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32
General Discussion / Who is worse and why: jealousy and anger edition
« on: February 10, 2015, 11:26:15 pm »
Scenario 1
Girl cheats on her boyfriend by having sex with some guy. Boyfriend beats up the guy she had sex with.
Scenario 2
Girl cheats on her boyfriend by having sex with some guy. Boyfriend beats up the girl who cheated on him.
Who is worse? Why?
Answer before proceeding.
EDIT:
For clarity, yes: we're comparing scenarios: "Is the boyfriend who beats up the guy his girlfriend cheats on him with worse than the guy who beats up his girlfriend for cheating on him, or is the guy who beats up his girlfriend for cheating on him worse than the guy who beats up the guy she cheats on him with."
Did your answer change between the first two and last two scenarios? if so, why?
Girl cheats on her boyfriend by having sex with some guy. Boyfriend beats up the guy she had sex with.
Scenario 2
Girl cheats on her boyfriend by having sex with some guy. Boyfriend beats up the girl who cheated on him.
Who is worse? Why?
Answer before proceeding.
EDIT:
For clarity, yes: we're comparing scenarios: "Is the boyfriend who beats up the guy his girlfriend cheats on him with worse than the guy who beats up his girlfriend for cheating on him, or is the guy who beats up his girlfriend for cheating on him worse than the guy who beats up the guy she cheats on him with."
Spoiler: Scenarios 3 and 4 (click to show/hide)
Did your answer change between the first two and last two scenarios? if so, why?
33
Life Advice / Anyone in Orange County, Ca (Lake Forest/Tustin) looking for a marketing job?
« on: December 29, 2014, 08:56:40 pm »
Through a curious twist of fate, it seems that I will be managing the marketing team for an Orange County tax office this season.
So I'm looking to hire a few business to business marketers, some sign wavers and some general promotional support staff. Pay will be low, probably in the $8 $10 range, plus possible bonuses for team performance. The B2B marketers will probably be paid more than the sign wavers, but I'm still negotiating the compensation package with management. You may be asked to wear a costume. Note that there's no actual sales involved in the marketing positions. You'll basically be talking businesses into giving away flyers to their customers in exchange for us distributing theirs to ours.
You will need to be local to Orange County. I'm anticipating about 20 hours of work per week per person, starting January and running through to mid April. Position titles will mostly be listed as "marketing" staff positions, rather than "low level grunt" positions so this is a great resume builder for anyone just starting out. And these are paid positions with real life money, not ridiculousslave labor internships.
Anyone interested or know somebody who might be interested? Post or send me a PM.
Thanks.
So I'm looking to hire a few business to business marketers, some sign wavers and some general promotional support staff. Pay will be low, probably in the $8 $10 range, plus possible bonuses for team performance. The B2B marketers will probably be paid more than the sign wavers, but I'm still negotiating the compensation package with management. You may be asked to wear a costume. Note that there's no actual sales involved in the marketing positions. You'll basically be talking businesses into giving away flyers to their customers in exchange for us distributing theirs to ours.
You will need to be local to Orange County. I'm anticipating about 20 hours of work per week per person, starting January and running through to mid April. Position titles will mostly be listed as "marketing" staff positions, rather than "low level grunt" positions so this is a great resume builder for anyone just starting out. And these are paid positions with real life money, not ridiculous
Anyone interested or know somebody who might be interested? Post or send me a PM.
Thanks.
34
General Discussion / Physics questions: Consequence of relative velocity in relativity
« on: December 13, 2014, 07:57:09 pm »
Was trying to explain relativity to someone and realized that apparently I don't understand it as well as I thought I did. So, couple questions for you physics buffs:
Hypothetical scenario 1:
There's a planet. Two rockets sit together on a launchpad on the planet. Their relative velocity is zero. They then launch at the same time on parallel trajectories at identical speeds. Because the rockets have mass, they are gravitationally attracted to one another. And with friction from the launchpad no longer holding them in place, this causes them to now (slowly) accelerate towards each other.
The rockets now both accelerate to arbitrarily large, but identical fractions of the speed of light.
* Does this change in velocity relative to the planet cause their gravitational attraction to each other to increase?
Hypothetical scenario 2:
An object accelerates away from a reference point at 99% of the speed of light. We now measure the mass of the object. The object then comes to a complete stop, and then accelerates to 99% of the speed of light back towards our reference point. We again measure the mass of the object.
* Will the two measurements be equal?
Hypothetical scenario 3:
The entire universe consists of two objects. They are at rest. Object 1 accelerates to 50% of the speed of light in a direct line away from object 2. Call the amount of energy required for this acceleration, Energy A. Object 2 now accelerates to 50% of the speed of light in a direct line towards object 1. This causes them to now be at rest. Object 1 now accelerates to 50% of the speed of light in a direct line away from object 2. Call the amount of energy required for this acceleration, Energy B.
* Are Energy A and Energy B equal?
* Is A+B equal to, or less than infinity?
Hypothetical scenario 4:
There sits in space an indestructible platform. Sitting on the platform is a spaceship with a reactionless drive. Due to the reactionless drive, it will not be pushing against the platform as a consequence of its launch. The ship then accelerates to a sufficiently large fraction of c that its mass becomes arbitrarily large.
* What happens? The ship, by virtue of its gravitational force upon the platform, will tend to pull it along. But the fact of it being pulled along means its speed relative to the platform is reduced...which reduces the relative mass and therefore the force of gravity exerted by the ship upon the platform. How is this resolved?
Hypothetical scenario 1:
There's a planet. Two rockets sit together on a launchpad on the planet. Their relative velocity is zero. They then launch at the same time on parallel trajectories at identical speeds. Because the rockets have mass, they are gravitationally attracted to one another. And with friction from the launchpad no longer holding them in place, this causes them to now (slowly) accelerate towards each other.
The rockets now both accelerate to arbitrarily large, but identical fractions of the speed of light.
* Does this change in velocity relative to the planet cause their gravitational attraction to each other to increase?
Hypothetical scenario 2:
An object accelerates away from a reference point at 99% of the speed of light. We now measure the mass of the object. The object then comes to a complete stop, and then accelerates to 99% of the speed of light back towards our reference point. We again measure the mass of the object.
* Will the two measurements be equal?
Hypothetical scenario 3:
The entire universe consists of two objects. They are at rest. Object 1 accelerates to 50% of the speed of light in a direct line away from object 2. Call the amount of energy required for this acceleration, Energy A. Object 2 now accelerates to 50% of the speed of light in a direct line towards object 1. This causes them to now be at rest. Object 1 now accelerates to 50% of the speed of light in a direct line away from object 2. Call the amount of energy required for this acceleration, Energy B.
* Are Energy A and Energy B equal?
* Is A+B equal to, or less than infinity?
Hypothetical scenario 4:
There sits in space an indestructible platform. Sitting on the platform is a spaceship with a reactionless drive. Due to the reactionless drive, it will not be pushing against the platform as a consequence of its launch. The ship then accelerates to a sufficiently large fraction of c that its mass becomes arbitrarily large.
* What happens? The ship, by virtue of its gravitational force upon the platform, will tend to pull it along. But the fact of it being pulled along means its speed relative to the platform is reduced...which reduces the relative mass and therefore the force of gravity exerted by the ship upon the platform. How is this resolved?
35
General Discussion / The 1 percent per day superpower
« on: December 10, 2014, 12:16:45 pm »
So this is a thing I think about occasionally.
Imagine that you had the ability to increase or decrease any single existing quantity/property/probability by 1% per day. These adjustments change the base state of the world on a day to day basis, so compounding is possible, but they can only be applied multiplicatively to quantities that are already "present," and they don't eliminate For example:
"Increase my chances of winning the lottery by 1%"
This wouldn't mean that you'd have a 1% chance to win. Rather, if one ticket is drawn out of 100 million tickets, your base chance of being chosen is .00001%. So increasing this by 1% would mean you'd have a .0000101% chance of winning. And then the same cation the following day would increase it to .000010201%. Increasing your chances of winning to 1% would take a long time.
"Make 1% of all the money in the world belong to me"
Wouldn't work, because you're not modifying an existing quantity. Whereas if you have $1000, then $1000 is the "quantity of money that you have" and you could increase that by 1% to have $1010 instead.
"Make me 1% more like superman"
...wouldn't work because you're (mostly) not modifying existing quantities. You might have personal qualities like "honesty" and "appreciation of justice" that a character like superman might also have, but these are not "single" properties and "amount that you are like superman" isn't really a measurable quality.
But you could do, for example:
"Increase the strength of all muscles in my body by 1%"
Which would compound very well. For example, if you could do 100 pound benchpress, the above would allow you to do 101 pounds. And then reapplying it the next day would allow you to do 102.01. After ten days of applying it, you'd end up with a 110.46 pound benchpress.
And you can modify quantities downward. For example:
"Reduce my age by 1%"
If you're 20 years old, this would make you 19.8 years old. 10.4 weeks younger in a day. Of course, compounding would be working against you in this case, as the next day you'd only 19.8 years old plus the day that had passed, so decreasing that by another 1% would only decrease yoru age by .198 years rather than .2 years. Still plenty effective, but it would also have the curious implication that you would never be able to use the above to become less than 100 days old, because you'd be aging at the rate of one day per day.Enough to keep pace with the above.
Which brings up another interesting point. The above reduces your age, but it doesn't eliminate the regular process of aging. So, consider somebody attempting to be altruistic:
"Reduce the number of harmful bacteria in the world by 1%"
This would work fine. But it wouldn't stop them from reproducing, and it's altogether likely that the temporarily reduced bacteria would simply replenish themselves, eliminating the effective benefit of the command. Where you could do something like:
"Decrease the total number of different species of harmful bacteria in the world by 1%"
Which, if there were 2000 different species of harmful bacteria, would result in the genocide of 20 of them. Though you wouldn't have any control over which 20.
So clearly some daily commands are more effective than others. And this power doesn't give you any special patience. So yes, while theoretically you could start with $10,000 in a bank account and use it every single day for 463 days to become a millionaire, but it's probably not realistic to think that someone would sit around with for 15 months diligently not benefiting from their superpower while the money accrues.
Whereas other uses more immediately see results. Using it to brute force getting rich might be difficult, but a single use every few years would keep you forever young, and the occasional carefully worded command to free 1% of all women enslaved by human traffickers, or eliminate 1% of genetic defects in the world could see tremendous effect.
How would you use this power?
Imagine that you had the ability to increase or decrease any single existing quantity/property/probability by 1% per day. These adjustments change the base state of the world on a day to day basis, so compounding is possible, but they can only be applied multiplicatively to quantities that are already "present," and they don't eliminate For example:
"Increase my chances of winning the lottery by 1%"
This wouldn't mean that you'd have a 1% chance to win. Rather, if one ticket is drawn out of 100 million tickets, your base chance of being chosen is .00001%. So increasing this by 1% would mean you'd have a .0000101% chance of winning. And then the same cation the following day would increase it to .000010201%. Increasing your chances of winning to 1% would take a long time.
"Make 1% of all the money in the world belong to me"
Wouldn't work, because you're not modifying an existing quantity. Whereas if you have $1000, then $1000 is the "quantity of money that you have" and you could increase that by 1% to have $1010 instead.
"Make me 1% more like superman"
...wouldn't work because you're (mostly) not modifying existing quantities. You might have personal qualities like "honesty" and "appreciation of justice" that a character like superman might also have, but these are not "single" properties and "amount that you are like superman" isn't really a measurable quality.
But you could do, for example:
"Increase the strength of all muscles in my body by 1%"
Which would compound very well. For example, if you could do 100 pound benchpress, the above would allow you to do 101 pounds. And then reapplying it the next day would allow you to do 102.01. After ten days of applying it, you'd end up with a 110.46 pound benchpress.
And you can modify quantities downward. For example:
"Reduce my age by 1%"
If you're 20 years old, this would make you 19.8 years old. 10.4 weeks younger in a day. Of course, compounding would be working against you in this case, as the next day you'd only 19.8 years old plus the day that had passed, so decreasing that by another 1% would only decrease yoru age by .198 years rather than .2 years. Still plenty effective, but it would also have the curious implication that you would never be able to use the above to become less than 100 days old, because you'd be aging at the rate of one day per day.Enough to keep pace with the above.
Which brings up another interesting point. The above reduces your age, but it doesn't eliminate the regular process of aging. So, consider somebody attempting to be altruistic:
"Reduce the number of harmful bacteria in the world by 1%"
This would work fine. But it wouldn't stop them from reproducing, and it's altogether likely that the temporarily reduced bacteria would simply replenish themselves, eliminating the effective benefit of the command. Where you could do something like:
"Decrease the total number of different species of harmful bacteria in the world by 1%"
Which, if there were 2000 different species of harmful bacteria, would result in the genocide of 20 of them. Though you wouldn't have any control over which 20.
So clearly some daily commands are more effective than others. And this power doesn't give you any special patience. So yes, while theoretically you could start with $10,000 in a bank account and use it every single day for 463 days to become a millionaire, but it's probably not realistic to think that someone would sit around with for 15 months diligently not benefiting from their superpower while the money accrues.
Whereas other uses more immediately see results. Using it to brute force getting rich might be difficult, but a single use every few years would keep you forever young, and the occasional carefully worded command to free 1% of all women enslaved by human traffickers, or eliminate 1% of genetic defects in the world could see tremendous effect.
How would you use this power?
36
General Discussion / Fun silly problem for math people: matter replicators!
« on: November 08, 2014, 08:23:55 pm »
Scientists have proposed an experiment anticipated to be conducted next year, which will test, in demonstrable fashion, whether it's possible to turn light into physical matter.
So now that we're all thinking about Star Trek replicators:
The question:
Assuming 100% efficiency, how much light (in practical everyday intuitive units of your choice) would it take to make a a cup of tea, Early Gray, hot?
So now that we're all thinking about Star Trek replicators:
The question:
Assuming 100% efficiency, how much light (in practical everyday intuitive units of your choice) would it take to make a a cup of tea, Early Gray, hot?
37
General Discussion / Best Halloween costume of the night!
« on: October 31, 2014, 10:00:52 pm »
For those of us stuck handing out candy instead of partying, post the best Halloween costumes you see at your door!
My submission:
Just had a kid in plain clothes show up. Instead of "trick or treat" he asked me if I was aware of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Then he explained that he was a missionary, and handed me a full color, printed flier explaining in vivid graphic detail why I should believe, including benefits of the religion, like flimsy moral standards and beer volcanos, and including charts showing the inverse relationships between global average temperature and number of pirates.
Best costume I've seen in years.
My submission:
Just had a kid in plain clothes show up. Instead of "trick or treat" he asked me if I was aware of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Then he explained that he was a missionary, and handed me a full color, printed flier explaining in vivid graphic detail why I should believe, including benefits of the religion, like flimsy moral standards and beer volcanos, and including charts showing the inverse relationships between global average temperature and number of pirates.
Best costume I've seen in years.
38
General Discussion / Employment ethics scenario
« on: September 10, 2014, 03:53:14 pm »
The scenario:
Bob has some previous work experience providing desktop support in a small office environment. He is hired by a small office to provide computer support. He receives $10/hr and his typical work day is spent doing a variety of activities: basic computer troubleshooting, installing software, converting between various file formats, teaching people in the office how to use excel, etc.
Several months later his employer asks him to acquire bids from 3-4 companies to have a website made for the company.
Cue the following conversation:
Bob: Oh, I can do that. I'll build you a killer website for $500
Employer: You can build websites?
Bob: Absolutely. I've been frelancing for years. Site design is something I do every couple months.
Employer: Great! Build me a website during your downtime between other tasks.
Bob: ...umm, again, that's freelance work for me. I do it on the side. I've actually built two sites on the side since I've been working here.
Employer: That's no problem. I don't mind if you do business on the side provided it doesn't interfere with your work here.
Bob: Ok, so...I'll build you a site for $500. Incidentally, that's a great deal. If you go through a web design company, you'll probably end up paying $1500 or more.
Employer: You're already my employee. Why should I pay you extra for this?
Bob: Because it's something I already do as freelance work. I charge for it. You're paying me $10/hour to do misc office support work. Building websites was never part of the job description here. If you expect me to do work above and beyond that, it's reasonable that I should be paid for it.
Employer: I hired you to be my computer guy. This is computer stuff.
Bob: But web design is a specific, high-level task that I do freelancing for, and it's not what I was hired to do here. Therefore if you want me to do it, you need to pay me to do it.
Employer: I disagree. You're my computer guy. We never specifically established that you'd do user training, but last week you taught my receptionist how to create formulas in excel. Why is this any different?
Bob: Well, for example, because you asked me just now to acquire bids from web design companies. So clearly this is something even you didn't expect me to do.
Employer: Only because I didn't realize it was something you could do. If I knew you could, I'd have just asked you to do it in the first place.
Bob: Well, you asked for bids, and here's the first bid: I'll build a site for you for $500. If you want competing bids I'll start researching that right now.
Employer: No, just build me the site.
Bob: No.
Employer: Ok, you're fired.
Employer then replaces Bob with another $10/hr employee, and pays $1500 to a dedicated web design company to build him a website.
Questions:
* Did anyone behave unethically?
* Did anyone behave stupidly?
* Why?
Bob has some previous work experience providing desktop support in a small office environment. He is hired by a small office to provide computer support. He receives $10/hr and his typical work day is spent doing a variety of activities: basic computer troubleshooting, installing software, converting between various file formats, teaching people in the office how to use excel, etc.
Several months later his employer asks him to acquire bids from 3-4 companies to have a website made for the company.
Cue the following conversation:
Bob: Oh, I can do that. I'll build you a killer website for $500
Employer: You can build websites?
Bob: Absolutely. I've been frelancing for years. Site design is something I do every couple months.
Employer: Great! Build me a website during your downtime between other tasks.
Bob: ...umm, again, that's freelance work for me. I do it on the side. I've actually built two sites on the side since I've been working here.
Employer: That's no problem. I don't mind if you do business on the side provided it doesn't interfere with your work here.
Bob: Ok, so...I'll build you a site for $500. Incidentally, that's a great deal. If you go through a web design company, you'll probably end up paying $1500 or more.
Employer: You're already my employee. Why should I pay you extra for this?
Bob: Because it's something I already do as freelance work. I charge for it. You're paying me $10/hour to do misc office support work. Building websites was never part of the job description here. If you expect me to do work above and beyond that, it's reasonable that I should be paid for it.
Employer: I hired you to be my computer guy. This is computer stuff.
Bob: But web design is a specific, high-level task that I do freelancing for, and it's not what I was hired to do here. Therefore if you want me to do it, you need to pay me to do it.
Employer: I disagree. You're my computer guy. We never specifically established that you'd do user training, but last week you taught my receptionist how to create formulas in excel. Why is this any different?
Bob: Well, for example, because you asked me just now to acquire bids from web design companies. So clearly this is something even you didn't expect me to do.
Employer: Only because I didn't realize it was something you could do. If I knew you could, I'd have just asked you to do it in the first place.
Bob: Well, you asked for bids, and here's the first bid: I'll build a site for you for $500. If you want competing bids I'll start researching that right now.
Employer: No, just build me the site.
Bob: No.
Employer: Ok, you're fired.
Employer then replaces Bob with another $10/hr employee, and pays $1500 to a dedicated web design company to build him a website.
Questions:
* Did anyone behave unethically?
* Did anyone behave stupidly?
* Why?
39
General Discussion / In what manner is your focus drawn?
« on: July 28, 2014, 02:39:13 am »
Adam, Bob, Chris and Dan are shown the following and asked to describe it:
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000010000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
Adam: It's a bunch of zeros.
Bob: It's a bunch of zeros with a one.
Chris: The one is obviously the important thing here.
Dan: I agree. Focus is definitely drawn to the one. I'd say it's a one surrounded by zeros.
Bob: Why are you two focusing on the one? The zeros are clearly more important to the overall picture.
Adam: Who cares about the one? There are 300 zeros.
Chris: It's not 300 zeros. Stop ignoring the one.
Bob: Yes, the roughly 300 zeros do have a one with them.
Adam: It's 300 zeros. The one may as well be a rounding error. It doesn't matter.
Chris: You're both crazy. How can you not see the one?
Dan: I see it. But I also see the zeros. I agree they're not the important part of the picture, but they're there.
Chris: Why are all of you fixated on zeros? There's a one.
Adam: It doesn't matter. 300 zeros.
Dan: Don't try to tell me when you looked at that, the one wasn't the first thing you noticed.
Adam: No. I noticed the 300 zeros.
Bob: Of course I saw it. But out of a field of nearly 300 zeros, why would you focus on the single one?
Chris: Because the one is the important part. Imagine if there was a chair in a room. Would you describe that as, "it's an empty room. Oh, and there's a chair in it." Of course not. You'd say there was a chair.
Bob: If there were 300 people in the room too, I'd be sure to point that out before I mentioned the chair. Focusing on the chair in a room with 300 people gives a terribly distorted picture.
Adam: If there were 300 people in it, you probably wouldn't even notice the chair.
Dan: I think we're getting sidetracked. Getting back to the picture, what stands out to me is the one. And that one is surrounded by zeros.
Chris: What stands out to me is the one.
Adam: What stands out to me is the fact that there are 300 zeros.
Bob: Standing out isn't the point. It's a field of zeros with a one in it.
Discuss.
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000010000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000
Adam: It's a bunch of zeros.
Bob: It's a bunch of zeros with a one.
Chris: The one is obviously the important thing here.
Dan: I agree. Focus is definitely drawn to the one. I'd say it's a one surrounded by zeros.
Bob: Why are you two focusing on the one? The zeros are clearly more important to the overall picture.
Adam: Who cares about the one? There are 300 zeros.
Chris: It's not 300 zeros. Stop ignoring the one.
Bob: Yes, the roughly 300 zeros do have a one with them.
Adam: It's 300 zeros. The one may as well be a rounding error. It doesn't matter.
Chris: You're both crazy. How can you not see the one?
Dan: I see it. But I also see the zeros. I agree they're not the important part of the picture, but they're there.
Chris: Why are all of you fixated on zeros? There's a one.
Adam: It doesn't matter. 300 zeros.
Dan: Don't try to tell me when you looked at that, the one wasn't the first thing you noticed.
Adam: No. I noticed the 300 zeros.
Bob: Of course I saw it. But out of a field of nearly 300 zeros, why would you focus on the single one?
Chris: Because the one is the important part. Imagine if there was a chair in a room. Would you describe that as, "it's an empty room. Oh, and there's a chair in it." Of course not. You'd say there was a chair.
Bob: If there were 300 people in the room too, I'd be sure to point that out before I mentioned the chair. Focusing on the chair in a room with 300 people gives a terribly distorted picture.
Adam: If there were 300 people in it, you probably wouldn't even notice the chair.
Dan: I think we're getting sidetracked. Getting back to the picture, what stands out to me is the one. And that one is surrounded by zeros.
Chris: What stands out to me is the one.
Adam: What stands out to me is the fact that there are 300 zeros.
Bob: Standing out isn't the point. It's a field of zeros with a one in it.
Discuss.
40
General Discussion / Google's upcoming robot taxi fleet and the industries it renders obsolete
« on: May 08, 2014, 12:39:15 pm »
So here's the deal: google has had driverless vehicles on the road for years doing their video scouting for google maps. Apparently they've recently spent $258 million buying into Uber, which is a ridesharing company with a cellphone app that puts people looking for rides in contact with people willing to drive them places.
So...put those two things together and it looks like we might have robot taxis in our near future:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10267520/Google-planning-robo-taxi-fleet.html
So, imagine this: you pick up your phone and fill in a web form saying where you want to go and checking a couple boxes for how many passengers and how much luggage you have. The robot-taxi fleet gets the message and the closest suitable vehicle is dispatched. Since those vehicles are all networked and able to spread themselves out, some articles I'm reading claim they expect to get two minute response times. Robot taxi takes you where you want to go, fare is handled electronically with no need for cash or credit card at time or transit. You get out, robot taxi leaves. When you want to go home you do the same thing.
Now look 5 years down the road.
Why own a car? Oh, sure. Some people will choose to. But why pay for a car, gas and insurance, why deal with maintenance, traffic and parking, when you can simply push a button on your cellphone and be ferried anywhere you want to go? Lots of people have given up telephone land lines because they have a cellphone. Who still uses a pager? A VCR? In some places (New York, for example) lots of people don't own cars already. How many people will give up owning a car if it's cheaper and more convenient to give it up?
This also suddenly makes electric cars much more realistic. Battery capacity has always been the problem there, but if there's a fleet of robot taxis, it no longer matters if each vehicle only has a 50 mile range. How long is your average trip? To work, to dinner, the grocery store, the bank, the airport...most of the time anyplace you want to go is probably pretty close. And it doesn't matter how long it takes a robot taxi to recharge its battery because there's no need to take the same vehicle back that you used to get where you're going.
Vehicles can be smaller overall. Most cars sit at least four passengers because people buy cars to meet all their needs. Even if most of the time you drive just yourself, sometimes you need to ferry passengers and groceries or things, so a two-seater isn't enough. But if you're just going to dinner or work, you don't need an 8 seat SUV with ski racks. Large numbers of these taxis could be cheap, tiny, fuel-efficient two-seaters.
So how many jobs and industries does all this potentially render obsolete?
Taxi and limosine companies, drivers, dispatchers, etc. Garbage truck drivers. They already simply push a button to pick up trash. Shipping truckers. Public buses. Car rental. Vallet service. Auto detailing. Subways. Auto dealerships. Driver training. Traffic court. The DMV. If the switch is made to electric, that takes a significant gouge out of the petroleum industry. And the mechanic business too, since electric motors break less and are easier to maintain. No more oil changes. No more smog emission tests.
What about secondary affects?
Google claims they've run their driverless cars over 700,000 autonomous miles, and in all that time there've been exactly two accidents, both of which were concluded to be the fault of a human driver.
In 2009 there were 10.8 million auto accidents and 35,000 deaths
How much of the insurance industry goes away? How many fewer attorneys? Highway patrol? Auto body repair? Vehicle towing and impounding? How many retail sales and cashier positions are there that relate to the auto industry? According to the Bureau of Labor, over two million auto industry jobs relate to retail services. There are all sorts of secondary effects, industries that wont totally vanish but that will be hit with vastly reduced needs.
Several million jobs and a couple hundred billions of dollars worth of industry might be going away here in the next few years. Sure, some of those will simply be moved around. Many won't. Electric robot cars might need less maintenance, but they still will need maintenance. Taxi/bus/limo and car rental companies on the other hand could possibly be made to completely disappear, just like the VCR and the pager. Quick check...that's roughly a million jobs right there.
Personally, I think it's a great thing. Automated teller and self-checkout machines haven't made bank and retail clerks obsolete...yet. But this, if it catches on, if we really embrace and accept it as a culture...will be huge.
So...put those two things together and it looks like we might have robot taxis in our near future:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10267520/Google-planning-robo-taxi-fleet.html
So, imagine this: you pick up your phone and fill in a web form saying where you want to go and checking a couple boxes for how many passengers and how much luggage you have. The robot-taxi fleet gets the message and the closest suitable vehicle is dispatched. Since those vehicles are all networked and able to spread themselves out, some articles I'm reading claim they expect to get two minute response times. Robot taxi takes you where you want to go, fare is handled electronically with no need for cash or credit card at time or transit. You get out, robot taxi leaves. When you want to go home you do the same thing.
Now look 5 years down the road.
Why own a car? Oh, sure. Some people will choose to. But why pay for a car, gas and insurance, why deal with maintenance, traffic and parking, when you can simply push a button on your cellphone and be ferried anywhere you want to go? Lots of people have given up telephone land lines because they have a cellphone. Who still uses a pager? A VCR? In some places (New York, for example) lots of people don't own cars already. How many people will give up owning a car if it's cheaper and more convenient to give it up?
This also suddenly makes electric cars much more realistic. Battery capacity has always been the problem there, but if there's a fleet of robot taxis, it no longer matters if each vehicle only has a 50 mile range. How long is your average trip? To work, to dinner, the grocery store, the bank, the airport...most of the time anyplace you want to go is probably pretty close. And it doesn't matter how long it takes a robot taxi to recharge its battery because there's no need to take the same vehicle back that you used to get where you're going.
Vehicles can be smaller overall. Most cars sit at least four passengers because people buy cars to meet all their needs. Even if most of the time you drive just yourself, sometimes you need to ferry passengers and groceries or things, so a two-seater isn't enough. But if you're just going to dinner or work, you don't need an 8 seat SUV with ski racks. Large numbers of these taxis could be cheap, tiny, fuel-efficient two-seaters.
So how many jobs and industries does all this potentially render obsolete?
Taxi and limosine companies, drivers, dispatchers, etc. Garbage truck drivers. They already simply push a button to pick up trash. Shipping truckers. Public buses. Car rental. Vallet service. Auto detailing. Subways. Auto dealerships. Driver training. Traffic court. The DMV. If the switch is made to electric, that takes a significant gouge out of the petroleum industry. And the mechanic business too, since electric motors break less and are easier to maintain. No more oil changes. No more smog emission tests.
What about secondary affects?
Google claims they've run their driverless cars over 700,000 autonomous miles, and in all that time there've been exactly two accidents, both of which were concluded to be the fault of a human driver.
In 2009 there were 10.8 million auto accidents and 35,000 deaths
How much of the insurance industry goes away? How many fewer attorneys? Highway patrol? Auto body repair? Vehicle towing and impounding? How many retail sales and cashier positions are there that relate to the auto industry? According to the Bureau of Labor, over two million auto industry jobs relate to retail services. There are all sorts of secondary effects, industries that wont totally vanish but that will be hit with vastly reduced needs.
Several million jobs and a couple hundred billions of dollars worth of industry might be going away here in the next few years. Sure, some of those will simply be moved around. Many won't. Electric robot cars might need less maintenance, but they still will need maintenance. Taxi/bus/limo and car rental companies on the other hand could possibly be made to completely disappear, just like the VCR and the pager. Quick check...that's roughly a million jobs right there.
Personally, I think it's a great thing. Automated teller and self-checkout machines haven't made bank and retail clerks obsolete...yet. But this, if it catches on, if we really embrace and accept it as a culture...will be huge.
41
Other Games / Gemcraft 2: Chasing Shadows
« on: April 05, 2014, 12:00:57 am »
Gemcraft 2 has finally been released!
http://armorgames.com/play/15760/gemcraft-chasing-shadows
First impressions:
Definite improvement over Labyrinth. Certainly more complicated than Chapter Zero. Seems to be overall a good blend of the features from each of them. Seems more difficult to progress though, because skills cap so easily leaving you with nothing to spend level up points on extra extra starting mana. Not sure I like needing to spend shadow cores to get score modifiers, but presumably they'll be easier to get later on. I usually seem to get 2-4 per level, and the most I've seen is ~25. But I can spend as many as 56 on a single level and I only have two out of nine traits unlocked. I really hope that it's not balanced to require grinding easy levels for shadow cores in order to do those same levels again at higher difficulties. I like the talisman mechanic, but again, shadow cores, and I'm skeptical of the apparent need to spend shadow cores to level talismans that I'll eventually end up throwing away when I get better ones. Also not sure the xp talismans were a good idea, since it means leveling talismans specifically for the purpose of leveling better, which means not using slots for talismans that help you win battles. The game absolutely needs higher shadow core drop rates at higher levels (which it probably has) or some way to reliably grind them (which it might.) It kind of looks like there's a "grind for the ability to grind better so you can enhance your ability to grind your grinding" design here, which is not a fun mechanic. Lots of achievements. So many they're tedious to filter through, though the in-map achievement list helps. Also, I miss the 'highest multiplier' indicator from Labyrinth. Haven't yet found a "do this to win" strategy yet like existed in previous games.
42
General Discussion / Comic Con San Diego: July 24-27 2014
« on: March 13, 2014, 08:35:25 am »
This thread is for all discussion of Comic Con 2014 in San Diego, California, July 24-27 at the San Diego Convention Center
Pre-registration ends at 9am Pacific Time March 15th. If you intend to purchase a ticket, you must pre-register for the online ticket purchasing event. Note that last year tickets sold out within 93 minutes of going on sale. This is the biggest convention of its type in the world, and if you're looking for "the" convention to go to and you can't get into E3, this is it.
Who's going, costuming discussion, possible bay12 meetups, masquerade, after party, room sharing, anything related to Comic con 2014 goes here!
Pre-registration ends at 9am Pacific Time March 15th. If you intend to purchase a ticket, you must pre-register for the online ticket purchasing event. Note that last year tickets sold out within 93 minutes of going on sale. This is the biggest convention of its type in the world, and if you're looking for "the" convention to go to and you can't get into E3, this is it.
Who's going, costuming discussion, possible bay12 meetups, masquerade, after party, room sharing, anything related to Comic con 2014 goes here!
43
General Discussion / Psych test: Rank these 7 people from "best" to "worst"
« on: November 29, 2013, 02:18:42 pm »
Thread rules
1) No insulting other posters
2) If you're angry for any reason, don't post.
3) Post your own response before reading responses from others
The scenario:
Adam and Betty are sitting together at a restaurant. Carrie and Dan are sitting together a few tables away. Betty asks Adam if he thinks Carrie is prettier than she is. Adam looks at Carrie, and agrees that she is. Betty shouts at him, then angrily leaves the restaurant. Carrie overhears this, walks over to Adam and offers to sleep with him. Adam declines. Dan finishes drinking his martini, then gets in his chauffeured limousine and goes home. Carrie leaves in her own car. Betty goes to Edward's house, and has sex with him. After sex, Betty and Edward discuss what happened at the restaurant. Betty goes home. Edward then seeks out Adam and beats him up. On the way home from the hospital Adam happens to see Carrie, and says that he would like to sleep with her now. She declines. Back at the restaurant, Fernando walks in then asks to use the restroom, then takes food from Adam and Betty's table on the way out. It's the only meal he's eaten in two days. Gary is a waiter at the restaurant. He sees Fernando take the food, and says nothing.
What to do
* Rank Adam, Betty, Carrie, Dan, Edward, Fernando and Gary from "best" to "worst." Feel free to quantify "best" and "worst however you'd like, but explain the reasons for your ranking.
* Regardless of your ranking, state which of these people you would most want to personally be, who you would least want to personally be, and why.
EDIT for mixing up the names.
1) No insulting other posters
2) If you're angry for any reason, don't post.
3) Post your own response before reading responses from others
The scenario:
Adam and Betty are sitting together at a restaurant. Carrie and Dan are sitting together a few tables away. Betty asks Adam if he thinks Carrie is prettier than she is. Adam looks at Carrie, and agrees that she is. Betty shouts at him, then angrily leaves the restaurant. Carrie overhears this, walks over to Adam and offers to sleep with him. Adam declines. Dan finishes drinking his martini, then gets in his chauffeured limousine and goes home. Carrie leaves in her own car. Betty goes to Edward's house, and has sex with him. After sex, Betty and Edward discuss what happened at the restaurant. Betty goes home. Edward then seeks out Adam and beats him up. On the way home from the hospital Adam happens to see Carrie, and says that he would like to sleep with her now. She declines. Back at the restaurant, Fernando walks in then asks to use the restroom, then takes food from Adam and Betty's table on the way out. It's the only meal he's eaten in two days. Gary is a waiter at the restaurant. He sees Fernando take the food, and says nothing.
What to do
* Rank Adam, Betty, Carrie, Dan, Edward, Fernando and Gary from "best" to "worst." Feel free to quantify "best" and "worst however you'd like, but explain the reasons for your ranking.
* Regardless of your ranking, state which of these people you would most want to personally be, who you would least want to personally be, and why.
EDIT for mixing up the names.
44
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Super 80s Glam-Ninja Assault Squads of Doom: Game Thread
« on: October 17, 2013, 10:55:46 pm »
Super 80s Glam-Ninja Assault Squads of Doom
This is the in-character game thread for Super 80s Glam-Ninja Assault Squads of Doom. The out of character chat and game signup thread may be found here.
Current Roster:
Team Black
Team Red
Team Blue
This is the in-character game thread for Super 80s Glam-Ninja Assault Squads of Doom. The out of character chat and game signup thread may be found here.
Current Roster:
Team Black
Spoiler: Black Dragon, aka Niko Berellius, played by FelixSparks (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Crouching Snake, aka William "Billy" Blythe, played by Thecard (click to show/hide)
Team Red
Spoiler: Ninja Terminator, aka Jaguar Wong, played by Funk (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Dragon's Doom, aka Harold Barthelfield, played by Rolepgeek (click to show/hide)
Team Blue
Spoiler: The Harvest Ninja, aka Clair Thomson, played by scapheap (click to show/hide)
45
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Super 80s Glam-Ninja Assault Squads of Doom! OOC and signups
« on: October 15, 2013, 09:43:06 pm »
Super 80s Glam-Ninja Assault Squads of Doom!
Note:
This is the out of character and game signup thread for Super 80's Glam-Ninja Assault Squads of Doom.
The game thread is located here.
The setting
This game takes place in a cliche fantasy world of 80s ninja movies, in the United States and during the Glorious 80s! Al Gore hasn't invented the internet yet, nobody has cell phones or CD players, and video cameras are rare. A world where nobody knows the difference between Chinese and Japanese, all martial arts are either ninjutsu or karate because we all know Mr Miyagi but Jackie Chan hasn't made it to the states yet, and nobody thinks it odd that ninjas are white and have names like Bob Jackson.
Many tropes will be in play, such as Technicolor, and Highly Visible ninjas, Even native Japanese speakers will add an 's' to make ninja plural, and nobody will particularly vexxed if ninjas call their shuriken Chinese stars. Nunchaku are perfectly viable weapons, even for deflecting swords and machine gun fire, and beware the dreaded Conservation of Ninjutsu!
Rules may be subject to change if I missed anything completely stupid. Accepting 6 players (subject to approval) to start, possibly more later depending on workload. Rules are not complicated, but there kind of turned out to be a lot of them. Feel free to ask questions, but let's not let this thread be bogged down in twenty pages of rules clarifications for every possible contingency.
Note:
This is the out of character and game signup thread for Super 80's Glam-Ninja Assault Squads of Doom.
The game thread is located here.
The setting
This game takes place in a cliche fantasy world of 80s ninja movies, in the United States and during the Glorious 80s! Al Gore hasn't invented the internet yet, nobody has cell phones or CD players, and video cameras are rare. A world where nobody knows the difference between Chinese and Japanese, all martial arts are either ninjutsu or karate because we all know Mr Miyagi but Jackie Chan hasn't made it to the states yet, and nobody thinks it odd that ninjas are white and have names like Bob Jackson.
Many tropes will be in play, such as Technicolor, and Highly Visible ninjas, Even native Japanese speakers will add an 's' to make ninja plural, and nobody will particularly vexxed if ninjas call their shuriken Chinese stars. Nunchaku are perfectly viable weapons, even for deflecting swords and machine gun fire, and beware the dreaded Conservation of Ninjutsu!
Rules may be subject to change if I missed anything completely stupid. Accepting 6 players (subject to approval) to start, possibly more later depending on workload. Rules are not complicated, but there kind of turned out to be a lot of them. Feel free to ask questions, but let's not let this thread be bogged down in twenty pages of rules clarifications for every possible contingency.
Spoiler: Character stats and creation (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Death and Duels to the Death (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: The Ninja code! (aka rules) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Missions and mission scoring (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Combat notes, game mechanics, what attributes do, etc. (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Ninja magic (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Ninja store (click to show/hide)