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Ouze wrote: I can't wait for Bitcoin to finish it's inevitable crash so the prices for PC stuff can go back to normal. I just barely managed to get my wife a 1060 before tulip mania ripple miners jacked the price up enormously.
The real reason Nvidia has been trying to cut down on sales of GPUs to crypto miners isn't some altruistic defense of PC gaming, it's that they're trying to soften the blow of when a bajillion used 1080s and 1070s go on ebay to try and recover some tiny scraps back from failed coin enterprises.
nou wrote: That is why I used the term "significant". There is of course some fundamental value in stocks (as percentage of actual price) of real-world companies, but changes of value have only vague correlation to actual actions performed by those companies. Emotional effect of "exceeding expectations" or "failing expectations" are more important than actual performance/growth/decline in fundamental rems. I don't know about US stockmarket, but in Poland there were cases, when total stock value of a company was lower than re-sale value of land/property/machines owned by such company.
Price changing relative to expectation isn't an emotional impact, it is a real impact. A company that is expected to have sales of $100m and a net profit of $10m is going to be priced at one price, so when sales come in at $90m and net profit at $5m, the company is going to be valued less. It isn't an emotional thing, it's reacting to there being certain expectations about the profits and future cashflows of the company, and those expectations changing.
And you misunderstood this "synchronisation" part - it is not a "targeted tool", it is emergent interaction of masses and is self driven and spontaneous, but it influences everything to quite large degree and as a new phenomenon is not understood well enough to be "weaponised".
Ah, fair enough. I misread, my mistake.
I think you are right that information is increasing, and that information is far less controlled than it once was (financial news was never a bastion of reasoned or responsible reporting, but it was miles better than the likes of zerohedge). And yeah, the same is true for overall society (where again, the media was never a bastion of responsible and objective reporting, but it was miles better than Breitbart or stuff your uncle on Facebook links to).
And there are lots of social problems forming which people are linking to the new information environment, but I think there's a lot of over-prescription going on. Because while the political environment is a hot mess, we've just seen one of the most stable growth periods in market history. It's now national news because there was finally a single hiccup. So I agree that the new information environment has issues, but I think the impacts are complex and very far from universal.
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Peregrine wrote: Nah, bitcoin is already terrible as a currency (and a rather stupid investment) before even getting to the question of stability and being able to deliberately control its supply and value. Bitcoin is terrible as a currency because there's absolutely zero reason to adopt it from the point of view of any legal business. Bitcoin offers you almost nothing compared to taking payment in conventional government-issued currency, at best the processing fees might be lower than the processing fees charged by the credit card company.
Saying 'at best the processing fees might be lower' is a weird argument. Because lower processing fees are a great reason for adoption. That's like saying 'the only reason anything thinks they're a great team is those three championships they won'
So yeah, if bitcoin could reach lower transaction fees, it would have some merit, and given how high forex transaction fees can be, this is a very good reason. The problem is that bitcoin is a long way from that point right now. For starters, right now transaction fees aren't lower, and there's remarkably little work being down to bring down transaction fees. Second up is that bitcoin has such awful problems with volatility that holding a purse of bitcoin becomes problematic, instead people would likely trade in/out just for the 1 second of the trade, which raises transaction costs further. And lastly, if bitcoin was able to manage this... it wouldn't make it a replacement currency. It'd be more like a replacement for a part of Paypal.
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Ouze wrote: I can't wait for Bitcoin to finish it's inevitable crash so the prices for PC stuff can go back to normal. I just barely managed to get my wife a 1060 before tulip mania ripple miners jacked the price up enormously.
My PC chugs along running Total War Warhammer okayish, and I have no idea what card I have. So that part of the bitcoin silliness hasn't impacted me.
But I can't wait for the bitcoin crash just for the schadenfreude. I mean, have you guys ever talked to the bitcoin people? Not just people who bought some coins on speculation, but the true, real believers? I know a few people who've commented how nasty those guys can be and to be honest I never experienced that, but what I experienced was still something pretty amazing. It's like taking the politics of libertarianism at its most strident, then adding in the unquestioning cult mentality of Scientology, and the passive aggressive salesmanship of Amway.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/02/08 02:37:00
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
sebster wrote: Saying 'at best the processing fees might be lower' is a weird argument. Because lower processing fees are a great reason for adoption. That's like saying 'the only reason anything thinks they're a great team is those three championships they won'
Not really, because lower processing fees is not likely to have a huge impact on the customer. If a GW tactical marine costs $49.95 instead of $50 if you buy with bitcoin are you really going to care about the $0.05 you save? Is the company even going to pass the savings on to you and give you incentive to use bitcoin? Will the credit card company simply concede the price advantage to bitcoin, or lower its own prices to compete? It's going to be relatively weak adoption pressure, and the strongest demand for bitcoin is going to continue to come from illegal and/or embarrassing transactions.
And lastly, if bitcoin was able to manage this... it wouldn't make it a replacement currency. It'd be more like a replacement for a part of Paypal.
Well yeah, that's where I was going with that thought. Bitcoin is useless as a general currency, its only legal purpose is as a (hypothetical) paypal competitor. But, as you said, that's still very speculative at the moment.
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
Dakka does have White Knights and is also rather infamous for it's Black Knights. A new edition brings out the passionate and not all of them are good at expressing themselves in written form. There have been plenty of hysterical responses from both sides so far. So we descend into pointless bickering with neither side listening to each other. So posting here becomes more masturbation than conversation.
ERJAK wrote: Forcing a 40k player to keep playing 7th is basically a hate crime.
Ouze wrote: I can't wait for Bitcoin to finish it's inevitable crash so the prices for PC stuff can go back to normal. I just barely managed to get my wife a 1060 before tulip mania ripple miners jacked the price up enormously.
The real reason Nvidia has been trying to cut down on sales of GPUs to crypto miners isn't some altruistic defense of PC gaming, it's that they're trying to soften the blow of when a bajillion used 1080s and 1070s go on ebay to try and recover some tiny scraps back from failed coin enterprises.
The whole thing is incredibly stupid all around.
Actuallt, I want this to happen. My laptop is dying, and I need a new one with gaming capacities. So please crash already.
Kilkrazy wrote:When I was a young boy all my wargames were narratively based because I played with my toy soldiers and vehicles without the use of any rules.
The reason I bought rules and became a real wargamer was because I wanted a properly thought out structure to govern the action instead of just making things up as I went along.
Peregrine wrote: Not really, because lower processing fees is not likely to have a huge impact on the customer. If a GW tactical marine costs $49.95 instead of $50 if you buy with bitcoin are you really going to care about the $0.05 you save? Is the company even going to pass the savings on to you and give you incentive to use bitcoin? Will the credit card company simply concede the price advantage to bitcoin, or lower its own prices to compete? It's going to be relatively weak adoption pressure, and the strongest demand for bitcoin is going to continue to come from illegal and/or embarrassing transactions.
The cost of buying in a foreign currency isn't 0.1%, as in your example. The cost is more like 3% at best (and often unfavourable exchange rates can push it over 5%). If someone is buying a $50 thing, then they are likely to look for a service that costs them 50c, rather than a service that costs them at least $1.50. If that other service is convenient and reliable, of course.
The problem now is bitcoin costs more for a transaction because the supporting infrastructure is completely disfunctional, and because its so volatile that keeping a purse for transactions means opening yourself up to huge risk, which means you'd want to go in/out instead, which basically doubles your transaction fees.
I understand there's other crypto that's cheaper to trade, so if someone could come up with a crypto that's actually stable (maybe by pegging to the USD) then that'd really be worth something.
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
sebster wrote: The cost of buying in a foreign currency isn't 0.1%, as in your example. The cost is more like 3% at best (and often unfavourable exchange rates can push it over 5%). If someone is buying a $50 thing, then they are likely to look for a service that costs them 50c, rather than a service that costs them at least $1.50. If that other service is convenient and reliable, of course.
But that's an even smaller victory. Now you're talking about the limited market where there's enough demand for international purchases for the benefits of a cheaper transaction fee that the costs of setting up your store to accept bitcoin are worth it, but you don't have enough demand to just sell stuff in their native currency. If you buy a GW space marine for $50 you are only paying the transaction fee, you aren't paying a conversion fee to buy in GBP because GW isn't charging you in GBP. And even in the best case scenario you're talking about a $1.50 fee. That's a rounding error that most people aren't going to notice, and paying $1.50 occasionally isn't going to motivate people to adopt bitcoin.
To be successful bitcoin needs to undercut the transaction fees on high-volume purchases. For example, if bitcoin can undercut the credit card companies (and continue to undercut them when the credit card companies lower their rates to stay ahead of bitcoin) on general transaction fees they might give your local grocery store a reason to accept bitcoin. A grocery store is a high volume, low margin business where per-item profits are extremely low and even a small cost reduction per item can produce a massive percentage-wise increase in profits. But that's a tough goal to accomplish.
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
NinthMusketeer wrote: I have a slightly different interpretation of the matter. In my eyes there is fundamental value to stocks, as they are a share of a real company, yet the perception of that value is affected by group psychology, etc. Same page there. What I see is that since bitcoin (and the like) has no fundamental value the overall valuation of the stock market is used as one by proxy. So bitcoin essentially piggybacks on the same mood of the market without as much of a psychological 'identity' of it's own, while the latter operates independently.
So bitcoin as a purely speculative, ends up piggybacking on the trends of the stock market (which themselves have a cause that is a combination of fundamental and psychological elements)?
That, to me, is an excellent explanation. Seriously, I pinched this from a twitter thread where it was being discussed by economists, and I don't think any of them gave answers that were close to being as complete, and as concise. Mad props to you.
Thanks mate! I respect you as a poster so coming from you that means a lot.
Peregrine wrote: But that's an even smaller victory. Now you're talking about the limited market where there's enough demand for international purchases for the benefits of a cheaper transaction fee that the costs of setting up your store to accept bitcoin are worth it, but you don't have enough demand to just sell stuff in their native currency. If you buy a GW space marine for $50 you are only paying the transaction fee, you aren't paying a conversion fee to buy in GBP because GW isn't charging you in GBP. And even in the best case scenario you're talking about a $1.50 fee. That's a rounding error that most people aren't going to notice, and paying $1.50 occasionally isn't going to motivate people to adopt bitcoin.
To be successful bitcoin needs to undercut the transaction fees on high-volume purchases. For example, if bitcoin can undercut the credit card companies (and continue to undercut them when the credit card companies lower their rates to stay ahead of bitcoin) on general transaction fees they might give your local grocery store a reason to accept bitcoin. A grocery store is a high volume, low margin business where per-item profits are extremely low and even a small cost reduction per item can produce a massive percentage-wise increase in profits. But that's a tough goal to accomplish.
I think you're making a lot of assumptions, the biggest is assuming this has to be a consumer led change, and that it must replace traditional currency. Those outcomes are unllikely at best, but also not needed. There's huge potential for a blockchain product to work entirely as an unseen financial intermediary, so I'm online and I press pay, and $50 disappears from my bank account. Right now the bank will shift my money to a financial intermediary (it may be a subsidiary, but even if it is it still costs money), then that intermediary will shift the money to another intermediary in the other country, trading the currency in to the vendor's currency, and then that intermediary will deposit the money in the vendor's account.
With a system underpinned by blockchain all that extra handling is dropped, because instead of needing all those agencies to verify each other, blockchain's ledger system does it automatically. There's huge potential savings, if someone can build a blockchain that focuses on getting costs to near zero.
The really big thing to realise is the consumer doesn't even need to know what is happening. Right now, the consumer has no idea about how his money is moved through intermediaries. He doesn't know what paypal does to shift the money after he click 'make payment'. But if a company can offer banks a system to move money for next to nothing, you bet they'll take it.
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NinthMusketeer wrote: Thanks mate! I respect you as a poster so coming from you that means a lot.
Not a problem mate. It really was an excellent answer.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/09 07:02:26
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Do wonder how many IT guys for large companies take advantage of things like the Xmas holidays to try things like this.
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
Ouze wrote: I can't wait for Bitcoin to finish it's inevitable crash so the prices for PC stuff can go back to normal. I just barely managed to get my wife a 1060 before tulip mania ripple miners jacked the price up enormously.
The real reason Nvidia has been trying to cut down on sales of GPUs to crypto miners isn't some altruistic defense of PC gaming, it's that they're trying to soften the blow of when a bajillion used 1080s and 1070s go on ebay to try and recover some tiny scraps back from failed coin enterprises.
The whole thing is incredibly stupid all around.
Actuallt, I want this to happen. My laptop is dying, and I need a new one with gaming capacities. So please crash already.
Watch out for that, tho, because miners pretty much melt the cards in the process.
reds8n wrote: [Do wonder how many IT guys for large companies take advantage of things like the Xmas holidays to try things like this.
We haven't foiled any insider jobs yet but as a datacenter employee for a fortune 100 company we've definitely seen people load miners onto servers. It's not very productive since those are almost all virtualized and have limited processing power to begin with, and we see alarms if the CPU spikes for a certain threshold.
No ones ever gotten one onto the big iron yet, which is where it would actually be worth it, but we'd see that really quickly (within an hour tops) since we're constantly monitoring CPU usage for normal batch processing work that somehow got screwed up or was written poorly. The heavy duty stuff gets heavy duty eyeballs - my guess is that the change control and SOX processes in the former Soviet countries is, uh, not as robust.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2018/02/10 19:42:31
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
Ouze wrote: I can't wait for Bitcoin to finish it's inevitable crash so the prices for PC stuff can go back to normal. I just barely managed to get my wife a 1060 before tulip mania ripple miners jacked the price up enormously.
The real reason Nvidia has been trying to cut down on sales of GPUs to crypto miners isn't some altruistic defense of PC gaming, it's that they're trying to soften the blow of when a bajillion used 1080s and 1070s go on ebay to try and recover some tiny scraps back from failed coin enterprises.
The whole thing is incredibly stupid all around.
Actuallt, I want this to happen. My laptop is dying, and I need a new one with gaming capacities. So please crash already.
Watch out for that, tho, because miners pretty much melt the cards in the process.
Ouze wrote:
reds8n wrote: [Do wonder how many IT guys for large companies take advantage of things like the Xmas holidays to try things like this.
We haven't foiled any insider jobs yet but as a datacenter employee for a fortune 100 company we've definitely seen people load miners onto servers. It's not very productive since those are almost all virtualized and have limited processing power to begin with, and we see alarms if the CPU spikes for a certain threshold.
No ones ever gotten one onto the big iron yet, which is where it would actually be worth it, but we'd see that really quickly (within an hour tops) since we're constantly monitoring CPU usage for normal batch processing work that somehow got screwed up or was written poorly. The heavy duty stuff gets heavy duty eyeballs - my guess is that the change control and SOX processes in the former Soviet countries is, uh, not as robust.
the cards are not made to run 24/7 at full power output.. , these are high end but regular joe level parts, we not talking a commercial grade server system built to run at months at time with extremely rare pauses.
There gonna be fried by the time they done.
and doubt it would be easy, your average massive companies will have constant demand on servers, logs, and other systems to monitor usage, they cost many millions of dollers and they be watching even the smallest problems and errors, because breaking, crashing or shutting one down costs a fortune and a huge headache rerouting all the tasks it performed.
However, you never know CIA may have a qautom computer in the basement mining away to fund there black projects!
Sgt. Vanden - OOC Hey, that was your doing. I didn't choose to fly in the "Dongerprise'.
"May the odds be ever in your favour"
Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
I have no clue how Dakka's moderation work. I expect it involves throwing a lot of d100 and looking at many random tables.
FudgeDumper - It could be that you are just so uncomfortable with the idea of your chapters primarch having his way with a docile tyranid spore cyst, that you must deny they have any feelings at all.
Scientists listening out for broadcasts by extra-terrestrials are struggling to get the computer hardware they need, thanks to the crypto-currency mining craze, a radio-astronomer has said.
Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) wants to expand operations at two observatories.
However, it has found that key computer chips are in short supply.
"We'd like to use the latest GPUs [graphics processing units]... and we can't get 'em," said Dan Werthimer.
Demand for GPUs has soared recently thanks to crypto-currency mining.
"That's limiting our search for extra-terrestrials, to try to answer the question, 'Are we alone? Is there anybody out there?'," Dr Werthimer told the BBC.
"This is a new problem, it's only happened on orders we've been trying to make in the last couple of months."
Mining a currency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum involves connecting computers to a global network and using them to solve complex mathematical puzzles.
This forms part of the process of validating transactions made by people who use the currency.
As a reward for this work, the miners receive a small crypto-currency payment, making it potentially profitable.
...*sighs* ... we hadda choose the dumbest timeline eh ?
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
Scientists listening out for broadcasts by extra-terrestrials are struggling to get the computer hardware they need, thanks to the crypto-currency mining craze, a radio-astronomer has said.
Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) wants to expand operations at two observatories.
However, it has found that key computer chips are in short supply.
"We'd like to use the latest GPUs [graphics processing units]... and we can't get 'em," said Dan Werthimer.
Demand for GPUs has soared recently thanks to crypto-currency mining.
"That's limiting our search for extra-terrestrials, to try to answer the question, 'Are we alone? Is there anybody out there?'," Dr Werthimer told the BBC.
"This is a new problem, it's only happened on orders we've been trying to make in the last couple of months."
Mining a currency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum involves connecting computers to a global network and using them to solve complex mathematical puzzles.
This forms part of the process of validating transactions made by people who use the currency.
As a reward for this work, the miners receive a small crypto-currency payment, making it potentially profitable.
...*sighs* ... we hadda choose the dumbest timeline eh ?
Mine Bitcoin, or look for Aliens. Mining for Bitcoin would be a better choice IMO since you might actually make some money. Instead of blindly looking for something that you are never ever going to find.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/14 21:59:50
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Scientists listening out for broadcasts by extra-terrestrials are struggling to get the computer hardware they need, thanks to the crypto-currency mining craze, a radio-astronomer has said.
Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) wants to expand operations at two observatories.
However, it has found that key computer chips are in short supply.
"We'd like to use the latest GPUs [graphics processing units]... and we can't get 'em," said Dan Werthimer.
Demand for GPUs has soared recently thanks to crypto-currency mining.
"That's limiting our search for extra-terrestrials, to try to answer the question, 'Are we alone? Is there anybody out there?'," Dr Werthimer told the BBC.
"This is a new problem, it's only happened on orders we've been trying to make in the last couple of months."
Mining a currency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum involves connecting computers to a global network and using them to solve complex mathematical puzzles.
This forms part of the process of validating transactions made by people who use the currency.
As a reward for this work, the miners receive a small crypto-currency payment, making it potentially profitable.
...*sighs* ... we hadda choose the dumbest timeline eh ?
Mine Bitcoin, or look for Aliens. Mining for Bitcoin would be a better choice IMO since you might actually make some money. Instead of blindly looking for something that you are never ever going to find.
I feel like SETI is like buying a lottery ticket. You definitely aren't going to win the jackpot if you buy a ticket, but you actually definitely aren't going to win the jackpot if you don't buy one.
We were once so close to heaven, St. Peter came out and gave us medals; declaring us "The nicest of the damned".
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
Grey Templar wrote: Mining for Bitcoin would be a better choice IMO since you might actually make some money.
Actually, as a normal person, mining bitcoin is a really stupid idea and almost guaranteed to lose money. The rate of bitcoin generation is less than the cost of the hardware and the power required to run it. Unless you're running ASICs or stolen server farms or similar you're just throwing away money.
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
Grey Templar wrote:Mine Bitcoin, or look for Aliens. Mining for Bitcoin would be a better choice IMO since you might actually make some money. Instead of blindly looking for something that you are never ever going to find.
Grey Templar wrote: Mine Bitcoin, or look for Aliens. Mining for Bitcoin would be a better choice IMO since you might actually make some money. Instead of blindly looking for something that you are never ever going to find.
Finding evidence of extra terrestrial life changes human history forever. Getting some bitcoin... you might make some money if you get out before it falls over, but so what? You make some money, the idiot who bought off you before the crash loses some money. In terms of human history the whole thing gets remembered as just another bubble in a long history of stupid bubbles.
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
sebster wrote: Finding evidence of extra terrestrial life changes human history forever. Getting some bitcoin... you might make some money if you get out before it falls over, but so what? You make some money, the idiot who bought off you before the crash loses some money. In terms of human history the whole thing gets remembered as just another bubble in a long history of stupid bubbles.
To be fair, "make money over helping society" is a pretty common theme of human history. The stupidity of bitcoin is not prioritizing personal wealth over advancing science, it's that the vast majority of people mining bitcoin (IOW, anyone not running ASIC farms on cheap Chinese electricity) are throwing away money on it and never going to make a net profit.
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
Peregrine wrote: To be fair, "make money over helping society" is a pretty common theme of human history. The stupidity of bitcoin is not prioritizing personal wealth over advancing science, it's that the vast majority of people mining bitcoin (IOW, anyone not running ASIC farms on cheap Chinese electricity) are throwing away money on it and never going to make a net profit.
Definitely. I didn't want to claim people should suddenly start thinking only of greater human advancement or anything utopian like that, I just wanted to contrast that while SETI has long odds, if it works then there's an actual social benefit, a huge one. But bitcoin, that's just a zero sum game, a person might make some money, but only by selling to someone else who gets stuck holding the coins when the crash wipes it completely. The only way bitcoin is anything more than that is if it becomes an actual currency with some kind of benefit that modern currency doesn't give, and the odds of that ever happening seems a lot less likely than SETI discovering aliens in the next minute.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/15 06:31:20
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Grey Templar wrote: Mine Bitcoin, or look for Aliens. Mining for Bitcoin would be a better choice IMO since you might actually make some money. Instead of blindly looking for something that you are never ever going to find.
Finding evidence of extra terrestrial life changes human history forever. Getting some bitcoin... you might make some money if you get out before it falls over, but so what? You make some money, the idiot who bought off you before the crash loses some money. In terms of human history the whole thing gets remembered as just another bubble in a long history of stupid bubbles.
Not to mention that SETI scanning the sky also provides coverage and the potential to pick up interesting signals to be studied even if they are not of alien origin.
Grey Templar wrote: Mine Bitcoin, or look for Aliens. Mining for Bitcoin would be a better choice IMO since you might actually make some money. Instead of blindly looking for something that you are never ever going to find.
Finding evidence of extra terrestrial life changes human history forever. Getting some bitcoin... you might make some money if you get out before it falls over, but so what? You make some money, the idiot who bought off you before the crash loses some money. In terms of human history the whole thing gets remembered as just another bubble in a long history of stupid bubbles.
Not to mention that SETI scanning the sky also provides coverage and the potential to pick up interesting signals to be studied even if they are not of alien origin.
I get that they do find some actually interesting stuff. My point is maybe they should make that their main mission goal. Instead of trying to metaphorically win the lottery.
Its like a homeless person putting all the money they panhandle for into lottery tickets instead of trying to find some help to no longer be homeless. Sure, they might win, but there are more productive things they could do.
SETI is basically a scam that by accident sometimes finds useful stuff. When instead they could just look for that useful stuff in the first place.
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Bitcoin viability depends entirely on it being difficult to produce. That is tied directly to processing power of CPU's. Moore's law states that processing power will continually increase - which means bitcoin was doomed to fail from the start. It is that simple.
If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced.
- Fox Mulder
SETI is basically a scam that by accident sometimes finds useful stuff. When instead they could just look for that useful stuff in the first place.
The issue is that the useful stuff they find is often stuff no one would have thought to look for in and of itself.
Discovery is not something that can be driven by clearly defined goals in the same way you run a business. Many of the most useful and world changing discoveries were complete accidents or byproducts of people pursuing other things. As silly as SETI's stated goal is (and it really is silly), it's not like we're so devoid of money that we can't toss them bones just to see what turns up. There's no functional way to know when, where, and how the next penicillin, pacemaker, microwave oven, or x-rays will be discovered (all of these things were discovered/invented by accident) which isn't to say we should throw money to the wind, just that we shouldn't arbitrarily discard or throw away ideas just because they're a little silly to us now. Someday we might be grateful we threw some dollars into a silly project because it came up with something useful.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/15 21:59:40
