This sort of bot spam is sad. It uses sophisticated machine learning to defeat captcha and then it just trawls for keywords that it has a script for. It squanders so much potential. It could be using sentiment analysis to construct a more meaningful post based on the threads contents. Or it could gather information on the disposition of the forum as a whole towards any given subject and then it could go spearfishing with targeted subjects that might actually work. Or it could skip all of this hard and pointless work and just buy some advertising space from Google.

Arenamontanus wrote:

Spambots like the one Covariant envisions would be something similar: not necessarily great forum participants, but they would keep threads alive and sometimes distil consensus ideas into posts. Probably they would not be as creative as real participants, since they would tend to write things within the boundaries of past discussions rather than outside.

There is quite a bit of work in the text processing field to take a chunk of text and boil it down to it's TL;DR version automatically. It doesn't always work well when the narrative it is trying to summarize is poorly written, which has made me want to use it as an argument tool in forums. If the output is gibberish, then your argument was invalid. Also, I'd like to make the claim that I am not a sophisticated spambot, or at least not an artificial one.

Hmm...[b]spam[/b], [b]twitters[/b], and [b]module[/b]. Think it will tell us about computerized bio furniture next? I sure would like smart furniture that adapted itself to my maximal comfort, and at an affordable price, too. I sure hope I can find some good, online deals for such an item of furniture.

back on topic, this is why I think all technological innovations should be run by an engineer before printing. This has no practical use in the macro. Sure with nanotech digesting simple sugars is a good idea because its more convenient than making tiny batteries. But for something like a clock? Keep in mind no one wants their time keeping device to stop working just because no flies happened to wander inside. Secondly it gains very little energy from what it eats since alot of it goes to digestion. Its what always bugged me about the Matrix. The amount of energy metabolized by organic digestion is insignificant when compared to say, a nuclear reactor. For 2 bucks I can install a battery into that clock that runs for years. Why the heck would I replace that with a convoluted fly catching mechanism?

Arenamontanus wrote:

Aeroz wrote:

For 2 bucks I can install a battery into that clock that runs for years. Why the heck would I replace that with a convoluted fly catching mechanism?

Because it is cool. Really. A lot of consumer systems have been designed and sold for this reason.

most consumers do not find something that eats fly's "cool" if they did the venus flytrap would be alot more popular. This will have novelty value, but thats it, no one is going to choose this over a conventional clock which is cheaper and more reliable. There is also a problem with these machines that the article missed. To put it simply, if it eats, that means it poops.

Decivre wrote:

Arenamontanus wrote:

(I always retconned the Matrix to be something that used the human *brains* as computing power, not electrical power. Morpheus might simply not have known or cared about the technical details - he was a resistance fighter, not an engineer)

I actually retconned it in my mind as the Matrix being a shared dream system that used our brains as its processor... the matrix existing completely within the collective minds of those connected to it. And I also viewed that they either did it out of pity (because they had more compassion than we gave them credit for and they simply couldn't bring themselves to wipe us out), or in order to us it as a mass simulation to bring us closer to the singularity so we could once again live alongside them. Doesn't clean up all the other holes in the plot (like why these machines couldn't clean up the atmosphere in a thousand years time or use orbital platforms to switch back to solar power), but hey... it's a start.

I also retconned it away from the powersource battery explanation and into the memory/processing components. In addition to that, I regarded the "outside" as an additional "world" layer of the matrix.

King Shere wrote:

In addition to that, I regarded the "outside" as an additional "world" layer of the matrix.

It's that, or Neo actually has magic powers.

Smokeskin wrote:

Getting completely rid of the plot hole is difficult though - for example did none of the resistance fighters understand enough physics to grasp the stupidity of human power generators?

I can think of a scenario where they got their misunderstanding due to well conducted tests on observed human power generators. The inspectors was not in the true outside & were fooled by test result from smoke and mirrors the "outer" matrix provided.

Smokeskin wrote:

I like that :) Some Law of Robotics we hoped would safeguard us did save humanity, but with an evil twist.

Actually when you think about it, it potentially paints the machines as the true protagonists. The Matrix is the consequence of the machines realizing that the human race was simply too idiotic to leave in the care of its own planet. And it makes perfect sense if you watch the prequel info from animatrix; the human race [i]poisoned the atmosphere of their own world in order to kill off a machine race that has no need to breathe[/i]. And apparently the human race didn't plan for orbital solar collectors. So if anything, they should be thankful the machines saved them from extinction.

Smokeskin wrote:

Getting completely rid of the plot hole is difficult though - for example did none of the resistance fighters understand enough physics to grasp the stupidity of human power generators?

I blame the fact that they have been living for years in a virtual world which only partially imitates reality. In effect, if the Matrix were made into an Eclipse Phase campaign, nearly all humans would have the Real World Naiveté trait.

Aeroz wrote:

well the plot hole is easy to explain. the screen writers didn't understand enough about physics to know it was a dumb idea. In hard science none of it makes sense. Its all code, why don't agents just have god-mode on? Why take over bodies instead of just entering XYZ coordinates? Heck, why not just port in a 10x10x10 room around your enemy thats full of lava?

In accordance to the original setting? It makes no real sense. In accordance with my shared dream alternative theory? The agents are limited by what the people that create the shared dream matrix [i]believe[/i] can happen. Therefore, objects cannot come from nothing unless people believe they can come from nothing. To that end, while the environment is controlled by people in unison, an individual is controlled by a single mind. It is easier to hijack a single mind than it is to convince the people as a whole that a person can just pop out of nowhere. The One was special because he could manipulate minds en masse, giving him power over the shared dream.