Archive for April, 2002
Tuesday, April 30th, 2002
What irritates me about this article is that I've been saying this for years. As I'm no rocket scientist, it stands to reason that a lot of people have been saying it for years, in which case this hypothesis is far from "mind bending."
Imagine a rubber sheet stretched out in such a way that its surface has just the right amount of flexibility. An object placed in the rubber sheet will create an indentation. This is the standard analogy to explain the effect of gravitation the "fabric" of space.
Now imagine a large marble placed in the middle of the sheet. A bunch of marbles are fired toward the large marble. When they strike the central marble, there is an equal and opposite reaction; they expand outward. Eventually they hit a critical point where they don't have enough energy to resist the rubber sheet's pull towards the original large marble. At this point, however, they have expanded far enough that they roll back with the same amount of energy possessed to begin with. So they strike the central marble and expand again. This occurs over and over — striking, expanding, collapsing, striking. This is how I conceive of the universe working. Matter reaches a critical point of expansion, recedes to the original point of singularity, then reaches a critical point of compression and expands outward again. I could go on about this, but then you'd realize how much of a pseudo-scientific loon I am.
Posted in media / news, theory | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2002
Computing power of the human brain:
1) Long-term storage capacity: 1137 terabytes
2) Short-term storage capacity (RAM): 57 terabytes
3) Processor speed: 4.4 - 10 teraflops +
4) Power consumption (average): 12 watts
Emergent behavior (I think) will be determined by the interaction between short-term and long-term memory, and by the network that handles that interaction. The onset of emergent behavior will require more than massively parallel or neural networks; it will require dynamic, self-reforming networks. The best possibility for this, barring the development of organic technology, would be static networks using a software layer that allows protocols to be established and altered dynamically.
The difficulty in mimicking human neural behavior in computing comes not only in being able to mimic the neural structure, but in being able to compete with the brain's economy of energy and space. I can only think of three ways to possibly achieve this:
1) organic technology, including nanotech
2) quantum/sub-atomic computing
3) ultra-dense optical processing
The latter seems the likeliest at the moment. I'd have to see processor stats, however, once optical processors are in existence and stable.
Posted in computery stuff, theory | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2002
"There has been no Israeli withdrawal from the most recently invaded areas — what we are witnessing is redeployment and repositioning of tanks and troops. The Israeli military aggression continues, and Israeli troops remain in complete control of the West Bank. No one can get in to the different Palestinian areas, nor can people get out. Towns and cities are isolated from each other by soldiers and tanks on the outskirts; every region remains cut off from the others.
"In Ramallah a 24-hour curfew remains in place in all the areas around the Governorate headquarters, where Arafat is currently imprisoned. This morning witnesses in Ramallah report tanks came down to the main down town area (the Manara) and opened fire in the direction of the civilian shoppers.
"Currently the main access to Ramallah remains closed — declared a closed military zone, the refugee camp at Qalandiya is being invaded and attacked, as is the town of Deir Amar and the refugee camp near there.
"Sources in Ramallah have expressed their concerns that Israel may try to launch an attack on the Arafat's headquarters toady or in the next few days. The common view is that specialist soldiers would attempt to storm the compound, and either wound or kill Arafat. Approximately 25 foreigners remain in the building with him."
(located here)
Posted in media / news | No Comments »
