I suppose you are correct in that the computer does not offer an explanation of it's findings. Perhaps you could consider the result of an experiment an explanation in itself, but that's stretching it. Results require explanation: they aren't really explanations themselves.
I guess true science might then be considered one part engineering and one part philosophy - or at least the midpoint between them? -- Music should be free
You still have to build the house to make sure it stands up.
Trial and error are unavoidable.
I think science and trial and error are inseperable.
But I will certainly agree with you and concede that this is not an effecient way of doing science - but I think it is science nonetheless. -- Music should be free
I don't think we have cicumvented the "survival of the fittest" at all in one bit.
Would not the "fittest" be those who have the largest numbers? Don't you think that some of the "less fit" that we have allowed to survive because of caesarian section births or because of wheelchairs may have lead us to, say, gene therapy or some other advancement which will actually allow all of us to "repair" our genes. Make us all the genetic supermen this model of fitness to which you subscribe alludes?
I think our caring for the less "fit" in the "animalistic" sense is simply a higher level of cultural fitness only humans have yet to achieve.
I would think the development of the nurturing human culture analogous to the evolution of shells, bones and other hard body parts during the cambrian explosion. Those parts don't aid any organ in working better, they don't let the animal see any better. Shells and bones don't even make an animal smarter. But the hard parts offer protection and they offer stability and they offer integrity. -- Music should be free
I think that computers have actually been able to do real science for at least a little while already. John Koza is a leader in field of genetic and evolutionary computation. Very much his computer's do real science. The computers analize a set of data (observation), they make a series of modifications (hypothesis), they run fitness tests against these modified versions of the data (experiment), then they begin again analizing these results (back to obeservation).
The computer clusters which John Koza has engineered have created high-pass and low-pass filters when given nothing more than a random assortment of electronic components; even while John himself knew nothing of electronics that would enable him to create such a circut himself.
Most impressively is how the computer cluster evolved a new antenna for NASA - when it was completed John was worried that the computer had made some grievious errors because the little antenna looked like a bent paper clip - but it worked!
And that's science if you ask me. Especially the antenna - the results of experiments can, and seeminly do, often go against "common sense" and give answers which are "unintuitive".
Perhaps computers will be much better with the next generation physics we're discovering. Perhaps our little numerical darlings are simply better suited to deal with the abstract, multi-dimensional world of what the universe is starting to appear to be.
(Please pardon my lay and simplified version of the scientific method - but I feel it is a valid interpretation (if overly simplified for minds such as mine;) ) -- Music should be free
I LOVE astronomy. I think it is simply the most profound thing that we have been able to take the eye and stretch it to points beyond imagination. To look out into the cosmos is so humbling and awe-inspiring. Truly if one science has shown us simple magnificent beauty it is astronomy.
Now having said that I will say that only one thing makes astronomy better - seeing these object in motion! Galaxies and nebula seem so unreal in hubble's photos - it's hard to fully comprehend what exactly they are - what they are really like. But when you view those precious few object we have been able to capture in motion, to me it is exquisite! Somehow, to me, it makes them that much more real, more tangible. And that is truly the dream of the soul - to somehow touch, taste, smell that which is so beautiful:)
I hope these astronomers string together this phenomenal convergence into a movie!
Games need to have less rules and more possibilities. This sounds simple to accomplish, but it seeminly is not.
An example: I began playing star wars galaxies when it was first released. It was lauded as having the most expansive character/class system of any mmo to date. I took this to mean that the advancement would be unique.
I began as a gunsmith, and I decided that I wanted to make the finest pistols in the empire - so that's what I spent my time doing; making pistols. I made pistol after pistol, but the pistols weren't getting any better.
I found out that I needed to make rifles and carbines as well if I wanted to advance in level, and that making rifles and carbines would make my pistols better???
I guess that makes sense, but as I climbed in level I realised that there was no way to become the bona-fide pistol expert in the game. Once you got to master level it was just about the materials you used to make your guns. Given identical materials all master gunsmiths would make the same weapons.
To me it always seemed that it would have been cooler that if I spent more time on a particular task that my character become better at that task. That I would be able to make the better item with lesser materials.
I enjoy Second Life for it's realm of possibilities - but it's still not really a pick-it-up-and-play kind of game.
If only there were a combination of the MMO universe and play style married to the sandbox type ideal of a Second Life type game. -- Music should be free - mine is
The DVD bootable part of the equation would, I think, be mostly a flashy feature. I would be neat to bring over to a friend's house for example and boot the DVD and plug in the USB drive. You could then show your friend the game without having to install it on his system. But it is undeniable that the long boot time would require you go have dinner while the game loads up:/ - nonetheless, the portability of the whole thing does sound sexy to me.
Ideally the overall solution to the hardware abstraction problem would likely be a combination of a custom gaming Linux and a Java-like gaming language.
The gaming Linux would give the identical OS for the gaming platform and the Java-like language would allow single code to be written for the game on all hardware.
These are huge obstacles - I agree. But the rewards if one were able to create a viable new gaming OS and a simplified game development language would be great for the industry and the consumer I would think. -- Gaming should be free
You just made me think - wouldn't it be pretty cool if a game company (say blizzard) would release a game that was compatible on all modern systems - but ran linux.
Now hear me out - make the game on a bootable DVD (knoppix based perhaps) and include a USB key/storage device for downloading updates (this key could even add another level of protection as well). Of course allow the option of actually installing this distro so you aren't required to boot from the DVD. Also perhaps for the advanced, assure that any linux distro can be configured with the proper gaming drivers required for your games.
But for the masses who don't want to have to install a whole new OS make the possibility of bootability foremost.
Knoppix can boot pretty fast and the manufacturer could customize it to detect a wide variety of gaming systems (and perhaps download updated drivers). Correct me if I'm wrong - and I may be - but a single boot ROM could boot more than one OS depending upon processor architecture.
This would allow a single DVD to be used across PCs, Macs and new Intel Macs.
The drawback is that this would require a reboot of your system - but many high-end games are the solitary program you want running while you're playing them anyhow - and besides, chat and browsing could still be included on the distro with the game.
It's an idea, yes? And a powerhouse like blizzard could attempt such an audacious experiment.
I mean, the cost of adoption might even-out considering the cost of complying with microsoft. Furthermore this would cover a broad range of users and perhaps simplify development. Well, at least the development of the game itself - the distro would be the pain I'm sure - but once you developed a gaming linux (a ROM bootable one at that) you would have the first new gaming OS to rival Microsofts monopoly.
I think it's extremely lame that Halo 3, for example, will only run on Vista. I mean, the next thing MS will do is release directX updates which only can be installed on Vista.
hmm - do you know if SETI saves any recordings of the past signals they intercept? I know it would be an enourmous archive of mostly nothing, so it seems unlikely.
After all, the chances are, of course, that if there is some intelligence out there is using some kind of CDMA that they will stick around for a while thus giving us a chance to create the technology which can demux their "noise". But still, I wonder if any thought has been given to signals that we have recived already, but which we may not have had the sophistication at the time to interpret.
who knows, around our year 1980 some advanced civilization's last multiplexed signals might have been reaching us. Perhaps at that very moment they switched over to a new technology - laser transmission or something.
It would be a sad irony to miss out on that signal just because some alien bueracracy decided it was time to free up a spectrum;) -- Music should be free
This sounds less like a change in the method of comepetition and more like the end result will be a standardization. I like the idea of standards.
Here in the states, my father is always calling me and saying, "turn the tv to channel 3 quick!" and I'm like what station is channel 3? and he's like "it's channel 3!".
He never seemed to have gotten the idea that different networks operate on different channels depending upon provider and locale.
Of course, I know that channel 3 and 10 and 13 are for some reason very special numbers in the television scheme of things.
I wonder, do you think that some day television channels will be replaced by URLs of some sort?
It's going to be strange when the airwaves are free of broadcast television, and when one day in the garage you run across an old tv, hook it up, prop up the antennas and see that there really is nothing being broadcasted.
I feel sorry already for the extraterrestrial's SETI programs - they only have a small window of less than a century to grab our raw carrier waves. -- Music should be free
is it really that different? looks like everything is in the same spot to me.
the functionality is identical - but I admit, it is kind of like a new pair of shoes. They look awesome! but they are a little stiff until you walk around in them for a bit. -- Music should be free
Ever notice how easy it is to say something bad about anything?
I like this new layout - but it seems that people like to post about what they don't like about something more than what they do. This new layout is clean and modern.
if you don't like it then tell us some specifics on why you don't like it!
I admit, it's different, and it's ok to be scared by things that are different. But as times change so must one if one wishes to survive. You cannot grow without change. Growth is change.
Of course, everyone is entittled to his or her own opinion - this one is mine:] -- Music should be free
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting, thank you for that information :)
I wonder if you know of any theories for why some people develop the chronic rejection condition?
FTA:"...reduce the problem of immune rejection which is often associated with organ transplants."
I had always assumed that immune rejection ALWAYS happened with organ transplants. Are there cases where a transplant has occured without rejection?
Hehe, I must be an engineer eh? 8)
I suppose you are correct in that the computer does not offer an explanation of it's findings. Perhaps you could consider the result of an experiment an explanation in itself, but that's stretching it. Results require explanation: they aren't really explanations themselves.
I guess true science might then be considered one part engineering and one part philosophy - or at least the midpoint between them?
--
Music should be free
You still have to build the house to make sure it stands up.
Trial and error are unavoidable.
I think science and trial and error are inseperable.
But I will certainly agree with you and concede that this is not an effecient way of doing science - but I think it is science nonetheless.
--
Music should be free
Who do you mean by "them"?
--
Music should be free
I don't think we have cicumvented the "survival of the fittest" at all in one bit.
Would not the "fittest" be those who have the largest numbers? Don't you think that some of the "less fit" that we have allowed to survive because of caesarian section births or because of wheelchairs may have lead us to, say, gene therapy or some other advancement which will actually allow all of us to "repair" our genes. Make us all the genetic supermen this model of fitness to which you subscribe alludes?
I think our caring for the less "fit" in the "animalistic" sense is simply a higher level of cultural fitness only humans have yet to achieve.
I would think the development of the nurturing human culture analogous to the evolution of shells, bones and other hard body parts during the cambrian explosion. Those parts don't aid any organ in working better, they don't let the animal see any better. Shells and bones don't even make an animal smarter. But the hard parts offer protection and they offer stability and they offer integrity.
--
Music should be free
I think that computers have actually been able to do real science for at least a little while already.
;) )
John Koza is a leader in field of genetic and evolutionary computation. Very much his computer's do real science. The computers analize a set of data (observation), they make a series of modifications (hypothesis), they run fitness tests against these modified versions of the data (experiment), then they begin again analizing these results (back to obeservation).
The computer clusters which John Koza has engineered have created high-pass and low-pass filters when given nothing more than a random assortment of electronic components; even while John himself knew nothing of electronics that would enable him to create such a circut himself.
Most impressively is how the computer cluster evolved a new antenna for NASA - when it was completed John was worried that the computer had made some grievious errors because the little antenna looked like a bent paper clip - but it worked!
And that's science if you ask me. Especially the antenna - the results of experiments can, and seeminly do, often go against "common sense" and give answers which are "unintuitive".
Perhaps computers will be much better with the next generation physics we're discovering. Perhaps our little numerical darlings are simply better suited to deal with the abstract, multi-dimensional world of what the universe is starting to appear to be.
(Please pardon my lay and simplified version of the scientific method - but I feel it is a valid interpretation (if overly simplified for minds such as mine
--
Music should be free
"A piece of trickery; a trick.
1. One that defrauds; a cheat.
2. One who assumes a false pose; an impostor."
Interestingly I think these are the exact same definitions for "Date" as in an event, and "Date" as in a person.
--
Music should be free
Your ideas intrigue me, and I would like to subscribe to your cult's newsletter.
--
Music should be free
Boy do I!
--
Music should be free
I LOVE astronomy. I think it is simply the most profound thing that we have been able to take the eye and stretch it to points beyond imagination. To look out into the cosmos is so humbling and awe-inspiring. Truly if one science has shown us simple magnificent beauty it is astronomy.
:)
Now having said that I will say that only one thing makes astronomy better - seeing these object in motion! Galaxies and nebula seem so unreal in hubble's photos - it's hard to fully comprehend what exactly they are - what they are really like. But when you view those precious few object we have been able to capture in motion, to me it is exquisite! Somehow, to me, it makes them that much more real, more tangible. And that is truly the dream of the soul - to somehow touch, taste, smell that which is so beautiful
I hope these astronomers string together this phenomenal convergence into a movie!
Jupiter's storms in motion
Solar flares
Do you have any other cool astronomical movie links?
--
Music should be free
Hmm, we'll need to have a look inside you with this worm. [patient opens his mouth] Guess again.
--
Music should be free
Games need to have less rules and more possibilities. This sounds simple to accomplish, but it seeminly is not.
An example: I began playing star wars galaxies when it was first released. It was lauded as having the most expansive character/class system of any mmo to date. I took this to mean that the advancement would be unique.
I began as a gunsmith, and I decided that I wanted to make the finest pistols in the empire - so that's what I spent my time doing; making pistols. I made pistol after pistol, but the pistols weren't getting any better.
I found out that I needed to make rifles and carbines as well if I wanted to advance in level, and that making rifles and carbines would make my pistols better???
I guess that makes sense, but as I climbed in level I realised that there was no way to become the bona-fide pistol expert in the game. Once you got to master level it was just about the materials you used to make your guns. Given identical materials all master gunsmiths would make the same weapons.
To me it always seemed that it would have been cooler that if I spent more time on a particular task that my character become better at that task. That I would be able to make the better item with lesser materials.
I enjoy Second Life for it's realm of possibilities - but it's still not really a pick-it-up-and-play kind of game.
If only there were a combination of the MMO universe and play style married to the sandbox type ideal of a Second Life type game.
--
Music should be free - mine is
hmm, good points.
:/ - nonetheless, the portability of the whole thing does sound sexy to me.
The DVD bootable part of the equation would, I think, be mostly a flashy feature. I would be neat to bring over to a friend's house for example and boot the DVD and plug in the USB drive. You could then show your friend the game without having to install it on his system. But it is undeniable that the long boot time would require you go have dinner while the game loads up
Ideally the overall solution to the hardware abstraction problem would likely be a combination of a custom gaming Linux and a Java-like gaming language.
The gaming Linux would give the identical OS for the gaming platform and the Java-like language would allow single code to be written for the game on all hardware.
These are huge obstacles - I agree. But the rewards if one were able to create a viable new gaming OS and a simplified game development language would be great for the industry and the consumer I would think.
--
Gaming should be free
Compatability is everything isn't it?
You just made me think - wouldn't it be pretty cool if a game company (say blizzard) would release a game that was compatible on all modern systems - but ran linux.
Now hear me out - make the game on a bootable DVD (knoppix based perhaps) and include a USB key/storage device for downloading updates (this key could even add another level of protection as well). Of course allow the option of actually installing this distro so you aren't required to boot from the DVD. Also perhaps for the advanced, assure that any linux distro can be configured with the proper gaming drivers required for your games.
But for the masses who don't want to have to install a whole new OS make the possibility of bootability foremost.
Knoppix can boot pretty fast and the manufacturer could customize it to detect a wide variety of gaming systems (and perhaps download updated drivers). Correct me if I'm wrong - and I may be - but a single boot ROM could boot more than one OS depending upon processor architecture.
This would allow a single DVD to be used across PCs, Macs and new Intel Macs.
The drawback is that this would require a reboot of your system - but many high-end games are the solitary program you want running while you're playing them anyhow - and besides, chat and browsing could still be included on the distro with the game.
It's an idea, yes? And a powerhouse like blizzard could attempt such an audacious experiment.
I mean, the cost of adoption might even-out considering the cost of complying with microsoft. Furthermore this would cover a broad range of users and perhaps simplify development. Well, at least the development of the game itself - the distro would be the pain I'm sure - but once you developed a gaming linux (a ROM bootable one at that) you would have the first new gaming OS to rival Microsofts monopoly.
I think it's extremely lame that Halo 3, for example, will only run on Vista. I mean, the next thing MS will do is release directX updates which only can be installed on Vista.
Oh I wish, I wish
--
Music should be free
hehe,
That's a good one!
--
Music should be free
sexy
;)
--
Music should be free
hmm - do you know if SETI saves any recordings of the past signals they intercept? I know it would be an enourmous archive of mostly nothing, so it seems unlikely.
;)
After all, the chances are, of course, that if there is some intelligence out there is using some kind of CDMA that they will stick around for a while thus giving us a chance to create the technology which can demux their "noise". But still, I wonder if any thought has been given to signals that we have recived already, but which we may not have had the sophistication at the time to interpret.
who knows, around our year 1980 some advanced civilization's last multiplexed signals might have been reaching us. Perhaps at that very moment they switched over to a new technology - laser transmission or something.
It would be a sad irony to miss out on that signal just because some alien bueracracy decided it was time to free up a spectrum
--
Music should be free
This sounds less like a change in the method of comepetition and more like the end result will be a standardization. I like the idea of standards.
Here in the states, my father is always calling me and saying, "turn the tv to channel 3 quick!" and I'm like what station is channel 3? and he's like "it's channel 3!".
He never seemed to have gotten the idea that different networks operate on different channels depending upon provider and locale.
Of course, I know that channel 3 and 10 and 13 are for some reason very special numbers in the television scheme of things.
I wonder, do you think that some day television channels will be replaced by URLs of some sort?
It's going to be strange when the airwaves are free of broadcast television, and when one day in the garage you run across an old tv, hook it up, prop up the antennas and see that there really is nothing being broadcasted.
I feel sorry already for the extraterrestrial's SETI programs - they only have a small window of less than a century to grab our raw carrier waves.
--
Music should be free
You think that's cool? I can actually use my phone line to call people!
--
Music should be free
The world cup is only slightly, slightly more destructive.
I think it will be fine.
--
Music should be free
hehe, Actually I kind of would :D
--
Music should be free
hmm, that is a good point EvanED. That did kind of throw me off a bit at first too.
--
Music should be free
is it really that different? looks like everything is in the same spot to me.
the functionality is identical - but I admit, it is kind of like a new pair of shoes. They look awesome! but they are a little stiff until you walk around in them for a bit.
--
Music should be free
Ever notice how easy it is to say something bad about anything?
:]
I like this new layout - but it seems that people like to post about what they don't like about something more than what they do. This new layout is clean and modern.
if you don't like it then tell us some specifics on why you don't like it!
I admit, it's different, and it's ok to be scared by things that are different. But as times change so must one if one wishes to survive. You cannot grow without change. Growth is change.
Of course, everyone is entittled to his or her own opinion - this one is mine
--
Music should be free