29 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
We are Machines that Carry Genes
We are survival machines, but 'we' does not mean just people. It
embraces all animals, plants, bacteria, and viruses. The total number of
survival machines on earth is very difficult to count and even the total
number of species is unknown. Taking just insects alone, the number of
living species has been estimated at around three million, and the
number of individual insects may be a million million million.
Different sorts of survival machine appear very varied on the outside and
in their i... 1 
notes
notesThe Gene's-eye view of evolution is very useful.
18 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
The Moon is Binary in Nature
Having heard the poem, Monkey went up to him and said, "Master, you only know about the moon's beauty,
and you're homesick too. You don't know what the moon's really about. It's like the carpenter's line and
compasses−−it keeps the heavenly bodies in order. On the thirtieth of every month the metal element of its
male soul has all gone, and the water element of its female soul fills the whole disk. That is why it goes black
and has no light. That's what is called the end of the old moon. ...
1 Old Chinese way of thinking about the moon, with the bright side as yang and the dark side yin.
22 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Man is Nothing Special
The power that produced Man when the monkey was not up to the mark, can produce a higher creature than Man if Man does not come up to the mark. What it means is that if Man is to be saved, Man must save himself. There seems no compelling reason why he should be saved. He is by no means an ideal creature. At his present best many of his ways are so unpleasant that they are unmentionable in polite society, and so painful that he is compelled to pretend that pain is often a good. Nature holds no... 1 notes
notesIf we fail, nature will move on to try other things.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Hell for Scientists
I had at one time a very bad fever of which I almost died. In my fever I had a long consistent delirium. I dreamt that I was in Hell, and that Hell is a place full of all those happenings that are improbable but not impossible. The effects of this are curious. Some of the damned, when they first arrive below, imagine that they will beguile the tedium of eternity by games of cards. But they find this impossible, because, whenever a pack is shuffled, it comes out in perfect order, beginning wit... 1 notes
notesIs a place where the improbable occurs everywhere.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Mathematicians Who Can Only Generalize or Specialize
A mathematician who can only generalise is like a monkey who can only climb UP a tree. ... And a mathematician who can only specialise is like a monkey who can only climb DOWN a tree. In fact neither the up monkey nor the down monkey is a viable creature. A real monkey must find food and escape his enemies and so must be able to incessantly climb up and down. A real mathematician must be able to generalise and specialise. ... There is, I think, a moral for the teacher. A teacher of traditiona...Folksonomies: mathematics methodology
Folksonomies: mathematics methodology
1 notes
notesThey are like monkeys that can only climb either up or down a tree, nonviable.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
We Must Become Comfortable with Large Numbers
Borel makes the amusing supposition of a million monkeys allowed to play upon the keys of a million typewriters. What is the chance that this wanton activity should reproduce exactly all of the volumes which are contained in the library of the British Museum? It certainly is not a large chance, but it may be roughly calculated, and proves in fact to be considerably larger than the chance that a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen will separate into the two pure constituents. After we have learned ...In order to understand why a million monkey on a million typewriters might produce a great work of art.
23 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Why a Machine Cannot Fully Imitate a Man
I specifically paused to show that, if there were such machines with the organs and shape of a monkey or of some other non-rational animal, we would have no way of discovering that they are not the same as these animals. But if there were machines that resembled our bodies and if they imitated our actions as much as is morally possible, we would always have two very certain means for recognizing that, none the less, they are not genuinely human. The first is that they would never be able to u...Folksonomies: artificial intelligence
Folksonomies: artificial intelligence
Descartes reasoning sounds like a precursor to the Turing Test.
30 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Evolution Means God is "Meager"
The resources of the Deity cannot be so meagre, that, in order to create a human being endowed with reason, he must change a monkey into a man.
1 Reusing resources to make new creatures.
