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Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

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Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#221

Post by card_zero »

WalterBright wrote: post #206
Eisenstein wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More likely it was because the systems didn't exist that incentivized figuring out solutions to the problems which technology solves. Agriculture, animal husbandry, arts, warfare, engineering were all very sophisticated, limited by the materials science available (firearms, for instance, need very strong metals not to explode). The scientists that existed before the industrial age in the West were upper class, bored…

> More likely it was because the systems didn't exist that incentivized figuring out solutions to the problems which technology solves. That is partially true. There is no incentive, for example, for slaves to make any improvements. I cannot think of any technology developed by slaves. That meant the few people in power were not enough to think of much new stuff. You could say free markets were the greatest invention…

I am tickled by a theory I heard that a lot of ancient creativity went into preventing change. Like that's the original value of creativity, maintaining stability by stopping other people from innovating.

Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#222

Post by nradov »

Eisenstein wrote: post #215
WalterBright wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that you mention textbooks. Most of my STEM classes in college did not have a textbook, or recommended a book that was kinda irrelevant to the direction the classes took. BTW, the discovery of the Scientific Method was a great leap forward in how to discover more knowledge.

> Most of my STEM classes in college did not have a textbook, or recommended a book that was kinda irrelevant to the direction the classes took. So you went through classes with no written material? You listened to lecture, took notes, and then did assignments and passed tests with no documents to study? > BTW, the discovery of the Scientific Method was a great leap forward in how to discover more knowledge. The scie…

Humans made gradual progress before the scientific method but it was slow and kind of random. If you look at the historical pace of innovation it tremendously accelerated after the scientific method became widespread.

Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#223

Post by nradov »

csours wrote: post #27
thmsths wrote: post #9

The conclusion is terrifying in my opinion. A not yet explained phenomenon or even something as far fetched as "aliens" would have been a more comforting answer than "essentially we can all start losing our mind at once, and it takes very little to trigger it".

> The conclusion is terrifying in my opinion. And this is why "conspiracy" theories exist. I prefer to call them Low Information High Satisfaction theories, as I fee that is a more accurate name. I am do not intend to pass judgement on this commentor or on people who believe in these theories; in fact, I think that if you tell yourself "I am too smart to believe in conspiracy theories", you are making yourself MORE l…

I am too smart to believe in conspiracy theories. (And I'm not even particularly smart.)

Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#224

Post by j_timberlake »

wat10000 wrote: post #136
j_timberlake wrote: post #78

This was literally my first thought for the anomalous drones like 2 weeks ago, and it was immediately obvious that the entire NJ police department should not be incompetent enough to fall for something so obvious. The mayors and governor should not be dumb enough to stake their reputations on this when the null hypothesis of "mass hysteria" is easier and safer. Even back then, we knew the sightings do not appear on f…

The Governor of Maryland posted a video of drones he saw hovering for 45 minutes, and he decried the lack of action and info from the feds. Something must be done! It was the constellation Orion and some other stars. He literally saw some stars and thought they were drones hovering near his house. Why shouldn’t I believe that they’re really this dumb?

Are you talking about Larry Hogan, who hasn't been governor for 23 months and has nothing at stake?

You could have fact-checked that in less time than it took to write your post.

Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#225

Post by stickfigure »

hedora wrote: post #197
stickfigure wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of people (in the US, at least) spend half a day a week being taught to believe in magic. From birth. Usually on Sunday.

It’s down to 30% in the US; it was over 40% twenty years ago: https://news.gallup.com/poll/642548/church-attendance-declin...

Wow, today I learned.

I'm gratified to see that the lizardman coefficient is consistent. In the chart, 2% of "None/Atheist/Agnostic" apparently attends religious services every week.

Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#226

Post by montjoy »

itsanaccount wrote: post #46

Since we all know what this is actually commenting on, I'll answer that directly. The noise on the UFO topic has reached a massed hysteria pitch. When that happens, the overall signal to noise ratio of internet sourced sightings goes from "very poor" to "nearly invisible." I blame a lot of that on the recent congressional hearings bringing stories to the public's front of mind. But. And I think its a very very import…

I’ve come to few conclusions about this recently.

1. Most people will never believe in UFOs until they see one for themselves in an unambiguous way or hear a report from someone in person that they believe is credible. There is too much stigma around this topic.

2. There is a very large amount, probably 1000s records, of credible and consistent evidence out there. However 99% of it is circumstantial and will never be viewed by the public at large.

3. The military, after years of reporting and chasing, can’t be bothered investigating anymore. This seems to be cyclical.

4. A culture/civilization/whatever that has these kind of technologies would have immense power if they wanted it. It’s just too terrifying to believe in, especially if we don’t know what they want.

Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#227

Post by WalterBright »

mikepurvis wrote: post #208
WalterBright wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a continuum between free markets and communism. It's not either-or. But the more to the left the economy goes, the less prosperous it is, and there is a point when it comes unglued.

Just be careful that “prosperous” is actually the metric you care about and that you have some sane way of measuring said prosperity as it applies to everyone. For myself as a Canadian, I can see that America is more “prosperous” in the sense that the averages on wealth and income look good, but I’ll take my socialized medicine and higher education thank you very much, not to mention median standard of living numbers…

It's hard to ignore the astounding success of the free market when it's applied.

The immigrants to the US were pretty much people with nothing but a suitcase. With the American free market, the country rose from subsistence farming to superpower. Scores of millions of people were lifted out of poverty into the middle class and beyond.

Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#228

Post by m463 »

thmsths wrote: post #9

The conclusion is terrifying in my opinion. A not yet explained phenomenon or even something as far fetched as "aliens" would have been a more comforting answer than "essentially we can all start losing our mind at once, and it takes very little to trigger it".

> The conclusion is terrifying in my opinion.

Hey, let's not go making something out of nothing.

Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#229

Post by WalterBright »

Eisenstein wrote: post #215
WalterBright wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that you mention textbooks. Most of my STEM classes in college did not have a textbook, or recommended a book that was kinda irrelevant to the direction the classes took. BTW, the discovery of the Scientific Method was a great leap forward in how to discover more knowledge.

> Most of my STEM classes in college did not have a textbook, or recommended a book that was kinda irrelevant to the direction the classes took. So you went through classes with no written material? You listened to lecture, took notes, and then did assignments and passed tests with no documents to study? > BTW, the discovery of the Scientific Method was a great leap forward in how to discover more knowledge. The scie…

> So you went through classes with no written material? You listened to lecture, took notes, and then did assignments and passed tests with no documents to study?

That's right.

I learned to never miss a lecture, and take copious notes. I also never missed a retch session. And still sometimes I needed help from a patient classmate.

The fun thing about the notes was when reviewing them, I'd recall the verbal part of the lecture. This helped a great deal.

Sadly, the passage of decades has silenced that voice, and I have a hard time understanding the notes today. I've wished many times I'd have had the foresight to bring a cassette recorder to lecture and record them. Too bad all those lectures are lost to time. But nobody recorded lectures in those days, and it never occurred to me.

Re: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (2003)

#230

Post by WalterBright »

card_zero wrote: post #221
WalterBright wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> More likely it was because the systems didn't exist that incentivized figuring out solutions to the problems which technology solves. That is partially true. There is no incentive, for example, for slaves to make any improvements. I cannot think of any technology developed by slaves. That meant the few people in power were not enough to think of much new stuff. You could say free markets were the greatest invention…

I am tickled by a theory I heard that a lot of ancient creativity went into preventing change. Like that's the original value of creativity, maintaining stability by stopping other people from innovating.

I've heard that, too. Innovation happened in societies that had a much more flexible social structure.
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