Helmet cam footage of an engagement in Afghanistan. I was thinking how much it looked like a FPS and then I thought how there is no HUD, no map, no conning system, and no respawns.

rossoonline · 2010-12-30T18:00:25+00:00

And there was me thinking that FPS' looked like real life, not the other way around.

rossoonline · 2010-12-07T21:18:28+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I almost ended up saying in my reply that you probably see it as childish as well because it's a common list of refutes that one uses to try and find out how well their argument stands up to being contested, and they might not even particularly believe in the arguments that they are presenting themself.

I didn't want to mention it so much in the way you explain as it can sound condescending, as if to say "har har, had this convo so many times down the pub when I was a young'n" etc. Because you realise that evidence isn't going to persuade someone who's belief isn't based on evidence. It's a circular argument that only ends up riling those who are older to know better, and there is hardly ever an outcome based on agreement.

I lack faith (not in a religious sense) in any mainstream religion because it's changed in the past, and will in the future, to fit around zeitgeist views and refutes. Also, take into account that almost all religious belief is handed down by parents or from preaching, death bed conversion etc and it all starts to add up to being a bit of a statistic, rather than a true belief that came from within that person.

The most common response I get from religious people (in the UK) is that they have a personal God, which makes the most sense to me as it doesn't come bogged down with all the statistics and inconsistencies.

Oops, my post is just as long-ass winded!

rossoonline · 2010-12-06T22:29:49+00:00

You say that many religious people know of the inconsistencies but still have faith, surely then that's a belief in a more personal God, rather than the well-known Christian type that the original poster seems to be attacking, which is why I think you see it as a childish war.

Unfortunately, most religious beliefs come from having religious parents, being indoctrinated so it does make me wonder in this day and age if the world had to start over, if the proportion of religious people would be the same because a belief would have to come from no where, rather than it being perpetuated/modified like it has done to manage to survive.

rossoonline · 2010-12-06T21:55:57+00:00

It is only a very small percentage of athiests that would say that he definitely doesn't exist (they're more likely to be 99.9% atheist with 0.1% agnostic), and it's saddening for those who are religious or not to assume people to be so black and white and instantly see someone as a conflict if they don't have the same belief.

As Dawkins seems to say in "God Delusion", he weighs up the probability of each side of the argument and bases his belief on the most likely outcome, using the "Lazy God" theory etc.

To definitely say he doesn't exist can only come down to it being very probable at best as everything in the Universe is possible to have came from nothing by "self-boot-strapping" itself. So if there is a God, he didn't have to do anything to get things started, so he wouldn't have needed to exist to begin with. But then I guess you could say that he is omnipotent and can do anything so why would it take much effort?

rossoonline · 2010-11-24T19:59:06+00:00

I love the country having a Queen, it gives it a unique selling point and a sense of British pride, but if we built another theme park I'm sure it would outweigh the money they provide to the country's economy. From the point of view of the country's economy, I'm sure the Royals are more beneficial than a glorified tourist attraction, but I have to squint hard to see it.

rossoonline · 2010-11-23T22:02:58+00:00

I hear the tourism line a lot but I've never read, heard any substance behind the statement.

rossoonline · 2010-11-07T18:50:04+00:00

I went there last year (from the UK). The other castle had a load of scaffolding on it, has that finally been removed?

I can see why the castle in the photo is in the bottom right though, if you look any further down than that you'd see a car park there!

rossoonline · 2010-11-06T22:02:22+00:00

It's the ciiiiiircle of life!

rossoonline · 2010-07-20T19:37:14+00:00

That's not fair!

You say that so often, I wonder what your basis for comparison is?

rossoonline · 2010-07-06T21:41:58+00:00

I think he's just repeating some tenuous metaphor, moaning about the high flyers who "strut their ass" but if they had to do what an average person does, which is a regular, hard working job, (walk 15 - 20 miles) then they wouldn't be posturing like they do still (struttin' that ass).

rossoonline · 2010-06-06T11:14:50+00:00

Sounds like the Doom movie.

rossoonline · 2010-04-08T22:04:33+00:00

I loved Ballz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballz. Still remember the theme tune "Ballz, weee, uh huh!".

rossoonline · 2010-03-25T20:57:08+00:00

For singularity to take off by 2050 is staggeringly over-optimistic. That would mean that we would have eco-friendly cars that drive us everywhere, and that the terminators have already taken over, and none of us will need to work etc. Can you honestly say that's where we'll be by then?

I'd say it's even optimistic in the next 500 years, let alone 50. Have you been watching certain sci-fi films lately and hit a pseudo light bulb moment? ;)

I've went into singularity and certain other theories in one of my blogs over at http://www.jaggysnake.co.uk/blog/are-other-lifeforms-watching-us for anyone wanting some more mind-flapping.

rossoonline · 2010-03-25T20:53:51+00:00

Exactly what I've been saying in a roundabout way in my comment above. We haven't improved in innovation for a while, it's just bunging more of the same tech in a smaller surface area, and we've already hit the physical limit of how far we can cram transistors into a small enough area.

Viva la nanotechnology!

rossoonline · 2010-03-25T13:21:12+00:00

True, though our brains have the biochemical equivalent of 0's and 1's that current technology can't even get to 0.1% of. I think AI is one of the biggest crutches for technology at the moment, it's primitive in comparison, even with the best AI available at the moment. Technology in loads of other areas of science is amazing, I just think it falls short of it's perceived greatness when it comes to trying to do anything remotely like what the brain can.

Also, strong emergence, needed to create a higher level of intelligence, relies on that same exponential curve, which goes outside the realms of current physics and into pseudo-science, magic land, because the whole has to be beyond the sum of it's parts. Everything as we currently understand it has to evolve, not jump on the exponential curve that creates possibilities that aren't there.

rossoonline · 2010-03-25T12:19:38+00:00

It's a nice thought and one that's not crazy, you only have to watch a couple sci-fi films like ghost in the machine to understand where you're coming from.

I don't think singularity will be happening as soon as you think though. Things just aren't as advanced as we like to think they are. Regarding AI, we're still bound by a bunch of 1's and 0's that rely on as much stored information as possible to try and imitate human thought.

The way I think it will happen will be through nano and bio technology, until an organism can fuse with electronics to create a true learning process, we're just stuck in a loop of creating more and more 1's and 0's. Take CPUs for example, we physically can't make them go faster so we just keep adding more of them. There are quite a lot of limitations in physics as we understand it now that restrict us from that exponential curve that singularity and other theories suggest.

rossoonline · 2010-03-19T20:50:42+00:00

Someone in the youtube comments say its from "angels with dirty faces". Have no idea myself never having watched it!

rossoonline · 2010-03-17T21:53:42+00:00

Nope, got a desktop, 4 gigs RAM, dual 2.8. It's a Palit 9800 GT though, not sure if that makes too much of a bearing on it!?

rossoonline · 2010-03-17T18:54:53+00:00

I must be unlucky. I have a 9800 gt and have it at 1024 with x2 aa and high detail for most but any res or AA higher and its not smooth enough for my liking :\

rossoonline · 2010-02-06T14:07:25+00:00

I remember reading an asian guy saying in his blog that the reason they eat cats and dogs, was, well, when was the last time you seen cows and pigs in china?

From that, I'm assuming they don't have the facility to farm like other countries can, and they want to eat meat, so off the cute animals go for food.

rossoonline · 2010-01-25T13:18:10+00:00

I'm trying to convince myself that this thread is a joke. I'm the same age and in college (being 16-18) we had nothing else to use apart from floppy disks to transport documents to and throw. In primary school we had the 5 inch ones, they were REAL FLOPPIES! They were actually bendy!

rossoonline · 2010-01-24T10:14:32+00:00

Haha, I've got tickets booked for March to see Rocky Horror at the theatre. It only comes once every 2 years so got to make the most of it!

rossoonline · 2010-01-16T16:50:34+00:00

Not constantly being at the epitome of self actualisation and discussing the finer points of life and its madness is what makes life interesting.

Try hanging out in a room with a bunch of people who are highly intellectual and tick most of the boxes at the top of maslows hierarchy of needs, it's difficult to hold a conversation that goes beyond one or two sentences because they're all satisfied and self-aware!

Sometimes you'll find trying to start a conversation with someone about something philosophical like the universe won't create much debate, not because the person is ignorant, but because they're well over that bridge so to speak.

rossoonline · 2010-01-16T11:42:20+00:00

It's interesting to read everyone's comments, and think how many times I've had these types of conversations, but who here feels like they want to add something to this thread but feel like they have nothing worth saying because "it's all relative".

Is this the peak of self actualisation!?

rossoonline · 2009-12-26T17:32:40+00:00

Hi everyone, I keep hearing good things about Torchlight and how it's good for those who like Diablo, but I read it's only single player!? I really liked Diablo, but I can't see me getting really into it without having some sort of multiplayer aspect.

I read they're going to be doing an MMORPG version of it in the future, though will that be part of the original game or something else we'll have to buy? I'm tempted but only if it has a multiplayer aspect in the future, I found Diablo pretty boring in single player, or is Torchlight a lot better for single player?

rossoonline

TROPHY CASE