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8 years ago-2 2 4Fat people and smokers
Why aren't fat people treated in the same way as smokers? Why is refusing to date someone based on their weight looked down upon, when it is not the same case for smokers?
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8 years ago+7 7 0Can chimps ask questions?
This passage is from Carl Sagan's The Dragons of Eden (pg.76 - 77): "At an early stage in the development of Washoe's verbal abilities, Jacob Bronowski and a colleague wrote a scientific paper denying the significance of Washoe's use of gestural language because, in the limited data available to Bronowski, Washoe neither inquired nor negated. But later observations showed that Washoe and other chimpanzees were perfectly able both to ask questions and to deny assertions put to them. And it is difficult to see any significant difference in quality between chimpanzee use of gestural language and the use of ordinary speech by children in a manner that we unhesitatingly attribute to intelligence. In reading Bronowski's paper I cannot help but feel that a little pinch of human chauvinism has crept in, an echo of Locke's "Beasts abstract not." In 1949, the American anthropologist Leslie White stated unequivocally: "Human behavior is symbolic behavior; symbolic behavior is human behavior." What would White have made of Washoe, Lucy and Lana?"
Here, Sagan asserts that chimps are able to ask questions. However, other publications seem to deny this assertion. Which assertion is backed up by the evidence?
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8 years ago+5 5 0Computer Science
Can anyone direct me to the best place to learn programming?
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8 years ago+2 2 0Best search engine
I advocate using Startpage.com, as it protects your privacy and can deal with slightly obscure keywords (unlike DuckDuckGo). The interface is also aesthetically pleasing, in my opinion, as it follows the layout of Google.
What do you guys think? Is Startpage.com better than DuckDuckGo? Are there better alternatives?
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8 years ago+3 3 0Eve no Jikan, or why are female robots called Eve?
I am half through Eve no Jikan and I am not sure what to think about it. It has been a slow burn so far, but I am hoping that it will all measure up at the end. I do not like the animation style and I think that the characters have not been fleshed out much, as they seem to follow the stereotypes of the genre. I do find the idea of the "grey area" interesting though, as it touches on some intruiging prospects about application of the Turning test in the future. What do you guys think?
Also, why are most female robots (especially in fiction) called Eve? I think a more suitable name would harken more to Prometheus, perhaps. Is this just a reflection of our denial of the superiority of the artifical intelligence? Do we harken more to our superiority complexes, in this way?
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8 years ago+3 3 0This website ... seems comfortable
Hello, nice to meet you all. This website has a better layout than Reddit and other alternatives, so here I am.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu3VTngm1F0
What with the history of corrupt moderators in other internet communities, I will probably need this song to get me through the night.
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8 years ago+7 7 0Welcome to the NHK!
Does anyone know any animes that accomodate a similiar viewing experience to Welcome to the NHK? The humour was definitely one of its strong points for me, as well as the philosophical ideas it imparts about the human condition.