Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at SETI, gave a Google Talk about this a few years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEixLFEU6Gc
He mentioned his own theory about how alien civilizations might announce their presence to other civilizations, which involved compiling a list of planets that might harbor or develop intelligent life (the list would probably number in the hundreds of thousands / millions), and then point lasers at all these planets and start sending signals all at once, containing some kind of message, or the entirety of their knowledge or something. (Shostak suggests we do something similar, by beaming up the contents of Wikipedia.) He says SETI can't currently detect this type of signal, but he says he's trying to wrangle different telescope technology.
My summary is pretty bad, since I haven't seen the video in a while, but I remember it being good watching. Recommended.
forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world.
Wow. The fate of just one measly world? Not of the galaxy? And not the standard "of the entire universe"? I thought this was standard Hollywood sci-fi! What gives? How is that going to sound impressive when spoken by the voice-over guy in all the trailers? Man!
Maybe this is what Cameron means when he talks about realism.
From John Siracusa's article on the history/current state/future of ebooks:
Take all of your arguments against the inevitability of e-books and substitute the word "horse" for "book" and the word "car" for "e-book." Here are a few examples to whet your appetite for the (really) inevitable debate in the discussion section at the end of this article.
"Books will never go away." True! Horses have not gone away either.
"Books have advantages over e-books that will never be overcome." True! Horses can travel over rough terrain that no car can navigate. Paved roads don't go everywhere, nor should they.
"Books provide sensory/sentimental/sensual experiences that e-books can't match." True! Cars just can't match the experience of caring for and riding a horse: the smells, the textures, the sensations, the companionship with another living being.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Did you ride a horse to work today? I didn't. I'm sure plenty of people swore they would never ride in or operate a "horseless carriage"--and they never did! And then they died.
A film student somewhere made Bisson's short story into a pretty decent short, starring, oddly, the guy who hosts Discovery Channel's Cash Cab. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE
Seriously. Where's our patch? This is one of the buggiest games I've ever played in my life. I couldn't finish the main quest on the PS3 version because of a game-ending glitch. I had to watch the damn ending(s) on YouTube.
There's a rumor PS4 is coming in 2011 as well.
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HD Wii By 2011?
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I wonder if there's any relation between this and the rumor about the PlayStation 4, which says it's coming out in 2011, and it'll be only twice as powerful as the PS3.
Not quite. Your brain is NOT reconstructing the 2D images from each eye into a 3D representation. It's reconstructing a partial, kinda-sorta, half-assed stereoscopic view of a just part of the surface of the 3D object you're staring at. To truly "see 3D," you'd have to be able to look at 1) every single side of the object, and 2) every single part and part thereof inside that object, 3) all simultaneously. THAT is 3D vision. And that's how you might expect a 4D being to see a 3D object. But we can't do that, AFAIK.
Of course--and just to complicate things--there would be no "true" 3D objects in a 4D world, just as there are no "true" 2D objects in our world. We have 2D-ish things, like blank pieces of paper, but those do have a 3rd dimension, however slight. In a 4D world, really simple 3D-like things do have a 4th dimension, however slight. And just as we can't see all the components of a 2D-ish object in our world (though we can extrapolate that when we look at a blank piece of paper, we're basically looking at all there is to it), a 4D being wouldn't truly be able to see all parts of a simple 3D object, although if it were simple enough, the creature could extrapolate.
Imagine the theorizing 4D creatures do about their wacky hypothesized 5th dimension.
Every time one of these new, far-reaching concept videos comes out, I can't help but wonder whether it'll be covered on the Paleo-Future blog in a decade. It's hard not to be pessimistic, considering all the cool concept videos covered in their graveyard.
(Admittedly, the article was/.ed so I couldn't read it...
Huh. How the hell did Ars Technica get/.ed? I've never seen that happen. Is this article getting linked on every tech and gaming site in the world or something?
Man... I bet half the people visiting the comments section for this story are just looking to see if a Mr. Fusion joke has been made yet.
(Including me. Curses!)
Slashdot Mirror
Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at SETI, gave a Google Talk about this a few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEixLFEU6Gc He mentioned his own theory about how alien civilizations might announce their presence to other civilizations, which involved compiling a list of planets that might harbor or develop intelligent life (the list would probably number in the hundreds of thousands / millions), and then point lasers at all these planets and start sending signals all at once, containing some kind of message, or the entirety of their knowledge or something. (Shostak suggests we do something similar, by beaming up the contents of Wikipedia.) He says SETI can't currently detect this type of signal, but he says he's trying to wrangle different telescope technology. My summary is pretty bad, since I haven't seen the video in a while, but I remember it being good watching. Recommended.
forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world.
Wow. The fate of just one measly world? Not of the galaxy? And not the standard "of the entire universe"? I thought this was standard Hollywood sci-fi! What gives? How is that going to sound impressive when spoken by the voice-over guy in all the trailers? Man!
Maybe this is what Cameron means when he talks about realism.
A film student somewhere made Bisson's short story into a pretty decent short, starring, oddly, the guy who hosts Discovery Channel's Cash Cab. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE
Seriously. Where's our patch? This is one of the buggiest games I've ever played in my life. I couldn't finish the main quest on the PS3 version because of a game-ending glitch. I had to watch the damn ending(s) on YouTube.
I wonder if there's any relation between this and the rumor about the PlayStation 4, which says it's coming out in 2011, and it'll be only twice as powerful as the PS3.
Not quite. Your brain is NOT reconstructing the 2D images from each eye into a 3D representation. It's reconstructing a partial, kinda-sorta, half-assed stereoscopic view of a just part of the surface of the 3D object you're staring at. To truly "see 3D," you'd have to be able to look at 1) every single side of the object, and 2) every single part and part thereof inside that object, 3) all simultaneously. THAT is 3D vision. And that's how you might expect a 4D being to see a 3D object. But we can't do that, AFAIK.
Of course--and just to complicate things--there would be no "true" 3D objects in a 4D world, just as there are no "true" 2D objects in our world. We have 2D-ish things, like blank pieces of paper, but those do have a 3rd dimension, however slight. In a 4D world, really simple 3D-like things do have a 4th dimension, however slight. And just as we can't see all the components of a 2D-ish object in our world (though we can extrapolate that when we look at a blank piece of paper, we're basically looking at all there is to it), a 4D being wouldn't truly be able to see all parts of a simple 3D object, although if it were simple enough, the creature could extrapolate.
Imagine the theorizing 4D creatures do about their wacky hypothesized 5th dimension.
Every time one of these new, far-reaching concept videos comes out, I can't help but wonder whether it'll be covered on the Paleo-Future blog in a decade. It's hard not to be pessimistic, considering all the cool concept videos covered in their graveyard.
Randomly, this interview took place over two years ago. The originating page: http://www.venturevoice.com/2005/11/vv_show_20_joel_spolsky_of_fog.html
For a better look at points along the future timeline of the universe, see here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins/universe.html
Er? This is the first I've heard of it losing its status as a "publishing force." What's going on?
(Admittedly, the article was /.ed so I couldn't read it...
Huh. How the hell did Ars Technica get /.ed? I've never seen that happen. Is this article getting linked on every tech and gaming site in the world or something?
The OLPC's screen has a black and white 200dpi mode. I imagine that has something to do with the price.
Crash Team Racing, for the PSX. An excellent, excellent Mario Kart clone, and fun when you're playing against someone around your skill level.
Where was Marty McFly and his year 2015 jacket?
Of course, they're still losing money on it. That's one of the reasons they won't be dropping the price for the holidays.
Man ... I bet half the people visiting the comments section for this story are just looking to see if a Mr. Fusion joke has been made yet.
(Including me. Curses!)
Is this supposed to be a joke post mocking Linux users for rushing to suggest Linux as a solution for every problem? Or is it some kind of weird spam?