IronGland

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Posts by IronGland

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  21

  Sooo....anybody know of any IT jobs in Oregon? (Or...anywhere?)

  by Xander in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been working at a telephony company doing primarily sql database stuff for the past 7 years, and the last year of that telecommuting from oregon (they didn't want to lose such a valued employee, so made arrangements for that).

  unfortunately, our ceo died recently (within the past 6 weeks), the resulting turmoil with investors and customers is causing the company to go out of business.

  should last out the end of the month, but, then, that's it.

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  IronGland

  I mean, everyone is talking about how "recovered" the economy is....but I'm still not seeing any jobs!

  There are probably MANY MANY IT jobs in Oregon. Do you speak Hindi?
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  40

  District Assembly eating rules....

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  during our district assembly which will be held at a coliseum, we were told not to go outside during the intermission, and not eat in restaurants near by.

  we were told to bring our own food and eat inside the coliseum.

  usually, the coliseum offers hot dogs and hamburgers and drinks, but the brothers refused this service.. .

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  IronGland

  Also, wouldn't it be a fine example of faith to withhold taking a crap for the entire 3 days so as not to miss any spiritual food.
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  40

  District Assembly eating rules....

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  during our district assembly which will be held at a coliseum, we were told not to go outside during the intermission, and not eat in restaurants near by.

  we were told to bring our own food and eat inside the coliseum.

  usually, the coliseum offers hot dogs and hamburgers and drinks, but the brothers refused this service.. .

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  IronGland

  i wonder if they will eventually ask that people not stay at hotels but instead bring sleeping bags and just sleep in your chair. That way the talks could last till midnight with an 8 hr sleep break and back up again at 8am
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  4

  Consciousness

  by IronGland in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  last night as usual i was laying in my pod meditating when i began to consider consciousness.i have long held the view that artificial intelligence is just a matter of time away, and that when it comes it will match human intelligence for a few brief days as some of the sillier bugs are eliminated from the code.

  we are in the process of creating our replacements, the question is really whether we will find a way to come along for the ride.. .

  in thinking about artificial intelligence i wandered down the path of considering determinism and it's impact.

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  IronGland

  Last night as usual I was laying in my pod meditating when I began to consider consciousness.I have long held the view that artificial intelligence is just a matter of time away, and that when it comes it will match human intelligence for a few brief days as some of the sillier bugs are eliminated from the code. We are in the process of creating our replacements, the question is really whether we will find a way to come along for the ride.
  
  In thinking about artificial intelligence I wandered down the path of considering determinism and it's impact. The Church-Turing thesis is nice in that it suggests anything computable can be done in a turing machine. One issue I had for a while is that you could always predict (to a finite time in the future) what a Turing machine would do. This forced me to consider myself a compatabilist.
  
  Lately, I have been thinking that in some ways consciousness is an illusion. Something that we pat ourselves on the back about, as making us somehow special, or above all other forms of life. In reading a little more Bertrand Russell recently I encountered a section where animal behavourists were routinely encountering behaviour in animals that reflected their own bias. This got me a little way toward considering that a) the difference of our consciousness from animals was in degree not kind and b) that we can be very self deceptive of what we see in human traits.
  
  I've also been fleshing out my views on epistemology and the mind. Increasingly I am seeing the mind more simply as inputs, outputs, memory and changeable processing structures with inherited structures for all these components.
  
  Epistemically we have emotions and intuition, which are part of the inherited structures with an evolutionary benefit, which motive us to act and observe and to create beliefs as a result. We learn some basics as children and lacking the rational capacity of an adult treat these foundationally. As we develop rational capability increases, as does our set of beliefs, and some of us are motivated to coherency in our belief sets - it's been useful.
  
  There have been some suggestions that we resolve internal conflicts through managing cognitative dissonance. Nothing particularly earth shattering about this, but if you think of what a Turing machine is and what it can do. And think about the effect of complexity and chaotic systems, say the following one: -
  

  • next value = 3.9 * (last value - 1)

  And consider that this behaves unpredictably (well sort of) but within a finite range of possibilities. Well, I ask myself the question. How is this different in kind from a mind and it's consciousness. I come to the conclusion that it is no different in kind, only in degree.
  
  Consciousness is then an arbitrary point we choose to define somewhere in the range of complexity of processing systems, special in degree not in kind.
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  38

  Marburg and Ebola viruses? Man made?

  by Stephen John Gault in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  mysterious viruses suddenly emerging from central east africa, with similar footprints.

  mmmmmm........ .

  anyone have inside info?

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  IronGland

  IronGland - yes. I have found other ex-JW's who have became very introspective, prepared to question everything, and those are the ones I seek to draw out.

  Sounds like a brilliant way to deal with deadly viral infections.
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  38

  Marburg and Ebola viruses? Man made?

  by Stephen John Gault in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  mysterious viruses suddenly emerging from central east africa, with similar footprints.

  mmmmmm........ .

  anyone have inside info?

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  IronGland

  Anyone have inside info?

  This is a board of former JW's. Are you actually expecting to find microbiologists here?
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  24

  A Moral Dillema... and ideas?

  by Abaddon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  okay, background info;.

  my ex-wife is threatening to cut contact between me and my daughters (12 and almost 15).. she has done a great job of being the parent with the lions share of rasing them (especialy as she's become inactive) and has always resisted 'excessive' involvement as well as always being resentful and obstructive of contact with them, down to them not feeling comfortable to call me due to her reaction.

  last year my x cut off contact for three month as she was 'under stress'... or more accurately, i'd asked to have them for a week in the summer holidays and she can't stand to see me have anything that makes me happy even if it spoils things for her daughters.... this year, in addition to repeating the request for holidays, i spoke to her about a few problems i'd found out about regarding my daughters.

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  IronGland

  At the moment UK law is SHIT at getting decent access for fathers if the mother decides otherwise

  It's not just the UK. It's amazing to see the cavalier attitude many women have towards divorce knowing they will get custody of the kids and child support and/or alimony. It's a no lose situation for them.
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  5

  Conservative v. Liberal talk sounds like JW v. Worldly

  by IronGland in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  caricatures of 'liberal' to make people feel good about themselves that they are not that way.

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  IronGland

  too bad when Cletus calls in to Rush Limbaugh he doesn't realise that.

  "Me and the missus were at were at World of Meat getting some 'cue and the waitresses were all slow and surly. Liberals, no doubt. Damn liberals have even infected BBQ joints."
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  5

  Conservative v. Liberal talk sounds like JW v. Worldly

  by IronGland in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  caricatures of 'liberal' to make people feel good about themselves that they are not that way.

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  IronGland

  Caricatures of 'liberal' to make people feel good about themselves that they are not that way.
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  138

  Guns: Opinions?

  by RichieRich in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my mom isnt a big fan of guns, but after being mugged once, she appreciates the value of a well placed firearm.

  she doesn't mind that i hunt and go to the shooting range regularly with my father.

  about 6 months ago, i was out in field service with my mother and an elder's 2 daughters.

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  IronGland

  Carry a samurai sword instead. Less likely to injure bystanders. Also, attackers will avoid a person carrying a sword, because 'why is that dude carrying a sword'.