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posts about #ecology more →
The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
Gigantic Fleas and Killer Fish Wait on an Alien World
A Fly-By-Night Operation Is Even Harder If Your Plane Is Solar Powered
A Deadly Fungus Is Stalking This Creature
10 Ways To Rescue The Climate, According To Science Fiction
The Shattered World Of 2050 Glows With Unearthly Beauty
Giant Jellyfish Swarms Off The Coast Of Japan
An Island Sinks Into The Ocean, Lost To Human Habitation
An Iridescent Butterfly Gives Rise To Naturally Bright Fabrics Of The Future
The Best Green Technology Is Population Control

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Starwatcher
11/10/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
I'm a skeptic by nature, but I'm also in the 'better safe than sorry camp, so I tend to side with the environmentalists on this. That said, I do find it interesting that many religious right whackos are starting to jump on the global warming bandwagon. If that's not a good indicator that there's problems with the science, then I don't know what is. #ecology
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KarlB
11/11/09

@Starwatcher:
"If that's not a good indicator that there's problems with the science..."
It isn't, for kindergarten-obvious reasons.
"...then I don't know what is."
That part I believe. #ecology
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Starwatcher
11/11/09

@KarlB: I was being facetious. #ecology
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KarlB
11/13/09

@Starwatcher: 'Doh! Sorry. #ecology
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Klebert L. Hall
11/10/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
He probably believes things because he wants them to be true.

It's important to remember that politics corrupts science at least as much as industry does, though. There isn't really a lot of scientific objectivity around, anymore.
-Kle. #ecology
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cylon_conspiracy
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
There is no scientific consensus on global warming. "Fire burns", consensus. Man-made global warming (or climate change as you guys are calling it now just in case things get cooler), no consensus.

"Political science" isn't meant to be taken literally.
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Edited by cylon_conspiracy at 11/09/09 11:00 PM cylon_conspiracy was starred cylon_conspiracy was unstarred

Byronotron
11/09/09

@cylon_conspiracy: this is the very problem with the concept of the singularity; noise on the grid. How do we teach a computer, or more importantly, how does it teach itself what is the most accurate information? Garbage in, Garbage out. The singularity will lead us to doom if the "final solution" has incorrect data. The main problem of the internet age is that with a million voices screaming nonsense the voices of truth get drowned out. this will only get worse, as our capability to process data increases. data must be interpreted by humans, that is where the promise of the singularity is hollow, it still relies on human judgement, which is fallible. #ecology
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Skunky
11/10/09

@Byronotron: Sounds like we'll all end up in one big game of "Paranoia."

[en.wikipedia.org]

The computer is your friend. #ecology
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wanion
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
"but I think it's naive to ignore the trend of the past century - or the past 10,000 years."

Oh really, 10,000 whole years? Wow, a species manages to stick around for a few millennia and and it's all set to discover perpetual motion, fairy dust, or whatever fantasy technology it's going to take to bring about his bright, exponentially expanding, no-strings-attached future.

Which is just going off his opening about how the critics of his Kurzweil love letter believe: "that, just as bacteria proliferating in a petri dish will eventually exhaust the resources, we too will hit a limit. I think these skeptics are missing the lessons of history"
What's the lesson? That just because humans haven't yet hit a limit on the finite amount of resources on the planet, that there must not be one?

And then there's this: "Unlike Malthus, we can look around and see that we already have the energy and technology to feed a larger population than exists on Earth today." Yes, I'm sure it's easy to see when you're sitting around in New York, in the United States, and not, say, some country where starvation is a routine occurrence. I'm sure JT can also see how much bigger a population we can feed and also when we'll have to stop the growth of the human population at its current rate, and also how to do this without hurting anybody's feelings. #ecology
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Anekanta - former space marine
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
Well put CJ. This Tierney dude sounds incredibly naive about problems like poverty, famine, and disease which already exist today--which seems inexcusable for a science columnist for a major newspaper.

Unfortunately this is pretty common--an unwavering faith in progress that denies the reality that nothing in this world comes without consequences. #ecology
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Byronotron
11/09/09

@Anekanta - Space Hippy!: A technophile in the most white-bourgeois-consumer sense of the word. The ignorance inherent in his ideas is crippling. The very existence of technology provides salvation? The same way that technology provided the salvation with the IBM indexing computers in Germany? Technology cannot exist in a vacuum of morality or rational guidance. #ecology
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Anekanta - former space marine
11/10/09

@Byronotron: Indeed! #ecology
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DrMathochist
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
(a) Tierney's neither a skeptic nor overly gullible; he's a contrarian. He's the guy in the audience at Cloverfield rooting for the monster.

(b) As I and every other mathematician keep saying, EXPONENTIAL GROWTH DOES NOT LEAD TO A SINGULARITY. THERE IS NO BLOW-UP IN FINITE TIME UNDER THESE CONDITIONS. THIS IS COVERED IN CALCULUS 2, PEOPLE! #ecology
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FunkyJ
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
Funny how you bash Tierney for believing in myths, but then fall for one of the biggest myths about humankind - the Dark Ages.

The Dark Ages were a myth, expounded by Renaissance scholars and those with an axe to grind against the Roman Catholic Church.

Recent excavations and discoveries in Europe and England have revealed the whole idea that humanity dwindled into a technological and social backwater is, in the words on one scholar, pure bollocks.

Watch just one season of Time Team and you'll quickly come to realise the Europeans of that time were far from technologically and socially backwards. #ecology
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bookwench
11/09/09

In reply to Gigantic Fleas and Killer Fish Wait on an Alien World
By Gelfling hand or else by none!

Whit - we're not looking at concept art for the Dark Crystal 2? Didn't Jen and Kira get a ride on those giant fleas when they were moving through the forest?

No? Wrong genre entirely?

Dammit. Fooled by superficial resemblances again. #moraeriver
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TheGreat&PowerfulTurtle
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
Are you kidding? Libertarian Randroids and Transhumanism go together like peanut butter and bacon.
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Edited by TheGreat&PowerfulTurtle at 11/09/09 4:09 PM

The_Sporean_Bob
11/09/09

@TheGreat&PowerfulTurtle: HAHAHAHA, Randroids!
Do I have your permission to use that term? #ecology
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TheGreat&PowerfulTurtle
11/09/09

@The_Sporean_Bob: I wish I could claim it as my invention.

[en.wikipedia.org] #ecology
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HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
Interesting he should refer to the folks he disagrees with as Cassandras... IIRC, wasn't Cassandra completely correct in everything she prophesized, but cursed so that nobody would listen to a word she said? #ecology
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
11/09/09

@HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.: Exactly. She was 100% correct.

So the irony here is staggering, and he obviously doesn't realize it. #ecology
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Fedaykin
11/09/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: My thought exactly. And if I demand nothing else from my Times columnists, it's a proper use of metaphors referencing Hellenic mythology. #ecology
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Byronotron
11/09/09

@Fedaykin: haha, well his misuse is the whole head smacking point. he said the EXACT OPPOSITE of what he was trying to, and thus shows the depth of his ineptitude. #ecology
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cylon_conspiracy
11/09/09

@HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.: Woody Allen made a movie about that. #ecology
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Elizabeth Weinbloom
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
Wonderful column! Lots of things to think about. Should keep me occupied while I eat my Singularity-provided unlimited rice pudding. #ecology
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Jeremy Tapsell
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
ok.. so that didnt work.

Hmmmmmm
:P
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Chip Skylark of Space
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future

Wasn't "Malthus Vs. The Singularity" an episode of CHUCK? The one where Bryce Larkin bailed out for WHITE COLLAR? #ecology
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Jeremy Tapsell
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future

#ecology
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gorehound
11/09/09

In reply to The New York Times Columnist Who's Helping To Ruin The Future
I am no real scientist but to me it does not take a lot of intelligence to realize if you keep putting trash somewhere it will effect the area.
Just keep putting pollution into the air and it will do something bad.
Yes the Earth does go thru climate cycles and we all know that one but greenhouse gasses do bring as temperature up and that one is proved in labs.
As far as I think nowadays I will go on record as stating that Global Warming is due to both the natural Earth Climate along with us polluting the air.Both things are happening and both are casuing climate issues. #ecology
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