Camp Fire Talk

[xjwmx]

I was looking up at Mars a few minutes ago, it's that bright orange-ish "star" in the southern sky at the present time that doesn't twinkle, and it hit me that in the future the first manned landing there is going to seem like such a primitive thing, like the first wooden ship to America. And that it hasn't even happened yet.

This site needs a good camp fire thread; so next...

 

[gggGary]

Soon people will be telling stories about when dinosaurs (petroleum fueled vehicles) roamed the earth.
Like that?

 

[weekendrider]

Or when the major concerns when voiding your bowels. Are there wasps and a Sears and Roebuck catalog. I'm sure most today can't relate.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

...Are there wasps ...

Haha, sharp things.

I'll never forget dear ol' dad hunkering down, and gettin' *boinked* by a cactus...

 

[xjwmx]

Soon people will be telling stories about when dinosaurs (petroleum fueled vehicles) roamed the earth.
Like that?

Got the same lying liar in charge of Mars and EVs both, so anything might take awhile.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

I miss fishing.
And frying up the fresh catch.
Ain't nuttin' like it...

 

[weekendrider]

And what was your favorite flavor? Call me a plain Jane but perch/sun fish is what we had. A bucketful would make enough for a good mess and lawwd they is e z to catch

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

And, croppy (sunfish's black sheep cousin).

But, favs were bass and catfish...

 

[robinc]

Gotta place my vote on fresh Pickerel / Walleye.

Oh, and then I can remember catching smelt off the pier at Grand Bend on Lake Huron with a spider net. A big panfull fried in butter, little lemon......yumm.

 

[willis]

Bluegill is a favorite here in Northern Indiana.... Burning those fingertips fresh out of the fryer...

 

[59Tebo]

I just came back from a camping trip to Lake Ontario (near cape Vincent - just around the corner from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River). The air mattress leaked, I fell on the rocks, skinning the s#!% out of both shins, but the only thing better than the booze, the weather, and the company was the barbequed bullhead. Easy. Clean 'em the usual way, paint 'em with barbeque sauce, and when grilled to perfection, they fall off the bone and onto your plate. Add baked beans and beer. Kings should eat so good.... Now, who (besides Yamadude650C) has ever heard of salt potatoes?....

 

[Mailman]

One time when my boys were young , I took them camping at a lake in the forests of Northern Arizona. We took our dog, this big beautiful yellow lab with us. There were other campers in the area and we couldn’t let her run loose, that and the fact that she was basically a city dog, so we had her tied to a rope that was about thirty feet long when we were at the campsite. We had no sooner set everything up in our campsite than here comes this family down the side of the hill , with a springer spaniel, heading to the lake to go fishing.
Our dog went nuts trying to get to that springer spaniel. She was running back and forth dragging that rope right through the middle of our campsite and leveling everything in her path. We were all yelling at her and trying to grab her but none of us could get ahold of her in time. Our campsite looked like a bomb blew up in it! Wasn’t funny at the time, but looking back on on it, it really was funny.

 

[robinc]

When I lived in Calgary, Alberta back in the 80's, a gang of us would go camping at the Jasper National Park every Labour Day long weekend and have a pig roast.

The Park Wardens would say, "Not you guys again with your pig. Do you realize you bring every bear from miles around into the park after the grease?"
One time we were sitting at our picnic table enjoying a BEvERage and a mother bear and her 2 cubs walked through our campsite so close to us we could have touched her. We all wanted a picture of that, but none of us would move to get our cameras.

 

[Mailman]

I was looking up at Mars a few minutes ago........
This site needs a good camp fire thread; so next...

When you started this you were talking about Mars and the future and we are all talking about actual campfire stories. If you’re into science and future forecasting, here’s a couple that cross my mind from time to time.

Ice ages.......Did you know that we are currently in an ice age? With all the talk of global warming most people don’t realize that our planet has been in an ice age for the last two and a half million years. When the planet is not involved in an ice age, there is no ice on the planet at all. Sometimes for hundreds of millions of years at a time.
There have been five known ice ages and during the most severe one ( The Cryogenian ) it lasted over 200 million years and turned the planet into a snowball earth. Effectively encasing the planet in ice.
What people tend to think of as ice ages are actually periods of glaciation where the ice sheets expand and contract. The last period of glacial expansion withdrew approximately 13,000 years ago and virtually all of modern mankind has happened since that time. Kind of interesting huh?

Artificial intelligence........Did you catch that story in the news the other day about an artificial intelligence program designed to make phone calls ( developed by Google? ). The A I did such a good job of sounding human that the people on the other end of the line had no idea that they were talking to a robot. This raised a whole bunch of ethical questions. The advances in artificial intelligence are occurring so rapidly that you have to wonder will there come a time when they become self aware and what are the ramifications and risks of that. In 2015 researchers gave three robots a classic self awareness test in the form of a puzzle. This test was not a series of mathematical programs, but a test that required the robots to think. One of them passed the test. At what point do the students become the masters?

Sorry, I’m a closet nerd. Carl Sagan is King!

 

[robinc]

will there come a time when they become self aware and what are the ramifications and risks of that.

At what point do the students become the masters?

The Matrix?

 

[xjwmx]

When you started this you were talking about Mars and the future and we are all talking about actual campfire stories.

It turned into stories about campfires

 

[Mailman]

The Matrix?

My son who works in the tech industry and is married to a computer engineer , together they are super nerds, assures me that those fears are unfounded, but I say if I see killer robots coming down the street. Feet’s don’t fail me now!

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

We get some interesting bugs down here.

Junebug, with a Rhinoceros beetle.


When one *bonks* into you, it's like getting hit by a rock.

 

[xjwmx]

Artificial intelligence........Did you catch that story in the news the other day about an artificial intelligence program designed to make phone calls ( developed by Google? ). The A I did such a good job of sounding human that the people on the other end of the line had no idea that they were talking to a robot. This raised a whole bunch of ethical questions. The advances in artificial intelligence are occurring so rapidly that you have to wonder will there come a time when they become self aware and what are the ramifications and risks of that.

Technology news is always a little bit behind. I get robocalls all the time that sound human. One I asked if she was a human or a robot and she said "Do I sound that bad?" in a kind of desperate tone. "She" called again a few days later and same thing. So they're already out in the field. Next step will be remembering my responses and tailoring her patter to me. When Oracle's Java 8 came out the official demo programs using the new features included some robocall stuff. I thought it was kind of hard to believe, since they're such a nuisance.

Self-awareness that presents a danger is way in the future, but stuff that's just as scary is about to go mainstream. New abilities in fake videos, originating overseas so no defenses in law. Social media public manipulation bots by enemies, indistinguishable from humans, originating anywhere in the world. Domestic enemies or well-meaning people pushing an agenda with the same technology. Ten years from now will most likely be utter confusion, beginning now.

 

[Jim]

My son who works in the tech industry and is married to a computer engineer , together they are super nerds, assures me that those fears are unfounded, but I say if I see killer robots coming down the street. Feet’s don’t fail me now!

Skynet....
Lets hope that if we're smart enough to give them artificial intelligence, we're also smart enough to teach them about compassion... a trait found in many species.