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author Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date Wed, 29 Jul 2015 20:26:26 -0700
parents 111bd9aa499a
children 4fe52d2a28e5
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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@153 22 - spinal relay :: you have a small air-gapped repeater built into your
rlm@153 23 spine in order to help with spinal injury, connect with
rlm@153 24 prosthetics, and to monitor/control your body. Also, you could
rlm@153 25 add the ability to save "macros"!
rlm@153 26
rlm@153 27 - human cysts :: there should be communities of people with varying
rlm@153 28 enforced separations from the rest of society in order to gaurd
rlm@153 29 against various catastrophies.
rlm@153 30
rlm@153 31 - bioelectric synthesis :: have a device which stores a lot of energy,
rlm@153 32 and processes blood by creating sugar from waste produces over
rlm@153 33 the day. You still need water, vitamins, minerals, etc, but this
rlm@153 34 can handle the bulk of your energy demands and be recharged from
rlm@153 35 the wall.
rlm@153 36
rlm@153 37 - chelation as a method to improve cryoprotectant permeability ::
rlm@153 38
rlm@153 39 - transgender fruit analogy :: like tomatoes
rlm@153 40
rlm@153 41 - video game controllers as actual controllers :: console controlers
rlm@153 42 like the n64 trident are excellent, durable tools for fine
rlm@153 43 control. We should use them to control all sorts of things like
rlm@153 44 robots by default. You should use it for your projects, since
rlm@153 45 it's unlikely you'll be able to come up with something
rlm@153 46 better. Compared to console controllers, the ones we use for
rlm@153 47 robots/RC stuff are hopelessly clunky.
rlm@153 48
rlm@153 49 - bubble computers :: bubble duality, bubble computing
rlm@153 50
rlm@153 51 - dark blood bag :: blood bags in hospitals should be dark colored to
rlm@153 52 protect the blood from damage from light.
rlm@153 53
rlm@153 54 - chimeric homozygous sex chromosomes :: chimeric organism with XX and
rlm@153 55 XX patterns from two males and two females. On average, it has
rlm@153 56 the correct methylation pattern. Would it work?
rlm@153 57
rlm@153 58 - horseshoe blood fixative :: would it work as a washout?
rlm@153 59
rlm@153 60 - fixed protein packets :: group of fixed proteins in a network which
rlm@153 61 is used as medicine. Hemoglovin, maybe?
rlm@153 62
rlm@153 63 - prove hauntings :: website where you enter your pgp signed encrypted
rlm@153 64 file and swear by all the gods that you'll haunt me with the
rlm@153 65 password when you die, along with whatever other messages you
rlm@153 66 have. protocol -- I video, throw rock, get password.
rlm@153 67
rlm@153 68 - earth air water :: species name their planet "dirt" in their
rlm@153 69 language, unless the're aquatic or flying, then they'd name it
rlm@153 70 "water" and "air" respectively.
rlm@153 71
rlm@153 72 - ethylene glycol alt name :: icebane
rlm@153 73
rlm@153 74 - overflow hiaku :: a hiku about buffer overflos, with garbage C code
rlm@153 75 inside.
rlm@153 76
rlm@153 77 - white knight :: his sword is named "Privledge" (an inherited family
rlm@153 78 sword) he rides along the land, defending the code of
rlm@153 79 chivralirary and keeping the orthodozy of society from fading
rlm@153 80 from the realm.
rlm@153 81
rlm@153 82 - technological deflation :: even the richest robber baron from the
rlm@153 83 1920's could not afford a cardiac bypass surgery, even with
rlm@153 84 literally all the money they had. As technology advances, the
rlm@153 85 price of bread may go up, but the capabilities which money gives
rlm@153 86 you also dramatically increase.
rlm@153 87
rlm@153 88 - cure for color blindness :: could it be possible to administer some
rlm@153 89 retroviruses via direct injection to the retina, to cause some of
rlm@153 90 the cells in the retina to begin expressing different color
rlm@153 91 pigments? The brain ought to easily sort out the rest and enable
rlm@153 92 color vision. Furthremore, could we add some more colors to
rlm@153 93 baesline human eyes?
rlm@153 94
rlm@153 95 - mental integrity test :: if your brain starts to decay, you might
rlm@153 96 not notice the damage until it's too late. This would be a mental
rlm@153 97 integrity test that you take every few weeks that measures your
rlm@153 98 performance and compares it to a baseline. The tests are all
rlm@153 99 designed to catch the early signs of degenerative brain
rlm@153 100 diseases. For example, you might use performamce on a
rlm@153 101 smell-memory assoaction test to detect early-onset Alzheimer's.
rlm@153 102
rlm@152 103 - mind bank :: (in contrast to "brain bank")
rlm@152 104
rlm@152 105 - Passion of the Christ missed opportunity :: in the Passion of the
rlm@152 106 Christ, they do the entire show using Latin, Aramaic, etc, with
rlm@152 107 subtitles. They should have had a part where Jesus does the
rlm@152 108 sermon on the mount, he turns to the camera, and starts speaking
rlm@152 109 in English, with no subtitles. It would have been 1.) biblically
rlm@152 110 accurate and 2.) awesome. It would have been such a powerful
rlm@152 111 example of Jesus' divinity, and it felt like they were setting up
rlm@152 112 for it the entire movie, and they missed it!
rlm@152 113
rlm@152 114 - scientist online paper reviews ::
rlm@152 115
rlm@152 116 - binary feedback ::
rlm@152 117
rlm@152 118 - xenobiotic methalation rewriting ::
rlm@152 119
rlm@152 120 - trolley cryonics :: change the cryonics protocol around so that the
rlm@152 121 death occurs in a non-primary action loop.
rlm@152 122
rlm@152 123 - binary metric :: you make up new unit names for "2 centimeters", "4
rlm@152 124 centimeters", "16 centimeters", etc. Then no one will be happy!
rlm@152 125 BUT, it helps solve metric's problem of intermediate units. (a
rlm@152 126 centimeter is too small, a meter is too large!)
rlm@152 127
rlm@152 128 - physical pgp signatures :: someone should put together the
rlm@152 129 technologies so that you can digitally sign actual pieces of
rlm@152 130 paper -- some combination of signing a photograph of the
rlm@152 131 contract using pgp, printing a barcode or OR code on the page
rlm@152 132 which links to a website with the signed image, and a web of
rlm@152 133 trust model so that people can authenticate as themselves. All
rlm@152 134 this totally exists already, it's just not convienent.
rlm@152 135
rlm@152 136 - meta eye :: you wire in a third optical input to the human brain,
rlm@152 137 but it doesn't tranduce light form the real world, bus instead is
rlm@152 138 connected to the "internet of things" and shows you metadata
rlm@152 139 about things you are looking at // serves as an interface to your
rlm@152 140 own mind and body. Then eventually simply real things without
rlm@152 141 metadata seem flat and fake compared to the objects in cities and
rlm@152 142 other annotated areas. This third eye doesn't occupy any of your
rlm@152 143 normal visual field but actually EXPANDS your visual field.
rlm@152 144
rlm@152 145 - do it once -- upload ::
rlm@152 146
rlm@152 147 - a simple merge procedure for uploads ::
rlm@152 148
rlm@152 149 - limits of monogamy ::
rlm@152 150
rlm@152 151 - dream rewinding :: how to record a complete dream without disturbing
rlm@152 152 it or modifying your brain? you need to be an upload: split
rlm@152 153 yourself, and one of you stays awake whike the other sleeps. then
rlm@152 154 you detect a dream in progress by monotoring rapid eye movememt
rlm@152 155 in your sleeping self, and you wake yourself up every few minutes
rlm@152 156 and tell yoursef about the dream. Then sleeping-your restarts the
rlm@152 157 dream, continuation passing style, forgetting everything that was
rlm@152 158 just said, and you repeat this process until the dream is
rlm@152 159 over. Then awake-you and sleeping-you merge each other by taking
rlm@152 160 sleeping-you and replaying the memories of awake-you, and you
rlm@152 161 write a final report on the dream using the "saccade" reports to
rlm@152 162 jog your memory.
rlm@152 163
rlm@152 164 - denser than osmium :: do the "misicibility" thing with an osmium
rlm@152 165 alloy to get something even more dense.
rlm@152 166
rlm@147 167 - AI hypnosis :: hypnosis might be good for studying AI, becuse it
rlm@147 168 might probide a "debugger" for ananlyzing the human mind. I
rlm@147 169 briefly tried this while at MIT, but it needs MUCH more work to
rlm@147 170 be properly evaulated.
rlm@147 171
rlm@145 172 - becomming alive :: upload faces challenges to grow into they type of
rlm@145 173 person that can join the greater society -- a god. They have to
rlm@145 174 go though quests that replicate all the things that humanity had
rlm@147 175 to accomplish, like going to the moon, by themselves, in a
rlm@147 176 virtual world where they cannot die and never get tired.
rlm@145 177
rlm@145 178 - population distorted map of USA :: to see states sizes in terms of #
rlm@145 179 of people. (already exists!
rlm@145 180 http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/cart/doc/)
rlm@145 181
rlm@145 182 - butterfly drone :: if big butterflies used to exist, then maybe we
rlm@145 183 could make butterfly-inspired drones!
rlm@145 184
rlm@145 185 - methylation sex symmetry breaking :: So, human cells have
rlm@145 186 methylation patterns that encode male/female origin. If you
rlm@145 187 combine two male patterns, the fetus grows "too fast" and
rlm@145 188 dies. Two female patterns causes the fetus to enter a "vegatable"
rlm@145 189 state and fail to develop. Evolutionary biologists will say that
rlm@145 190 this reflects the asymmetry of energy investement for creating
rlm@145 191 offspring. If that's true, then species that cast-spawn will lack
rlm@145 192 this symmetry, and give clues about how to remove it in
rlm@145 193 humans. If even cast spawners like sea urchins have it, then that
rlm@145 194 means there's something deeper going on!
rlm@145 195
rlm@145 196 - reverse cannulation perfusion :: you put the organ you want to
rlm@145 197 perfuse in an airtight chamber with a pool of the stuff you want
rlm@145 198 to perfuse. You cannulate some veins and lead tubes form to
rlm@145 199 outside of the chamber. You pump in air and perfusate, and the
rlm@145 200 increasing air pressure in the chamber forces perfusate through
rlm@145 201 the organ. For times when you don't want to cannulate the inputs
rlm@145 202 -- they can be ragged, or there can be many of them. You still
rlm@145 203 have to guide the veins to the outside of the chamber, but
rlm@145 204 depending on the use case this might be far easier than
rlm@145 205 tradational cannulation.
rlm@145 206
rlm@145 207 - very slow physiological pressure perfusion :: less extreme example
rlm@145 208 of the "pausing" trick -- just keep the perfusion running and
rlm@145 209 don't put the perfusion target into the liquid as deep.
rlm@145 210
rlm@141 211 - whole brain perfusion embedding :: Do the standard EM embedding
rlm@141 212 protocol, but skip the osmium step, and use the "perfusion
rlm@141 213 pausing" method to prevent overextraction during the dehydration
rlm@141 214 and embedding steps. I think that you CAN perfuse resins into the
rlm@141 215 brain, simply because you CAN perfuse viscous rubber when doing
rlm@141 216 vascular casts.
rlm@141 217
rlm@152 218 - perfusion pausing :: (Turns out this won't actually work!) One
rlm@152 219 problem with doing perfusion is that if you STOP the perfusion,
rlm@152 220 you rapidly loose pressure in the organ as your perfusate leaks
rlm@152 221 out. You can prevent this by submerging the organ/head/rat
rlm@152 222 whatever in FLUID at the appropriate level. Use something inert
rlm@152 223 like flurocarbon to avoid problems. You would have to slowly
rlm@152 224 decrease the flow rate while simultaneously lowering the
rlm@152 225 perfusing object into the fluid. To start again, reverse the
rlm@152 226 process -- reengage the peristaltic pump slowly while removing
rlm@152 227 the organ from the fluid.
rlm@141 228
rlm@141 229 - evoultionary textbook mimiricy :: as surgery becomes more common,
rlm@141 230 there develops a distinct selective pressure for individuals
rlm@141 231 organ layout to look more like the medical textbooks! :P
rlm@141 232
rlm@141 233 - transparent skin :: temporary / permament transparent skin. Allows
rlm@141 234 for examination of organs / muscles and visual prevention of
rlm@141 235 disease and detection or abnormalities / good things
rlm@141 236 eg. excercise.
rlm@141 237
rlm@141 238 - sweet information :: candy with a whole book written in it. Eat a
rlm@141 239 book!
rlm@141 240
rlm@141 241 - targeted immunosuppressant :: just kill off the B-cells and friends
rlm@141 242 that would cause problems in a organ-transplant / other
rlm@141 243 situation. AIDS is good at killing these cells -- maybe make it
rlm@141 244 just target the ones that will cause problems. Then you can
rlm@141 245 premptively kill off that part of someone's immune system before
rlm@141 246 a transplant. ALSO, you can kill off everyone's defenses against
rlm@141 247 other blood types and make people effectively type AB+ w.r.t
rlm@141 248 blood transfusions. Actually, why not give babies this treatment
rlm@141 249 so that they're automatically compatable with all blood types?
rlm@141 250 The immune system has this already when it's first growing; maybe
rlm@141 251 it can be "retrained" to accept new things, or the mechanism of
rlm@141 252 immune cell death be co-opted for these purposes.
rlm@141 253
rlm@141 254 - fuck you tetris :: tetris that actively gives you the worst possible piece.
rlm@141 255
rlm@140 256 - pockets :: more things should have them!
rlm@140 257
rlm@140 258 - colored shower head :: a shower head add on that measures the temp
rlm@140 259 of the water and changes the color of the water streams w/ an LED
rlm@140 260 to show you the temperature. That way you can align to the color
rlm@140 261 you want and see the temperature without feeling it.
rlm@140 262
rlm@140 263 - giant dragonflies :: we could rapidly MAKE giant dragonflies by
rlm@140 264 evolving modern dragonflies in an very oxygen rich environment!
rlm@140 265
rlm@140 266 - anesthetic surgery courtesty video :: as a matter of courtesy,
rlm@140 267 whenever you go under anesthetic, the doctors should provide you
rlm@140 268 with a video of the surgery / recovery after you are concious
rlm@140 269 again. The recording should begin about 3 minutes before
rlm@140 270 anesthetic, and continue until both you and the docor agree to
rlm@140 271 stop recording, or you leave the hospital.
rlm@140 272
rlm@140 273 - whirlpool of light :: shine a laser out into space. But the planet
rlm@140 274 is spinning! What you get is a spiral or light! And as this
rlm@140 275 signal expands, does it eventually reveal it's wuantized nature?
rlm@140 276
rlm@140 277 - perfusion coking :: EOM
rlm@140 278
rlm@140 279 - timestamp verification :: you sign your message, and it has a
rlm@140 280 timestamp at the top, with a +- percision number. Then you send
rlm@140 281 it over to the public timestamp server, which only signs the
rlm@140 282 message if it gets the message within the timestamp window. Or
rlm@140 283 the computer just signs the message but puts a timestamp at the
rlm@140 284 beginning. So if everyone trusts the timestamp server, you can
rlm@140 285 get reliable timestamps, and prove priority on ideas, etc.
rlm@140 286
rlm@139 287 - the great computing slow-down :: in general, our computers are
rlm@139 288 getting faster and faster. However, eventually our brains will be
rlm@139 289 made of the same stuff our computers are made of! This has very
rlm@139 290 interesting consequences -- I can add 2+2 and get four in about a
rlm@139 291 second. Since my neurons actually work at around 10-60 hertz in
rlm@139 292 parallel, this means that it takes me around 10-30 operations to
rlm@139 293 do this addition. That's actually not bad in terms of computing
rlm@139 294 time. If my neurons were as fast as the latest transitors, then
rlm@139 295 most calculators would be SLOWER than me at adding numbers. Only
rlm@139 296 the newest, most optimized calculators would be faster, and then
rlm@139 297 only about 10 times faster! This means that once we begin to
rlm@139 298 think at the speed of our technology, that technology will
rlm@139 299 suddenly seem pitifully slow in comparison to how it seems
rlm@139 300 now. And no amount of technical progress will remedy it, because
rlm@139 301 that same progress will also make us all think faster. We'll
rlm@139 302 either have to settle with living in "slow time" to do some
rlm@139 303 computations, or learn to make smarter hardware with special
rlm@139 304 optimizations. But this is actually really hard, because we'll be
rlm@139 305 working with machines that will appear to us about as fast as
rlm@139 306 MECHANICAL computers. So, in the future, all the cool parties
rlm@139 307 will be in cyperspace at vastly accelerated speeds compared to
rlm@139 308 how we exist now. But at these parties, the computers will SUCK!
rlm@139 309 Of course, this is one of the few things that can save us from AI
rlm@139 310 risk, because those AI's won't seem so scary when the're build
rlm@139 311 out of rickety mechanical parts form our perspective.
rlm@139 312
rlm@142 313 - unitary reverse evolution of chaos+minds :: Chaotic systems diverge
rlm@139 314 exponentially in state space. Do you get anything interesting
rlm@139 315 when part of the physical system associated with the chaotic
rlm@139 316 system is a object that performs some sort of computation? Is it
rlm@139 317 possible for the computational system to play a
rlm@139 318 percision-enabling role in determining the final/initial
rlm@139 319 conditions of the chaotic system, just by tracing out thoughts in
rlm@139 320 its decision paths? This is probably too vague of an idea right
rlm@139 321 now, I just wanted to write it down.
rlm@139 322
rlm@138 323 - microwave time :: the cooking time you enter on most microwaves is
rlm@138 324 insane. It's expressed in what I call a "hybrid base", a
rlm@138 325 combination of base 10 and base 60. You can get absurd things
rlm@138 326 like 100 < 61, and 120 == 80! I wonder if these hybrid base
rlm@138 327 systems could be very useful for some purposes!
rlm@138 328
rlm@138 329 - three-eyes :: if you had three eyes, would you still draw cubes like
rlm@138 330 we currently draw them? Or would all 2D-representations of 3D
rlm@138 331 space always look hopelessly fake?
rlm@138 332
rlm@138 333 - visual taste/smell assay :: get a grid of bacteria, each expressing
rlm@138 334 a human taste/smell receptor linked to some sort of fluorscent
rlm@138 335 activity or ion pump. Use a camera / electrical grid to transduce
rlm@138 336 the smell / taste signal into bits!
rlm@138 337
rlm@138 338 - carabiner mushroom lock :: you can take a trapazodial carabiner and
rlm@138 339 make it so that a chain link is caught between the wide end of
rlm@138 340 the carabiner and another chain attached to the carabiner.
rlm@138 341
rlm@138 342 - children's tool shop :: I think that kids should be provided with
rlm@138 343 tool shops -- these would be nice sheds with a good collection of
rlm@138 344 tools to do various things -- circuit components and soldering
rlm@138 345 irons, wires, a small lathe, drill press, belt sander, a
rlm@138 346 centrifuge, microscope, and telescope, etc. The idea is that the
rlm@138 347 kid can now think, "I could use X to do this thing that I'm
rlm@138 348 thinking about" -- the building becomes an extension of the kid's
rlm@138 349 body & mind.
rlm@138 350
rlm@138 351 - fluid display :: like the previous idea about matching refractances
rlm@138 352 between glass and liquid, except you make a lot of
rlm@138 353 switchable glass tubes in various patterns in the
rlm@138 354 glass, and actively pump colored liquid through the
rlm@138 355 tubes (the tubes have glass-like fluid in them by
rlm@138 356 default.) The result is that you can cause the
rlm@138 357 tubes to appear and dissappear, and vary their
rlm@138 358 colors as well!
rlm@138 359
rlm@137 360 - immunoincompatibility :: take the human genome, and refactor it so
rlm@137 361 that it doesn't use a particular codon at all. Then remove the
rlm@137 362 support from our ribosomes for that codon. What does this do for
rlm@137 363 us? It makes us immune to almost all viruses!
rlm@137 364
rlm@137 365 - life cycle :: it's called a cycle, right? So, the thing that repeats
rlm@137 366 itself over and over, right? Not much of a cycle if
rlm@137 367 you don't come back after you die, if you ask me!
rlm@137 368
rlm@137 369 - car with no blind spots :: use some cameras in the back of the car
rlm@137 370 to augment the rear-view mirror so that you never have to turn
rlm@137 371 around in order to lane change.
rlm@137 372
rlm@137 373 - partial cell death :: you freeze a set of cells using some cryo
rlm@137 374 protocol and 60% survive. How can this be explained? It seems to
rlm@137 375 me that if the cells are the same, and the conditions
rlm@137 376 homogoneous, then all the cells should either die or
rlm@137 377 live. However, suppose that there is a metabolic cycle that needs
rlm@137 378 to be in a certain phase for the cell to survive. If the cells
rlm@137 379 are asynchronous, then you might end up with some cells dying
rlm@137 380 because there were in the wrong part of their cycle. This implies
rlm@137 381 that you might be able to cryoprotect cells by causing them to
rlm@137 382 enter a certain metabolic mode before freezing.
rlm@137 383
rlm@137 384 - cryonics color appeal :: perfusate used by cryonics companies should
rlm@137 385 have red food coloring in it. It's just a nice touch so that the
rlm@137 386 cryonics patient looks more life-like than with clear CPAs, and
rlm@137 387 hopefully might get treated with more respect.
rlm@137 388
rlm@137 389 - paramagnetic CPA :: you take a CPA that can be influenced by
rlm@137 390 magnetic fields so that its degrees of freedom are limited. Then,
rlm@137 391 you release the field, instantaly increasing the size of the
rlm@137 392 state space of the system and dramatically decreasing the
rlm@137 393 temperature enough to plunge the system past homogenous
rlm@137 394 nucleation temperature and directly to the glass transition
rlm@137 395 temperature, creating a doubly unstable glass at much lower CPA
rlm@137 396 concentrations than possible at conventional CPA concentrations.
rlm@137 397
rlm@137 398 - room temp noodles :: how does the physics of cooking noodles work?
rlm@137 399 Could you use a vacuum instead of heat to force water into the
rlm@137 400 noodle?
rlm@137 401
rlm@137 402 - personal carbon offset :: feel bad about contribuiting to global
rlm@137 403 warming by using electricity / driving a car? Forget trying to
rlm@137 404 "conserve" or "minimize your carbon footprint". Follow the
rlm@137 405 Platinum rule -- make the world BETTER off than you found it!
rlm@137 406 This would be a small, self contained system that sucks C02 out
rlm@137 407 of the air. It uses electricity, but it's so efficient at
rlm@137 408 removing CO2 that it more than offsets the CO2 produced by even a
rlm@137 409 coal plant to produce that electricity. This way, you can still
rlm@137 410 drive even a gas guzzler, but have a net negative carbon
rlm@137 411 footprint! Maybe something cool could be done with the carbon as
rlm@137 412 well. Use as much electricity as you want, but negate the damage
rlm@137 413 to the enviroment with more technology.
rlm@137 414
rlm@137 415 - undoing spermogenesis :: with enough sperm, you can derive the
rlm@137 416 donor's entire genome. You gain more confidence in the alleles
rlm@137 417 for a particular gene the more sperm you have. Each additional
rlm@137 418 sperm gives you the same sort of information you'd get flipping a
rlm@137 419 coin and trying to decide whether the coin is H/T of H/H. Is
rlm@137 420 there enough sperm in the the average load for you to be as
rlm@137 421 confident as mitosis?
rlm@137 422
rlm@136 423 - mars life :: we could engineer life that could survive on mars
rlm@136 424 (probably some non-vascular photosynthetic
rlm@136 425 poikilohydric creature like a lichen) by taking an
rlm@136 426 extremophile from Antarctica and evolving it in
rlm@136 427 increasingly Martian conditions. This could be an easy
rlm@136 428 start to a terraforming process.
rlm@136 429
rlm@134 430 - problem with Aubrey de Grey's ideas :: Aubrey de Grey says that we
rlm@134 431 might be able to live forever by continually repairing our bodies
rlm@134 432 at the cellular level -- he details 7 different mechanisms of
rlm@134 433 damage and says that if all of them are dealt with /together/
rlm@134 434 that it would stop aging. (You can't miss even one because
rlm@134 435 they're all fatal.) However, it doesn't take into account that
rlm@134 436 we are also beings of information and that there is a very real
rlm@134 437 software component to our existence. Even if our biological
rlm@134 438 chassies can be maintained forever, I think it is unlikely that
rlm@134 439 our minds will operate well far outside of the design constraints
rlm@134 440 that we've evolved to handle. Say I programmed a webserver with
rlm@134 441 the express goal of it being able to serve webpages for month on
rlm@134 442 some stock server. I'll do fairly rigorous testing to make sure
rlm@134 443 that it can handle the expected load then then some. Now say that
rlm@134 444 you want to keep a particular instance of this webserver running
rlm@134 445 indefinitely. (The program instance is like your mind and the
rlm@134 446 computer it's running on is like your body). You might very well
rlm@134 447 be able to keep the physical computer infrastructure running for
rlm@134 448 forever by replacing hard drives / ram / CPUs, etc. However,
rlm@134 449 since I designed the webserver to work for a month, it probably
rlm@135 450 has memory leaks, rare stochastic bugs, or other built in limits
rlm@134 451 / constraints (think log files or some date rollover shenanigans)
rlm@135 452 that will ultimately kill the webserver even with eternally
rlm@134 453 perfect hardware. Do you really expect that a webserver
rlm@135 454 engineered to work for 1 month will run for 10 years without
rlm@135 455 catastrophically crashing? Not even Apache can do this! In fact,
rlm@135 456 if I put in the extreme effort to make it that robust, I've
rlm@135 457 wasted time that I could have spent on other projects by pursuing
rlm@135 458 an unnecessary engineering goal. Likewise, human minds have only
rlm@134 459 ever run for at most 122 years before they are destroyed due to
rlm@134 460 hardware degradation. Fixing the hardware doesn't change any
rlm@134 461 software bugs that are almost certainly present in the human
rlm@134 462 mind. Think of all the pathological things that can go wrong with
rlm@134 463 a webserver, multiply it by a million, and that likely how
rlm@134 464 evolution has designed our minds. For example, consider memory :
rlm@134 465 why should you expect that we have evolved the ability to
rlm@134 466 coherently organize memories past say 150 years? There's been
rlm@134 467 absolutely no selective pressure for this ability, so you can bet
rlm@134 468 that if there's any fitness to be gained from not having
rlm@134 469 unlimited memory potential (such as better metabolic efficiency),
rlm@134 470 we have it! You might think that maybe we would just forget
rlm@134 471 things the same way that we sort of forget things that happen
rlm@134 472 earlier in our lives, but complicated information processing
rlm@134 473 systems don't have to fail gracefully when they're pushed far
rlm@134 474 past their design constraints. A 150 year old person is just as
rlm@134 475 likely to suffer a catastrophic psychosis due to software
rlm@134 476 limitations associated with memory as he is to do something with
rlm@134 477 all those memories we might consider reasonable. More likely, in
rlm@134 478 fact, since there are so very many ways for a complicated
rlm@134 479 software system to break and so few ways for it to run
rlm@134 480 successfully. Therefore, I think Aubrey de Grey's "hardware-only"
rlm@134 481 approach is missing a very important component of longevity
rlm@134 482 science, and any successful effort to make people live orders of
rlm@134 483 magnitude longer than they do naturally will need to deal with
rlm@134 484 people's software as well as their hardware.
rlm@134 485
rlm@133 486 - validating neurocryopreservation :: Problem : you want to test
rlm@133 487 whether a brain is functionally preserved through vitrification,
rlm@133 488 but you don't want to figure out how to preserve all the other
rlm@133 489 organs in the animal. It might be possible to keep the rest of
rlm@133 490 the body at almost 0C and vitrify just the head for only a few
rlm@133 491 minutes. Induce hypothermia, then separate out the head's blood
rlm@133 492 supply from the rest of the body, then just cryoptotect and
rlm@133 493 vitrify the head. Might need some sort of thermal guard to keep
rlm@133 494 the outer head / neck from becoming too cold. You leave the
rlm@133 495 spinal cord intact! Then you devitrify to 0C, remove
rlm@133 496 cryoprotectant, and then reattach the blood supply. You can
rlm@133 497 determine brain preservation using behavioral assays!
rlm@133 498
rlm@133 499 - freezing water purifier :: you slowly freeze water, but also run
rlm@133 500 liquid water over the frozen mass. This takes away basically all
rlm@133 501 impurities and creates "washed ice" then you melt the ice. Maybe
rlm@133 502 you could re-use the heat from creating the ice to melt the ice?
rlm@133 503
rlm@133 504 - ultra strength :: allow a person to visualize their muscle
rlm@133 505 recruitment patterns. Give them adrenaline and let
rlm@133 506 them feel what it's like to have the normal limits
rlm@133 507 removed. See if they can replicate the effects.
rlm@133 508
rlm@133 509 - phone names :: make a PX record for domain names that's like the MX
rlm@133 510 record, except that it is a phone number instead of
rlm@133 511 an IP address. That way, you can use the domain name
rlm@133 512 registration system to provide names for phone
rlm@133 513 numbers. Then, as long as you control the domain, you
rlm@133 514 can point people to your current phone number by
rlm@133 515 updating that record.
rlm@133 516
rlm@133 517 - edible flowers :: Edible white flowers that you put in a colored
rlm@133 518 solution with flavor. When the flower turns the
rlm@133 519 right color, it is also flavored and ready to eat!
rlm@133 520
rlm@131 521 - suicide cryonics :: according to [[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html][this]], people who commit impulsive
rlm@131 522 suicides have a newfound sense of the importance of life. Perhaps
rlm@131 523 they are good cryonics targets.
rlm@131 524
rlm@131 525 - lead bone :: Could you fill in all the empty spaces in a bone with
rlm@131 526 lead? Might be cool.
rlm@131 527
rlm@131 528 - the quest for life :: Every stupid story has the "immortal who
rlm@131 529 wants to become mortal" or some other such idea. I want to story
rlm@131 530 where the protagonist loses their immortality and feels /angry/
rlm@131 531 and ashamed about losing something that's so absolutely crucial
rlm@131 532 to their identity. A reverse of "death makes life worth living",
rlm@131 533 they feel that living forever is what makes life worth
rlm@131 534 living. Now they've "lost their sunrise" or their "connection to
rlm@131 535 the timeless universe" or something. So they go on a quest to get
rlm@131 536 it back, learning about themselves along the way, and regaining
rlm@131 537 the precious thing they lost in the beginning.
rlm@131 538
rlm@130 539 - world-map :: take a small table and paint the continents in
rlm@130 540 toothpaste on the table. Make a slightly raised barrier
rlm@130 541 around the table. Slowly pour water onto the table, and
rlm@130 542 it will form the oceans!
rlm@130 543
rlm@95 544 - stage magic rituals :: rituals should incorporate elements of stage
rlm@95 545 magic. Foe example in Teller's tempest, they have a scene where
rlm@95 546 they levitate a crown in front of someone, then put it on his
rlm@95 547 head. They also have a wedding ceremony where they levitated the
rlm@95 548 bride as well. Actual weddings and other ceremonies should
rlm@95 549 incorporate stage magic as an enhancement.
rlm@95 550
rlm@95 551 - isotope time dilation :: use a cyclotron to speed up rare isotopes
rlm@95 552 developed in nuclear fusion experiments. The relativistic time
rlm@95 553 dilation will stop the isotopes from decaying, and allow time to
rlm@95 554 study them. This is based on radioactive isotopes that fall
rlm@95 555 through the earth's atmosphere that take hundreds of times
rlm@95 556 longer to decay than normal.
rlm@95 557
rlm@95 558 - marsupial stimulation :: You take a freshly pouched marsupial baby,
rlm@95 559 and show it videos and other interactive things while it matures
rlm@95 560 in the pouch. What mental effects would this have?
rlm@95 561
rlm@135 562 - dynamic re-keying :: Some older ways of tuning instruments sound
rlm@95 563 better, but we use the even-tempered scale today because it makes
rlm@95 564 it easier to switch keys. With electronic music, why not make
rlm@95 565 key-annotations and dynamically re-tune the piece to sound good
rlm@135 566 in the current key? Could be done as a midi+annotation -> midi
rlm@95 567 compiler for experimentation.
rlm@95 568
rlm@95 569 - death always implies damage :: is is possible for a corpse to differ
rlm@95 570 from a living person only in the fact that one is dead and the
rlm@95 571 other is alive? NO! A corpse must always have some sort of
rlm@95 572 molecular damage which causes the loss of function!
rlm@95 573
rlm@95 574 - inner eye :: Surgically install a bunch of tiny cameras inside a
rlm@95 575 person. Then, you can activate them all and get a
rlm@95 576 picture of your internal organs for diagnostic
rlm@95 577 purposes.
rlm@95 578
rlm@135 579 - chaos rails :: should make a visualization of the homoclinic tangle,
rlm@95 580 it's truly beautiful.
rlm@95 581
rlm@95 582 - context gobbler :: this would be in "inside-out macro" that takes
rlm@95 583 the context (like you use for things like error, continuations,
rlm@95 584 and friends) and transforms it to something else. Maybe useful?
rlm@95 585
rlm@91 586 - cryonics middle ages :: some people say that cryonics is an
rlm@91 587 experiment and that it is foolish to wait until we have revived a
rlm@91 588 human. There is a middle ground where the procedure has a dismal
rlm@91 589 success rate on humans, say 1 in 20, so that you'd be a fool to
rlm@91 590 try revival. Nonetheless, this very risky procedure could be the
rlm@91 591 legal proof of concept needed to create a new class of life
rlm@91 592 between "living" and "dead": "stasis".
rlm@91 593
rlm@91 594 - philosophy of the mirror :: neat thought experiment -- if you take a
rlm@91 595 mirror of someone by actually reversing a person's chirality
rlm@94 596 molecule by molecule, then will the only be able to read mirror
rlm@91 597 writing? The answer is yes, by analogy to a purely mechanical
rlm@94 598 scan-tron device. This is one of the only interesting transforms I
rlm@91 599 know that can take a human brain and change it in subtle,
rlm@91 600 non-destructive ways. It's also an argument against dualism.
rlm@91 601
rlm@91 602 - biosphere in a bottle :: There are around 15 million species. 15
rlm@91 603 million stem cells will fill only a tiny size, far less than a cubic
rlm@91 604 inch. Preserve a single cell from every species on earth in this
rlm@91 605 small space, and you will have a record of our current biosphere
rlm@91 606 that can be protected. "Hold the genetic data of all species in
rlm@92 607 your hand!"
rlm@91 608
rlm@90 609 - chaos lock :: The "arrow of time" points in the direction of
rlm@90 610 increasing entropy. The time evolution of chaotic
rlm@90 611 systems depend exquisitely on their initial state. If
rlm@90 612 you take a measurement of a chaotic system at any
rlm@90 613 given point of time, you can evolve that system
rlm@90 614 backwards or forwards based on your measurement. So
rlm@90 615 let's say you start the chaotic system in a VERY low
rlm@90 616 entropy state, then let it run for a while, then take
rlm@90 617 a measurement with some uncertainty. Your
rlm@90 618 measurement is pretty good, but obviously not
rlm@90 619 PERFECT. If you evolve the chaotic system back in
rlm@90 620 time, then you will see that you don't really reach
rlm@90 621 a state with low entropy an hour before (the entropy
rlm@90 622 is easy to measure with surrogates like alignment,
rlm@90 623 etc). So use this technique to SEARCH for a more
rlm@90 624 accurate measurement! This potentially can give you
rlm@90 625 many more orders of magnitude than you could get alone
rlm@90 626 just using an instrument. Sometimes it will give you
rlm@90 627 bad results, the the odds of it doing that are
rlm@90 628 infinitesimal, and you can just measure a couple of
rlm@90 629 times.
rlm@90 630
rlm@90 631 - cryo-evolution :: perhaps there would be a way to rapidly evolve a
rlm@90 632 symbiotic bacterial organism that could protect
rlm@90 633 human tissues from freezing damage.
rlm@90 634
rlm@87 635 - suicide parasite :: sometimes, people kill themselves for no good
rlm@87 636 reason. We often explain this with things like "hidden
rlm@87 637 depression" or we say that they had something like chronic jaw or
rlm@87 638 back pain. I think that smells of rationalization. I don't buy
rlm@87 639 it. I propose that in many suicide cases there is a disease that
rlm@88 640 causes the suicidal behavior. We already know that certain
rlm@87 641 parasites have mind-bending properties in other animals, even
rlm@87 642 mammals like mice. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a
rlm@88 643 parasite that causes suicides in humans. Some problems:
rlm@87 644 - What does the suicide parasite get out of it? :: This might be
rlm@87 645 answered by the whole thing being a glitch caused by
rlm@87 646 cross-species contamination. Toxoplasma works this way.
rlm@88 647 - What predictions does a disease model make :: suicide should
rlm@88 648 be more common among people who share a contagion
rlm@88 649 vector. There should be suicides that don't make any
rlm@87 650 sense : people who weren't really depressed, who had no
rlm@87 651 reason to kill themselves. People who have killed themselves
rlm@87 652 should have a higher incidence of some unknown parasite in
rlm@87 653 their brains.
rlm@86 654
rlm@89 655 - domestic insects :: People should eat more bugs because they're much
rlm@89 656 more efficient, so why not do some major domestication research
rlm@94 657 to make very appealing bugs? Beetles, in particular, seem to be
rlm@94 658 excellent targets for domestication because they have extreme
rlm@94 659 levels of genetic malleability.
rlm@87 660
rlm@87 661 - birth-clones :: What if each person was intentionally split at birth
rlm@87 662 into a normal embryo and a few "backup" cells which
rlm@87 663 is then frozen. The backup cells are created just
rlm@87 664 the same way as natural identical twins. The backups
rlm@88 665 can be used to regenerate organs. etc. Also, it
rlm@87 666 would be a good sci fi concept, because you could
rlm@87 667 have a culture where people reward people who were
rlm@87 668 especially awesome are "reborn" from their
rlm@88 669 backups. Imagine having a young Bach every
rlm@87 670 generation, etc.
rlm@86 671
rlm@94 672 - pronunciation guide :: a simple webpage where you type in a word and
rlm@94 673 it returns a simple, English sentence describing exactly how to
rlm@84 674 pronounce the word. For people who don't want to learn IPA.
rlm@86 675
rlm@87 676 - cortex-search :: use the repertoire of actions learned to limit the
rlm@87 677 search space of possible actions.
rlm@87 678
rlm@83 679 - learning to teleport :: scifi idea, this is a story about a person
rlm@83 680 who is struggling with his/her society's ideas about
rlm@83 681 teleportation. It's considered a fundamental part of being a
rlm@83 682 member of that society (after all, the difference between animals
rlm@83 683 and humans is that humans are creatures of pure information while
rlm@83 684 animals are burdened with base matter, "that's how you travel the
rlm@83 685 stars, etc") Humans are born normally, grow up, and then
rlm@83 686 eventually transcend via destructive upload. Analogies to jumping
rlm@83 687 off a diving board into a pool (which I simply /could not do/ for
rlm@83 688 a long time), etc.
rlm@83 689
rlm@87 690 - no-float-ice :: cup that has cross beams at the bottom where ice
rlm@87 691 forms. Then when you drink liquid from the glass,
rlm@87 692 the ice stays at the bottom and doesn't hit your
rlm@87 693 lips. For bars and fancy things.
rlm@87 694
rlm@82 695 - bitcoins for immigrants :: A common case with Mexican immigrants
rlm@82 696 (illegal or not) is that they want to send money they've earned
rlm@82 697 in the US back to their families in Mexico. They currently do this
rlm@82 698 through things like Money Gram or Western Union, and they get
rlm@82 699 fleeced in the process with fees. Bitcoin could greatly reduce
rlm@82 700 the cost of sending money from America to Mexico, but I don't
rlm@82 701 believe that it's currently used for that among Mexican
rlm@82 702 immigrants currently due to lack of knowledge. I bet you could
rlm@82 703 set up physical locations like those obnoxious Western Union huts
rlm@82 704 in places like Texas, Arizona, etc, and greatly undercut
rlm@82 705 them. Or, perhaps some educational seminars about bitcoin might
rlm@82 706 be in order. There's some money to be made there because there is
rlm@82 707 great demand, and it's a good thing to boot!
rlm@82 708
rlm@81 709 - reverse eye-tracking :: A painting that is actually a digital screen
rlm@82 710 with a camera. It records people's eye tracks permanently. It's
rlm@81 711 "artistic" because paintings are normally these things that you
rlm@81 712 look at without changing, but this one is changed the second you
rlm@81 713 look at it, recording where /you/ looked forever for others to
rlm@81 714 see. Make it be a painting of a woman and see the trolling as the
rlm@81 715 breasts and groin area light up with interest from all the males
rlm@81 716 passing by.
rlm@81 717
rlm@80 718 - smart toilets :: Instead of using indirect measures like infrared
rlm@80 719 detectors of the presence of a person, use computer
rlm@80 720 vision to directly measure whether the toilet needs
rlm@80 721 to be flushed. I think a lot of things will end up
rlm@80 722 going this way as we get better computer vision.
rlm@80 723
rlm@77 724 - validate chemopreservation :: chemopreservation is difficult to
rlm@77 725 validate because it destroys the functionality of a brain, and
rlm@77 726 brain simulation will take a long time to mature as a
rlm@77 727 technology. However, one very powerful way to validate
rlm@77 728 chemopreservation would be to have a person/animal learn
rlm@77 729 something with high complexity such as a number or the solution
rlm@80 730 to a maze, or a flashbulb memory. Then you preserve their brain
rlm@80 731 chemically, slice it up, and read /that specific memory/ from the
rlm@77 732 detailed brain scan. Much more difficult, but much more doable.
rlm@77 733
rlm@75 734 - candy screw :: edible candy screw with candy nuts that you can screw
rlm@75 735 as well.
rlm@76 736
rlm@74 737 - better bibliography :: when writing a thesis or paper, have the
rlm@80 738 bibliography not just be an opaque list of resources, but have it
rlm@74 739 be a list of /summaries/ and /qualities/ that each paper has in
rlm@80 740 the context of the paper being written. When examining a
rlm@80 741 bibliography, I want to know if reading the papers in the
rlm@74 742 bibliography are worth my time, and I also am probably also
rlm@74 743 interested in exactly the things that are being discussed in the
rlm@74 744 paper I'm reading. The bibliography is the perfect place to
rlm@74 745 provide information about the referenced papers from the
rlm@80 746 author's perspective. I will use this biographic form in my own
rlm@74 747 thesis.
rlm@74 748
rlm@73 749 - digital inter-library loan :: libraries at universities already do
rlm@80 750 inter-library loans for books, so why not do the same for access
rlm@73 751 to stupid paywalled digital papers? All the universities could
rlm@73 752 allow access to articles for registered students to all the files
rlm@73 753 available through any participating university. This could be
rlm@73 754 achieved by sending requests through proxies at participating
rlm@73 755 universities. Each university would decide who at the university
rlm@73 756 can access the proxy network. Access to the proxy network could
rlm@73 757 be made easy using something like http://libx.org/.
rlm@73 758
rlm@72 759 - chess visual :: to show the vast size of the game trees considered
rlm@72 760 by computers, show two people playing chess in a
rlm@72 761 void. They are floating in space, and there is a
rlm@72 762 simple chess board between them. Then, as they play,
rlm@72 763 the game tree's they are considering are drawn
rlm@72 764 behind him. The root of the tree starts centered in
rlm@72 765 their heads or whatever they use to think, and the
rlm@72 766 tree grows out from behind, never crossing the
rlm@72 767 dividing plane between the two players. Each
rlm@72 768 player's tree is a different color. As they grow,
rlm@72 769 there are animations for pruning, etc. Eventually,
rlm@72 770 they look like the hemispheres of a brain, wings,
rlm@72 771 etc. A human's tree might occasionally have a long
rlm@72 772 chain, while the computer tree would be more
rlm@72 773 uniform. You could compare deep blue and a modern
rlm@72 774 laptop. Use actual data when fighting two computers!
rlm@72 775
rlm@71 776 - time verification :: some standard way to verify that some piece of
rlm@71 777 data was recorded at a specific time. Might involve a time
rlm@73 778 server, a key for each time period, something like that.
rlm@71 779
rlm@70 780 - tamper proof gold bars :: [[http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/gold-plated-tungsten-alloy-bar.html][this site]] offers gold plated tungsten bars
rlm@70 781 as "novelty" items. One reason to prefer coins is because they
rlm@70 782 are much harder to counterfeit because there is less surface area
rlm@70 783 to mass ratio. However, gold bars are still a great design
rlm@70 784 because they can hold a lot of value in a small space. A gold bar
rlm@70 785 could be given the same protections (and more) that gold coins
rlm@70 786 have to offer by changing it into a "gold book", which would have
rlm@70 787 hundreds of "pages" of gold bound together. This could be
rlm@70 788 implemented with multiple steel rods going through the book which
rlm@70 789 can be removed, or some more classier mechanism for holding the
rlm@70 790 pages. The point is that the bar can be EASILY subdivided (and
rlm@70 791 people would perform this test before buying), thus guaranteeing
rlm@70 792 it's authenticity.
rlm@70 793
rlm@68 794 - aurellem shirt :: I should make an aurellem star symbol tee-shirt.
rlm@68 795
rlm@86 796 - touch vision :: inspired by GelSight, I want to reexamine cortex and
rlm@86 797 see if I could implement touch as a very low range
rlm@86 798 form of vision.
rlm@86 799
rlm@67 800 - high school science :: this is a lesson in scientific ethics. The
rlm@67 801 goal is to calculate /g/, the local gravitational
rlm@67 802 acceleration. The students are told that the textbook says it's
rlm@67 803 /exactly/ 9.81 before they start the experiment. See how they
rlm@67 804 doctor their results to get closer to the textbook value. It's
rlm@67 805 neat because for any given school, /g/ is probably *not* exactly
rlm@67 806 equal to 9.81, because that is just an average!
rlm@67 807
rlm@67 808 - opencourseware subtitles :: there are ladies who type up lectures
rlm@67 809 while they are being given. These recordings should be kept and
rlm@67 810 given to OCW for subtitles. If the timestamps of keys are
rlm@67 811 recorded, then it is easy to make subtitles.
rlm@67 812
rlm@66 813 - screen locking timing :: you use your computer camera to see if you
rlm@66 814 are sitting in front of the computer. If you are, then the screen
rlm@66 815 will never lock. If you are, then the screen will lock with a
rlm@67 816 30-40 second timeout. It's an extension of using inactivity to
rlm@66 817 initiate the countdown, just with more information.
rlm@66 818
rlm@66 819 - mirror toilet :: a toilet with a square basin made or mirror instead
rlm@67 820 or porcelain. That way, you can see how good of a
rlm@66 821 wipe job you have done / watch how your excretion
rlm@66 822 system works.
rlm@66 823
rlm@80 824 - test dummies :: why don't we clone anencephalic humans and use then to
rlm@62 825 test /in vivo/ human organ systems and drugs? It
rlm@62 826 would be ethical as long as there are women who are
rlm@62 827 willing to host the clones, and it would be a
rlm@67 828 tremendous resource for studying the human body. I
rlm@62 829 see nothing wrong with it morally, since no one is
rlm@67 830 suffering, and it stands to save many lives throughout
rlm@62 831 more advanced technology.
rlm@62 832
rlm@62 833 - X-ray telepresence :: given that a doctor is operating on a patient
rlm@62 834 via telepresence, one cool things you can do is shine X-rays into
rlm@62 835 the patient to view the insides during real time. If the system
rlm@80 836 was coupled with a Bayesian model of the layout of the structure,
rlm@67 837 and the x-rays were only fired whenever the uncertainty of the
rlm@62 838 model reached a certain threshold, then the radiation damage
rlm@62 839 and surgery risk could be minimized.
rlm@62 840
rlm@62 841 - superfluid vascular system :: I wonder what would happen if you
rlm@62 842 replaced the blood in a human with a superfluid. What would the
rlm@62 843 physical dynamics be? Would the superfluid flow through the
rlm@62 844 vasculature, or would it ignore it and travel through the cells,
rlm@62 845 or something else entirely. Since superfluids need to be cold to
rlm@62 846 retain their superfluidity, how would the dynamics change during
rlm@62 847 perfusion of a superfluid, where the fluid gains and looses
rlm@62 848 superfluidity as it goes deeper into the body and is cooled by
rlm@67 849 superfluid from upstream. In summary there are two things to
rlm@62 850 simulate 1.) replace all blood in human with superfluid
rlm@62 851 instantly. 2.) perfuse superfluid into human.
rlm@51 852
rlm@59 853 - projective guessing :: I think that we read and see things by
rlm@67 854 making a really good guess about what we're expecting to see,
rlm@59 855 and then searching for our guess in what we see. If it really
rlm@59 856 doesn't match, then we start to make more guesses / analyze the
rlm@59 857 image from first principles, but most stuff is projective
rlm@59 858 guessing.
rlm@59 859
rlm@67 860 - Intestinal flora maintenance :: why not inoculate babies at birth
rlm@59 861 with "ideal" gut flora instead of whatever bullshit they
rlm@59 862 naturally get, thus giving them optimal digestive/nutrient
rlm@67 863 extraction capabilities. Might also be able to make their farts
rlm@94 864 not stink for life, too. MORE IMPORTANTLY, might help to
rlm@91 865 preventatively stop some forms of /colic/, which affects 1 in 5
rlm@94 866 babies and causes constant screaming and pain for about 5 weeks.
rlm@59 867
rlm@56 868 - server culture : mirrors :: make a distributed system where people
rlm@56 869 can mirror the websites of people they like -- essentially cover
rlm@56 870 the server costs of favored websites. This could make popular
rlm@56 871 websites run at no cost. The system would require that the
rlm@56 872 mirrored content be the same as the official source. Sort of like
rlm@67 873 bit-torrent for websites.
rlm@56 874
rlm@56 875 - map programming :: one problem with functional programming is that
rlm@56 876 in order to remain functional, you have to pass up arguments up
rlm@67 877 into each calling function to get the full range of behavior
rlm@56 878 from the lower level functions. Normally people come to a
rlm@67 879 compromise involving abstraction and sparing use of dynamic
rlm@67 880 variables to configure runtime behavior. What would be the
rlm@56 881 advantages of making a programming language where every function
rlm@67 882 receives one argument, a map, which contains all the symbol
rlm@56 883 bindings it would ever need? This map is passed on to all
rlm@56 884 subordinate functions. This way, you could replace functions on
rlm@56 885 the fly, and arrange for there to be sensible defaults,
rlm@56 886 etc. Might cause more harm than good but is an interesting idea.
rlm@56 887
rlm@55 888 - rest nest :: a small EEG device you would attach to your head when
rlm@55 889 you go to sleep at night. ML algorithms would determine
rlm@55 890 your particular sleep cycles. This would mostly be an
rlm@55 891 alarm clock that you could give a time range, say
rlm@55 892 7:00AM - 7:15AM, and it would wake you up during an
rlm@55 893 ideal time corresponding to then end of one of your 90
rlm@55 894 min sleep cycles. You would feel much more rested upon
rlm@55 895 waking up, and would wake up faster. There might be
rlm@55 896 some other uses for the EEG data as well.
rlm@55 897
rlm@50 898 - image compression :: use a library like gimp or opencv to process an
rlm@50 899 image to make it have less entropy, then store the reverse of
rlm@50 900 those operations along with the compressed simpler image as a
rlm@80 901 super-compressed image file (possibly accepting some
rlm@80 902 losses). Trades file size for decompression time, and allows one
rlm@50 903 to cheat by using information in gimp/opencv to compress the
rlm@50 904 image.
rlm@50 905
rlm@47 906 - fixed cryopreservation :: why not use a fixative to buy enough time
rlm@42 907 to ramp up cryoprotectants to an acceptable level at room
rlm@42 908 temperature? Then, the whole system can be rapidly cooled and
rlm@42 909 vitrified. This method "severs the biological link" in that the
rlm@47 910 fixatives are highly toxic, but current vitrification procedures
rlm@42 911 do this anyway since there can be a lot of freezing damage.
rlm@38 912
rlm@67 913 - dilated security camera :: a security camera that would capture
rlm@58 914 full video footage of everything at 60fps but then decide to keep
rlm@58 915 only every 1 frame every 5 seconds unless there's something
rlm@58 916 "interesting" happening.
rlm@58 917
rlm@40 918 - bitcoin wallet :: Part of "server culture", this would be something
rlm@40 919 like "coin.your-domain.com" which would serve as
rlm@40 920 your personal trusted access to your own bitcoins
rlm@40 921 from anywhere.
rlm@40 922
rlm@40 923 - libpay :: this would be a free library which would enable
rlm@40 924 micro-donations to software projects and other projects,
rlm@47 925 so that you could donate a penny to "emacs" and it would
rlm@47 926 be automatically split up to every person who has ever
rlm@40 927 contributed to emacs in proportion to the amount of
rlm@40 928 community esteem, code quantity, bugs fixed, whatever the
rlm@47 929 community decides. This might make it possible for
rlm@40 930 programmers to live entirely off of free programming.
rlm@40 931
rlm@45 932 - distributed graphics :: Browser based graphics-card accelerated
rlm@45 933 distributed computing API.
rlm@41 934
rlm@40 935 - pronouns :: use capital letters A-Z instead of pronouns. They solve
rlm@40 936 pronoun referents and gender neutrality, are short to
rlm@40 937 say, and you can encode useful information into the
rlm@40 938 choice of letter. For example, instead of "Meetings
rlm@40 939 shall be presided over by the president, unless she is
rlm@42 940 absent." USE "Meetings shall be presided over by the
rlm@40 941 president, unless P is absent." We already use this a
rlm@40 942 little, since I and U are reserved for the subject and
rlm@40 943 object respectively.
rlm@40 944
rlm@40 945 - phone DSP :: software app that inserts an audio DSP between the
rlm@40 946 input to a phone and the output. The DSP is delicious
rlm@40 947 and configurable, and can allow men to make their
rlm@40 948 voices deeper, etc. The app would allow you to hear
rlm@40 949 your own voice as others hear it. Most people hate how
rlm@40 950 their own voice sounds. The app would also allow one to
rlm@47 951 immediately change the parameters of the DSP using good
rlm@40 952 presets.
rlm@40 953
rlm@47 954 - predestined body learning :: a good example of predestined learning
rlm@40 955 might be the mirror neurons.
rlm@40 956
rlm@47 957 - restaurant receipt :: use a carbon copy receipt instead of two stupid
rlm@40 958 copies.
rlm@40 959
rlm@41 960 - anti google glass :: glasses with mounted lasers and computer vision
rlm@41 961 that targets the cameras in google glass and destroy them.
rlm@41 962
rlm@40 963 - wearable towel :: towel with clasp, velcro, whatever, that allows
rlm@40 964 one to wear the towel more securely than just
rlm@40 965 wrapping it tightly and hoping for the best.
rlm@40 966
rlm@47 967 - crossdressing :: Easiest way to disguise oneself as a woman is to
rlm@44 968 wear a burka.
rlm@41 969
rlm@40 970 - book-mode :: intelligent color highlighting for books and
rlm@40 971 articles. It would disambiguate pronouns and involved
rlm@93 972 references. For example, if "Rachael" was assigned the
rlm@93 973 color red, and "the blonde haired girl" refers to
rlm@93 974 "Rachael", then "the blonde haired girl" would be
rlm@93 975 colored red. Also, you could disambiguate multi part
rlm@93 976 run-on sentences by highlighting each
rlm@93 977 subcomponent. Maybe would also have applications to
rlm@93 978 scientific reading.
rlm@40 979
rlm@40 980 - Handheld light Rain measurement :: this would be a clear, teflon
rlm@47 981 coated plastic disk with a camera underneath the disk. You would
rlm@40 982 be able to hold the device out and it would measure the rate of
rlm@40 983 accumulation of water droplets from fine mists and light rain by
rlm@40 984 using computer vision to measure the diameters of the drops.
rlm@40 985
rlm@40 986 - Big Brother Farming :: This would be a vision system that would
rlm@40 987 individually monitor each plant and turn on water, etc to ensure
rlm@40 988 maximum/uniform growth for each plant.
rlm@40 989
rlm@40 990 - Discrete Faucet :: A faucet with discrete ticks instead of
rlm@47 991 continuous.
rlm@40 992
rlm@40 993 - Laser Circle :: take a glass microfiliment and shine a laser at one
rlm@40 994 end at an oblique angle. It will make a perfect,
rlm@40 995 large circle on the wall, converting a laser beam
rlm@47 996 into a laser cone, preserving most of the energy of
rlm@40 997 the laser.
rlm@40 998
rlm@40 999 - Invisible Glass :: Take a container of liquid and embed a
rlm@40 1000 glass sculpture made out of glass that has exactly the same index
rlm@40 1001 of refraction and color of the liquid. Then the sculpture will be
rlm@40 1002 totally invisible in the container, and will only be revealed
rlm@40 1003 when the liquid is drained. The container might be a fancy
rlm@40 1004 wine/spirit bottle or an hourglass.
rlm@40 1005
rlm@47 1006 - Caterpillar people :: A race of caterpillar like creatures gains
rlm@40 1007 intelligence after eons of predation by birds, etc. These
rlm@47 1008 caterpillar creatures still undergo metamorphosis into a large
rlm@40 1009 butterfly-like creature. The metamorphosis process turns the
rlm@40 1010 caterpillar's brain into mush and reforms it into a minimal,
rlm@40 1011 dumb, truly insect-like mind, completely destroying the person
rlm@47 1012 the caterpillar was. The society develops all sorts of customs and
rlm@40 1013 religious interpretations of the metamorphosis. It is viewed as
rlm@40 1014 good and natural by some since it is part of their life cycle and
rlm@47 1015 necessary to propagate the species, as only the butterflies can
rlm@40 1016 mate. Some think that the butterflies are still the same person
rlm@47 1017 because they have the same soul, even they no longer posses the
rlm@47 1018 memories or personality of the original caterpillar. Some see the
rlm@40 1019 butterfly form as the "true form" of the species, since the
rlm@40 1020 butterflies can fly, mate, and are beautiful. Many make a big
rlm@47 1021 deal out of the fact that 1-2% of the caterpillar's mind is
rlm@40 1022 actually preserved in the butterfly. Some see it as a terrible
rlm@47 1023 tragedy and argue that the caterpillars should try to stop the
rlm@40 1024 metamorphosis by technology. Practically, some very important
rlm@40 1025 members of society undergo hormone therapy and/or surgery to
rlm@40 1026 prevent metamorphosis so that they can live longer as themselves.
rlm@40 1027
rlm@40 1028 This is a continuation of Marvin Minsky's ideas about pain being
rlm@40 1029 something that preserves our bodies while destroying our minds,
rlm@40 1030 something that is a remnant from our too harsh animal days that
rlm@40 1031 hasn't caught up to the fact that we have very complex brains
rlm@40 1032 now. It's a worst-case scenario about a maladaptive genetic
rlm@40 1033 legacy. Also, it's inspired by "There She Is!!!", which makes a
rlm@40 1034 compelling point about homosexuality by introducing a second
rlm@40 1035 gender characteristic (bunny/cat, male/female), which makes
rlm@40 1036 homophobia look very silly. Here, our own biological legacy of
rlm@47 1037 pain and death is made to look like the tragedy it is through the
rlm@47 1038 lens of the the caterpillar people.
rlm@40 1039
rlm@46 1040 - 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 1041 about the "culture of quitting," which is about better business
rlm@46 1042 by letting people go instead of keeping them around past their
rlm@47 1043 "apex". Focuses on information transfer. Cool idea of an alumni
rlm@46 1044 network, which for relationships would be a group of satisfied
rlm@46 1045 ex-lovers, who would recommend new people your way, and who might
rlm@46 1046 consider coming to you again, refreshed from their time away with
rlm@46 1047 new stories/experiences. I should look for examples of this and
rlm@46 1048 how they worked out.
rlm@43 1049
rlm@47 1050 - coffee with tea :: /rlm-tea/ contains 2% sugar, 10% cream, and 20%
rlm@43 1051 dylan coffee. /dylan coffee/ contains 5% sugar,
rlm@43 1052 20% cream, and 10% rlm-tea. Start your mornings
rlm@43 1053 with recursion!
rlm@43 1054
rlm@43 1055 - psychic crystal :: in a science fiction story, this would be an
rlm@43 1056 object that is very easy to move physically but is extremely
rlm@43 1057 difficult to move with telekinesis.
rlm@43 1058
rlm@40 1059 - http://betsofbitco.in/ :: what a great place for an AI/person to
rlm@40 1060 prove themselves as a good predictor. I wish this could be
rlm@40 1061 automated.
rlm@40 1062
rlm@44 1063 - true reflection :: don't forget about that mirror in the student
rlm@44 1064 center!, it's two mirrors at right angles, like staring at a
rlm@44 1065 corner of a room. The light reflects so that it shows you what
rlm@44 1066 you actually look like, instead of your mirror image.
rlm@33 1067
rlm@33 1068 - remote control wasp :: use computer to drive wings with remote
rlm@32 1069 power/logic.
rlm@32 1070
rlm@47 1071 - encrypted email phone book :: public (distributed?) database of
rlm@44 1072 email->private-key pairs, to enable automatic encryption.
rlm@32 1073
rlm@44 1074 - universal eye color :: every equivalent creature will see each
rlm@44 1075 others' eyes as black -- it's universal. Even if the creatures
rlm@44 1076 see in radio waves, and their eyes are 2m long pieces of jagged
rlm@44 1077 metal, when those creatures look at each other, they will see
rlm@44 1078 black, the absence of light and color (since it's being absorbed
rlm@44 1079 by the sensor array).
rlm@32 1080
rlm@33 1081 - intelligent microwave :: it learns where the hot nodes of its fields
rlm@83 1082 are, and uses them to evenly heat any food item. It has an infrared
rlm@32 1083 camera or something to keep track of how hot the food is. That way,
rlm@32 1084 you don't get bowls where the edges are boiling, while the center is
rlm@32 1085 still frozen. Requires a little bit of intelligence/vision, since
rlm@32 1086 the exact pattern of heating totally depends on the exact shape of
rlm@47 1087 the food. Wouldn't need a carousel, and wouldn't need a timer,
rlm@47 1088 just a desired temperature. Could also detect ice, and automatically
rlm@32 1089 defrost the parts which are frozen. Might be able to work much
rlm@47 1090 faster since it can avoid overheating; might have problems with
rlm@32 1091 heating the insides of thick things, might need a weight sensor too.
rlm@32 1092
rlm@39 1093 + Would be much cleaner than other microwaves, since food would
rlm@39 1094 "sputter" and splash liquid much less.
rlm@32 1095
rlm@39 1096 + Throw in some SIFT+R processing to match previously cooked foods
rlm@39 1097 and learn the exact heating profiles for things that have been
rlm@54 1098 cooked before -- it can get faster the more it's used.
rlm@32 1099
rlm@47 1100 - compression :: brain-aware image compression algorithm
rlm@32 1101
rlm@44 1102 - Credit card proxy :: would be a company which works like paypal
rlm@44 1103 except for real world transactions
rlm@32 1104
rlm@33 1105 - Flesh pillow :: a pillow like the arm or torso of a human, complete
rlm@33 1106 with simulated temperature, bones, and heartbeat.
rlm@33 1107
rlm@47 1108 - super screw :: a screw which has only one or two threads and instead
rlm@47 1109 uses compression to fit into a hole (the whole shank
rlm@33 1110 of the screw is split into multiple pieces to
rlm@33 1111 accomplish this; the tip is a point, then the middle
rlm@33 1112 bulges out and gets compressed when screwed in.
rlm@33 1113
rlm@47 1114 - light filter :: (like light tweezers) to mechanically separate
rlm@33 1115 fluids with different index of refraction
rlm@33 1116
rlm@33 1117 - chalk eraser project :: maybe make a directional eraser, for easy
rlm@33 1118 release of chalk dust, like fur, and how it likes to rest in a
rlm@33 1119 certain direction.
rlm@33 1120
rlm@44 1121 - silver socks :: socks laced with silver for the antimicrobial
rlm@44 1122 properties.
rlm@32 1123
rlm@53 1124 - UROP :: magnet gear/metal teeth tape
rlm@53 1125
rlm@82 1126 - Rod of Moses :: device to distill urine through evaporation and
rlm@53 1127 easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert --
rlm@53 1128 produce drinkable water.
rlm@32 1129
rlm@47 1130 - UROP :: Make the LED in line with the flow for the micro injector, so
rlm@44 1131 that it may transmit maximum flow. Motor that changes
rlm@44 1132 distance of internal magnet from windings depending on
rlm@44 1133 desired speed so as to obtain maximum power efficiency.
rlm@32 1134
rlm@47 1135 - lottery scraper :: web scraper which monitors various lotteries,
rlm@44 1136 looking for "special" gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x
rlm@44 1137 winnings on Wednesdays) and computes expected value...
rlm@34 1138
rlm@34 1139 - Memristiors novel design :: make an evolutionary algorithm to make
rlm@34 1140 old stuff using all four basic circuit elements.
rlm@34 1141
rlm@44 1142 - Conductive concrete :: concrete that has embedded metal fibers so
rlm@44 1143 that it can conduct electricity.
rlm@34 1144
rlm@44 1145 - little bitty melting pot :: might be useful for some types of
rlm@44 1146 manufacturing/3D printing -- how small can an induction melter be
rlm@44 1147 made, for example.
rlm@34 1148
rlm@44 1149 - power strip/timer programmable combination :: meh
rlm@34 1150
rlm@47 1151 - algorithms :: which learn what their inputs are and in what order,
rlm@44 1152 and can adapt to changing circumstances -- they
rlm@44 1153 remember previous arguments and adapt so as to respond
rlm@44 1154 to different connections.
rlm@34 1155
rlm@47 1156 - true pure tones :: hear a true pure tone by direct stimulation of the
rlm@44 1157 nerves of the ear
rlm@43 1158
rlm@43 1159 - mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp :: would be an object
rlm@43 1160 with two levers -- you pull on one lever and the other moves the
rlm@43 1161 same way, no matter what's in the way or what it is driving. This
rlm@47 1162 analogy could be useful to teach op amps to people.
rlm@34 1163
rlm@47 1164 - paper folding device :: make it convenient to fold lots of papers in
rlm@34 1165 various ways.
rlm@34 1166
rlm@34 1167 - concrete epoxy :: epoxy with sand/ some other solid material.
rlm@34 1168
rlm@47 1169 - light capacitor :: suspend some ball of material with a high index
rlm@43 1170 of refraction and shine light into it so it gets stuck -- would
rlm@43 1171 the light stay trapped forever? Could you build up unlimited
rlm@43 1172 quantities of light inside the sphere (which could then be
rlm@43 1173 released slowly by frustrated internal reflection?
rlm@34 1174
rlm@40 1175 - movie screening :: Movies always are too long at first. One way to
rlm@34 1176 shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the
rlm@34 1177 move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which
rlm@34 1178 there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people)
rlm@34 1179 better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I
rlm@34 1180 got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill
rlm@47 1181 which is composed entirely of the parts in which people had their
rlm@34 1182 eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their
rlm@34 1183 eyes off of? Just take those parts out!
rlm@34 1184
rlm@47 1185 - optimize an article :: capture reading of a scientific article via
rlm@44 1186 screen capture while people read it, then use it to make the
rlm@44 1187 article better. like the movie-pruning idea.
rlm@35 1188
rlm@44 1189 - super reading program :: teaches people the ideal mental mask to
rlm@44 1190 apply during reading so as to read very fast.
rlm@35 1191
rlm@44 1192 - explosive thermite epoxy putty :: one part would contain the rust,
rlm@47 1193 one part the aluminum.
rlm@34 1194
rlm@44 1195 - reading comprehension :: use the above screen capture routine to
rlm@44 1196 make a quiz program that constructs questions about the content
rlm@44 1197 you seemed to gloss over while reading. could be easy if the pdf
rlm@44 1198 came with embedded questions. Dylan: automatically generate
rlm@44 1199 word-cloud about the parts you found most interesting; help
rlm@44 1200 others who read the same stuff by drawing attention to the
rlm@44 1201 interesting parts.
rlm@34 1202
rlm@44 1203 - hard sword :: make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of
rlm@44 1204 martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better
rlm@44 1205 sword.
rlm@32 1206
rlm@44 1207 - close range wireless :: use the induction technology used to
rlm@44 1208 recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data
rlm@44 1209 without any metal at all!
rlm@32 1210
rlm@44 1211 - reading :: is a form of synsethesia
rlm@32 1212
rlm@44 1213 - DNA printer :: A machine which translates the text eg, "ACTGAC" into
rlm@44 1214 actual DNA
rlm@32 1215
rlm@44 1216 - black generator :: ferro-fluid magnetic field suspended micro
rlm@44 1217 generator to make electricity
rlm@32 1218
rlm@44 1219 - alcohol battery :: alcohol/fluid flow powered battery
rlm@32 1220
rlm@44 1221 - folding razor blade sword ::
rlm@32 1222
rlm@44 1223 - perfect pitch :: learn perfect pitch using another sense in
rlm@44 1224 combination (sight or touch)
rlm@32 1225
rlm@44 1226 - kaleidoscope projector ::
rlm@32 1227
rlm@44 1228 - razor blade de-sharpener :: for guilt free disposal
rlm@32 1229
rlm@44 1230 - bricks :: filled with luminescent plant material
rlm@32 1231
rlm@47 1232 - bio metallic structure :: metal grids with seeds inside, which grow
rlm@44 1233 together and form a durable biological matrix. The metal
rlm@44 1234 substrate delivers water. (maybe use plastic instead of metal?)
rlm@44 1235 Dylan: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical
rlm@44 1236 interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled
rlm@44 1237 photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures.
rlm@32 1238
rlm@44 1239 - conducting extracellular matrix :: to allow better control of
rlm@44 1240 organic systems and an enhanced nervous system.
rlm@32 1241
rlm@44 1242 - cross-modal memory hashing :: a way to retrieve memories more
rlm@44 1243 robustly.
rlm@32 1244
rlm@47 1245 - flossing thimble-guards :: (these actually exist)
rlm@32 1246
rlm@44 1247 - rules + lattice learning :: integrate lattice learning with rules by
rlm@44 1248 generating hypothetical examples
rlm@32 1249
rlm@47 1250 - wooden refrigerator :: to give food a better taste Dylan: like
rlm@44 1251 barrels for wine, or planks for salmon. Maybe just have "flavor
rlm@44 1252 planks" for your pre-existing fridge. Need to mitigate effect of
rlm@44 1253 temperature on volatility?
rlm@32 1254
rlm@35 1255 - radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule :: create precious
rlm@35 1256 metals or something else economically advantageous.
rlm@32 1257
rlm@47 1258 - crowd preservation :: inoculate food with tons of harmless
rlm@44 1259 bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of
rlm@44 1260 preservation
rlm@32 1261
rlm@47 1262 - old school preservation :: Pasteur - style holding jar with siphon
rlm@47 1263 as a way to store liquids at room temperature indefinitely w/o
rlm@47 1264 refrigeration.
rlm@32 1265
rlm@47 1266 - restaurant policy :: Throw rude people out of restaurant as a matter
rlm@44 1267 of course -- make ambiance much better.
rlm@32 1268
rlm@47 1269 - clean windows :: make something that mixes soap with fire hydrant
rlm@44 1270 water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it
rlm@44 1271 to clean windows of buildings.
rlm@32 1272
rlm@44 1273 - ocarina :: make an ocarina out of pure silver
rlm@32 1274
rlm@35 1275 - fire pen :: pen which burns words on to the page, thus never needing
rlm@47 1276 any ink. Is there a way to make it runnable from the
rlm@35 1277 human's energy?
rlm@32 1278
rlm@44 1279 - website to design your own soda :: and label, and have it mailed to
rlm@44 1280 you / sell it from your own online store.
rlm@35 1281
rlm@44 1282 - solar panels :: that float on the ocean
rlm@43 1283
rlm@35 1284 - handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?) :: great for daisy chaining
rlm@43 1285 people, binding them to environment, etc.
rlm@35 1286
rlm@35 1287 - vector based SOUND files :: like the pictures but with SOUND. codify
rlm@35 1288 sound in a language with enough symbols so that it can describe
rlm@35 1289 everything and encode it in that. would be like going from speech
rlm@43 1290 to text or smtg. Could also store sound as an image of the
rlm@35 1291 wavefront encoded as a vector image.
rlm@32 1292
rlm@44 1293 - Mouse :: with a horizontal scroll wheel in addition to the vertical
rlm@44 1294 scroll wheel
rlm@32 1295
rlm@47 1296 - logic maintenance system for big institutions :: to make sure the
rlm@44 1297 things they are thinking about doing are not retarded
rlm@32 1298
rlm@47 1299 - http://www.regulations.gov/ :: cool site
rlm@32 1300
rlm@44 1301 - genetically engineered glowing fruit :: sell seeds?
rlm@32 1302
rlm@36 1303 - memory slide :: IF memories are encoded using particular sensory
rlm@36 1304 impressions, what happens if the sensory organ
rlm@36 1305 itself changes? those memories would become
rlm@47 1306 inaccessible. maybe this is why we can't remember
rlm@36 1307 much from our childhoods. also, could this happen
rlm@47 1308 throughout life as well? Could S remember stuff from
rlm@36 1309 his childhood?
rlm@32 1310
rlm@47 1311 - make a completely indestructible phone :: no moving parts or display
rlm@36 1312 you should be able to slam it around all you want, and it will
rlm@36 1313 just work. brutally simple. aerogel around the battery, minimal
rlm@36 1314 interface - never gets too hot, and can be dropped into water. no
rlm@36 1315 holes -- uses field effects for everything from the buttons to
rlm@36 1316 inductive charging and data transfer.
rlm@32 1317
rlm@44 1318 - midi to ocarina "tabs" program :: (online website? buy ocarinas from
rlm@44 1319 it too)
rlm@32 1320
rlm@44 1321 - 3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns) :: like the 8.03
rlm@44 1322 lecture
rlm@32 1323
rlm@40 1324 - lighter flint on spring :: make hot, throw it at something, and it
rlm@40 1325 makes sparkles!
rlm@32 1326
rlm@44 1327 - nuclear energy :: Rebranding New+Clear Energy with informational
rlm@44 1328 campaign and public debate forum to enforce its
rlm@44 1329 transparent and open nature. France needn't be the
rlm@44 1330 world leader in nuclear energy. (Dylan)
rlm@32 1331
rlm@44 1332 - bubbles :: Engineer a material which has both ductility and high
rlm@44 1333 surface tension to make the "third"
rlm@44 1334 minimal-surface-energy solution to a bubble suspended
rlm@44 1335 between two equal-diameter rings. (Solutions are
rlm@44 1336 cylindrical catenary curve, two separated half-bubbles,
rlm@44 1337 and a double-cone)
rlm@38 1338
rlm@38 1339 - Textbook whose content can be varied continuously :: alter level of
rlm@38 1340 difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain
rlm@38 1341 other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from
rlm@38 1342 knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to
rlm@38 1343 guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of
rlm@40 1344 knowledge. /One./
rlm@40 1345
rlm@40 1346 ** From Jacob's idea list
rlm@40 1347
rlm@47 1348 - Roommate-canceling headphones: uses roommate's laptop mic to seed
rlm@43 1349 noise cancellation alg in your headphones (would this
rlm@40 1350 work?). -Update on sound canceling headphones that take feed from
rlm@40 1351 tv: how about ones that cancel people talking on the phone by
rlm@40 1352 receiving the phone signals and playing inverse sound
rlm@40 1353 waves. #signalprocessing ~jcole@mit.edu
rlm@40 1354
rlm@40 1355 - ClackerAlert -- tells if you slam the keys too hard using sound data
rlm@40 1356 (and speed/jerkiness data)!.Prevents RSI ~jcole@mit.e
rlm@40 1357
rlm@40 1358 - Panic Pin :: separate pin that you can tell someone if forced to
rlm@41 1359 identify your PIN (idea from idea about credit cards)