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Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

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Re: Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

#51

Post by distal »

JanezStupar wrote: post #43
jacquesm wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except corporations dodge tax in ways no individual ever could. Oh, it's all perfectly legal, it is called 'tax avoidance'. And corporations as a rule are part and parcel of the societies they're engendered in and quite a few can trace their opportunity and starting capital right back to some crime against humanity, or are in the process of committing some of those during their life-cycle. The countries we plundered…

All I am saying is that go ahead and do something about it. Stop preaching to the people who don't believe you and don't agree with your outlook. If your way is truly better then it should give better results. If it gives better results then you will do more good via paying more taxes and helping people out. Lead by an example. Don't lament old ways, make us want to follow in your path. That is all I am proposing and…

> If your way is truly better then it should give better results.

How does this logically follow? When speaking of ethics, ideas that are better are not necessarily more profitable. For example, a plantation with slaves would be more profitable than a plantation with unionized workers.

Re: Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

#52

Post by Ygg2 »

kjackson2012 wrote: post #14

I really hope the one point about communicating with patients in a vegetative state is wrong. Not because it's not a groundbreaking discovery, but the implications are horrifying to me. Imagine all those patients who are left to just lie there their entire lives, and those that like Terri Schiavo that were allowed to starve to death. If they were actual aware of what was going on, that is the most horrifying fate I c…

I don't see how discovering this was true or false has any bearing on the reality of it?

Reminds me of that scientist that discovered that germs are cause of diseases and that doctors are spreading the germs with their bad hygiene. So doctors said "Well I know this theory isn't true, since I'm not responsible for all the manslaughter I'm committing according to this person. He is clearly insane.". And several decades later here we are.

Re: Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

#53

Post by djtriptych »

JanezStupar wrote: post #40
azm1 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you really sure we as western hemisphere do not own nothing to the eastern or more accurately to people who struggle? I'm no historian but I heard something about the wiping out Indians and enslaving African people. Are you really sure you can say that we are independent snowflakes who deserve all things by right and to not actually look where to pay back for our mistakes to improve all Earth life conditions no m…

Killed people cannot be brought back. Greed is always bad. However you are putting strawmen about. Let me explain. The Indian situation was at least as unfortunate as Jewish situation in ancient Babilon or Gypsy (Roma) situation in ancient Babilon. Or the situation of Amalekites and Midianites. Or the situation of Moors for that matter. It is unfortunate that sometimes two civilizations clash and cannot get to grips…

It's really pathetic that you interpret the modern (and ongoing) economic oppression of the 3rd world to a personal attack on White men. Grow up.

Re: Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

#54

Post by jacquesm »

JanezStupar wrote: post #43
jacquesm wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except corporations dodge tax in ways no individual ever could. Oh, it's all perfectly legal, it is called 'tax avoidance'. And corporations as a rule are part and parcel of the societies they're engendered in and quite a few can trace their opportunity and starting capital right back to some crime against humanity, or are in the process of committing some of those during their life-cycle. The countries we plundered…

All I am saying is that go ahead and do something about it. Stop preaching to the people who don't believe you and don't agree with your outlook. If your way is truly better then it should give better results. If it gives better results then you will do more good via paying more taxes and helping people out. Lead by an example. Don't lament old ways, make us want to follow in your path. That is all I am proposing and…

> arguments for the sake of truth as I personally see it.

That's called an opinion, not the truth. And in this case it is a misguided opinion.

Attitudes like yours directly result in mass pollution, overfishing, enslavement - direct or indirect and so on.

Profits aren't holy, and the so called efficient market model isn't. It only works for a subset of problems and quite possibly not optimal at that, especially when looking over the longer term. Do we pollute this river and kill all the fish or do we spend an extra half million to scrub the exhaust. That's an easy decision when translated into money, if you're not looking at that river as anything but an exhaust it is an absolute no-brainer.

With shit as this as the result:

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/11/world/europe/netherlands-n...

I'm not preaching to you, I'm trying to make you see that your love affair with corporations isn't the totality of the world and that there is a lot of history - and a lot of stuff happening in the present - that you are wilfully ignoring.

Re: Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

#55

Post by mikeash »

AlexeiSadeski wrote: post #7

Hurricane Sandy was a Category 1 hurricane at landfall. That's pretty much the opposite of a SUPERSTORM. Much larger hurricanes have hit New England before. For example, the "Great New England Hurricane of 1938" made landfall on Long Island as a Category 3 storm, killing over 600 people. The Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 also was Category 3, killing 390 people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Hurricane_of…

You realize that hurricane category is only one measure of a storm, and not necessarily even the most important one?

"Superstorm" Sandy is not called that because if its wind speed (which is all that "category" is about) but because of its size, as in physical extent.

Re: Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

#56

Post by mikeash »

pretoriusB wrote: post #11
shanelja wrote: post #2

I hadn't thought of these individual achievements as being that big until I saw them all together in one place and now I can say that this has truly been a breakthrough year all across the technology sector. Every year we seem to be accelerating our speed of development when it comes to technology, I'm only 19 and in my life I've seen us go from 56kb/s internet to 1gb/s internet, go from the rare NASA launch to regul…

> We live in the golden age of human history up to now and I would be willing to place a long bet that in 100 years, we will look back on the last 30 years as the dawn of the modern age. Well, we live in the golden age of human _technology_. But, I'd argue, far from the golden age of human history. And maybe closer than ever to the extinction of mankind, if that "let's fix the climate issue with even more technology…

The world today is more peaceful, more prosperous, and more healthy than at any other time known. Sounds like a "golden age" to me.

Re: Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

#57

Post by JanezStupar »

distal wrote: post #51
JanezStupar wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I am saying is that go ahead and do something about it. Stop preaching to the people who don't believe you and don't agree with your outlook. If your way is truly better then it should give better results. If it gives better results then you will do more good via paying more taxes and helping people out. Lead by an example. Don't lament old ways, make us want to follow in your path. That is all I am proposing and…

> If your way is truly better then it should give better results. How does this logically follow? When speaking of ethics, ideas that are better are not necessarily more profitable. For example, a plantation with slaves would be more profitable than a plantation with unionized workers.

I am not talking about distribution of property. I am talking about the whole sum. If the whole sum of well being doesn't increase then why help people at all?

Thus the ideas that do not increase whole sum of well being are not ethical at all.

Re: Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

#58

Post by JanezStupar »

djtriptych wrote: post #53
JanezStupar wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Killed people cannot be brought back. Greed is always bad. However you are putting strawmen about. Let me explain. The Indian situation was at least as unfortunate as Jewish situation in ancient Babilon or Gypsy (Roma) situation in ancient Babilon. Or the situation of Amalekites and Midianites. Or the situation of Moors for that matter. It is unfortunate that sometimes two civilizations clash and cannot get to grips…

It's really pathetic that you interpret the modern (and ongoing) economic oppression of the 3rd world to a personal attack on White men. Grow up.

Where and how did I do that? All I am saying is that us Humans are a vicious bunch. I have no illusions that Indians would have slaughtered Europeans if they had the means to do so.

If Dutch didn't buy slaves, they would die working for someone else. Was Japanese military and economic oppression merely an attempt to dethrone The White Man(tm) as chairman of hell?

What if Mongols had managed to get their act together?

And in no way I believe that White Man is Pure and Innocent. But I will also not concede that its all the white mans fault.

Re: Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

#60

Post by dmix »

31reasons wrote: post #48
cwp wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's mostly about making money Those things go hand in hand. Ideally, you can't make money without improving human life in exchange. Sure, any political system will include a bit of corruption and rent-seeking, but by-and-large, it's exactly the profit motive that has improved the human condition. > billions_ of people continue to do that So it's all pointless? Because we haven't achieved a paradise of endless blis…

What we are missing as a society is Long Term Thinking. Yes businesses do provide value and reduce human suffering as long as its perceived to reduce human suffering from the customer's point of view. For example, cigarettes. It does provide some value but only for the short term without thinking about the long term. If society makes it legal to sell Meth to the public I am sure big pharma will jump on the opportunit…

Big pharma is already makes billions of dollars off of amphetamines. It's used responsibly my millions of people.

It hasn't stopped people from abusing them even though they are illegal without a prescription.

I'm not sure that's the pharma companies responsible if individuals choose to abuse something that has legitimate uses and strong demand. If the government can't stop it, does that mean the pharma companies have a moral obligation to not sell it?

This is an important question with drugs, tobacco, guns, finance and lots of other industries.

Individual responsibility vs societal control.

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