It's like one of those snake-in-a-can gag gifts, only better.

>> ^Numinar:
Brilliant. I am just sad that this man needs to make these videos in the first place instead of using his awesomeness to take humanity forward instead of screaming at a brick wall. I wish I could get some members of my family to listen to this and stuff like it, but they don't. They go all grandpa with the selective hearing and have a whole lot of dodgey so called christian science mantras to shoot down anything intelligent said to them on the issue.
They can have their god, that is kinda cool. Benevolent sky fairy and whatnot, but a literal interpretation of an awesome yet insane old collection of stories manipulated throughout history by various motherfuckers? No. Not cool.


Take solace in that you, the next generation of your family.. has come to a realistic perspective of the world.

My family's older generation is/was similarly deluded, however I now have a child. He is being raised with an open minded fact based scientific perspective, not believing in horned red demons underground and winged fairies flying on cloud tops. He will understand the difference between hypothesis and theory. He will understand that humans are not all knowing. That through scientific exploration, can we only better understand our universe. To grow beyond our superstitious bonds which have long held us back as a species.

He will live his life for the here, the now... rather than in fear of an invisible magic man in the sky.

There's so many sites to find this, only better.. why does it have to be here too??

It's everything the segway aspired to be, only better.

No see.. you want 9/12 if you're the conservatives... 9/12 was the LITERAL highest point of the Bush administration, and by extension the highest political point of any Republican administration since Reagan.

The fear inspired blind, unquestioning loyalty from 90% or more of Americans, press and all... the Patriot Act was passed in mere DAYS after 9/11... how the hell an act like that gets written in days boggles the mind.. it had to be ready before 9/11.. but in the fearful days and weeks and months that followed they saw their chance to be GODS among men!!! Their words were LAW!! They were BETTER, and MORE TRUSTED than those liberal, god hating, commie ACTUAL news shows.

THAT'S why he says it was better on 9/12, it was only better if you wanted blind unquestioning obedience... conservatives are PRAYING for another 9/12.. only problem is, to get there, you have to have another 9/11....

^ You may be right, but there are also a lot of highly qualified people who disagree with you (Ray Kurzweil, Bill Joy, etc). Most of the disagreements out there are on specific dates. I can't think of any credible expert in the field who thinks it will happen beyond our expected lifetime.

As far as capitalism not being replaceable, what happens when machines can do anything that people can do (only better)? Yes, that is talking about even further in the future, but do you think capitalism will still work there?


Try this one for technological growth modeling.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ray_kurzweil_on_how_technology_will_transform_us.html

On the "socialization" argument:

I once thought that home-schooled kids were missing out on socialization by not being in a large group of children daily, but that was due to my lack of knowledge on the subject.

What is socialization? It is the process of learning about and interacting with the culture in which one lives. Now, who do you think would be more effective at teaching positive methods of interacting with the culture around you... successful adults, or other children? Many problems I've seen in people who have trouble coping with adult life involve having many of the habits of children, and I see this reflected in much of my public education as well. If most of what you learn about the world comes from others as inexperienced as you (at that age) then it isn't surprising that many people don't develop the habits that carry successful people through life.

Something that really opened my eyes to this was my years as a ski instructor during college. Wednesdays were the days that the local homeschooling community chose to bring their children to the mountains. The other days were generally random public school groups of similar ages. The difference in the children was surprising. Not only were the home-schooled children better behaved, but they were much easier to speak with and instruct. They came across as much more well-adjusted than the public school groups that cared more about their own little social structures than what was going on around them.

After speaking with several of the home-schooling parents, I found out that home-schooling is very much like public schooling, only better. The kids are taught in groups, with each parent teaching their particular area of expertise. Who would you want teaching your kids physics, someone with a masters in Computer Science, or someone with a bachelors in education? They get small class sizes (awesome) and they get quality socialization from multiple well-adjusted adults and other kids from the same background.

My work with these groups really reversed much of the ignorance I had towards home-schooling. Most of my previous experience had been creationist parents who didn't want their kids being taught "that evilution crap." I'm sure that many parents who teach their own kids are only doing harm by perpetuating their own ignorance and prejudice, but please do not underestimate the amazing potential of homeschooling when it is done correctly.

you know, it's a little late, but thank you for posting this comment, I actually just really read it and love it. You said what I wanted to say only better... :

In reply to this comment by kulpims:
you're all thinking in terms of rational explanations. what if there is none and the thing still works? if particle entaglement experiments have shown us anything it's that not only is all matter just energy but that everything in the universe is interconnected. the point is, we don't know shit yet. the behaviour of particles at quantum level shows bizzare results we are unable to backup properly with our newtonian ways. as we discovered that observation inevitably affects the results of experiments we were no longer just voayers looking from the outside into this newtonian rube-goldberg apparatus we call universe - we are the apparatus. our current description of reality is a sketch at best. i like the work David Bohm did with Karl Pribram on holonomic model of the brain and his ideas of the role consciencesness has in this universe. another wacko i like is David Deutsch and his four-strand theory of everything.
a quote from wiki about his theory:

"It aims not at the reduction of everything to particle physics, but rather mutual support among multiverse, computational, epistemological, and evolutionary principles."

Giving this a *promote feels like voting for the Football in the Groin vid, only better.

Judds movies are all great.
Reminds me of the Adam Sandler movie factory of the 90's, only better.

/I was a teenager in the 90's, I was allowed to appreciate Sandler Humour back then.

It's like my birthday, only better and without acrimony!
In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Also, check the sift talk.

I thought this movie was hilarious, and it was only better the second time I watched it.

lol... damn it.
What's the talk over there in the US? Is there a real chance he's gonna run for the office?
I'd like to see a black(ish) man with an obviously foreign name be the next president of the US. At least it would reflect a big change in politics over there.
Only better than that is when a Woman is elected for office in the US (as long as it's not like that mega bitch from Prison Break) heheheh