Isotropic is …
... my personal blog.
Unless otherwise indicated, anything I write here is simply my personal, probably ill-formed, opinion and does not represent the views, beliefs, positions, or opinions of any other person or entity.
Category Archives: Sci-Tech
15 Aug 2009
The Face of SkyNet?
What is evil and how do you formally define it? That’s what Selmer Bringsjord of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Department of Cognitive Science has been working on. He and his team created “E”, a computer representation with some degree of artificial intelligence, loaded it with some scenarios, and then asked it questions to determine why it [...]
11 Aug 2009
Be alert for parachuting elephants!
Something weird is going on out there. Phil Plait says, “Deep in the outer realms of our solar system, well over a billion kilometers away, something bizarre happened at Saturn’s F ring. I mean, seriously: what the hell happened here?” Read his post “Like the fist of an angry god” at Discover Magazine’s Bad Astronomy [...]
08 Aug 2009
Cloud Ships
When I first saw this Telegraph URL in my email, I imagined huge silver blimps floating among the clouds. However, it turns out these cloud ships are literal ocean-going vessels. The project, which is being worked on by rival US and UK scientists, would see 1,900 wind-powered ships ply the oceans sucking up seawater and [...]
25 May 2009
Does it matter whether you are a simulation?
What is the probability that you are a simulation, and if so, how can you tell? I ran across this idea a while back on one of the science blogs I follow, but had just glanced over and forgotten about it until someone asked about it on LinkedIn yesterday. Nick Bostrom of Oxford University asked [...]
26 Mar 2009
Design Revolution
This is considered revolutionary? I don’t know whether to call this brilliant or brillant. Someone has figured out that producing better products reduces the cost of warranty repair or replacement and also increases customer satisfaction. Of course, unlike most if not all manufacturers, you have to focus on more than an ultra-short-term bottom line. Design [...]
09 Mar 2009
Robot Pics
Time for some more robot stuff. The Boston Globe has a collection of 32 images in “Robots – The Big Picture“. #3 & #12, the da Vinci surgical system — flashbacks to Logan’s Run #14 — a Christmas card? #19, Big Dog — my favorite critter #27 — “FRONT TOWARD ENEMY”
08 Mar 2009
EyeBorg
Rob Spence is going to make the eye-camera a reality (if some obscure TLA agency hasn’t already). The implications for privacy and security have long been a part of science fiction, but this project should garner it wider attention in the general public’s eye (sorry). Take a one eyed film maker, an unemployed engineer, and [...]
08 Feb 2009
Who wants in your genes?
While I’m not all that fascinated with my genetic makeup (maybe I’m just too old to care?), many are. If you’re among those, check out Daniel MacArthur’s blog, Genetic Future, where he writes “about the genetic and evolutionary basis of human variation, and the companies trying to sell you information about your genome.” In an [...]
13 Jan 2009
What is science?
Matt Springer poses that question and suggests a concise answer: Science is the testing of ideas. This is subject to ever-increasing refinement (or contention), as you can see from his post and its comments. You might consider the “scientific method” as the first-level refinement: observe hypothesize predict test That’s basically the inner loop of the [...]
11 Jan 2009
Galileo’s Eyes
Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei started an astronomical revolution by using a telescope to (among other things) discover four moons of Jupiter and thus reinforce the heliocentric view of the solar system, removing Earth from the center of the universe. Sadly, it took the Catholic Church nearly that long to forgive him for it. [...]
