26 APR 2015 by ideonexus
Shock: Social Science Fiction
What happens when a mind is no longer tied to a body?
What happens when those of greatest ability are
enslaved by those of greatest power? What happens when
Humanity is the new kid on the block? When minds are read
like books and books are illegal?
Shock: Social Science Fiction is a game, a set of rules, that
you’re about to use with your friends to create some science
fiction stories. You’ll create a world sitting around a
table, or on a floor in a circle, and use these rules to
reach a...Folksonomies: storytelling collaborative storytelling
Folksonomies: storytelling collaborative storytelling
1 Collaborative Storytelling.
24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
H.G. Wells on the Future
We look back through countless millions of years and see the great will to live struggling out of the intertidal slime, struggling from shape to shape and from power to power, crawling and then walking confidently upon the land, struggling generation after generation to master the air, creeping down into the darkness of the deep; we see it turn upon itself in rage and hunger and reshape itself anew, we watch it draw nearer and more akin to us, expanding, elaborating itself, pursuing its relen...18 OCT 2014 by ideonexus
The Quiet
‘What was it like? Being Quiet?’ I try my food. The zebra is indeed excellent, dark and juicy: she has good taste. Perhaps she picked it up from me.
She crumbles a piece of bread on her plate, lost in thought. ‘It’s difficult to explain. It’s very abrupt: when your Time runs out, the transition happens. The Resurrection Men just come to pick your body up, but you are already there. It’s like having a stroke. Suddenly, your brain works differently, in a different body, with differ... 1 
notes
notesA post-singularity society where people are with the living for a period of time and use time as currency, and when they die they become "quiet" robotic laborers and servants for a time.
15 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Beliefs are Like the Charge in a Battery
Inculcating a belief is like charging a battery. The battery is thenceforward disposed to give a spark or shock, when suitably approached, as long as the charge lasts; similarly the believer is disposed to respond in characteristic ways, when suitably approached, as long as the belief lasts. The belief, like the charge, may last long or briefly. Some beliefs, like the one about Hannibal, we shall probably retain while we live. Some, like our belief in the dependability of our neighborhood cob...Folksonomies: belief reinforcement
Folksonomies: belief reinforcement
1 notes
notesSome reinforce with use (charging), while others vanish from the mind because they do not recharge.
26 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Science Cannot have Creeds
Religious creeds are a great obstacle to any full sympathy between the outlook of the scientist and the outlook which religion is so often supposed to require ... The spirit of seeking which animates us refuses to regard any kind of creed as its goal. It would be a shock to come across a university where it was the practice of the students to recite adherence to Newton's laws of motion, to Maxwell's equations and to the electromagnetic theory of light. We should not deplore it the less if our...
1 We should not force students to blindly recite laws and theorems because that would reduce it to religion.
16 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
The Concept of the Chemical Bond
[The chemical bond] First, it is related to the disposition of two electrons (remember, no one has ever seen an electron!): next, these electrons have their spins pointing in opposite directions (remember, no one can ever measure the spin of a particular electron!): then, the spatial distribution of these electrons is described analytically with some degree of precision (remember, there is no way of distinguishing experimentally the density distribution of one electron from another!): concept...Folksonomies: chemistry
Folksonomies: chemistry
1 notes
notes...is based on things we cannot see or measure and only exist in terms of probabilities.
03 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
The Hierarchical World of Mathematics and Theoretical Phy...
The world of mathematics and theoretical physics is hierarchical. That was my first exposure to it. There's a limit beyond which one cannot progress. The differences between the limiting abilities of those on successively higher steps of the pyramid are enormous. I have not seen described anywhere the shock a talented man experiences when he finds, late in his academic life, that there are others enormously more talented than he. I have personally seen more tears shed by grown men and women o... 1 notes
notesThe difference in talent between individuals is enormous, and shocking to those who discover others are vastly more talented than they.
19 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
The Term "Higher Animals"
So glibly do the phrases 'higher animals' and 'lower animals' trip off our tongues that it
comes as a shock to realize that, far from effortlessly slotting into evolutionary thinking as one
might suppose, they were - and are - deeply antithetical to it. We think we know that chimpanzees
are higher animals and earthworms are lower, we think we've always known what that means, and
we think evolution makes it even clearer. But it doesn't. It is by no means clear that it means
anything at all. Or...Is meaningless and confuses people.
08 FEB 2011 by ideonexus
Pregnant Celebrities are News
"In this world, pregnancy is considered news, and it is a nine-month news cycle," the editor-in-chief of Star magazine has said. Issues featuring pregnant celebrities are often among the magazines' best sellers. The mother of all celebrity pregnancies, of course, was that of actress Demi Moore, who appeared naked and seven months pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair> in 1991. Back then, the image still had the power to shock: on its first day on the stands, the issue sold out during the mo...The focus of gossip magazines on pregnant celebrities mirrors a more general interest the average person has in the pregnant woman as a curiosity.
