Philosophical Question - Amiguing

[nicholas]

I think a more important question is "Why not?"

[nicholas]

I wonder what the incidence rate of individuals who fall within the Autistic Spectrum are within the Amiga community (or even retro computing communities in general) is compared with society as a whole?

I'd be willing to wager it is pretty high.

[nicholas]

Based on what? The idiotic Hollywood stereotype that "autistic" = "Rain Man?" The tendencies of self-diagnosed 'spergies?

Based on being the father of a child with Autism.

Oh and having taught Computer Science at college to young adults who fall within the spectrum too.
Next.

[nicholas]

Don't know much about autism, but I tend to think of it as an OCD.  I have been known to spend hours tweaking each individual pixel of my icons and window spacing to make them exactly how I want them, it sets my nerves on edge to see anyone post screenshots using standard Workbench 3.1 icons.  

Like Clu from Tron: Legacy - building the perfect system!

I think having the feeling (whether perceived or actual) of total control over the system is a major part of the attraction/addiction.

[nicholas]

I reckon it's exactly the same proportion as in the world community as a whole.... I don't see why a difference in taste should denote autism?

It's the aspect of perceived/actual total control over the system that appears to feed the need for order that using limited computers can provide that makes me think the ratio might be higher.

[nicholas]

I hope that AROS will come to a point somewhen in future with full multicore support. AROS running natively on newest hardware with full support that would certainly become the fastest platform on earth. Of course if you call it "Amiga" or not then is a matter of definition.

That would be very cool indeed, but I reckon MenuetOS might be a tad faster.

http://www.menuetos.net

[nicholas]

Do your vinyl justice and play them on a Technics SL-1200/1210 with Ortorfon carts.

No point having a great amp and speakers if you're not feeding them the best input.

[nicholas]

We are not a body with a soul but a soul with a body.

[nicholas]

Or maybe we are just a very special body

Special compared to what though?  The human body is not more special than the body of any other animal, it's just flesh and bones.

[nicholas]

Speak for yourself.

What's so special about your body compared to any other living creature's body?

[nicholas]

This is about the fourth time in only a few months that someone I know has asked this question.
And the answer is a clear yes.
Autistic, mentally unbalanced, etc.

Well one only has to take a glimpse at moobunny for proof of that! lol

[nicholas]

Yep there are certainly some very 'interesting' people involved in the scene, of course I'm almost 100% sane and a perfectly normal member of society.

I'm as mad as a march hare myself. lol

[nicholas]

http://www.al-islam.org/nahj/  Read Sermon 1

Now that's all i'm going to say on religion as this is not the coffee house forum.

In answer to the OP's question:

Evryone has a different reason for using or developing Amiga stuff and each reason is just as valid as all the opposing reasons.

I think the number one reason is probably because it is fun, with nostalgia probably coming in a close second.

[nicholas]

I think one mass generalisation that probably does apply to all of us is that we do what we do with Amigas and related and derived technologies for the simple pleasure of doing it.

I've been coding Amiga stuff again for the first time in decades recently and I'm doing it merely for the pleasure of coding for the sake of coding. No particular general goal, no pressure, no deadlines, no PHB demanding random features, just enjoying it for what it is.

I suppose the only "defined goal" I have if I were pressured into thinking of one is that my code compiles and runs on Amiga OS, MorphOS, AROS and OS4.

[nicholas]

I actually think this will turn out to not be true.
 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19422430
 
Having one or the other is like people generally only having one hair colour.
 
While god might have triggered the big bang, none of the large organised religions have dared throw away all their theories about how the universe was created in light of scientific evidence. Instead they have spent a long time trying to disprove science to show that their god exists (which is a logical fallacy but hey).
 
Science cannot disprove the possibility of a god, it can only blow huge holes in religious texts written by man. As the writers god is supposed to have been heavily involved in the creation of those texts then they were either deluded, liars or their god is a practical joker. You could argue that there has been misinterpretation, but I cannot believe that a god that influenced the writing of religion texts would have allowed that to happen.
 
But there could be a god that hasn't influenced any religions that created the visible universe. However this opens up even more questions than it answers as you then have to consider what else is there outside the visible universe. So while god might be the actual answer, it's a rather farfetched and inconvenient one (unless you are into blind faith or you're the one manipulating the masses).

So much false assumption and BS in one post it could win an award.

It's blatantly obvious you have never spoken at length about this subject with an actual scholar of Islam (An Ayatollah for instance) otherwise you wouldn't have made your incorrect sweeping generalisations.

I've discussed this subject in great detail in the past right here on this very forum and so have some of the other Muslim members, so I'm not about to repeat myself again but refer you to the search function if you actually are interested in having your ignorance of our beliefs corrected.

Plus it is extremely off topic for this thread.