Can science be used to answer the existential quandaries that haunt us? Questions like why your love life sucks? Yes, it can! The Drake Equation was used by Carl Sagan to calculate the chances of highly evolved alien life existing in our galaxy. A physicist named Peter Backus applied the Drake Equation to a more pressing issue; his own statistical chance of finding a girlfriend. Read the paper here: Why I don't have a girlfriend. The results were not encouraging. After some mathematical gymnastics, Backus concluded, "There are 26 women in the UK with whom I might have a wonderful relationship. So, on a given night out in London there is a 0.000 34% chance of meeting one of these special people, about 100 times better than finding an alien civilization we can communicate with. That’s a 1 in 285,000 … [Read more...] about Why Science says your Lovelife Sucks: 285,000 to 1
Automatons: Imitation of Life
The creation of robots and androids has always fascinated mankind. There are accounts of automatons in ancient mythology such as the artisan/god Hephaestus who created divine machines like the bronze man Talos to defend Crete. There are accounts of Greek temples housing "god" machines that belched smoke, replicated thunder and even bled. and philosophers like Aristotle mused about robots replacing slaves. But throughout history, there have been actual attempts to construct such mechanisms. This is where mythology and reality blur. The Physical proof of such pursuits came in the form of the Antikythera mechanism (150 to 100 BC), recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of Greece in 1900/1901. The device served to calculate the positions of stars and planets. Other notorious accounts of automatons appear in the 8th and 9th centuries. Wind powered automatons appeared in the Abbasid Palaces of Baghdad and the Arabic alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan (writing under the name of Geber) recorded his methods of constructing snake, scorpion and human automatons in The … [Read more...] about Automatons: Imitation of Life
Steampunk Carousels & Infernal Machines
Science Fiction books of the of the Victorian age and the Belle Epoch echo certain themes. After all, this was the age of Edison and Tesla, of mechanized war. It was an emerging era of shocking scientific theories such as evolution and flight. 19th century science fiction novels chart the course of these shocks with themes of science run amok and strange encounters with monstrosities. Steampunk imagery is generated from works of the fantastic such as Frankenstein, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. So, when I first saw The Project of Machines de l'île in Nantes, I felt for a moment that sense of wonder at that strange convergence of science and fantasy, machine and dream. All the beautiful and terrible possibilities of the future exist in these odd mechanisms. The machines are built in the warehouses of the former shipyards of Nantes, France by François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice who were also inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's infernal machines. And every so often they come alive. Setting up The Sea Life Carousel Riding the … [Read more...] about Steampunk Carousels & Infernal Machines
Scientist Grace Hopper explains Nanoseconds
Google just honored Grace Hopper with a doodle and once you see her in action, you'll know why. Grace Hopper was an accomplished naval officer/computer scientist with a wry sense of humor and a down to earth style of communicating. One of the first programmers on the Mark I Computer (IBM's Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator or ASCC), Grace Hopper once described the Mark I as having " 72 words of storage and could perform three additions a second." In comparison, the cell phone in your pocket has more computing power than NASA's first moon launch, so if you are using your phone to send lol cats.... think about it. It's not the power, it's what you do with it. The early behemoths Hopper worked on were as large as 51 feet long and 8ft high. She also worked on Harvard’s Mark II and III computers as well as the UNIVAC I computer. Affectionately known as "Grandma Cobol," because she lead the team that invented COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language). She was one of the first computer scientists to campaign for "coding" as a computer language rather than strings of … [Read more...] about Scientist Grace Hopper explains Nanoseconds
Future Shock: Writing Sci Fi, Drones & Paranoia
Dystopia. The word hisses off the tongue with sibilant ease, a slow slide into the dark cellar of the collective psyche. The black regimes of our fears, the fascism, the rage, the oppression which mirrors our inner shades, often realized in nightmarish reality. Conversely, Utopia sounds so hopeful, so inclusive, like a suspended note of a celestial choir. A future where technology is used compassionately to further creative pursuits, knowledge and collective awareness. What's it going to be? One of the great tasks of Science Fiction is to explore humanity in the context of earth shattering change. In the case of Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451 with its mechanical hound or George Orwell's 1984, the startling portrait of the darker probabilities of the future, shaped the minds of a generation. The word "Big Brother" is now part of our lexicon of ideas. On the Utopian side, Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek inspired cell phones, interactive computers and has scientists noodling over the possibility of matter transfer and warp drive. Because I'm writing a dystopian novel, I … [Read more...] about Future Shock: Writing Sci Fi, Drones & Paranoia
Amazon Prime Air: Will Drones Deliver?
Remember The Jetsons? The cartoon about the future where the Jetson family had a plethora of wacky, futuristic gadgets to make life easier? Well it looks like CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos took that show seriously. Just when you're getting used to an irobot vacuum scooting around the floor, Amazon just revealed the next level of droid services. First Amazon created automated warehouses and now flying drones will deliver packages in under 30 minutes. The drone delivery service is called Amazon Prime Air: … [Read more...] about Amazon Prime Air: Will Drones Deliver?
Astronaut Chris Hadfield sings Space Oddity
I'm posting my favorite space clip, starring astronaut Chris Hadfield channeling David Bowie as he sings Bowie's iconoclastic song Space Oddity. Not only is Space Oddity an exquisite piece of music, framing Bowie's compassion and intrinsic sense of humanity, the song was also iconoclastic, capturing the emotional charge of a generation as we left planet Earth for the first time. Chris Hadfield has always had a great sense of showmanship, whether he's conducting experiments in space, visually illuminating physics, imparting wisdom through his amazing book An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, or singing a song that everyone secretly wanted to see performed in space! The man knows how to swagger, so as astronauts go, kind of a rock star. After attending the premiere of the film Gravity, Hadfield tweeted: “Good morning! Gravity was fun last night. Fantastic visuals, relentless, Sandra Bullock was great. I’d fly with her.” When asked about his own tour of duty, Hadfield said, “Fortunately, the five months that I spent on the space station went way … [Read more...] about Astronaut Chris Hadfield sings Space Oddity