Comments by Ick of the East

Comment #86972 by Ick of the East on November 10, 2007 at 7:18 pm

He mentioned the Thai belief that a sea of milk was churned by demons.

Why is it that in Thailand, absolutely nobody still believes this, yet in America such a large percentage of the people still believe in rib generation, talking serpents, and magic fruit trees?

Is a puzzlement.

2. A House Divided: Hitch at Georgetown

Comment #84654 by Ick of the East on November 3, 2007 at 6:16 am

A sin is, definitionally, a crime against God.

Really? If I cut your throat in the night, I would say that it is more a sin against you than against the god who gave me the full moon with which to stalk you.

3. Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

Comment #78663 by Ick of the East on October 14, 2007 at 6:42 am

In that case, there must surely be some 'eaters'. So why aren't they here, eating us?

They went virtual too! And the circle is complete!

4. Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

Comment #78659 by Ick of the East on October 14, 2007 at 6:24 am

Ah.. but that is what I am saying. It is obvious to you. But you are human. Something else may be obvious to a hypothetical Klingon, or Borg :)

I don't know, but I would think that "Don't get eaten," is probably a Universal value.

You remember a lot of people were upset with the plaque that was put aboard Voyager, showing the location of Earth.

5. Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

Comment #78654 by Ick of the East on October 14, 2007 at 5:40 am

Why bother to remain small and unseen?

Seems the obvious choice to me. You don't know what's out there. Or maybe you do, which makes it an even better choice.

And big hot stars are less stable and tend to burn out fast and blow up. That's no good if you want a virtual eternity.

6. Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

Comment #78650 by Ick of the East on October 14, 2007 at 4:45 am

But that that virtual life still requires energy.

Yes, of course. So to get your eggs out of one basket, spread out around several hundred or thousand brown dwarf stars. They are very stable and last for for many billions of years.
After that, all the multiplication can take place in your virtual universes - even in virtual universes within virtual universes.
You will remain small and unseen, and there will be little or no need to communicate with other groups around other stars.

7. Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

Comment #78646 by Ick of the East on October 14, 2007 at 3:39 am

Robots would need to get close to stars for energy. I agree it would make more sense to harvest asteroids than planets, but that harvesting would be easily detectable.

Would it? With present technology? I suppose, but then I wonder if AI mechs, once intelligent enough, wouldn't rather hang around their own virtual world creations rather than overcome the physical one.
As an semi-intelligent being myself, I know what I would rather do.

8. Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

Comment #78638 by Ick of the East on October 14, 2007 at 1:57 am

Quite possibly, but it only takes one self-replicating robot to initiate the exponential robot population explosion.

Agreed. But you are going on the assumption that robots need planets just as present-day humans do. (You said that robots would have overrun Earth by now.) But what in the world would they need worlds for? There is plenty of matter around without having to deal with planetary gravity wells and atmospheres.
If mech civilizations do exist, I would say there is a possibility of finding them out there somewhere, without them ever having visited Earth.

9. Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

Comment #78627 by Ick of the East on October 14, 2007 at 12:00 am

Well, everything we can extrapolate from our own technological progress (especially Moore's law) is that if any other technological civilizations have evolved before us, they (or their robot progeny) should have overrun the entire Milky Way galaxy by now.

When I extrapolate our technological progress, I see future humans spending all of their time in virtual worlds, not in stuffing themselves into tin cans and traveling to other gravity wells.
It has started already, and will only continue to grow as those worlds become more real and then go far beyond reality.

10. Norway flourishes as secular nation

Comment #76152 by Ick of the East on October 4, 2007 at 11:04 pm

Scandinavia may be nice, but every winter it seems that there are more Scandinavians here in Thailand than there are back home.

Which makes perfect sense to me.

11. Atheists and believers have got religion wrong

Comment #63627 by Ick of the East on August 15, 2007 at 6:11 am

Smug and superior are we? As opposed to those who believe that they have a close personal relationship with the all-powerful creator of the universe, with whom they will live in bliss for all eternity as a reward for their correct beliefs.

Right.

12. Baptists Warned About Islam, Atheism

Comment #49688 by Ick of the East on June 13, 2007 at 1:40 am

I wonder how evil Islam really is, when it allows you to breastfeed off of chicks in the office?

I'd like to see Christianity top that!