Month: December 2015

Future languges

The most ancient languages we know of are visibly impoverished compared to modern languages today. It just takes longer to say similar complex things in those languages. Assuming that the size and interconnectedness of populations speaking the main languages continues to increase into the future, we can make some obvious predictions about future languages.

Interspecies friendships

Animals in captivity have their food presented to them; they don’t need to worry about marking their territory or looking for mates the way an animal in the wild would. All those activities take time and energy, and if those needs are removed, the animals get bored. A playmate—even an unorthodox one—can be more satisfying than a meal. The animal’s motivation to engage socially and playfully maybe was higher in its need hierarchy than eating. There’s an 85% chance that Amur will end up eating his new friend.

SETI Lobbying

The only lobbyist pushing for disclosure of E.T. visitation

Stephen Bassett is the only lobbyist of his kind in Washington DC. He’s working to get the government to admit that it has proof of extraterrestrials visiting our planet.

Computing could have started 100 years earlier

So, OK: would the Analytical Engine have gotten beyond computing mathematical tables? I suspect so. If Ada had lived as long as Babbage, she would still have been around in the 1890s when Herman Hollerith was doing card-based electromechanical tabulation for the census (and founding what would eventually become IBM). The Analytical Engine could have done much more. But none of this actually happened, and instead Ada died young, the Analytical Engine was never finished, and it took until the 20th century for the power of computation to be discovered.

this is very fascinating. if ada hadn’t died so young, perhaps the age of computing would have started 100 years earlier.

The Green Line

That looks fantastic.

Perkins Eastman has released a plan to turn Broadway into a pedestrian park running 40 blocks in Manhattan. The Green Line would extend from Columbus Circle to Union Square, connecting several prominent parks and plazas (Madison Square, Herald Square, Times Square) along the way.

OpenAI

this is an excellent move. if you want to learn more about these topics, i suggest Creating Friendly AI

How Elon Musk and Y Combinator Plan to Stop Computers From Taking Over. They’re funding a new organization, OpenAI, to pursue the most advanced forms of artificial intelligence — and give the results to the public