Lost members?

[Mick F]

[Cunobelin]

Not to divert the thread

I enjoy the Forum, and participate regularly

However I totally disagreed with the way that the CTC was moving and voted with my feet by leaving the CTC (or CUK)

[Cugel]

Maybe automated spammer accounts being zapped?

I'm not sure that new joiners who haven't had their first post approved show on the members' list.

There's a steady stream of spammers. I myself disapprove a couple or three a day.
Yesterday there was someone wanting to sell Nike stuff, and the other day someone wanting to supply fake ID. Just two I remember. Most of them I don't even remember.

Next time there is one that I see, the first thing I'll do is see if they're on the members' list, and see if they go when their spam post is disapproved.

"Lost members". An unfortunate phrase all too eager to be employed euphemistically. Suffice it to say that I have not lost mine, despite my great age and all the squirming about on a bicycle saddle.

Ah ha! If you "don't even remember most of them" how do you know that there were such spammers crowding the forums? Are these spamble-posts and persons another figment of your imagination perhaps. induced by some of your "feelings"!?

I have read the inducements and siren calls of several imaginary characters who I don't recall myself. Or have I? Well, I imagine that I might have. On the other hand, its easy to invent things from the past that weren't ever there. Some even do it about the present.

Cugel

[fausto copy]

Maybe automated spammer accounts being zapped?

I'm not sure that new joiners who haven't had their first post approved show on the members' list.

There's a steady stream of spammers. I myself disapprove a couple or three a day.
Yesterday there was someone wanting to sell Nike stuff, and the other day someone wanting to supply fake ID. Just two I remember. Most of them I don't even remember.

Next time there is one that I see, the first thing I'll do is see if they're on the members' list, and see if they go when their spam post is disapproved.

"Lost members". An unfortunate phrase all too eager to be employed euphemistically. Suffice it to say that I have not lost mine, despite my great age and all the squirming about on a bicycle saddle.

Ah ha! If you "don't even remember most of them" how do you know that there were such spammers crowding the forums? Are these spamble-posts and persons another figment of your imagination perhaps. induced by some of your "feelings"!?

I have read the inducements and siren calls of several imaginary characters who I don't recall myself. Or have I? Well, I imagine that I might have. On the other hand, its easy to invent things from the past that weren't ever there. Some even do it about the present.

Cugel

Been on the magic mushrooms again I see, Cudgel.

[Cugel]

I'm not sure that new joiners who haven't had their first post approved show on the members' list.

There's a steady stream of spammers. I myself disapprove a couple or three a day.
Yesterday there was someone wanting to sell Nike stuff, and the other day someone wanting to supply fake ID. Just two I remember. Most of them I don't even remember.

Next time there is one that I see, the first thing I'll do is see if they're on the members' list, and see if they go when their spam post is disapproved.

"Lost members". An unfortunate phrase all too eager to be employed euphemistically. Suffice it to say that I have not lost mine, despite my great age and all the squirming about on a bicycle saddle.

Ah ha! If you "don't even remember most of them" how do you know that there were such spammers crowding the forums? Are these spamble-posts and persons another figment of your imagination perhaps. induced by some of your "feelings"!?

I have read the inducements and siren calls of several imaginary characters who I don't recall myself. Or have I? Well, I imagine that I might have. On the other hand, its easy to invent things from the past that weren't ever there. Some even do it about the present.

Cugel

Been on the magic mushrooms again I see, Cudgel.

I yam merely exploring the "logic" of some Mick-speak, which is often fraught with implications of various peculiar kinds, especially those illogical kinds. When I so-explore these Mick-speaks, I realise that I too have various similar albeit not identical ones. Perhaps they come embedded in the language; in it's queer syntax and multifarious semantics? Perhaps we are all confused as a consequence of speaking (and thinking in) English? It seems designed for use in a mummer's farce rather than for dealing with reality.

Mind, I have been reading West Welsh-speak of the 1920s as rendered into English by one Caradoc Evans as he writes small descriptions of the often hilariously hypocritical antics of the chapel-going folk of that time & place. Now there is a behavioural and linguistic churn that is truly confusing for any human to traverse without falling in and drowning in a deep maelstrom of mad. Well, they all seem daft as brushes to me!

Cugel

[bovlomov]

Yesterday there was someone wanting to sell Nike stuff, and the other day someone wanting to supply fake ID.

But some of us are very interested in purchasing fake ID. Nike stuff, not so much.

[Graham]

10,000 subscribers have become Climate Refugees and migrated north in anticipation of further record-breaking summer temperatures.

It has begun . . . . .

[Mick F]

I yam merely exploring the "logic" of some Mick-speak, which is often fraught with implications of various peculiar kinds, especially those illogical kinds. When I so-explore these Mick-speaks, I realise that I too have various similar albeit not identical ones.

Love it!

I very nearly joined Mensa some years ago, having passed their entrance exam. Can't remember what they considered my IQ was as it was nearly 30years ago.

I have autistic tendencies and have some difficulties with language and sometimes using the wrong way of getting my points across. I often have to re-explain and even then, some people just don't get it.

[mercalia]

I yam merely exploring the "logic" of some Mick-speak, which is often fraught with implications of various peculiar kinds, especially those illogical kinds. When I so-explore these Mick-speaks, I realise that I too have various similar albeit not identical ones.

Love it!

I very nearly joined Mensa some years ago, having passed their entrance exam. Can't remember what they considered my IQ was as it was nearly 30years ago.

I have autistic tendencies and have some difficulties with language and sometimes using the wrong way of getting my points across. I often have to re-explain and even then, some people just don't get it.

Autism is mostly misunderstood. Academics describe Autism with a collection of features and the whole poplulation exhibts them in a greater or lesser extent with very few having few of the features and just as many have lots - those are the ones "diagnosed" as "autistic". Social Intelligence? Just as IQ varies in the population randomly we dont think those of low IQ as having a disorder?

[Cugel]

Autism is mostly misunderstood. Academics describe Autism with a collection of features and the whole poplulation exhibts them in a greater or lesser extent with very few having few of the features and just as many have lots - those are the ones "diagnosed" as "autistic". Social Intelligence? Just as IQ varies in the population randomly we dont think those of low IQ as having a disorder?

I watched an interesting potted history of eugenics on the Beeb the other day. The most interesting (and alarming) bits discussed the recent re-emergence of eugenics in various altered forms, with some trying (but probably failing) to ensure their "new genetics" is shorn of the worst features of the original British notions of Francis Galton, Julian Huxley, Marie Stopes et al.

There are big questions around the notion that we can now manipulate genes (or detect genes) that are "problematic" then change them; or prevent their emergence. This is generally couched in terms of "preventing genetic diseases". It's easy to understand why someone might want to prevent the more debilitating of such "diseases" since they can cause pain or otherwise tend to mitigate against good life experiences. But how far do we go in defining "genetic disease"? WHo decides and what about those who dissent?

"Autism", as you describe, is often talked about as though its some kind of fault. In essence its degree of faultiness is a culturally-defined matter, though. What do various cultures accept and what do they not in terms of the associated behaviours, attitudes, abilities or lack of them? In medieval and other less kind ages, those born "imperfect" (often meaning just different from a very narrow norm for that tribe) were disposed off toot-sweet. On the other hand. those we now define as "mad" or "mentally abnormal" were often tolerated or even venerated, rather than locked away or drugged into quiescence.

There are many now who are intent on developing yet another supposed human Superman, this time via genetic manipulation; and perhaps also by technological enhancements of a Borg-like kind. The immediate questions are:

how will they (and a polity in general) regard those unenhanced? The enhancements will be affordable only by the very rich - at least in the first few decades of their development. We know how the very rich tend to behave. They are greedy for their advantages. They are highly intolerant of the poor. WIll it be the same between the highly enhanced and those with not just ordinary but the "still-flawed" genes?

And

Who defines the "super" aspects of an enhanced human superman? Will it, for example, include a greater or lesser ability to empathise; kill; set and attain goals; etcetera?

Cugel

[bovlomov]

Who defines the "super" aspects of an enhanced human superman? Will it, for example, include a greater or lesser ability to empathise; kill; set and attain goals; etcetera?

What might be better for an individual might not be better for society. And what about strength in diversity? Presumably, the human race would pretty soon fall apart if we all had similar physical and psychological traits. Who will calculate the required balance. It's more complicated than simply calculating the proportion of workers, soldiers and queens - and that's complicated enough even in an ant colony.

I don't see it ending well.

[kwackers]

Who defines the "super" aspects of an enhanced human superman? Will it, for example, include a greater or lesser ability to empathise; kill; set and attain goals; etcetera?

What might be better for an individual might not be better for society. And what about strength in diversity? Presumably, the human race would pretty soon fall apart if we all had similar physical and psychological traits. Who will calculate the required balance. It's more complicated than simply calculating the proportion of workers, soldiers and queens - and that's complicated enough even in an ant colony.

I don't see it ending well.

The genie is out of the bottle. You can already buy 'kits' for genetic modifications using CRISPR.
It's fairly easy to do (and getting easier).

What's not so easy is working out what a sequence does or what the changes you've made will do (and you need a sequence to search for in order to replace it).
However you can imagine common sequences slowly coming into the public domain such that folk with such a kit could make simple changes, a level up from there will be the 'hackers' who fiddle with stuff to see what effect it has.

OTOH whilst its easy we shouldn't underestimate the difficulty of doing anything complex with it and certainly the creation of "superbeings" is far from trivial, far more likely is the creation of corpses.
If the creation of a superbeing was just a few gene tweaks away evolution would have been all over it.

However combined with AI which would theoretically eventually be able to predict and build suitable sequences we might only be a couple of decades away.

Personally I think the fall of humanity will be tied to the abolition of death and ageing. The population will explode and old conservative minds will come to dominate along with all the problems they'll create. Wealth differences will balloon once folk have much longer to accumulate the stuff and consumption will rise to feed demand.

Finally there are the other issues such longevity will create. Will the maths on the forum survive? Is the page number count capable of dealing with users who've been members long enough to have been posting daily for several lifetimes?
These are all questions that need answering...

[mercalia]

Another story that seems to give space to the view that autism is "some thing wrong with you" a condition

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-51475739

This lady is one of the lucky few. And I am suprised she has swallowed the cant hook line and sinker since she is pursuing a psychiatry doctorate at Oxford. seems like there are still professionals with dubious views.

Maybe we need a definition of whats normal before we start saying whats not, which is how things seem to proceeed amongst many "professionals". And being normal doesnt mean you dont have issues which you have to compensate for? The hallmark for this lady seems to have been she had difficulty fitting in. An interesting story is the Greta Thunberg, who was diagnosed with autism and was having a bad time in her "normal" life before becoming what she is today - seems like she fits in very well? I some times think psychology is one of the pretend sciences.

[Morzedec]

"I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now can see"

Amazing, Grace.

Happy days.

[Mike Sales]

I some times think psychology is one of the pretend sciences.

Ernest Rutherford said

All Science Is Either Physics or Stamp Collecting

.