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True Facts About the Mantis Shrimp
“That’s some Mortal Combat finishing move shit right there.” Why did I post this? Because it’s funny and it looks like an alien I guess. Enjoy.
69 Reasons not to Send a Message to Space
The Jamesburg Earth Station, a communications dish just outside Carmel, California, is currently pointing into space. Unlike most such dishes, it isn’t passive:
Instead of listening for ET, like SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), or waiting for ET, like the wonderfully humorous WETI (Wait For Extraterrestrial Intelligence – success to-date is 100%, they note) the METI movement is proactively messaging the universe.
David Brin isn’t so sure this is a good idea:
Let there be no mistake. METI is a very different thing than passively sifting for signals from the outer space. Carl Sagan, one of the greatest SETI supporters and a deep believer in the notion of altruistic alien civilizations, called such a move deeply unwise and immature. (Even Frank Drake, who famously sent the “Arecibo Message” toward the Andromeda Galaxy in 1974, considered “Active Seti to be, at best, a stunt and generally a waste of time.) Sagan — along with early SETI pioneer Philip Morrison — recommended that the newest children in a strange and uncertain cosmos should listen quietly for a long time, patiently learning about the universe and comparing notes, before shouting into an unknown jungle that we do not understand.
The body of science fiction works seems to support Mr. Brin’s view. A blank search of the WWEnd database’s “alien invasion” subgenre tag (through Booktrackr) netted 69 books. Here’s just a few:
Around the World in 30 Gigs
Project Loon sounds like the premise of a science fiction novel, but it’s already being tested:
Google ran its first public test last weekend, in New Zealand, sending 30 balloons into the sky and offering 60 lucky volunteers 15 minutes of balloon-based Internet access. Smaller, private tests were conducted in California and possibly elsewhere.
The company says that “over time” it intends to set up similar pilots in countries with the same latitude as New Zealand (40th parallel south). It hasn’t provided any timeline for these pilots.
And to think, until now, I only envied those Google Fiber towns…
Judgment Day is slightly less nigh.
Once again, the social value of science fiction has proven helpful in the real world:
A few weeks ago, the United Nations affirmed Isaac Asimov‘s First Law of Robotics: “A robot may not injure a human being.” Christof Heyns, the U.N. special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, said as much in a May 29 speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva calling for a moratorium on the development of lethal robots. His argument followed two thoughtful paths, expressing concern that they cannot be as discriminating in their judgments as humans and that their very existence might make war too easy to contemplate. As he summed up the grim prospect of robot soldiers, “War without reflection is mechanical slaughter.”
The aptly named Campaign to Stop Killer Robots has endorsed the Heyns report’s recommendations, namely:
- Put in place a national moratorium on lethal autonomous robotics. (Paragraph 118)
- Declare a commitment to abide by International Humanitarian Law and international human rights law in all activities surrounding robotic weapons and put in place and implement rigorous processes to ensure compliance at all stages of development. This should be done both unilaterally and through multilateral fora. (Paragraph 119)
- Commit to being as transparent as possible about internal weapons review processes, including metrics used to test robotic systems. States should at a minimum provide the international community with transparency regarding the processes they follow (if not the substantive outcomes) and commit to making the reviews as robust as possible. (Paragraph 120)
- Participate in international debate on lethal autonomous robotics and be prepared to exchange best practices with other States, and collaborate with the High Level Panel on lethal autonomous robotics. (Paragraph 121)
All of this comes on the heels of a Department of Defense directive to pause the development of “autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems that could lead to unintended engagements.” The pause, of course, can be unpaused any time the DoD wants. No word on whether any such robots, commonly known as LARS (Lethal Autonomous Robots), will ever be programmed with Asimovian directives.
I wouldn’t hold my breath.
If you’d like glimpse of what happens next, check out Asimov’s vision. Maybe he’ll prove prescient:
“You just can’t differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.” – Isaac Asimov
From our science-fact department: Here’s yet another example of increasingly human-like abilities that our robots are acquiring. Even Asimov would be impressed. This one is designed to test out hazmat suits and the like, so it doesn’t really need to stand on its own. Somehow that makes me feel safer…
If this puts you in the mood to read a robot tale, check out the whole sub-genre here.
An Authentic Space Oddity
Some of our more popular posts included videos of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield explaining how water behaves when being wrung out from a washcloth in space, or demonstrating how to drink coffee in a microgravity environment. This, by far, surpasses even those kick-ass productions. Mr. Hadfield, you are our hero.
EDIT: It seems a fitting tribute to repost this, today.
A Boy And His Atom: The World’s Smallest Movie
IBM has created the world’s smallest movie by manipulating individual atoms into a stop-motion story called A Boy and His Atom – which can only been seen under 100 million times magnification. Yeah, let that sink in for a minute. The film was made to highlight their research in the field of atomic-scale memory. That’s right, they’re going to store data on those atoms. That is the stuff of science fiction, my friends.
Apparently William Gibson had it right when he said “The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
What Happens When You Wring Out a Washcloth In Space?
Some of you may know that I am a bit obsessed with drinking fine coffee in space. Unfortunately, there are many holes in my plan. For instance, what is the best way to collect the grinds? How do you keep beans fresh if resupply is relatively rare? Thanks to the fine folks at NASA, one piece of the puzzle has been answered. What happens when you spill some sweet sweet java, wipe it up with a wet cloth and then wring it out?
I am one step closer to planning out my bucket list…
Telling the Story of a New Era in Space Exploration
While NASA is still a major asset to America (and the world), its share of the national budget is continuing to shrink from 4.41% of total spending to an estimated .48% in 2012. For the first time since the Sputnik era, NASA’s budget doesn’t even garner ½% of the federal budget. While we all debate about whether to grow entitlements by 2% or 4%, American astronauts have to hitch a ride with the Russians just to get some weightless action. What good is winning the space race if we’re just going to throw it all away?
We know we don’t have to make the case to WWEnders for manned space programs. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for everyone else. That’s why the We Are the Explorers campaign is creating an exciting new ad campaign on behalf of NASA. The goal: to increase awareness of the funding problem and inspire nerds everywhere to agitate. They are crowdsourcing their funding and, as you can see, they have already surpassed their $33,000 goal, which gets them onto 50+ theatre screens. With about a week left, we’d like to see them make their secondary goal of $94,000, which would expand their exposure to 750 screens (a MUCH bigger impact). Why don’t you click over there and give what you can?
From the We Are the Explorers web site:
“When the Space Shuttle landed for the last time, many Americans thought NASA was closed for good. Nothing could be further from the truth. Right now, men and women from the space program are designing and building next generation space vehicles to go to new destinations in space, farther than we’ve ever gone before.
NASA recently made an inspiring new online video narrated by Mr. Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime (see above), to show the progress being made on these new systems, but the agency is barred by law from buying advertising time for such a spot.
Today we’re running a crowdfunding campaign to edit this video into a 30 second spot, and place it in movie theater screens around the country, starting with the premiere of ‘Star Trek Into Darkness.’
By backing this 30 second trailer in the top movie theater markets around the United States, you can show our students and young people that we’re in an exciting new era of space exploration. Now is the time to reach them – to remind them that an inspiring space program awaits, one that is worthy of their ambition.”
UPDATE: “There is no doubt now: ads for our space program will be premiering with “Star Trek Into Darkness”
Hurrah!
