Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Shays lotus market?
Are there any markets like Silk Road in Beijing where you can bargain for knock-off goods?
Some questions:
1) Are the suits tailor made, or only off the rack?
2) If tailor made, does that happen in Beijing, or in Chengdu, and how long does it take?
3) I’ve bought tailor made suits in China in the past, and they initially look great, but fall apart after a few wears. Has anyone purchased any of these suits, and are they of a better quality?
Thanks guys. Qingcheng sounds more like what I’d be into rather than Leshan. I’m sure the big buddah is cool, but I’ve already seen some pretty big buddahs. I’m into nature/outdoors more, so Qingcheng sounds like what I need to do!
I figure ESP exists, but only on a very low level. I don’t believe it has ever existed on any kind of high level.
Collective consciousness on the other hand has already begun with the internet, and it’s only going to increase. The internet has really only come into the mainstream in the past 20 years. I remember the launch of Windows ’95, and all of a sudden people were connecting to ‘The World Wide Web’. I didn’t even understand what this was, and I had no idea it would mean we could share cat pictures with people in different cultures all over the world.
Not that you’d want to of course.
Anyways, to continue on to the point of collective consciouness, let’s consider how technology advances. I’ll give an example of my own work, as it’s something I can explain well. My company does web development. We build online systems for clients, that do what the client wants.
Often, we will have to connect to another system to retrieve or send data. When we get a request like this, the first thing we do is a ‘proof of concept’. This is initial research, to prove that it can actually be done (so we know whether or not we should take the job). This proof of concept is the most bare-bones of actions. We simply put together enough code to make a remote connection to the other system, and test whether or not that system accepts our data, and returns data we can understand. At this point, we have proved (or disproved) the concept. The code we have created in itself isn’t really usable – it comes back as a data stream that is not human friendly or usable. But we know that we can then proceed.
The next step is to then fill in all the blanks. We create a user interface so that humans can trigger this action through a human-friendly interface. An example is a ‘like’ button on a non-facebook website. The user just sees a button they push, and knows that this ‘like’ will show up on their facebook account. In the background however, the site they are looking at has built a system to output that button, and link it to facebook, and then send the data to facebook when that button is pushed. It all ends up in a nice friendly interface, with popups, and abilities to add comments etc. Over time, the interface is cleaned up, and facebook makes it easier to integrate for site developers etc. The more time goes by, the nicer it is.
How this relates to collective consciousness is that we have already proven the concept, by creating the internet. We now know that we can have a ‘world wide web’ that allows us to connect to each other. After making that proof of concept, we then started to build on it – more servers in more places, with more computers for more people to connect.
The next steps over time will be to improve our methods of connecting. Likely, we will move to neural implants at some point, were we have technology implanted or somehow integrated directly with our neural processes. We have already begun work on this with voice-activated technology, things like Google Glass, and Siri on the iphone.
Once we have proven the concept of being able to neurally interface with technology, we will then improve upon that. Right now, our technology is generally metal, plastic and silicon based. That is because at our current technological level, we are limited to this. But it’s not far fetched to expect that over time we will be able to change our materials to organic/biological materials. We will start to build technology that is not integrated with us, but rather IS us. At that point, we can switch to interfacing with the internet using chips and processors, and instead will use biological means. At this point, we will have true collective consciousness, as we will simply manipulate our bodies and our minds, rather than integrating external devices.
The concept is already there, we’ve shown it with the internet. Now all we need to do is clean up the interface, and the user experience.
I read a lot of science fiction. An interesting bit of SF I read was a series called The Void Trilogy. Note the description on the Wikipedia page is seriously lacking). In this series, people had neural implants that essentially integrated technology into their brain. They were always connected, and able to basically use the internet without devices. The ideas expressed were so far out it was impressive, but as someone else mentioned above, we cannot even comprehend of some of the technology that will come, so it’s interesting to think that as far out as the book is, there will likely be even more impressive technology than what was described.
Personally, I’m all for it. I look forward to having implants, and everything accessible all at once. The internet has enabled my lifestyle – I taught myself programming over information I found on the internet, used this knowledge to find work, then later used that knowledge to start my own company. Even now, when we have a problem we don’t know how to solve, we find solutions on the net.
This wasn’t even an idea when I was born, much less a reality. Look at this site for example – I’ve managed to connect with people in a country I don’t live, planning a trip to a place I haven’t been, finding out real information from real people, all from my sofa.
I love technology. I’m about 50% of the way through my life (39 years old – half of 78), and I’m pretty excited to see what the next half brings.
I went to a wedding in the boondocks of Canada after a few years in Japan. I had never been to a wedding in Canada, but had been to about 10 in the few years I was in Japan. Wedding = suit here. I got to the venue (it was at a hotel), put on my suit, and went down to the chapel, and not only was it not a suit and tie deal, it was a cowboy theme (my friend neglected to mention that). People wearing cowboy hats and shooting off cap guns etc.
I took off my tie.
Maybe I should just give them 10,000 yen. It will confuse the people who receive it, and they can use it next time they come to visit Japan!
(I’m not actually going to do that).
What about clothes for weddings? Should I wear a suit and tie?
Actually the wedding is in Guangzhou, but as I had just created an account here, I figured I may as well ask here since I’m not a member of any Guangzhou forums :)Thanks to everyone for the information. It would be a little easier if it wasn’t all over the place! But I’m guessing that this is a dilemma faced by everyone going to a wedding, and not just me.Are there any other things I should be careful of besides the even numbers? For example, in Japan, you have to use crisp bills, fresh from the bank. Anything like that?
that’s interesting here in Japan, it’s the exact opposite – not supposed to give even numbers as they can be split in two, which is a bad omen.
But of course I’ll go the Chinese way 🙂
My friends live in Beijing, so I’m thinking that 1000 is probably the way to go.
Much appreciated. I make a good bit, but I’m also paying to go to China for the wedding, so I’ll probably give them 350 or 400.
Cheaper than Japan where I’d be paying 1500! (30,000 yen).
