Yea, no. I see no evidence or logical arguments to support any of the assertions made in this article. Saying that other species exist for no more than a few million years, or that geologic events take a very long time is not sufficient. Before the Wright Brothers there was no powered heavier than air flight. …

The setup sounds a bit like Mogworld, a book written by Yahtzee - the guy who does those hilarious game review videos. I highly recommend it.

The father does the usual aristocratic father disappointed in his son bit and then whips off his mask to reveal . . . Barrowmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! I literally gasped when this happened.

OK, so if it has no supernatural elements at all, then what makes it fantasy? Fantasy to me is by definition a story that uses supernatural things or contains supernatural ideas. Without the supernatural angle it is either fiction or science fiction.

LOL, good point. :-) I don't know much about speciation - how exactly would we distinguish a chicken from an almost-chicken?

No, yes, and yes. Next question?

How much can you talk about the differences between IO9 and Topless Robot? And how much money would it take to get you to come back to TR? IMHO your whiskey soaking is wasted on this place. I almost completely switched to TR for my geek news from IO9 - and then you had to up and leave! And come here! :-]

The only thing I'd disagree on is that Dawkins is agnostic Atheist, not just agnostic.

THIS. The author embarrassed herself by this article.

It swaddles us in delusions of some greater future, if we *just wait a little longer*.

This is a cheap shot at a safe target that can't do much to fight back. And twitter doesn't allow for nuanced and more in-depth comments on religion, atheism, and agnosticism.

Obvious comment: my stuff is missing, other weird stuff is present or over-represented. Why? Not fair!

I was going to argue that the machine actively altered its own code by allowing Reese to force a specific search

I don't disagree that we may see more of this stuff in S2, and I hope we do. My point is that we don't have enough information to make a definitive conclusion. Complex systems are not completely binary - there are multiple ways that a single bug or feature can work and present itself. Multiple code paths,…

I can certainly think an AI emerging here, but I don't think it's even close to full sentience. At this point all it did is solve a single problem - the one where Reese gave it a binary choice, and it responded in a predictable manner. For a pure data mining system learning is just a matter of playing with the…

OK, I just watched the entire series (for the first time). Got through all of first season and what we have of the second season. It's OK - not fantastic, but OK. Because there is virtually no sci-fi in it. Harold is awesome, the various conspiracies are neat, the dirty cop is kind-of cool, the female cop can't…

Walter has been going back to his cold pragmatic mode for a year now. It was obvious that he was his pissed off old self ever since the episode where he got his noodles back. The old Walter would have had trouble cutting off Bell's hand - this one did it with barely a thought.

No! John Barrowman has a name! He is Captain Jack! Captain Jack Harkness!!!! DONE!

Ah! Thanks! I will watch that part again.

? That's very cool. I missed that - where was he?