h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Since we've been talking a while I thought I'd come and have a look at your space only to find your a dog lover. Very dissapointing I thought you'd be a cat person like all right thinking people. Dogs eat children. I'm sure of it I just don't have any evidence.

Also quite a fan of money. Would rather have it than not. I'd even go so far as to say it is better that it is in the world than not. I think the problem is not the money itself, having a physical reperesentation of what a person owes/is owed by society is a good idea. It's the free market economy that gets to me.

You like aetheists, is it safe to assume you are one? I act as if I am though I belive there could be a god so technically I'm agnostic. I just don't pretend that I know anything about what a god would want if it does exist so it has no visible impact on the way I live my life. How can you be sure that there is no god?

Dogs make me happy. I like cats but my roommate is highly allergic.

I'm sure you realize by my "false dichotomies" comment that I think listing things you like and don't like (and throwing in a bunch of big abstractions) is a bit oversimplified. I don't think money is a bad thing. I think trying to treat your feelings of emptiness by hoarding posessions and/or getting into a pissing match over wealth is probably unhealthy.

I think I said I like "atheism," the thing, not the people. I don't know why that one's on there. I used to be a die-hard atheist but I'm in the process of changing these days, so my beliefs have more plasticity to them. And the argument against god and many of the other things you've suggested is "parsimony." Why add concepts to your model that don't increase your ability to explain things? It's not that I know there is no god, it's that I think everything can be explained without the existence of god, so what use do i have for the god-concept? That being said, I've been interested in the concept of a universal consciousness, which people sometimes liken to god.

Congrats on being the first person to make any comment whatsoever on my space. I had assumed I was just talking to myself.

I believe I've failed to mention this anywhere, but I am in fact female.

I have been scared of dogs for as long as I can remember. Jenna never misses an opportunity to relate the tale of me hiding behind her in the face of a 8 inch tall poodle. It was after me I tell you. Never been bitten, can't work out why it should be, just don't like the things.

As I said before I act in all situations as if I am an atheist because the god concept is of no use to me in any situation. But on a level of pure thought I cannot prove that it is not so, I simply assume it is for any practical situation. Equally I cannot prove the existance of the past or future. However I assume that the things I remember actually happened and that existance will not come to a sudden end because we've run out of future when I come to make any practical decision.

I consider atheism to be as much a matter of faith as any religion. It makes as little sense to add the fact 'no god' to your reasoning as it does to add the fact 'god' to your reasoning since both produce no new information. In either case it is simply the case that a person has faith in either the existance or non-existance of god. Where there can be no proof there is only faith and faith is somthing that you have or you don't it is not a choice you can conciously make.

Oh dear did I make that mistake somewhere? It would not be the first time I've got someones gender wrong. But then again a quick gander at my space shows people (and internet servers) have made that mistake about me so on some karmic level I guess I'm even.

You didn't make any mistake. It's just something that people like to know about people they're talking to. It's hard for us humans to ignore gender.

I disagree slightly with equating adding "god" to adding "no god." How can refraining from adding something to a model make it unnecessarily complex? However, it does take faith... But it's not like people are going to tell you you're sinful if you question that faith. I was raised Catholic.

Poodles are vicious tho, no joke. But do you hate puppies? Little baby rolly-polly ones?

I disagree. I have to program a lot of rule based systems in AI adding 'not X' is not the same as deciding that X is not relevant to the program and leaving it out.

By having faith that god does not exist you add a peice of information that is irrelevant. Since you only use the 'not god' fact to refute arguments that would come from the 'god' fact you gain nothing over simply not including it. I have never tried to claim that god does not exist, because I do not belive that this is a demonstratable or useful peice of information. You could even say that to disbelive god is unscientific. What I do claim is that if god does exist he is irrelevant to everything.

Even little puppies, they're the worst. They like to look cute and innocent so that they can get into your homes. Then your friends see them and think they're cute and innocent and let them into their homes. Then your friends friends get a puppy too. In this manner they spread like an epedemic, causing minor mayhem, stealing shoes, pooing in the corner, waiting watching. Until one day, where you and your friends and your friends friends and your friends friends friends wake up one day to find you've not got puppies but you've all got dogs. Finally when these no-so-cute dogs have spread to every houshold they show their true colours and eat the children. And the rug. And the cat. And I told them. I warned them. They called me crazy. But I warned them. Now they know. But they can't get me. Not me. They won't get me. I see it coming.

In conclusion I don't like dogs of any sort. Additionally I can be percieved by some groups to be a tad irrational on some areas relating to the subject of dogs.

While in theory i see the difference between "god exists but is irrelevant to everything" and "there is no god," they mean basically the same thing to me. Anything that has no impact on anything may as well not exist, and we'll never know otherwise, and whatever.

My doggie likes to cuddle and be petted. When she wants attention, she sits as close to me as possible and gives me that puppy dog look, or she just leans on me. Sometimes she brings me the demolished remains of one of her toys and holds it millimeters from my hand, waiting for me to try to grab it so that she can jerk it away. She likes that game.

The key to not being afraid of dogs is being able to read them. They're very open and give clearer signals than people generally do.I'm more scared of cats because they act in really unpredictable ways, like you'll be petting them and you'll do it wrong and they'll freak out and scratch you.

They mean the same thing in any practical applicaion but I think one's more correct than the other and while theres no practical difference I'm nitpicky like that.

"Your technically correct. The best kind of correct" - Head Beaurocrat, Futurama

Sorry to be so nitpicky but I'll give an example of why it's important to the sort of stuff I do. This piece of code was used to control a plane. X is the desired speed, Y is the actual speed.

if Y < X then increase speed
elseif Y > X then decrease speed
endif

Can you see the problem? Well the plane this autopilot was flying fell to earth resulting in the deaths of all crew and passangers. The problem was eventually found: If the desired speed and actual speed were this same (which is very unlikely because it was being counted to a reasonable number of decimal places) then the program decided that the engines were not needed (since there was no command requiring speed) and promptly switched them off.

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Aren't toys supposed to be loved and cherished? Doesn't that mean that if a dog loves me one day it'll bring it's owner the demolished remains of AO?

Cats are better than dogs because they are more of a challange. If you win a cats friendship then it was worth something. It was an effort and as your reward you have a warm fuzzy purring ball of perfection. Dogs on the other hand like anyone who comes within 50ft of them. Now have you ever heard of anyone who liked everyone they met without exception? Nope, the reason is that it doesn't happen. They're up to something. Besides which a cat can scratch you which stings for a while, but a dog can maim or kill a person. They don't use police-cats or guard-cats because cats are not very violent unlike their canine counterparts.

One of my roommates last year actually thought that my dog was secretly out to get him. Eventually, he realized that he was completely delusional, because she loves him. Happy ending!

Good news, my dog doesn't like everyone. She's extremely loyal to the people she already knows, and defends them against new people or dogs. Oh, but she automatically likes all girls (go fig).

All dogs destroy their toys. And they successfully live with people without maiming or being violent.

I love futurama.

And I work at my relationship with my dog. I won't settle for an ignorant, yappy, disobedient dog like poodles tend to be. My dog is a very intelligent, attentive, obedient and loyal specemin and I train her to look to me and be responsive under any conditions, because it keeps everyone safe and happy. She's also good for cleaning up any food spills that might occur, and cuddling.

I haven't programmed since high school, really, but I understand what you mean. It's not so rigidly part of the way I think... Maybe that's why the physics profs hated me.

That's a dog stereotype. They have personalities, you know! And so do cats, so that's a cat stereotype too.

And that's another amazing thing about dogs. My dog is a fifth of my size but she can match me at tug-of-war. She could totally kick my a$$ if she wanted to, but instead she chooses to follow my orders, nuzzle me, protect me, and cower in front of me when I'm angry. A relationship with a dog takes trust, and she deserves it.

I dunno, to some extent I think profs of any subject like an imaginative thinker. Though when it comes to AI I think they would prefer an imagainative rigid thinker. I do my best Then again they also like people who don't abbreviate their title to 'prof' :P

I firmly belive that all people are equal and should not be stereotyped. I also firmly belive that cats are better than dogs. It is. In the same way that Everest is.

Not another person taken in by the pro-dog propaganda. Look at 'cats and dogs' terrible film, makes dogs out to be the good ones. Well if they're really good why do they need to appeal to the mass media. Loads of films have dogs in doing ridiculous acts in the media wheras cats are less aggresive in their marketing and tend to play rather subued roles (Except for the garfield movie which is bound to be a travesty)

"Smithers look at this, that dog dragged a baby out of a burning building and then dragged a criminal back inside" - Monty, Simpsons

Ah there is a Matt Groaning quote for almost any occasion.

Since I've ended up on the subject what sort of things do you like to watch? I haven't had a TV in 2 years so I haven't seen anything besides what me and my housemates own on DVD and video. Is it all as good as Spaced and the West Wing or is a lot of it still as bad as I remeber?

Hrm... Maybe all people should be treated equally (maybe), but you think all people *are* equal? Equal in what? Ability? Usefulness? Arbitrary human life units?

I was born pro-dog and you were born pro-cat, and look how unequal we've been since then.

I don't really watch that much tv, but "Last Comic Standing" was pretty good. I like watching "The Price is Right" sometimes because I used to only get to watch that when I was home sick or on vacation... And my friends think this is kind of perverse but sometimes I watch home shopping because it boggles the mind... The way they can go on about how great everything is, and their beliefs (i.e. every woman needs to have a white pearl necklace, made up face and lifted bottom), and the heartfelt testimonials are just icing...

Oh yeah, if I had cable I would definitely watch the Daily Show.

I should refine my statement. I mean two things. Firstly all people are born equal in...the best phrase I can come up with is social standing, but thats not exactly what I mean.

Nobody is born into this world with "treat me as inferior" stamped on their forehead (unless they have a very unlikely birthmark) but time and time again people have treated other people badly as a result of their birth. Black people shouldn't be allowed into same homes as white people because they had coloured parents. Women shouldn't be allowed to earn more than their husbands, which of course they have to get because no sane woman could exist on her own, because they were born with the wrong chromosones. Common people shouldn't be allowed to have ideas above their station because they had common parents. People shouldn't be allowed into the country because they were born to parents who live somewhere else. These ideas make me sick from an ethical point of view, but since ethics are to an extent individual I will talk about it purely from an efficiency point of view.

A story:
A ship sets sail from the western coast of England to wage war on the French. A day into the journey the captain spots land and declares they've reached France, the crew prepares to land. A common born sailor shows the captain his charts of their journey and shows that this is in fact not France but south-west England and furthermore if they try and land they are going to hit some rocks and sink the ship. The captain, of course, hangs this man because captains have to have proper birthright and commen men could not, by law at the time, keep maps. The ship hit some rocks off the south-west coast of England and went down will all hands.

If the captain had judged the idea on it's own merits rather than the parents of the person who proposed it the ship and its crew might have reached its destination. (Where they could have been killed by the French archers instead.) See where this is going? Now we are getting better, I can keep as many charts as I want these days, go me. Still, however, you can find this sort of thing everywhere you look. There was an equal opportunities director post being advertised with different salaries for men and women. I hope it was a joke, but as far as I can tell broadsheets don't publish jokes if it's not April 1. Theres also the tiny matter of inheritance, it's so ingrained into society as an idea it doesn't occur to people to consider it unfair. Its a model whereby the amount of influence a person will have is dictated by their parents. If I were in charge I'd put inheritance tax up to 90% and give the person whatever their fair share would be then they pay the tax.

Gee I can rean't a bit can't I?

Secondly point: Given all people are born equal any people you should treat anyone you have met within the past few months equally. It is not the case that all people are equal, there are differences, but a persons intrinsic value is in the decisions that they make in life and this is what they should be judged on, this is the value they should be trated by and you can't possibly know it until you have got to know the person to some degree.

My problem is that I'm a wooly minded idealist who would like to see people rewarded for their efforts rather than their luck.

We've been different since then - would you say that my being pro-cat makes me in some way less of a person? I don't hold it against you that your pro-dog it just means you've been taken in like so many others. They won't...

Thats my other problem. I need to learn when to stop ranting about dogs.

I know someone who watches home shopping for entertainment. I can only survive it in small doeses - it has some sickening quality. Still it's entertaining watching things like a group trying to pretend to be the perfectly normal family while simultaneously having an obbsession with breadmakers. Also the number of times "but thats not all" can be used in one commercial. Does it really make a deal sound any better. Worth a go.

If you send me a mere $100,000 I'll post a thank you note on your space
but thats not all
I'll also send you this fine pencil
but thats not all
I'll tell all my friends how nice you are
but thats not all
I'll give you $100 cashback
but thats not all
I'll write your name down in a special book that guarantees reward in the afterlife

So how about it?

As an atheist, and not wanting to get married or have kids, I had a lot of arguments with people in high school along these lines. These days, my friends are all a lot more liberal. But I think my view of class and inheritence is slightly different from yours, being American and whatnot.

Personally, I tend to treat people the way I see them treating others. In theory, I would like to treat everyone better than that.

I said being pro-cat makes us not equal, as in you != me. But that should be obvious.

You're thinking of infomercials. I'm talking about whole channels devoted to home shopping. They're live. It's a bit different...

I suspect that this post won't get through because of server glitches but you never know.

I don't see the relevance of aetheism or marrige or kids. I am an agnostic who doesn't want a religious ceremony but might get married as a commitment and doesn't want kids - does this mean I have a liberal profile?

What are your views on class and inheritance?

Thats quite a good way to treat people. After all the way they treat people is one of the more important decisions you make in life - but it isn't the be all and end all. I'm in AI, which means I take classes with computer scientists - y'know the sterotype that computer scientists have no social skills? Well I think I've met the man who that was based on. David Moss if you ever come across him. It wouldn't have been fair of me to treat him badly because he appeared to be being rude to everyone, it was more a case of social ineptitude. Besides I'm glad I didn't, I ended up working with him on a project next year and I've never seen a more brilliant mind at work - the man was a joy to work with.

Infomercials? I've heard the phrase before but I've never seen something describing itself as a commercial. Does an infomercial derive it's name from having more informative? Why is it I suddenly feel all skeptical?