Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Russian Communist Party MP and Nobel Prize-winner Zhores Alferov has urged restrictions on internet access, saying unlimited access to information can harm people's morals and mental health.
"The internet must have limitations and it must not be available to everyone," Alferov stated in a recent interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily. He went on to explain that in his opinion the total lack of control and restrictions of the net can affect people's behavior and damage publicly-accepted moral guidelines.
"By making fools of our population today we will have a lot of problems," he said.
In the same interview, Alferov said he personally did not expect any conflicts between humanity and artificial intelligence in future, but stated that it was wrong to "fully trust a machine."
Alferov is a world-renowned physicist, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is also a State Duma MP representing the largest opposition party, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF).
But... Who will I argue with if there aren't any commies on the Internet?
Source: https://www.rt.com/politics/418544-internet-should-not-be-accessible/
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:39AM (17 children)
He is not wrong. A lot of people cannot handle what they find on the internet.
But if you're gonna restrict, then someone has to make a list. And that's why it's a terrible idea.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by vux984 on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:49AM (6 children)
/agree.
I've had this same discussion about voting rights, and reproduction rights too. I think there are lots people who should be restricted from doing either.
But, for such a system to exist, someone else gets to decide who gets to vote or who gets to reproduce.
So despite my sense that there are people who shouldn't vote or reproduce or access the internet for that matter... I favor no restrictions in all cases, because giving someone else the power to decide who is eligible is inevitably a worse solution.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:30AM
We all know someone who we think should not <insert activity here> and there are people who know us who think we should not <insert activity here>.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:15PM (4 children)
The problem is that if you have no controls, then you get an unstable state and a bad outcome.
The answer is relatively simple: we need someone to be in charge of limiting peoples' freedoms. Because we can't trust other people to do that, we need to build an AI to do it.
I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:27PM
You started perfect, then you suddenly veered off and ignored millennia of tradition.
Gods are pissed.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 13 2018, @10:04PM (1 child)
AI, er...you mean, a program written by humans, right? You know, garbage in, garbage out...why would we trust, let alone bow down to, an AI?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday February 14 2018, @12:04AM
If it's intelligent, it's not just "a program written by humans", though it could have biases inherited from that legacy. Are you stuck with all the same viewpoints that your parents had?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @08:56PM
AI is going to obey somebody.
It is possible for a suitably emerging AI to take decisions like a reasonable human, but this is not the direction AI is developed currently, nor the reason.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:49AM (2 children)
It's similar to the Chinese philosophy on social order... and don't fool yourself, "the message" is shaped in so called free Western societies as well. The fact that it's getting harder to control the shaping of the message is scary, for everyone.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @09:30AM (1 child)
If only there were centralized propaganda hubs billions of people would visit several times a day on their portable little devices...
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday February 13 2018, @09:05PM
... That only respected when Central Authority has decided that something is Fake News or Hate Speech and should therefore not be shown to anyone on that platform ...
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:42AM (4 children)
What exactly do you mean by "cannot handle"?
If you're referring to all the nonsense "information" that's out there, I'll just point out that propaganda and disinformation and just flat being wrong aren't anything new in human history, and just because that's happening on computers and smartphones doesn't make it fundamentally different from when it came from the mouths of would-be leaders ranting in the town square.
If you're saying they get shocked and triggered by some of the images or words, then I'll just say that if you don't want to view goatse or similar kinds of things, then don't. And again, this isn't anything new: Smut has been available in all kinds of forms for as long as humans have had leisure time available to them.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday February 13 2018, @07:52AM (3 children)
It's the easy and anonymous availability that makes it worse than the town square.
If you went to the library and asked for books about the proper way to commit suicide, went to the town square to find a jihadist to explain to you why killing infidels is the answer to your shitty life, or had to go across town and hide behind a four-inch tree to stalk your ex, you would hit roadblocks to help you think about your actions. You could still do each of those things, the same way that you can hurt people with a Swiss army knife, but the internet is like a loaded weapon: if you're not capable of handling it (how it can feed your demons), the best we all hope for is that you only injure yourself.
And Tide pods, clearly. Because the internet rewards dangerous and stupid with fame, on a scale that makes trash TV jealous.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:35PM (1 child)
Right. That's why, before the Internet came about, purveyors of complete nonsense were before the advent of the Internet completely unable to start religious [scientology.org] cults [wikipedia.org], terrorist [wikipedia.org] groups [wikipedia.org], and popular [wikipedia.org] conspiracy [wikipedia.org] theories [wikipedia.org]. Often relying on anonymity and pseudonyms to do so.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:24PM
Words.
They have a meaning.
You should try to understand their meaning, before you spend a lot of time responding to them.
The words you want to consider reading again are my "easy" and "worse", and how they relate to your "completely unable", or not.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday February 14 2018, @09:44PM
Doing bad things would be more difficult if doing things were more difficult. This is a valid reasoning, mind you, BUT it is not applied to other systems. Transportation, old style Communication, Automation, and to the deadliest and faster weapon on earth, money.
You know why?
Because some people control money. And they don't control the internet much. yet.
The whole fake news movement is about this. Internet was a godsend for control, once accepted it is being closing down. No surprise.
Besides, you can shut down anything by polluting it first and then claiming it must not be permitted for the common good.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:42AM (1 child)
A lot of people can't handle what they find in life.
A lot of people should probably not be running around loose in the world.
But the burden of babysitting them is approximately the same as picking them up and dusting them off, or shoveling them under when they do themselves in. And nobody likes to be told what to do.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday February 13 2018, @09:08AM
There already are a lot of people not running about loose in the world. Have you heard of America, the Prison Country?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:41AM (5 children)
Bout time someone did.
"saying unlimited access to information can harm people's morals and mental health."
We could start by restricting him. It's not that access to information can harm peoples morals, or their mental health, that's absolute brain-rot. It's that having people of low morals and suspect mental health, combined with said brain rot, on the internet is bad for the internet.
It's not particularly good for the rotten brains either I guess, but they're done either way, swinehood having no remedy.
I guess what I'm trying to say is 'forget about protecting normies from the internet, it's the internet that needs to be protected from the normies.'
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Immerman on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:08AM
I'm not so sure. I've known some bright, basically decent people who retired and got into killing ime watching way too much Youtube. To the point where they were totally taken in by Trump, and are still eating up the shock-jocks and propaganda machines.
The filter bubble can do horrible things to a person, with too much time on your hands there just ain't no bottom to that rabbit hole.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Sulla on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:28AM (3 children)
The freedom of the internet unfortunately shows how shitty every attempt at communism has been, no shit a commie would want it regulated.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:56PM (2 children)
It will show this for pretty much every society model mankind has ever attempted.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:20PM
"Democracy is the worst form of government...except for all the other ones."
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday February 14 2018, @12:30AM
Lenin's attempt at communism lead to cannibalism in 1921-22 due to redistribution of crops, Stalin helped achieve that milestone in 1932-33, and Mao doubled down in 1959-61. Pol Pot dabbled in it off and on from 1963-81. In Venezuelan prisons cannibalism has been occurring. Some of the people who have managed to escape from North Korea have recounted their horror at the practice occurring in times of famine because of government control of the food supply.
While cannibalism has arisen at other times in human history, there is no form of government that appears to make it a policy through purposeful attempts at government control of the food supply.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 5, Informative) by MostCynical on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:48AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/23/here-are-ten-critics-of-vladimir-putin-who-died-violently-or-in-suspicious-ways/ [washingtonpost.com]
Opposition leaders tend to die, when they oppose too much.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Interesting) by crafoo on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:50AM (11 children)
A person living in a strong society with good education and a sense of self-worth and what they consider a meaningful life is not going to be phased by what they find on the internet.
He's advocating for hiding the truth of what it means to be human because he believes people are to fragile to understand. Possibly his ideas of what it is to be human cannot withstand the truth. And it displeases him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:56AM (1 child)
Triggered!! Rerouting crafoo's internet access to protect him from crazy Russian ideas!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:12PM
Huh, looks like you got triggered by the messenger. I'm no fan of crafoos usual politics, but this was spot on.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Nerdfest on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:00AM (3 children)
What exactly does most information on the internet (these days) have to do with truth?
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:14AM
Nakedness.
You may not be able to find the naked truth on internet, but you'll find plenty of other naked substitutes.
And that's The Truth (that will set you free).
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:11AM
Jayda Fransen, of Britain First, tweeted some terrific "tapes." Very educational! But Twitter deleted them after I retweeted. Sad!
The "tape" of the 2 girls and the cup, so interesting. Not many people know, they are actresses, they got paid to perform in that one. VERY SPECIAL JOB!
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday February 17 2018, @04:17PM
Taken at face value, no. What is expressed there as a whole though is the _most_ human truth you will ever find. You cannot deny it, you cannot shout it down, you cannot pretend it doesn't exist. Humans made this and they populated it with information, mostly uncensored until recently.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:35AM (1 child)
Note that he is not alone in proposing that. China is already shaping the Internet big time. Yes, a strong person, intelligent and independent, will not care about calls to $somethingBad. But the truth is that many (or some) people are too fragile to understand. Our way of handling this is to give everyone the full potential to raise themselves or to sink themselves and become homeless drunkards in the extreme case. These fragile people bought tulips, south seas shares, and now bitcoins. We do not try to save them from themselves - in part because someone will be saving us one day against our wishes. Free people (or believing to be relatively free) refuse such control. We want to make our own mistakes. But at the same time we (except the nearest friends, if they know) allow fragile people to incur catastrophic losses. This is the morale of free people.
But this is not the only moral system in the world, as the axioms of Euclid are not the only set of axioms, and we are not constrained to a plane. Alferov & communists, including Chinese, use a different set of axioms. They do not postulate personal freedom, but they postulate universal happiness (so to say.) To that end their system takes control over personal freedoms in order to flatten the differences. It worked in USSR so well, that only few inventors would care to invent anything. This moral system is as valid as any other - it is just alien to us, as would be a social setup of a hive civilization, for example.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:49AM
No it fucking isn't. That screed ignores human nature entirely. We *aren't* a hive civilization and trying to make us one will just result in mass death, as it has the last several times the hardcore Communists tried that.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Touché) by frojack on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:04AM (2 children)
Exactly what the hell is a "strong society"?
Sounds like someone's pet idea of social control or a Utopian dream.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:36PM
I would postulate that all 1st world countries have a "strong society" and there are many "developing countries"/ 3rd World countries that also have "strong societies". I would call any society strong, if a significant portion of the local population truly believes in it's ideals. I'm guessing that's not what they were getting at though. I'm guessing they were going with something more along the lines of "For the Motherland!", all other forms of society are weak pathetic things in comparison.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday February 17 2018, @04:25PM
A strong tradition and a mostly unified culture. A shared past. Long-standing traditions that support social stability. Common touchstones weaved throughout spiritual, historical, and day-to-day habits and activities. Common foods that have evolved over time with the culture. Of course a common written and spoken language.
You meet a person on the street and you know with some reasonable amount of certainty that you both share a common culture and are working towards common goals that extend beyond your lifetime.
If you hate these ideas. Maybe take 15 minutes out of your day to think about why exactly that is. Did you come to this decision yourself? Do you immediately imagine this common culture as opposed to your personal beliefs, or that you would be the outsider? Please consider why you believe this.
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday February 13 2018, @01:55AM (1 child)
Is he one of the Putin-approved fake opposition members? Sure sounds like it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:26AM
Many people are saying that Crooked Hillary was a Fake candidate. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan. She could have asked for recounts. Who knows what would have happened? I think she would have lost badly, I don't know. Nobody knows. Because she didn't ask for ANY recounts. They're saying it's like she didn't want to win. Like she only ran to make sure that I would win. But I tell them no, she's a loser and a hater. Not because she wants to be. Because that's all she knows how to be. That's all she's ever been. And all she will ever be. She doesn't know anything different. Bill could have done much better.......come to think of it, he has!
(Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:01AM (13 children)
From "Howl"
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl [poetryfoundation.org]
Got it all in there, madness, check; Arkansas, check; the Wall, check.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:22AM (12 children)
Mr. Alferov arrived at his conclusions because of you, Ari.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:51AM (11 children)
No he didn't, you triggered dipfuck. He's never met Aristarchus. I would guess he came to that conclusion after years of exposure to what the filter bubble does to masses of people with weak self-concept and weak wills. He's wrong, and it should be obvious to anyone why he's wrong (hint: it's basically eugenics but for internet access rather than breeding rights...), but it's also understandable how he came to this conclusion.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:16PM (10 children)
few dozYou do realize that Aristarchus is older than fuck, and he's been around the world many hundreds of times. How the fuck would you know who Aristarchus has met, or hasn't met? You're such a presumptuous little twit. It's a safe bet that there are fewer people that Aristarchus has NEVER MET, than there are who he has met. And, unless he's raciss or something, I'll bet Aristarchus is willing to talk to Russians now and then.
Dipfuck? Are you working up the courage to ask me to dip my wick in that? I'll pass . . . you can borrow one of the goats though.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:37PM (9 children)
If there is a high road, you're not taking it with your recent comments.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 13 2018, @10:01PM
Liiiiike I said, the guy is his own worst enemy. The last couple replies from him have been hilarious, in a nasty, taking-glee-in-others'-misfortune sort of way. I hope he keeps it up, even though for his own sake, he ought to make like a broken web form and quit POSTing...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 13 2018, @11:06PM (7 children)
With 'Zumi, there is no high road. It's just muck raking, insults, and idiocy.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday February 13 2018, @11:15PM (6 children)
Lol, that's not how it works. If you believe that the comment you're looking it has no value, then YOU take the high road by choosing not to respond. Maybe even downvote it and move on.
This is basic stuff, folks.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 14 2018, @12:10AM (5 children)
That is the normal, simple, easy response to worthless posts, yes.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday February 14 2018, @01:47AM
This is me not responding to Runaway. whom I have never met, by the way.
Right, more of Howl [poetryfoundation.org]
But, there are other Americans [poetryfoundation.org]:
Talking about the Runaway, sun!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 14 2018, @03:40AM (3 children)
Then whyyyyyyy don't you do it, you triggered snowflake? (I know why, but I wanna see if you're spergtastic enough to flame out again in public and let everyone else know...)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 14 2018, @02:49PM (2 children)
You really don't have a clue yet, do you? Despite the fact that I actually explained it to you once. Let me spell it out one more time:
I'm laughing my ass off because I know that YOU are triggered! Go on, call the FBI and report me for online harassment and all that other crazy shit. You're funny, in a warped kind of way.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:27PM (1 child)
Y'know, most people you get in a tithy over have probably seen The Big Lebowski, and if they haven't thought of it yet let me plant the idea. You are Walter, but less funny.
We can all see how you are obviously calmer than Azuma. Though I never saw Walter exhibiting homosexual affinity towards a dead Greek.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 14 2018, @08:44PM
+1 Funny for the mental image :) Thanks, I needed that. Now all we need is for someone to piss on his rug, or maybe cut off heez chonson, LOL. Somevun who beleevz een NOSSING, Lebowski!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:09AM (7 children)
That's what you risk to get from ignoramuses in a certain knowledge field.
Being a Nobel Laureate in physics doesn't necessary make one prepared to have relevant opinions in social/sociology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:52AM (2 children)
His opinions are not only relevant, they are also shared by much of world leadership. If he's ignorant, he's showing it by sharing too openly.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:12AM
the guy totally spilled the davos' beans
(Score: 3, Insightful) by arslan on Tuesday February 13 2018, @11:54PM
That's the usual problem with book smart folks isn't it...
(Score: 3, Informative) by Hartree on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:16AM (1 child)
I know of someone else who won a physics Nobel (also for work on transistors) and has notable opinions on sociology. Bill Shockley.
I don't think you want him planning your society either.
(Score: 5, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday February 13 2018, @07:57AM
I'm pretty sure it would have its positives and negatives, and we didn't get too polarized the wrong way, we'd gain a lot.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:18AM (1 child)
But he gave it a try and soon discovered that hanging out in bars would get him laid.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by c0lo on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:08AM
Unless Feynman was an alien, there was an ealier period on his life when:
And the frequency!... oh, I can guarantee you'd wish to be able to do it now - every 5 to 3 hours, at least 6 times every 24 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:36AM (3 children)
The obvious rebuttal here is that if you don't care, then you don't have to do anything. Apathy is such a remarkably efficient fix for this sort of problem.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:18AM (2 children)
The Insidious Covert Rebuttal to the Oblivious Rebuttal is khallow, whom I now suspect is a S.A.L.T. Devious Commies! First they go after our precious bodily fluids, and then they pretend to go out of existence, at the same time inventing the Internets, Through their agent Al Bore, funded by Giorgio Sores, and drive all the good people of the West insane with an overabundance of information that is impossible to vet, analyze, or fact-check.
It results in the narrowing of cognitive functions, causing it's victims to think that just saying "obvious rebuttal" is enough to prevail in any dispute. Or it may cause persons with little education to believe that they know as much as anyone, not realizing they they lack the context, the background, the wisdom and discrimination to deal with all the information now available on the internets, much as has happened to our own poor, dear, asshole, Runaway1917.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:27AM
Looks like it worked. Next.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 13 2018, @08:00AM
Is the Obvious Rebuttal drinking game limited to Khallow?
Asking for a friend's liver...
(Score: 3, Disagree) by idiot_king on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:18AM (7 children)
Hmmm... it's more likely than you think.
In fact it's probably 99% of the time.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:53AM (6 children)
How in the hell is this reasonable? What happened to "beware of him who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master?"
We cannot, absolutely cannot, let this come to pass, for the exact same reasons you don't want a poll tax or a eugenics initiative. It's precisely the same argument, just about access to a different resource.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:28AM (2 children)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @08:51AM (1 child)
You consider shit fingerpainted on the wall art? Then you simply must see my portfolio!
(Score: 2) by arslan on Tuesday February 13 2018, @11:57PM
You obviously haven't been to a Yoko Ono art expo...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 13 2018, @10:01AM (2 children)
Last I checked, is still a quip in the Alpha Centauri, when you build the "Planetary Datalinks" secret project.
A bit ironically, the full quote is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:52PM (1 child)
It's not like the game created some nonsensical phrase. A game designer came up with the quote. Quite possibly Brian Reynolds. "Reynolds researched science fiction for the game's writing.[42] His inspiration included "classic works of science fiction", including Frank Herbert's The Jesus Incident and Hellstrom's Hive, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, and The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle for alien races; Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, Slant by Greg Bear, and Stephen R. Donaldson's The Real Story for future technology and science; and Dune by Herbert and Bear's Anvil of Stars for negative interactions between humans.[47][48]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier's_Alpha_Centauri [wikipedia.org]
Personally, I think it's quite a good quote. Knowledge is something that should be accessible to all.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday February 14 2018, @01:11AM
As long as we don't attribute the quote to Will Shatner or Abe Lincoln, that's Ok with me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:20AM
"unlimited access to information can harm people's morals and mental health."
Perhaps he's giving an example from personal experience.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:30AM (5 children)
I have reasons to believe you'd better be worried of "How you will be able to argue on the internet if the Internet is under exclusive control by authoritarians?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:50AM (4 children)
-1 redundant, he already expressed his concerns about communists.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:11AM (3 children)
You say it like the communists are the only authoritarians on this planet!
Watch closer, you'll discover some in your own "yard".
(for some, even only a look into the mirror would suffice, if you know what I mean)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:11PM (2 children)
holy crap you managed to post without grinning at the end of it
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:18PM
even the grinning muscles must take a break from time to time
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:10PM
It's not easy having a good time! Even smiling makes my face ache!
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:15AM
Sorry, had to say it...:;-)