Archive for December, 2008
Camille Flammarion
December 30th, 2008
Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) was a French astronomer and author who wrote several seminal works of early science fiction (a genre that was then much more charmingly referred to as “scientific romance” and almost never featured robots going berserk).
The reason I’m posting this is to show off this lovely quote:
What intelligent being, what being capable of responding emotionally to a beautiful sight, can look at the jagged, silvery lunar crescent trembling in the azure sky, even through the weakest of telescopes, and not be struck by it in an intensely pleasurable way, not feel cut off from everyday life here on earth and transported toward that first stop on the celestial journeys? What thoughtful soul could look at brilliant Jupiter with its four attendant satellites, or splendid Saturn encircled by its mysterious ring, or a double star glowing scarlet and sapphire in the infinity of night, and not be filled with a sense of wonder? Yes, indeed, if humankind — from humble farmers in the fields and toiling workers in the cities to teachers, people of independent means, those who have reached the pinnacle of fame or fortune, even the most frivolous of society women — if they knew what profound inner pleasure await those who gaze at the heavens, then France, nay, the whole of Europe, would be covered with telescopes instead of bayonets, thereby promoting universal happiness and peace.
- Camille Flammarion, 1880
I really love the optimism of that era. Right up until around WWI, the western world sincerely believed that scientific and technological innovation basically corresponded with moral advancement. If you’ve followed this blog for any period of time, you may have noticed that I have a certain affection for the Victorian age; that hopefulness is probably the main reason (apart from spats, of course).
Strange Loops
December 28th, 2008
Harry Schwartz and his good buddy learned a month or two ago that if they point their laptops at each other while they’re chatting on Skype,* some magic happens.
I’ve really been reading way too much Douglas Hofstadter. I’m not sure why I haven’t eaten him yet.
* Yes, this does imply that we were chatting on Skype while in the same room. There’s a good reason for that: the chairs were pointed in opposite directions. Shut up.
Three Pounds of Flax
December 25th, 2008
Case 18 from Mumon’s Gateless Gate is one of the more classic koans:
THE CASE
A monk asked Master Tōzan in all earnestness, “What is Buddha?”
Tōzan said, “Masagin! (Three pounds of flax!)”
MUMON’S COMMENTARY
Old Tōzan realized a bit of clam Zen. Slightly opening the two halves of the shell, he exposed his liver and intestines. This may be so, but tell me, where do you see Tōzan?
THE VERSE
Masagin juts forth!
Words are intimate and the mind is even more intimate.
He who speaks about right and wrong
Is a man of right and wrong.
- Koun Yamada’s translation.
See also: Discordianism; the jargon file.
Tor
December 23rd, 2008
Tor is a program designed to allow its users to surf the web anonymously. When the user requests a page, Tor directs the request to one of the servers on its network, which sends the request on through the network until it reaches its destination. The destination server sees a request from one of Tor’s nodes, not from the original user, thereby providing them a degree on anonymity.
It’s also now possible for Tor users to host servers anonymously, allowing them to share potentially restricted content.
What prompted me to write this post was an article in Wired which noted that there’s now a web service called tor2web which allows a regular user to browse Tor’s servers (albeit without anonymity). Unfortunately, most of the servers seem to contain either (1) pornography, (2) conspiracy theorists, or (3) Linux user groups. Still, the technology’s pretty neat!
The Lambda Calculus
December 21st, 2008
The lambda calculus is a tool used by computer scientists and mathematicians to examine certain types of functions, recursion, and other fun things. It was developed in the 1930s by the Princeton logician Alonzo Church to work on undecidability.* He and Turing later proved that the lambda calculus is computationally equivalent to a Turing machine, which is pretty neat.
Most functional programming languages (Haskell, for example, and of course my beloved Lisp**) were heavily influenced by the lambda calculus, but ideas from it have crept into other languages (like Python) as well. So languages that use lambda expressions (which allow one to define an unnamed function on the fly) ultimately got the idea from Church.
* “There is no algorithm which takes as input two lambda expressions and outputs TRUE or FALSE depending on whether or not the two expressions are equivalent. This was historically the first problem for which undecidability could be proven. As is common for a proof of undecidability, the proof shows that no computable function can decide the equivalence. Church’s thesis is then invoked to show that no algorithm can do so.” — Wikipedia
** Lisp, it should be noted, is vigorously defended by its possibly-fictional protectors, the Knights of the Lambda Calculus. They’ve got an awesome coat of arms.
Tom Lehrer
December 19th, 2008
Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) is an American songwriter and mathematician. In the 50s and 60s he wrote some charming pieces of music satirizing foreign policy and prominent political and scientific figures. There’s nothing quite like dated satire. Here’s a song about Dr. Wernher von Braun:
‘Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department’, says Wernher von Braun.”
He’s written a few albums worth of material, most of which is floating around on YouTube, including Who’s Next, Lobachevsky, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, and The Elements.
He joked that he gave up satire in 1973, after Henry Kissinger received the Noble Peace Prize. He also claimed to have invented the Jell-O shot while working at the NSA, which raises all kinds of concerns.
Donald Knuth
December 17th, 2008
I’m once again trying to read through The Art of Computer Programming, and it’s becoming obvious that Donald Knuth knows everything. These books are basically a compilation of beautiful ideas in math and computer science, and everyone who can read them should.
Knuth is a towering figure in computer science, and in particular he’s rather famous (XKCD famous, even) for his work in the analysis of algorithms. He’s also known for the invention of TeX and his renunciation of email.
A Shang Bronze
December 15th, 2008
The Shang was the first (unquestionably non- mythical) dynasty in China. They’re known mostly for their marvelous bronze vessels, reliance on oracles, and their remarkable antiquity – foundation of the dynasty predated the Trojan War by several centuries.
Their bronzes are really incredibly ornate for their time – in fact, it’s still really tricky to do casting of this quality today.
Some Facts About Bruce Schneier
December 12th, 2008
Bruce Schneier is a renowned cryptographer, security expert, and all-around good guy. He’s responsible for (among countless other things) the popular Blowfish cipher.
So, if you remember the Interweb’s obsession with Chuck Norris (now thankfully past) and also have an interest in cryptography, you may enjoy this database of Bruce Schneier facts.
Examples:
- “Bruce Schneier has already solved the Goldbach Conjecture. He just enjoys watching us try.”
- “Bruce Schneier is the ideal man. Alice loves him; Bob fears him; Charlie wants to be him.”
- “Most people use passwords. Some people use passphrases. Bruce Schneier uses an epic passpoem, detailing the life and works of seven mythical Norse heroes. “
- “Vs lbh nfxrq Oehpr Fpuarvre gb qrpelcg guvf, ur’q pehfu lbhe fxhyy jvgu uvf ynhtu.”
You get the idea. On an unrelated note, I think I’m going to start trying to update regularly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, just to see if I can actually adhere to a schedule.
Stop laughing.
The Moose Test
December 11th, 2008
Automakers put their cars through many tests to assure that they’re safe. Among these is the moose test, which measures how well a vehicle can dodge a suddenly appearing obstacle on the road – for example, a moose. The test generally replaces an actual moose with brightly colored cones, which in my opinion ruins most of the excitement of the thing.
Unsurprisingly, it was originally developed in Sweden by Saab and Volvo, since their vehicles tended to be most at risk for moose-related accidents.