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author Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date Thu, 28 Jan 2016 09:35:51 -0800
parents 9bf4f0d5af68
children ba80a6a67b55
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rlm@43 1 #+title: Big List O' Ideas
rlm@43 2 #+author: Robert McIntyre
rlm@43 3 #+email: rlm@mit.edu
rlm@43 4 #+description: list of ideas from the last ~ 7 years
rlm@47 5 #+keywords: aurellem ideas half-baked random
rlm@43 6 #+SETUPFILE: ../../aurellem/org/setup.org
rlm@43 7 #+INCLUDE: ../../aurellem/org/level-0.org
rlm@43 8 #+babel: :mkdirp yes :noweb yes :exports both
rlm@43 9
rlm@42 10 * Ideas
rlm@143 11 # :PROPERTIES:
rlm@143 12 # :HTML_CONTAINER_CLASS: ideas
rlm@143 13 # :END:
rlm@42 14
rlm@145 15 This is a list of *Every* idea I've written down
rlm@52 16
rlm@62 17 #+begin_quote
rlm@62 18 There's no end to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care about
rlm@62 19 getting credit.
rlm@62 20 #+end_quote
rlm@62 21
rlm@155 22 - auto book ::handwritten by machine; illuminated. Like old medieval
rlm@155 23 books. Use a model of handwriting so the letters are different.
rlm@154 24
rlm@155 25 - url resolver :: pick the longest vaid url that's a rooted substring
rlm@155 26 of the requested URL. unambigupously corrects for links that
rlm@155 27 have things like periods and ending parens at the end of a link.
rlm@155 28
rlm@155 29 - soul black marble :: for existential threats, what if solu magic
rlm@155 30 was true, and undertale whatever, destroy the world
rlm@155 31
rlm@155 32 - heart preservation + heart bypass to allow time for healing :: you
rlm@155 33 cryopreserve a heart, then "recondition" it inside the patient
rlm@155 34 while under bypass to allow time for it to heal.
rlm@155 35
rlm@155 36 - intelligent microwave osmium perfusion w/ CAT scan ::
rlm@155 37
rlm@155 38 - assembling new word-sounding words by concatenation and random deletion ::
rlm@155 39
rlm@155 40 - amber brain preservation? :: would this work, without having to do
rlm@155 41 the heavy metal bits? Maybe chemical fixation with aldehydes
rlm@155 42 followed by hot amber and then high pressure for several months?
rlm@155 43
rlm@155 44 - zappy fat ::
rlm@155 45
rlm@155 46 - electrocaloric effect :: see
rlm@155 47 https://dx.doi.org/10.1146%2Fannurev-matsci-062910-100341,
rlm@155 48 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocaloric_effect][wikipedia article]]
rlm@155 49
rlm@155 50 - albino fruit ::
rlm@155 51
rlm@155 52 - cryoprotectant that increases the nutritional value fo food ::
rlm@155 53
rlm@155 54 - faucet enerty :: how much power do you get from an average faucet
rlm@155 55 compared to the wall socket?
rlm@155 56
rlm@155 57 - high pressure fixation :: could this defeat the "myelin unraveling"
rlm@155 58 problem? Maybe -- if the "unraveling" is actually BUBBLES like
rlm@155 59 you might get during the bends, caused by the fixation reaction!
rlm@155 60
rlm@155 61 - eat fixed tissue :: can you EAT glutaraldehyde preserved tissue, if
rlm@155 62 you wash away all the free aldehydes and make sure that the
rlm@155 63 reaction is complete? Can you also cook the tissue? Maybe it
rlm@155 64 would be good!
rlm@155 65
rlm@155 66 - intelligence sorting ::
rlm@155 67
rlm@155 68 - hyperbaric fixation :: apparently with divers with the "bends", you
rlm@155 69 get bubbles in the myelin in particular. Maybe hyperbaric
rlm@155 70 fixation would be able to eliminate these bubbles!
rlm@155 71
rlm@155 72 - blood + cryoprotectant :: might be more gentle than normal things?
rlm@155 73 Why not use it? (b/c you might need extracellular ion
rlm@155 74 concentrations), also zeta potentials! But you could filter the
rlm@155 75 blood, and get a lot from a slaughterhouse perhaps.
rlm@155 76
rlm@155 77 - the matrix has a "lord of space" and a "muse of time" ::
rlm@155 78
rlm@155 79 - ultra fast fluorocarbon cooling :: perfuse brain w/ cryoprotectant,
rlm@155 80 cool to -20°C. Then clear out everything w/ fluorocarbon (or
rlm@155 81 something else that doesn't interact w/ cells and has very low
rlm@155 82 viscosoty at low temperatures), and then immediately switch to
rlm@155 83 fluorocarbon at around -135°C. Should very quickly cool the
rlm@155 84 brain (even faster than persufflation!) and would also avoid the
rlm@155 85 dehydration problems associated w/ persufflation. Even better,
rlm@155 86 you have a mechanism for rapidly warming the brain --
rlm@155 87 immediately switch to warm fluorocarbon. Everything is always
rlm@155 88 still liquid and pressurized. Should buy you a couple % decrease
rlm@155 89 in CPA toxicity.
rlm@155 90
rlm@155 91 - gameboy IR link over wifi through emilation ::
rlm@155 92
rlm@155 93 - living memory is the start of history :: the natural dividing line
rlm@155 94 is between living and dead history, and is created retroactively
rlm@155 95 with the advent of brain preservation technology and then
rlm@155 96 realized by mind uploading. It can still creep forward from
rlm@155 97 death of individuals. We're still living in pre-history!
rlm@155 98
rlm@155 99 - the memory of God is the soul :: mind-uploading + christian
rlm@155 100 theology ==> the soul falls out nicely from omniscience.
rlm@155 101
rlm@155 102 - alternating stir plate :: a magnetic stir bar that alternates back
rlm@155 103 and forth. Is it more efficient?
rlm@155 104
rlm@155 105 - rsync with md5 (or whatever) database :: Now if you're rsync'ing
rlm@155 106 something over to the server, if the file matches something
rlm@155 107 already on the server, then it gets copied over from wherever it
rlm@155 108 is on the server (then each block's signature is checked like
rlm@155 109 with normal rsync, so that you get exactly the same behaviour).
rlm@155 110
rlm@155 111 - mvln :: uses a backing database to gaurantee that when you move a
rlm@155 112 folder, that all the links that point to it can remain
rlm@155 113 consistent across your system.
rlm@155 114
rlm@155 115 - centrifugal drinking :: spin the bottle around and tubes from the
rlm@155 116 bottom convey drink up to the top. (don't know why I came up
rlm@155 117 with this one...)
rlm@155 118
rlm@155 119 - DRACOS at single cell stage :: you splice the genes for DRACOS into
rlm@155 120 a single human cell at the first stage of development. Then all
rlm@155 121 the cells of the person that cell will eventually become will
rlm@155 122 automatically produce DRACOS (and the DRACOS will be recognized
rlm@155 123 as "self" by the immune system. This creates a powerful
rlm@155 124 secondary immune system which will make the person immune to
rlm@155 125 almost all viruses.
rlm@155 126
rlm@155 127 - toilet + fume hood :: because it's dumb to have the entire bathroom
rlm@155 128 be a sort of fume hood.
rlm@155 129
rlm@155 130 - wind speed force :: two wind socks one weighted. The angle between
rlm@155 131 them tells you the force of the wind.
rlm@154 132
rlm@154 133 - sshfs to mount root :: you can mount your own root filesystem
rlm@154 134 somewhere else using sshfs. Sort of "normalizes" file
rlm@154 135 permissions without having to use root, and is weird. Could also
rlm@154 136 bypass rm =--preserve-root= restrictions and delete entire
rlm@154 137 filesystem.
rlm@154 138
rlm@154 139 #+BEGIN_SRC sh
rlm@154 140 sshfs root@localhost:/ my-root
rlm@154 141 #+END_SRC
rlm@154 142
rlm@155 143 - not even a nop of damage :: nop == no-op
rlm@154 144
rlm@154 145 - twittwe vibratoe ::
rlm@154 146
rlm@154 147 - value of cancer :: what of value is lost with an easy cancer-cure?
rlm@154 148
rlm@154 149 - blood :: blood is the "wires" that connect organs to each other and
rlm@154 150 impedance match the services that organs provide to other
rlm@154 151 organs. A heart, per se, does not need blood but instead access
rlm@154 152 to the filtering powers of a kidney; blood just connects the
rlm@154 153 kidney cells to the heart cells. That's why "perfusing w/ blood"
rlm@154 154 is entirely missing the point.
rlm@154 155
rlm@154 156 - armored helmet :: use fiber-optics to re-route vision and get better
rlm@154 157 shield for eyes. curved plates, kozilek style.
rlm@154 158
rlm@154 159 - open source contributions :: way to make them public on your website easily.
rlm@154 160
rlm@155 161 - active opto-glove :: for ENHANCED touch! It's a magnyfing glass for
rlm@155 162 your fingers!
rlm@154 163
rlm@154 164 - glove screen :: for driving directions, etc. Better than a watch!
rlm@154 165
rlm@155 166 - osmium + sugar as a histo stain :: the suger interacts with the
rlm@155 167 osmium and retards its progress. you can see details on slices in
rlm@155 168 a light microscope without any more staining, and the EMs are not
rlm@155 169 adversely affected.
rlm@154 170
rlm@155 171 - encryption camera :: use public key on memory card. The camera
rlm@155 172 writes files encrypted with this public key.
rlm@154 173
rlm@154 174 - immaculate AIDS acquisition ::
rlm@154 175
rlm@154 176 - minds and lightspeed :: fastern minds have to deal with lightspeed
rlm@154 177 limitations in their own cognitive architectures.
rlm@154 178
rlm@154 179 - kill with fire :: guy A fires fire blast, with a spell circle to
rlm@154 180 maintain the magic. Opponent B just GRABS the magic and pulls MORE
rlm@154 181 fire. Guy A's circle goes out of control and all his life force
rlm@154 182 gets sucked out to supply more fire. B grabs the magic, crushes
rlm@154 183 it, fires a concentrated red lightning bolt, and eats the
rlm@154 184 rest. "You think that you can kill me, WITH FIRE!?"
rlm@154 185
rlm@154 186 - magic ekiga ::
rlm@154 187
rlm@154 188 - edible crayons ::
rlm@154 189
rlm@154 190 - library chaining ::
rlm@155 191
rlm@154 192 - hypnosis + that drug that makes you loose continuity :: can the
rlm@154 193 hypnosos plant things during this time?
rlm@154 194
rlm@154 195 - forgotten services :: use "ovbilion" somehow. Some sleeping drugs
rlm@154 196 make you forget the hour or so before you go to bed. Use this to
rlm@154 197 create forgotten services.
rlm@154 198
rlm@154 199 - dibenzelene -- mike darwin ::
rlm@154 200
rlm@154 201 - sleepy perfusion :: if brains naturally expand / contract depending
rlm@154 202 on resting / awake state, we should investigate the EMs of brains
rlm@154 203 fixed during "sleep" mode and those fixed during "awake"
rlm@154 204 mode. (while still using anesthetic of course).
rlm@154 205
rlm@155 206 - shit flavored dog treats :: because dogs would probably like them.
rlm@154 207
rlm@154 208 - fume hood incense :: so make sure the fume hood is working
rlm@154 209
rlm@154 210 - infinity coin :: s.f. concept -- billions are uploaded by using
rlm@154 211 osmium as a "mind uploading catalyst". osmium is put ino the
rlm@154 212 brain, they brain is scanned, and the osmium is recycled. Then
rlm@154 213 you make coins out of the osmium that has gone through billions
rlm@154 214 of these cycles.
rlm@154 215
rlm@154 216 - mamilian dive reflex as a method of preparing organs for cryopreservation ::
rlm@154 217
rlm@154 218 - spinal encryption :: like an X server, except your body parts each
rlm@154 219 run these servers. You all have clocks, and you have to sign your
rlm@154 220 muscle commands with your private key in order to control your
rlm@154 221 body.
rlm@154 222
rlm@154 223 - suicide note as a mental excercise :: from NPR, ted talk, teenagers, etc.
rlm@154 224
rlm@154 225 - microscope clamp magnet ring thing ::
rlm@154 226
rlm@154 227 - cup that fills from the bottom ::
rlm@154 228
rlm@154 229 - pronouncaeble liscense plates ::
rlm@154 230
rlm@154 231 - instant-awake vs natural awakening :: cognitive behavioural
rlm@154 232 difference tells you important things about the waking process.
rlm@154 233
rlm@154 234 - asethetics and personal identity :: if you go to germany, you're not
rlm@154 235 the same person anymore.
rlm@154 236
rlm@154 237 - arch linux diff cache :: should only download differences between
rlm@154 238 the new package and the most rcent archive file. Can
rlm@154 239 precalculate. Would make mirrors/upgrading so much faster.
rlm@154 240
rlm@154 241 - low gravity perfusion :: then you can use cappaliary action. From
rlm@154 242 this: http://www.wired.com/2015/01/coffee-cup-designed-let-astronauts-sip-espresso-space/
rlm@154 243
rlm@154 244 - rational advertiting :: a new criteria for advertisting -- given
rlm@154 245 same ad structure for two different produces, what structure
rlm@154 246 leads to the most people picking the "optimal" choice.
rlm@154 247
rlm@154 248 - autoclone bootstrapping :: to breed male with self: you make a clone
rlm@154 249 of the male that's broken, male and female, the bootstrap with
rlm@154 250 those gametes
rlm@154 251
rlm@154 252 - position independent numbers :: like latin for numbers. You'd use
rlm@154 253 color, endings, relative size, etc to determine what place the
rlm@154 254 number has. Very convientnt for order or magnitude calculations.
rlm@154 255
rlm@154 256 - dead man switch activated linux user account ::
rlm@154 257
rlm@154 258 - embowlement :: condencending reference to embodiment
rlm@154 259
rlm@154 260 - water staff :: drinksy walking staff w/ water
rlm@154 261
rlm@154 262 - melanin transfection ::
rlm@154 263
rlm@154 264 - retention of neurotransmitters / other small molecules during fixation by use of an extracellular polymer such as PVP ::
rlm@154 265
rlm@154 266 - machines :: Knowing we are machines does not diminish us; instead it
rlm@154 267 opens our minds to the awe-inspiring complexity that is the human
rlm@154 268 mind. Those who prefer to attribute consciousness to a "soul" or
rlm@154 269 other metaphysical process are the ones who diminish man to a
rlm@154 270 mere cartoon caricature.
rlm@154 271
rlm@154 272 - why does glut change osmotic setpoints in cells :: perhaps either 1)
rlm@154 273 It makes the membrane permeable to small molecules or 2)
rlm@154 274 crosslinking proteins means less colagative effects.
rlm@154 275
rlm@154 276 - Hemocyanin based blood washout solution :: for artificial blood, it
rlm@154 277 can be hard to carry enough oxygen because haemoglobin needs to
rlm@154 278 be in RBCs in order to effectively carry oxygen. However,
rlm@154 279 hemocyanin, a copper based oxygen carrying protein, doesn't have
rlm@154 280 this restriction, so it might make particurally good artificial
rlm@154 281 blood. Might also be great for making oxygenated fixative
rlm@154 282 solutions! In fact, hemocyanin is more efficient than hemoglobin
rlm@154 283 for carrying oxygen at low temperatures, perfect for
rlm@154 284 cooling/blood washout! Hemocyanin could also serve to establish
rlm@154 285 oncotic pressure in a blood washout solution since it weighs 75
rlm@154 286 kilodaltons.
rlm@154 287
rlm@154 288 - osmotic buffer :: polymer which polymerizes / splits apart in order
rlm@154 289 to maintain the osmolality of a solution.
rlm@154 290
rlm@154 291 - shoes w/ embedded computers :: and have little clickey things you
rlm@154 292 operate with your big toe.
rlm@154 293
rlm@154 294 - gb codec ::
rlm@154 295
rlm@154 296 - ultrasonic cell disruptor to make foor ::
rlm@154 297
rlm@154 298 - particle accelarator asd an awesome electron microscop ::
rlm@154 299
rlm@154 300 - tolouadine blue pen :: use biological stains as dyes for ink pens?
rlm@154 301
rlm@154 302 - clock stop explination :: you have a "visual buffer" which needs to
rlm@154 303 fill up whenever you switch out from one scene to another. This
rlm@154 304 is the clock stop illusion.
rlm@154 305
rlm@154 306 - coffee ad space :: Your coffee stock was brought to you by google,
rlm@154 307 the only company that brings you comfort and love in your harsh
rlm@154 308 and heartless corporate world. This is majestic guerrila
rlm@154 309 marketing.
rlm@154 310
rlm@154 311 - geo-synchro browsing :: you get a bunch of proxy servers, and then
rlm@154 312 you visit websites and synchronize the views from each of these
rlm@154 313 proxies into one view. Then you can see the differences by
rlm@154 314 conutry/region. This is a way to experience the "neutral"
rlm@154 315 internet by averging the effects of ip-tracing.
rlm@154 316
rlm@154 317 - periodic table of genders :: arrange people by bahaviour, particular
rlm@154 318 what sort of bonds they can form with other people.
rlm@154 319
rlm@154 320 - ice cream protein synthesis ::
rlm@154 321
rlm@154 322 - colored EM :: different heavy metals might possibly have different
rlm@154 323 intensities for different electron acceleration voltages. So this
rlm@154 324 could be the basis for colored EM images!
rlm@154 325
rlm@154 326 - expansion microscopy dual :: this would be a process where you
rlm@154 327 define a molecular scale object using larger microscopic
rlm@154 328 components. Then nanotechnology goes through and replaces each
rlm@154 329 "atomic macro block" with the appropriate atomic construct. That
rlm@154 330 way you can use microscopic 3D printing and a special purpose
rlm@154 331 form of nanotechnolical assembler to create any molecular
rlm@154 332 arrangement.
rlm@154 333
rlm@154 334 - anoxic glut :: what happens when you try to fix tissues in an
rlm@154 335 environment completely devoid of oxygen?
rlm@154 336
rlm@154 337 - copper+EG :: if RBCs are rendered impermeabale to EG when Cu is
rlm@154 338 present, then maybe you can destroy RBCs by a mixture of EG and
rlm@154 339 Cu?
rlm@154 340
rlm@154 341 - qualia intuition explained :: let's say that you lacked the sense of
rlm@154 342 smell. How could you learn what "acrid" means without it. How
rlm@154 343 could you explain it to someone, without analogy to other
rlm@154 344 smells. We mind-project this real linguistic separation into
rlm@154 345 reality and get qualia.
rlm@154 346
rlm@153 347 - spinal relay :: you have a small air-gapped repeater built into your
rlm@153 348 spine in order to help with spinal injury, connect with
rlm@153 349 prosthetics, and to monitor/control your body. Also, you could
rlm@153 350 add the ability to save "macros"!
rlm@153 351
rlm@153 352 - human cysts :: there should be communities of people with varying
rlm@153 353 enforced separations from the rest of society in order to gaurd
rlm@153 354 against various catastrophies.
rlm@153 355
rlm@153 356 - bioelectric synthesis :: have a device which stores a lot of energy,
rlm@153 357 and processes blood by creating sugar from waste produces over
rlm@153 358 the day. You still need water, vitamins, minerals, etc, but this
rlm@153 359 can handle the bulk of your energy demands and be recharged from
rlm@153 360 the wall.
rlm@153 361
rlm@153 362 - chelation as a method to improve cryoprotectant permeability ::
rlm@153 363
rlm@153 364 - transgender fruit analogy :: like tomatoes
rlm@153 365
rlm@153 366 - video game controllers as actual controllers :: console controlers
rlm@153 367 like the n64 trident are excellent, durable tools for fine
rlm@153 368 control. We should use them to control all sorts of things like
rlm@153 369 robots by default. You should use it for your projects, since
rlm@153 370 it's unlikely you'll be able to come up with something
rlm@153 371 better. Compared to console controllers, the ones we use for
rlm@153 372 robots/RC stuff are hopelessly clunky.
rlm@153 373
rlm@153 374 - bubble computers :: bubble duality, bubble computing
rlm@153 375
rlm@153 376 - dark blood bag :: blood bags in hospitals should be dark colored to
rlm@153 377 protect the blood from damage from light.
rlm@153 378
rlm@153 379 - chimeric homozygous sex chromosomes :: chimeric organism with XX and
rlm@153 380 XX patterns from two males and two females. On average, it has
rlm@153 381 the correct methylation pattern. Would it work?
rlm@153 382
rlm@153 383 - horseshoe blood fixative :: would it work as a washout?
rlm@153 384
rlm@153 385 - fixed protein packets :: group of fixed proteins in a network which
rlm@153 386 is used as medicine. Hemoglovin, maybe?
rlm@153 387
rlm@153 388 - prove hauntings :: website where you enter your pgp signed encrypted
rlm@153 389 file and swear by all the gods that you'll haunt me with the
rlm@153 390 password when you die, along with whatever other messages you
rlm@153 391 have. protocol -- I video, throw rock, get password.
rlm@153 392
rlm@157 393 - earth air water :: probably all intelligent species name their
rlm@157 394 planet "dirt" in their language, unless the're aquatic or flying,
rlm@157 395 then they'd name it "water" and "air" respectively.
rlm@153 396
rlm@153 397 - ethylene glycol alt name :: icebane
rlm@153 398
rlm@153 399 - overflow hiaku :: a hiku about buffer overflos, with garbage C code
rlm@153 400 inside.
rlm@153 401
rlm@153 402 - white knight :: his sword is named "Privledge" (an inherited family
rlm@153 403 sword) he rides along the land, defending the code of
rlm@153 404 chivralirary and keeping the orthodozy of society from fading
rlm@153 405 from the realm.
rlm@153 406
rlm@153 407 - technological deflation :: even the richest robber baron from the
rlm@153 408 1920's could not afford a cardiac bypass surgery, even with
rlm@153 409 literally all the money they had. As technology advances, the
rlm@153 410 price of bread may go up, but the capabilities which money gives
rlm@153 411 you also dramatically increase.
rlm@153 412
rlm@153 413 - cure for color blindness :: could it be possible to administer some
rlm@153 414 retroviruses via direct injection to the retina, to cause some of
rlm@153 415 the cells in the retina to begin expressing different color
rlm@153 416 pigments? The brain ought to easily sort out the rest and enable
rlm@153 417 color vision. Furthremore, could we add some more colors to
rlm@155 418 baesline human eyes? Theory -- people who are color blind have
rlm@155 419 better color spatial accuity for the colors they can see, because
rlm@155 420 this it the tradeoff here involved with the retrovirus
rlm@155 421 therapy. Re-purposing color detectors to see new colors at the
rlm@155 422 expense of spatial acuity for the old set of colors.
rlm@153 423
rlm@153 424 - mental integrity test :: if your brain starts to decay, you might
rlm@153 425 not notice the damage until it's too late. This would be a mental
rlm@153 426 integrity test that you take every few weeks that measures your
rlm@153 427 performance and compares it to a baseline. The tests are all
rlm@153 428 designed to catch the early signs of degenerative brain
rlm@153 429 diseases. For example, you might use performamce on a
rlm@153 430 smell-memory assoaction test to detect early-onset Alzheimer's.
rlm@153 431
rlm@152 432 - mind bank :: (in contrast to "brain bank")
rlm@152 433
rlm@152 434 - Passion of the Christ missed opportunity :: in the Passion of the
rlm@152 435 Christ, they do the entire show using Latin, Aramaic, etc, with
rlm@152 436 subtitles. They should have had a part where Jesus does the
rlm@152 437 sermon on the mount, he turns to the camera, and starts speaking
rlm@152 438 in English, with no subtitles. It would have been 1.) biblically
rlm@152 439 accurate and 2.) awesome. It would have been such a powerful
rlm@152 440 example of Jesus' divinity, and it felt like they were setting up
rlm@152 441 for it the entire movie, and they missed it!
rlm@152 442
rlm@152 443 - scientist online paper reviews ::
rlm@152 444
rlm@152 445 - binary feedback ::
rlm@152 446
rlm@152 447 - xenobiotic methalation rewriting ::
rlm@152 448
rlm@152 449 - trolley cryonics :: change the cryonics protocol around so that the
rlm@152 450 death occurs in a non-primary action loop.
rlm@152 451
rlm@152 452 - binary metric :: you make up new unit names for "2 centimeters", "4
rlm@152 453 centimeters", "16 centimeters", etc. Then no one will be happy!
rlm@152 454 BUT, it helps solve metric's problem of intermediate units. (a
rlm@152 455 centimeter is too small, a meter is too large!)
rlm@152 456
rlm@152 457 - physical pgp signatures :: someone should put together the
rlm@152 458 technologies so that you can digitally sign actual pieces of
rlm@152 459 paper -- some combination of signing a photograph of the
rlm@152 460 contract using pgp, printing a barcode or OR code on the page
rlm@152 461 which links to a website with the signed image, and a web of
rlm@152 462 trust model so that people can authenticate as themselves. All
rlm@152 463 this totally exists already, it's just not convienent.
rlm@152 464
rlm@152 465 - meta eye :: you wire in a third optical input to the human brain,
rlm@152 466 but it doesn't tranduce light form the real world, bus instead is
rlm@152 467 connected to the "internet of things" and shows you metadata
rlm@152 468 about things you are looking at // serves as an interface to your
rlm@152 469 own mind and body. Then eventually simply real things without
rlm@152 470 metadata seem flat and fake compared to the objects in cities and
rlm@152 471 other annotated areas. This third eye doesn't occupy any of your
rlm@152 472 normal visual field but actually EXPANDS your visual field.
rlm@152 473
rlm@152 474 - do it once -- upload ::
rlm@152 475
rlm@152 476 - a simple merge procedure for uploads ::
rlm@152 477
rlm@152 478 - limits of monogamy ::
rlm@152 479
rlm@152 480 - dream rewinding :: how to record a complete dream without disturbing
rlm@152 481 it or modifying your brain? you need to be an upload: split
rlm@152 482 yourself, and one of you stays awake whike the other sleeps. then
rlm@152 483 you detect a dream in progress by monotoring rapid eye movememt
rlm@152 484 in your sleeping self, and you wake yourself up every few minutes
rlm@152 485 and tell yoursef about the dream. Then sleeping-your restarts the
rlm@152 486 dream, continuation passing style, forgetting everything that was
rlm@152 487 just said, and you repeat this process until the dream is
rlm@152 488 over. Then awake-you and sleeping-you merge each other by taking
rlm@152 489 sleeping-you and replaying the memories of awake-you, and you
rlm@152 490 write a final report on the dream using the "saccade" reports to
rlm@152 491 jog your memory.
rlm@152 492
rlm@152 493 - denser than osmium :: do the "misicibility" thing with an osmium
rlm@152 494 alloy to get something even more dense.
rlm@152 495
rlm@147 496 - AI hypnosis :: hypnosis might be good for studying AI, becuse it
rlm@147 497 might probide a "debugger" for ananlyzing the human mind. I
rlm@147 498 briefly tried this while at MIT, but it needs MUCH more work to
rlm@147 499 be properly evaulated.
rlm@147 500
rlm@145 501 - becomming alive :: upload faces challenges to grow into they type of
rlm@145 502 person that can join the greater society -- a god. They have to
rlm@145 503 go though quests that replicate all the things that humanity had
rlm@147 504 to accomplish, like going to the moon, by themselves, in a
rlm@147 505 virtual world where they cannot die and never get tired.
rlm@145 506
rlm@145 507 - population distorted map of USA :: to see states sizes in terms of #
rlm@145 508 of people. (already exists!
rlm@145 509 http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/cart/doc/)
rlm@145 510
rlm@145 511 - butterfly drone :: if big butterflies used to exist, then maybe we
rlm@145 512 could make butterfly-inspired drones!
rlm@145 513
rlm@145 514 - methylation sex symmetry breaking :: So, human cells have
rlm@145 515 methylation patterns that encode male/female origin. If you
rlm@145 516 combine two male patterns, the fetus grows "too fast" and
rlm@145 517 dies. Two female patterns causes the fetus to enter a "vegatable"
rlm@145 518 state and fail to develop. Evolutionary biologists will say that
rlm@145 519 this reflects the asymmetry of energy investement for creating
rlm@145 520 offspring. If that's true, then species that cast-spawn will lack
rlm@145 521 this symmetry, and give clues about how to remove it in
rlm@145 522 humans. If even cast spawners like sea urchins have it, then that
rlm@145 523 means there's something deeper going on!
rlm@145 524
rlm@145 525 - reverse cannulation perfusion :: you put the organ you want to
rlm@145 526 perfuse in an airtight chamber with a pool of the stuff you want
rlm@145 527 to perfuse. You cannulate some veins and lead tubes form to
rlm@145 528 outside of the chamber. You pump in air and perfusate, and the
rlm@145 529 increasing air pressure in the chamber forces perfusate through
rlm@145 530 the organ. For times when you don't want to cannulate the inputs
rlm@145 531 -- they can be ragged, or there can be many of them. You still
rlm@145 532 have to guide the veins to the outside of the chamber, but
rlm@145 533 depending on the use case this might be far easier than
rlm@145 534 tradational cannulation.
rlm@145 535
rlm@145 536 - very slow physiological pressure perfusion :: less extreme example
rlm@145 537 of the "pausing" trick -- just keep the perfusion running and
rlm@145 538 don't put the perfusion target into the liquid as deep.
rlm@145 539
rlm@141 540 - whole brain perfusion embedding :: Do the standard EM embedding
rlm@141 541 protocol, but skip the osmium step, and use the "perfusion
rlm@141 542 pausing" method to prevent overextraction during the dehydration
rlm@141 543 and embedding steps. I think that you CAN perfuse resins into the
rlm@141 544 brain, simply because you CAN perfuse viscous rubber when doing
rlm@141 545 vascular casts.
rlm@141 546
rlm@152 547 - perfusion pausing :: (Turns out this won't actually work!) One
rlm@152 548 problem with doing perfusion is that if you STOP the perfusion,
rlm@152 549 you rapidly loose pressure in the organ as your perfusate leaks
rlm@152 550 out. You can prevent this by submerging the organ/head/rat
rlm@152 551 whatever in FLUID at the appropriate level. Use something inert
rlm@152 552 like flurocarbon to avoid problems. You would have to slowly
rlm@152 553 decrease the flow rate while simultaneously lowering the
rlm@152 554 perfusing object into the fluid. To start again, reverse the
rlm@152 555 process -- reengage the peristaltic pump slowly while removing
rlm@152 556 the organ from the fluid.
rlm@141 557
rlm@141 558 - evoultionary textbook mimiricy :: as surgery becomes more common,
rlm@141 559 there develops a distinct selective pressure for individuals
rlm@141 560 organ layout to look more like the medical textbooks! :P
rlm@141 561
rlm@141 562 - transparent skin :: temporary / permament transparent skin. Allows
rlm@141 563 for examination of organs / muscles and visual prevention of
rlm@141 564 disease and detection or abnormalities / good things
rlm@141 565 eg. excercise.
rlm@141 566
rlm@141 567 - sweet information :: candy with a whole book written in it. Eat a
rlm@141 568 book!
rlm@141 569
rlm@141 570 - targeted immunosuppressant :: just kill off the B-cells and friends
rlm@141 571 that would cause problems in a organ-transplant / other
rlm@141 572 situation. AIDS is good at killing these cells -- maybe make it
rlm@141 573 just target the ones that will cause problems. Then you can
rlm@141 574 premptively kill off that part of someone's immune system before
rlm@141 575 a transplant. ALSO, you can kill off everyone's defenses against
rlm@141 576 other blood types and make people effectively type AB+ w.r.t
rlm@141 577 blood transfusions. Actually, why not give babies this treatment
rlm@141 578 so that they're automatically compatable with all blood types?
rlm@141 579 The immune system has this already when it's first growing; maybe
rlm@141 580 it can be "retrained" to accept new things, or the mechanism of
rlm@141 581 immune cell death be co-opted for these purposes.
rlm@141 582
rlm@141 583 - fuck you tetris :: tetris that actively gives you the worst possible piece.
rlm@141 584
rlm@140 585 - pockets :: more things should have them!
rlm@140 586
rlm@140 587 - colored shower head :: a shower head add on that measures the temp
rlm@140 588 of the water and changes the color of the water streams w/ an LED
rlm@140 589 to show you the temperature. That way you can align to the color
rlm@140 590 you want and see the temperature without feeling it.
rlm@140 591
rlm@140 592 - giant dragonflies :: we could rapidly MAKE giant dragonflies by
rlm@140 593 evolving modern dragonflies in an very oxygen rich environment!
rlm@140 594
rlm@140 595 - anesthetic surgery courtesty video :: as a matter of courtesy,
rlm@140 596 whenever you go under anesthetic, the doctors should provide you
rlm@140 597 with a video of the surgery / recovery after you are concious
rlm@140 598 again. The recording should begin about 3 minutes before
rlm@140 599 anesthetic, and continue until both you and the docor agree to
rlm@140 600 stop recording, or you leave the hospital.
rlm@140 601
rlm@140 602 - whirlpool of light :: shine a laser out into space. But the planet
rlm@140 603 is spinning! What you get is a spiral or light! And as this
rlm@140 604 signal expands, does it eventually reveal it's wuantized nature?
rlm@140 605
rlm@140 606 - perfusion coking :: EOM
rlm@140 607
rlm@140 608 - timestamp verification :: you sign your message, and it has a
rlm@140 609 timestamp at the top, with a +- percision number. Then you send
rlm@140 610 it over to the public timestamp server, which only signs the
rlm@140 611 message if it gets the message within the timestamp window. Or
rlm@140 612 the computer just signs the message but puts a timestamp at the
rlm@140 613 beginning. So if everyone trusts the timestamp server, you can
rlm@140 614 get reliable timestamps, and prove priority on ideas, etc.
rlm@140 615
rlm@139 616 - the great computing slow-down :: in general, our computers are
rlm@139 617 getting faster and faster. However, eventually our brains will be
rlm@139 618 made of the same stuff our computers are made of! This has very
rlm@139 619 interesting consequences -- I can add 2+2 and get four in about a
rlm@139 620 second. Since my neurons actually work at around 10-60 hertz in
rlm@139 621 parallel, this means that it takes me around 10-30 operations to
rlm@139 622 do this addition. That's actually not bad in terms of computing
rlm@139 623 time. If my neurons were as fast as the latest transitors, then
rlm@139 624 most calculators would be SLOWER than me at adding numbers. Only
rlm@139 625 the newest, most optimized calculators would be faster, and then
rlm@139 626 only about 10 times faster! This means that once we begin to
rlm@139 627 think at the speed of our technology, that technology will
rlm@139 628 suddenly seem pitifully slow in comparison to how it seems
rlm@139 629 now. And no amount of technical progress will remedy it, because
rlm@139 630 that same progress will also make us all think faster. We'll
rlm@139 631 either have to settle with living in "slow time" to do some
rlm@139 632 computations, or learn to make smarter hardware with special
rlm@139 633 optimizations. But this is actually really hard, because we'll be
rlm@139 634 working with machines that will appear to us about as fast as
rlm@139 635 MECHANICAL computers. So, in the future, all the cool parties
rlm@139 636 will be in cyperspace at vastly accelerated speeds compared to
rlm@139 637 how we exist now. But at these parties, the computers will SUCK!
rlm@139 638 Of course, this is one of the few things that can save us from AI
rlm@139 639 risk, because those AI's won't seem so scary when the're build
rlm@139 640 out of rickety mechanical parts form our perspective.
rlm@139 641
rlm@142 642 - unitary reverse evolution of chaos+minds :: Chaotic systems diverge
rlm@139 643 exponentially in state space. Do you get anything interesting
rlm@139 644 when part of the physical system associated with the chaotic
rlm@139 645 system is a object that performs some sort of computation? Is it
rlm@139 646 possible for the computational system to play a
rlm@139 647 percision-enabling role in determining the final/initial
rlm@139 648 conditions of the chaotic system, just by tracing out thoughts in
rlm@139 649 its decision paths? This is probably too vague of an idea right
rlm@139 650 now, I just wanted to write it down.
rlm@139 651
rlm@138 652 - microwave time :: the cooking time you enter on most microwaves is
rlm@138 653 insane. It's expressed in what I call a "hybrid base", a
rlm@138 654 combination of base 10 and base 60. You can get absurd things
rlm@138 655 like 100 < 61, and 120 == 80! I wonder if these hybrid base
rlm@138 656 systems could be very useful for some purposes!
rlm@138 657
rlm@138 658 - three-eyes :: if you had three eyes, would you still draw cubes like
rlm@138 659 we currently draw them? Or would all 2D-representations of 3D
rlm@138 660 space always look hopelessly fake?
rlm@138 661
rlm@138 662 - visual taste/smell assay :: get a grid of bacteria, each expressing
rlm@138 663 a human taste/smell receptor linked to some sort of fluorscent
rlm@138 664 activity or ion pump. Use a camera / electrical grid to transduce
rlm@138 665 the smell / taste signal into bits!
rlm@138 666
rlm@138 667 - carabiner mushroom lock :: you can take a trapazodial carabiner and
rlm@138 668 make it so that a chain link is caught between the wide end of
rlm@138 669 the carabiner and another chain attached to the carabiner.
rlm@138 670
rlm@138 671 - children's tool shop :: I think that kids should be provided with
rlm@138 672 tool shops -- these would be nice sheds with a good collection of
rlm@138 673 tools to do various things -- circuit components and soldering
rlm@138 674 irons, wires, a small lathe, drill press, belt sander, a
rlm@138 675 centrifuge, microscope, and telescope, etc. The idea is that the
rlm@138 676 kid can now think, "I could use X to do this thing that I'm
rlm@138 677 thinking about" -- the building becomes an extension of the kid's
rlm@138 678 body & mind.
rlm@138 679
rlm@138 680 - fluid display :: like the previous idea about matching refractances
rlm@138 681 between glass and liquid, except you make a lot of
rlm@138 682 switchable glass tubes in various patterns in the
rlm@138 683 glass, and actively pump colored liquid through the
rlm@138 684 tubes (the tubes have glass-like fluid in them by
rlm@138 685 default.) The result is that you can cause the
rlm@138 686 tubes to appear and dissappear, and vary their
rlm@138 687 colors as well!
rlm@138 688
rlm@137 689 - immunoincompatibility :: take the human genome, and refactor it so
rlm@137 690 that it doesn't use a particular codon at all. Then remove the
rlm@137 691 support from our ribosomes for that codon. What does this do for
rlm@137 692 us? It makes us immune to almost all viruses!
rlm@137 693
rlm@137 694 - life cycle :: it's called a cycle, right? So, the thing that repeats
rlm@137 695 itself over and over, right? Not much of a cycle if
rlm@137 696 you don't come back after you die, if you ask me!
rlm@137 697
rlm@137 698 - car with no blind spots :: use some cameras in the back of the car
rlm@137 699 to augment the rear-view mirror so that you never have to turn
rlm@137 700 around in order to lane change.
rlm@137 701
rlm@137 702 - partial cell death :: you freeze a set of cells using some cryo
rlm@137 703 protocol and 60% survive. How can this be explained? It seems to
rlm@137 704 me that if the cells are the same, and the conditions
rlm@137 705 homogoneous, then all the cells should either die or
rlm@137 706 live. However, suppose that there is a metabolic cycle that needs
rlm@137 707 to be in a certain phase for the cell to survive. If the cells
rlm@137 708 are asynchronous, then you might end up with some cells dying
rlm@137 709 because there were in the wrong part of their cycle. This implies
rlm@137 710 that you might be able to cryoprotect cells by causing them to
rlm@137 711 enter a certain metabolic mode before freezing.
rlm@137 712
rlm@137 713 - cryonics color appeal :: perfusate used by cryonics companies should
rlm@137 714 have red food coloring in it. It's just a nice touch so that the
rlm@137 715 cryonics patient looks more life-like than with clear CPAs, and
rlm@137 716 hopefully might get treated with more respect.
rlm@137 717
rlm@137 718 - paramagnetic CPA :: you take a CPA that can be influenced by
rlm@137 719 magnetic fields so that its degrees of freedom are limited. Then,
rlm@137 720 you release the field, instantaly increasing the size of the
rlm@137 721 state space of the system and dramatically decreasing the
rlm@137 722 temperature enough to plunge the system past homogenous
rlm@137 723 nucleation temperature and directly to the glass transition
rlm@137 724 temperature, creating a doubly unstable glass at much lower CPA
rlm@137 725 concentrations than possible at conventional CPA concentrations.
rlm@137 726
rlm@137 727 - room temp noodles :: how does the physics of cooking noodles work?
rlm@137 728 Could you use a vacuum instead of heat to force water into the
rlm@137 729 noodle?
rlm@137 730
rlm@137 731 - personal carbon offset :: feel bad about contribuiting to global
rlm@137 732 warming by using electricity / driving a car? Forget trying to
rlm@137 733 "conserve" or "minimize your carbon footprint". Follow the
rlm@137 734 Platinum rule -- make the world BETTER off than you found it!
rlm@137 735 This would be a small, self contained system that sucks C02 out
rlm@137 736 of the air. It uses electricity, but it's so efficient at
rlm@137 737 removing CO2 that it more than offsets the CO2 produced by even a
rlm@137 738 coal plant to produce that electricity. This way, you can still
rlm@137 739 drive even a gas guzzler, but have a net negative carbon
rlm@137 740 footprint! Maybe something cool could be done with the carbon as
rlm@137 741 well. Use as much electricity as you want, but negate the damage
rlm@137 742 to the enviroment with more technology.
rlm@137 743
rlm@137 744 - undoing spermogenesis :: with enough sperm, you can derive the
rlm@137 745 donor's entire genome. You gain more confidence in the alleles
rlm@137 746 for a particular gene the more sperm you have. Each additional
rlm@137 747 sperm gives you the same sort of information you'd get flipping a
rlm@137 748 coin and trying to decide whether the coin is H/T of H/H. Is
rlm@137 749 there enough sperm in the the average load for you to be as
rlm@137 750 confident as mitosis?
rlm@137 751
rlm@136 752 - mars life :: we could engineer life that could survive on mars
rlm@136 753 (probably some non-vascular photosynthetic
rlm@136 754 poikilohydric creature like a lichen) by taking an
rlm@136 755 extremophile from Antarctica and evolving it in
rlm@136 756 increasingly Martian conditions. This could be an easy
rlm@136 757 start to a terraforming process.
rlm@136 758
rlm@134 759 - problem with Aubrey de Grey's ideas :: Aubrey de Grey says that we
rlm@134 760 might be able to live forever by continually repairing our bodies
rlm@134 761 at the cellular level -- he details 7 different mechanisms of
rlm@134 762 damage and says that if all of them are dealt with /together/
rlm@134 763 that it would stop aging. (You can't miss even one because
rlm@134 764 they're all fatal.) However, it doesn't take into account that
rlm@134 765 we are also beings of information and that there is a very real
rlm@134 766 software component to our existence. Even if our biological
rlm@134 767 chassies can be maintained forever, I think it is unlikely that
rlm@134 768 our minds will operate well far outside of the design constraints
rlm@134 769 that we've evolved to handle. Say I programmed a webserver with
rlm@134 770 the express goal of it being able to serve webpages for month on
rlm@134 771 some stock server. I'll do fairly rigorous testing to make sure
rlm@134 772 that it can handle the expected load then then some. Now say that
rlm@134 773 you want to keep a particular instance of this webserver running
rlm@134 774 indefinitely. (The program instance is like your mind and the
rlm@134 775 computer it's running on is like your body). You might very well
rlm@134 776 be able to keep the physical computer infrastructure running for
rlm@134 777 forever by replacing hard drives / ram / CPUs, etc. However,
rlm@134 778 since I designed the webserver to work for a month, it probably
rlm@135 779 has memory leaks, rare stochastic bugs, or other built in limits
rlm@134 780 / constraints (think log files or some date rollover shenanigans)
rlm@135 781 that will ultimately kill the webserver even with eternally
rlm@134 782 perfect hardware. Do you really expect that a webserver
rlm@135 783 engineered to work for 1 month will run for 10 years without
rlm@135 784 catastrophically crashing? Not even Apache can do this! In fact,
rlm@135 785 if I put in the extreme effort to make it that robust, I've
rlm@135 786 wasted time that I could have spent on other projects by pursuing
rlm@135 787 an unnecessary engineering goal. Likewise, human minds have only
rlm@134 788 ever run for at most 122 years before they are destroyed due to
rlm@134 789 hardware degradation. Fixing the hardware doesn't change any
rlm@134 790 software bugs that are almost certainly present in the human
rlm@134 791 mind. Think of all the pathological things that can go wrong with
rlm@134 792 a webserver, multiply it by a million, and that likely how
rlm@134 793 evolution has designed our minds. For example, consider memory :
rlm@134 794 why should you expect that we have evolved the ability to
rlm@134 795 coherently organize memories past say 150 years? There's been
rlm@134 796 absolutely no selective pressure for this ability, so you can bet
rlm@134 797 that if there's any fitness to be gained from not having
rlm@134 798 unlimited memory potential (such as better metabolic efficiency),
rlm@134 799 we have it! You might think that maybe we would just forget
rlm@134 800 things the same way that we sort of forget things that happen
rlm@134 801 earlier in our lives, but complicated information processing
rlm@134 802 systems don't have to fail gracefully when they're pushed far
rlm@134 803 past their design constraints. A 150 year old person is just as
rlm@134 804 likely to suffer a catastrophic psychosis due to software
rlm@134 805 limitations associated with memory as he is to do something with
rlm@134 806 all those memories we might consider reasonable. More likely, in
rlm@134 807 fact, since there are so very many ways for a complicated
rlm@134 808 software system to break and so few ways for it to run
rlm@134 809 successfully. Therefore, I think Aubrey de Grey's "hardware-only"
rlm@134 810 approach is missing a very important component of longevity
rlm@134 811 science, and any successful effort to make people live orders of
rlm@134 812 magnitude longer than they do naturally will need to deal with
rlm@134 813 people's software as well as their hardware.
rlm@134 814
rlm@133 815 - validating neurocryopreservation :: Problem : you want to test
rlm@133 816 whether a brain is functionally preserved through vitrification,
rlm@133 817 but you don't want to figure out how to preserve all the other
rlm@133 818 organs in the animal. It might be possible to keep the rest of
rlm@133 819 the body at almost 0C and vitrify just the head for only a few
rlm@133 820 minutes. Induce hypothermia, then separate out the head's blood
rlm@133 821 supply from the rest of the body, then just cryoptotect and
rlm@133 822 vitrify the head. Might need some sort of thermal guard to keep
rlm@133 823 the outer head / neck from becoming too cold. You leave the
rlm@133 824 spinal cord intact! Then you devitrify to 0C, remove
rlm@133 825 cryoprotectant, and then reattach the blood supply. You can
rlm@133 826 determine brain preservation using behavioral assays!
rlm@133 827
rlm@133 828 - freezing water purifier :: you slowly freeze water, but also run
rlm@133 829 liquid water over the frozen mass. This takes away basically all
rlm@133 830 impurities and creates "washed ice" then you melt the ice. Maybe
rlm@133 831 you could re-use the heat from creating the ice to melt the ice?
rlm@133 832
rlm@133 833 - ultra strength :: allow a person to visualize their muscle
rlm@133 834 recruitment patterns. Give them adrenaline and let
rlm@133 835 them feel what it's like to have the normal limits
rlm@133 836 removed. See if they can replicate the effects.
rlm@133 837
rlm@133 838 - phone names :: make a PX record for domain names that's like the MX
rlm@133 839 record, except that it is a phone number instead of
rlm@133 840 an IP address. That way, you can use the domain name
rlm@133 841 registration system to provide names for phone
rlm@133 842 numbers. Then, as long as you control the domain, you
rlm@133 843 can point people to your current phone number by
rlm@133 844 updating that record.
rlm@133 845
rlm@133 846 - edible flowers :: Edible white flowers that you put in a colored
rlm@133 847 solution with flavor. When the flower turns the
rlm@133 848 right color, it is also flavored and ready to eat!
rlm@133 849
rlm@131 850 - suicide cryonics :: according to [[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html][this]], people who commit impulsive
rlm@131 851 suicides have a newfound sense of the importance of life. Perhaps
rlm@131 852 they are good cryonics targets.
rlm@131 853
rlm@131 854 - lead bone :: Could you fill in all the empty spaces in a bone with
rlm@131 855 lead? Might be cool.
rlm@131 856
rlm@131 857 - the quest for life :: Every stupid story has the "immortal who
rlm@131 858 wants to become mortal" or some other such idea. I want to story
rlm@131 859 where the protagonist loses their immortality and feels /angry/
rlm@131 860 and ashamed about losing something that's so absolutely crucial
rlm@131 861 to their identity. A reverse of "death makes life worth living",
rlm@131 862 they feel that living forever is what makes life worth
rlm@131 863 living. Now they've "lost their sunrise" or their "connection to
rlm@131 864 the timeless universe" or something. So they go on a quest to get
rlm@131 865 it back, learning about themselves along the way, and regaining
rlm@131 866 the precious thing they lost in the beginning.
rlm@131 867
rlm@130 868 - world-map :: take a small table and paint the continents in
rlm@130 869 toothpaste on the table. Make a slightly raised barrier
rlm@130 870 around the table. Slowly pour water onto the table, and
rlm@130 871 it will form the oceans!
rlm@130 872
rlm@95 873 - stage magic rituals :: rituals should incorporate elements of stage
rlm@95 874 magic. Foe example in Teller's tempest, they have a scene where
rlm@95 875 they levitate a crown in front of someone, then put it on his
rlm@95 876 head. They also have a wedding ceremony where they levitated the
rlm@95 877 bride as well. Actual weddings and other ceremonies should
rlm@95 878 incorporate stage magic as an enhancement.
rlm@95 879
rlm@95 880 - isotope time dilation :: use a cyclotron to speed up rare isotopes
rlm@95 881 developed in nuclear fusion experiments. The relativistic time
rlm@95 882 dilation will stop the isotopes from decaying, and allow time to
rlm@95 883 study them. This is based on radioactive isotopes that fall
rlm@95 884 through the earth's atmosphere that take hundreds of times
rlm@95 885 longer to decay than normal.
rlm@95 886
rlm@95 887 - marsupial stimulation :: You take a freshly pouched marsupial baby,
rlm@95 888 and show it videos and other interactive things while it matures
rlm@95 889 in the pouch. What mental effects would this have?
rlm@95 890
rlm@135 891 - dynamic re-keying :: Some older ways of tuning instruments sound
rlm@95 892 better, but we use the even-tempered scale today because it makes
rlm@95 893 it easier to switch keys. With electronic music, why not make
rlm@95 894 key-annotations and dynamically re-tune the piece to sound good
rlm@135 895 in the current key? Could be done as a midi+annotation -> midi
rlm@95 896 compiler for experimentation.
rlm@95 897
rlm@95 898 - death always implies damage :: is is possible for a corpse to differ
rlm@95 899 from a living person only in the fact that one is dead and the
rlm@95 900 other is alive? NO! A corpse must always have some sort of
rlm@95 901 molecular damage which causes the loss of function!
rlm@95 902
rlm@95 903 - inner eye :: Surgically install a bunch of tiny cameras inside a
rlm@95 904 person. Then, you can activate them all and get a
rlm@95 905 picture of your internal organs for diagnostic
rlm@95 906 purposes.
rlm@95 907
rlm@135 908 - chaos rails :: should make a visualization of the homoclinic tangle,
rlm@95 909 it's truly beautiful.
rlm@95 910
rlm@95 911 - context gobbler :: this would be in "inside-out macro" that takes
rlm@95 912 the context (like you use for things like error, continuations,
rlm@95 913 and friends) and transforms it to something else. Maybe useful?
rlm@95 914
rlm@91 915 - cryonics middle ages :: some people say that cryonics is an
rlm@91 916 experiment and that it is foolish to wait until we have revived a
rlm@91 917 human. There is a middle ground where the procedure has a dismal
rlm@91 918 success rate on humans, say 1 in 20, so that you'd be a fool to
rlm@91 919 try revival. Nonetheless, this very risky procedure could be the
rlm@91 920 legal proof of concept needed to create a new class of life
rlm@91 921 between "living" and "dead": "stasis".
rlm@91 922
rlm@91 923 - philosophy of the mirror :: neat thought experiment -- if you take a
rlm@91 924 mirror of someone by actually reversing a person's chirality
rlm@94 925 molecule by molecule, then will the only be able to read mirror
rlm@91 926 writing? The answer is yes, by analogy to a purely mechanical
rlm@94 927 scan-tron device. This is one of the only interesting transforms I
rlm@91 928 know that can take a human brain and change it in subtle,
rlm@91 929 non-destructive ways. It's also an argument against dualism.
rlm@91 930
rlm@91 931 - biosphere in a bottle :: There are around 15 million species. 15
rlm@91 932 million stem cells will fill only a tiny size, far less than a cubic
rlm@91 933 inch. Preserve a single cell from every species on earth in this
rlm@91 934 small space, and you will have a record of our current biosphere
rlm@91 935 that can be protected. "Hold the genetic data of all species in
rlm@92 936 your hand!"
rlm@91 937
rlm@90 938 - chaos lock :: The "arrow of time" points in the direction of
rlm@90 939 increasing entropy. The time evolution of chaotic
rlm@90 940 systems depend exquisitely on their initial state. If
rlm@90 941 you take a measurement of a chaotic system at any
rlm@90 942 given point of time, you can evolve that system
rlm@90 943 backwards or forwards based on your measurement. So
rlm@90 944 let's say you start the chaotic system in a VERY low
rlm@90 945 entropy state, then let it run for a while, then take
rlm@90 946 a measurement with some uncertainty. Your
rlm@90 947 measurement is pretty good, but obviously not
rlm@90 948 PERFECT. If you evolve the chaotic system back in
rlm@90 949 time, then you will see that you don't really reach
rlm@90 950 a state with low entropy an hour before (the entropy
rlm@90 951 is easy to measure with surrogates like alignment,
rlm@90 952 etc). So use this technique to SEARCH for a more
rlm@90 953 accurate measurement! This potentially can give you
rlm@90 954 many more orders of magnitude than you could get alone
rlm@90 955 just using an instrument. Sometimes it will give you
rlm@90 956 bad results, the the odds of it doing that are
rlm@90 957 infinitesimal, and you can just measure a couple of
rlm@90 958 times.
rlm@90 959
rlm@90 960 - cryo-evolution :: perhaps there would be a way to rapidly evolve a
rlm@90 961 symbiotic bacterial organism that could protect
rlm@90 962 human tissues from freezing damage.
rlm@90 963
rlm@87 964 - suicide parasite :: sometimes, people kill themselves for no good
rlm@87 965 reason. We often explain this with things like "hidden
rlm@87 966 depression" or we say that they had something like chronic jaw or
rlm@87 967 back pain. I think that smells of rationalization. I don't buy
rlm@87 968 it. I propose that in many suicide cases there is a disease that
rlm@88 969 causes the suicidal behavior. We already know that certain
rlm@87 970 parasites have mind-bending properties in other animals, even
rlm@87 971 mammals like mice. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a
rlm@88 972 parasite that causes suicides in humans. Some problems:
rlm@87 973 - What does the suicide parasite get out of it? :: This might be
rlm@87 974 answered by the whole thing being a glitch caused by
rlm@87 975 cross-species contamination. Toxoplasma works this way.
rlm@88 976 - What predictions does a disease model make :: suicide should
rlm@88 977 be more common among people who share a contagion
rlm@88 978 vector. There should be suicides that don't make any
rlm@87 979 sense : people who weren't really depressed, who had no
rlm@87 980 reason to kill themselves. People who have killed themselves
rlm@87 981 should have a higher incidence of some unknown parasite in
rlm@87 982 their brains.
rlm@86 983
rlm@89 984 - domestic insects :: People should eat more bugs because they're much
rlm@89 985 more efficient, so why not do some major domestication research
rlm@94 986 to make very appealing bugs? Beetles, in particular, seem to be
rlm@94 987 excellent targets for domestication because they have extreme
rlm@94 988 levels of genetic malleability.
rlm@87 989
rlm@87 990 - birth-clones :: What if each person was intentionally split at birth
rlm@87 991 into a normal embryo and a few "backup" cells which
rlm@87 992 is then frozen. The backup cells are created just
rlm@87 993 the same way as natural identical twins. The backups
rlm@88 994 can be used to regenerate organs. etc. Also, it
rlm@87 995 would be a good sci fi concept, because you could
rlm@87 996 have a culture where people reward people who were
rlm@87 997 especially awesome are "reborn" from their
rlm@88 998 backups. Imagine having a young Bach every
rlm@87 999 generation, etc.
rlm@86 1000
rlm@94 1001 - pronunciation guide :: a simple webpage where you type in a word and
rlm@94 1002 it returns a simple, English sentence describing exactly how to
rlm@84 1003 pronounce the word. For people who don't want to learn IPA.
rlm@86 1004
rlm@87 1005 - cortex-search :: use the repertoire of actions learned to limit the
rlm@87 1006 search space of possible actions.
rlm@87 1007
rlm@83 1008 - learning to teleport :: scifi idea, this is a story about a person
rlm@83 1009 who is struggling with his/her society's ideas about
rlm@83 1010 teleportation. It's considered a fundamental part of being a
rlm@83 1011 member of that society (after all, the difference between animals
rlm@83 1012 and humans is that humans are creatures of pure information while
rlm@83 1013 animals are burdened with base matter, "that's how you travel the
rlm@83 1014 stars, etc") Humans are born normally, grow up, and then
rlm@83 1015 eventually transcend via destructive upload. Analogies to jumping
rlm@83 1016 off a diving board into a pool (which I simply /could not do/ for
rlm@83 1017 a long time), etc.
rlm@83 1018
rlm@87 1019 - no-float-ice :: cup that has cross beams at the bottom where ice
rlm@87 1020 forms. Then when you drink liquid from the glass,
rlm@87 1021 the ice stays at the bottom and doesn't hit your
rlm@87 1022 lips. For bars and fancy things.
rlm@87 1023
rlm@82 1024 - bitcoins for immigrants :: A common case with Mexican immigrants
rlm@82 1025 (illegal or not) is that they want to send money they've earned
rlm@82 1026 in the US back to their families in Mexico. They currently do this
rlm@82 1027 through things like Money Gram or Western Union, and they get
rlm@82 1028 fleeced in the process with fees. Bitcoin could greatly reduce
rlm@82 1029 the cost of sending money from America to Mexico, but I don't
rlm@82 1030 believe that it's currently used for that among Mexican
rlm@82 1031 immigrants currently due to lack of knowledge. I bet you could
rlm@82 1032 set up physical locations like those obnoxious Western Union huts
rlm@82 1033 in places like Texas, Arizona, etc, and greatly undercut
rlm@82 1034 them. Or, perhaps some educational seminars about bitcoin might
rlm@82 1035 be in order. There's some money to be made there because there is
rlm@82 1036 great demand, and it's a good thing to boot!
rlm@82 1037
rlm@81 1038 - reverse eye-tracking :: A painting that is actually a digital screen
rlm@82 1039 with a camera. It records people's eye tracks permanently. It's
rlm@81 1040 "artistic" because paintings are normally these things that you
rlm@81 1041 look at without changing, but this one is changed the second you
rlm@81 1042 look at it, recording where /you/ looked forever for others to
rlm@81 1043 see. Make it be a painting of a woman and see the trolling as the
rlm@81 1044 breasts and groin area light up with interest from all the males
rlm@81 1045 passing by.
rlm@81 1046
rlm@80 1047 - smart toilets :: Instead of using indirect measures like infrared
rlm@80 1048 detectors of the presence of a person, use computer
rlm@80 1049 vision to directly measure whether the toilet needs
rlm@80 1050 to be flushed. I think a lot of things will end up
rlm@80 1051 going this way as we get better computer vision.
rlm@80 1052
rlm@77 1053 - validate chemopreservation :: chemopreservation is difficult to
rlm@77 1054 validate because it destroys the functionality of a brain, and
rlm@77 1055 brain simulation will take a long time to mature as a
rlm@77 1056 technology. However, one very powerful way to validate
rlm@77 1057 chemopreservation would be to have a person/animal learn
rlm@77 1058 something with high complexity such as a number or the solution
rlm@80 1059 to a maze, or a flashbulb memory. Then you preserve their brain
rlm@80 1060 chemically, slice it up, and read /that specific memory/ from the
rlm@77 1061 detailed brain scan. Much more difficult, but much more doable.
rlm@77 1062
rlm@75 1063 - candy screw :: edible candy screw with candy nuts that you can screw
rlm@75 1064 as well.
rlm@76 1065
rlm@74 1066 - better bibliography :: when writing a thesis or paper, have the
rlm@80 1067 bibliography not just be an opaque list of resources, but have it
rlm@74 1068 be a list of /summaries/ and /qualities/ that each paper has in
rlm@80 1069 the context of the paper being written. When examining a
rlm@80 1070 bibliography, I want to know if reading the papers in the
rlm@74 1071 bibliography are worth my time, and I also am probably also
rlm@74 1072 interested in exactly the things that are being discussed in the
rlm@74 1073 paper I'm reading. The bibliography is the perfect place to
rlm@74 1074 provide information about the referenced papers from the
rlm@80 1075 author's perspective. I will use this biographic form in my own
rlm@74 1076 thesis.
rlm@74 1077
rlm@73 1078 - digital inter-library loan :: libraries at universities already do
rlm@80 1079 inter-library loans for books, so why not do the same for access
rlm@73 1080 to stupid paywalled digital papers? All the universities could
rlm@73 1081 allow access to articles for registered students to all the files
rlm@73 1082 available through any participating university. This could be
rlm@73 1083 achieved by sending requests through proxies at participating
rlm@73 1084 universities. Each university would decide who at the university
rlm@73 1085 can access the proxy network. Access to the proxy network could
rlm@73 1086 be made easy using something like http://libx.org/.
rlm@73 1087
rlm@72 1088 - chess visual :: to show the vast size of the game trees considered
rlm@72 1089 by computers, show two people playing chess in a
rlm@72 1090 void. They are floating in space, and there is a
rlm@72 1091 simple chess board between them. Then, as they play,
rlm@72 1092 the game tree's they are considering are drawn
rlm@72 1093 behind him. The root of the tree starts centered in
rlm@72 1094 their heads or whatever they use to think, and the
rlm@72 1095 tree grows out from behind, never crossing the
rlm@72 1096 dividing plane between the two players. Each
rlm@72 1097 player's tree is a different color. As they grow,
rlm@72 1098 there are animations for pruning, etc. Eventually,
rlm@72 1099 they look like the hemispheres of a brain, wings,
rlm@72 1100 etc. A human's tree might occasionally have a long
rlm@72 1101 chain, while the computer tree would be more
rlm@72 1102 uniform. You could compare deep blue and a modern
rlm@72 1103 laptop. Use actual data when fighting two computers!
rlm@72 1104
rlm@71 1105 - time verification :: some standard way to verify that some piece of
rlm@71 1106 data was recorded at a specific time. Might involve a time
rlm@73 1107 server, a key for each time period, something like that.
rlm@71 1108
rlm@70 1109 - tamper proof gold bars :: [[http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/gold-plated-tungsten-alloy-bar.html][this site]] offers gold plated tungsten bars
rlm@70 1110 as "novelty" items. One reason to prefer coins is because they
rlm@70 1111 are much harder to counterfeit because there is less surface area
rlm@70 1112 to mass ratio. However, gold bars are still a great design
rlm@70 1113 because they can hold a lot of value in a small space. A gold bar
rlm@70 1114 could be given the same protections (and more) that gold coins
rlm@70 1115 have to offer by changing it into a "gold book", which would have
rlm@70 1116 hundreds of "pages" of gold bound together. This could be
rlm@70 1117 implemented with multiple steel rods going through the book which
rlm@70 1118 can be removed, or some more classier mechanism for holding the
rlm@70 1119 pages. The point is that the bar can be EASILY subdivided (and
rlm@70 1120 people would perform this test before buying), thus guaranteeing
rlm@70 1121 it's authenticity.
rlm@70 1122
rlm@68 1123 - aurellem shirt :: I should make an aurellem star symbol tee-shirt.
rlm@68 1124
rlm@86 1125 - touch vision :: inspired by GelSight, I want to reexamine cortex and
rlm@86 1126 see if I could implement touch as a very low range
rlm@86 1127 form of vision.
rlm@86 1128
rlm@67 1129 - high school science :: this is a lesson in scientific ethics. The
rlm@67 1130 goal is to calculate /g/, the local gravitational
rlm@67 1131 acceleration. The students are told that the textbook says it's
rlm@67 1132 /exactly/ 9.81 before they start the experiment. See how they
rlm@67 1133 doctor their results to get closer to the textbook value. It's
rlm@67 1134 neat because for any given school, /g/ is probably *not* exactly
rlm@67 1135 equal to 9.81, because that is just an average!
rlm@67 1136
rlm@67 1137 - opencourseware subtitles :: there are ladies who type up lectures
rlm@67 1138 while they are being given. These recordings should be kept and
rlm@67 1139 given to OCW for subtitles. If the timestamps of keys are
rlm@67 1140 recorded, then it is easy to make subtitles.
rlm@67 1141
rlm@66 1142 - screen locking timing :: you use your computer camera to see if you
rlm@66 1143 are sitting in front of the computer. If you are, then the screen
rlm@66 1144 will never lock. If you are, then the screen will lock with a
rlm@67 1145 30-40 second timeout. It's an extension of using inactivity to
rlm@66 1146 initiate the countdown, just with more information.
rlm@66 1147
rlm@66 1148 - mirror toilet :: a toilet with a square basin made or mirror instead
rlm@67 1149 or porcelain. That way, you can see how good of a
rlm@66 1150 wipe job you have done / watch how your excretion
rlm@66 1151 system works.
rlm@66 1152
rlm@80 1153 - test dummies :: why don't we clone anencephalic humans and use then to
rlm@62 1154 test /in vivo/ human organ systems and drugs? It
rlm@62 1155 would be ethical as long as there are women who are
rlm@62 1156 willing to host the clones, and it would be a
rlm@67 1157 tremendous resource for studying the human body. I
rlm@62 1158 see nothing wrong with it morally, since no one is
rlm@67 1159 suffering, and it stands to save many lives throughout
rlm@62 1160 more advanced technology.
rlm@62 1161
rlm@62 1162 - X-ray telepresence :: given that a doctor is operating on a patient
rlm@62 1163 via telepresence, one cool things you can do is shine X-rays into
rlm@62 1164 the patient to view the insides during real time. If the system
rlm@80 1165 was coupled with a Bayesian model of the layout of the structure,
rlm@67 1166 and the x-rays were only fired whenever the uncertainty of the
rlm@62 1167 model reached a certain threshold, then the radiation damage
rlm@62 1168 and surgery risk could be minimized.
rlm@62 1169
rlm@62 1170 - superfluid vascular system :: I wonder what would happen if you
rlm@62 1171 replaced the blood in a human with a superfluid. What would the
rlm@62 1172 physical dynamics be? Would the superfluid flow through the
rlm@62 1173 vasculature, or would it ignore it and travel through the cells,
rlm@62 1174 or something else entirely. Since superfluids need to be cold to
rlm@62 1175 retain their superfluidity, how would the dynamics change during
rlm@62 1176 perfusion of a superfluid, where the fluid gains and looses
rlm@62 1177 superfluidity as it goes deeper into the body and is cooled by
rlm@67 1178 superfluid from upstream. In summary there are two things to
rlm@62 1179 simulate 1.) replace all blood in human with superfluid
rlm@62 1180 instantly. 2.) perfuse superfluid into human.
rlm@51 1181
rlm@59 1182 - projective guessing :: I think that we read and see things by
rlm@67 1183 making a really good guess about what we're expecting to see,
rlm@59 1184 and then searching for our guess in what we see. If it really
rlm@59 1185 doesn't match, then we start to make more guesses / analyze the
rlm@59 1186 image from first principles, but most stuff is projective
rlm@59 1187 guessing.
rlm@59 1188
rlm@67 1189 - Intestinal flora maintenance :: why not inoculate babies at birth
rlm@59 1190 with "ideal" gut flora instead of whatever bullshit they
rlm@59 1191 naturally get, thus giving them optimal digestive/nutrient
rlm@67 1192 extraction capabilities. Might also be able to make their farts
rlm@94 1193 not stink for life, too. MORE IMPORTANTLY, might help to
rlm@91 1194 preventatively stop some forms of /colic/, which affects 1 in 5
rlm@94 1195 babies and causes constant screaming and pain for about 5 weeks.
rlm@59 1196
rlm@56 1197 - server culture : mirrors :: make a distributed system where people
rlm@56 1198 can mirror the websites of people they like -- essentially cover
rlm@56 1199 the server costs of favored websites. This could make popular
rlm@56 1200 websites run at no cost. The system would require that the
rlm@56 1201 mirrored content be the same as the official source. Sort of like
rlm@67 1202 bit-torrent for websites.
rlm@56 1203
rlm@56 1204 - map programming :: one problem with functional programming is that
rlm@56 1205 in order to remain functional, you have to pass up arguments up
rlm@67 1206 into each calling function to get the full range of behavior
rlm@56 1207 from the lower level functions. Normally people come to a
rlm@67 1208 compromise involving abstraction and sparing use of dynamic
rlm@67 1209 variables to configure runtime behavior. What would be the
rlm@56 1210 advantages of making a programming language where every function
rlm@67 1211 receives one argument, a map, which contains all the symbol
rlm@56 1212 bindings it would ever need? This map is passed on to all
rlm@56 1213 subordinate functions. This way, you could replace functions on
rlm@56 1214 the fly, and arrange for there to be sensible defaults,
rlm@56 1215 etc. Might cause more harm than good but is an interesting idea.
rlm@56 1216
rlm@55 1217 - rest nest :: a small EEG device you would attach to your head when
rlm@55 1218 you go to sleep at night. ML algorithms would determine
rlm@55 1219 your particular sleep cycles. This would mostly be an
rlm@55 1220 alarm clock that you could give a time range, say
rlm@55 1221 7:00AM - 7:15AM, and it would wake you up during an
rlm@55 1222 ideal time corresponding to then end of one of your 90
rlm@55 1223 min sleep cycles. You would feel much more rested upon
rlm@55 1224 waking up, and would wake up faster. There might be
rlm@55 1225 some other uses for the EEG data as well.
rlm@55 1226
rlm@50 1227 - image compression :: use a library like gimp or opencv to process an
rlm@50 1228 image to make it have less entropy, then store the reverse of
rlm@50 1229 those operations along with the compressed simpler image as a
rlm@80 1230 super-compressed image file (possibly accepting some
rlm@80 1231 losses). Trades file size for decompression time, and allows one
rlm@50 1232 to cheat by using information in gimp/opencv to compress the
rlm@50 1233 image.
rlm@50 1234
rlm@47 1235 - fixed cryopreservation :: why not use a fixative to buy enough time
rlm@42 1236 to ramp up cryoprotectants to an acceptable level at room
rlm@42 1237 temperature? Then, the whole system can be rapidly cooled and
rlm@42 1238 vitrified. This method "severs the biological link" in that the
rlm@47 1239 fixatives are highly toxic, but current vitrification procedures
rlm@42 1240 do this anyway since there can be a lot of freezing damage.
rlm@38 1241
rlm@67 1242 - dilated security camera :: a security camera that would capture
rlm@58 1243 full video footage of everything at 60fps but then decide to keep
rlm@58 1244 only every 1 frame every 5 seconds unless there's something
rlm@58 1245 "interesting" happening.
rlm@58 1246
rlm@40 1247 - bitcoin wallet :: Part of "server culture", this would be something
rlm@40 1248 like "coin.your-domain.com" which would serve as
rlm@40 1249 your personal trusted access to your own bitcoins
rlm@40 1250 from anywhere.
rlm@40 1251
rlm@40 1252 - libpay :: this would be a free library which would enable
rlm@40 1253 micro-donations to software projects and other projects,
rlm@47 1254 so that you could donate a penny to "emacs" and it would
rlm@47 1255 be automatically split up to every person who has ever
rlm@40 1256 contributed to emacs in proportion to the amount of
rlm@40 1257 community esteem, code quantity, bugs fixed, whatever the
rlm@47 1258 community decides. This might make it possible for
rlm@40 1259 programmers to live entirely off of free programming.
rlm@40 1260
rlm@45 1261 - distributed graphics :: Browser based graphics-card accelerated
rlm@45 1262 distributed computing API.
rlm@41 1263
rlm@40 1264 - pronouns :: use capital letters A-Z instead of pronouns. They solve
rlm@40 1265 pronoun referents and gender neutrality, are short to
rlm@40 1266 say, and you can encode useful information into the
rlm@40 1267 choice of letter. For example, instead of "Meetings
rlm@40 1268 shall be presided over by the president, unless she is
rlm@42 1269 absent." USE "Meetings shall be presided over by the
rlm@40 1270 president, unless P is absent." We already use this a
rlm@40 1271 little, since I and U are reserved for the subject and
rlm@40 1272 object respectively.
rlm@40 1273
rlm@40 1274 - phone DSP :: software app that inserts an audio DSP between the
rlm@40 1275 input to a phone and the output. The DSP is delicious
rlm@40 1276 and configurable, and can allow men to make their
rlm@40 1277 voices deeper, etc. The app would allow you to hear
rlm@40 1278 your own voice as others hear it. Most people hate how
rlm@40 1279 their own voice sounds. The app would also allow one to
rlm@47 1280 immediately change the parameters of the DSP using good
rlm@40 1281 presets.
rlm@40 1282
rlm@47 1283 - predestined body learning :: a good example of predestined learning
rlm@40 1284 might be the mirror neurons.
rlm@40 1285
rlm@47 1286 - restaurant receipt :: use a carbon copy receipt instead of two stupid
rlm@40 1287 copies.
rlm@40 1288
rlm@41 1289 - anti google glass :: glasses with mounted lasers and computer vision
rlm@41 1290 that targets the cameras in google glass and destroy them.
rlm@41 1291
rlm@40 1292 - wearable towel :: towel with clasp, velcro, whatever, that allows
rlm@40 1293 one to wear the towel more securely than just
rlm@40 1294 wrapping it tightly and hoping for the best.
rlm@40 1295
rlm@47 1296 - crossdressing :: Easiest way to disguise oneself as a woman is to
rlm@44 1297 wear a burka.
rlm@41 1298
rlm@40 1299 - book-mode :: intelligent color highlighting for books and
rlm@40 1300 articles. It would disambiguate pronouns and involved
rlm@93 1301 references. For example, if "Rachael" was assigned the
rlm@93 1302 color red, and "the blonde haired girl" refers to
rlm@93 1303 "Rachael", then "the blonde haired girl" would be
rlm@93 1304 colored red. Also, you could disambiguate multi part
rlm@93 1305 run-on sentences by highlighting each
rlm@93 1306 subcomponent. Maybe would also have applications to
rlm@93 1307 scientific reading.
rlm@40 1308
rlm@40 1309 - Handheld light Rain measurement :: this would be a clear, teflon
rlm@47 1310 coated plastic disk with a camera underneath the disk. You would
rlm@40 1311 be able to hold the device out and it would measure the rate of
rlm@40 1312 accumulation of water droplets from fine mists and light rain by
rlm@40 1313 using computer vision to measure the diameters of the drops.
rlm@40 1314
rlm@40 1315 - Big Brother Farming :: This would be a vision system that would
rlm@40 1316 individually monitor each plant and turn on water, etc to ensure
rlm@40 1317 maximum/uniform growth for each plant.
rlm@40 1318
rlm@40 1319 - Discrete Faucet :: A faucet with discrete ticks instead of
rlm@47 1320 continuous.
rlm@40 1321
rlm@40 1322 - Laser Circle :: take a glass microfiliment and shine a laser at one
rlm@40 1323 end at an oblique angle. It will make a perfect,
rlm@40 1324 large circle on the wall, converting a laser beam
rlm@47 1325 into a laser cone, preserving most of the energy of
rlm@40 1326 the laser.
rlm@40 1327
rlm@40 1328 - Invisible Glass :: Take a container of liquid and embed a
rlm@40 1329 glass sculpture made out of glass that has exactly the same index
rlm@40 1330 of refraction and color of the liquid. Then the sculpture will be
rlm@40 1331 totally invisible in the container, and will only be revealed
rlm@40 1332 when the liquid is drained. The container might be a fancy
rlm@40 1333 wine/spirit bottle or an hourglass.
rlm@40 1334
rlm@47 1335 - Caterpillar people :: A race of caterpillar like creatures gains
rlm@40 1336 intelligence after eons of predation by birds, etc. These
rlm@47 1337 caterpillar creatures still undergo metamorphosis into a large
rlm@40 1338 butterfly-like creature. The metamorphosis process turns the
rlm@40 1339 caterpillar's brain into mush and reforms it into a minimal,
rlm@40 1340 dumb, truly insect-like mind, completely destroying the person
rlm@47 1341 the caterpillar was. The society develops all sorts of customs and
rlm@40 1342 religious interpretations of the metamorphosis. It is viewed as
rlm@40 1343 good and natural by some since it is part of their life cycle and
rlm@47 1344 necessary to propagate the species, as only the butterflies can
rlm@40 1345 mate. Some think that the butterflies are still the same person
rlm@47 1346 because they have the same soul, even they no longer posses the
rlm@47 1347 memories or personality of the original caterpillar. Some see the
rlm@40 1348 butterfly form as the "true form" of the species, since the
rlm@40 1349 butterflies can fly, mate, and are beautiful. Many make a big
rlm@47 1350 deal out of the fact that 1-2% of the caterpillar's mind is
rlm@40 1351 actually preserved in the butterfly. Some see it as a terrible
rlm@47 1352 tragedy and argue that the caterpillars should try to stop the
rlm@40 1353 metamorphosis by technology. Practically, some very important
rlm@40 1354 members of society undergo hormone therapy and/or surgery to
rlm@40 1355 prevent metamorphosis so that they can live longer as themselves.
rlm@40 1356
rlm@40 1357 This is a continuation of Marvin Minsky's ideas about pain being
rlm@40 1358 something that preserves our bodies while destroying our minds,
rlm@40 1359 something that is a remnant from our too harsh animal days that
rlm@40 1360 hasn't caught up to the fact that we have very complex brains
rlm@40 1361 now. It's a worst-case scenario about a maladaptive genetic
rlm@40 1362 legacy. Also, it's inspired by "There She Is!!!", which makes a
rlm@40 1363 compelling point about homosexuality by introducing a second
rlm@40 1364 gender characteristic (bunny/cat, male/female), which makes
rlm@40 1365 homophobia look very silly. Here, our own biological legacy of
rlm@47 1366 pain and death is made to look like the tragedy it is through the
rlm@47 1367 lens of the the caterpillar people.
rlm@40 1368
rlm@46 1369 - relationships as a business :: [[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-Crisis.aspx][Turnover-Crisis]] is an excellent talk
rlm@46 1370 about the "culture of quitting," which is about better business
rlm@46 1371 by letting people go instead of keeping them around past their
rlm@47 1372 "apex". Focuses on information transfer. Cool idea of an alumni
rlm@46 1373 network, which for relationships would be a group of satisfied
rlm@46 1374 ex-lovers, who would recommend new people your way, and who might
rlm@46 1375 consider coming to you again, refreshed from their time away with
rlm@46 1376 new stories/experiences. I should look for examples of this and
rlm@46 1377 how they worked out.
rlm@43 1378
rlm@47 1379 - coffee with tea :: /rlm-tea/ contains 2% sugar, 10% cream, and 20%
rlm@43 1380 dylan coffee. /dylan coffee/ contains 5% sugar,
rlm@43 1381 20% cream, and 10% rlm-tea. Start your mornings
rlm@43 1382 with recursion!
rlm@43 1383
rlm@43 1384 - psychic crystal :: in a science fiction story, this would be an
rlm@43 1385 object that is very easy to move physically but is extremely
rlm@43 1386 difficult to move with telekinesis.
rlm@43 1387
rlm@40 1388 - http://betsofbitco.in/ :: what a great place for an AI/person to
rlm@40 1389 prove themselves as a good predictor. I wish this could be
rlm@40 1390 automated.
rlm@40 1391
rlm@44 1392 - true reflection :: don't forget about that mirror in the student
rlm@44 1393 center!, it's two mirrors at right angles, like staring at a
rlm@44 1394 corner of a room. The light reflects so that it shows you what
rlm@44 1395 you actually look like, instead of your mirror image.
rlm@33 1396
rlm@33 1397 - remote control wasp :: use computer to drive wings with remote
rlm@32 1398 power/logic.
rlm@32 1399
rlm@47 1400 - encrypted email phone book :: public (distributed?) database of
rlm@44 1401 email->private-key pairs, to enable automatic encryption.
rlm@32 1402
rlm@44 1403 - universal eye color :: every equivalent creature will see each
rlm@44 1404 others' eyes as black -- it's universal. Even if the creatures
rlm@44 1405 see in radio waves, and their eyes are 2m long pieces of jagged
rlm@44 1406 metal, when those creatures look at each other, they will see
rlm@44 1407 black, the absence of light and color (since it's being absorbed
rlm@44 1408 by the sensor array).
rlm@32 1409
rlm@33 1410 - intelligent microwave :: it learns where the hot nodes of its fields
rlm@83 1411 are, and uses them to evenly heat any food item. It has an infrared
rlm@32 1412 camera or something to keep track of how hot the food is. That way,
rlm@32 1413 you don't get bowls where the edges are boiling, while the center is
rlm@32 1414 still frozen. Requires a little bit of intelligence/vision, since
rlm@32 1415 the exact pattern of heating totally depends on the exact shape of
rlm@47 1416 the food. Wouldn't need a carousel, and wouldn't need a timer,
rlm@47 1417 just a desired temperature. Could also detect ice, and automatically
rlm@32 1418 defrost the parts which are frozen. Might be able to work much
rlm@47 1419 faster since it can avoid overheating; might have problems with
rlm@32 1420 heating the insides of thick things, might need a weight sensor too.
rlm@32 1421
rlm@39 1422 + Would be much cleaner than other microwaves, since food would
rlm@39 1423 "sputter" and splash liquid much less.
rlm@32 1424
rlm@39 1425 + Throw in some SIFT+R processing to match previously cooked foods
rlm@39 1426 and learn the exact heating profiles for things that have been
rlm@54 1427 cooked before -- it can get faster the more it's used.
rlm@32 1428
rlm@47 1429 - compression :: brain-aware image compression algorithm
rlm@32 1430
rlm@44 1431 - Credit card proxy :: would be a company which works like paypal
rlm@44 1432 except for real world transactions
rlm@32 1433
rlm@33 1434 - Flesh pillow :: a pillow like the arm or torso of a human, complete
rlm@33 1435 with simulated temperature, bones, and heartbeat.
rlm@33 1436
rlm@47 1437 - super screw :: a screw which has only one or two threads and instead
rlm@47 1438 uses compression to fit into a hole (the whole shank
rlm@33 1439 of the screw is split into multiple pieces to
rlm@33 1440 accomplish this; the tip is a point, then the middle
rlm@33 1441 bulges out and gets compressed when screwed in.
rlm@33 1442
rlm@47 1443 - light filter :: (like light tweezers) to mechanically separate
rlm@33 1444 fluids with different index of refraction
rlm@33 1445
rlm@33 1446 - chalk eraser project :: maybe make a directional eraser, for easy
rlm@33 1447 release of chalk dust, like fur, and how it likes to rest in a
rlm@33 1448 certain direction.
rlm@33 1449
rlm@44 1450 - silver socks :: socks laced with silver for the antimicrobial
rlm@44 1451 properties.
rlm@32 1452
rlm@53 1453 - UROP :: magnet gear/metal teeth tape
rlm@53 1454
rlm@82 1455 - Rod of Moses :: device to distill urine through evaporation and
rlm@53 1456 easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert --
rlm@53 1457 produce drinkable water.
rlm@32 1458
rlm@47 1459 - UROP :: Make the LED in line with the flow for the micro injector, so
rlm@44 1460 that it may transmit maximum flow. Motor that changes
rlm@44 1461 distance of internal magnet from windings depending on
rlm@44 1462 desired speed so as to obtain maximum power efficiency.
rlm@32 1463
rlm@47 1464 - lottery scraper :: web scraper which monitors various lotteries,
rlm@44 1465 looking for "special" gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x
rlm@44 1466 winnings on Wednesdays) and computes expected value...
rlm@34 1467
rlm@34 1468 - Memristiors novel design :: make an evolutionary algorithm to make
rlm@34 1469 old stuff using all four basic circuit elements.
rlm@34 1470
rlm@44 1471 - Conductive concrete :: concrete that has embedded metal fibers so
rlm@44 1472 that it can conduct electricity.
rlm@34 1473
rlm@44 1474 - little bitty melting pot :: might be useful for some types of
rlm@44 1475 manufacturing/3D printing -- how small can an induction melter be
rlm@44 1476 made, for example.
rlm@34 1477
rlm@44 1478 - power strip/timer programmable combination :: meh
rlm@34 1479
rlm@47 1480 - algorithms :: which learn what their inputs are and in what order,
rlm@44 1481 and can adapt to changing circumstances -- they
rlm@44 1482 remember previous arguments and adapt so as to respond
rlm@44 1483 to different connections.
rlm@34 1484
rlm@47 1485 - true pure tones :: hear a true pure tone by direct stimulation of the
rlm@44 1486 nerves of the ear
rlm@43 1487
rlm@43 1488 - mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp :: would be an object
rlm@43 1489 with two levers -- you pull on one lever and the other moves the
rlm@43 1490 same way, no matter what's in the way or what it is driving. This
rlm@47 1491 analogy could be useful to teach op amps to people.
rlm@34 1492
rlm@47 1493 - paper folding device :: make it convenient to fold lots of papers in
rlm@34 1494 various ways.
rlm@34 1495
rlm@34 1496 - concrete epoxy :: epoxy with sand/ some other solid material.
rlm@34 1497
rlm@47 1498 - light capacitor :: suspend some ball of material with a high index
rlm@43 1499 of refraction and shine light into it so it gets stuck -- would
rlm@43 1500 the light stay trapped forever? Could you build up unlimited
rlm@43 1501 quantities of light inside the sphere (which could then be
rlm@43 1502 released slowly by frustrated internal reflection?
rlm@34 1503
rlm@40 1504 - movie screening :: Movies always are too long at first. One way to
rlm@34 1505 shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the
rlm@34 1506 move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which
rlm@34 1507 there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people)
rlm@34 1508 better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I
rlm@34 1509 got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill
rlm@47 1510 which is composed entirely of the parts in which people had their
rlm@34 1511 eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their
rlm@34 1512 eyes off of? Just take those parts out!
rlm@34 1513
rlm@47 1514 - optimize an article :: capture reading of a scientific article via
rlm@44 1515 screen capture while people read it, then use it to make the
rlm@44 1516 article better. like the movie-pruning idea.
rlm@35 1517
rlm@44 1518 - super reading program :: teaches people the ideal mental mask to
rlm@44 1519 apply during reading so as to read very fast.
rlm@35 1520
rlm@44 1521 - explosive thermite epoxy putty :: one part would contain the rust,
rlm@47 1522 one part the aluminum.
rlm@34 1523
rlm@44 1524 - reading comprehension :: use the above screen capture routine to
rlm@44 1525 make a quiz program that constructs questions about the content
rlm@44 1526 you seemed to gloss over while reading. could be easy if the pdf
rlm@44 1527 came with embedded questions. Dylan: automatically generate
rlm@44 1528 word-cloud about the parts you found most interesting; help
rlm@44 1529 others who read the same stuff by drawing attention to the
rlm@44 1530 interesting parts.
rlm@34 1531
rlm@44 1532 - hard sword :: make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of
rlm@44 1533 martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better
rlm@44 1534 sword.
rlm@32 1535
rlm@44 1536 - close range wireless :: use the induction technology used to
rlm@44 1537 recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data
rlm@44 1538 without any metal at all!
rlm@32 1539
rlm@44 1540 - reading :: is a form of synsethesia
rlm@32 1541
rlm@44 1542 - DNA printer :: A machine which translates the text eg, "ACTGAC" into
rlm@44 1543 actual DNA
rlm@32 1544
rlm@44 1545 - black generator :: ferro-fluid magnetic field suspended micro
rlm@44 1546 generator to make electricity
rlm@32 1547
rlm@44 1548 - alcohol battery :: alcohol/fluid flow powered battery
rlm@32 1549
rlm@44 1550 - folding razor blade sword ::
rlm@32 1551
rlm@44 1552 - perfect pitch :: learn perfect pitch using another sense in
rlm@44 1553 combination (sight or touch)
rlm@32 1554
rlm@44 1555 - kaleidoscope projector ::
rlm@32 1556
rlm@44 1557 - razor blade de-sharpener :: for guilt free disposal
rlm@32 1558
rlm@44 1559 - bricks :: filled with luminescent plant material
rlm@32 1560
rlm@47 1561 - bio metallic structure :: metal grids with seeds inside, which grow
rlm@44 1562 together and form a durable biological matrix. The metal
rlm@44 1563 substrate delivers water. (maybe use plastic instead of metal?)
rlm@44 1564 Dylan: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical
rlm@44 1565 interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled
rlm@44 1566 photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures.
rlm@32 1567
rlm@44 1568 - conducting extracellular matrix :: to allow better control of
rlm@44 1569 organic systems and an enhanced nervous system.
rlm@32 1570
rlm@44 1571 - cross-modal memory hashing :: a way to retrieve memories more
rlm@44 1572 robustly.
rlm@32 1573
rlm@47 1574 - flossing thimble-guards :: (these actually exist)
rlm@32 1575
rlm@44 1576 - rules + lattice learning :: integrate lattice learning with rules by
rlm@44 1577 generating hypothetical examples
rlm@32 1578
rlm@47 1579 - wooden refrigerator :: to give food a better taste Dylan: like
rlm@44 1580 barrels for wine, or planks for salmon. Maybe just have "flavor
rlm@44 1581 planks" for your pre-existing fridge. Need to mitigate effect of
rlm@44 1582 temperature on volatility?
rlm@32 1583
rlm@35 1584 - radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule :: create precious
rlm@35 1585 metals or something else economically advantageous.
rlm@32 1586
rlm@47 1587 - crowd preservation :: inoculate food with tons of harmless
rlm@44 1588 bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of
rlm@44 1589 preservation
rlm@32 1590
rlm@47 1591 - old school preservation :: Pasteur - style holding jar with siphon
rlm@47 1592 as a way to store liquids at room temperature indefinitely w/o
rlm@47 1593 refrigeration.
rlm@32 1594
rlm@47 1595 - restaurant policy :: Throw rude people out of restaurant as a matter
rlm@44 1596 of course -- make ambiance much better.
rlm@32 1597
rlm@47 1598 - clean windows :: make something that mixes soap with fire hydrant
rlm@44 1599 water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it
rlm@44 1600 to clean windows of buildings.
rlm@32 1601
rlm@44 1602 - ocarina :: make an ocarina out of pure silver
rlm@32 1603
rlm@35 1604 - fire pen :: pen which burns words on to the page, thus never needing
rlm@47 1605 any ink. Is there a way to make it runnable from the
rlm@35 1606 human's energy?
rlm@32 1607
rlm@44 1608 - website to design your own soda :: and label, and have it mailed to
rlm@44 1609 you / sell it from your own online store.
rlm@35 1610
rlm@44 1611 - solar panels :: that float on the ocean
rlm@43 1612
rlm@35 1613 - handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?) :: great for daisy chaining
rlm@43 1614 people, binding them to environment, etc.
rlm@35 1615
rlm@35 1616 - vector based SOUND files :: like the pictures but with SOUND. codify
rlm@35 1617 sound in a language with enough symbols so that it can describe
rlm@35 1618 everything and encode it in that. would be like going from speech
rlm@43 1619 to text or smtg. Could also store sound as an image of the
rlm@35 1620 wavefront encoded as a vector image.
rlm@32 1621
rlm@44 1622 - Mouse :: with a horizontal scroll wheel in addition to the vertical
rlm@44 1623 scroll wheel
rlm@32 1624
rlm@47 1625 - logic maintenance system for big institutions :: to make sure the
rlm@44 1626 things they are thinking about doing are not retarded
rlm@32 1627
rlm@47 1628 - http://www.regulations.gov/ :: cool site
rlm@32 1629
rlm@44 1630 - genetically engineered glowing fruit :: sell seeds?
rlm@32 1631
rlm@36 1632 - memory slide :: IF memories are encoded using particular sensory
rlm@36 1633 impressions, what happens if the sensory organ
rlm@36 1634 itself changes? those memories would become
rlm@47 1635 inaccessible. maybe this is why we can't remember
rlm@36 1636 much from our childhoods. also, could this happen
rlm@47 1637 throughout life as well? Could S remember stuff from
rlm@36 1638 his childhood?
rlm@32 1639
rlm@47 1640 - make a completely indestructible phone :: no moving parts or display
rlm@36 1641 you should be able to slam it around all you want, and it will
rlm@36 1642 just work. brutally simple. aerogel around the battery, minimal
rlm@36 1643 interface - never gets too hot, and can be dropped into water. no
rlm@36 1644 holes -- uses field effects for everything from the buttons to
rlm@36 1645 inductive charging and data transfer.
rlm@32 1646
rlm@44 1647 - midi to ocarina "tabs" program :: (online website? buy ocarinas from
rlm@44 1648 it too)
rlm@32 1649
rlm@44 1650 - 3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns) :: like the 8.03
rlm@44 1651 lecture
rlm@32 1652
rlm@40 1653 - lighter flint on spring :: make hot, throw it at something, and it
rlm@40 1654 makes sparkles!
rlm@32 1655
rlm@44 1656 - nuclear energy :: Rebranding New+Clear Energy with informational
rlm@44 1657 campaign and public debate forum to enforce its
rlm@44 1658 transparent and open nature. France needn't be the
rlm@44 1659 world leader in nuclear energy. (Dylan)
rlm@32 1660
rlm@44 1661 - bubbles :: Engineer a material which has both ductility and high
rlm@44 1662 surface tension to make the "third"
rlm@44 1663 minimal-surface-energy solution to a bubble suspended
rlm@44 1664 between two equal-diameter rings. (Solutions are
rlm@44 1665 cylindrical catenary curve, two separated half-bubbles,
rlm@44 1666 and a double-cone)
rlm@38 1667
rlm@38 1668 - Textbook whose content can be varied continuously :: alter level of
rlm@38 1669 difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain
rlm@38 1670 other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from
rlm@38 1671 knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to
rlm@38 1672 guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of
rlm@40 1673 knowledge. /One./
rlm@40 1674
rlm@40 1675 ** From Jacob's idea list
rlm@40 1676
rlm@47 1677 - Roommate-canceling headphones: uses roommate's laptop mic to seed
rlm@43 1678 noise cancellation alg in your headphones (would this
rlm@40 1679 work?). -Update on sound canceling headphones that take feed from
rlm@40 1680 tv: how about ones that cancel people talking on the phone by
rlm@40 1681 receiving the phone signals and playing inverse sound
rlm@40 1682 waves. #signalprocessing ~jcole@mit.edu
rlm@40 1683
rlm@40 1684 - ClackerAlert -- tells if you slam the keys too hard using sound data
rlm@40 1685 (and speed/jerkiness data)!.Prevents RSI ~jcole@mit.e
rlm@40 1686
rlm@40 1687 - Panic Pin :: separate pin that you can tell someone if forced to
rlm@41 1688 identify your PIN (idea from idea about credit cards)