Owner: Reflections, Ideas, and Dreams URL:http://blog.gravityatwork.com Join Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:48:53 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Reflections in science and its interplay with society: climate, the environment, astrobiology, natural history, evolution, spirituality, mathematics, and philosophical musings. Site statistics:Click here
"Tickle Your Brain" 2007-06-27 18:06:57 I saw a banner add for a site called "Tickle
Your Brain
" (at least according to the ad; I didn't click the link). It featured the puzzle below, for which I cached the image as well, but I didn't want an annoying animated advertisement in the post. The obvious answer they are going for is even part of the filename(!), but as a point of contention I present justifications for any of the solutions as valid.Which does not belong in the group?U E A S OU, because none of the other characters can be approximated by a function of a single variable.E, because it is the only character with all of its lines parallel or perpendicular to one another.A, since none of the others are used in the standard U.S. letter-grade system.S, because it is the only one with no axis of symmetry.O, since it is the only character with just two edges.
Choosing to Remember 2007-07-02 20:04:27 Often times we have a great deal of control over what we choose to remember and forget. We take photographs of the good times but not the bad. We keep addresses and phone numbers of some friends--even old friends we never speak with--while others are thrown away, never to be thought of again. Cutting up a photograph symbolizes the attempt to forget a memory, but refusing to take a photograph may actually lead to forgetting.Tangible objects are not necessary to keep a memory, but they prompt us to remember. Read more:Remember
Into the Wilderness 2007-07-06 13:35:48 This weekend marks the 4th annual Locust Grove summer weekend. As I packed up my car, I considered the reasons for looking forward to the weekend.Seclusion. There is no such thing as "getting closer to nature"; we are biological creatures, so anything we do or make is still natural. However, spending time away from the sights and demands of civilization make it easier to reflect on a time when all humans on the planet (including our ancestors) lived as hunter-gatherers. And on top of that, a secluded location necessitates disappearance.Music. I enjoy playing music, and I enjoy listening; but for me music is a need. Music is powerful, and music creates memories. As Tower of Power put it, "The music makes you happy, or it can make you sad. It can turn the worst day into the best you ever had."Community. We spend most of our days interacting with various groups of people, many of which are unrelated. Before the (recent) advent of human cities, the tribe was the primary human social unit. Read more:Wilderness
Recurrence Relations 2007-07-05 17:51:34 My brother sent me a recursive problem yesterday, and I worked out this solution last night.Assume a population begins with resources at 100 (some unitless quantity). Half of these resources are spent, while the other half are passed to the next generation. The next generation begins with 100, plus 20 to account for progress, plus the half passed down to them. Likewise, the following generation begins with 100, plus 40 to account for progress, plus the half passed down to them. What is the resource value of the nth generation?We can induct a recursive function by simply looking at the first few terms. Let f(x) == "resource level for generation x", a = 100, and b = 20:f(1) = af(2) = (a + b) + f(1)/2f(3) = (a + 2*b) + f(2)/2f(4) = (a + 3*b) + f(3)/2f(5) = (a + 4*b) + f(4)/2Following the pattern, we can write the general case:f(n) = a + b*(n-1) + f(n-1)/2This recursive solution can correctly predict the value of the nth generation, but it is O(n) in complexity (that is, it requires n calc Read more:Relations
A Comprehensive Moral Code (2.0) 2007-07-04 15:55:56 A revision to an earlier post, this time with just one statement.If you take more than you need, then you might develop addiction--and addiction is self-destructive. Read more:Comprehensive
, Moral
Contact 2007-07-10 17:51:51 SETI initiatives and other projects to search for intelligent life often assume they are looking for a single intelligent species--perhaps similar in some ways to our own--that has achieved mastery over their home planet. The modern global civilization views itself as separate from the biosphere, and as a result has continued a self-destructive pattern of increased consumption and growth. This civilization views itself as the masters of the world, the single most important and dominant species on the planet. Search for life initiatives implicitly assume any contact they make will likewise be a single "superior" species.This notion is relatively recent, though, compared with the duration humans have existed on Earth. No species is an island, since life cannot exist outside of the community. Although the global human civilization views itself as separate from the community of life, this pattern of thought is ignorant and ultimately self-destructive. Likewise, any long-lived extraterrestr
Remember the Clue (31) - Ambiguity 2007-07-15 00:45:42 We can always recognize qualities in ourselves, even if no descriptive categories or labels exist. Read more:Remember
Sacrifice 2007-07-11 21:15:40 The death of one is the life of another. All creatures on the planet are thus bound.
Recurring Dreams 2007-07-17 13:36:45 Back in Minnesota for a couple weeks.There are a few dreams that I keep coming back to. I don't realize this during the dream, but as soon as I wake up I recognize this as a dream I've had before. The strange thing about these dreams is that, as best as I can remember, they have almost the exact same form every time--including characters and dreamsigns---but my dream recall is still not very good, so it's hard to verify all the details. Even so, these dreams do have a more developed plot and theme than most of my other dreams (which often seem like a random assortment of people, settings, and ideas). Read more:Dreams
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