geoffrey hinton, major inventor of artificial intelligence: .
“if you take the existential risk seriously, as i now do—i used to think it was way off, but now i think it’s serious, and fairly close—it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further, but i think it’s completely naïve to think that would happen.
there’s no way to make that happen.
"Wonder if A.I. is 'The great Filter'(or the evolutionary leap almost no species is able to navigate successfully) the Fermi Paradox posits?"
I'd guess Virtual Reality is the great filter in a sense. They are all out there, but plugging into your own personal fantasy kingdom is way too enticing and every intelligent species goes that route before developing interstellar travel.
inspired by the "whats the reason you think jw's are in decline" thread.
my belief is that almost all the growth, at least in the western world is due to jw's having kids.
i was a 4th generation jw from birth till about age 20, so the timeframe i can comment on would be my teen years.
"Yes - born in. (4th Gen)
I was 32 in '95"
Interesting. Did you immediately jump from JW to fundamentalist nutter or was there an in between period?
inspired by the "whats the reason you think jw's are in decline" thread.
my belief is that almost all the growth, at least in the western world is due to jw's having kids.
i was a 4th generation jw from birth till about age 20, so the timeframe i can comment on would be my teen years.
"I left in 95 - 96. "
Were you born in? What age were you in 95-96?
inspired by the "whats the reason you think jw's are in decline" thread.
my belief is that almost all the growth, at least in the western world is due to jw's having kids.
i was a 4th generation jw from birth till about age 20, so the timeframe i can comment on would be my teen years.
Inspired by the "Whats the reason you think JW's are in decline" thread.
My belief is that almost all the growth, at least in the western world is due to JW's having kids. I was a 4th generation JW from birth till about age 20, so the timeframe I can comment on would be my teen years. For context that was the 1980's so I guess that would be considered the 'old school' pre-internet, pre-generation change version of the WTS.
I was in the same congregation the entire time and I can only remember one couple who were called on, began studying and were baptised. Once in a great while someones bible study might attend a few meetings then quit. Around age 14 or so, the congregation outgrew the building and we split into 2 and a new KH was built. But every face I can recall were 2nd, 3rd,4th generation. The doubling in size was all due to families.
Aside from that couple, the newest in the congregation were 3 families with kids my age who had
converted as young adults back in the 60's and early 70's. I liked all
three families but the parents were definitely the former hippie/seeker
types who picked the wrong train to enlightenment. By the 80's it
seems that sorta thing was over.
Was your experience the same? Also when answering, please include the general time period you were a JW
canada has universal healthcare.
the consensus is that america never will.
can anyone explain why, please?
"I'd rather we had taxpayer-subsidized preventive and basic care
available to everyone, with insurance available for the less-common
circumstances that often require massive financing."
Agree 100%.
canada has universal healthcare.
the consensus is that america never will.
can anyone explain why, please?
Diogenesister,
The various points of view in this thread shows you in a nutshell the two sides of the issue any time it's ever come up for serious debate in my lifetime. (twice. During Clinton's first term and again under Obama).
As I said, one's point of view generally aligns with your political leanings. People like me who think that some sort of Universal care (perhaps not NHS level) would be an improvement over the mess we have now. And the other side who believe it would be an expensive disaster and Canada, UK,Australia, most of Asia and all of Western Europe hate their system, are dying in droves and secretly wish they were Americans.
Unless the demographics change drastically in the future it's likely to remain a deadlocked issue and it'll stay as it is, perhaps with a few minor cosmetic changes now and then.
canada has universal healthcare.
the consensus is that america never will.
can anyone explain why, please?
"I can imagine people dying because they can’t get the surgery/treatments they need in time!!"
So you really think this is some sort of crisis in the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Luxembourg, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic etc etc etc.......and only the US has got it right? Many (most?) have higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality and easier access to treatment than the US.
Even in the US with private insurance, it's not uncommon to have to wait for certain procedures. I've never had to wait to see my general practitioner more than a day or two for an appointment, but if something more serious is going on..people wait. Being a private system doesn't mean there are magically endless numbers of hospital beds and surgeons available. I guess if you're super rich and can hop on a jet at a moments notice you can demand to be taken to wherever in the country there is an opening immediately. But most aren't.
As I mentioned earlier I had surgery 4 years ago. From the time of my initial consultation to actually having the operation was about 3 months. Granted it was not life threatening but it was an awfully uncomfortable for 3 months.
" I saw with my own eyes young mothers coming in with babies for regular care! "
Is this supposed to be an argument in favor of private insurance?? Poor people use the emergency room for regular care because they don't have insurance.
This thread got me reading about other countries system. South Korea ranks #1 and is a mix of government and private. Maybe that is the best route. Everyday things are covered universally. So you can take your kids or yourself to the doctor for regular checkups, minor illnesses and injuries etc. But they are also required to purchase private insurance to cover catastrophic things like cancer. Perhaps a system like this would allow all americans to get basic healthcare without using the emergency room and also without the extravagent cost of expanding medicare to everyone for everything.
even though i’m agnostic so will not commit to either intelligent design or chance, i love being part of the congregation for the close personal relationships.. there is such a great atmosphere inside the congregation it really is like a family and you don’t get this anywhere else.. a real friend is someone you can rely on when you are in need.
if things go wrong for you and you are going through a hard time you know real friends will be there for you.
as long as you didn’t bring it on yourself by going against gods law then you have to prove you are repentant first of course.. there is a lot of research now saying that good friends is essential for healthy and happiness.
"From my reading of science literature promoting evolution, I think that
humans did evolve from apes (heck, now evolutionary biologists say
modern humans are apes themselves) - but not from any of the now existing species nonhuman apes."
Thats right.
And we are apes. I like to picture aliens visiting and classifying all the life on earth. A creationist finds out the alien has classified him as a species of ape and strongly objects to this. The alien says "chill out. I get that you are a pretty clever ape, but you're still a species of ape, I mean...i'm looking at you"
Like if humans found a strange creature with a beak, talons, wings and feathers except it had developed a complex language. And the creature got all upset when we pointed out what a fascinating species of bird it was.
canada has universal healthcare.
the consensus is that america never will.
can anyone explain why, please?
"Does the majority of US citizens actually want an NHS-style healthcare system?"
I'm not sure about the majority wanting it 100% like the NHS. But it appears a slight majority want either a single national program or a mix of national and private. I would guess those who want the mix would be to fill in the gaps for kids whose parents aren't employed by companies who provide it or for the occasions when an adult becomes unemployed and therefore loses coverage. Like everything in America lately, opinions on this tend to line up with political affiliation:
"Can anyone explain why, please? - because there hasn't ever been a referendum on it."
Government isn't done by referendum here. At least not on a national level. Here's a WIKI article on all the various
proposals over the years to initiate more direct democracy in the US. Currently the rules vary wildly by state. It's a good
read if you need a sleep aid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiatives_and_referendums_in_the_United_States
even though i’m agnostic so will not commit to either intelligent design or chance, i love being part of the congregation for the close personal relationships.. there is such a great atmosphere inside the congregation it really is like a family and you don’t get this anywhere else.. a real friend is someone you can rely on when you are in need.
if things go wrong for you and you are going through a hard time you know real friends will be there for you.
as long as you didn’t bring it on yourself by going against gods law then you have to prove you are repentant first of course.. there is a lot of research now saying that good friends is essential for healthy and happiness.
"Oh that is nonsense on steroids Syd, my old cong if heavily stacked with
fractured families, most of the kids there have cousins that the don't
know because "they are not in the truth". As for "no one else in the world has close friends or family they can rely on"
how do you know that? Let me tell you from my own experience that there
is more nutters and grifters inside the Borg than "out in the world"."
RB, it was sarcasm directed the OP. Didn't you see the eye roll at the end?
