Monday, November 10, 2003

Atomic Bombing: How to Protect Yourself (1950) "18. THE HYDROGEN BOMB -- CAN IT BE MADE? A thousand times or more powerful than the A-bomb is the H-bomb, the hydrogen or fusion bomb. If it can be made, you can just go through this book multiplying by 1,000, or 100, or 10 most of the effects discussed to make them apply to the H or superbomb. The major question about the hydrogen bomb is: Can it be made and will it explode as expected? You may be confident that the hydrogen bomb is in about the same state that the uranium bomb was about 1943 or 1944, a year or two before the first atomic explosion." via [s*T*a*R*e] Duck! And Cover! permanent link #     ^ TOP ^  what is this place?

The Matrix as Metaphysics - Brains in Vats Brains in Vats The Matrix presents a version of an old philosophical fable: the brain in a vat. A disembodied brain is floating in a vat, inside a scientist's laboratory. The scientist has arranged that the brain will be stimulated with the same sort of inputs that a normal embodied brain receives. To do this, the brain is connected to a giant computer simulation of a world. The simulation determines which inputs the brain receives. When the brain produces outputs, these are fed back into the simulation. The internal state of the brain is just like that of a normal brain, despite the fact that it lacks a body. From the brain's point of view, things seem very much as they seem to you and me. [snip] ... it has seemed quite obvious to me that brains in vats would have massively false beliefs. But I now think there is a line of reasoning that shows that this is wrong. via [Pickover] I haven't yet seen the third, so I don't know how this may play out in the movie. Then: Informative interpretive links: http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/new_phil_fr_intro.html Overview and many articles http://www.mythologicalmovieclub.org/reviews/matrix.html Jungian interpretation http://www.shavenwookie.com/rimrun/oct99.html Joseph Campbell, Heroism permanent link #     ^ TOP ^  what is this place?

Animated Engines "I have loved mechanical things since I was a kid. Engines in particular have always intrigued me. All my life I've pored over books, studying cutaway diagrams, hungry to understand how things worked. These pages are an attempt to share that magic." via [Pickover] The actual simple animated gifs are more than 3 times the size of this thumbnail, and run about 200k each. permanent link #     ^ TOP ^  what is this place?