Saturday, November 28, 2015
The new new job
Just as I was about to give up, I've been hired on a project to improve the safety of the local roads. Many aspects of this are super complicated. Hopefully this will save some lives.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Eggbeater boats
While helping cook for a bake sale, I noticed something while whipping cream. The eggbeater that I was using had induced a current into the cream. This current continued even if I withdrew the eggbeater.
Coastal waters suffer an issue in which between the nutrients leeching from farms, and the nutrients in the nearby sediment, develop harmful algae blooms, choking all of the life out of them.
What if we got a large fleet of boats with underwater paddles. At a coordinated time, all of the boats activate their paddles, causing a massive wave of outgoing water. The coast is drained, then re-flooded with deep water as the wave comes back. This "flushes" the coastal water, removing the harmful algae and sending the nutrition to the deep ocean, where it can do more good.
Coastal waters suffer an issue in which between the nutrients leeching from farms, and the nutrients in the nearby sediment, develop harmful algae blooms, choking all of the life out of them.
What if we got a large fleet of boats with underwater paddles. At a coordinated time, all of the boats activate their paddles, causing a massive wave of outgoing water. The coast is drained, then re-flooded with deep water as the wave comes back. This "flushes" the coastal water, removing the harmful algae and sending the nutrition to the deep ocean, where it can do more good.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Solar Concentration
When I was a small child, I loved the game Simcity 2000. This game, by Maxis, posits you as the mayor of a city, who is tasked with designing the city and helping it grow. One major factor, which also applies to real life, is energy use, as your city is not satisfied to live in primitive times, and expects electrical service in all structures. The use over time is also simulated, as a city in 1900 only wants to light up the night, then power grows as radio, television, personal computers, and other things get developed. Power use tapers off in later years, as the various gadgets get more efficient.
Simulated mayors had multiple options for electricity, just as actual cities do, and each had their advantages and drawbacks. For example, coal was very cheap, but polluted your city with thick black smoke, and people thought it was sort of ugly, so it was bad for nearby property values. Nuclear power worried people. Solar and wind were environmentally friendly, but had low output that sometimes didn't work at all, plunging the entire city into darkness. Fusion power was the ultimate, but the most interesting option was orbital solar, which the game called "microwave" for some reason.
As described in the flavor text, "microwave" power consisted of having an orbital satellite, which orbited the earth, gathering power in giant solar panels, and firing a power-transmitting laser into a collection dish in your city. The power plant mostly existed as a place to fire the laser, and convert that laser into power that your city could use. It was kind of expensive, and the flavor text warned you that the laser could possibly misfire, resulting in some random building (typically near the plant itself, the laser is trying to hit the right spot after all) being baked until it exploded.
What if we powered cities this way in real life? The satellite would have to be orbiting the equator, in a geostationary orbit, in order to be in range of the city at all times. The alternative is to have a large number of satellites, and a complicated schedule establishing a duty cycle, in which the satellite closet to the city is charging the plant, while the others are storing up additional power. Of course, the satellite would have to store up enough power to fire for 12 hours with no sunlight, because half of the earth is by definition experiencing nighttime.
It would be green, and fascinating, but also difficult, cumbersome, and with some nasty consequence if anything went wrong whatsoever. Still a better idea than half the things we're currently doing for power, though.
Simulated mayors had multiple options for electricity, just as actual cities do, and each had their advantages and drawbacks. For example, coal was very cheap, but polluted your city with thick black smoke, and people thought it was sort of ugly, so it was bad for nearby property values. Nuclear power worried people. Solar and wind were environmentally friendly, but had low output that sometimes didn't work at all, plunging the entire city into darkness. Fusion power was the ultimate, but the most interesting option was orbital solar, which the game called "microwave" for some reason.
As described in the flavor text, "microwave" power consisted of having an orbital satellite, which orbited the earth, gathering power in giant solar panels, and firing a power-transmitting laser into a collection dish in your city. The power plant mostly existed as a place to fire the laser, and convert that laser into power that your city could use. It was kind of expensive, and the flavor text warned you that the laser could possibly misfire, resulting in some random building (typically near the plant itself, the laser is trying to hit the right spot after all) being baked until it exploded.
What if we powered cities this way in real life? The satellite would have to be orbiting the equator, in a geostationary orbit, in order to be in range of the city at all times. The alternative is to have a large number of satellites, and a complicated schedule establishing a duty cycle, in which the satellite closet to the city is charging the plant, while the others are storing up additional power. Of course, the satellite would have to store up enough power to fire for 12 hours with no sunlight, because half of the earth is by definition experiencing nighttime.
It would be green, and fascinating, but also difficult, cumbersome, and with some nasty consequence if anything went wrong whatsoever. Still a better idea than half the things we're currently doing for power, though.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Our Hollow Earth
It's been brought to my attention that 11 years ago, an architect made a mad plan to give us more space. To be specific, seven Earths of space, using the materials of the earth itself. Just one problem -- the original earth would be completely destroyed.
Specifically, the plan was to drill into four spots in the equator, and have it pumped up four space elevators, producing an ever-growing ring around the earth, which would be expanded over time into a giant hollow shell. As this worked, the sky would darken, gravity would shrink (due to more of the earth being above you than below you), and everything would slowly get moved up. Halfway through the process, all of our nature and civilization would have to be moved up to the hollow surface up top. Finally, the shriveled up earth collapses, raining down on the inner surface, providing it with the atmosphere and water it needs to survive.
Other engineers have pointed out just a minor rub in the plan. Namely, the nickle-iron substance of the mantle that he was planning to use as the primary framework could not withstand the strain of an object that big, and would collapse. With some slight reenforcement from asteroid-iron, it could survive that, only to get ripped apart by the lunar and solar tides. Ultimately, a stable lattice would require materials that have not yet been invented.
It's clear to me that eventually, we will need more space than the earth has. Every idea, even the completely crazy ones, will help.
Specifically, the plan was to drill into four spots in the equator, and have it pumped up four space elevators, producing an ever-growing ring around the earth, which would be expanded over time into a giant hollow shell. As this worked, the sky would darken, gravity would shrink (due to more of the earth being above you than below you), and everything would slowly get moved up. Halfway through the process, all of our nature and civilization would have to be moved up to the hollow surface up top. Finally, the shriveled up earth collapses, raining down on the inner surface, providing it with the atmosphere and water it needs to survive.
Other engineers have pointed out just a minor rub in the plan. Namely, the nickle-iron substance of the mantle that he was planning to use as the primary framework could not withstand the strain of an object that big, and would collapse. With some slight reenforcement from asteroid-iron, it could survive that, only to get ripped apart by the lunar and solar tides. Ultimately, a stable lattice would require materials that have not yet been invented.
It's clear to me that eventually, we will need more space than the earth has. Every idea, even the completely crazy ones, will help.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Antilogic Gates
Computers operate through a very large number of very tiny electrical gates. There are six types, though we currently have a proof that shows how if you have a particular one of them, NAND, you can simulate all the others. (This makes manufacturing much easier.) The six types are:
* AND gate
Take two inputs. If both of them are true, then return true. Otherwise, return false.
* OR gate
Take two inputs. If at least one of them is true, return true. If both of them are false, return false.
* NOT gate
Take one input. Return whatever the opposite is. So if the input is true, then the result is false, and if the input is false. then the result is true.
* XOR gate.
Take two inputs. If one of them is true, and one of them is false, then return true, or else false. This stands for "Exclusive or," so one or the other ,but not both.
* NAND gate
Like an AND gate immediately followed by a not gate. If both inputs are false, then return true, otherwise return false. NAND stands for "Not And."
*XNOR gate.
Like an XOR gate immediately followed by a not gate. If the inputs are different then return false, but if the inputs are the same, return true. XNOR stands for "Not Exclusive Or," in a rather roundabout fashion.
Using these six gates, all computer instructions are encoded, as an example, the half adder, which gets chained together to do all basic arithmetic.
However, I notice that much reasoning in the world isn't based on logic, I've decided to reverse this principle. With much tinkering, I have created sixteen antilogic gates, to better simulate the spontaneous arguments that pass for reasoning in our courts and government buildings. I have the following:
* Red herring gate
Take two inputs. Return ad-hoc conclusion that has absolutely nothing to do with either input.
* Excluded middle gate
Take two inputs. Conclude that the output somehow caused the second input. Handwave away all complaints that this makes no sense whatsoever.
* Ad homenim gate
Take one input. Return massive rant blaming all the problems on the world on some aspect of that input.
* Petito Principii gate
Take two inputs. Return an argument at length that the first input is the cause of the second, and vice versa. Handwave away all complaints about this.
* Middle ground gate
Take two extremely different inputs. Argue that the position between the two is the actual correct way that the universe should be.
* Ad hiterlium gate
Take one input. Return a comparison between the input and a wildly despised public figure.
* Strawman gate
Take one input. Return a massive rant that first wildly distorts the input, then mocks it as stupid.
* Tu quoque gate
Take one input. Return rant accusing the input of being somehow hypocritical.
* Bandwageon gate
Take one input. Return argument claiming that the obviously false parts are popularly believed, and conclude that the popularity somehow makes them true. Other parts of the input are then reported without further adjustment.
* Cherry picking gate.
Take two inputs, the first one representing a desired conclusion, and the second one being a body of evidence. Discard all parts of the evidence that don't support the conclusion, and return only the parts that do.
* Single cause gate
Take multiple inputs. Return rant claiming all inputs to be connected through single massive conspiracy.
* Incredulity gate
Take one input. Return rant insisting input to be false. Rant tends to be especially absurd when input is obviously true.
* Assertion gate
No inputs are required, but this can be connected to up to two inputs. Return rant making wild (and possibly absurd) conclusions. If any input challenges any arguments previously made, return that argument again, this time with an added note insisting that it is true.
* Appeal gate
Accept two inputs, the first must be from a mood ring, and the second from another logical gate. Return passionate argument about the second input, asking for special consideration for, depending on the state of the mood ring, fear, wishful thinking, flattery, ridicule, spite, novelty (or in opposition, tradition and nature), wealth or the lack thereof, or even speculation into the motivation of the second input.
Starting with two incredulity gates chained together with a switch to form the antilogic equivalent of RAM, I had a genetic evolution system design an full fledged computer, capable of text output to a monitor, and input through a keyboard. While the most interesting results would be from a computer that was primarily composed of traditional logic gates and had a few antilogic based operations, as a proof of concept that this worked at all, I would first have to construct a pure antilogic computer.
Based on the results of the genetic evolution, I etched a circuit board, and 27 ICs, which I arranged according to the instructions. It accepted an ATX power supply, a USB keyboard, and a VGA monitor. I then switched it on.
The computer operated slowly, first examining the RAM, and writing a short rant claiming the RAM to be made entirely out of sheep. It then ended with the claim that this was still acceptable, on the grounds that the moon is made of cheese.
It then displayed the word "Loading," and paused for a minute. Then a large rant appeared, at about one character per second. The computer started off claiming that the color purple represents evil, then concluded that itself (which it called "The Antilogic Computer") was the cause of the world's problems, starting with the creation of the Illuminati. Attempts to type in that the Illuminati were disbanded for over 200 years before the computer was created caused a pause in the argument, only to be summarily dismissed.. It reported that pants were in fact leaves, and these should be returned to our streets posthaste. Then it vitriolically insulted itself for about ten minutes before exploding.
While I managed to extinguish the fire before it caused too much damage to my lab, my notes have tragically gone up in flames, and the insurance company has asked me to discontinue all future research into this topic.
* AND gate
Take two inputs. If both of them are true, then return true. Otherwise, return false.
* OR gate
Take two inputs. If at least one of them is true, return true. If both of them are false, return false.
* NOT gate
Take one input. Return whatever the opposite is. So if the input is true, then the result is false, and if the input is false. then the result is true.
* XOR gate.
Take two inputs. If one of them is true, and one of them is false, then return true, or else false. This stands for "Exclusive or," so one or the other ,but not both.
* NAND gate
Like an AND gate immediately followed by a not gate. If both inputs are false, then return true, otherwise return false. NAND stands for "Not And."
*XNOR gate.
Like an XOR gate immediately followed by a not gate. If the inputs are different then return false, but if the inputs are the same, return true. XNOR stands for "Not Exclusive Or," in a rather roundabout fashion.
Using these six gates, all computer instructions are encoded, as an example, the half adder, which gets chained together to do all basic arithmetic.
However, I notice that much reasoning in the world isn't based on logic, I've decided to reverse this principle. With much tinkering, I have created sixteen antilogic gates, to better simulate the spontaneous arguments that pass for reasoning in our courts and government buildings. I have the following:
* Red herring gate
Take two inputs. Return ad-hoc conclusion that has absolutely nothing to do with either input.
* Excluded middle gate
Take two inputs. Conclude that the output somehow caused the second input. Handwave away all complaints that this makes no sense whatsoever.
* Ad homenim gate
Take one input. Return massive rant blaming all the problems on the world on some aspect of that input.
* Petito Principii gate
Take two inputs. Return an argument at length that the first input is the cause of the second, and vice versa. Handwave away all complaints about this.
* Middle ground gate
Take two extremely different inputs. Argue that the position between the two is the actual correct way that the universe should be.
* Ad hiterlium gate
Take one input. Return a comparison between the input and a wildly despised public figure.
* Strawman gate
Take one input. Return a massive rant that first wildly distorts the input, then mocks it as stupid.
* Tu quoque gate
Take one input. Return rant accusing the input of being somehow hypocritical.
* Bandwageon gate
Take one input. Return argument claiming that the obviously false parts are popularly believed, and conclude that the popularity somehow makes them true. Other parts of the input are then reported without further adjustment.
* Cherry picking gate.
Take two inputs, the first one representing a desired conclusion, and the second one being a body of evidence. Discard all parts of the evidence that don't support the conclusion, and return only the parts that do.
* Single cause gate
Take multiple inputs. Return rant claiming all inputs to be connected through single massive conspiracy.
* Incredulity gate
Take one input. Return rant insisting input to be false. Rant tends to be especially absurd when input is obviously true.
* Assertion gate
No inputs are required, but this can be connected to up to two inputs. Return rant making wild (and possibly absurd) conclusions. If any input challenges any arguments previously made, return that argument again, this time with an added note insisting that it is true.
* Appeal gate
Accept two inputs, the first must be from a mood ring, and the second from another logical gate. Return passionate argument about the second input, asking for special consideration for, depending on the state of the mood ring, fear, wishful thinking, flattery, ridicule, spite, novelty (or in opposition, tradition and nature), wealth or the lack thereof, or even speculation into the motivation of the second input.
Starting with two incredulity gates chained together with a switch to form the antilogic equivalent of RAM, I had a genetic evolution system design an full fledged computer, capable of text output to a monitor, and input through a keyboard. While the most interesting results would be from a computer that was primarily composed of traditional logic gates and had a few antilogic based operations, as a proof of concept that this worked at all, I would first have to construct a pure antilogic computer.
Based on the results of the genetic evolution, I etched a circuit board, and 27 ICs, which I arranged according to the instructions. It accepted an ATX power supply, a USB keyboard, and a VGA monitor. I then switched it on.
The computer operated slowly, first examining the RAM, and writing a short rant claiming the RAM to be made entirely out of sheep. It then ended with the claim that this was still acceptable, on the grounds that the moon is made of cheese.
It then displayed the word "Loading," and paused for a minute. Then a large rant appeared, at about one character per second. The computer started off claiming that the color purple represents evil, then concluded that itself (which it called "The Antilogic Computer") was the cause of the world's problems, starting with the creation of the Illuminati. Attempts to type in that the Illuminati were disbanded for over 200 years before the computer was created caused a pause in the argument, only to be summarily dismissed.. It reported that pants were in fact leaves, and these should be returned to our streets posthaste. Then it vitriolically insulted itself for about ten minutes before exploding.
While I managed to extinguish the fire before it caused too much damage to my lab, my notes have tragically gone up in flames, and the insurance company has asked me to discontinue all future research into this topic.
Friday, September 4, 2015
Teleportation
Teleportation, the idea of moving from point A to point C without traveling through the space between, has been around for thousands of years, the first recorded claim of teleportation coming from Buddhist history, in which the Buddha was reported as teleporting between his home in India and Sri Lanka, and later back.
Two kinds of teleportation have been identified in fiction. In one, the item to be teleported is broken down into its component atoms, typically to translate it into energy or a fast moving signal, and reassembled on the other end. People have pointed out that this means that teleportation of a person is killing them to replace them with an identical clone that has the same set of memories. If this kind ever exists, I think that I will not teleport myself, but that it will become routine to teleport objects. If I buy something at the hardware store, rather than put it into my car and drive it home, I will teleport it directly home, and then drive there alone. Vehicles will only be required for the transportation of living things. This would be a big advantage to me, since sometimes I buy things at home improvement stores that are very difficult to fit in my smallish car.
In the other, space is bent, causing an extreme shortcut between point A and point C, the item to be teleported is pushed through this shortcut, thus bypassing all the point B that is in between the two. The space is then un-bent. Since the item remains intact at all times, it would be safe to teleport people using this system. This may have some strange energy requirements, and repeatedly bending and un-bending space can't be good for it.
In any case, either of these teleportation systems would revolutionize the world forever if done reliably. For one, transportation is now obsolete for anything not alive. Sure, your factory could pay a truck to haul it to the store, as is done now, but it will almost assuredly be cheaper to just teleport the widgets over. The transportation industry's loss will be the rest of our gains, as this will mean lower costs, which could lead to lower prices if the extra money is not simply absorbed as extra profits.
But more noticeably, space travel. The international space station was painstakingly built over years, with many rockets each hauling up one additional part until today's current structure, the size of a football field, was in place. With teleportation, the entire structure could be built on earth and then teleported into orbit. Even if the teleporter had to supply the difference in potential energy, which seems like a certainty if there's anything realistic about this at all, this would cost far, far less than all the rockets that were required. If you're using the reassembling type, the astronauts would then have to travel up by rocket, but when they arrive, all of their food, tools, scientific equipment, and computers are all already in place. If you're using the portal method, the astronauts could just directly teleport to the station, and rockets would be obsolete.
And space colonies could be constructed on earth's most brutal deserts, like the Atacama desert on the Peruvian/Chilean border. When we verify that the station is able to sustain human life, it's then teleported to a distant planet, such as Mars. Humans arrive there, either by rocket or portal, and teleporters allow the exchange of goods between earth and the colony. Even if energy can't be directly teleported, fuel or charged batteries could, and if signals can't be teleported, then UUCP commands over a small, say, USB stick, could.
Two kinds of teleportation have been identified in fiction. In one, the item to be teleported is broken down into its component atoms, typically to translate it into energy or a fast moving signal, and reassembled on the other end. People have pointed out that this means that teleportation of a person is killing them to replace them with an identical clone that has the same set of memories. If this kind ever exists, I think that I will not teleport myself, but that it will become routine to teleport objects. If I buy something at the hardware store, rather than put it into my car and drive it home, I will teleport it directly home, and then drive there alone. Vehicles will only be required for the transportation of living things. This would be a big advantage to me, since sometimes I buy things at home improvement stores that are very difficult to fit in my smallish car.
In the other, space is bent, causing an extreme shortcut between point A and point C, the item to be teleported is pushed through this shortcut, thus bypassing all the point B that is in between the two. The space is then un-bent. Since the item remains intact at all times, it would be safe to teleport people using this system. This may have some strange energy requirements, and repeatedly bending and un-bending space can't be good for it.
In any case, either of these teleportation systems would revolutionize the world forever if done reliably. For one, transportation is now obsolete for anything not alive. Sure, your factory could pay a truck to haul it to the store, as is done now, but it will almost assuredly be cheaper to just teleport the widgets over. The transportation industry's loss will be the rest of our gains, as this will mean lower costs, which could lead to lower prices if the extra money is not simply absorbed as extra profits.
But more noticeably, space travel. The international space station was painstakingly built over years, with many rockets each hauling up one additional part until today's current structure, the size of a football field, was in place. With teleportation, the entire structure could be built on earth and then teleported into orbit. Even if the teleporter had to supply the difference in potential energy, which seems like a certainty if there's anything realistic about this at all, this would cost far, far less than all the rockets that were required. If you're using the reassembling type, the astronauts would then have to travel up by rocket, but when they arrive, all of their food, tools, scientific equipment, and computers are all already in place. If you're using the portal method, the astronauts could just directly teleport to the station, and rockets would be obsolete.
And space colonies could be constructed on earth's most brutal deserts, like the Atacama desert on the Peruvian/Chilean border. When we verify that the station is able to sustain human life, it's then teleported to a distant planet, such as Mars. Humans arrive there, either by rocket or portal, and teleporters allow the exchange of goods between earth and the colony. Even if energy can't be directly teleported, fuel or charged batteries could, and if signals can't be teleported, then UUCP commands over a small, say, USB stick, could.
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