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Having grown up being read to from Bullfinch's Mythology, as well as the Norse myths, the Persian myths, etc., I am "partial" to myths, and remain fascinated by their power to invoke a strange, yet familiar, "other reality:" this is an interesting read from " a research scholar in classics and the history of science at Stanford University" exploring some of the most powerful ancient Greeks Myths in terms of what they may relate to in our modern relationship with the rapid evolution of technology, and the possibility of "artificial sentience:" [^].
"Greek legends claimed Daedalus was the first mortal to create ‘living statues’. His ‘living statues’ were animated bronze sculptures that appeared to be endowed with life as they rolled their eyes, perspired, shed tears, bled, spoke and moved their limbs. From his workshop emerged the biomimetic cow made of wood and hide, so realistic that it fooled a bull into mating with it, to satisfy Queen Pasiphae’s perverse lust. The result of this union of human, machine and animal was the Minotaur, a hideous creature with a man’s body and a bull’s head. He was destined to become the man-eating ogre imprisoned in the Labyrinth (another Daedalus design), until finally killed by the hero Theseus. Again, ancient bio-techne fused human and machine – and generated a monster."
«There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you don’t want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.» Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008
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Didn't Mark Twain once say that there were no new ideas, only different combinations of the same "old" ideas? - or something like that.
Interesting post, none the less. 
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Much older.
King Solomon: What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun . . .
Bear in mind that he seemed rather depressed when writing Ecclesiastes - so give him a little slack.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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The authorship, and time of origin, of Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) has been hotly disputed by scholars for a couple of centuries now, and, while I obviously can say nothing about that, there are very interesting parts of the book that do not sound "depressed" to me:
Ecc 11:9 Rejoice, young man, while you are young,and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes, but know that God will judge your motives and actions.
Ecc 7:16 So do not be excessively righteous or excessively wise;otherwise you might be disappointed.
Ecc 8:15 So I recommend the enjoyment of life, for there is nothing better on earth for a person to do except to eat, drink, and enjoy life. So joy will accompany him in his toil during the days of his life which God gives him on earth. And, the description of the paradox of how the "wise man" ends up like the "fool" ... 2:12~16 ... seems to me to have a comic aspect in its extreme bathos.
But, overall, yes, it is an old man's book, an end-of-story book, a seen-it-all been-there-done-that book. For me a lot of its "power" (mana) comes from its juxtaposition of extremes of perspective.
My apologies if anyone is offended in any way by my quoting (here on the Lounge) from a manuscript regarded as "sacred" by many, and also regarded as a work of sublime literary importance by many famous "atheists" (including George Orwell, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and others).
«There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you don’t want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.» Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008
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BillWoodruff wrote: if anyone is offended in any way by my quoting (here on the Lounge) from a manuscript regarded as "sacred"
It is all in the context of the "quoting". I don't think anyone should be offended; I'm not. 
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BillWoodruff wrote: not sound "depressed" to me
A lot lost in translation...In the hebrew original there is a taste of sorrow about all those things Koheleth didn't done when was young, and now recommend them to the younger wise to not became a fool...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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The perfect read to get distracted from my work today. Thanks 
Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy.
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Gamblers anonymous are to release a range of beef products, from cows exclusively fed on raw cannabis. Nobody gambles when the steaks are that high!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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A rather grizzly attempt at humor.
(hey - I'm just ribbing you!)
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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The punch line is a little long for this one. I lost interest after my brain had to process all of the subject tokens in the two sentences.
Anyhow, the steaks are ALWAYS too high, in cholesterol and fat - that is why they taste so good.
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Would make for an interesting steak joint.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Yeah - but I'd worry about the roaches.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I think any roach problem would burn out pretty quickly, just imagine all the cool music you could pipe in.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Are you speaking in the flesh?
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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I can see that venture going up in smoke.
Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.
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Should the class Ophthalmologist implement IDoctor?
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No, but he must implement IGlasses
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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The implementation should definitely be written in C#.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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I shall reply, intern, with a worse pun:
Be patient and examine what kind of treatment you expect(orate).
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I do enjoy IBrow humour.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Would you put a lid in it!
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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