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My views on what a computer is, just got flipped...

bluedoggiant

bluedoggiant

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jul 13, 2007
2,658
102
MD & ATL,GA
Today, I think of computers differently. We are learning about computers in class, and well, they seem much different now. I know understand how the binary system works and stuff, I still find it astonishing how a processor works, its really something.
 
Yes, human beings really are the strangest of all creatures. We are infinitely times more intelligent than elephants or chickens, and yet we are the only animal that wages wars against each other and commits mass murder. Chickens are more civilized and enlightened than us in many ways, and yet it would take another ten billion years before a chicken could evolve to the point of inventing a micro processor.
 
Jade Cambell said:
Yes, human beings really are the strangest of all creatures. We are infinitely times more intelligent than elephants or chickens, and yet we are the only animal that wages wars against each other and commits mass murder. Chickens are more civilized and enlightened than us in many ways, and yet it would take another ten billion years before a chicken could evolve to the point of inventing a micro processor.
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That was one of the most creepy experiences of my short life. But, good, and CREEPY, point.
 
Jade Cambell said:
we are the only animal that wages wars against each other and commits mass murder.
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That's not true at all. There are tons of species that kill each other in large numbers and with great cruelty and malice. Packs of animals will routinely ambush and kill all the members of another pack merely because they are territorial and don't like the fact that the other pack is walking on their turf. Many species have incredibly brutal mating rituals where they horribly maul one another, and sometimes they maul one another even just so they can big the big tough guy in town.

Humans are exactly the same.
 
motulist said:
That's not true at all. There are tons of species that kill each other in large numbers and with great cruelty and malice. Packs of animals will routinely ambush and kill all the members of another pack merely because they are territorial and don't like the fact that the other pack is walking on their turf. Many species have incredibly brutal mating rituals where they horribly maul one another, and sometimes they maul one another even just so they can big the big tough guy in town.

Humans are exactly the same.
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But you've got to admit that doing so while at the same time being rational is a remarkable (although not admirable) feat! :p
 
Wow, skip the "me bang rocks" and the Luddites and go straight to making this a thread fit for the political section.
 
what amazes me is that 15 years ago my family had a computer with 2MB of total disk space. today, i can fit 2000 times that on a device smaller than my thumb.
 
pianoman said:
what amazes me is that 15 years ago my family had a computer with 2MB of total disk space. today, i can fit 2000 times that on a device smaller than my thumb.
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I think you're confused about something, because in 1993 hard disks were already WAY bigger than 2 MB. Perhaps you're thinking 2 MB of RAM?
 
Let's see...

My first hard drive I bought in 1988. It was a Seagate 5 1/4" SCSI-interfaced external hard drive, and was 80MB in size. (Paid about $650 for it, BTW.)

By the very early 90s, 100+MB HDDs were relatively common, IIRC.

My first Mac, a Mac Plus, came with 1MB of RAM, which I upgraded around the same time I got the HDD to a whopping 4MB. And yes, I had to clip that resistor. Talk about living on the edge!
 
motulist said:
I think you're confused about something, because in 1993 hard disks were already WAY bigger than 2 MB. Perhaps you're thinking 2 MB of RAM?
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no i definitely mean 2MB hard disk. it must've been before 1993. i'm not good with estimating time back that far.
 
pianoman said:
no i definitely mean 2MB hard disk. it must've been before 1993. i'm not good with estimating time back that far.
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Well, by 1993 it would have been attached via SCSI, assuming this is a Mac we're talking about. To my knowledge, there were no sub 10MB SCSI HDDs out there in the retail chain.

In fact, I *think* the first external HDDs Apple offered for Macs were 10MB or 20MB units that connected via the external floppy drive port.

What kind of computer was this? How did the HDD connect? Tell us more! Inquiring minds want to know.
 
MikeTheC said:
Well, by 1993 it would have been attached via SCSI, assuming this is a Mac we're talking about. To my knowledge, there were no sub 10MB SCSI HDDs out there in the retail chain.

In fact, I *think* the first external HDDs Apple offered for Macs were 10MB or 20MB units that connected via the external floppy drive port.

What kind of computer was this? How did the HDD connect? Tell us more! Inquiring minds want to know.
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Maybe it was an eMachines. :p
 
Jade Cambell said:
Yes, human beings really are the strangest of all creatures. We are infinitely times more intelligent than elephants or chickens, and yet we are the only animal that wages wars against each other and commits mass murder. Chickens are more civilized and enlightened than us in many ways, and yet it would take another ten billion years before a chicken could evolve to the point of inventing a micro processor.
Click to expand...

Chickens don't have lawsuits over the natural pecking order.

Maybe we are just some alien's computer program running. And we are all complex and can make our own choices, or maybe they make our decisions for us? Maybe all other animals are just programmed to do simple things, over and over again.
 
Jade Cambell said:
it would take another ten billion years before a chicken could evolve to the point of inventing a micro processor.
Click to expand...

Certainly not ten billion years. It could easily happen in fifty million years or so.

The factor controlling intelligence is generally considered to be the brain/body mass ratio (ratio of brain size to body size). Our ancestors fifty million years ago (primitive mammals) would have had a brain/body ratio similar to that of a chicken, and yet we have evolved from them. Similarly, a chicken could evolve to a comparable level of intelligence in another fifty million years or so. Of course, that doesn't mean it will happen.
 
John Jacob said:
Certainly not ten billion years. It could easily happen in fifty million years or so.

The factor controlling intelligence is generally considered to be the brain/body mass ratio (ratio of brain size to body size). Our ancestors fifty million years ago (primitive mammals) would have had a brain/body ratio similar to that of a chicken, and yet we have evolved from them. Similarly, a chicken could evolve to a comparable level of intelligence in another fifty million years or so. Of course, that doesn't mean it will happen.
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Yeah, but chickens aren't mammals, so things might go much differently than they did for us mammals.
 
ErikCLDR said:
Maybe we are just some alien's computer program running. And we are all complex and can make our own choices, or maybe they make our decisions for us? Maybe all other animals are just programmed to do simple things, over and over again.
Click to expand...

Douglas Adams? Is that you? I thought you died?
 
How many years would it take for those same chickens to invent a macbook air with a firewire drive? That's what *I* want to know. :D
 
MikeTheC said:
What kind of computer was this? How did the HDD connect? Tell us more! Inquiring minds want to know.
Click to expand...

it was not a Mac. i don't remember how the HDD connected - this was long before i became interested in/knowledgeable about computers. i wish i could remember but i don't!
 
just imagine all the work that the os does that we don't see to get all the apps running smoothly. even windows. its quite an achievement when you realize that everything is seen on the hard drive and by the process as either a 1 or a 0 in some order.
 
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