Aspies For Freedom - Before starting a thread about religion...

Read through the entirety of this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this thread.

That way, you can decide whether you are really bringing anything new to the topic. Smile

why does that matter

The second sentence was either that, or “You disgust me.” Either way it is meant as a mockery of all the religion-related threads. They make the world and everything feel so tiny. After having seen them surface and balloon for the pop repeatedly for 6 years, I’m getting thoroughly sick of it. It depresses me that this is the only thing that appears to matter for certain individuals.

They are without doubt divisive and distract from more important topics concerning autistic rights.

Ivar T Wrote:

The second sentence was either that, or “You disgust me.” Either way it is meant as a mockery of all the religion-related threads. They make the world and everything feel so tiny. After having seen them surface and balloon for the pop repeatedly for 6 years, I’m getting thoroughly sick of it. It depresses me that this is the only thing that appears to matter for certain individuals.

OH god, tell me about it - it goes round and round and on and on, pete and repeat.

whenever I tire of the religionist threads I just dont read them...

even though the OP is entitled to his opinion .....so is everyone else.

BruceCM Wrote:

Well, it is an emotional area! You'd be surprised how worked up some scientists get if you dare question them about evolution, etc, too. Or suggest their methods won't work in this area- that seems to be heresy!

Generally speaking, people who question evolution don't understand it well enough to have sensible objections.
I've yet to find someone who objects to evolution and can answer (or even understand) the following for example:
Given a set of imperfect replicators and an environment that has rewards and punishment or scarce resources, how can evolution not occur?

As to "suggesting their methods won't work in this area", what area is that exactly? Care to explain what area of knowledge can not be understood by the scientific method? If you answer anything cliched relating to emotions or "the soul" by the way i'm just going to point to the brain.

skyblue1 Wrote:

you would be surprised how many "scientists" are working to prove the existence of god

Oh?

skyblue1 Wrote:

Have you heard the theory that god is really our great grandchildren who have control because of future computer technology. It is said that within 50 years computers will be able to "think "quicker than the human mind.

Someone might have wrote a sci-fi short story about that........

*cough*
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthre...?tid=16758

I had netiquette in mind when I started this thread, and don’t care much for discussion about religion itself.

I didn’t explicitly mention evolution or creationism either. I did however indicate that I disliked a certain online behaviour.

skyblue1 Wrote:

Have you heard the theory that god is really our great grandchildren who have control because of future computer technology. It is said that within 50 years computers will be able to "think "quicker than the human mind.

2030 is predicted to be the year that an AI is developed that can develop a more sophisticated AI than itself; Feedback loop and BAM, Singularity, bitches.

Pikajedi3 Wrote:

skyblue1 Wrote:

Have you heard the theory that god is really our great grandchildren who have control because of future computer technology. It is said that within 50 years computers will be able to "think "quicker than the human mind.

2030 is predicted to be the year that an AI is developed that can develop a more sophisticated AI than itself; Feedback loop and BAM, Singularity, bitches.

I've heard estimates of 2018 (within a decade, said in 2008 by Ben Goertzel).

If the singularity happens in 2018, by definition nobody will be able to imagine what happens afterwards. No human can predict what a superhuman intelligence will be capable of doing.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/200...2012_n.htm

Quote:

But scholars are bristling at attempts to link the ancient Maya with trends in contemporary spirituality. Maya civilization, known for advanced writing, mathematics and astronomy, flourished for centuries in Mesoamerica, especially between A.D. 300 and 900. Its Long Count calendar, which was discontinued under Spanish colonization, tracks more than 5,000 years, then resets at year zero.

"For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Fla. To render Dec. 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in."

[...]

University of Florida anthropologist Susan Gillespie says the 2012 phenomenon comes "from media and from other people making use of the Maya past to fulfill agendas that are really their own."

I don’t think the mere possibility of an inevitable doomsday warrants a change in behaviour.

The 2012 thing was just the date that the Mayan system of notation ran out of numbers and reset to zero - nothing more.

Fnord Wrote:

On December 21, 2012, the world is "supposed" to end, according to some singular piece of stone-age masonry.

I intend to buy up as much property as is sold by those who believe that the world will end on that day, and then sell it right back to them at exorbitant prices on December 22, 2012.

Big Grin

Ah, but unlike the 2012 bull, the 2030 guesstimate for AI Singularity is actually, y'know...doable. Learning AIs already exist - Neural Nets, Gareth made one - but they don't have the sophistication or computing power to create a more sophisticated AI. Yet.

Personally, I wouldn't have much of a problem living in a world controlled by AI; less chance of corruption than with 'umies, very hard to kill (You can't fully decentralise a body of people, but you CAN decentralise a computing concept - it could also be self healing, cutting off damaged or compromised nodes).