15 NOV 2013 by ideonexus

 The Internet as an Intelligence

If you build a machine that makes connections between everything, accumulates all the data in the world, and you then harness all available minds to collectively teach it where the meaningful connections and meaningful data are (Who is searching Whom?) while implementing deceptively simple algorithms that reinforce meaningful connections while physically moving, optimizing and replicating the data structures accordingly - if you do all this you will, from highly economical (yes, profitable) p...
   notes

Unsourced quote from George Dyson. TODO: Find the source.

22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus

 Teddy Roosevelt's Environmentalism

The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.
  1  notes

We must secure our national resources to be passed on to future generations. (TODO: Find the context of this quote)

17 MAR 2012 by ideonexus

 Shattered Glass as a Metaphor for Taxonomy

Let us suppose that we have laid on the table... [a] piece of glass... and let us homologize this glass to a whole order of plants or birds. Let us hit this glass a blow in such a manner as but to crack it up. The sectors circumscribed by cracks following the first blow may here be understood to represent families. Continuing, we may crack the glass into genera, species and subspecies to the point of finally having the upper right hand corner a piece about 4 inches square representing a sub-s...
Folksonomies: metaphor taxonomy
Folksonomies: metaphor taxonomy
  1  notes

The smaller pieces you smash it into, the more specific the classification. TODO: I don't understand the "4 inches" part at the end concerning sub-species.

01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Thinking About Aliens Stretches the Imagination

The virtue of thinking about life elsewhere is that it forces us to stretch our imaginations. Can we think of alternative solutions to biological problems already solved in one particular way on Earth? For example, the wheel is a comparatively recent invention on the planet Earth. It seems to have been invented in the ancient Near East less than ten thousand years ago. In fact, the high civilizations of Meso- America, the Aztecs and the Mayas, never employed the wheel, except for children's t...
  1  notes

The possible life that could evolve in other environments is an imaginative treasure chest.

(TODO: The wheeled organisms described here appear in the Amber Spyglass by Pullman)

21 MAR 2011 by ideonexus

 Minor Religious Differences and Heresay

I was walking across a bridge one sunny day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: 'Stop. Don't do it.' 'Why shouldn't I?' he asked. 'Well, there's so much to live for!' 'Like what?' 'Are you religious?' He said: 'Yes.' I said. 'Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?' 'Christian.' 'Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?'' 'Protestant.' 'Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?' 'Baptist.' 'Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Bapt...
Folksonomies: todo religion humor
Folksonomies: todo religion humor
 1   notes

A classic Emo Philips joke about religious differences.

TODO: Find the source for this.

09 FEB 2011 by ideonexus

 Motorola XOOM Tablet Superbowl XLV Ad

TODO: Make this link to the video embedded
 1   notes

Motorola portrays Apple as the new conformist fad, associating it with 1984.

09 FEB 2011 by ideonexus

 1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial

TODO: Make this Link an Embedded Video
 1   notes

An old Macintosh commercial, where Apple is the revolution against the conformity of PC's at the time.