Search found 137 matches

by caliban
Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:20 pm
Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
Topic: Many Little Dimensions or One Big One?
Replies: 41
Views: 254886

Neural nets are the sort of thing that is most likely to lead to AI, and these ones are networked like crazy to get at all those sensors. Sorry to be obstinate--but I have learned a lot about the math of neural networks, and they are waayy oversold. There is nothing miraculous about them. They are ...
by caliban
Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:14 pm
Forum: Literature and Cinema
Topic: Cyberpunk, the new generation
Replies: 19
Views: 140028

Which brings me to the question, how does one earmark these books as YA? Like many others, I often find these stories more rewarding than most adult novels. Character and plot does tend to be foremost in these books (even Harry Potter) and the trappings of 'genre' aren't such an issue. They can be ...
by caliban
Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:26 pm
Forum: Literature and Cinema
Topic: Cyberpunk, the new generation
Replies: 19
Views: 140028

There have also been some fabulous YA titles in this sub-genre. One of them having to do with a youth and his hot air balloon, traveling in a dis-topian (past or future? impossible to tell) world of stranded cities. (have to look up the title) I'm actually reading them--the "Hungry Cities"...
by caliban
Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:57 pm
Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
Topic: Many Little Dimensions or One Big One?
Replies: 41
Views: 254886

I suspect that true AI is possible using computer hardware and software, but we are so very far from it that this is akin to an ancient Egyptian imagining space flight. Like Athena, I agree with this. My/our objection to Penrose is not so much his conclusion but his lousy arguments. Although Penros...
by caliban
Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:22 am
Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
Topic: Many Little Dimensions or One Big One?
Replies: 41
Views: 254886

Re: Colored glass condensate

Calvin has a valid point about popular physics books -- but the mathematics requirement is too steep for most people. So physicists who want to make these complex, non-intuitive concepts accessible are stuck between suboptimal choices of presentation. Of course. I was just being a snob. :) Actually...
by caliban
Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:20 am
Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
Topic: Many Little Dimensions or One Big One?
Replies: 41
Views: 254886

Re: Celestial music

I have only started Warped Passages , so I will be in a better position to comment on this when I finish it. Why did it take so long to come up with the ideas that she and her collaborator articulated? From my reading so far, it seems all the facts had been there for a while. I'm afraid I don't rea...
by caliban
Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:55 pm
Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
Topic: Many Little Dimensions or One Big One?
Replies: 41
Views: 254886

Re: Celestial music

At the same time, Randall's concepts, if verified by experiments, may well help set limits on the string model that we should investigate (depending on which of her brane models prove correct). Personally, I am tired of string theory. For one, I have students walking into my office saying they want...
by caliban
Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:07 pm
Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
Topic: Many Little Dimensions or One Big One?
Replies: 41
Views: 254886

Re: Celestial music

Indeed. Larry McLerran, who's a friend and a senior theoretical physicist at Brookhaven, is as doubtful as you are about string theory. He has evolved his own theory, the colored glass condensate, for matter at high energies. Yes, but it is important to keep in mind that we are mixing up "stri...
by caliban
Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:03 pm
Forum: Musings and Chats
Topic: But why is it snowing again?
Replies: 13
Views: 88219

Re: Stan Robinson

Most here probably know Stan Robinson as the author of the famous Mars trilogy (Red/Green/Blue Mars). As Calvin said, he is formidably intelligent and educated, and his works are unusually thoughtful for SF (he can become long-winded and didactic but his longueurs still contain interesting ideas). ...
by caliban
Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:16 pm
Forum: Musings and Chats
Topic: But why is it snowing again?
Replies: 13
Views: 88219

Re: But why is it snowing again?

March 7, three inches and still accumulating. Well, although presumably most people on this forum know this, one of the predictions of climate change is not only an increase in the AVERAGE temperature, but also wilder fluctuations in weather. Since most journalists, and conspiracy wingnuts, have no...
by caliban
Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:46 am
Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
Topic: Many Little Dimensions or One Big One?
Replies: 41
Views: 254886

Re: Celestial music

Calvin will be the first to tell you that string theory, elegant and beguiling as it is, has some serious problems (testability, for one). Part of the reason Lisa Randall's brane theory became very popular--and she shot to a professorship at Harvard--is that it has more directly testable consequenc...
by caliban
Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:20 pm
Forum: Musings and Chats
Topic: Welcome, travelers
Replies: 25
Views: 174886

As a dedicated fan of "What the Bleep do we Know", I would like to point out that modern physics proves once and for all that the universe is indeed balanced upon a turtle's back and is 5618 years old. ;-) SC Lucky you I can indeed detect sarcasm and irony... else beware the wrath of Cali...
by caliban
Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:41 am
Forum: Literature and Cinema
Topic: Fantasy universes and worlds
Replies: 40
Views: 256326

Song of Fire and Ice

Oh no - not the dreaded sequelitis! :P Actually it's an unfinished series--we're up to book 4 I think. I have no idea where it is going, and I don't think Martin does either. But it's kind of fun. The best characters are Tyrion, a dwarf born into a powerful family, who must constantly scheme and pl...
by caliban
Fri Mar 02, 2007 2:48 am
Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
Topic: The science and the fiction in science fiction
Replies: 12
Views: 94673

Re: The science and the fiction in science fiction

One last post tonight and then I must either go to bed or work on writing a routine to solve complex-valued Hamiltonian matrices. :) When I teach SF and science, I find it more instructive to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. For anyone who is interested, I will just give here links to my ext...
by caliban
Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:39 am
Forum: Literature and Cinema
Topic: Fantasy universes and worlds
Replies: 40
Views: 256326

Re: Jacqueline Carey

For those who are interested in an alternative world that is both lush and literate, I recommend Jacqueline Carey's trilogy, Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen and Kushiel's Avatar. I also read this trilogy and found it very readable and entertaining. I enjoyed trying to figure out which historical c...