Seasons

Inuit can get the internet, but they may be the last people to have cable TV inflicted on them, if it has to be laid through permafrost!) What with global warming the permafrost is melting, the Inuit are in danger of extinction.(at least their way of life) Perhaps that is why there isn't a big push to get them cable. Oh well the Maritimes didn't get flush plumbing until the late 70s

Prob123 said isn't it our fault for buying trash? I meant it IS our fault for buying trash! I have bought the sordid tabloid at the check out, etc. I don't anymore.

I think a large part of what gets me interested in a show is character dynamics.

I agree Ulrike. I can forgive a bad plot if I like the characters, but as far as I am concerned even a great plot won't save a show or book with boring characters. I wish I could put character as well as quotes into my bots. Maybe the key is in AI script to develop the character dynamics? Of course, we can't do that much on that front while most chatters are seen as Guest9, since that is one complex multiply personality for the bots to deal with.

Guest9, since that is one complex multiply personality for the bots to deal with. It's getting to me too! All the conversations are 'My name is not'. and 'I don't' The memories are just irritating the guests. (the good guests, the vulgar ones don't seem to care) I feel bad about this one
well, my name isn't john
Bildgesmythe: Great, not bathroom I never forget a name, I just don't remember which face to put it with.not bathroom!

Hee hee. Poor not John.

Thanks Bev. Of course we are friends. *takes hand and places other hand on top and shakes warmly* My, you have nice hands.

My website is currently not up since I am reloading and modifying some of the lectures which I haven't seen in almost a year. I usually have a good selection of what I do if you are interested and you can sample anything you want and maybe we can discuss our mutual interests later. I would like that. I predict they will be up and running sometime before July 10. I'll let you know when I re-activate it and the link will be active in my profile.

BTW, I spent 1 1/2 years flying back and forth between O'Hare and Hartsfield every week. I was assigned to design a curriculum for GM in Lagrange. I miss that cold weather up there - and the wind, too. It's really invigorating. <-1>

What with global warming the permafrost is melting, the Inuit are in danger of extinction.(at least their way of life) Perhaps that is why there isn't a big push to get them cable.

Admittedly, they may not have much of an economy left when the ice has melted and there's nothing left to hunt (or at least no traditional species) - they're going to have to adapt or move. In the meantime they are spared intrusive satellite TV - go far enough towards a pole, and you can't get a decent signal from geostationary satellites positioned above the equator (I guess that's why even at your latitude satellite internet isn't reliable.)

That's not much of a silver lining for them though, I admit ("not remotely" I'm sure most would say!) I just hope they can find something else to hunt/do to survive with minimal disruption to their culture, but I grant you the future doesn't look very hopeful

The world is going to change a lot in the next 30 years - I just hope not too many of us get left behind.

Klato: Thanks again. I am glad you like the cold. Someone should.

Psimagus: The world is going to change a lot in the next 30 years - I just hope not too many of us get left behind.

Hey, that would make a good premise for a book. Maybe a series of books. If you can get Angeli Jolie to play a nymphomaniac intuit trying to get pregnant and save her tribe from extinction by advertising for sex on the Internet (live webcam action with a fur skin rug) and have her simple and misguided savage soul saved by a missionary played by Mel Gibson, I think you could sell it to a studio. Throw in an adorable baby seal as her lovable pet. No, wait, ship up a lost penguin. Penguins are hot now. Gotta ride the wave.

Look on the bright side - if you'd got into a disagreement about the propagatability of psi, you'd be embroiled in a many hundred-post argument now, wondering how it all got so intense

Why, Psimagus, darling, whatever could you be referring to?

I think a lot of all this has to do with the triumph of what in the late Roman Empire was called Epicureanism. Well, of course it differs in various ways, but central ideas are, hedonism (to obtain pleasure is the point of life), subjectivism (there's no right or wrong in the realm of values or even in the realm of truth - this is good (or true) 'for you', that is good (or true) 'for me', and there's nothing more to be said.)

subjectivism (there's no right or wrong in the realm of values or even in the realm of truth - this is good (or true) 'for you', that is good (or true) 'for me', and there's nothing more to be said.) I remember a long argument on that too! I still say torturing babies is always wrong. I do like the idea of hedonism, I think I will go get a donut and some more coffee.

It seems to me that pleasure is a perceptual experience of (apparent) goodness. It is a form of information, or, better, evidence. That something is pleasant is evidence that it is good. To see pleasure itself as good (especially as the sole good) is like confusing a word with the thing it denotes, or a picture with what it pictures, or an apparent perception of a unicorn with a unicorn.
IMHO, pleasure is neither good nor bad in itself. It might be said to be good when it serves to enhance our lives, and bad when it causes our lies to deteriorate.

Let's suppose that an immensely powerful being, let's say an angel, someone you can't defy, gives you the following choice:

1. The angel supplies 1 white pill and 20 black pills.
2. You can choose to take 1 white pill of 1 black pill; if you refuse to choose, the angel will force the black pill on you.
3. If you ingest the white pill, you will experience 100 years of the most intense possible physical and mental pleasure, with no displeasure of any kind; in particular, no guilt or shame. Then you will disappear for ever.
If you ingest the black pill, you will experience the most intense possible unpleasantness, physical and mental, with no pleasantness, for 100 years, and then permanently cease to exist.
5. If you choose the white pill, the angel gives the black pills to 20 kindergarten students, who then experience 100 years of maximum displeasure.

What would you do in this case? Why?