OK, prove that the U.S stifles science. More science gets done in the U.S than anywhere else. If anything has been holding science back it's religion and Islam is the worst culprit.

I don't think anyone should try to shift the conversation onto the more egregious aspects of U.S foreign policy because this is not what the video is about.

>> ^Yogi:

>> ^BicycleRepairMan:
>> ^Yogi:
What about the history of Islam? All the scientists and developments that came from it?
What's the video's author suggesting that we eliminate a religion because it's not producing enough science?
I upvoted so that people can see this video...and hopefully take away from it that it doesn't matter if you're smart or if you're stupid...you can still be really dumb and prejudiced.


He is basically saying islam is detrimental to science and progress. thats a bit like saying "Smoking cigarrettes is bad for your health" it doesn't mean cigarettes kills everybody who smokes, it doesn't mean we should start executing people for smoking, it doesn't mean we should bomb cigarette-factories or wipe tobacco off the face of the earth. It simply means the statistics are not on the cigarettes side, and its not on islams side either. At the same time, we know that cigarettes are full of tar in nicotine, so its no wonder its bad for you. Islam, on its side, is a religion with its base in the Quran and Hadith. A reading of these texts will give you an idea of what its all about. Its a religion intrinsically hostile to the outside world including other religions or new ideas. Over and over, it demands total submission to the "one true god" and over and over it emphasizes the infallibility of islam, and the dangers of doubting it. It all but reads as a recipe for the halting of all progress, and heck, why not indeed, after all, Islam touts itself as being the final say from the old man himself. Why would there be any more questions left to ask or answer? That this mentality is reflected in the statistics of countries under Islamic rule/Islamic majority is certainly no surprise to me.
If you are of the opinion that saying stuff like that out makes you prejudiced, then thats your take. I think its a serious problem, and that talking about it openly would be better than to pretend the problem doesn't exist.

I think given a bit of time I could reach the same correlation with countries the US has attacked and nearly destroyed or has effected extremely negatively. I could prove up to at least the video posters standards that the US military does more for stifling science and general well being of other countries populations than anything else on earth. So to me this is an incredibly simplistic look and conclusion to come to when you're talking about humans and their development throughout history.
Hell I could come to the conclusion that the Chinese were useless inventors because they couldn't come up with Glass. Which means they failed at chemistry for so many centuries as well as transistors and the like, because they had china and they felt "Eh that's good enough."

>> ^BicycleRepairMan:

>> ^Yogi:
What about the history of Islam? All the scientists and developments that came from it?
What's the video's author suggesting that we eliminate a religion because it's not producing enough science?
I upvoted so that people can see this video...and hopefully take away from it that it doesn't matter if you're smart or if you're stupid...you can still be really dumb and prejudiced.


He is basically saying islam is detrimental to science and progress. thats a bit like saying "Smoking cigarrettes is bad for your health" it doesn't mean cigarettes kills everybody who smokes, it doesn't mean we should start executing people for smoking, it doesn't mean we should bomb cigarette-factories or wipe tobacco off the face of the earth. It simply means the statistics are not on the cigarettes side, and its not on islams side either. At the same time, we know that cigarettes are full of tar in nicotine, so its no wonder its bad for you. Islam, on its side, is a religion with its base in the Quran and Hadith. A reading of these texts will give you an idea of what its all about. Its a religion intrinsically hostile to the outside world including other religions or new ideas. Over and over, it demands total submission to the "one true god" and over and over it emphasizes the infallibility of islam, and the dangers of doubting it. It all but reads as a recipe for the halting of all progress, and heck, why not indeed, after all, Islam touts itself as being the final say from the old man himself. Why would there be any more questions left to ask or answer? That this mentality is reflected in the statistics of countries under Islamic rule/Islamic majority is certainly no surprise to me.
If you are of the opinion that saying stuff like that out makes you prejudiced, then thats your take. I think its a serious problem, and that talking about it openly would be better than to pretend the problem doesn't exist.


I think given a bit of time I could reach the same correlation with countries the US has attacked and nearly destroyed or has effected extremely negatively. I could prove up to at least the video posters standards that the US military does more for stifling science and general well being of other countries populations than anything else on earth. So to me this is an incredibly simplistic look and conclusion to come to when you're talking about humans and their development throughout history.

Hell I could come to the conclusion that the Chinese were useless inventors because they couldn't come up with Glass. Which means they failed at chemistry for so many centuries as well as transistors and the like, because they had china and they felt "Eh that's good enough."

>> ^Farhad2000:

Americans will invent it?
Hahahahah!


Why is that funny?
Some good ones, in chronological order:
Suspension Bridge,Refrigeration,Morse code
Steam Shovel, Vulcanized Rubber, Motorcycle,
Phonograph, Cash Register, Solar Cell,
Photographic Film, Skyscrapers, Radio,
Zipper, Tractor, FINALLY coming to the 20th century...
Air conditioning, Airplane, AC plugs and sockets,
Supermarket, Liquid Fuel Rocket, Frozen Food,
Particle Accelerators, FM, Digital Computer
, Microwave Oven, Transistor,
Mobile Phone, Supersonic Aircraft, Video Games,
Cable TV, CPR, HDD,
Industrial Robots, Videotape, LASER,
Carbon Fiber, Weather Satellites, GPS,
Heart Transplant, Cordless Phones, CDs,
Airbags, Lunar Module, WAN, PCs,
Microprocessors, Floppy Disks, Email,
Digital Cameras, Ethernet, MRI,
BBS, Internet (not WWW), Space Telescope,
DVRs, Composite Aircraft...whew that was fun. Thanks for egging me on, troll, and if you use any of the above, thank an American!

I forget where, but similar concept (although with older technology) was used for a billboard to produce images like this in much larger sizes back in the 30s. I wish I could remember what city it was or what it was called, just an old newsreel about using a projector to "blow up" a motion picture into lights just like this. Was pretty bad ass for pre-transistor tech.

>> ^archwaykitten:
Stereo songs can easily be converted into mono songs, either through software or by using special headphones made for hearing impaired people. The only reason to buy the mono box would be because you're the type of audio geek who likes to hear slightly different recordings of the same songs. And that's cool.

Sure you can convert anything, the problem is you're missing the intermixing that was done at the studio to bring out the tones and pitch. The best studio mixers of the day aren't around. It's much like the difference from listening to something played on transistor based or tube based electronics. Tubes will give you a much warmer sound.


The guy is an idiot and annoying. No point denying that. But I've got this stuff on vinyl, and cassette. Compared to the CD release, or even MP3 formats they're not close. Tones and pitches are off, hi's are too hi' lows are shallow or have no depth. They'll pan too early. Mids taste flat.

I'm not anywhere close to an audio geek, tones that sound off drive me up the wall. That's my problem, much like nails across a chalk board.

If you have questions about the scientific merit of a given medical practice, then contact an expert (i.e. an M.D. Ph.D.) and discuss your concerns with them. Go to a library, and read the actual scientific literature pertaining to a given topic.

It is true there is a business side to medicine, but no one controls science. And in the rare instances that science has been influenced by business, it has always corrected itself. (e.g. Some poor graduate student spent 2 years trying to confirm single molecule transistors and never got it to work. The original data was eventually proven fraudulent. See Jan Schon) Since their conception in 1796, vaccines have proven to a be a valuable way to control the spread of viruses.

In conclusion, it is good to question science and medicine. Questions, however, need to be reinforced with controlled scientific experiments, otherwise they are out of ignorance.


>> ^dag:
^Yes, how dare anyone question the all-knowing oracles of medical knowledge.
I think the reason that many geeky type people always toe the main-stream medical line is because they conflate medicine with science (which we all love). Yes, it's almost the same, but if I had to draw it as a venn diagram, there would be a crescent of over-hang. Medicine to me is 80% science and then the rest is filled in with dogma, patriarchy and business ($$).
That crescent of non-science is the part that makes me squirm. I don't think it's that wrong to question medical programs like vaccinations- with the idea that it may be being pushed non-scientifically by the medical industrial complex. (big pharma).
Bill Maher is not a kook.

I've had their concept knee pads for a while now. This really is the best thing since sliced bread, after the transistor of course.

>> ^blankfist:
When someone says things like "steal" and "always" they have very specific meanings.

I think you're taking it more seriously than it was intended. I think he's just saying we're very good at coopting the ideas of other countries; that's not necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately I don't think it's true. If you look at some of our most relevant inventions today (car, transistor, microchip/microprocessor, telephone, mobile phone, hard drive, LED, CD/DVD, digital camera), most of them are made better and/or cheaper by Germany, Japan or China. It seems if we can't kill people with it, we lose interest.

I'm sure some murders are done without malice aforethought and done so "on the fly"; doesn't make them less wrong.

Murder is premeditated by definition. Killing someone "on the fly" is manslaughter and is considered less wrong in our legal system, hence the lower penalties.

Rugged like rwanda, don't wind up far or get chopped up
Quick to rush the spot like baby urine get mopped up
Tags that spray your hall with rap aerosol
Organized graffiti lectures in can control
Or level with the devil racing uptown first to fort apache
I'm much too much for any demon style to master me
From the thought's next bridge to the hell's gate, lyrically detonating
Sparking m-80's and bottle rockets it's a nigga chaser
Downtown graffiti deface a heroin debaser
Open up your eyes and clean out your nature
Wide open like the grand canyon
Emcees couldn't hang if they was lynched by the grand dragon
Searching for my style like job-corps
Coming home on work release shoplifting at the rap store
But sabotaging me ain't easy
I'm crooked like nathan wick starring as cochese
With a big baseball bat you get robbed like deniro
A sandwich still ain't nothing but a hero
Just a small sample of the abstract
When the rhyme gets crazy hot and lyrics don't know how to act
Whether shooting joints or wax
I go all out and attack crabs and herbs that's crazy wack
We all can't be pimps, and we all can't rap
You got to get your dollars on cause it's on like that
Here's what I want you to do
Niggas with the green axe and burgundy forerunner, inhuman like blade runner
When I'm rhyming all summer just listen to the drummer
Transistor blister feedback freak the impeders
Funk flow we expose frequencies in sequence
Napalm gets dropped long range like fiber optics
Check the rhyme activity your skills is microscopic
Peace to my crew and my nigga el-p
Who's here to spark it causing all these crabs to flee

Check it and I inflict it quattro nine fifty lungs misty
Color me maxmillian cause I'm that crazy robot
Teetering on the edge of outer space
Spitting buckshots till black holes surround me, you found me
As far as I'm concerned I've got your ashes in an urn
Big up, the temperamental hold none barred kid
What's your confunction? tracks is type dusty
Drinking water out the well of life and i'ma piss it back rusty
Flesh and phonics, you're God damned right
I'm on 'em like aeorta pacemakers hooked up to clappers
Clap off (*clap clap*) welcome to my free-form jubilee, look at me
The witness to the shit you wanna be
Dba lyrical p known as a simp and I'm a sycophant
Feeding on fats passed and dipped
In and out of my invisible state
Forerunner rep tyrannical
Wrecks like tecs bust mechanical
Rusty goner weasel painting beats on an easel
Shoot a head up, what bitch you're boxing shadows
Look out my way you pull your breath out to battle
Breaking your double helix, and now the shit is single
Not mono, I burn the needle out your vinyl
El-p the third gunner on the grassy knoll
Stroll, keep the seventh seal of heaven in my pocket
You're faggot like sprockets, motherfuck the houston rockets
I'm so sick of recycled metaphors
Bet but I'd fuck laura ingalls only when she's done with her chores
Got rappers tip toeing on a highway to heaven
Got manners like bruce banner when he's stressed
I'm sick of your corny beats and your crowd-involved hooks
Cause I'm a thinker
Evil anus letting off stinkers

Bj eight steps to perfection
The sum of each part forms an octagon
Let rhyme styles get sparked

Ep eight stpes to perfection
The sum of each part forms an octagon
Where rhyme styles get sparked

The holy terror, last moves you never won't win
Playing taps on a violin
You can never comprehend the rhyme origin
I rate one like a chinese, jamaicin like a chin
Hot rocking corduroy, ballys that's so fitted
Niggas came and assed out my tracks and left 'em shitted
Fuck the movement, lubricate the smooth shit
Just to letcha know, never do I use it
Strictly the blueprint for the ghetto music in my cipher
Shorty the sniper jeep like cherokee
When I take aim handling wall to wall emcees
Mr. madman attract lyrics like magnets
They fuck up speaking cavernous when I'm stabbing it
Like the juice, then go bronco busting loose
That's my word, you couldn't shoot or try to compute the math
To kick any type sport like the vandal
I manhandle, emcees get murdered like tennessa
Or trapped in the bedroom with the texas chain saw
Massacre one two three you're taking and tell 'em
Eastwick underground new york be the dwelling
I keep telling 'em the state of the mind be the mentals
If you murder up in the ghetto you murder in a temple

*promote this siftbot... get this through your transistor

The point is that feature size in silicon is getting to be as small as it possible can. (when a gate is only a few atoms wide, it cannot withstand manufacturing variability, and so the process is unreliable).

So when you can't shrink any smaller, the performance of the transistors will reach a maximum limit, which is determined by the material properties of the substrate and doping elements. (which is why SiGe is faster than Si).

Artificial diamond substrates (replacing silicon) promise the next "leap" in integrated circuit performance. It's just a matter of making the manufacturing process cheap and the product reliable. When I say cheap, I mean on the same order of magnitude of a 32nm process fab ($3-$7 billion). It might not happen anytime soon (20+ years from now).

Supercomputers have accomplished increased computing power though increasing parallelism for years. Personal computers currently have no need for increased speed in most cases, so there hasn't been a big push for faster PCs. For most people, computers are already fast enough.

Most of the recent trends, other than parallelism, have been reducing the size of computing while maintaining processing power. The latest cell phones are much more powerful than three years ago, for instance. We already have working prototypes of computerized clothing, and the progress in driverless vehicles over the past few years has been amazing.

Yes, we are nearing the end of advances in transistor-based computing, but quantum computing is also nearing functionality. There are still a few issues to work out, but that is only a matter of time as (limited) working QCs have already been demonstrated.

Of course, a lot of this is demand-based. We've had very functional voice-interface computing for years, but no one has really found a viable market for it. Right now I'm much happier typing than speaking when I'm writing a paper or programming, but that may change as computers gain the ability to do more on their own. Who knows how the current economic problems with affect demand-driven innovation though.

Like I said, most of this is a question about timing, not about ability. Biology is effective, but very inefficient. It is only a matter of time before we create computing that is both more effective and more efficient than what has been created through evolutionary processes. It may happen by 2030, or it maybe be 2060, but with the constant advances in medicine it is very likely that we will all be around to see it happen (again, assuming nothing catastrophic happens along the way).

jonny,

I think the part you are missing is the possibility of changes of order of magnitude. For example, what if I could just default to having a videocamera built into the edge of my eyeglasses and simply record everything I do 24/7 in beyond HD detail? Right now that would require far more memory than I can afford, but it would also eliminate much current note taking, minutes of meetings, even allow you to "go back in time" for snapshots.

What if I wanted to transmit that data over my cell phone to someone else to watch at the same time? What if 10 Billion people on Earth wanted to do the same thing?

I know squat about the memristor, but I do believe that the possibilities for computing technologies in particular are still ripe for orders of magnitude changes. It may be that vacuum tube computers were like the water wheel and transistors the steam engine. If so we still have a lot of room for improvement in efficiency and convenience.

Memristors /memˈrɪstɚ/ ("memory resistors") are a class of passive two-terminal circuit elements that maintain a functional relationship between the time integrals of current and voltage. This results in resistance varying according to the device's memristance function. Specifically engineered memristors provide controllable resistance useful for switching current. The memristor is a special case in so-called "memristive systems", a class of mathematical models useful for certain empirically observed phenomena, such as the firing of neurons.[3] The definition of the memristor is based solely on fundamental circuit variables, similar to the resistor, capacitor, and inductor. Unlike those more familiar elements, the necessarily nonlinear memristors may be described by any of a variety of time-varying functions. As a result, memristors do not belong to linear time-invariant (LTI) circuit models. A linear time-invariant memristor is simply a conventional resistor.[4]

Memristor theory was formulated and named by Leon Chua in a 1971 paper. Chua strongly believed that a fourth device existed to provide conceptual symmetry with the resistor, inductor, and capacitor. This symmetry follows from the description of basic passive circuit elements as defined by a relation between two of the four fundamental circuit variables, namely voltage, current, charge and flux.[5] A device linking charge and flux (themselves defined as time integrals of current and voltage), which would be the memristor, was still hypothetical at the time. He did acknowledge that other scientists had already used fixed nonlinear flux-charge relationships.[6] However, it would not be until thirty-seven years later, on April 30, 2008, that a team at HP Labs led by the scientist R. Stanley Williams would announce the discovery of a switching memristor. Based on a thin film of titanium dioxide, it has been presented as an approximately ideal device.[7][8][9] Being much simpler than currently popular MOSFET switches and also able to implement one bit of non-volatile memory in a single device, memristors integrated with transistors may enable nanoscale computer technology. Chua also speculates that they may be useful in the construction of artificial neural networks.[10]

That's a pretty uneducated analogy. A more accurate, though not perfect, comparison would be how the transistor changed computing.

Do a little more research, Matt. Don't be so glib.