Archive for October, 2006
links for 2006-10-30
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more stateism
Seth Lloyd’s autocatalytic life
“In effect, an autocatalytic set of reactions is like a tiny, computer-controlled factory for producing chemicals. Some of these chemicals are the constituents of life. Did life begin as an autocatalytic set? Maybe so, We won’t know for sure until we identify the circuit diagram and the program for the autocatalytic set that first started producing cells and genes. The computional universality of autocatalytic sets tells us that some such program exists, but it doesn’t tell us that such a program is simple or easy to find.”
That’s an experiment worth trying for. My question is, how hard would it be to set up a distrubuted computing project like the SETI project that could test all possible combinations? Have we quantified enough of chemistry to use an emulation to try and uncover the chemical origins of life or would this require a lot of trial and error over many years? Could we set up something that combines every CAS number and tries and tries?
Another School Non-Profit Idea
There already is a website where teachers can request supplies and be supplied them, but what about a site where teachers can post their ideas (for field trips etc) and then each user could donate a portion to the total cost? The usual fractional cash build up idea.
State by State GDP Growth
Global Insight // Our Perspective
From the global Insight Institute.
links for 2006-10-27
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7% growth and co-operatives for coffee bean planters.
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appears to be another splog linking to me. when does this stop?
Review: Programming the Universe A Quantum Computer Scientest Takes On THE COSMOS
Once, a long time ago in a class very far away, I wrote a story about two ships in the middle of the ocean. The ships were salvaging a space ark they found that ruptured with a peculiar sound. Over time they began to decipherer the sounds and at the end of the story it turned out the pecks of sounds were in fact random signages not ascribable to an intelligent being. It sounded a lot different (and less sci-fi) when I wrote it. Seth Lloyd in Programming the Universe makes a similar to argument. The universe consists of a series of random squiggles or fluctuations that when coupled with a programmable binary universe allow for complex behaviors and meaningful life to exist even when the impulse behind them might not be intelligent. I remember once reading an interview with Miltos Manetas where he said he didn’t understand what his work was about then, but he does now. I kinda feel a similar way.
Mr. Lloyd has spent generations working on his theory of quantum information and the fruits have been stellar so far. He has helped to develop quantum computers and advance various different theories. He is, so to speak, where the computer revolution is going next, but his book is actually full of a different story. In an era in which technology is linked to how doormouseian it’s creators are (witness a recent Wired article that describes Steve Job’s zen like biker shorts) Mr. Lloyd is remarkably square. He tells tales of being kicked out of British bars by punks in the thatcher era (when any good minded liberal thinker would have been expected to pronounce the devils of yada yada yada etc.) he explains how his fellow physicists didn’t believe him, doubted his claims, and stole apples from him, and he also explains how he humiliated a new york bum in the seventies. He does make Heinz Pagels sound cool though. Like Steven Strogatz, Lloyd makes no pains to make himself sound outside of the academy, if anything his descriptions of sipping champagne at Cambridge while on scholarship sound almost regal, but he also makes it apparent how much friction still exists even in academia. Even when encountering some of the most open minds (from Santa Fe Institute thinkers to Pagels in seventies New York) he consistently encounters people who doubt his claims, what him to work on something more “normal”, and other things. Lloyd in essence spent a few decades wondering through Academia consistently being given a hard time. There is a certain sense that he’s a geek’s geek somehow.
But drama aside, Mr. Lloyd is not proposing a thought experiment, he is not making the claim that we can interpret the universe as a computer, he is making the claim that the universe inherently is a quantum computer. He is making the claim that information theory extends well beyond just computer science and man made knowledge banks, he is in essence saying that information forms the basis of our universe. He makes a good case for this, but ends with speculation ranging from linking Relativity and Quantum Mechanics via quantum computers. But this book certianly doesn’t start out with such grand claims, Seth is good at explaining things (and he has a sense of humor too) so this book builds up from simple studies of entropy and thermodynamics to information to quantum mechanics before ending out a book on quanta sized computers with claims that could very well solve some of physiscs biggest questions. It’s an ambitious project and also one that, more importatnly, comes from someone who practically invented the field. Mr. Lloyd’s book is more than just Academia intrigue and knowledge travelogue, it also a lesson in how to think and not discounting the problems to oczam’s razor that quickly. While many of Seth’s interlockers perfer to explain quantum mechanics in the classical sense, it is his imagination and willingness to see the potential in using information to explain physics that has given his theories so much power and eventually quantum computers the ability to calculate beyond what is possible now. I read one review of this book that mentioned that quantum mechnanics is a lot like a video game, information in a game exists in an unknown state until the viewer gives it form by comprehending it, Mr. Lloyd has shown that any such simple system can be put to greater use than just explaining the world away.
technorati tags:books, media, quantum_mechanics, Seth_LLoyd, science, reviews, physics
links for 2006-10-26
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worth reading and funny too.
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it’s the stock section.
links for 2006-10-25
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it’s pretty funny.
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it’s totally awesome.
links for 2006-10-23
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it’s the computer dresses thing
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absolutely amazing..
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interesting little post on math, charts, probability, polls, and other numera.
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kinda cool google maps glitch
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paper rad and other discussed in the form of 8-bit art
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Osaka independent film house.
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osaka film festival of sorts.
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discount Asian carrier
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sounds good
links for 2006-10-22
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Sheila’s first blog post from Thailand.
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from Daniel Drezner a foreign policy world quiz.
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to invest in
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photos of brokej angel. a house in new york.
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elebits is similar to pikmin but involves cleaning up. Heroes is basically jet set radio.
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sounds interesting
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computer game teaches microeconomics
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the trailer looks pretty bad.
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from pop tech a series of musicians transcribing american rock to latin flavor.
