Monthly Archives: January 2006

Varietals

We’re living in the final days of humanity’s homogenuous era. Some predict that all of humanity is converging into a single type, and that the wonderful diversity of the past — as represented by things like culture and language — is going to be lost forever, that all of human civilization will be reduced to some bland, globalized, lowest common denominator.

These folks have it exactly wrong. Not only is technology going to allow us to preserve languages and cultures, it’s going to allow us to create whole new cultures much faster than we were able to evolve them in the past. Look at World of Warcraft and Second Life. Are these games, or are they newly emerging civilizations? Take a stroll around Second Life when you get the chance. You’ll see some people there who look like everyday people, while others have a few basic “enhancements” — like wings or flourescent skin. Still others assume the form of giant robots made of flame or mixed-breed dinosaurs or just about anything you can imagine (not to mention any number of things you probably can’t.)

Sure, people might choose to change virtual form for entertainment purposes, but would there ever be an incentive for people really to change their basic structure? In the real world?

Well, putting aside the question of whether the distinction between the real and virtual worlds is going to matter that much over the long term, perhaps we can take a hint from nature. Chris Twyman writes:

In Washington state there is a bountiful supply of Salmon. They fall into two distinct types – Rainbow and Steelheads. It seems that new born salmon make a decision about what species they want to be at hatching. Either they turn up stream and become a Rainbow and grow to about 5 lb’s maximum or they turn downstream and head out to sea where they grow upto 20lbs and become Steelheads. Here is the amazing part. Two rainbows mating can produce a Steelhead and in turn (as a thank you) two Steelheads can produce a Rainbow.

This natural division of salmon varietals, developed to allow a single species to thrive in two wildly different environments, gives us maybe the smallest of hints as to what’s in store for humanity as we begin to take control of the processes and basic building blocks that make us…us. Humans will choose new forms to accomodate new environments, to achieve new goals, and to fulfill aesthetic desires. With these new forms will come an explosion of new ways of expressing what it means to be human — or, in other words, an explosion of new cultures unlike anything that humanity has seen to date.

cambrian.jpg

Will the Cambrian Explosion turn out to be just a preview of the coming Technological Explosion? Maybe.

Maybe Not I, But it T for S

Via GeekPress, check out this intelligence test that probably is not that great a measure of intelligence, but that must be a good test for something. There’s no time limit. The object is to get the best possible score out of 33. I managed 31 after dazzling myself with my own brilliance on several of them and pulling a couple of them out of the clear blue sky. (I’m still working on the other two…they’re driving me crazy.)

By way of a hint, I will only say that Americans are more likely to know the answers to some of these and less likely to know the answers to others. Hope that helps!

UPDATE: Got the other two thanks to help from the SpecuWife and El Jefe. Muchos gracias, amigos. They were two of the easiest ones. For some reason, the hard ones are easier than the easy ones…which are really hard!

Future Wealth Update

From the Wall Street Journal (via Kurzweil):

Arizona resort operator David Pizer has made arrangements to have his body frozen in liquid nitrogen after he dies and has also created legal arrangements for a financial trust that will manage his roughly $10 million in land and stock holdings until he is re-animated.

Mr. Pizer says that with his money earning interest while he is frozen, he could wake up in 100 years the “richest man in the world.”

Well, as we explored a while back, he may well wake up rich, but not quite as rich as he thinks.

They're Kinda Cute

Engadget has the scoop on prototype stackable cars:

The Smart Cities team at MIT is tackling the problem of city traffic congestion — still left untouched by the Segway — with a “stackable” car to be used as part of a public transportation program, much like those bicycle-sharing programs in Europe, and stowed like a shopping cart. The wheels turn 360 degrees and contain the suspension and motor, so, along with providing a level of mobility fit for a city, they allow a new type of passenger compartment, replete with customizable displays and seats with “fingers” to catch you in a crash. It all sounds well and good, but we’ll have to see see how much of this tech makes it into the final prototype, which is to be built by GM upon the MIT group’s completion of the design.

It’s not clear to me how this are going to help the traffic situation all that much. But, again, they’re cute. So that’s got to be worth something.

Via GeekPress.

MIT car small.JPG

STEPHEN CHIMES IN: They’re smaller, so they would take up less room on the road when driving, but the real space savings is when they are parked / stacked.

I don’t think this is the sort of thing that a city could or should implement until it’s been demonstrated as popular and useful on a smaller scale.

Here’s an private-sector approach: a NY luxury apartment complex looking to distinguish itself from the competition could buy (probably they’d lease them) a bunch of these and provide them for their tenants. Ground floor apartments aren’t popular anyway, so use that space to stack cars.

It wouldn’t be like a regular parking garage with wasted space needed for driving, the whole floor space could essentially be taken up with stacked cars. You’d need an entrance to add a car to the back of the stack and an exit to take a car from the front of the stack.

This would mean that the stack would have to be movable. You take a car from the front of the stack and the whole stack moves forward to make room for a returning car at the back of the stack.

These cars are EVs – less pollution for the city – I bet there would be a way to charge them while they are in the stack.

These could serve as rolling billboards for the apartment complex.

They’re Kinda Cute

Engadget has the scoop on prototype stackable cars:

The Smart Cities team at MIT is tackling the problem of city traffic congestion — still left untouched by the Segway — with a “stackable” car to be used as part of a public transportation program, much like those bicycle-sharing programs in Europe, and stowed like a shopping cart. The wheels turn 360 degrees and contain the suspension and motor, so, along with providing a level of mobility fit for a city, they allow a new type of passenger compartment, replete with customizable displays and seats with “fingers” to catch you in a crash. It all sounds well and good, but we’ll have to see see how much of this tech makes it into the final prototype, which is to be built by GM upon the MIT group’s completion of the design.

It’s not clear to me how this are going to help the traffic situation all that much. But, again, they’re cute. So that’s got to be worth something.

Via GeekPress.

MIT car small.JPG

STEPHEN CHIMES IN: They’re smaller, so they would take up less room on the road when driving, but the real space savings is when they are parked / stacked.

I don’t think this is the sort of thing that a city could or should implement until it’s been demonstrated as popular and useful on a smaller scale.

Here’s an private-sector approach: a NY luxury apartment complex looking to distinguish itself from the competition could buy (probably they’d lease them) a bunch of these and provide them for their tenants. Ground floor apartments aren’t popular anyway, so use that space to stack cars.

It wouldn’t be like a regular parking garage with wasted space needed for driving, the whole floor space could essentially be taken up with stacked cars. You’d need an entrance to add a car to the back of the stack and an exit to take a car from the front of the stack.

This would mean that the stack would have to be movable. You take a car from the front of the stack and the whole stack moves forward to make room for a returning car at the back of the stack.

These cars are EVs – less pollution for the city – I bet there would be a way to charge them while they are in the stack.

These could serve as rolling billboards for the apartment complex.

It's a New Phil, Week 3

Weighed in this morning at 283, bringing the total weight loss to 14 pounds.

One thing I’ve learned — when you’re counting calories, calories really count. Go figure.

Meat is just way to dense to eat more than once a day — if that. (And by “meat, I mean meat, poultry, or fish.) I’m getting a lot more mileage out rice and beans with a little salsa thrown in. Plus, I’ve discovered a wonderful thing called baked tortilla chips. Not bad.

Whole grains are good. I’ve discovered these little Swedish crackers called Kavli. The packages says that they’re “flatbread,” but I’m 43 years old and I guess I know a flipping cracker when I see one. Still, they’re pretty good. Plus, of course, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. All that sensible stuff. It works!

Also, Weight Watchers makes some pretty good ice cream novelties for those moments where it seems like some chocolate is required, but you’d rather not just blow the whole thing. Turns out you don’t have to actually be on the WW program to eat their stuff. Who knew?

It’s a New Phil, Week 3

Weighed in this morning at 283, bringing the total weight loss to 14 pounds.

One thing I’ve learned — when you’re counting calories, calories really count. Go figure.

Meat is just way to dense to eat more than once a day — if that. (And by “meat, I mean meat, poultry, or fish.) I’m getting a lot more mileage out rice and beans with a little salsa thrown in. Plus, I’ve discovered a wonderful thing called baked tortilla chips. Not bad.

Whole grains are good. I’ve discovered these little Swedish crackers called Kavli. The packages says that they’re “flatbread,” but I’m 43 years old and I guess I know a flipping cracker when I see one. Still, they’re pretty good. Plus, of course, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. All that sensible stuff. It works!

Also, Weight Watchers makes some pretty good ice cream novelties for those moments where it seems like some chocolate is required, but you’d rather not just blow the whole thing. Turns out you don’t have to actually be on the WW program to eat their stuff. Who knew?

Comments Back Up

Thanks for your patience, folks. Feel free to resume commenting any time you like!

Comments Down

Comments are not working; I’m looking into what the problem is. Will let you all know when they’re back up.

UPDATE: My hosting service confirms that they have disabled comments in defense against a spam attack. I’m making some configuration settings that will solve the problem, but I’m waiting until I get the *exact* procedure from Movable Type. Anyone who remembers the painful transition from Speculist.com to blog.Speculist.com will understand why.

Final Answer?

In 1772, James Cook set out on his second voyage looking for the mythical Terra Autralis, the great southern continent which had been described originally by Ptolemy. Before the Portugeuse successfully rounded the tip of Africa, it was believed that this enormous continent wrapped around the end of the world, connecting Africa with Asia and making the Indian Ocean an inland sea. Throughout the period of discovery that followed the opening up the eastern passage to Asia, explorers such as Balboa, Magellan, Drake, and others contributed to the overall scaling down of hypothetical continent. Cook’s voyage put to rest once and for all the idea that there was a vast habitable continent to the south. He came within 75 miles of the coast of Antarctica — the much smaller, ice-covered continent that really was there — but left discovery of it to a pair of Russians, Mikhail Lazarev and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, in the 1820′s.

hst_pluto_charon.jpg

I wonder whether the mission to Pluto just launched might serve to provide a final answer to the question of whether Pluto is, indeed, the ninth planet? In a decade or so, thanks to what this spacecraft shows us, Pluto may be vindicated as a planet or reclassified an asteroid or trans-Neptunian object. In the latter case, the Ninth Planet will join the great southern continent, the realm of Prester John, and myriad other fanciful notions of what lies beyond the horizon that have had to be abandoned in the harsh light of discovery.

Personally, I’m rooting for Pluto to keep it’s status. But if it is reclassified, it had a pretty good run as a planet. Not as long a run as the southern continent, perhaps, but then things happen faster nowadays.