Posts by bohm

59

Can you prove that our entire universe and existence is not a computer simulation?

by EndofMysteries in

if you were a computer programmer and you were to create a simulated automated world, that would constantly evolve and self run after initial designs.

first you would have to code the rules, laws, and core elements of this world.

while this is being coded, the program is not run yet, so none of it exists.

bohm

What is to stop us right now from being able to create such an advanced program with AI?

Well, in practical terms there is a ton of things stopping us. Accurately simulating systems of just tens of atoms (with quantum effects) is very near impossible at the moment, and even if we allow fairly coarse-grained simulations then just a few thousand neurons post computational problems right now (but it all depends on the level of accuracy in the simulation).

If the approach is feasible with very large computers is very interesting. In principle there should not be a problem, but opinions are divided if the simulations would be conscious or not -- we simply don't know.

14

Ex JW Reddit numbers going crazy

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

i don't know what the membership increase is like here but over at reddit their getting 20 plus newbies daily if not more.

it's crazy how much thier growing 2000 or more since i signed up and that wasn't that long ago.

looks like the loyalty conventions didn't stem the tide.

bohm

CG: Oh so that's what happened. It seemed like it was growing at about 5 people a day for the longest time and then it just skyrocketed past 10'000 yesterday. Jehovah is sure speeding things up!

49

Sharia Law in the US, it's coming folks.

by James Mixon in

my question, why would one immigrate to the west and refuse to adopt the western cultural?.

if you believe our way of life is so degenerated why bring your family to this place.. in a very close 5-4 vote, the city of irving ruled to back the texas state bill banning foreign.

law from the state.

bohm

Cofty: You can call it what you want but laws discriminating one faith over another are unconstitutional in all western countries except for a very few limited cases which are not of relevance here.

49

Sharia Law in the US, it's coming folks.

by James Mixon in

my question, why would one immigrate to the west and refuse to adopt the western cultural?.

if you believe our way of life is so degenerated why bring your family to this place.. in a very close 5-4 vote, the city of irving ruled to back the texas state bill banning foreign.

law from the state.

bohm

Also if experience in Europe is any guide, once you get a "Sharia zone" it takes like five minutes and you have gangs of bearded nutjobs in skirts patrolling the streets to beat up gay people. Now strictly speaking that don't harm me, but I don't think that matters!

49

Sharia Law in the US, it's coming folks.

by James Mixon in

my question, why would one immigrate to the west and refuse to adopt the western cultural?.

if you believe our way of life is so degenerated why bring your family to this place.. in a very close 5-4 vote, the city of irving ruled to back the texas state bill banning foreign.

law from the state.

bohm

By the way, when I said "harmless, I meant harmless to non-Muslims.

The problem with this type of argument is that it relies on a sort of double standard. For instance my neighbor could do all sorts of things to his wife and family which would be perfectly "harmless" to me but I don't think that affects his wife and children's legal rights one bit!

49

Sharia Law in the US, it's coming folks.

by James Mixon in

my question, why would one immigrate to the west and refuse to adopt the western cultural?.

if you believe our way of life is so degenerated why bring your family to this place.. in a very close 5-4 vote, the city of irving ruled to back the texas state bill banning foreign.

law from the state.

bohm

VI:

In any case, I know that it's an authoritarian religion but all three of the 'Abrahamic' faiths are. Let them follow their traditions as long as it doesn't impact non-Muslims and those Muslims who don't want to abide by them.

I agree that it would be racist to make laws targeting one faith over others, but surely it can't be good to have pocket societies spring up which embody deeply regressive, anti-constitutional and anti-democratic ideas...

49

Warning: Watchtower computer dept. registers accounts on Ex-JW sites, coerces people to divulge their personal details

by WTS Archive in

jw
friends

we had a bad experience with watchtower trying to infiltrate our forums.

let this story be a warning for all you guys here.

if you value your privacy do not ever send your real contact details to anyone, even if you trust them (because their accounts could be hacked or accessed by their relatives - and yes, this happened to people i know several times already).

bohm

Wow I thought this would be a total tin-foil topic but it's hard to argue with the IP...

It's probably not organized from the top, but it is still interesting -- goes to show the online community is putting the fear of God in them :-).

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

bohm

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

bohm

2006:

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

bohm

Here is the central table for those interested