Decline and the next dark age?

[roo_ster]

That people even thought nurture is most important completely boggles me.

Blank slate my arse. Too bad I can't go back in time to gloat over how completely wrong they were...

It is necessary for their religious/political beliefs.  If human nature isn;t malleable, how can there ever be New Socialist Man?  Or an entitlement program that does not eventually blow up from abuse?

[Lanius]

New socialist man is an old joke. Impossible without serious genetic and social engineering.

Won't happen.

You, as a hidebound old reactionary must fear the Conjoiners. They are a future society of technological telepaths who are so enthusiastic about human mind augmentation and linking that they sometimes fill their captives' brains with their perverse nanomachines, and thus give them increased mind clock speed, a complete brain-machine interface and a lot of other things.

Their technologists are second to none, and everyone who isn't them is scared shitless and clutching to guns and religion. As if that can help, if faced by something that's simultaneously more and less than human.

The only downside to being a conjoiner is, that they don't work well alone, and it produces psychological damage in them, being cut off from others. Though sometimes, they use computers to simulate others if alone, so they won't go crazy.

[TommyGunn]

Sounds like Star Trek's BORG.

[S. Williamson]

New socialist man is an old joke. Impossible without serious genetic and social engineering.

Won't happen.

You, as a hidebound old reactionary must fear the Conjoiners. They are a future society of technological telepaths who are so enthusiastic about human mind augmentation and linking that they sometimes fill their captives' brains with their perverse nanomachines, and thus give them increased mind clock speed, a complete brain-machine interface and a lot of other things.

Their technologists are second to none, and everyone who isn't them is scared *expletive deleted*less and clutching to guns and religion. As if that can help, if faced by something that's simultaneously more and less than human.

The only downside to being a conjoiner is, that they don't work well alone, and it produces psychological damage in them, being cut off from others. Though sometimes, they use computers to simulate others if alone, so they won't go crazy.

Sounds like the internet and World of Warcraft.  Not sure if  or  applies.

[RocketMan]

 

New socialist man is an old joke. Impossible without serious genetic and social engineering.

Won't happen.

You, as a hidebound old reactionary must fear the Conjoiners. They are a future society of technological telepaths who are so enthusiastic about human mind augmentation and linking that they sometimes fill their captives' brains with their perverse nanomachines, and thus give them increased mind clock speed, a complete brain-machine interface and a lot of other things.

Their technologists are second to none, and everyone who isn't them is scared *expletive deleted*less and clutching to guns and religion. As if that can help, if faced by something that's simultaneously more and less than human.

The only downside to being a conjoiner is, that they don't work well alone, and it produces psychological damage in them, being cut off from others. Though sometimes, they use computers to simulate others if alone, so they won't go crazy.

Well, okay then.  

[mtnbkr]

New socialist man is an old joke. Impossible without serious genetic and social engineering.

Won't happen.

You, as a hidebound old reactionary must fear the Conjoiners. They are a future society of technological telepaths who are so enthusiastic about human mind augmentation and linking that they sometimes fill their captives' brains with their perverse nanomachines, and thus give them increased mind clock speed, a complete brain-machine interface and a lot of other things.

Their technologists are second to none, and everyone who isn't them is scared *expletive deleted*less and clutching to guns and religion. As if that can help, if faced by something that's simultaneously more and less than human.

The only downside to being a conjoiner is, that they don't work well alone, and it produces psychological damage in them, being cut off from others. Though sometimes, they use computers to simulate others if alone, so they won't go crazy.

Longeyes?   

Chris

[Lanius]

They're not the Borg. Far more dangerous, and far smarter. Also, most of the time, they don't recruit aggressively, that's just ordinary meatbag propaganda.

Anyway, if the idea sounds intriguing, Alastair Reynolds has half a dozen good hard science fiction novels(he used to be an astrophyicist for ESA for a decade) where they feature as protagonists or antagonists, frequently both, as they have factions.

[MicroBalrog]

He's right.   So what if a small spaceship could get to Mars in 3 years.    It's a worthless desert.   

A single asteroid holds enough iron (for example) to feed the needs of Earth's economy for 20 years. Just get it here.

[Lanius]

Yeah. Except you have to expend so much energy to get it here, to change the orbital energies..
That it would make much more sense to recycle or just mine iron here.

As a long term project maybe.... but which corporation is gonna finance a project that'd put a big-ass reactor and a an array of something like VASIMR drives on said asteroid and then wait until the investment matures in about two hundred years.

The a$$holes who ran today's global corporations don't think more than three years ahead.

[roo_ster]

Longeyes?   

Chris

Only if he were a heavy user of mescaline.

[Lanius]

I'm not sure what mescaline is, but it's probably un-European.
European drugs are stuff like booze, maggot-tea (not actually made out of maggots, it's a loose translation. Basically, you put four hundred gramms of tea into a litre of water, boil it for quite some time, then take away the tea and boil it some more. The result is supposedly narcotic, although I have heard the  main effects are a pounding headache and mild suicidal thoughts. Prisoners often drink it. They also add cigarette butts into the recipe..

[S. Williamson]

I'm not sure what mescaline is, but it's probably un-European.
European drugs are stuff like booze, maggot-tea (not actually made out of maggots, it's a loose translation. Basically, you put four hundred gramms of tea into a litre of water, boil it for quite some time, then take away the tea and boil it some more. The result is supposedly narcotic, although I have heard the  main effects are a pounding headache and mild suicidal thoughts. Prisoners often drink it. They also add cigarette butts into the recipe..

...

What a strange person...  

[KD5NRH]

The result is supposedly narcotic, although I have heard the  main effects are a pounding headache and mild suicidal thoughts.

Well, I guess now I know how they make Norco.   

[AJ Dual]

Lanius,

Please answer this question. Please don't be offended.

What is the fifth word in this sentence right here?

[Lanius]

What is the fifth word in this sentence right here?

Sorry. Which sentence do you mean?

BTW, English is only my third best language, and I suspect I keep making grammar errors.

[AJ Dual]

Sorry. Which sentence do you mean?

BTW, English is only my third best language, and I suspect I keep making grammar errors.

Okay. That's good enough.  

I was just making sure you weren't a bot. You were somewhat speaking to the topic, but talking past us in a rather odd way. There have been some spooky-good spam scripts lately. If English is not your first language, that would account for everything.

If I'm wrong, and you actually are a bot, I say you're welcome anyway. You're doing much better than some long-standing members here who's first language is English.  

[Jamisjockey]

This one has some strange thread veer going on in it.   

[AJ Dual]

This one has some strange thread veer going on in it.   

Not as badly as you think. What I just did there was an abortive Turing Test. 

That's kind of on topic with the previous veer of post-humanisim/technological singularity etc. that MicroBalorg and I were on a few pages back. 

[Perd Hapley]

Okay. That's good enough.  

You're doing much better than some long-standing members here who's first language is English.  

Quit picking on me.

[erictank]

Quit picking on me.

... says the board scapegoat.  Who did you THINK they were going to pick on???

[AJ Dual]

10 '
20 '   Fistful Script
30 '   Original author: No one would take credit.
40 '   This version: Ditto...
50 '   Version 1.0   2/12/85      Initial CP/M (MBASIC) release.
60 '   Version 2.0   6/13/89      Initial PC (GWBASIC) release.
70 '
80 '***********************************************************************
90 '
100 '   This version of Fistful is released into the public domain.
110 '
120 '***********************************************************************
130 '
140 DEFINT A-Z      :' no floating point is used.
150 DIM REPLIES$(300)   :' up to 300 responses.
160 DIM KWD$(200)   :' up to 200 keywords.
170 DIM FIRST(200)   :' first reply for keyword number in subscript.
180 DIM LAST(200)   :' last reply   "     "      "     "     "    .
190 DIM OFFSET(200)   :' offset from first reply for each keyword.
200 '
210 '***********************************************************************
220 '
230 '   -Initialization-
240 '   We will read in data from the file FISTFUL.DAT in the following format:
250 '      KEYWORD 1
260 '      KEYWORD N   all keywords which will get the same responses
270 '      !      indicates end of keywords
280 '      RESPONSE 1   all responses for this/these keywords.
290 '      RESPONSE N
300 '      .      indicates end of responses
310 '
320 '***********************************************************************
330 '
340 OPEN "I",1,"FISTFUL.DAT"      :' file with keyword/response data.
350 MAXKEY = 0            :' number of keywords
360 MINREPLY = 1         :' first reply for first keyword.
370 '
380 WHILE NOT EOF(1)
390      NUMKEYS = 0         :' number of keys with same responses.
400      LINE INPUT#1 , F$      :' get keyword or !
410      IF F$ = "!" THEN 480      :' if ! then get replys.
420      MAXKEY = MAXKEY + 1      :' we've got one more keyword
430      PRINT ".";         :' let user know we're still alive.
440      NUMKEYS = NUMKEYS + 1      :' 1 more keyword with same replys.
450      KWD$(MAXKEY) = " " + F$ + " "   :' put in a keyword bounded with spaces.
460      GOTO 400
470      '
480      LINE INPUT#1 , F$      :' get the reply or .
490      IF F$ = "." THEN 540      :' check for end of reply list.
500      MAXREPLY = MAXREPLY + 1   :' 1 more reply.
510      REPLIES$( MAXREPLY ) = F$
520      GOTO 480
530      '
540      FOR KWD = MAXKEY - NUMKEYS + 1 TO MAXKEY
550           FIRST(KWD) = MINREPLY      :' first reply for key.
560           LAST(KWD) = MAXREPLY      :' last reply for key.
570      NEXT KWD
580      MINREPLY = MAXREPLY + 1      :' set up for next keyword.
590      '
600 WEND
610 CLOSE
620 '
630 '***********************************************************************
640 '
650 '   Quit picking on me. :(
660 '
670 '***********************************************************************
680 '
690 PRINT
700 PRINT "HI!  I'M FISTFUL.  LET'S TALK.  TYPE `BYE' TO END THIS SESSION."
710 '
720 '***********************************************************************
730 '
740 '   Get the user input into I$.
750 '
760 '***********************************************************************
770 '
780 PRINT ">"; : LINE INPUT I$      :' Get user input.
790 IF I$ = "" THEN 780   :' Just hitting return isn't good enough.
800 I$=" "+I$+" "   :' Put a space on each end.
810 '
820 '***********************************************************************
830 '
840 '   Get rid of punctuation/extraneous characters, and make uppercase.
850 '
860 '***********************************************************************
870 '
880 L=1         :' Start at the first character
890 C$ = MID$(I$,L,1)   :' Get the character.
900 '
910 '   Capitalize if necessary.
920 '
930 IF C$ >= "a" AND C$ <= "z" THEN MID$(I$,L,1) = CHR$(ASC(C$)-&H20): GOTO 890
940 '
950 IF C$ = " " THEN 990         :' Spaces are OK.
960 IF C$ >= "0" AND C$ <= "9" THEN 990   :' So are numbers.
970 IF C$ >= "A" AND C$ <= "Z" THEN 990   :' So are capital letters.
980 I$=LEFT$(I$,L-1)+MID$(I$,L+1):GOTO 890   :' Delete character.
990 L=L+1               :' Next character.
1000 IF L <= LEN(I$) THEN 890         :' Keep on processin'
1010 '
1020 '***********************************************************************
1030 '
1040 '   Has he/she said this before?  Does he/she want to terminate session?
1050 '
1060 '***********************************************************************
1070 '
1080 IF I$=PREVIOUS$ THEN PRINT "PLEASE DON'T REPEAT YOURSELF!":GOTO 730
1090 PREVIOUS$ = I$            :' Set up for next run.
1100 '
1110 IF I$ = " BYE " THEN PRINT "TALK TO YOU LATER!  BYE!" : SYSTEM
1120 '
1130 '***********************************************************************
1140 '
1150 '   Find keyword in user input string (I$).
1160 '
1170 '***********************************************************************
1180 '
1190 FOR K=1 TO MAXKEY-1      :' Start search at keyword number 1.
1200      C = INSTR( I$ , KWD$(K) )   :' Look for the keyword in the string.
1210      IF C <> 0 THEN 1230      :' Exit on match.
1220 NEXT K
1230 KWD = K            :' Keyword number.
1240 IF KWD = MAXKEY THEN 1280      :' We don't need anything if no match.
1250 REMAINS$ = MID$(I$,C-1+LEN(KWD$(K)))   :' Grab remainder for reply.
1260 '
1270 '***********************************************************************
1280 '
1290 '   Take everything after the keyword (remains$) and conjugate it
1300 '      using the data for conjugation.
1310 '
1320 '***********************************************************************
1330 '
1340 RESTORE
1350 READ S$,R$            :' Read search and replacement words.
1360 IF S$ = "." THEN 1430      :' Periods (.) idicate end of data.
1370 C  = INSTR( REMAINS$ , S$ )   :' Search for string S$ in REMAINS$
1380 IF C = 0 THEN 1350         :' If no match, try the next one.
1390 TEMP$ = LEFT$(REMAINS$,C-1)   : ' Replacement.
1400 TEMP$ = TEMP$ + R$         : ' Word.
1410 REMAINS$ = TEMP$ + MID$(REMAINS$,C+LEN(S$))   :' Right side.
1420 GOTO 1350            :' Next conjugation to be done.
1430 C = INSTR( REMAINS$ , "+" )   :' Strip the plus signs out.
1440 IF C = 0 THEN 1470
1450 REMAINS$ = LEFT$( REMAINS$ , C-1 ) + MID$( REMAINS$ , C+1 ):' Strip it.
1460 GOTO 1430            :' Go for the next one.
1470 '
1480 ' Handle the special case of " I " being the last word.
1490 '
1500 IF RIGHT$( REMAINS$ , 3 ) <> " I " THEN 1540
1510 REMAINS$ = LEFT$ ( REMAINS$ , LEN(REMAINS$) - 2 ) + "ME "
1520 '
1530 '***********************************************************************
1540 '
1550 '   Get the reply using the keyword number (KWD).
1560 '
1570 '***********************************************************************
1580 '
1590 REPLY$ = REPLIES$( FIRST(KWD) + OFFSET(KWD) )      :' Get reply.
1600 OFFSET(KWD) = OFFSET(KWD) + 1      :' Point to next reply.
1610 IF OFFSET(KWD) + FIRST(KWD) > LAST(KWD) THEN OFFSET(KWD) = 0 :' Wrap.
1620 '
1630 '   Bump offsets on all keywords that use these replys.
1640 '
1650 FOR TEMP = 1 TO MAXKEY
1660      IF FIRST(TEMP) = FIRST(KWD) THEN OFFSET(TEMP) = OFFSET(KWD)
1670 NEXT TEMP
1680 '
1690 '   If the last character of the reply is *, append REMAINS$ to reply.
1700 '
1710 IF RIGHT$(REPLY$,1)="*" THEN REPLY$=LEFT$(REPLY$,LEN(REPLY$)-1)+REMAINS$
1720 PRINT REPLY$
1730 GOTO 730
1740 '
1750 '***********************************************************************
1760 '
1770 '   Data for conjugations in the following form:
1780 '      Word to replace , Replacement with + appended on end
1790 '   + is to keep the word from being switched back later and will
1800 '   be stripped before output.
1810 '
1820 '***********************************************************************
1830 '
1840 DATA " ARE "  ,  " AM+ "
1850 DATA " AM "   ,  " ARE+ "
1860 DATA " WERE " ,  " WAS+ "
1870 DATA " WAS "  ,  " WERE+ "
1880 DATA " YOU "  ,  " I+ "
1890 DATA " I "    ,  " YOU+ "
1900 DATA " YOUR " ,  " MY+ "
1910 DATA " MY "   ,  " YOUR+ "
1920 DATA " IVE "  ,  " YOUVE+ "
1930 DATA " YOUVE ",  " IVE+ "
1940 DATA " IM "   ,  " YOURE+ "
1950 DATA " ME "   ,  " YOU+ "
1960 DATA " US "   ,  " YOU+ "
1970 DATA " WE "   ,  " YOU+ "
1980 DATA ".","."
1990 '
2000 END


[SteveT]

Is that how you write a bot?

Good to know!

[Lanius]

So hands up... Who expects hyperinflation or just very high inflation(70-80% a year) in the US by 2018 or so?

[lee n. field]

So hands up... Who expects hyperinflation or just very high inflation(70-80% a year) in the US by 2018 or so?

Before

I'm not sure what mescaline is, but it's probably un-European.

Peyote.  A drug made from a cactus plant in Mexico and the US-ian southwest. 

[TommyGunn]

So hands up... Who expects hyperinflation or just very high inflation(70-80% a year) in the US by 2018 or so?

Probably before, but by 2012?    If it does happen, Obama is TOAST in the election.
If not, maybe .... maybe .... MAYBE Obama gets re-elected (not by MY vote!!).   Then if it happens, there will be major pain, like what happened in Greece... maybe worse. 
I am buying more SHTF supplies.