I wager 300,000 quatloos on the newcomer...

Indeed!

Wow. An ad hominem attack in response to comments made almost a year ago. How rational of you! And not only that, your response is really unclear. She did what? She did mean selfishness? She did try to re-define the term? She did spend more time learning English? What are you referring to?

Exactly! An educational system that was originally designed by fascists, in fact, back before fascism was considered tantamount to being a Nazi.

I think I'll stick with the movie, if anything. The problem I have is that I vehemently disagree with Rand's conclusions. I've read enough of her short work and discussed it with enough of her followers to know that much.

Hmm. I might check it out someday if the mood strikes me.

Mind = BLOWN

You can even use it to Hack the Planet!

It's possible for many people to do that, but not everyone is given the choice. Some people are just too different to fit in easily; and if they wind up labelled outcasts, they might even come to resent the thought of fitting in. Especially if the behaviour they're expected to conform to is of no real consequence,…

:D

FYI to all concerned: "albino" is considered a slur by those with the genetic condition of albinism; at least, it is in North America, due to... like this movie... the routine depiction by Hollywood of persons with albinism as morally and/or intellectually inferior. It's actually a big deal, no different to using a…

No problem :) You'll like this link, too... just saw it about a week ago...

I think in many real and measurable ways, modern life is far better for our nerds, geeks and eccentrics than ancient life.

Okay... I think before we continue any further, I need you to define, specifically, what you mean by "Broken Functionality" and what you mean by "upgrades" to our hardware.

Which only underscores my point on how our brains are inadequate for modern life.

Well, maybe. But a lot of that "broken functionality" can be dealt with already, using very old methods. I think mostly these are software (or firmware) problems. Or more accurately, software that's not fully compatible with the hardware we have. Sure, I suppose we can try and change the hardware, but changing the…

It's always been true for state-level cultures (including Sumeria), which, as a rule, have been a case of increasing urbanization and social stratification over time.

Yes, hunter gatherer societies also suck for nerds, I bet they suck even more than agrarian ones... The nail that sticks up must be hammered down.

Sure—but any new life that we create intentionally, we will (intentionally or not) model after and compare to ourselves.

Probably. But then, if they're following the same path we are, eventually they'll run into the same problem, and then we'll roll our eyes back at them and say, "See?"