^{Monthly Archive}April 2022

Backgrounds 3D illustration Alien planet Sci-fi Game

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 16, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Biology

Tagged
Dirk Schulze-Makuch, exobiology, Extraterrestrial life}

Would Advanced Aliens Be Fully Mechanical? Or Like Octopuses?

_{Astrobiologist Dirk Schultze-Makuch muses on the possibilities} _{News

April 16, 2022

2

Arts & Culture, Biology}

Musing on a recent open-access study at PNAS, astrophysicist Dirk Schulze-Makuch notes at BigThink a couple of things that separate really smart life forms from the others. One of them, he guesses, is bilateral symmetry (life forms whose left and right sides are mirror images): “symmetry requires less information for DNA to encode and allows more flexibility to develop future traits that may be advantageous.” He also notes that smart life forms tend to be mobile rather than stationary: “We don’t know of any intelligent plants or fungi, for the simple reason that stationary things don’t have to be smart.” Well, wait. It’s not so much that stationary life forms don’t have to be smart as… what good would it Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 16, 2022

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness (Penrose and Peterson), Jordan Peterson (on consciousness), Roger Penrose (on consciousness)}

The Physics of Consciousness: There IS Such a Thing?

_{There are no really good theories of consciousness but some physicists, including Roger Penrose, make a good stab at it. Jordan Peterson listens} _{News

April 16, 2022

2

Philosophy of Mind}

Yes. Jordan Peterson talks to Roger Penrose about that: Dr. Peterson recently traveled to the UK for a series of lectures at the highly esteemed Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This conversation was recorded during that period with Sir Roger Penrose, a British mathematical physicist who was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for “discovering that black hole formation is a robust predictor of Einstein’s general relativity.” Moderated by Dr. Stephen Blackwood. ___________ Chapters ___________ [0:00] Intro [1:00] Is Consciousness Computational? [3:20] Turing Machines [6:30] Determinism & the Arrow of Time [12:15] Consciousness & Reductionism [17:30] Emergent Randomness & Evolution [23:00] The Tiling Problem, Computation, & AI [29:30] Escher, Brains, Bach [39:00] Pattern Recognition & Intuition [45:30] Mathematical Representations Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
April 16, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Firefly (Episode 11), Jayne Cobb (character in Firefly), Malcolm Reynolds (character in Firefly), Saffron (character in Firefly), Science fiction}

Sci Fi Saturday: The Vixen! She’s Back! Firefly TV Heats Up

_{So why is Captain Mal sitting naked in a desert? We get to hear the story leading up to that} _{Gary Varner

April 16, 2022

10

Arts & Culture}

The opening scene features Captain Mal sitting naked in a desert. A caption advises us that we must go back to seventy-two hours earlier to understand how that happened. Mal, you see, meets an old buddy and shares hugs and swapS banter until the buddy informs him that he is married. Mal is excited to hear this wonderful news until he sees a familiar face — Saffron, the vixen who’d tricked him into believing she was his bride in a previous episode. She is now hitched to Mal’s pal; so imagine the poor sap’s shock when the Saffron and Mal draw guns on one another. After a brief squabble, the swindled husband leaves Saffron in Mal’s angry hands. To save Read More ›

Security worker during monitoring. Video surveillance system.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 15, 2022

Categorized
Computer Security

Tagged
David Kruger (on data vs information), Hackers, Software makers (security lapses)}

The Cybercriminal Isn’t Necessarily Who You Think…

_{Chances are, the “human data collector” is just someone who works for a company that makes money collecting data about you} _{News

April 15, 2022

7

Computer Security}

Veteran software developer David A. Kruger offered some thoughts on computer security recently at Expensivity and we appreciate the opportunity to republish them here as a series. Yesterday’s discussion focused on ruining cybercriminals’ lives by making their businesses unprofitable. And now, let’s look at who the cybercriminal typically is… it’s more complicated than his iconic hoodie. And it’s way worse too. Close Encounters of the Third Kind We have been taught to think of cyberattackers as being one of two kinds, criminal cyberattackers who gain control of others’ data to make money, or military/terroristic cyberattackers who gain control of others’ data to project military or political power. There is a third kind: Software makers who systematically destroy privacy, so they can gain control Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 15, 2022

Categorized
Media

Tagged
China, China (racism), Disney, Robert Carle}

How China Controls Hollywood — and Your Mind?

_{That is, if you pay any attention to Hollywood’s products} _{News

April 15, 2022

2

Media}

King’s College prof Robert Carle offers some thought about China and Hollywood at MercatorNet. On an elaborate apology tour (his words) Disney boasted that few people had seen its Kundun film. Good business strategy? Hey, it gets worse: By the turn of the century, Hollywood directors and producers had learned not to broach subjects (Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tiananmen) that offend the Communist Chinese. They had also standardised a lobbying process to get China’s approval for its films. Early in the movie’s life cycle, international distributors meet with Chinese film bureau officials. American studios have to satisfy layers of Chinese bureaucrats before a movie hits the market. Schwartzel recounts dozens of stories of how American films have been edited Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 14, 2022

Categorized
Education, Mathematics

Tagged
Durham University, Jonathan Turley}

No, Civilization Has NOT Won the War on Math. Not Yet Anyway…

_{The war on math is now coming down to the race — not the ideas — of mathematicians} _{News

April 14, 2022

2

Education, Mathematics}

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley muses on the latest assault on math teaching in schools: We previously discussed the view of University of Rhode Island and Director of Graduate Studies of History Erik Loomis that “Science, statistics, and technology are all inherently racist.” Others have agreed with that view, including denouncing math as racist or a “tool of whiteness.” Now, as part of its “decolonization” efforts, Durham University is calling on professors in the math department to ask themselves if they’re citing work from “mostly white or male” mathematicians. According to the Telegraph and The College Fix a guide instructs faculty that “decolonising the mathematical curriculum means considering the cultural origins of the mathematical concepts, focusses, and notation we most commonly use.” It adds: “[T]he question of whether we have allowed Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 13, 2022

Categorized
Computer Security

Tagged
David Kruger, Software developers (neglecting security), Symptomatic point solution fallacy}

Computer Safety Expert: Start Helping Ruin Cybercriminals’ Lives

_{Okay, their businesses. Unfortunately, part of the problem is the design of programs, written with the best of intentions…} _{News

April 13, 2022

8

Computer Security}

Veteran software developer David A. Kruger offered some thoughts on computer security recently at Expensivity and we appreciate the opportunity to republish them here as a series. Yesterday’s discussion focused on agile software development. Today’s discussion looks at making life somewhat less comfortable for the guy who wants to steal your credit card number. Ruining the Economics of Cyberattack Would fully implementing controllable data and full scope authentication prevent every cybersecurity failure? Of course not. There are scenarios, particularly those aided by human gullibility, ineptitude, and negligence, where cybersecurity can and will continue to fail. However, cyberattacks are carried out by human beings for the purpose of acquiring money and/or exercising power, and there is a cost/benefit analysis behind every attack. Controllable Read More ›

Beautiful autumn tree with mushrooms and moss in forest

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 13, 2022

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Fungi (communications)}

Not Just Plants — Even Fungi Like Mushrooms — Talk To Each Other?

_{They are NOT judging us but they do have complex communications systems interacting with their environment} _{Denyse O'Leary

April 13, 2022

4

Natural Intelligence}

The patterns that fungi like mushrooms use to communicate are said to be “strikingly similar” to those of human speech. But how?: Fungi send electrical signals to one another through hyphae—long, filamentous tendrils that the organisms use to grow and explore. The Guardian reports that previous research shows that the number of electrical impulses traveling through hyphae, sometimes likened to neurons, increases when fungi encounter new sources of food, and that this suggests it’s possible that fungi use this “language” to let each other know about new food sources or injury. Natalia Mesa, “Can Mushrooms “Talk” to Each Other?” at The Scientist (April 6, 2022) The paper is open access. That would make fungi, one of the kingdoms of life, Read More ›

matching keys made of circuits & led lights, encryption & crypto

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 13, 2022

Categorized
Computer Security, Mathematics

Tagged
Computer hacking, Cryptography, Erica Klarreich, Kolmogorov complexity}

New Clue in the Problem That Haunts All Cryptography?

_{A string that has no description shorter than itself is a good bet for cryptography. If the hacker doesn’t know it, he can’t use shortcuts to guess it.} _{News

April 13, 2022

4

Computer Security, Mathematics}

A central problem in all computer security (branch of cryptography) is the one-way problem. Cryptography should function as a one-way street: You can go north but you can’t go south. So if a hacker doesn’t have the code to go north, he can’t go anywhere. Which is where the computer security expert would like to leave the hacker… Is there such a thing as a one-way function in mathematics? Mathematician Erica Klarreich says, probably yes, and explains what it looks like: To get a feel for how one-way functions work, imagine someone asked you to multiply two large prime numbers, say 6,547 and 7,079. Arriving at the answer of 46,346,213 might take some work, but it is eminently doable. However, Read More ›

Math Equations of Artificial intelligence AI deep learning computer program technology - illustration rendering

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 12, 2022

Categorized
Information Theory, Mathematics

Tagged
Eric Holloway (on information and mass), Factorials, Information (as having mass), Melvin Vopson, Rob Sheldon, Rob Sheldon (on information as having mass)}

Does Information Have Mass? An Experimental Physicist Weighs In

_{Physicist Melvin Vopson argues that information has mass; Eric Holloway replies that, if so, it must come from outside the universe. Meanwhile…} _{News

April 12, 2022

4

Information Theory, Mathematics}

It’s generally held that information does not have mass. However, physicist Melvin Vopson, reflecting on the work of Rolf Landauer (1927–1999), offers a somewhat alarming view: Not only does information have mass but that — at the rate we humans output it now — its energy will outweigh Earth. Yesterday, Eric Holloway offered a response to that claim: Let’s accept that creation of information can indeed increase the amount of energy and mass in a system. But, according to the conservation of energy, the energy in a closed system remains constant. So, if Vopson is correct we now have a mystery because his theory is in tension with the conservation of energy. The only solution is that the system is Read More ›

Computer code on a screen with a skull representing a computer virus / malware attack.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 12, 2022

Categorized
Computer Security

Tagged
Agile software, Computer security (costs), David Kruger}

The Sweet Science of Agile Software Development

_{Effective security, as opposed to partial security, increases costs in the short run but decreases them in the long run} _{News

April 12, 2022

7

Computer Security}

Veteran software developer David A. Kruger offered some thoughts on computer security recently at Expensivity and we appreciate the opportunity to republish them here as a series. Yesterday’s discussion focused on putting a lid on risks. Today’s discussion looks at the sweet science of agile software development — proactive, not reactive responses. Agile Software Development, Known Art, and Updates to the Rescue The “get out of it one piece of software and data at a time” requirement seems daunting, if not impossible, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds due to agile software development, the availability of “known art,” and the speed at which large-scale software changes propagate via the Internet. A key attribute of agile software development is frequently Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
April 12, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Environment, Social Media

Tagged
Climate change, Climate Disinformation Coalition, Conscious Advertising Network, Dr. William Happer, environmental science, Free speech, Global Center for Climate Justice, Pinterest}

Pinterest Bans Climate Change “Misinformation”

_{Pinterest might be the first company to implement such a strict ban, but what if it's not the last?} _{Caitlin Cory

April 12, 2022

6

Censorship, Environment, Social Media}

Last week, Pinterest banned climate change misinformation from its platform, becoming the first major social media company to do so outright. The policy raises free speech concerns. Since not all scientists agree on the nature of climate change, what causes it, and what the solutions are, how is the issue to be discussed if alternate points of view are banned from public platforms? Pinterest is an image-sharing social media site, where users share ideas that they can “pin” to their own boards on everything from recipes to interior design to fashion. On April 6, Pinterest announced their new climate misinformation policy, aimed at “remov[ing] content that may harm the public’s well-being, safety or trust.” As of the policy announcement, any Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
April 11, 2022

Categorized
Information Theory

Tagged
Featured, Information (as having mass), Landauer's Principle, Melvin Vopson}

Does Information Weigh Something After All? What If It Does?

_{At the rate we create information today, one physicist computes that in 350 years, the energy will outweigh the atoms of Earth} _{Eric Holloway

April 11, 2022

4

Information Theory}

In the 1960s, IBM researcher Rolf Landauer (1927–1999) observed that if the logical information in a computational system decreased, then the physical entropy in the system must increase (Landauer’s Principle). This conclusion follows from the principle that the entropy in a closed system can never decrease. A decrease in the logical information corresponds to a decrease in entropy. And factoring in the principle that the entropy cannot actually decrease, the physical system itself must increase in entropy when the information decreases. This increase in entropy will result in the emission of heat, and a reduction of energy in the system. Now Melvin Vopson, a physicist at the University of Portsmouth, has taken Landauer’s principle to the next logical step. He Read More ›

Gas cylinders used welding Industrial in factory

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 11, 2022

Categorized
Computer Security

Tagged
Authentication controls for data, Cyberattackers (as scapegoat for lapses), Data control (standards), Data security (methods), David Kruger, Encryption (and control of data), Featured}

Cybersecurity: Put a Lid on the Risks. We Already Own the Lid

_{Security specialist David Kruger says, data must be contained when it is in storage and transit and controlled when it is in use} _{News

April 11, 2022

11

Computer Security}

Veteran software developer David A. Kruger offered some thoughts on computer security recently at Expensivity and we appreciate the opportunity to republish them here as a series. Last week’s discussion focused on the ingredients that cybersecurity needs to work. Today, the focus is on putting a lid on risks. Put a Lid on It Fortunately, we have at our disposal untold millions of man hours of safety engineering focused on safely extracting benefits from the use of hazardous things. For example, our homes and the highways we travel on are chock full of beneficial things that can easily kill us, such as high voltage electricity, flammable/explosive natural gas, and tanker trucks filled with flammable or toxic chemicals driving right next Read More ›

Woman fist with woke written. Woke concept refers to awareness of social and racial justice, concern, vigilance, activism.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 10, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy, Relationships, Religion

Tagged
Abortion (Catholic perspective), Abortion (Hindu perspective), Arjuna Gallagher, Cancel culture, Euthanasia (Catholic perspective), Euthanasia (Hindu perspective), Featured, Hinduism (approaches to social issues), Howard Resnick (on abortion), Jonathan Haidt, Michael Egnor, Microaggressions, Tulsi Gabbard (on abortion), Woke culture}

A Catholic and a Hindu Tackle Woke culture

_{In a wide-ranging discussion, Michael Egnor and Arjuna Gallagher look at Woke culture, abortion, euthanasia, and microaggressions} _{News

April 10, 2022

22

Ethics, Philosophy, Relationships, Religion}

In a recent series of Mind Matters News, podcasts, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed Arjuna Gallagher, a Hindu who lives in New Zealand. The first podcast looked at what the world’s 1.2 billion Hindus generally think about the mind and the second explored the Hindu view of free will and evil. The third podcast addressed the question, “What do Hindus think about the Big Bang?” Now, the fourth and final podcast asks, what do Hindus think of current science and culture issues, especially the flowering of Woke Cancel Culture, abortion, and euthanasia? Gallagher hosts a YouTube channel called Theology Unleashed, which has featured many guests discussing the spiritual dimension of our lives — for example, philosopher David Bentley Hart and neuroscientist Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 9, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Biology, Physics

Tagged
Conformal cyclic cosmology, Dark energy, David Deutsch, Fred Hoyle (sentient gases), Freeman Dyson (sentient gases), Heat death of the universe, John Horgan (on heat death of the universe), Marcus Chown, Paul Sutter (on wormholes), Quantum teleportation, Roger Penrose (on conformal cyclic cosmology), Science fiction (and science fact), Teleportation (constraints)}

Can We Teleport? Find a Wormhole? Survive the Universe’s Death?

_{Many ideas, once thought science fiction, have become science fact. How will these ones fare?} _{News

April 9, 2022

6

Arts & Culture, Biology, Physics}

If anyone thinks that, by definition, none of this stuff could possibly happen, it’s worth remembering that many people would have said that decades ago about invisibility or the bionic hand. But here we are. Some things are impossible in principle, some in practice. In other cases, all we can do is see where we are in relation to the problem. Could humans be teleported to Mars? With teleportation, as in Star Trek, geologists could get from Houston to Mars to pick up some rocks injust minutes. Science writer Marcus Chown tells us that one reason the feat was considered impossible in the recent past was the inability to be certain of every atom in a human body, due to Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
April 9, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Relationships

Tagged
Adelai Niska (character in Firefly), Featured, Firefly (cancellation), Firefly (Episode 10), Firefly (Episode 9), Malcolm Reynolds (character in Firefly), River Tam (character in Firefly), Serenity (film), Simon Tam (character in Firefly), Wash (character in Firefly), Zoe (character in Firefly)}

Firefly Episode 10: Jealousy Divides the Firefly Crew in Space

_{And yet jealousy plays a key role in saving Mal and Wash from a villain’s sadistic torture} _{Gary Varner

April 9, 2022

11

Arts & Culture, Relationships}

Episode 9 marks a turning point for the series. The previous episodes have been somewhat hit and miss but so far, there’s only been one outright bad episode (Episode 5, which broke all the “rules” of consistent character). However, at best thus far, the series has been very… episodic. That is, a handful of the characters recurs but the events from the preceding episodes seem to have no effect on the upcoming ones. But with Episode 9, that changes. The transition from Episode 9 to 10 starts off on a promising note. We see the events of Episode 9 actually affecting the events of Episode 10. This is a trend that continues as the story builds to a crescendo. That Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 9, 2022

Categorized
Biology, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Associative learning (in plants), Habituation (in plants), Heliotropism, Memory (in plants), Mimosa pudica, Peter Rogers, Plants (communication), Plants (consciousness issue), Plants (memory), Venus Flytrap, Vernalization}

How Plants Talk When We’re Not Around

_{Some aspects of plant behavior can be studied in the same terms as animal or human behavior} _{Denyse O'Leary

April 9, 2022

6

Biology, Natural Intelligence}

One genuine surprise in recent decades has been the discovery that plants have nervous systems like animals and use some of the same compounds in communications — for example, TMAO to relieve stress and glutamate to speed transmission. Biologist Peter Rogers pointed out recently that the similarities may shed a bit of light on issues around anaesthesia. Surprisingly, it is possible to anesthetize a plant. The shameplant (Mimosa pudica) and the Venus flytrap demonstrated that: Thirty years after anesthesia debuted in the operating room, Claude Bernard, a French physiologist, demonstrated that the shameplant (Mimosa pudica), which bashfully folds into itself when touched, was unresponsive to touch after exposure to ether, a commonly used anesthetic. The plant also folds into itself Read More ›