machines

Last year I was watching a show on The Science Channel called 'Leonardo's Incredible Machines'. On the show they built some of the devices that Leo designed. Such as his parachute, one of the crank powered machines, a glider, the long snorkle dive suit etc. Anyway, one of the ones that I found...

I guess this belongs here. I've got an exercise bicycle that has one of those electronic consoles that gives you various statistics regarding your workout (distance traveled, calories burned, etc). Does anyone know how accurate these things are? I'm most interested in the calories/carbs...

If the technological march doesn't stop, (which it may), at some point, machines will have to become as smart as us, won't they?

I found this device used for maintaining health. It is called iGallop from Osim. http://shop.osim.biz/shop/details.asp?prodID=1314&pID=1604 Another one is called JOBA from National. http://national.jp/kenko/exercise/joba/ They apparently worked by simulating horseriding. The moving...

Moral: Concerned with principles of right and wrong or conforming to standards of behavior and character based on those principles. Adhering to ethical and moral principles. Refers to what is judged as right, just, or good. ____ Can a machine be programmed with morals? Why or why not?

As you'll soon see, this does belong here as a philosophy discussion, and not in the computers and technology section. :) Take the following two points as being given: You have a test for evaluating sentience and conciousness. What this test is actually comprised of isn't really relevant to...

"Imagine a 'church' so dangerous, you must sign a release form before you can receive its 'spiritual assistance.' This assistance might involve holding you against your will for an indefinite period, isolating you from friends and family, and denying you access to appropriate medical care. You...

Hi, all. First post. :) I was wondering if anyone knows of any scientific studies of so called mind machines. The idea behind these machines is that, you wear a pair of glasses that have flashing L.E.D.'s close to your closed eyelids. The lights flash at a certain frequency, and it is...

- I've been meaning to write an essay for some time now about the idea of government-controlled families. In other words, a perverbial "license to procreate". Brutish as it may seem on the surface, I'd like to examine it rationally. This isn't a concentrated attempt at covering all the...

Does anyone know if these actually work, when it comes to the machines you can buy for home use? I have not found any rational discussion on them in my searching so far :( jema

Should there be a Humane Society that protects computers from abuse at the hands of sadistic computer programmers?

Are we machines? More precisely, do we, as human beings, differ in any substantive manner from any other physical object in the Universe? I intend to briefly spell out the reasons why a lot of people, particularly educated people, do indeed believe that we human beings are not substantially...

Machines

Hi all, I've been a lurker on this forum for quite some time now. First off I would like to thank all on this forum. I have learned lots and lots of things during the past months. Sure there a some threads that have derailed completely in some sort of flame wars but most of the threads are kept...

So at the gym, you have the option of either doing regular crunches, or using one of the ab machines, where one is adding weights. Which is better? With the ab machine you're sitting up, intead of lying on your back, so does that negate the extra benefit you would be getting from the weights...

Well, I own one. I was convinced by somebody on this forum to get it, and I love it dearly. Anyway, I want to know exactly why and how they work. I am having troubles finding sources that don't use big flashy gifs. Those flashy gifs usually set of my woo-woo alarms. So, help?

I was reading a small article on Ars-Technica about RFID tags and how they can be used to tell your washing machine how to wash a garment or what settings your microwave should be set on to cook food when I realized that isn't necessarily a useful feature. As an example, here at work I have a...