Happy upcoming 100th birthday, James Lovelock: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/scien...velock-on-the-future-of-ai-and-climate-change I love his Gaia hypothesis. It's a beautiful and neat way of tying in all the various processes, variables and influences acting upon the Earth, and how the planet responds to keep itself in equilibrium. All planets do this, of course, but most don't have the teeming life all over their surfaces, playing about with the balance. I had little idea that Lovelock was concerned with AI, but from what I could gather from the short chat in the above video, he's pretty much spot on. And what he's talking about isn't going to be too long in coming either. People talk about the 'Singularity', which is the point that AI becomes more intelligent than us. And it's only a matter of a decade or two, depending upon who you listen to. Thing is, what happens when it does? When it begins to self-learn on all fronts exponentially, which it will. It will very quickly start to consider humans like we might consider a pet, then as a remote [from it] animal like a chimpanzee. How many times do you think about chimpanzees? Often, or not? So don't expect AI to think about us too often either. Once it gets to the level of intelligence that we are no more than ants in comparison, what do we do? We won't be running things. I just hope someone remembers to wire in a hard off-switch.
That’s brilliant, and contextualises the benefits of EV’s in general, and Teslas in particular, rather nicely. Thanks for posting. From a position of complete ignorance, and bearing in mind I live in the country and the noise of the bloke over the road’s tractor wakes me up most mornings, I wondered about electric tractors. Do they even exist? Oh yes they do!
The Wind in the Willows is really quite a dark, deep, poetical and philosophical book. Best quote so far... "It is a goodly life you lead, friend; no doubt the best in the world, if only you are strong enough to lead it!" - Rat
Yeah, those tractors and farm equipment are nice, and more are coming along. Diggers and Earth Movers also make perfect sense electrically because they stay local, and can easily get through a day's work on one charge, then be charged overnight. Yes, the reason why I posted that video was because it directly addressed the issue of why those presenters are even testing those FFVs. They shouldn't be promoting them other than saying 'don't buy these - they are extremely hazardous to all of our health'. For over two decades now I have watched car reviews and in the back of my mind has been this growing guilt questioning why I am watching sh*t like it and enjoying it, when I know what these things are doing to us? Before it was because there was simply no alternative. But there has been one for several years and NOW there are mainstream, mass produced cars, [and one in particular] that are superior and don't pollute through their non-existent exhausts. Standing next to one switched on will not harm you in the slightest.
A similar situation to when my father-in-law went to the loo after putting Deep Heat on his back. Ouch.
I pretty much bathe in Deep Heat when I play football now. My quads, hamstrings and groin are pretty much coated in the stuff as I think I am virtually immune to it now. What I am not immune to, however, is when one of the handfuls of Deep Heat I have smeared onto my groin comes into contact with something else in that area. Sends me hopping round the pitch like a mad man.
Going back to the discussion on plastic bags.........I seem to remember from the advertising in those days when they first came out the reason for them was to save the trees. It takes so many trees to make per bags etc was the slogan at the time...........Obviously over time plastics have changed. Can they truly make disposable plastics these days?? So they don't affect the environment?? My next question is simpler maybe........why have they taken so long to develop them if there is such a thing as a disposable plastic???
Imagine living on an aerodrome where the spit was coming in and out hour after hour.................I will take the echo of that engine to the grave with me!!
Yes ... Compostable Plastic is plastic which is "capable of undergoing biological decomposition in a compost site as part of an available program, such that the plastic is not visually distinguishable and breaks down to carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass, at a rate consistent with known compostable materials (e.g. cellulose). and leaves no toxic residue." American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM). In order for a plastic to be called compostable, three criteria need to be met: Biodegrade - break down into carbon dioxide, water, biomass at the same rate as cellulose (paper). Disintegrate - the material is indistinguishable in the compost, that it is not visible and needs to be screened out Eco-toxicity - the biodegradation does not produce any toxic material and the compost can support plant growth. Why so long? Simply, there has to be a commercial/legal incentive for anything to happen in our materialistic world e.g. If Tobacco companies knew ***s were killing people why did they hide evidence and take so long to admit they were a health risk?
Why is that sound soooo lovely? This is niiiiiiice too. Forgotten how you embed a video, but here goes ... <iframe width="971" height="546" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-E0shPRxAbo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Here's your steam engine video: And yes indeed, they can make compostible plastics. They just don't make enough of them. FLT could tell us a few things here on the reality of it all, I believe. The Tobacco company data is interesting. As a comparison, Exxon Oil had good hard data on Human Induced Climate Change back in the late 1970's. Their graphs were so accurate that they predicted the temperatures as being pretty much as they are now, with corresponding levels of CO2 and trends. WIth this in mind, instead of doing the responsible thing and alerting people, they buried the information, and funded propaganda programs to confuse and distort any information coming out independently about the problem of HICC. So, it is all about corporate greed against putting the well being of the world's public health first. We should never stop finding this behaviour totally unacceptable. But with people like Trump in office, who push the boundaries of what is acceptable every day, people are.
I love the sound of the Merlin engine too. But I would trade it in a heartbeat for one person's improved health, because of no pollution. Don't get sentimental about things that will ultimately kill you. And I don't mean the armaments in this machine.
Seriously, you have to start getting over it. This isn't a game we're playing. I have a V4 motorcycle that also has a fabulous sound. I don't ride it anymore.
