_nedR

Oh ok. Looking up what you told me i learnt that what I thought was 1 concept called conciousness, could be defined as 2 separate but related concepts - Qualia and self-awareness.

Looking up the wiki article, it seems most animals don't pass the mirror test of self-awareness although few have (such as primates, dolphins, magpies).The mirror-test has been criticized by some as human-centric approach which could give false negatives meaning possibly more animals could be self-aware.

Your connecting of awareness and language is interesting. Do you have any sources to look at (articles, books ,etc)? Quite interesting field really.

Thanks.

Definitely they were not as culpable as the guys in unit 731 (Hell even Hitler was probably less sick than those guys).

But their involvement (they used slave labour with people possibly tortured or worked to death) was strong enough for some of them (especially higher ups) to be put to trial.

"Animals doesn't have any You."

How can you possibly know that.

Iran is a signatory to the 1951/1967 convention (http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b73b0d63.pdf)

Saudi arabia (along with most gulf states) is not. As a result they are not included in UNHCR statistics.

edit: Weird. The comements above seem different from what i remember. Either they were edited different from what i orginally replied to or i replied to wrong comment

Indeed. The fact that NASA chose to patent it seems to be evidence that patents are not used to protect innovation (of sensitive technologies at least). If it was innovative, they would have probably kept it secret as a matter of national security.

Not just Unit 731, but a lot of America's rocketry experience was imported wholesale from Nazi Germany. We are talking 1500 scientists, technicians and engineers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip) including Wernher Von Braun, the designer of the V2. Indeed , Von Braun had been advocating space flight since the very beginning- all the evidence suggests that his tryst with the Nazi weapons program, was merely in order to further his ambitions for human space flight.

Where would America be in the space race, had they not done this? I think in hindsight, it was a pretty clever decision - these people were probably the most valuable war bounty America got out of the whole deal.

I think a lot of wars, murders, suicides, as well as a great many companies, inventions, organisations, movements happened at least partially to avoid embarrassment.

In such cases, people prefer terms like "honour", "principle", "fear of failure", "perseverance", etc.

This huffpost explains the discrepancy (and how western media organisations choose to ignore the reasons in their self-absorbed vilification and chest-thumping) : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anhvinh-doanvo/europes-crisis-...

" The UNHCR counts refugees by noting only those "persons recognized as refugees under the 1951 UN Convention/1967 Protocol, the 1969 OAU Convention, in accordance with the UNHCR Statute, persons granted a complementary form of protection and those granted temporary protection." Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE are not parties to any of the UN protocols on refugees, and so through this technicality, they, along with most of their refugees, are excluded from many refugee counting mechanisms."

"With Saudi Arabia's non-signatory status, the Syrians residing in Saudi Arabia are classified as "Arab brothers and sisters in distress" instead of refugees covered by UN treaties"

"The government itself of Saudi Arabia has stated that it has, over the past five years since the start of the conflict hosted 2.5 million refugees."

Many of you might have faced this issue, but it was pretty weird facing it the first time.

Problem was with the realtek soundchip on my card. Headphones stops working on windows (even though it detects it), but still works on ubuntu. Try all usual stuff (remove, update, reinstall drivers, etc), nothing works. One fine day, I find it starts working again. Then another day it stops working. Realise that sound stops working after i switch from Ubuntu to Windows. Weird. How does ubuntu have an effect on sound in windows? Google issue and find that its some strange ubuntu driver issue that puts audio driver in a weird state. Workaround is to shutdown laptop , remove battery, and hold down power button for 5 seconds to discharge capacitors and then boot into windows.

Here's one (behind paywall unfortunately) by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development that "found significant gray matter (GM) increase in right hippocampal formation (HC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and bilateral cerebellum in the training group" that was trained for 2 months for at least 30 min per day with a platformer game:-

http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v19/n2/pdf/mp2013120a.pdf

But it seems brain training games don't seem to provide any conclusive benifit:- http://longevity3.stanford.edu/blog/2014/10/15/the-consensus...

>So your opinion that Muslims are in the same position

I didn't say we were. I said wewere moving to that position.

> I think that implying that what Israel does today is similar to the barbaric acts of constant mass murdering, ethnic cleansing, torturing, raping and beheading that is done by Isis is absurd

It is absurd and again i didn't imply it. Here is what you said :

>Except that the Jews of 1915 were not blowing up, mas-murdering nor terrorizing people, nor were they waging war on non-Jews.

and how i paraphrased it

>You are saying that if a small subset of Jews were blowing up, mass-murdering and terrorizing people

We can quibble over terminology, intentions, plausible deniability and collateral damage, but it is hard to deny that at a subset of Israeli actions can be reasonably construed as "blowing up, mass-murdering and terrorizing people".

Again my original point is :

ISIS isn't equal to all muslims same way zionist insurgent isn't equate to all jews.

Biggest victims of ISIS are muslims. So when you say "Except that the Jews of 1915 were not blowing up, mas-murdering nor terrorizing people, nor were they waging war on non-Jews" you are lumping all muslims together with isis which is frankly dangerous and abhorrent.

Your comment illustrates my original point. The Jews of 1915 were blamed by mainstream for lot of things they didn't do or had little to do with. Muslims as a group are being increasingly blamed for actions of a few people over which they have little/no control.

>I don't see how temporary alliances with a secular regime indicate lack of true religious conviction.

Group C that claims to be defenders of group A against group B, secretly allies itself with B against A. How does that not indicate lack of religious conviction. The general narrative of ISIS, is that they are the most strictest in adherence to medieval Islam. But to me it looks that they are the most flexible in their adherence in favour of tactical pragmatism.

>"staunch the flow of true believers to their ranks."

What makes you think that the majority of followers of ISIS is attracting are true believers?

Looking at the profiles of the foreigners who are joining : Coulibaly who attacked the french supermarket was previously arrested on drug offences: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/amedy-coulibaly-par...

Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of the current attacks, was previously jailed for theft and assault : http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/world/europe/belgium-confr...

According to the Sun (admittedly less reliable source; make of it what you will) Jihadi John was into drugs, and alcohol. By other accounts he was rebellious, socially isolated, and on the wayward side of society.

Most of the people recruited seem to follow a pattern of rebelliousness, impulsiveness, poor decisions (frequently involving drugs, jailtime, etc.), rather than sever religiosity through years of attending madrasas. In the west people of a similar disposition might find themselves joining gangs, or in a downward spiral of hard drugs, or making other poor decisions. The ones with the most severe prognosis might end up as school shooters, or doing hard time. ISIS has set itself as a cult to attract such people and has given them a cause.

Quote from former AQ member turned informant : http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31700894 "There is no single process of radicalisation. Some people, it took them years to be convinced of coming to the jihad and some people it took them minutes. Some people were studying in religious seminaries - they're a minority by the way - and then decided to come and some people basically just came straight out of a night club you know while he was consuming alcohol basically to come and seek redemption there in the jihadist world. So you know you see immediately that you know there isn't one single classical journey there, that there are so many journeys."

There are many scattered reports of defections by disillusioned members, but we won't probably know the real truth until after the conflict. Of course, one doesn't simply cash in their last paycheck and walk away from such an organisation, so even if there were mass defections it would be in secret because of fear for safety of them and their families.

>Except that the Jews of 1915 were not blowing up, mas-murdering nor terrorizing people, nor were they waging war on non-Jews.

You are saying that if a small subset of Jews were blowing up, mass-murdering and terrorizing people (which they did during the zionist insurgency, and are also doing today), That means that would justify the persecution of the world's Jews and the general anti-semitic sentiment of the mainstream during that period?

Not exactly what you asked for but Here is an article that IMO better describes ISIS's actions :

(http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/islamic-state-file...)

Here is an article that IMO better describes ISIS's actions :

(http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/islamic-state-file...)

Such a loaded article (Quote from article "The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. ") making its way to the top of Hacker news (which shuns political articles like the plague) is very troubling to me as a Muslim.

Seems like the Muslims of 2015 are basically moving to the position of the Jews of 1915.

This Der spiegel article has IMO provided the best model to explain ISIS's actions :(http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/islamic-state-file... )

I don't agree with the parent article. They are basically parroting the official stance of ISIS which has been covered (in a much better way)before : http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/anne-speckhard/isis-iraq_b_5...

Yes. ISIS has cultivated a doomsday cult through their propaganda machine. ISIS wants to be seen by the world as a doomsday cult, and all their propaganda is aimed at this.

But ISIS's actions in the past have not matched their propaganda. For example why is an organisation that claim's to adhere to Salafist fundamentalist principles, in war with pretty much every Salafist faction in Syria?During 2013 - mid 2014, they were in a truce with Assad's government. At the time they almost exclusively attacked Rebel outfits. Many groups including the Syrian Observatory kept claiming that several major ISIS offensives on rebels, were often preceeded by airstrikes from the Syrian govt indicating coordination and cooperation.

The truth is that ISIS is a purely opportunistic faction that won't allow any moral or even religious considerations from getting in the way of its ambitions.

Citation please. And a more trustworthy and neutral one than what you have given.

Which battle are you referring to?

edit: Perhaps the Battle of the Trench.

If so, your comment is misleading. The Jews were forced into a surrender after having betrayed their former muslim allies in favour of the confederates.

From wiki article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Trench) :

"Following the retreat of the Confederate army, the Banu Qurayza neighbourhoods were besieged by the Muslims, in revenge for their treachery. After a 25-day siege of their neighbourhood the Banu Qurayza unconditionally surrendered. When the Banu Qurayza tribe surrendered, the Muslim army seized their stronghold and their possessions.[29] On the request of the Banu Aus, who were allied to the Qurayza, Muhammad chose one of them, Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh, as an arbitrator to pronounce judgment upon them. Sa'ad, who would later die of his wounds from the battle, decreed the sentence according to the Torah, in which the men shall be killed and women and children enslaved.

Deuteronomy 20:10-14 says:

When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. [30]

Muhammad approved of this decision, and the next day the sentence was carried out."

Should have (1995) in the title.

>"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

I am a software engineer, and I think its black magic. Probably inside your nvidia chip there is a ouija board summoning spirits to conjure images onto your screen. Why else would cards have names like Voodoo?

>I have some thoughts on how to learn the latter, if anyone's interested.

gimme, gimme.

I have said this before and i'll say it again.

The legend of the prowess of German engineering is one of the longest-standing and most successful corporate marketing campaigns pulled of, right up there with DeBeers 3 month salary rule. Watch any Volkswagen ad, and you can see it in action.

Nice idea. This is the advantage of having a huge fanbase. You can count on the fans to plug all the plot holes and patch up whatever poor writing the studio throws out.

I am not concerned as much by the loftiness of the claims (i honestly don't have much reference to judge them by), as i am worried about the lack of sources cited for the claims.

I am also wondering whether this a submarine PR piece for the startup mentioned in the article - TPTQ Arabic. The founder was the primary source for pretty much the entire article. If there were other people quoted (like actual arab newspaper editors, bloggers, web designers, app devs, or even arab readers) i would be less skeptical.

Perhaps. Although lot of articles seem to claim that he was from a lower-middle class family, and i was basing my statement on those. His upbringing probably wasn't uncomfortable but still it was modest.

GDP is not necessarily strongly related to poverty. But you are right. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_states_and_territories_... Tamil Nadu is above the midddle when you rank by poverty. I stand corrected.

I wouldn't conflate lack of ego with lack of drive or ambition or an averseness to risk. Especially for someone who went from a lower middle class family in one of the poorest states in India to becoming the CEO of Google.

When a group of very smart people get together, there is a tendency for them to try to show themselves as being the smartest. This can lead to less-desirable situations where people don't share or cooperate as freely as they should. In the worst cases the situation could become antagonistic with individuals or entire teams and departments refusing to talk to each other. Now in a group of smart people, walks in a person like Sundar Pichai, someone without ego, who always defers to the other person, who might put himself/herself down to make the other person feel better. When two people in the group get into a conflict on an issue (remember this is a group that can get into religious wars over which brace style to use), it will be that person who mediates and gets the team going again. When the team has to vote on a new leader, that person is likely to get the most votes because he/she is the person everyone has the least issues with. Such a person who avoids conflict is able to act as transcendental force. People are more willing to listen to such a person or do what he/she says because they don't feel threatened by him/her.

Someone like Steve Jobs who always puts himself above everyone else, could also act as a transcendental force as long as people agree to that. But if someone like Steve Jobs was to start at the bottom of the organisation, and moves up the ladder to its top position, it would be by putting other people and teams down. These people might harbour a grudge or ill-will and be less likely to do what the new boss says. It is not a strategy without its downsides (For example why did someone as incredibly gifted as Steve Wozniak end up leaving Apple?).

By promoting similar people to leadership positions, Pichai is creating a environment where people with great talent but less taste for politics can also get their voice heard. I think such an environment is good for creativity to flourish.

"A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit."

Yep. Like the WWII Japanese General said :

"Just went we learn to play poker they change the game to bridge."

Pain, hunger, sexual urges, etc. can't be classified by emotions. Maybe we can include fear of injury or death in this as well. Even a baby can feel these things (except of course sexual urges).

But beyond that everything else is an emotion - happiness, sadness, anger, annoyance, loneliness. Beyond the most basic tasks everything requires emotions to drive you. Why do you study for an upcoming exam? Because you are anxious about getting a good grade? Why are you anxious? Because you may not want to upset your parents? Why does that bother you? You love them or fear their displeasure. Why do you fear your parent's displeasure? Ignoring corporal punishment (which could be an avoidance of pain/injury), other reasons include wanting to avoid stress, or being upset when they confront you about it. And so on. You cannot get through life except the most basic functions (like avoiding pain, eating, sleeping, etc) without emotions.

The article seems to equate the reduced perception of emotions to a total absence of them.