02 MAR 2019 by ideonexus

 Entropy in our Everyday Lives: Active Stability

Because things naturally move to disorder over time, we can position ourselves to create stability. There are two types of stability: active and passive. Consider a ship, which, if designed well, should be able to sail through a storm without intervention. This is passive stability. A fighter jet, in contrast, requires active stability. The plane can’t fly for more than a few seconds without having to adjust its wings. This adjustment happens so fast that it’s controlled by software. Ther...
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08 JUN 2012 by ideonexus

 Stability of the Earth

Thus the system of the world only oscillates around a mean state from which it never departs except by a very small quantity. By virtue of its constitution and the law of gravity, it enjoys a stability that can be destroyed only by foreign causes, and we are certain that their action is undetectable from the time of the most ancient observations until our own day. This stability in the system of the world, which assures its duration, is one of the most notable among all phenomena, in that it ...
Folksonomies: nature earth
Folksonomies: nature earth
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Its sphere is regular, its orbit stable, it is a perfect place for sheltering nature in the Universe.

03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 An Cosmic Virus

The Blight has been our top priority since its instantiation a year ago. This is not just because of the Blight’s obvious strength, the destruction and the deicides it has committed. We fear that all this is the lesser part of the Threat. There have been perversions almost as powerful in the recorded past. What truly.distinguishes this one is its stability. We see no evidence of internal evolution; in some ways it is less than a Power. It may never lose interest in controlling the High Beyo...
Folksonomies: evolution otherness
Folksonomies: evolution otherness
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The danger in Vinge's book is the "Blight" an godlike intelligence that is all the more dangerous for the fact that it does not evolve, but is a rot that sets in and stays.