partyzanPaulZy

Beer Drinkers... that's no surprise we drink most beer per person, every year.

"Serial Killers"...hmmmm, I didn't know Conflicts were counted in this stats.

This topic reminds me one article and old TV series I've seen once. "The Visitors" on Wikipedia (TV_series)
This series has been aimed on the generation growing up in the 1980's. In this sci-fi a group of people from the year 2484, from a peaceful world of the future with no hair, a strange food called Amarouns (hi-tech jelly), available control over the (local) weather and such... returns in the past to find a man who has invented the way to move continents or even whole planets. All because the Central Brain of the Humankind (a supercomputer) has callculated a huge space object will imminently hit and destroy a large portion of the planet.

Now there was an article (in Czech language, sorry) about the Collective Intelligence. Please, don't slap your forehead, this article wasn't about the idea of some loonies talking about some CI they had to tap in, but about THIS Collective Intelligence: http://en.wikipedia....ve_intelligence
I suppose some of you have heard about term "Swarm Intelligence" where one relatively stupid being (say a bee) tends to group with other beings of it's hive to create a swarm of relatively impressive intelligent level. Now imagine replacing bees with people, the hive with a company/department...
add some database, some informational system, a sufficient ammount of working computers... and you are getting close, but still not enough to the Collective Intelligence.
And I haven't even mentioned the Brainstorming, regular meetings of the staff meant to solve problems and find the optimal strategy together.

Now take every computer including mobile phones, every microcontroller wired (even wirelessly) in the web or such peculiar devices like the e-fridge, add their users, the largest Black Box on this planet (the Internet), stir it up and cook on 55°C. This is the Collective Intelligence, the internet which is the source of information, virtual places with people who can help (even for free)... on the other hand the internet is the dark forrest of trolls, mallware or the stupidity (which of course is contagious). And if you run some program using mentioned computers then you are getting even closer to the real Central Brain of the Humanity, with Google or something as it's nerves and computers as neurones.

I CAN HAZ LUNCH NAU?

@duke_Qa: Well, many old people are reluctant to learn anything new unlike my grandma. She has bought herself a laptop just one year ago and her computer's on almost every day, even if for half an hour and because of the e-mail, cook recipes or watching videos.

@Copaman: I don't know who has told you such a thing, because this is one of typical examples programmers don't agree with (even through this idea is old as the RUR novel). Maybe that's the reason the last version of the imaginary SkyNet was supposed to be a virus in it's beginning. It's like with all horror stories, you can imagine Frankenstein, but you won't expect it the real world.

Well, eco-terrorist was meant as that sort of people who are blindly urging their idea of something what should be ecological (say build more wind powerplants...), without realizing this idea might fail utterly (...but the winds aren't stable and strong enough), becoming an antithesis of the "ecological".

I've heard nowadays solar panels don't produce more energy than needed for their built in the mild zone (same applies for wind power plants in areas without sufficiently strong winds).

Yes, we (humans) have already taken evolution into our own hands. We have made most of giant beings (we met) extinct (mammoths, moa, giant eagle dependend on moas, Madagascar "Elephant Bird", etc.) or close to it (Sharks - thx Chinese, Whales - thx Japanese, Sea Eagles - thx poisoner morons)... we have influenced global weather with our agriculture and later industrial exhalations, 2000 nuclear blasts and various accidents in chemical plants or oil platforms/tankers. There is also the fact nature prospers most in military zones and contaminated areas (Chernobyl), if I don't include national parks. Vast areas of world oceans are contaminated with various waste including radioactive materials to the level they are downright wastelands.

We are letting morons rule the world, letting them continue erradication of tropical rain forrests for ores (coltan), biofuels, rare woods or plain agricultural soil, letting them continue further contamination of the global environment and fogyism (GMO, clonning, nuclear energy, new highly efficient technologies...).
With this attitude we should prepare one day there will be just 8% of the oxygen in the air and temperatures above 40°C in the Mild Climatic Zone (instead of the snow ball Earth would have become without the human kind).

The fogyism is slowing the progress for millenias, the worst moments were during the Roman Empire (they have chosen slaves instead of the steam engine), 15th century China (they have chosen isolationism instead of the world domination they are goint to achieve in this century) or the last 150 years (poor Tesla, damned consumeristic, idiocratistic society, radical christians and radical moslims)... That's the reason nobody's mining He3 from the Moon surface, nobody's flying to Mars with nuclear engine in the crewed rocket, it took over one century for 3D TV to develop into usable state (yet directors aren't capable of doing it right in 3D), larger part of African countries aren't really independent, half the world is corrupted like hell, 1 billion people are starving, etc.
So I can only hope the progress won't be stomped by armored boots of fundamentalists, cowards or eco-terrorists.

I don't like the role religious groups have in this series of revolutions. Like Romanul said it's the same domino effect like in the eastern block some 21 years ago and these revolutions led to privatization with massive larceny and frauds. Many companies have bunkrupted in 1990's or grew weaker (in the favour of western corporations, in the unnatural way). These revolutions were also full of lies and naivity. We were promised to have German wages, Scandinavian level of democracy, corruption eradicated... guess what have we got.

That's the reason I don't like this, there's a suspicious level fanatics are involved in this...