One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest definitely ruined it for a generation or more. But even those portrayals weren't so dramatized, I don't know if we'd recommend it a tenth as much if it was still done without anesthesia.

Laproscopic surgeries replacing open. No more frontal lobotomies. Interestingly, electroconvulsive therapy is making a comeback for really bad depression, but it's a hell of a lot more humane, now. Sometimes old therapies coming back and re-instating themselves is more interesting than the newest hot fad. Stenting vs.…

Lasers are only really good for cutting though (relatively) thin material. To make a wafer you have to cut a slice off a cylinder that can be as much as a foot in diameter. Much to thick to get a good slice with a laser.

No mention of the massive delays, defects, and cost overruns of the program? Do military aquisitions only get a critical view if they're from the US, and everyone else can do no wrong on Giz? I suppose most of the reviews here of Chinese planes have at least pointed out how copied they are from Russian or US sources,…

If anything it's had more problems than recent US airframe aquisitions programs. The thing has been an absolute nightmare of delays and defects. Kinda odd that Giz totally neglected to mention that little feature.

None of these make sense, but yet they've all been done in the past. And if history is any guide, they almost certainly will be done in the future again. Might not be 100% effective, but that's no reason to expect they won't happen.

Aww yeah, another reason to be proud of the one President allumnus from my alma matter. Other than that whole "getting assasinated really quick" thing he also had some good progressive ideas.

Oh man. By my count, there are literally only two (non-fragment) sentences in this article that do not contain factual inaccuracies.

Most likely, yes. Again the philosophical problem and the mathematical proof are really only concerned with the ideal scenario, though.

As a piece of applied computer science, sure. As a contribution to the theoretical analysis, and in regards to the mathematical proof, which was what this article was about, it's useless.

That invalidates the original question, which proposed a continuous spectrum of choices. By setting an external time limit (and second function to watch the time) you've created a discreet system, which is outside the bounds of the theory.

The problem there is how does the computer know if the two options are exactly equal? Instead it would get stuck trying to figure out if they are exactly equal or not.

I'm forced to admit I would accept a surprising amount of dystopia if it meant we all got to live in awesome arcologies.

Geoff as EIC? Hot dang! This might be the first thing in years that makes me visit more often, rather than less. (Actually, new-new-new Kinja, eliminating the spam posts, also helps.)

Short answer: Yes.

Many of the more vocal figures in life extension take the same approach as the more extreme Singularity people. The miracle event is always just a few years away (conveniently within the lifespan of the speaker, of course), and keeps getting pushed back due to forces outside their control, rather than than because…

On the one hand, he's clearly very intelligent, and other "impossible" things have been demonstrated before. "Splitting the atom" should be oxymoronic based on the original definition of the atom, for instance. On the other hand, this wouldn't be the first time a prominent physicist has gone a bit around the bend, and…

Yes, total mortality rate from all sources combined. Look at the original article. This type of graph, sometimes called an area chart, is very common, and most certainly does not use overlapping lines.

No, you just don't understand how the chart was made. There is no overlap. Each bar is stacked one on top of the other, not behind each other, so the visible thickness of the bar is the total amount. This chart very clearly shows essentially no one overdoses on pot, not the opposite.

"About half of those additional deaths are in the pharmaceuticals category"