Any sufficiently lengthy simulation has a built-in checkpointing mechanism. So if there was a BSOD, we could just restart at the most recent checkpoint.

This also brings about the possibility of the universe being only 4000 years old, or only 0.001 seconds old - with all of reality and your memories implanted from that checkpoint.

This says quite a lot about Elon Musk, I feel.

I'd counter his argument by saying its only been 40 years since pong, too short a time to be extrapolating too far into the future. I believe we are approaching a very real physical limit to transistor size, so I don't think its necessarily a given that in another 40 years we will have moved on the same distance. Basically for all we know this could be a momentary blip for a century or so.

but yeah, if you agree that we will continue to create increasingly sophisticated and powerful computers, and that humans continue to be for a little while, then ok, I think it is feasible that we could create a virtual world, which would make me quite terrified that our reality might suddenly BSOD.

I don't think Bill would ever, ever make a joke about BSOD or the three-finger salute. Those seem to be his kryptonite, and understandably so.

And for a moment, I thought he's gonna end up with a BSOD.

I've experienced a "haunted" building before. It was in the basement of one of the local Library branches. (I used to do IT work for the network of libraries, so I've been to more than 60 in the county). This happened in the daytime, I was downstairs in the basement checking a network connection on the router or something like that. I heard a distinct 2-person conversation coming from the next room, as well as some old music (1920s?). I assumed it was just other people who worked or volunteered there, so I went about my business. A few minutes later I went in to ask if they knew where a ladder was, but no one was there. Also no radios, record players, computers, etc (anything that can make noise) was in that room. There was only 1 staircase up, and I was between that room and the stairs, so I would have seen someone go up.

I consider myself a skeptic of most things, and was not primed in any way - it was only after the fact, when I told one of the branch workers, that they said "oh yeah that room is haunted", like it was common knowledge and no big deal. Apparently they had many people witness paranormal stuff.

Maybe voices from upstairs could have gone through the ductwork, but that doesn't explain the music.

On a side note, that branch had a statistically significant high rate of blue screens, on identical hardware/software configurations deployed to many other branches. That was eventually tracked down to poor electrical wiring at the site (it's an old building- historic landmark status). When we installed good surge protectors at every PC, instead of plugging into wall, the BSODs dropped down to normal rate... but I prefer to believe that ghosts cause blue screens

>> ^demon_ix:
>> ^westy:
>>thinker247 you cannot throw a godwin's grenade into a conversation on purpose. To do so can risk fracturing the entire internet. believe me its scientificy proven with no evidence.
Don't be silly, westy. The only known way to destroy the Internet so far is to type Google into Google.
Some extrapolated that typing Bing into Bing might do the same, but all they got was a BSOD.


I'm sorry but I don't believe you I only believe things that are scentifcly proven with no evidence.

>> ^westy:
>>thinker247 you cannot throw a godwin's grenade into a conversation on purpose. To do so can risk fracturing the entire internet. believe me its scientificy proven with no evidence.

Don't be silly, westy. The only known way to destroy the Internet so far is to type Google into Google.

Some extrapolated that typing Bing into Bing might do the same, but all they got was a BSOD.

I once had a friend call to get his computer fixed from Geek Squad (believing the commercials were real, dumb ass) because he was having blue screen errors. He spent $400 to get it 'fixed' and it wasn't a week before the issue started up again. I happened to be in the area (he lives in a different states, but we are old friends from back in the day) and stopped by. It took me 5 seconds to find out he had a bad memory chip and pointed him to the $30 replacement and showed him how to install it.

I'm not exactly sure what Geek Squad did with the system. Because clearly the time Geek Squad spent 'fixing' the system they didn't even have the know how to realize that a BSOD with a memory error is probably an issue with the memory!

I keep waiting for Microsoft to release Windows BG. 'Cause you KNOW Bill Gates' machine is rock solid, and if he ever gets a BSOD, he has an army of engineers going down to the memory registers to figure out what happened.

I want that OS.

When I was on Amiga "Guru Meditation" was the equivalent of the BSOD. It came up in red text, and then the machine would hang.

A blue screen of death is by no means the end of a computer. I'm no tech geek but I used to try to over-clock half-life on my laptop and got the BSOD all the time. That was back in 2003 and the thing's still running fine today.

Definitely google the BSOD error message. It may pinpoint you to a specific hardware fault, although odds are generally it won't. Also, you do of course know you can take out the hard drive and recover any data you had on it right? May be a silly question but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask

Is it a Windows BSOD? If so search for the error message and find out what it means. Could be just Windows needs re-installing or hardware failing (mem, HD or worse).

MS does it again. What does the BSOD look like on a cell phone?

Downloaded the screensaver, installed it and started getting BSODs on my XP install. Disabled the screensaver and haven't had a BSOD yet.