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The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

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Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#241

Post by Y_Y »

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #238
Y_Y wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I could adversarially baptise people with a water cannon like they use for riots? What about cloud-seeding?

Adversarially? That doesn't sound especially compatible with the sacrament. Sacraments are generally freely received. In any case, you can't baptize an adult against his will. In extreme situations, when a person is in, say, a coma, there can be a presumption of consent, but as I understand it, if the person in question was totally hardened against the very possibility of baptism, then the presumption would prove fal…

Ok, then maybe I'll restrict my wanton baptising to children and babies.

It's a pity the LDS church got there first on baptising the dead. Maybe there's some scope for baptising the unborn though.

Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#242

Post by draw_down »

foxwolf wrote: post #87

I'm pretty sure that if there is a god, then the act of deliberately subverting what you believe to be his laws by exploiting what you perceive to be a technicality for your own convenience isn't going to work out in your favor in the end.

[dead]

Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#243

Post by krisoft »

mattlondon wrote: post #184
emmelaich wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are hotels and apartment blocks that have physical locks as well as the swipe card. So you can use the physical key on the Sabbath.

I recently heard that an apartment block near me cannot have automatic emergency lighting or fire sprinklers retrofitted incase there is a fire on a Saturday. Forget about burning to death or falling down pitch-black stairs and breaking your neck, it is apparently more important that electrical circuits are not energized or a valve is not opened on a saturday! Absolutely absurd. I am indifferent to people stringing u…

If I were in a situation like that I would reach out for advice to some religious authority the person in question trusts.

There are widely accepted fairly common sense exceptions for saving lives. [1] That could maybe apply to an automatically activating fire sprinkler. Only someone well versed in the scriptures could say for certain. (And only they would be believed anyway.)

Even about the emergency lighting one can probably find a workaround. For example could it be wired so it is always on via a timer during shabbat?

The point with discussing these with a religious authority is manifold. They might better know how to mediate. In both directions! They might explain to the engineers what is and isn't a sticking point. Similarly they could explain if a given technique is permissible to the person who worries about them. Or alternatively they might have heard solutions others have employed in the past previously.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikuach_nefesh

Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#244

Post by bwestergard »

UltraSane wrote: post #72

I love how Orthodox Jews can't change any of their laws BUT they can and do change the definition of words to such an extent it accomplishes the same thing, such as changing eruv from meaning wall to wire.

Interpretation of a law can be very subtle without being merely a ruse to "find loopholes".

The development of the religious law around eruvim strikes me as a series of common sense adaptations that took place to preserve an ideal in the face of changing historical circumstances.

Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#245

Post by Y_Y »

defrost wrote: post #46
idiotsecant wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, I would go so far as to say no religious rules come from God! It seems pretty obvious that an omnipotent being in command of all the subtle and awesome phenomena of all of time and space is not going to concerned with whether some barely evolved apes on a backwater planet orbiting an unremarkable star in a forgettable galaxy, among innumerable galaxies eat shellfish and cows milk in the same meal.

Regardless of any personal cosmology rules or guidelines with respect to preparing and eating food in an unelectrified fridgeless warm to hot climate are emergent from the nature of the physical universe. Debating whether such rules spring from physics, 'God', or a mere abundance of caution is fun for some.

> guidelines with respect to preparing and eating food in an unelectrified fridgeless warm to hot climate are emergent from the nature of the physical universe.

That sounds reasonable, but consider that the original texts give instructions that are quite specific, and leave the door open to all sorts of poor food habits.

Exodus 23:19 (and 34:26) -

"Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk."

---

Deuteronomy 14:21 -

"Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk."

Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#246

Post by [deleted] »

petesergeant wrote: post #140
rmason wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember attending a tech conference years ago in Dearborn, Michigan. One of the speakers was a devout Jew from NY City. On Saturday he taped the lock open on his hotel room so he wouldn't need to use a key. This drove hotel security nuts and one of the conference admins had to get involved because the hotels employees who were all Arabic did not accept his explanation. They were certain he was up to something shad…

> because the hotels employees who were all Arabic did not accept his explanation I feel like I would expect Arabs to be the most likely to accept this? Abrahamic religion that also still practices all sorts of ritualistic stuff in a region with a historically high Jewish population?

[deleted]

Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#247

Post by techjamie »

ForHackernews wrote: post #176
david-gpu wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is my understanding that Catholics believe that Pope can interpret the scriptures, but laypeople can't. Sort of how a Supreme Court judge can interpret the law, but a layperson can't, I guess.

There's a long tradition of rabbinical interpretation, not just random believers making up what they want.

There's plenty of that too. The entirety of Mormonism is basically one guy's 200 year old self-insert fan-fiction, as one notable example.

Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#248

Post by mattlondon »

krisoft wrote: post #243
mattlondon wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently heard that an apartment block near me cannot have automatic emergency lighting or fire sprinklers retrofitted incase there is a fire on a Saturday. Forget about burning to death or falling down pitch-black stairs and breaking your neck, it is apparently more important that electrical circuits are not energized or a valve is not opened on a saturday! Absolutely absurd. I am indifferent to people stringing u…

If I were in a situation like that I would reach out for advice to some religious authority the person in question trusts. There are widely accepted fairly common sense exceptions for saving lives. [1] That could maybe apply to an automatically activating fire sprinkler. Only someone well versed in the scriptures could say for certain. (And only they would be believed anyway.) Even about the emergency lighting one ca…

I think I'd prefer that they just say "deal with it - this is real". How many different sets of beliefs do we need to accommodate? How many "mediations" do we need to do to use fire sprinklers?! What if they are incompatible? Whose religion "wins" if one stays one thing but one says the other?

The solution is obvious: religion and beliefs should not be a factor in these sort of things. We in the UK are a secular society with strong separations between state and religion, so this sort of behaviour should be treated for what it is.

Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#249

Post by haiku2077 »

myself248 wrote: post #225
haiku2077 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would that make it invite a lot from scrutiny from the city and power company? An inert wire, they can look the other way. A live wire is a potential fire hazard and source of EM interference for utilities.

With a fraction of a volt and a fraction of a milliamp on it, how many fires you gonna start? No EM if it's DC. C'mon.

Will the power company believe you that your system will only ever provide a tiny amount of power?

Will you convince city government (in NYC, where some level of corruption is a fact of life) to allow your plan?

Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)

#250

Post by RankingMember »

asenchi wrote: post #185
david-gpu wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Problem of evil". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil

This is answered throughout scriptures. The problem of sin is human's rejection of the goodness of God. We love ourselves more than we love him and in that rejection regularly advantage ourselves at the disadvantage of those around us. In order to solve the problem, we would have to be wiped out. But in the wisdom and goodness of God he planned a way from the beginning to solve our transgressions. God created all thi…

> Out of love he did these things, fully knowing that humans were capable of turning away from God.

Out of love, God gave us the option to do things against him and be eternally damned?

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