pointing out the mistake and my shame in having made it.
380.
by rybosome 12y ago
I don't agree with your conclusion - and I say this as someone who has fully accepted the ideas that human existence is a random occurrence due to the recursive emergence of complexity, that life has no intrinsic purpose and that we ar
381.
Engineers at Stanford create device which could lead to photonic computers(m.bizjournals.com)
2 points by rybosome 12y ago|0 comments
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by rybosome 12y ago
> A solution to the Fermi Paradox has to explain why that event has never happened How do you know that it has not? I'm not seriously asserting that it has, mind you. Just noting that there could be a swarm of radio-silent probes in
383.
by rybosome 12y ago
> Can't speak to likelihood of discovering life on Europa Honestly, me neither. I'm just a software engineer who is excited about space and hopes for the best. =) > but it would be fucking awesome. Wouldn't it? Holy he
384.
by rybosome 12y ago
I think we're nearly at confirmation of basic alien life. IIRC there are talks of missions to Europa as early as the 2020's, and I would honestly be surprised if no microbial life was found there. Liquid water, chemical processes
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by rybosome 12y ago
There's no way to work "coroutine" into a natural-sounding sentence, but that's Brendan Eich's vision of the future of async handling in JS.
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by rybosome 12y ago
Yes, this is true...and it's something I struggle with. On the one hand, I think it is clear that we need to stop using coal; depending upon a resource which replenishes at a geological time scale is categorically unsustainable, as is
387.
by rybosome 12y ago
Sorry for the double response: my previous comment still stands, but I wanted to add this as well. The treatment of women and exclusion of minorities in this field is incredibly distressing. The thought of how many brilliant minds we could
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by rybosome 12y ago
Being born into a society (particularly a wealthy one) bestows many gifts. Chance of survival increases drastically, and the new member is given access to a treasure-trove of information accumulated over tens of thousands of years. Take gro
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by rybosome 12y ago
I think we simply have different core values. It appears that you believe that the ability for an individual to have total control over their money is a basic right. I believe that an individual has a fundamental responsibility to the socie
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by rybosome 12y ago
I can't speak for everybody (and I didn't personally take any action against the comment in question), but I imagine the reaction was due to the tone of the message. HN is generally a community which tolerates unpopular opinions i

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