These days I'm reading a collection of Sci-Fi short stories (Year's Best SF-11). One of the stories (Second Person, Present Tense by Daryl Gregory) began with the following quote.
I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this. -- Emo Phillips
Actually, I'd saved this same quote, often spit out by the Fortune program on Unix systems, many moons ago in my "odd" file because I found it quite fascinating.
I'm also listening to the RadioLab podcasts during my work-outs. Last night I listened to the show titled Beyond Time and somewhere around the 30min mark, they started talking about the fact that the universe is a collection of "now"s, and there's really no past and future, and that the free will is nice to think about, poetic and stuff, but it really isn't there, physics-wise. When you listen further down the podcast, the "finger wiggle" experiment (which, I think, must have been the basis for the above sci-fi short story) talks about how the brain is not really in control. It thinks it is making up its mind and issuing commands to the finger to wiggle, but the wiggling happens, get this, before the brain makes up its mind.
A week or so ago, I'd also listened to this other RadioLab podcast The (Multi) Universe(s); an argument about how there's only a finite number of particles in the known universe and there could be an infinite number of possibilities; so there are identical you's and me's at another universe doing exactly the same thing. I think, you can hear this Brian Greene guy in both shows--but there are other people also with this same idea--who claims what the universe really is is a collection of things happening that can be predicted accurately, including what you and I will do at any given time.
So, is there really no free will? And, is the fact that me coming across all these references to it in two or three separate ways simply that the universe trying to tell me something?
Then what's the point of even trying to do things differently? What will happen, will happen. What's the point in trying at all? I guess, the universe is trying to get me to quit!
Aha, then I'll do an one-up on the universe and try even harder to establish my own free will and ... but wait, perhaps, the universe was counting on me trying to do that one-up thing and, perhaps, I should give up trying at all, which brings me back to square one, which the universe must have known that I'd do after going around this one time, so I should ... Aaarrggghhhh ... my head hurts!
But, but, there was that Heisenberg dude with his uncertainty principle who said you can't know the exact location and the exact speed of something at the same time. So, if you add up all the uncertainties of all the particles that make up a human body, doesn't that amount to a set of large error bars ... which you can think of as "free will?" Or, does that make as much sense as the free will of a drunk who is trying to figure out which way is up while laying on the floor?
Ugh, after thinking of this stuff, I like this better -- The Heineken Uncertainty Principle: You can never be sure how many beers you had last night.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Being Invisible
I don't know when I turned invisible. But, it has surely happened. Here are just two examples of recent incidents when I was pretty sure others weren't, at least one person wasn't, seeing me.
Just the other day Prashan wanted to borrow a book from the public library. So I took him to the Aspen Hill branch of the Montgomery county library. He found his book. I picked up a couple of Sci-Fi books for myself as well. With the three books in hand, I went to the counter to check them out. Since I knew I had a fine to pay (virtual smack to Prashan), I decided not to use the self-checkout. The woman at the checkout desk was counting a large stack of dollar bills. She knew I was there, but she didn't even look up at me, let alone ask me to wait a minute. The stack was pretty big, so I was resigned to waiting for awhile until she was done. Then the guy at the far site of the counter, behind the "returns" sign, called me over since there wasn't anyone at his location. Just two seconds after I walked over, another person came with a bunch of books to check out to the bill-counting-woman. She stopped her counting and helped that person with the books. So, my guess is that I must have been invisible to her as she clearly had no trouble stopping her counting to check out books.
Last week I was walking down the hallway and a manager in our department was walking down the other way towards me. I know the guy, we take care of his machines. He didn't even acknowledge me even though I said hi or hey or something to the effect. When we approached each other, he reached over, two inches from my nose, to knock on the door on my side of the hallway. I must have been invisible or he must have been in a mega-hurry to reach that door. But, how did he manage to avoid hitting me if he didn't see me? Proximity censors?
In numerous other occasions people would look right through me when I'm waiting for a service or waiting for them to move so I can get to where ever I was going, or something like that. So, you see, I know I've become invisible. It would be a pretty neat trick if I could turn this thing on/off at will--my will, that is--and make me invisible to everyone at the same time, not just one person at a time.
{sigh} Thems the times we lives in ...
Just the other day Prashan wanted to borrow a book from the public library. So I took him to the Aspen Hill branch of the Montgomery county library. He found his book. I picked up a couple of Sci-Fi books for myself as well. With the three books in hand, I went to the counter to check them out. Since I knew I had a fine to pay (virtual smack to Prashan), I decided not to use the self-checkout. The woman at the checkout desk was counting a large stack of dollar bills. She knew I was there, but she didn't even look up at me, let alone ask me to wait a minute. The stack was pretty big, so I was resigned to waiting for awhile until she was done. Then the guy at the far site of the counter, behind the "returns" sign, called me over since there wasn't anyone at his location. Just two seconds after I walked over, another person came with a bunch of books to check out to the bill-counting-woman. She stopped her counting and helped that person with the books. So, my guess is that I must have been invisible to her as she clearly had no trouble stopping her counting to check out books.
Last week I was walking down the hallway and a manager in our department was walking down the other way towards me. I know the guy, we take care of his machines. He didn't even acknowledge me even though I said hi or hey or something to the effect. When we approached each other, he reached over, two inches from my nose, to knock on the door on my side of the hallway. I must have been invisible or he must have been in a mega-hurry to reach that door. But, how did he manage to avoid hitting me if he didn't see me? Proximity censors?
In numerous other occasions people would look right through me when I'm waiting for a service or waiting for them to move so I can get to where ever I was going, or something like that. So, you see, I know I've become invisible. It would be a pretty neat trick if I could turn this thing on/off at will--my will, that is--and make me invisible to everyone at the same time, not just one person at a time.
{sigh} Thems the times we lives in ...
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Where's my PDA?
Okay, the much hyped iPad was released last Saturday. For some it is nothing more than a giant iPod Touch and pretty much useless, and for others, it is the next best thing since sliced bread. Whatever ...
Here's what I want from a PDA. I want something that is slightly bigger than an iPhone so I could read books on it. Could be a bit thicker too, I don't mind. I want that device to be able to bring all my stuff to life. I want to be able to take it with me evrywhere and all my stuff be available at my fingertips. I want to be able to make phone calls, take pictures, go Geocaching with it, carry my important files (not just songs) in it. I want to be able to slap it on a desktop docking station and that desktop unit to become my computing environment. I want it to backup all my stuff automagically. When I slap it on a dock at some other place, I want it to not leave any of my (important) stuff behind. While we are at it, I want it to have multiple identities so that when I dock it to the desktop unit at work, it pulls up my work documents, sets up the work environment the way I pre-set it, but when I slap it on the home desktop, I want it to pull up my home life like movies, recipies, songs, etc. And, if I want to work at home, a couple of key strokes or clicks, {poof} it becomes my work environment ... at home.
Seriously, these days we can buy desktop computers that are way more powerful than needed. We can cram so much memory and compute power into such tiny chips. Almost anywhere we go, we can access the cloud. I want my Personal Data Assistant (PDA) to be able to give me all my stuff at any time I want. And, while we are at it, I want to be able to run the system/OS/environment that I like, not the one the HW maker likes. I want the PDA to be able to dock with any desktop unit regardless of who makes the PDA or the desktop. I want the PDA to be able to use the extra resources the current desktop it is connected to has. For instance, if the desktop has oodles of memory, use it to get my work done.
While I'm at it, why shouldn't I be able to slap it on to the TV to watch movies or my pre-paid TV programs on my friend's TV? And, can I slap it on my car's dashboard so that I can get navigation to the address in the e-mail that I just received without having to punch in the address again? And, be able to listen to my podcasts in a rental car?
In other words, I want HW open standards. I want OS open standards. I want open standards for content. I want the single PDA to be able to turn itself into my desktop computer, my Phone, my tablet device, my TV, my {whatever} at a moment's notice with whatever other hardware is around.
... and, I want a pony!
Here's what I want from a PDA. I want something that is slightly bigger than an iPhone so I could read books on it. Could be a bit thicker too, I don't mind. I want that device to be able to bring all my stuff to life. I want to be able to take it with me evrywhere and all my stuff be available at my fingertips. I want to be able to make phone calls, take pictures, go Geocaching with it, carry my important files (not just songs) in it. I want to be able to slap it on a desktop docking station and that desktop unit to become my computing environment. I want it to backup all my stuff automagically. When I slap it on a dock at some other place, I want it to not leave any of my (important) stuff behind. While we are at it, I want it to have multiple identities so that when I dock it to the desktop unit at work, it pulls up my work documents, sets up the work environment the way I pre-set it, but when I slap it on the home desktop, I want it to pull up my home life like movies, recipies, songs, etc. And, if I want to work at home, a couple of key strokes or clicks, {poof} it becomes my work environment ... at home.
Seriously, these days we can buy desktop computers that are way more powerful than needed. We can cram so much memory and compute power into such tiny chips. Almost anywhere we go, we can access the cloud. I want my Personal Data Assistant (PDA) to be able to give me all my stuff at any time I want. And, while we are at it, I want to be able to run the system/OS/environment that I like, not the one the HW maker likes. I want the PDA to be able to dock with any desktop unit regardless of who makes the PDA or the desktop. I want the PDA to be able to use the extra resources the current desktop it is connected to has. For instance, if the desktop has oodles of memory, use it to get my work done.
While I'm at it, why shouldn't I be able to slap it on to the TV to watch movies or my pre-paid TV programs on my friend's TV? And, can I slap it on my car's dashboard so that I can get navigation to the address in the e-mail that I just received without having to punch in the address again? And, be able to listen to my podcasts in a rental car?
In other words, I want HW open standards. I want OS open standards. I want open standards for content. I want the single PDA to be able to turn itself into my desktop computer, my Phone, my tablet device, my TV, my {whatever} at a moment's notice with whatever other hardware is around.
... and, I want a pony!
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