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Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

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Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#91

Post by stcredzero »

gyom wrote: post #74
stcredzero wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5) "This time is different!" is bullshit. There are times when it is indeed different. When Columbus landed, it was genuinely different. (Especially for the natives.) When general artificial intelligence arrives, it will also be genuinely different. (Especially for us.)

I'm not sure if you just implicitly suggested that we (humans) will be mistreated by the general AI (and its offsprings) just like the natives were mistreated by people who followed after Columbus.

Our lives may well be significantly better. Almost certainly, they will be significantly different.

Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#92

Post by sp332 »

nullc wrote: post #53
sp332 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$4,000/day at current exchange rates, it should pay for itself in less than 8 days. Of course the rate of BTC generation will go down over time, but it looks like these rigs would easily pay for themselves for several years yet.

The bitcoin system adapts itself to keep the rate of coin creation constant. So it's impossible to say what their return will be in the future. Perhaps a few monts later someone puts out a run of 28nm ASICS at 1/4 the price with 4x the performance and they're bought in massive waves.

Yes... and maybe a supervolcano under Yellowstone will destroy half the USA. But there's no evidence that will actually happen anytime soon.

Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#93

Post by koningrobot »

ktizo wrote: post #77
gyom wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you just implicitly suggested that we (humans) will be mistreated by the general AI (and its offsprings) just like the natives were mistreated by people who followed after Columbus.

Or on the flip side, we might treat the AI's worse due to being so scared of them, as in the situation in Neuromancer where all the AI's legally have to be built with a kill switch.

How is that bad treatment? I for one would welcome an instant, painless death.

Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#94

Post by landhar »

koningrobot wrote: post #93
ktizo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or on the flip side, we might treat the AI's worse due to being so scared of them, as in the situation in Neuromancer where all the AI's legally have to be built with a kill switch.

How is that bad treatment? I for one would welcome an instant, painless death.

But would you welcome living in fear of being killed at any moment ?

Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#95

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

javert wrote: post #84
ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #59

I lost a lot of money in bitcoin. I learned a valuable lesson that's better than anything I learned in collage. 1) Easy to make, easy to lose. 2) Whatever you are thinking of doing, so is everyone else. If you're planning on outsmarting thousands of other people, just remember, they are planning to outsmart you. 3) Any market with a high volume of flippers (buys to resell and make money) vs users (actually use a prod…

Each new generation brings the same humanistic flaws of the last generation. Doomed to repeat itself forever and ever. Humans will be humans the same way sharks will be sharks. We are cursed with a primitive instinct My comment has nothing to do with Bitcoin. Just want to point out that I am very tired of this old bromide. People do make mistakes, misjudgements, etc. However, humans do not have instincts (which are a…

"However, humans do not have instincts (which are automatic pre-programmed behaviors)"

Wow. You just insulted over 100 years of psycological, biological study, observation, & evidence. Not to mention you're completely ignoring the fact that we are wired for sex from birth and all the evidence and research that has gone into that. The first instinct a human has is to start sucking as soon as something touches its mouth. Without this vital automatic pre-programmed behavoir we would not exist because children could not be breast fed. I'm not sure why you see instincts as something bad or what you're trying to protect by denying something so obvious and so well studied but I worry about your education.

If anything here's a start. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instinct

Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#96

Post by stcredzero »

landhar wrote: post #94
koningrobot wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that bad treatment? I for one would welcome an instant, painless death.

But would you welcome living in fear of being killed at any moment ?

...that's what it is to be a slave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS0Rc45tj60

Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#97

Post by rockyleal »

killyourheros wrote: post #2

I was a big opponent of bitcoin- still wouldn't use it for anything that matters- but there are some great use cases. With government bans on online gambling bitcoin could really take over(that market). And, of course, there is the illegal drug trade. When people say that "it's not backed by anything" all they need to do is fire up tor and take a peak at silkroad. It's backed by one of the most in-demand products eve…

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#98

Post by javert »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #95
javert wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Each new generation brings the same humanistic flaws of the last generation. Doomed to repeat itself forever and ever. Humans will be humans the same way sharks will be sharks. We are cursed with a primitive instinct My comment has nothing to do with Bitcoin. Just want to point out that I am very tired of this old bromide. People do make mistakes, misjudgements, etc. However, humans do not have instincts (which are a…

"However, humans do not have instincts (which are automatic pre-programmed behaviors)" Wow. You just insulted over 100 years of psycological, biological study, observation, & evidence. Not to mention you're completely ignoring the fact that we are wired for sex from birth and all the evidence and research that has gone into that. The first instinct a human has is to start sucking as soon as something touches its mout…

Wow. You just insulted over 100 years of psycological, biological study, observation, & evidence.

Not really, because there is no observation of or evidence for humans having instincts. :D

Not to mention you're completely ignoring the fact that we are wired for sex from birth and all the evidence and research that has gone into that.

That is precisely my point. Think about it. We do not have an instinct to have sex. We choose who to have sex with, and when. And our sexual desires are mediated by our preferences (which, in healthy well-functioning people, are chosen, although some people may not rise to that task). Sex is not an "automatic" behavior. Contrast this with the sexual behavior of, for example, sharks. There is a humongous difference there.

Now, in certain Muslim societies, it is considered a woman's fault if she is raped when she exposed some skin, because they believe that men do not have a choice about sex and cannot control themselves. That is abhorrent and wrong. But when you insist on humans having instincts, you are taking that side of this intellectual argument.

The first instinct a human has is to start sucking as soon as something touches its mouth.

It may be that pre-conceptual humans--that is, babies--have instincts. Since a lot of people use "instinct" sloppily, I'd have to think about it before I came down on either side. But when we talk about "humans," we really mean (at least primarily) "adult humans." So I would not say that babies having an instinct to suckle negates my point in the least.

I suspect it is more an "automatized reaction." Calling it an instinct just doesn't seem right to me.

but I worry about your education.

Haha :D. Well, I would say I've demonstrated a lot of rational, independent thinking here. So, for that reson, I am not worried about my education. (As a sidenote, I am very highly educated in the formal sense... but that is not as important as being able to think an a rational, independent way.)

Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#99

Post by Gormo »

killyourheros wrote: post #2

I was a big opponent of bitcoin- still wouldn't use it for anything that matters- but there are some great use cases. With government bans on online gambling bitcoin could really take over(that market). And, of course, there is the illegal drug trade. When people say that "it's not backed by anything" all they need to do is fire up tor and take a peak at silkroad. It's backed by one of the most in-demand products eve…

When people say "it's not backed by anything", they need only compare it to mainstream currencies - they're not backed by anything anymore either.

Re: Bitcoin just crossed $7.00.

#100

Post by nhaehnle »

Gormo wrote: post #99
killyourheros wrote: post #2

I was a big opponent of bitcoin- still wouldn't use it for anything that matters- but there are some great use cases. With government bans on online gambling bitcoin could really take over(that market). And, of course, there is the illegal drug trade. When people say that "it's not backed by anything" all they need to do is fire up tor and take a peak at silkroad. It's backed by one of the most in-demand products eve…

When people say "it's not backed by anything", they need only compare it to mainstream currencies - they're not backed by anything anymore either.

Government currencies have the benefit that the government creates demand for them by using it as denomination for tax debts. Non-government currencies have no such external creation of demand.

It's actually quite curious that Bitcoin was able to take off the way it did despite this lack of initial forced demand. I wonder which was more important: the fact that there are so many anti-government ideologues out there, the fact that Bitcoin can help with illegal transactions, or simply the fact that it's a neat technology. I'm certain all three played a role, perhaps to a different extent at different times.

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