Aug 31

There are a lot of exoplanets that are probably water worlds, too.

There are a lot of exoplanets that are probably water worlds, too.

Via Winchell Chung.

Originally shared by Ciro Villa

Life on “Water Worlds”

“The conditions for life surviving on planets entirely covered in water are more fluid than previously thought, opening up the possibility that water worlds could be habitable, according to a new paper from the University of Chicago and Pennsylvania State University.

The scientific community has largely assumed that planets covered in a deep ocean would not support the cycling of minerals and gases that keeps the climate stable on Earth, and thus wouldn’t be friendly to life. But the study, published Aug. 30 in The Astrophysical Journal, found that ocean planets could stay in the “sweet spot” for habitability much longer than previously assumed. The authors based their findings on more than a thousand simulations.”

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-08-worlds-life-analysis-idea-requires.html

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-worlds-life-analysis-idea-requires.html

Aug 31

Consumer polls, particularly about food, are notoriously poor predictors of actual behaviour, it should be noted.

Consumer polls, particularly about food, are notoriously poor predictors of actual behaviour, it should be noted. Until these products are widely available, we won’t know what the uptake will be like.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

Would You Eat ‘Meat’ from a Lab? Consumers Aren’t Necessarily Sold on ‘Cultured Meat’ https://suhub.co/2NE0oBN

Aug 31

Fiber optics, rather than wires, because of the environment of the implant.

Fiber optics, rather than wires, because of the environment of the implant.

Originally shared by Judah Richardson

Engineering researchers at the University of NSW Sydney have been granted almost $500,000 by the US Navy to develop chips that enable ‘neural interfacing’, or direct communication between brains and machines.

For now one-way communication is the goal, but the researchers hope to enable two-way communication for feedback from artificial limbs or more complex input from computers.

The team has already developed what they call “optrodes” – pixel-like sensors on a chip that pick up the brain’s electrical signals.

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/us-navy-taps-unsw-to-develop-brain-machine-interface-511667

Aug 31

This would be cool in a futuristic technothriller, or even a supers story (with an AI providing augmented reality,…

This would be cool in a futuristic technothriller, or even a supers story (with an AI providing augmented reality, perhaps).

Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh

An interesting article summarising the research being done in this field: from sensing changes in available light to shining a predetermined light pattern and sensing the reflections. “In their first paper, Freeman and Torralba showed that the changing light on the wall of a room, filmed with nothing fancier than an iPhone, can be processed to reveal the scene outside the window. Last fall, they and their collaborators reported that they can spot someone moving on the other side of a corner by filming the ground near the corner. This summer, they demonstrated that they can film a houseplant and then reconstruct a three-dimensional image of the rest of the room from the disparate shadows cast by the plant’s leaves. Or they can turn the leaves into a “visual microphone,” magnifying their vibrations to listen to what’s being said.

[…]

Along with the accidental-camera work aimed at picking up on small intensity changes, Freeman and his colleagues also devised algorithms for detecting and amplifying subtle color changes, such as those in a human face as blood pumps in and out, as well as tiny motions — the trick behind talking chip bags. They can now easily spot motions as subtle as one-hundredth of a pixel, which would normally be buried in noise.

[…]

While Freeman, Torralba and their protégés uncover images that have been there all along, elsewhere on the MIT campus, Ramesh Raskar, a TED-talking computer vision scientist who explicitly aims to “change the world,” takes an approach called “active imaging”: He uses expensive, specialized camera-laser systems to create high-resolution images of what’s around corners.

[…]

When asked about the privacy concerns raised by the recent discoveries, Freeman was introspective. “That’s an issue that over my career I’ve thought about lots and lots and lots,” he said. A bespectacled camera-tinkerer who has been developing photographs since he was a child, Freeman said that when he started his career, he didn’t want to work on anything with potential military or spying applications. But over time, he came to think that “technology is a tool that can be used in lots of different ways. If you try to avoid anything that could ever have a military use, then you’ll never do anything useful.” He added that even in military situations, “it’s a very rich spectrum of how things can be used. It could help someone avoid being killed by an attacker. In general, knowing where things are is an overall good thing.”

What thrills him, though, is not the technological possibilities, but simply to have found phenomena hidden in plain view. “I think the world is rich with lots of things yet to be discovered,” he said.”

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-science-of-seeing-around-corners-20180830/

Aug 30

You might be in a Mike Reeves-McMillan story if:

You might be in a Mike Reeves-McMillan story if:

1. You’re a competent mid-twenties woman; a gnome; or both.

2. Your romance has a good chance of not working out.

3. The world is against you being who you are. The world is going to have to change.

4. You have that one friend who’s more like a sibling.

5. There’s casual sensawunda.

Aug 28

Smart thinking, well expressed (quelle surprise) from Ann Leckie on the idea that “I don’t like this thing, so…

Smart thinking, well expressed (quelle surprise) from Ann Leckie on the idea that “I don’t like this thing, so people who claim they like it must have an agenda”.

I don’t think I would like N.K. Jemison’s Hugo-winning novels, but it’s because they sound dark and harrowing, and I don’t enjoy that. That’s why I haven’t read them.

I’m perfectly willing to believe that other people like them. Having read one of her other books, and some of her blog posts, I’m also very willing to believe that they are good.

Sometimes things win awards that I think are mediocre in terms of craft (again, I don’t expect that Jemison’s books are among those), but I’m still willing to believe that people liked them. Those people were looking for something in a book that is different from what I look for.

https://www.annleckie.com/2018/08/27/on-liking-stuff-or-not/
Aug 28

One of the reasons I started indie publishing is that I wanted to control my covers.

One of the reasons I started indie publishing is that I wanted to control my covers.

This piece gives an insight from an editor into the trad-pub process as regards covers, and how things changed over time for one writer’s books.

Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh

A look at the covers for Octavia Butler’s books. “From an editor’s point of view, it’s vital to obtain a great piece of cover art for every book you publish. An outstanding book cover can make a first-time writer. It can separate an author from the pack on crowded bookshelves. It telegraphs the right message to the perfect readership.

Given all that, why do some book covers go so wildly astray? More than thirty years in New York publishing have given me some answers.

[…]

The original 1987 cover from Warner Books [for Dawn] shows a white woman awaking from what appears to be a medical procedure of some kind. However, early in chapter 1 of Dawn we read this very clear description of Lilith, the main character, from her own point of view: “Once, they put a child in with her—a small boy with long, straight black hair and smoky-brown skin, paler than her own.”

Now, was this a case of artistic error, or was it an example of a publisher deciding that a black woman on a book cover would turn off too many potential purchasers? If it was the latter, it’s far from the only case of cover art designed to avoid the depiction of characters of color. Octavia’s editor and art director from that time are no longer alive, so we can’t be sure of the thought processes involved. But we can take a look at Butler’s other covers from early in her career to see how they were handled.”

https://theportalist.com/octavia-butler-cover-art
Aug 27

People see what they want to see, and there are plenty of SF speculations going on today that tell us more about…

People see what they want to see, and there are plenty of SF speculations going on today that tell us more about today’s concerns and those of the authors than about the future.

(Warning: Paywall/get-the-app annoyingness on Flickr.)

Originally shared by David Brin

Interesting historical document. A 1964 Playboy interview with Asimov, Pohl, Anderson, Serling, Bradbury, Budrys, Clarke, Sturgeon, Blish, Heinlein… Dang they could and should have then included Judith Merrill, C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, but still, kinda fascinating. Naturally, where they were on-target, you feel a sense of awe. As you’ll wince at some myopia and failure to see what should have been obvious. And an unfortunate cartoon. But hey, we’ve made progress!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/42665617@N07/5890605945/in/album-72157627091727742/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/42665617@N07/5890605945/in/album-72157627091727742/

Aug 27

When I envision people in the future interacting with technology, it’s generally seamless – so much so that I don’t…

When I envision people in the future interacting with technology, it’s generally seamless – so much so that I don’t need to describe its interface. It becomes like magic.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

Tech Interfaces Need to Get Better. Extended Reality Can Help

https://suhub.co/2oaWoOj