New Testingstan

wouldn't technocracy be like, computer hackers taking over the world or something?

anyway lol RE: porn
The Daily Mail hits it out of the park

re-bloggedlinked

RyanThunder wrote:I don't get it. There are entire organizations for anarchists (lol organized anarchy) but the closest things I can find to technocracy groups are all lunatics promising first world+ living standards for 7 billion people if we just abolish money.

did you expect to find something reasonable???

actually a brief reading of the first bit of the wikipedia page makes me think technocracy wouldn't be the worst thing
we could definitely do with our leaders paying attention to the scientific evidence for a change, rather than just 'lol it's a drug BAN IT'
There is some pressure towards evidence-based policy-making in the UK, but it's mostly limited to the Guardian (champaign socialist) set, and even then not all of them

Oxymoron wrote:Hey 'Soup => http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23401076

lol nanny state

I do like how they say regular porn is a 'gateway drug' to child porn, though.

what could possibly go wrong with a small ruling elite of engineers deciding how people should live using capital s science

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... rr5I#t=11s

"SCIENCE RULES"

RyanThunder wrote:I don't get it. There are entire organizations for anarchists (lol organized anarchy) but the closest things I can find to technocracy groups are all lunatics promising first world+ living standards for 7 billion people if we just abolish money.

It's not as sexy?

evilsoup wrote:actually a brief reading of the first bit of the wikipedia page makes me think technocracy wouldn't be the worst thing
we could definitely do with our leaders paying attention to the scientific evidence for a change, rather than just 'lol it's a drug BAN IT'
There is some pressure towards evidence-based policy-making in the UK, but it's mostly limited to the Guardian (champaign socialist) set, and even then not all of them

Basically that, not whatever Dooey Jo's nattering about

evidence based policy-making and a command economy

So I managed to pick up one of those cyber security ransomware things, which sucked. I did a system restore and that seems to have dealt with it, although The Internet™ has told me that may not have been the best solution.

What say you, computer experts of NT? I'm not seeing any issues now so am I good or what?

It was rather distressing that apparently it also activated my integrated webcam (seriously fuck those things already) and took a snapshot. I have since gone into my device manager and disabled it but damage done, sadly. I might stick a piece of electrical tape over it as well, to make sure.

p sure jo's "nattering" is about how even the mythical engineer is human and so is susceptible to biases and misunderstanding of things one's not an expert at (hell, social conservatism seems pretty rampant among engineering compared to other university grads from what I've seen) and so rule by engineers should probably have some sharp checks and balances

of course its what he's nattering about. it's just only relevant to the straw version of what I'm looking for

and seriously, this

Infinity Biscuit wrote:so rule by engineers should probably have some sharp checks and balances

is something that should be obvious to anybody who's actually had any experience with academia lol

If what you're asking for is a more empirical bent to policy, I don't think you'd find much disagreement, but I'm not sure if that alone (or even if combined with a command economy) is a technocracy. Is there more or is that just what you're looking at?

I guess the other half of what I was saying was a general caution against a lot of what technocracy can and has lead to. Eugenics is a prime example of something brought about under technocratic designs, and unless I'm mistaken the only opposition to it at the time was a moralistic one, since there wasn't anything empirical that would oppose it. Hell, eugenics is still something done today, it's just done more quietly and selectively, and the largest opposition is touchy-feely social justice types.

Infinity Biscuit wrote:If what you're asking for is a more empirical bent to policy, I don't think you'd find much disagreement, but I'm not sure if that alone (or even if combined with a command economy) is a technocracy. Is there more or is that just what you're looking at?

Well as far as I'm aware you can boil the concept down to that if you don't want to get into more specific things like urbanates and energy accounting.

Also eugenics seems like a good example of something that should be subject to those sharp checks and balances you mentioned.

technocracy would lead to whatever the leaders wanted, but instead of facing up to the fact that they are making decisions, they would just say that god science demands it, which is just a recipe for crap

RyanThunder wrote:of course its what he's nattering about. it's just only relevant to the straw version of what I'm looking for

that straw version is literally what the word means, you should not be surprised if all you find searching for it are people who use the word "technate" unironically

pretty much all governments enact "evidence-based" policies, including command economies. for an example see the soviet union esp. under brezhnev, when most of the leadership were in fact engineers

for groups who advocate such a command economy directly look to the various ideologies descended from stalinism and possibly some left keynesians depending on how you want your capitalism dressed up

oh, you think you can actually get something different from what we have now without fundamentally changing the way the economy works? how refreshingly quaint.

RogueIce wrote:So I managed to pick up one of those cyber security ransomware things, which sucked. I did a system restore and that seems to have dealt with it, although The Internet™ has told me that may not have been the best solution.

What say you, computer experts of NT? I'm not seeing any issues now so am I good or what?

It was rather distressing that apparently it also activated my integrated webcam (seriously fuck those things already) and took a snapshot. I have since gone into my device manager and disabled it but damage done, sadly. I might stick a piece of electrical tape over it as well, to make sure.

Are you or are you not running Microsoft Security Essentials? If you aren't, start doing so.

As for making sure shit has been purged, I'd recommend you download and burn an anti-virus boot cd, so that you can run a virus scan without having to boot the OS on your machine. Hiren's BootCD is pretty good for this.

Evidence based policy is bullshit. Pandering to the centre is what makes effective policy.

Trust me, I'm a politician.

You're... well, you're better at it, I guess?

whoa i was just out with the small dog and saw a strange aircraft... it was flying low enough that i could get a pretty good look at it... it didn't have any windows, not even one for the pilot

good thing i wasn't carrying my ak-47 on that walk!

rogueice the only way to really be sure with these things is to nuke the hard-drive and re-install the OS, and then restore all your files from a backup made before the infection. Installing Windows can be a pain, but 1) it's quicker than hunting through the registry killing everything that looks funny and 2) this way you'll remember to obey the piss-simple precautions when online in the future holy shit how did you manage to get a virus, what is this 1996

you do make regular backups right?

RogueIce wrote:So I managed to pick up one of those cyber security ransomware things, which sucked. I did a system restore and that seems to have dealt with it, although The Internet™ has told me that may not have been the best solution.

What say you, computer experts of NT? I'm not seeing any issues now so am I good or what?

You cannot trust your computer at this point. Backup, wipe and reinstall.

RogueIce wrote:

Oxymoron wrote:Hey 'Soup => http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23401076

lol nanny state

I do like how they say regular porn is a 'gateway drug' to child porn, though.

If regular porn is a gateway to child porn then I should have a mountain of tiny skulls in my backyard.