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| Image Source: Technology Review |
Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Humor, Robotics, STEM
IQ tests have a dubious history with respect to bias of cultural groups' exposure and resources. This is a new twist. Alas, the robot apocalypse shall have to wait for...kindergarten (and, maybe potty training)!
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: First some background. The science of measuring human skills and performance is known as psychometrics. When it comes to human intelligence, the most widely accepted psychometric test is the Intelligence Quotient, or IQ test.
This consists of two parts. The first is a set of questions designed to test various aspects of human performance. The second is a database of test results that future results can be compared against. This is how humans are rated; as above or below average compared to the database, for example.
IQ tests are also designed to test humans at different stages of their lives. So a test designed for adults is unlikely to provide much insight into the performance of 10-year-olds or 4-year-olds. So the process of designing tests and creating the test-result database has to be done for each of these groups.
Just why it has trouble with this kind of reasoning in certain circumstances isn’t clear.
What’s more, many of the wrong answers are entirely unlike those that children would give. For example, in the word reasoning category, ConceptNet 4 was given the following clues: “This animal has a mane if it is male,” “this is an animal that lives in Africa,” and “this a big yellowish-brown cat.”
But its top five answers were: dog, farm, creature, home, and cat.
That’s bizarre. “Common sense should at the very least confine the answer to animals, and should also make the simple inference that, “if the clues say it is a cat, then types of cats are the only alternatives to be considered,” say Ohlsson and co.
All this pointed Ohlsson and co to a clear conclusion. “The ConceptNet system scored a WPPSI-III VIQ that is average for a four-year-old child, but below average for five- to seven-year-olds,” they say.
Physics arXiv:
Measuring an Artificial Intelligence System's Performance on a Verbal IQ Test For Young Children
Stellan Ohlsson, Robert H. Sloan, György Turán, Aaron Urasky
Monday brought upon us the release of the new Star Wars VII movie trailer, plus a vicious trending hashtag, #BoycottStarWarsVII. The tweets carrying this hashtag made claims that the Star Wars franchise was promoting “white genocide” because a large percent of the cast are people of color or ethnic minorities (Jewish), as well as working behind the scenes.
The tweets came with much controversy, but also gave much support to the movie, which is due to come out December 18. The tickets went on sale during the release of the trailer and some theaters have already sold out, much to the dismay of the boycotters.
To say that the statement of promoting white genocide is ridiculous is an understatement. With two of the protagonist of the new movies being minorities in science fiction, a strong Caucasian female character and an African-American male, there have been plenty of straight, white male nerds with their panties in a bunch. This prejudice attitude was also displayed leading to the 2015 Hugo awards, which happened earlier this year. In which Hugo fought back by having an African-American woman (Tananarive Due) and a gay, Caucasian male (David Gerrold) host the award show. The majority of fans rejoiced at this choice, but some still had their options.
In the age of racial tensions and homophobia, these comments are not a surprise. Some who were/are in power feel like their positions are being threatened—I get that. But we all have to make sure that the rights that our ancestors have fought for all over the globe stay intact, or are improved upon, so that we all can begin to live in harmony and prepare a better future for our descendants to come. This includes having images in the media, especially in sci-fi, of all people who inhabit this planet, not just one type of people.
The Blog Tour for Everlasting: Da Eb’Bulastin (Sa’Fyre Island Series Book 1) has stopped at Lngibson.com, and I am excited to interview fellow speculative fiction author, Rasheedah Prioleau.
The book, Everlasting: Da Eb’Bulastin, is a page-turner—filled with excellent prose and the trill of suspense and horror. The main setting is the Gullah Islands, which is an enigmatic character within itself. Prioleau spins an unforgettable story of suspense, secret family dynamics, vexing cultural obligations, and pure horror.
- What was your inspiration for writing Everlasting: Da Eb’Bulastin?
I always wanted to write a story that encompassed the Gullah culture. I’d just finished releasing my first novel, and quite frankly I was getting tired of talking about it. I wanted to do something new, and I knew that Halloween would be a great time to change the conversation a bit. American Specter, while fun and exciting was a bit tame. So wanted to get a tad grittier and take a risk doing something a bit darker.
- What has been the highlight of your career so far?
There are so many highlights it would be hard to pin one thing. But, the best part is meeting all types of people who have connected with my work. They continue to fuel the fire that pushes me to keep writing.
Stories are not rocket science. They are simple and all consist of the same basic principles. It may not be the easiest thing to write a story without pulling your hair (or weave) out, but the story itself is elementary. There are only three components typically found in mainstream literature and film: character, conflict, and desire.
Every good story portrays a likeable character, hero/heroine, who is up against overwhelming obstacles while they pursue the object of their desire. This desire could be a person, a state of being, to get to a place, or any other thing they may want. To achieve the protagonist’s goal, they must go through challenging obstacles to make the story compelling.
Plotting or creating a story structure determines what the sequence of events that leads the hero toward completing his goal. No matter the genre, all mainstream stories have the same structure elements. Using these basic elements will strengthen your story and hook your reader.
I have to begin by saying the word multiculturalism makes me uncomfortable, especially when what we’re talking about is inclusion of people in fiction who come from the same country. It does seem a little sad that in 2015 many in America still haven’t been able to get past skin color, sexual orientation, and racial ancestry, especially in terms of entertainment. I believe the generation coming next will have it a little bit better. But, for now we have to push for inclusion, and I do believe it is best to start with all forms of entertainment including books.
We are having a giveaway for a free paperback copy of Everlasting: Da Eb’Bulastin (Sa’Fyre Island Series Book 1) by Rasheedah Prioleau. To enter, click the link below. You must like the Facebook page, so that I know that you really visited. The giveaway starts October 20, 2015 and ends November 10, 2015. The giveaway... Continued...
Ok BSFS Netizens so you don't have to travel FAR to binge watch this new trailer
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| Calculating cat: Schrö makes her way through a quantum computer. (Courtesy: IQC) |
Topics: Computer Science, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics, Schrödinger's Cat
I'm a bit dubious about shortening the names of physicists to sell an app. It downloads easily enough; for cat lovers, it meows. It will likely occupy a lot of time for me offline, like I needed other distractions...
The Internet loves cats and our readers love quantum mechanics so a new mobile app called Quantum Cats just has to be the lead item in this week’s Red Folder. Created by physicists at the Institute for Quantum Computing and researchers at the University of Waterloo Games Institute, the app immerses the user in the adventures of four cats: Classy, who obeys classical physics; Digger, who is a master of quantum tunnelling; Schrö, (above) who is a superposition of quantum states; and Fuzzy, who embodies the uncertainty principle. It’s available on Google Play and the App Store, so have a go and tell us what you think.
Physics World:
Hamish Johnston
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| Image Source: Discovery News (link below) |
Topics: Astrophysics, Dyson Sphere, Exoplanets, Kardashev Scale, Kepler Telescope, SETI
There's kind of a rush when you read articles like this, at least initially. Then, you start asking yourself critical thinking questions to "peel away the onion" so to speak. In essence, they've seen some fluctuations in luminosity from a star the Kepler Telescope is observing 1,500 light years away (not exactly across the street). Also humbling we, as the human species on Earth circa 515 CE were essentially savages; beneath any potential advanced aliens' notice.
To quote the Discovery article:
"Follow-up studies focus on two interesting transit events at KIC 8462852, one that was detected between days 788 and 795 of the Kepler mission and between days 1510 to 1570. The researchers have tagged these events as D800 and D1500 respectively. The D800 event appears to have been a single transit causing a star brightness drop-off of 15 percent, whereas D1500 was a burst of several transits, possibly indicating a clump of different objects, forcing a brightness dip of up to 22 percent. To cause such dips in brightness, these transiting objects must be huge.
"The researchers worked through every known possibility, but each solution presented a new problem. For example, they investigated the possibility of some kind of circumstellar disk of dust. However, after looking for the infrared signal associated with these disks, no such signal could be seen. Also, the star is a mature F-type star, approximately 1.5 times the size of our sun. Circumstellar disks are usually found around young stars.
"The researchers also investigate the possibility of a huge planetary collision; could the debris from this smashup be creating this strange signal? The likelihood of us seeing a planetary collision is extremely low. There is no evidence in data taken by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) that a collision happened, creating a very tiny window of opportunity between WISE’s mission end and the beginning of Kepler’s mission (of a few years) for an astronomically unlikely cosmic event like this to occur.
"The only natural explanation favored by the researchers seems to focus on an intervening clump of exocomets."
All of that is fairly reasonable. If you explore the many links in the article, you'll get to the actual Physics arXiv paper in one of its conclusions states "the break-up of a exocomet provides the most compelling explanation."
Then...well, here you go:
"This research paper focuses only on natural and known possible causes of the mystery transit events around KIC 8462852. A second paper is currently being drafted to investigate a completely different transit scenario that focuses around the possibility of a mega-engineering project created by an advanced alien civilization.
"This may sound like science fiction, but our galaxy has existed for over 13 billion years, it’s not such a stretch of the imagination to think that an alien civilization may be out there and evolved to the point where they can build megastructures around stars."
From The Atlantic: Jason Wright, an astronomer from Penn State University, is set to publish an alternative interpretation of the light pattern. SETI researchers have long suggested that we might be able to detect distant extraterrestrial civilizations, by looking for enormous technological artifacts orbiting other stars. Wright and his co-authors say the unusual star’s light pattern is consistent with a “swarm of megastructures,” perhaps stellar-light collectors, technology designed to catch energy from the star.
“When [Boyajian] showed me the data, I was fascinated by how crazy it looked,” Wright told me. “Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider, but this looked like something you would expect an alien civilization to build.”
The only mega - or very large - structure I can think of is a Dyson Sphere, postulated by Freeman Dyson in 1960 (now infamous for other things). An extremely old and advanced extraterrestrial civilization - a Type III on the Kardashev Scale (well beyond Kirk and Picard) could conceivably build a series of solar collectors around their own host star (or, in the case of the link I provide from earlier this year, a white dwarf star). Such a civilization should be well beyond our current geopolitical morass, fossil fuel addiction, tribalism and xenophobia of each other. Or, maybe not. We only assume functional alien societies are too advanced to be autocratic and authoritarian; that democratic republics are the natural order of things, when in our civilized time span, it's only a recent political invention. I hope our assumptions are correct, of course and more importantly: that we're not tasty.
Star Trek kind of had their own "rule" to answer the question posited by the Fermi Paradox ("where are they?") by the Prime Directive, meaning that no space faring warp-capable species would dare interfere with the development of a pre-warp society. This absurdly presumes faux aliens as rude as the Klingons and Romulans were both "down" with this as well. It was a Roddenberry stretch, but it's held the franchise together.
The reality might be, looking at some of our television transmissions - the now blurred lines of politics and reality TV; Internet postings and carbon signature writ/planet large, they might still find us primitive, boring...and terrifying. Waiting for the second paper...
Discovery News: Has NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovered an Alien Megastructure?
Dr. Ian O'Neill
Topics: Entropy, Information, James C. Maxwell, Mark G. Raizen, Thermodynamics
Thought experiments that long puzzled the thermodynamics community are now being performed in the lab—and they’re forging a deeper understanding of the second law.
Almost 25 years ago, Rolf Landauer argued in the pages of this magazine that information is physical (see Physics Today, May 1991, page 23). It is stored in physical systems such as books and memory sticks, transmitted by physical means—for instance, via electrical or optical signals—and processed in physical devices. Therefore, he concluded, it must obey the laws of physics, in particular the laws of thermodynamics.
But what is information? A simple, intuitive answer is “what you don’t already know.” If someone tells you that Earth is spherical, you surely would not learn much; the message has low information content. However, if you are told that the price of oil will double tomorrow, then, assuming that to be true, you would learn a great deal; the message has high information content.
Mathematically, a system’s information content can be quantified by the so-called information entropy H, introduced by Claude Shannon in 1948. The larger the information entropy, the greater the information content.1 Consider the simplest possible information-storage device: a system with two distinct states—for example, up and down, left and right, or magnetized and unmagnetized. If the system is known with certainty to be in a particular state, then no new information can be gained by probing the system, and the information entropy is zero.
Figure 3. Bringing Maxwell’s demon to life. A pair of laser beams can be tuned to atomic transitions and configured to create a one-way potential barrier; atoms may cross unimpeded in one direction—right to left in this figure—but not in the other. (a) When the barrier is introduced at the periphery of a V-shaped magnetic trap, the atoms that cross the barrier will be those that have converted nearly all their kinetic energy to potential energy—in other words, the cold ones. (b–c) By slowly sweeping the barrier across the trap, one can sort cold atoms (blue) from hot ones (red), reminiscent of James Clerk Maxwell’s famous thought experiment, or cool an entire atomic ensemble. Because the cold atoms do work against the optical barrier as it moves, their kinetic energy remains small even as they return to the deep portion of the potential well. (Adapted from ref. 8 , M. G. Raizen.)
Citation: Phys. Today 68, 9, 30 (2015); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.2912
However, owing to remarkable technological progress achieved in recent decades, experiments with atoms and small particles have now become feasible. Maxwell’s demon, Szilard’s engine, and Landauer’s erasure principle can now be rigorously studied in lab experiments.
One of the first such experiments was performed by Mark Raizen and coworkers at the University of Texas at Austin. 8 They confined an ensemble of atoms in a magnetic trap, as shown schematically in figure 3. Initially, all the atoms are in the same internal state. The group then introduced a one-way optical barrier, composed of two laser beams arranged side by side: One beam promotes atoms to an excited state, and the other is tuned such that it has no effect on excited atoms but repels atoms in the ground state. An atom (red) approaching from the excitation-beam side gets promoted to an excited state, passes unimpeded through the second beam, and then relaxes to the ground state by emitting a photon. An atom approaching from the other side, by contrast, encounters the repelling beam first and is turned around—it can’t get through. The two beams behave as an atom diode.
Physics Today: Information: From Maxwell’s demon to Landauer’s eraser
Eric Lutz and Sergio Ciliberto
8. G. N. Price et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 093004 (2008); http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.093004
M. G. Raizen, Science 324, 1403 (2009). http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1171506
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| Image Source: Joint Quantum Institute |
Topics: Quantum Computer, Quantum Dots, Quantum Mechanics, Semiconductor Technology
The first quantum-logic device made from silicon has been unveiled by researchers in Australia and Japan. Their controlled-not (CNOT) gate, which is a fundamental component of a quantum computer, was made using conventional semiconductor manufacturing processes. The researchers now plan to scale up the technology to create a full-scale quantum-computer chip.
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| Spin doctors: Menno Veldhorst (left) and Andrew Dzurak with the equipment used to cool and monitor their CNOT gate. |
Quantum computers exploit the weird laws of quantum mechanics to perform some calculations much faster than conventional computers – at least in principle. The main challenge facing physicists trying to build quantum computers is how to preserve fragile quantum bits (qubits) of information, which tend to deteriorate rapidly in real-world devices.
One approach is to use the spin of the electron – which can point up or down – as a qubit. Spin qubits have been made from tiny pieces of semiconductor called quantum dots, and quantum-logic devices have been made by coupling these qubits together. Unfortunately, the spin states in these devices rapidly deteriorate – or "decohere" – by interacting with nuclear spins in the compound-semiconductor materials normally used to make quantum dots.
Physics World: Silicon quantum logic gate is a first, Hamish Johnston
Get to know Shanice Williams from Rahway, New Jersey, and find out how she got the starring role of Dorothy in The Wiz Live!, coming to NBC Thursday, December 3.
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| Image Source: NASA.gov and [1] |
Topics: Exoplanets, Mars, NASA, Space Exploration, Spaceflight
"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds -
and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of -..."
John Gillespie Magee, "High Flight"
NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s – goals outlined in the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and in the U.S. National Space Policy, also issued in 2010.
Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and robotic and human exploration as we expand our presence into the solar system. Its formation and evolution are comparable to Earth, helping us learn more about our own planet’s history and future. Mars had conditions suitable for life in its past. Future exploration could uncover evidence of life, answering one of the fundamental mysteries of the cosmos: Does life exist beyond Earth?
While robotic explorers have studied Mars for more than 40 years, NASA’s path for the human exploration of Mars begins in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station. Astronauts on the orbiting laboratory are helping us prove many of the technologies and communications systems needed for human missions to deep space, including Mars. The space station also advances our understanding of how the body changes in space and how to protect astronaut health. [1]
Building on the success of Curiosity's landing, NASA announced plans for a new robotic science rover set to launch in 2020. This announcement affirms the agency's commitment to a bold exploration program that meets our nation's scientific and human exploration objectives.
The proposed 2020 rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Designed to advance high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, the mission would address key questions about the potential for life on Mars. The mission would also provide opportunities to gather knowledge and demonstrate technologies that address the challenges of future human expeditions to Mars. [2]
In the not-too-distant future, astronauts destined to be the first people to walk on Mars will leave Earth aboard an Orion spacecraft. Carried aloft by the tremendous power of a Space Launch System rocket, our explorers will begin their Journey to Mars from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the spirit of humanity with them to the Red Planet.
The first future human mission to Mars and those that follow will require the ingenuity and dedication of an entire generation. It's a journey worth the risks. We take the next step on that journey this Thursday, Dec. 4, with the uncrewed, first flight test of Orion. [3]
Eventually, humans will most likely journey to Mars. Getting astronauts to the Martian surface and returning them safely to Earth, however, is an extremely difficult engineering challenge. A thorough understanding of the Martian environment is critical to the safe operation of equipment and to human health, so the Mars Exploration Program will begin to look at these challenges in the coming decade. [4]
1. NASA's Journey to Mars
2. 2020 Mission Plans
3. NASA's Orion Flight Test and the Journey to Mars
4. Goal 4: Prepare for the Human Exploration of Mars
5. Smithsonian: Here's how NASA Wants to get to Mars
If you are in the Los Angeles area during the HALLOWEEN Weekend (Oct. 30 - Nov. 1, 2015) check out our booth in Artist Alley #SAA26. For more info go to Comikaze.com
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| Image Source: Space.com - What is a wormhole? |
Topics: Astrophysics, Cosmology, General Relativity, Quantum Cosmology, Wormholes
Abstract
In this work, we analyse static spherically symmetric solutions in the framework of mimetic gravity, an extension of general relativity where the conformal degree of freedom of gravity is isolated in a covariant fashion. Here we extend previous works by considering in addition a potential for the mimetic field. An appropriate choice of such potential allows for the reconstruction of a number of interesting cosmological and astrophysical scenarios. We explicitly show how to reconstruct such a potential for a general static spherically symmetric space-time. A number of applications and scenarios are then explored, among which traversable wormholes. Finally, we analytically reconstruct potentials which leads to solutions to the equations of motion featuring polynomial corrections to the Schwarzschild spacetime. Accurate choices for such corrections could provide an explanation for the inferred flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies within the mimetic gravity framework, without the need for particle dark matter.
Physics arXiv:
Static spherically symmetric solutions in mimetic gravity: rotation curves & wormholes
Ratbay Myrzakulov, Lorenzo Sebastiani, Sunny Vagnozzi, Sergio Zerbini
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| Image Source: Scientific American, ©iStock.com |
Topics: ABC Conjecture, Mathematical Models, Mathematics, STEM
You think MY posts are sometimes long... We'll see if time and peer review prove Dr. Mochizuki right.
Sometime on the morning of August 30 2012, Shinichi Mochizuki quietly posted four papers on his website.
The papers were huge—more than 500 pages in all—packed densely with symbols, and the culmination of more than a decade of solitary work. They also had the potential to be an academic bombshell. In them, Mochizuki claimed to have solved the abc conjecture, a 27-year-old problem in number theory that no other mathematician had even come close to solving. If his proof was correct, it would be one of the most astounding achievements of mathematics this century and would completely revolutionize the study of equations with whole numbers.
Mochizuki, however, did not make a fuss about his proof. The respected mathematician, who works at Kyoto University's Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences (RIMS) in Japan, did not even announce his work to peers around the world. He simply posted the papers, and waited for the world to find out.
Probably the first person to notice the papers was Akio Tamagawa, a colleague of Mochizuki's at RIMS. He, like other researchers, knew that Mochizuki had been working on the conjecture for years and had been finalizing his work. That same day, Tamagawa e-mailed the news to one of his collaborators, number theorist Ivan Fesenko of the University of Nottingham, UK. Fesenko immediately downloaded the papers and started to read. But he soon became “bewildered”, he says. “It was impossible to understand them.”
Scientific American: Math Mystery: Shinichi Mochizuki and the Impenetrable Proof
Davide Castelvecchi and Nature magazine
The saga is complete.
The most original plot in AfroFuturism, contemporary and classic science fiction has come to its conclusion, with the forces of Earth pitted against several thousand of the most technologically advanced humans, African American humans, in the history of the world.
Discovery begins the tale with several seemingly unrelated mysteries and ends with a discovery that changes Earth forever.
Conception reveals the backstory of the discovery in the first volume, introducing the extraordinary people behind man's greatest technological achievements and the motivations behind their historic effort.
Confrontation chronicles the lengths a desperate Earth goes to in an effort to beg, borrow or steal the treasures of a community that has little need for the people they left behind, and brings the epic tale to its unexpected climax.
This is a one-word prompt
Elevator
“Penthouse,”
The operator nodded then stepped aside, away from the doors. Allowing the passengers more room to settle themselves.
The operator inhaled deeply pressed the key on the control panel and began to recite the Lord’s Prayer in his head.
While the car moves up the grand hotel, a spectacular sight of the city came into view.
The passengers cooed in awe. The operator pressed himself in the corner, his hands gripped the bars attached to the glass wall.
The ping heralded the penthouse. The doors quietly open the couple exit without a thank you, never realizing the operator’s courage.
