Sunday, September 12, 2010

Meta-creation, anyone?

Why some religions are so anti-evolution? Would not God which created (programmed) such simple and cool evolution rules be cool? Kinda, meta-creation-cool? I mean, that may move dogma a bit, but it may actually win some extra friends, would not it?

Friday, September 10, 2010

Pain Ray from Raytheon

The NPR story on the Raytheon device followed today the ongoing ACLU reporting and the specific coverage of the terrible invention.

Very, horribly bad development. Patching the result, not the root cause of the problem - and deteriorating the society in process. The device's safety is absolutely unclear. We are still convinced that microwaving eye's cornea to 2/3 of it's depth is a bad thing. Witness accounts tell that is feels like scalding their skin. Would anyone consider scalding one's eyes healthy? Other health concerns are posted in the same ACLU article.

But the worst effect is the moral one, mentioned by some commenters to the NPR story. Using the device is like a video game for prison staff - they are removed from the action. It is an ultimate humiliation and indignity for inmates, being tortured by a human "above them". The device application is not improving inmates' social outlook, it's making them feel whipped animals and gives a moral "permit" to be anti-social. All because bureaucrats mis-balanced prison occupancy and laws and now quick-fixing their mistakes at the expense of human lives.

Zimbardo's study is directly applicable here with it's effects and discoveries.

The other issue is that the NPR story is very unbalanced, showing lots of "pro" material and no elaboration on "cons" considerations. We hope NPR sticks to better reporting.