All categories - 6 June 2007

Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Superduper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or were famous and admired, or extremely intelligent... Whatever you wanted life to be for you; bigger and better than your "real" life.
All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life experiences?
Once you are in the machine, you will not know you are there; you will think all experiences are really happening.
(from Robert Nozick's "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" 1974)

Remember, this is voluntary - it is not like the Matrix where humans are being duped.

Would you plug in? Why or why not?

2007-06-06 01:57:04 · 17 answers · asked by FIGJAM 6 in Philosophy

Why, atheists, are you more tolerant to Muslim, Buddhists, and any other religion. It seems to me that people feel that it's okay to criticize Christianity, but don't criticize other religions because they are more tolerant or accepting to them. I wish people would recognize that it's just as offensive when I hear people try to tear apart my religion, especially since 99% of the time their critisim is based on IGNORANCE.

2007-06-06 01:57:01 · 31 answers · asked by pditty 3 in Religion & Spirituality

Also, if we evolved from monkeys, then why don't monkeys evolve to people now ?

2007-06-06 01:56:46 · 16 answers · asked by composure 1 in Religion & Spirituality

2007-06-06 01:56:34 · 3 answers · asked by Aaron D 2 in Media & Journalism

coffee houses. They sell good coffee, but at a hugely inflated price. Why do you pay $3.50 for a 95 cent cup of coffee? And why do so many of you put all sorts of things IN you coffee? Don't you like the taste of real strong black coffee? I think coffee is best taken in its original form. In the upscale area of my city, there is almost a Starbucks on "every corner." There is a "trueism" that may be at play here. It is, "The higher the price, the more some people want the product." Is that the case here? If Starbucks sold their coffee for $1.00 per cup, would you still "love to go to Starbucks?"

2007-06-06 01:56:23 · 19 answers · asked by Bluebeard 1 in Non-Alcoholic Drinks

With regard to the press conference where finally a reporter (German no less, trust them to cut right to the chase) asked them if they had anything to do with the abduction.

Man the look of surprise on their faces. hahaha ........ priceless!!!

Maybe they will finally take a bite of a reality sandwich and realise the gravity of their mistake (and to those supporters who say they do realise how grave their mistake is, WELL, clearly they don't since they see no need to apologize for it).

Time to stop the charade, come home, answer the tough questions that need to be answered and we'll go from there. The smokescreen is slowly fading away ........

2007-06-06 01:56:01 · 42 answers · asked by Anonymous in Current Events

2007-06-06 01:55:58 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

I have a problem with my car. New battery and new alternator just 3 months ago. When I am driving the battery light comes on when I have my foot on the gas and go above a certain rpm, goes back off at idle. Had bat and alt check and both are fine. New alt belt. Monro tested and reved engine, alternator ok at idle but drops like 4 volts with load. Any suggestions since the battery and alternator both new have less than 1000 miles on them. Monro suggested I might want to see an electrician because he thinks voltage is being dropped somewhere. Can someone help me? My car is a 1999 Mercury Cougar.

2007-06-06 01:55:28 · 11 answers · asked by Meric H 1 in Maintenance & Repairs

....i think so.....

2007-06-06 01:55:08 · 46 answers · asked by justin 2 in Polls & Surveys

I bought a new Canon (LiDe 25) scanner. While scanning I noticed that Dark Pink (Fuchsia) color changed to light mauve (purplish) & Red slightly changes to Orange tone in the scanned picture. I tried all software setting in photoshop & canon scan gear but the color variations won't go.
My question is that, incase there is some technical problem in the scanner, I want to know exactly what it can be & is it expensive to fix ? Advise from professionals anticipated.
Thanking you all in advance.

2007-06-06 01:55:08 · 4 answers · asked by Vicky 4 in Scanners

This is what I'm goign to buy:

Motherboard :Asus M2N-E-SLI
Processor : AMD athlon64x2 AM2 5200 2.6GHz
Graphics : Sapphire X1900GT
Hard Disk : WD Caviar SE 3.5" 320Gb/16MB/7200RPM/SATA2
Memory : Kingston DDR2 533 CL 4.0 1GB x 2
Audio : Soundblaster X-fi Xtreme Music
Optical Dr : LG 18x DVDRW
Casing : Antec Sonata III with Earthwatts 500 watt power supply
OS : Windows Vista Premium.
Display : Samsung Syncmaster 206bw
Speakers : Logitech z5500 or Creative Gigaworks G500

Is this system good enough or is it too much as I am not a really gamer.Mostly I will use this PC to watch movies,tv shows,listen to music and surfing.Comments are welcome.

2007-06-06 01:54:32 · 8 answers · asked by erid 1 in Other - Hardware

2007-06-06 01:54:32 · 32 answers · asked by Anonymous in Polls & Surveys

What is your FAVORITE John Candy Movie and why?

2007-06-06 01:54:30 · 18 answers · asked by Perfect_Brat 3 in Movies

She speaks with an obnoxious cadence and rhythm, careful to chant the same hateful phrases over and over again.Her entire repertoire of insults range from the versatile "ideologue" to "demonizer," and "ridiculous."

2007-06-06 01:54:24 · 19 answers · asked by Grogan 5 in Talk Shows

I'm a Republican, and I've watched all the debates from both parties. And so far, the sad conclusion I've reached is that Joe Biden is the ONLY candidate from either side that gives heartfelt, straight-up answers to a question! I don't often agree with his positions, but at least you know where he stands on things because he doesn't talk in sound bites. Grrr! What's your take on the debates so far? Who has stood out in your mind?

2007-06-06 01:53:49 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Elections

I'm wanting to get in touch with Vanna White personally and would like to know how to go about contacting her privately but I don't know how to go about doing that.

Can someone help me contact her privately?

2007-06-06 01:53:39 · 4 answers · asked by magicbay02 3 in Celebrities

Four of us have one early night seen what seemed to be a very large hairy primate running speedly towards us from bushy dunes towards the Atlantic seashore. It was black and huge and run in an erect position. We do not drink or do drugs and this is a serious question. Of course we got a fright and run and never looked back. It was along the coast north of San Clemente del Tuyu and about 450 metres from the town. There, the beach seems to be almost a 100 metres wide. I spotted it first and asked my companions .-what's that? We just run so fast! It was late at night and deserted. I find it equally strange that some huge charachter would have been in costume awaiting to scare a bunch of strollers late at night. Specially when nobody did walk along the sea at all at night. Has anybody, seriously, have had a similar experience there or somewhere in Argentina? I suppose we will never know what to make of it. Still, curiosity will always make us ponder what was that occurrence all about.

2007-06-06 01:53:34 · 8 answers · asked by roberto t 1 in Other - Science

What would it be?

2007-06-06 01:53:27 · 59 answers · asked by Anonymous in Polls & Surveys

how i kill grim reaper tattoo?

2007-06-06 01:52:58 · 7 answers · asked by snow m 1 in Tattoos

Tantra meditations are done with the senses

2007-06-06 01:52:53 · 3 answers · asked by lrgoel2004 2 in Religion & Spirituality

this mother board says can run 2 graphics card in SLI, it also has a expansion pci-e x16 slot. can i run a third graphics card? if not what can I put in that slot? here is the mother board http://www.nvidia.com/object/designed_by_nvidia_680i_sli.html

2007-06-06 01:52:52 · 3 answers · asked by ptcruisher2001 5 in Other - Hardware

2007-06-06 01:52:50 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics

If it is true, then there would be no difference between letting him live and killing him since in the end both of you should still be alive. But what would happen if some guy from another dimension who is not anyway related to you but in that dimension is related to the Grandfather is his own dimension's life, shoots the Grandfather. Should you be wiped out(and never have existed) and the other guy be alive?

2007-06-06 01:52:39 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Astronomy & Space

So you have something to look at while you're talking to them!

ty peter

2007-06-06 01:52:31 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Singles & Dating

If say we wanted to turn the world into paradise how would you think this might be achievable? is it a case of lead by example?

2007-06-06 01:52:29 · 10 answers · asked by earthtriber 2 in Philosophy

Since everyone knows my age . I will ask again since you are mostly younger than me. Should I stay or go ? I am sure you do not want an old "fuddie-duddie" around you since you all seem so alive and full of vigor.

2007-06-06 01:52:19 · 39 answers · asked by Dave aka Spider Monkey 7 in Polls & Surveys

for many reasons I can not afford photoshop, I am wondering if anyone knows of another, cheaper, software that is comparable.....a program that is able to remove a person from a photo, able to add a person to a photo, able to touch up 'unwanted' blemishes on an original photograph, such as a pimple on a face ;) right now I use Picture It!- but the tool used for blemishes in that program seems to look like a 'smudge' when you print the photo out. and of course you can not delete a single image, when you cut something out your left with only the cut out. Thank you for any and all replys :)

2007-06-06 01:51:53 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Software

I'm looking for songs that have a countdown or relate to countdowns - the only one I can think of is 'The final countdown'. Can anyone think of anymore?

2007-06-06 01:51:38 · 21 answers · asked by alexjane17 1 in Other - Music

2007-06-06 01:51:31 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Rail

I have had BT broadband for 18 months now, the service has been ok but nothing spectacular for the speeds we're always hearing about.

Sky broadband is a lot cheaper for (apparantly) the same speed, but does anyone reccommend BT or SKY in terms of thier speed and reliability, as these are my main concerns rather than the cost.

any advice would be great. cheers.

2007-06-06 01:51:09 · 11 answers · asked by ice_chilled_2000 1 in Other - Computers