Mochizuki had invented a new branch of his discipline, one that is astonishingly abstract even by the standards of pure maths. “Looking at it, you feel a bit like you might be reading a paper from the future, or from outer space. Mochizuki has estimated that it would take a maths graduate student ~10 years to be able to understand his work, and Fesenko believes that it would take even an expert in arithmetic geometry some 500 hours. So far, only 4 mathematicians have been able to read the entire proof.
Month: October 2015
Hyperspectral cameras
it would be nice to get some fundamentally new capabilities in our next devices, not just slightly higher resolution.
Clickotron
so good
All content on Click-o-Tron is hallucinated by a computer algorithm, and is thus entirely fictional.
US Child Marriage
3499 children were married in New Jersey between 1995 and 2012. Most were age 16 or 17 and married with parental consent, but 178 were between ages 10 and 15, meaning a judge approved their marriages. 91% of the children were married to adults, often at ages or with age differences that could have triggered statutory-rape charges, not a marriage license. A judge in 2006 approved the marriage of a 10-year-old boy to an 18-year-old woman. A judge in 1996 allowed a 12-year-old girl to marry a 25-year-old man.
Secret History Of Myers-Briggs
Less obvious at first, and then wholly undeniable, is how hard the present-day guardians of the type indicator work to shield Myers’s personal and professional history from critical scrutiny. For the foundation, as well as for its for-profit-research-arm, the Center for Applications of Psychological Type (CAPT), this means keeping journalists far away from Myers’s notebooks, correspondences and research materials, which are stored in the Special Collections division of the University of Florida library. Although they are technically the property of the university — thus open to the public — Myers’s papers require permission from CAPT to access; permission that has not been granted to anyone in the 10 years since the papers were donated to the university by Myers’s granddaughter, Katharine Hughes.
the murky history of a very dubious organization. reminds me of scientology.
Super recognizers
since face recognition (imagenet) is superhuman as of 2014 it would be useful to define a new challenge where the goal for AI is to beat super recognizers. after that point, you’re clearly in the realm of the superhuman.
Rust, enemy of Civilization
Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis and other dramatic natural disasters can leave mounds of wreckage in a matter of seconds. Rust is different. It is insidious and slow-moving. It takes years for it to discolor buildings, thin steel pipelines and tankers carrying oil, and weaken bridges to the point of spontaneous collapse. Rust, the oxidation that turns aluminum white, copper green and steel brown, “is costlier than all other natural disasters combined,” amounting in the US alone to $437B a year, which approaches 3% of our nation’s GDP. By comparison, the damage done to property by hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and Andrew was, in 2012 $, $128B, $50B and $44B, respectively.
Uncompetitive companies survive
this is very obvious: tons of companies waste time on “conference calls” that go nowhere, spend most of their energy in politics, and are full of 9-5 DMV types. what’s surprising is that all these companies don’t go out of business, which suggests that competition isn’t nearly as fierce of a force as claimed.
Fighting for the user
longer term, this will be an AI arm race of sales bots battling user bots.
Comcast cancellation is just the beginning for AirPaper, whose stated mission is to make bureaucracy “surprisingly pleasant.” Next the startup wants to tackle San Francisco parking permit and business tax registration, as well as the visa application process for visiting China.
Becoming a disney character
Our posthuman future made cute by disney.
Disney is teaming up with Open Bionics to provide royalty-free use of various character hands for children who’ve lost a limb! Open Bionics is thrilled to announce the next generation of bionic hands for young amputees. From the Marvel Universe, hot out of Tony Stark’s workshop, the Iron Man hand. Now kids can get excited about their prosthetics. They won’t have to do boring physical therapy, they’ll train to become heroes. They’re not just getting medical devices, they’re getting bionic hands inspired by their favorite characters. The Walt Disney Company is generously donating the time of its creative teams and providing royalty free licenses. More designs coming soon!”
Gregor J. Rothfuss 