10 MAR 2017 by ideonexus
1937 Description of Lightspeed Travel
After a while I noticed that the sun and all the stars in his neighborhood were ruddy. Those at the opposite pole of the heaven were of an icy blue. The explanation of this strange phenomenon flashed upon me. I was still traveling, and traveling so fast that light itself was not wholly indifferent to my passage. The overtaking undulations took long to catch me. They therefore affected me as slower pulsations than they normally were, and I saw them therefore as red. Those that met me on my hea... 1 
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notes30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Prefontal Cortex
Executive functions take place in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. I love the term that Stanislas Dehaene uses to describe this part of the brain—a global neuronal workspace. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for the ability to exchange information across the high-level areas of the brain, Dehaene says, so that our behavior can be guided by our accumulated knowledge. That’s the beauty and the purpose of executive functions: they enable us to control ourselves, to reflect deeply, and... 1 notes
notesInsightful description of its purpose in executive function, taking the information stored in our brains to control the rest of it.
30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Silos in "Wool"
The silo was something she had always taken for granted. The priests say it had always been here, that it was lovingly created by a caring God, that everything they would ever need had been provided for. Juliette had a hard time with this story. A few years ago, she had been on the first team to drill past 10,000 feet and hit new oil reserves. She had a sense of the size and scope of the world below them. And then she had seen with her own eyes the view of the outside with its phantom-like sh...Folksonomies: science fiction imagination
Folksonomies: science fiction imagination
1 notes
notesDescription of the hints of a world beyond the silos.
16 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Systems Science as a Subset of Other Sciences
Systems science is best seen as a science that consists of nested sub-sciences. It is presented most compactly using the notation of set theory.
Let A represent a science of description. Let B represent a science of
design. Let C represent a science of complexity. Let D represent a science of action (praxiology). Let E represent systems science. Then
A ⊂ B ⊂ C ⊂ D ⊂ E
illustrates the concept that we can learn something of systems science by first learning a science of description. ...Folksonomies: science systems science
Folksonomies: science systems science
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notesUsing set notation... an interesting way to describe the field.
21 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
von Neumann Correctly Hypothesizes How Memory Works
The question of the physical embodiment of this memory remains. For this, various authorrs have suggested a variety of solutions. It has beeen proposed to assume that the thresholds—orr, more broadly stated, the stimulation criteria—^f or various nerve cells change with time as functions of the previous history of that cell. Thus frequent use of a nerve cell might lower its threshold, i.e. ease the requirements of its stimulation, and the like. If this were true, the memory would reside i... 1 notes
notesNeurons that get used more often become easier to use. He's just speculating, but his description is spot on.
08 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Definition of a Naturalist
If people ask me about my worldview, I say that I am a naturalist. When most people hear that word, they think of someone who spends a lot of time outdoors watching birds and admiring landscapes—and I suppose that description applies to me. But I think of naturalism as a philosophy rather than a lifestyle. F a philosophical perspective, naturalists believe that the physical universe is the universe. In other words, there are no supernatural entities or forces acting on nature, because there... 1 notes
notesIt is a philosophical state of mind, grounded in empiricism, in addition to being one who appreciates nature.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Mark Twain's Description of Evolution
Adam is fading out. It is on account of Darwin and that crowd. I can see that he is not going to last much longer. There's a plenty of signs. He is getting belittled to a germ—a little bit of a speck that you can't see without a microscope powerful enough to raise a gnat to the size of a church. They take that speck and breed from it: first a flea; then a fly, then a bug, then cross these and get a fish, then a raft of fishes, all kinds, then cross the whole lot and get a reptile, then work...Folksonomies: humor big history
Folksonomies: humor big history
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notesWitty.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Birth of the Atomic Age
The Atomic Age began at exactly 5.30 Mountain War Time on the morning of July 15, 1945, on a stretch of semi-desert land about 50 airline miles from Alamogordo, New Mexico. And just at that instance there rose from the bowels of the earth a light not of this world, the light of many suns in one. ... At first it was a giant column that soon took the shape of a supramundane mushroom. 1 notes
notesDown to the minute. A glorious, haunting description.
23 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Leonardo da Vinci's Description of the Circle of Life
Nature being capricious and taking pleasure in creating and producing a continuous sucession of lives and forms because she knows that they serve to increase her terrestrial substance, is more ready and swift in her creating than time is in destroying, and therefore she has ordained that many animals shall serve as food one for the other; and as this does not satisfy her desire she sends forth frequently certain noisome and pestilential vapours and continual plagues upon the vast accumulation...Folksonomies: evolution circle of life
Folksonomies: evolution circle of life
1 notes
notesHe sees hints of evolution, but does not see how microscopic things feed on apex predators.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Davy Poem on Growing Old
Davy was now forty, and like every man of science and every poet, he hoped against hope that original work and ‘powers of inspiration’ still lay ahead in his maturity. His description of these longings was nakedly Romantic, and surely recalled his moonlit walks along the banks of the Avon some twenty years before.
Though many chequered years have passed away
Since first the sense of Beauty thrilled my nerves,
Yet still my heart is sensible to Thee,
As when it first received the flood of ... 1 notes
notesAnd hoping he still had discoveries ahead of him.
