Science, Technology & Health: April 2010 Archives
Here's an interesting discussion of various exotic space weapons, their design, and use. Included are:
- Antimatter
- Relativistic Weapons
- Space Bugs
- Space Hackers
- E-Bombs
- Propulsion Systems
- Space Fighters
- Alien Technology
- Plasma Weapons
- Tractor Beams
- Medusa Weapons
- Nanotechnology
- Hafnium Bomb
I was prompted to read a bit in this direction by reading about "The Killing Star" -- a book I haven't been able to find at a reasonable price, unfortunately.
Anger is growing over the European airspace shutdown, and most of it is directed at the politicians who seem to have overreacted to flawed computer models that predicted more danger from the ash than has actually materialized.
Flawed computer models may have exaggerated the effects of an Icelandic volcano eruption that has grounded tens of thousands of flights, stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers and cost businesses hundreds of millions of euros.The computer models that guided decisions to impose a no-fly zone across most of Europe in recent days are based on incomplete science and limited data, according to European officials. As a result, they may have over-stated the risks to the public, needlessly grounding flights and damaging businesses.
“It is a black box in certain areas,” Matthias Ruete, the EU’s director-general for mobility and transport, said on Monday, noting that many of the assumptions in the computer models were not backed by scientific evidence.
European authorities were not sure about scientific questions, such as what concentration of ash was hazardous for jet engines, or at what rate ash fell from the sky, Mr Ruete said. “It’s one of the elements where, as far as I know, we’re not quite clear about it,” he admitted.
He also noted that early results of the 40-odd test flights conducted over the weekend by European airlines, such as KLM and Air France, suggested that the risk was less than the computer models had indicated.
It's a fast-speed playing out of the same drama that's unfolding with anthropogenic global warming: imperfect computer models drive people to unnecessary panic.
More about the Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane.
Though based in many ways on the shuttle-the only operational orbital space plane in the world-the X-37B showcases plenty of innovation. The shuttle uses hydraulic lines to power the control surfaces on its wings and tail, but the X-37B takes advantage of small, powerful electromechanical actuators instead, eliminating the weight of fluid and hoses. In lieu of the ceramic tiles used on the shuttle, the X-37B's leading edges and nose cap are made of an easily shaped composite material that NASA developed when the space agency ran the experimental craft's development, before the military took charge of it in 2004.The stubby 15-foot wingspan also echoes the shuttle's design, but unlike the larger craft, which has one tall vertical stabilizer, the X-37B has a V-tail with two ruddervators, a combination of a rudder and an elevator. David Hamilton, the director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, explains that the shorter V-tails are easier to package in a fairing, something that's not a concern for the shuttle. Those V-tails also help guide the X-37B through its 40-degree, nose-high re-entry, while a speed brake along the upper centerline helps it slow down as it prepares to land. Since the X-37B is unmanned, it does not need hardware to maintain a pressurized compartment for a crew and does not have to carry supplies for an extended manned mission.
The X-37B's simplicity and small size are part of what makes it appealing to the military. "There was always this issue with the space shuttle that you were sending up this enormous truck no matter what you were launching into space," says Mark Lewis, the former chief scientist for the Air Force. "There are times you want the Mack truck and times you want the Volkswagen Beetle. Unfortunately, with the shuttle, you were forced to fly the Mack truck."
The key to cheaper, more accessible space travel is more frequent space travel. This is a Good Thing.
Interesting insight into building a StartCraft bot, and the world of profefessional StarCraft players.
"Real-time strategy games provide an excellent environment for A.I. research and creating bots that are capable of defeating skilled players in this domain is still an open problem," explains Weber. "EISBot is the Expressive Intelligence Studio's StarCraft bot and is part of our dissertation research. It is coded in a reactive planning language and is composed of managers that handle different aspects of gameplay. EISBot selects build orders from a set of replays using case-based reasoning. Our goal is to build a bot that learns how to play StarCraft competitively based on analysis of expert StarCraft replays." ..."We picked StarCraft specifically because of the active community," Weber tells us, when asked why he and Mawhorter selected the game for their research, versus other alternatives. "In South Korea, hundreds of professional gamers actively participate in tournaments such as the MBC and OGN star leagues. This community generates a large amount of replays that are available for building bots. It also generates a large number of interesting StarCraft matches to watch. StarCraft is played all over the world and there are several active community websites. It's easy to find players interested in playing the EISBot and our bot has already played against players in over 30 countries," he explains enthusiastically.
"Another reason we selected StarCraft was because of the complexity of the game,” Mawhorter adds. "StarCraft has three distinct races and is a well-balanced game; in any particular match up in StarCraft, there are a large number of strategies that are valid. Despite being over 10 years old, StarCraft does not have a dominant strategy. StarCraft has an active meta-game in which popular strategies are constantly evolving. This factor adds to the challenge of building strong computer opponents."
Side note: if there are really hundreds of professional StarCraft players in South Korea, then Blizzard's decision to restrict StarCraft 2's network play by forcing players to use the proprietary Battle.Net instead of private LANs makes a lot of financial sense. If these StarCraft players are all playing on LANs, there's no way for Blizzard to monetize the crazy popularity of their 10-year-old game.
Al Gore continues to avoid any and all questions about the ongoing collapse of "global warming".
Great questions to Gore by Jesse Waters:
- What do you think of increasing arctic ice?
- Do you stand to make any money from cap and trade?
- Are you embarrassed by Climategate emails?
The U.S. Air Force is on the verge of showcasing a new and long-sought after spaceflight capacity with its X-37B space plane, but it will do so on a space mission that's cloaked in secrecy.What the X-37B mission truly portends is in the eye of the beholder, from a game-changing tool to hone military hardware to a provocative harbinger of things-to-come in terms of space warfare.
Now ready for an Atlas boost into Earth orbit from Florida on April 20, the reusable robotic X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is a small space shuttle-like craft. The craft will wing its way into Earth orbit, remain aloft for an unspecified time, then high-tail its way back down to terra-firma – auto-piloting down to a landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, or at neighboring Edwards Air Force Base as back-up.
I for one welcome our new robotic overlords, etc., etc.
The extent of the scientific and military avenues that such a space plane would open up are presently impossible to imagine. Though the payload capacity is much smaller, the fact that no on-board crew is required means that the descendants of the X-37B may actually be able to fulfill the functional vision of the Space Shuttle.
Newsweek has a fun slide show titled Weapons Porn with pictures of some of America's coolest weapon systems.
You might also be interested in the Trophy active protection system and purports to protect users from RPGs and anti-tank weapons.
Update:
How about an anti-mosquito laser?
The Speculist writes that despite the burgeoning economic recovery many jobs may not ever come back thanks to automation.
The efficiencies that can allow a company to get by with 10% fewer staff or an economy to get by with a 10% smaller employment base are many -- better management practices, longer work hours, more highly motivated or better trained staff. But the big one has got to be automation. Historically, automation boosts productivity and reduces the need for human workers. Over the past four decades, our economy has made a massive shift to a highly automated, digitized substrate. As recently as a decade and a half or so ago, economists were still scratching their heads over when the big productivity gains would emerge from this shift. Then about five or six years ago, those productivity numbers started showing up. Some of us took this to be unambiguously good news. And, in fact, I still think it's excellent news. But it may have something to say about the future of employment, and the need for our thinking around employment to change.
Phil Bowermaster goes on to talk about how our economy will have to shift to accommodate the growing mass of ex-workers who are no longer capable of contributing anything of value to an increasingly automated workforce. Today, in 2010, anyone with an IQ of 70 or higher can do something of value, but what happens as that threshold rises? As automation "IQ equivalent" increases, the number of people displaced will grow quickly until the IQ 100 median hump is surpassed. When robots can do the work of any human with an IQ of 100, how will society adapt?
One thing I can say for sure: women will be the big winners. Why? Because they can carry babies more cheaply, efficiently, and reliably that any conceivable robot. Men who are of sub-robot capability will be worthless to society, but womens ability to produce children take much longer to displace.
The effect of this is obvious: women leaving the workforce more rapidly than men and turning their energies to producing and raising children. As robots become more and more capable, the predominance of males over females at the high end of the IQ curve will lead to an ever-shrinking male-dominated aristocracy consisting of the few humans who are able to contribute something of value to an economy run by robots. It's no feminist paradise, but childbearing women will be far better off than men of sub-robot intelligence who will be unable to do anything a robot can't.
