The Baha'i Religion - Am I missing anything?

unixrat — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:22:25 -0800

I have spent the past two years doing on-again, off-again research into the Baha'i religion. I really like what I see - I'm on the verge of conversion. There is one problem - something that's nagging at the corners of my mind: Why isn't this religion more popular? Is there something that I'm missing that everyone else is seeing? This is a bit of the Wisdom of Crowds mentality, but I have this mental image of a fork in the road with a heavily traveled path on one side and a deer path on the other.

I'm not afraid of going my own way, I'm just looking for a little reassurance that I'm not blind to some obvious problem.

The people I've spoken to have been very nice, the books that I have read have seemed pretty thorough, and I've read all the criticism that I can get my hands on. Yet, the sheer anonymity of it leaves me a bit bewildered.

Help?

Robot Planes!!!

tweak — Wed, 10 May 2006 03:28:04 -0800

Flying Robot Planes? The analysts seem to think there is no good way to stop these things. Why isn't the government interested in using the wisdom of crowds to prevent terrorist attacks? I know about the futures market being used to predict terrorist attacks.... but what about the wisdom of crowds to come up with technology and creative solutions to these problems? Why don't we have a huge suggestion box for the public to throw ideas at the wall and see if any stick? It seems like the only things military and political leaders are interested in is expensive laser-based technology or flashy gadgets that cost millions or billions and years in R&D. Ironically, there are clear low-tech threats that seem effective, and the bureaucratic monoculture doesn't seem interested in unsexy solutions that don't help out their friends the contractors (who are often just retired civil servants).

AskMetaFilter is, after all, the concept of the wisdom of crowds applied in a practical and often very successful manner. So aside from my question about military stupidity and corporate culture, please consider the following: How would you prevent pre-programmed UAV attacks? The first thing I thought of was to hire illegal immigrants to literally watch the skies (and let them earn their citizenship for six months of part-time service). It would certainly be cheaper than paying billions for tech that can knock out a cruise missile but can't hit a UAV simply because it doesn't fucking show up on radar. This vexes me. What would you do?

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The Baha'i Religion - Am I missing anything?

Robot Planes!!!