04 NOV 2018 by ideonexus
Degenerate Strategies and Cheating
Why isn't using a degenerate strategy considered cheating? Degenerate strategies take advantage of weaknesses in the rules of a game, but do not actually violate the rules. What kind of player would play in this way? The answer is both a dedicated player, who is overzealously seeking the perfect strategy, and an unsportsmanlike player, who has found a hole in the rules to exploit, even though he understands that he is not playing the game the way it was intended. These two kinds of players ca... 1 
notes
notesIs the same true of memorizing algorithms to solve the rubiks cube?
27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Shannon and Thorp Hack the Roulette Wheel
It was in this tinkerer’s laboratory that they set out to understand how roulette could be gamed, ordering “a regulation roulette wheel from Reno for $1,500,” a strobe light, and a clock whose hand revolved once per second. Thorp was given inside access to Shannon in all his tinkering glory:
Gadgets . . . were everywhere. He had a mechanical coin tosser which could be set to flip the coin through a set number of revolutions, producing a head or tail according to the setting. As a joke... 1 notes
notes21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
Unnecessary Obstacles Make Games
As a golfer, you have a clear goal: to get a ball in a
series of very small holes, with fewer tries than anyone else. If you weren’t
playing a game, you’d achieve this goal the most efficient way possible: you’d
walk right up to each hole and drop the ball in with your hand. What makes
golf a game is that you willingly agree to stand really far away from each
hole and swing at the ball with a club. Golf is engaging exactly because you,
along with all the other players, have agreed to ma...Folksonomies: gamification
Folksonomies: gamification
1 notes
notes03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Spaceship Earth Didn't Come with Instructions
One of the interesting things to me about our spaceship is that it is
a mechanical vehicle, just as is an automobile. If you own an
automobile, you realize that you must put oil and gas into it, and
you must put water in the radiator and take care of the car as a
whole. You begin to develop quite a little thermodynamic sense.
You know that you're either going to have to keep the machine in
good order or it's going to be in trouble and fail to function. We
have not been seeing our Spaceship Ea... 1 notes
notesIt requires maintenance in order to continue supporting our growing civilization, but we have to discover, through empiricism and experimentation, what that maintenance is.
03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Parameters of "Spaceship Earth"
Our little Spaceship Earth is only eight thousand miles in diameter,
which is almost a negligible dimension in the great vastness of
space. Our nearest star — our energy-supplying mother-ship, the
Sun — is ninety-two million miles away, and the nearest star is one
hundred thousand times further away. It takes approximately four
and one third years for light to get to us from the next nearest
energy supply ship star. That is the kind of space-distanced pattern
we are flying. Our little Spa... 1 notes
notesOur place in the cosmos. This is the situation in which we find ourselves.
27 SEP 2013 by ideonexus
加油 as a Term of Encouragement
The Chinese characters say 加油 (Jia1 you2).加 is composed of 力 (power) and 口 (mouth). It means 'to add'油 is made out of 水 (氵, water) and 由(from/ due). It means oil.加（to add） 油（oil）= add oil or make an extra effort
加油 is a terribly common phrase in day to day life. If you want to encourage someone to carry on great work, or in a sports competition, you say 加油! A bit like 'go on!' in English.
Of course another literal meaning of 加油 is to refuel.
1 ShaoLan explains how the symbols break down.
13 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Three Phases of a Chess Game
A chess game, like everything else, has three parts: the beginning, the middle and the end. What’s a little different about chess is that each of these phases tests different intellectual and emotional skills, making the game a mental triathlon of speed, strength, and stamina.
In the beginning of a chess game the center of the board is void, with pawns, rooks, and bishops neatly aligned in the first two rows awaiting instructions from their masters. The possibilities are almost infinite. W... 1 notes
notesAnd how computers do in processing them versus a human's intuition.
06 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
The Comfort of Secular Humanism
The secular philosophies of death that I’ve been writing and reading about and contemplating for years have been a tremendous comfort. For instance: The idea that we didn’t exist for billions of years before we were born—that nonexistence wasn’t painful or bad, and death won’t be either. The idea that our genes and our ideas will live on after we die. The idea that each of us was astronomically lucky to have been born at all. The idea that death is a deadline, something that helps u... 1 notes
notesThe many reasons Humanist philosophy and worldview provide comfort.
07 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
History of Science and Religion
Some people want to put warning stickers on biology textbooks, saying that the theory of evolution is just one of many theories, take it or leave it. Now, religion long predates science; it'll be here forever. That's not the issue. The problem comes when religion enters the science classroom. There's no tradition of scientists knocking down the Sunday school door, telling preachers what to teach. Scientists don't picket churches. By and arge—though it may not look this way today—science a... 1 notes
notesHow the Middle East was the center of scientific progress until religious fever took over it, the same is seen in Jewish and Christian cultures.
20 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
An Origami Metaphor for Fetal Development
The sheets of tissue that
fold, invaginate and turn inside out in a developing embryo do indeed grow, and it is that very growth that provides part of the motive force which, in origami, is supplied by the human hand. If
you wanted to make an origami model with a sheet of living tissue instead of dead paper, there is at
least a sporting chance that, if the sheet were to grow in just the right way, not uniformly but faster
in some parts of the sheet than in others, this might automatically cau...Cells divide and fold into new forms, just as origami structures become other structures through new folds.
