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| 'Alex Chiu on Science, Religion, and Politics' | Login/Create an Account | Top
| 440 comments |
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The Fine Print:
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them.
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Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:3, Interesting)
by Roblimo on Thursday June 07, @12:57PM EST
(#116)
(User #357 Info)
http://roblimo.com
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| What makes you think there isn't a cheesy Immortality Device Web Ring? :)
There is!
- Robin
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<<Eternal Life Web Ring by Roblimo (Score:3)
| Eternal Life Web Ring by Roblimo (Score:3)
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| Moderation Totals:Interesting=1, Total=1. |
Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:2)
by boing boing on Thursday June 07, @01:08PM EST
(#125)
(User #182014 Info)
http://www.rotarydial.com/artists/whitford/main.html
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Hey Rob,
Serious question: Do you believe in this? (or was that some other slashdot editor you were referring to?)
Thanks.
Check out this band! |
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:5, Insightful)
by Roblimo on Thursday June 07, @02:03PM EST
(#194)
(User #357 Info)
http://roblimo.com
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| I believe Alex Chiu is a living example of the sort of thing you can do on the Internet that you couldn't do without it. I believe Alex Chiu's insights on life, the universe, and everything are every bit as scientifically valid as those of the (late, lamented) Douglas Adams. I believe Alex Chiu has taken online self-promotion to a level few others have dared to try. I believe Alex Chiu has admirably thick skin; that whatever doubt you cast upon his statements, he will tell you that he is right and you are wrong.
Imagine a software company CEO with a vision and sense of his own rightness as strong as Alex's. Even if that person's company wrote pretty rinky-dink code, I'll bet it could end up dominating the desktop computer operating system market.
What I admire most about Alex Chiu is that sense of rightness. Most of us, confronted with rational evidence that we are wrong, change our minds. Not Alex! He plugs on no matter what you say about (or to) him.
Remember, you don't have to believe in christianity to enjoy Handel's Messiah, and as the old ad slogan put it, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's Rye Bread."
- Robin
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:1)
by Zagadka
(zagadka@linuxfan.com)
on Thursday June 07, @02:18PM EST
(#221)
(User #6641 Info)
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Imagine a software company CEO with a vision and sense of his own rightness as strong as Alex's. Even if that person's company wrote pretty rinky-dink code, I'll bet it could end up dominating the desktop computer operating system market.
I guess you just love MS Windows then. Hasn't Bill always been convinced that he was "right" despite the "rinky-dink code" in Windows?
Anyway, I don't call someone who sticks to their beliefs despite glaring proof that they are wrong admirable. I call them a stubborn fool.
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:1)
by Dalroth
(slashdot@humaninterests.com)
on Thursday June 07, @02:46PM EST
(#245)
(User #85450 Info)
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I can think of someone else who had this same sense of rightness. His name was Hitler. We all know how that ended. He complains about people having close minds in this interview. He's right. But he's guilty of the same.
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07, @03:55PM EST
(#280)
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Rob,
Thanks for the response. That is a very interesting viewpoint you have, but I view him a bit differently...To me, he is living, breathing, manifestation of the problem with so much of the world. He really doesn't use his mind. He can't seem to grasp fundamental aspects of thinking. I don't dislike him for that, in fact I find it quite sad (even pathetic), BUT I hate the impact that people with his problem have on the world.
People that can't think are the ones that kill (sometimes slowly over years or even centuries and sometimes in an instant) so many of the rest of us, because they squander precious resources, they trade the long term for the short, they drive intoxicated, they are inconsiderate, they believe that they can abuse the weak to advance their cause, and they kill in the name of religion/whatever.
The impact of these types of people is tragic and is hard to overestimate. I hope you don't really admire him.
_boing boing
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:2)
by StaticLimit
(staticlimit.home.com)
on Thursday June 07, @05:11PM EST
(#309)
(User #26017 Info)
http://www.staticlimit.com
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How dare you invoke Douglas Adams and compare him to this guy. We could power California by strapping magnets onto Douglas's corpse and generating electicity from him spinning in his grave.
To think that Douglas Adams inspired satire and gift for clever humor are comparable to Alex's writing is beyond just being a stretch...
I certainly agree that this is an example of how one can advance his ideas through the internet, and I definitely agree that Alex must have very think skin (but not as think as his skull if he actually believes any of the stuff he's saying).
I frequently enjoy reading online about such silly concepts as "eternal life rings" written by people who think a "testimonial" from Joe in Montana who's been wearing the rings for 6 months and gosh he isn't dead yet are a substitute for actual science. But I think that this is not so much an example as it is a warning. There are a lot of gullible people out there who are willing to believe "reason" issued forth from people who are capable of ignoring science and logic. And while Alex and his "Eternal Life" rings are harmless and perhaps even fun, there are people pushing much nastier philosophies on the web and the power that they and their adherents are able to project using the web are rather frightening. I think that we need, as a community, to actively debunk any serious attempt to propogate such fallacies...
- StaticLimit
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07, @06:22PM EST
(#327)
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I believe this is the most drawn out elaborate joke in the history of the net.
He does provide a very good service though, a nice gadget/toy/gag gift and a sight to go along with it.
The devices he sells have many actual practical purposes that are typically very boring and mundane.
Its the same with Duct tape, but after the Red Green show, and many others in the same vein, noone ever looks at it in quite the same way.
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07, @11:20PM EST
(#374)
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Imagine a software company CEO with a vision and sense of his own rightness as strong as Alex's. Even if that person's company wrote pretty rinky-dink code, I'll bet it could end up dominating the desktop computer operating system market.
Ahem, cough, Microsoft, been there done that...
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:1)
by digitaltraveller
(contact@[takethisout]antispin.com)
on Thursday June 07, @11:45PM EST
(#382)
(User #167469 Info)
http://www.antispin.com
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I don't think so. People with wacky ideas and a some conviction have long attracted "sheeple" without the aid of the internet. Examples include David Koresh, Jim Jones (of Jonestown), and "Elron" who's brethen recently got a comment deleted off Slashdot.
I think one (of many) reasons crap like this flourishes is because there is sometimes a small amount of truth to it.
Literature exists that shows that some (not all!) Chinese acupuncture is quite efficacious and works via stimulating localized opiate neurotransmitters. So I'm hypothesizing that possibly their is some small noticeable metabolic change by wearing the rings. It's quite possibly they do nothing at all other then stimulating a placebo effect. People who have been given the amino acid niacin in blind trials will often have powerful placebo effects because it produces a warm flushed feeling that is definitely noticeable.
A small part of the problem is for awhile a stigma has existed in western medicine for people who wanted to study/test alternative medicine. It's certainly been shown some OTHER alternative medicines are highly efficacious. (eg. Certain herbal extracts).
The big part of the problem though is crackpots like Chiu pushing immortality rings. Let's not forget that magnetic fields are also what give kids who leave near power lines leukemia.
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:1)
by lee1
(lee@leeHYPHENphillips.org.invalid)
on Monday June 11, @09:58AM EST
(#427)
(User #219161 Info)
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Let's not forget that magnetic fields are also what give kids who leave near power lines leukemia.
This is an attempt at some sort of irony, I hope. Even the studies that showed a weak correlation between childhood leukemia and proximity to power lines, upon further analysis, evaporated. There is no effect whatsoever, as simple physics would suggest.
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Chiu != Adams. I can't believe you said that! (Score:1)
by Jeremy Lee
(jeremyl@hrmc.com.au@antispam.net)
on Friday June 08, @12:48AM EST
(#388)
(User #9313 Info)
http://i.am/orinoco
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"I believe Alex Chiu's insights on life, the
universe, and everything are every bit as
scientifically valid as those of the
(late, lamented) Douglas Adams" - Roblimo
That REALLY hurt. In fact, I don't think I've felt this angry over such a simple statement in a while. I'm not even sure exactly why. I'll try to work that out in a moment, but in the meantime, I'll just say I think that was in extremely poor taste.
On the surface, there are some similarities. Douglas did make fantastic extrapolations from scientific principles, mixing them with strange ideas to produce Infinite Improbability Drives, Somebody Else's Problem fields, etc.
On the other, Douglas was well aware he was writing fiction. In his non-fiction work he showed quite clearly his firm (though non-expert) grasp of evolution, biology, and even computer science. He took an interest. He tried to learn, to understand, everything around him on it's own terms.
Alex Chiu has a fixed agenda. He has a particular view of the world which he strongly endorses at every opportunity. His research is designed entirely to support his thesis. He seems to have no interest in anything outside this.
The fundamental difference is that Douglas was NEVER SURE of anything. He would sieze new ideas and play with them for weeks (much to the annoyance of his publishers) just trying to cope with them. He was perpetually astonished by the world, and science, and his writing tended to be an expression of this. He communicated that wonder and astonishment to everyone.
Douglas asked us to question everything with wonder. Alex asks you to believe his truth with certainty. Which is closer to the scientific method?
So, No. I think Douglas' insights were much more scientifically valid than Alex's.
Yes, I'm biased.
And I miss him terribly.
Jeremy Lee | Orinoco |
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08, @01:24AM EST
(#392)
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"Imagine a software company CEO with a vision and sense of his own rightness as strong as Alex's.
Jobs. Steve Jobs.
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Re:Eternal Life Web Ring (Score:1)
by Theodore Logan on Friday June 08, @04:59AM EST
(#401)
(User #139352 Info)
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| What I admire most about Alex Chiu is that sense of rightness. Most of us, confronted with rational evidence that we are wrong, change our minds. Not Alex! He plugs on no matter what you say about (or to) him.
You're kidding right? God, how I want you to be kidding. The above is a BAD THING, not something to be proud of. Blind faith, accorded by the inability to admit having been wrong, is probably the combination to have caused most disasters in the history of the human race. Not listening to what others have to say simply isn't admirable.
Imagine a software company CEO with a vision and sense of his own rightness as strong as Alex's. Even if that person's company wrote pretty rinky-dink code, I'll bet it could end up dominating the desktop computer operating system market.
*cough* Gates *cough*. But seriously, that was a joke, right?
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok |
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