16 APR 2018 by ideonexus
Facebook is a Game
Game designer Robin Hunicke has noted that Facebook is actually a complex, massively multiplayer online game, with challenges, rewards, and levels just like any other. Think about it for a second and you'll realize that the rules are simple: be the most fun, intelligent, witty, caring version of yourself. The benefits are obvious, Hunicke observed: Facebook "makes people feel like they matter, like they have friends and family across all kinds of distances," she said. "How many games make you...Folksonomies: social media gamification
Folksonomies: social media gamification
1 19 JUL 2014 by ideonexus
Explorocracy / Homo Diaspora
So we’re to be ravaged by speculation and thrill-seekers. We’ll be the wilds. I’ve been to deadwood planets and pioneer towns: even those way stations have their good things. We’ll open up the sky. We’ll have knowledge to sell. Uniquely detailed maps. Immer byways only locals like us can find. We have to establish our credentials as an explorocracy; so to survive and rule ourselves, we have to explore.
We’ll soon have one immership in our little navy, and at least one captain. Wh... 1 
notes
notes16 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
Seeing Dyson Civilizations
In summary, the circumstellar shells of Dyson civilizations-at temperatures ~300 degrees K and radii ~1 a.u.--can be detected with existing telescopes and state-of-the-art infrared detectors in the 8-13-u window out to distances of several hundred parsecs. But discrimination of Dyson civilizations from naturally occurring low-temperature objects is very difficult, unless Dyson civilizations have some further distinguishing feature, such as monochromatic radio-frequency emission.
Folksonomies: astronomy extraterrestrials
Folksonomies: astronomy extraterrestrials
How difficult would it be to detect their heat signature?
21 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Knowing the World Requires Mathematics
For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics. For this is an assured fact in regard to celestial things, siDce two important sciences of mathematics treat of them, namely theoretical astrology and practical astrology. The first. . . gives us definite information as to the number of the heavens and of the stars, whose size can be comprehended by means of instruments, and the shapes of all and their magnitudes and distances from the earth, and thicknesses...Folksonomies: mathematics knowledge
Folksonomies: mathematics knowledge
1 notes
notesEverything can be reduced to mathematics.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Man Becomes Acquainted With the Laws of the Universe
Rational mechanics soon became a vast and profound science. The true laws of the collision of bodies, respecting which Descartes was deceived, were at length known.
Huyghens discovered the laws of circular motions; and at the same time he gives a method of determining the radius of curvature for every point of a given curve. By uniting both theories, Newton invented the theory of curve-lined motions, and applied it to those laws according to which Kepler had discovered that the planets descr... 1 notes
notesWhen we learned and understood the motions of bodies in space.
13 APR 2012 by ideonexus
St. Augustine on Christian Explanations for Origins
It not infrequently happens that something about the earth, about the sky, about other elements of this world, about the motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about definite eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons, about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things, may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience, even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful and ruinous, t... 1 notes
notesRemarkably insightful statement from 426 AD about how Christians look foolish when they try to apply the literal interpretation of Genesis to the natural world.
29 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Why Traveling at the Speed of Light Slows Down Time
the precise time difference between stationary and moving clocks depends on how
much farther the sliding clock's photon must travel to complete each round-trip journey This in turn depends on how quickly the
sliding clock is moving—from the viewpoint of a stationary observer, the faster the clock is sliding, the farther the photon must
travel to the right. We conclude that in comparison to a stationary clock, the rate of ticking of the sliding clock becomes slower and
slower as it moves fas... 1 notes
notesAn elegant explanation in physical terms of photons and the distances they travel.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Parallax Method
It is possible to measure how far away from us each galaxy is. How? How, for that matter, do we know how far away anything in the universe is? For nearby stars the best method uses something called 'parallax'. Hold your finger up in front of your face and look at it with your left eye closed. Now open your left eye and close your right. Keep switching eyes, and you'll notice that the apparent position of your finger hops from side to side. That is because of the difference between the viewpoi...Folksonomies: measurement parallax
Folksonomies: measurement parallax
1 notes
notesUsing the change in position of an object when viewed from two different points can be used to determine its distance from you.
30 NOV -0001 by ideonexus
Should Spelling be Modernized?
The time taken to teach the decimalised system for currency, temperature, weights and distances is far shorter and more certain than when 240 pence equalled a pound, 32 degrees Fahrenheit equalled the temperature of ice and pounds and ounces were taught. Already there is a generation that was spared these ancient measurements.
To improve literacy in the general population, modernisation of the spelling system will bring similar benefits to what decimalisation brought.Folksonomies: phonetics
Folksonomies: phonetics
1 It takes just one generation to fix spelling and improve literacy for future generations. Just as it took one generation to move to the metric system or change currencies in Europe.
