David Warmflash (a very cool name) has a post up at Discovery looking at the issues with establishing off world colonies: Forget Mars. Here's Where We Should Build Our First Off-World Colonies. The collective space vision of all the world’s countries at the moment seems to be Mars, Mars, Mars. The U.S. has two operational rovers … Continue reading The real goal and challenge of establishing off-world colonies
Farewell to determinism
An interesting post on why determinism is false. As someone who is not a hard determinist, I agreed with the author until toward the end when he declared that "superdeterminism" would imply that we can't know anything about physics. I'm not a superdeterminist, but this didn't seem to follow for me. I'm also a little … Continue reading Farewell to determinism
Blindsight by Peter Watts, a review
I recently read Peter Watts's book, 'Blindsight', a hard(ish) science fiction novel about first contact with extraterrestrials. This is a book that's been out for several years, and was a Hugo Award nominee in 2006, so I'm a bit late to the party. Indeed, since I started this blog in November, a number of people have … Continue reading Blindsight by Peter Watts, a review
SMBC: The curse of knowledge
Click through for full sized version. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. This strip reminds me of something I heard someone say in a presentation on communication strategies several years ago. It was a concept the speaker referred to as "the curse of knowledge". The curse of knowledge is the idea that when you know something, it is … Continue reading SMBC: The curse of knowledge
Video on Laniakea supercluster
I reported on this yesterday, but Nature has put out a video with more information that is well worth checking out. As a bonus, it demonstrates how to pronounce Laniakea! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENyyRwxpHo h/t Matthew Cobb at Why Evolution Is True
Your cosmic address: The edge of the Laniakea supercluster
This is pretty cool: New Map Locates Milky Way in Neighborhood of 100,000 Galaxies. A new map of the Milky Way's cosmic neighborhood shows where our galaxy lives in relation to thousands of others nearby, with scientists giving the newly discovered "supercluster" of galaxies a name: Laniakea, which means "immeasurable heaven" in Hawaiian. Throughout the universe, … Continue reading Your cosmic address: The edge of the Laniakea supercluster
SMBC: Technicality Club
Click through for full sized version. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Hmmm. They never even got to the technicality that Technicality Club can't be discussed at Technicality Club meetings.
The intuitional problem of consciousness
Genes show mysterious Paleo-Eskimos survived 4,000 years until sudden demise
Genetics seems to have really come into its own in recent years, shining light on many prehistoric mysteries: Genes show mysterious Paleo-Eskimos survived 4,000 years until sudden demise - The Washington Post. New genetic research on ancient bones reveals that a prehistoric population of hunters migrated into the high Arctic of North America and Greenland and … Continue reading Genes show mysterious Paleo-Eskimos survived 4,000 years until sudden demise
Split brains and functioning consciousness
I've written before about split-brain patients, those who, due to severe epilepsy, had the connections between the two hemispheres of their brain severed, yet were subsequently able to lead normal lives without themselves even noticing any cognitive change, which has profound implications for how consciousness works. It turns out that there are people who are … Continue reading Split brains and functioning consciousness
SelfAwarePatterns 