thoughts: newideas.html annotate

annotate newideas.html @ 141:94e03d638078

new ideas.

author	Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date	Thu, 26 Feb 2015 17:56:46 -0800
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rlm@141	95 <div class="header">
rlm@141	96 <h1><em>aurellem</em>.org</h1>
rlm@141	97 </div>
rlm@141	98
rlm@141	99
rlm@141	100 <h1 class="title">Ideas</h1>
rlm@141	101 <p>
rlm@141	102 This is a list of all the ideas I've had that I felt like writing down
rlm@141	103 for the past ~ 8 years. Some of them could be practical inventions and
rlm@141	104 are "just" waiting the that 95% perspiration to bring them to
rlm@141	105 fruition, some are ideas for science fiction, and some are simple
rlm@141	106 observations. Some are really only for my own personal notes and are
rlm@141	107 not meant to be comprehensible. They are arranged roughly in reverse
rlm@141	108 chronological order, with the most recent ideas at the top of the
rlm@141	109 list. The ones at the bottom of the list are heavily influenced by my
rlm@141	110 time at MIT.
rlm@141	111 </p>
rlm@141	112 <p>
rlm@141	113 If you find some of these interesting and would like to collaborate on
rlm@141	114 them with me or discuss them in more detail, I'd love to hear from
rlm@141	115 you. You can email me at <a href="mailto:ideas@aurellem.org">ideas@aurellem.org</a>.
rlm@141	116 </p>
rlm@141	117 <p>
rlm@141	118 If you want to use one of these ideas as your own and run with it,
rlm@141	119 please feel free. I'd love
rlm@141	120 to <a href="mailto:ideas@aurellem.org">hear about it</a> if you do.
rlm@141	121 </p>
rlm@141	122 <blockquote>
rlm@141	123
rlm@141	124 <p>There's no end to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care about
rlm@141	125 getting credit.
rlm@141	126 </p>
rlm@141	127 </blockquote>
rlm@141	128
rlm@141	129 <hr/>
rlm@141	130
rlm@141	131 <div class="ideas">
rlm@141	132 <div class="project"><h2>the great computing slow-down</h2><div class="description">In general, our computers are
rlm@141	133 getting faster and faster. However, eventually our brains will be
rlm@141	134 made of the same stuff our computers are made of! This has very
rlm@141	135 interesting consequences – I can add 2+2 and get four in about a
rlm@141	136 second. Since my neurons actually work at around 10-60 hertz in
rlm@141	137 parallel, this means that it takes me around 10-30 operations to
rlm@141	138 do this addition. That's actually not bad in terms of computing
rlm@141	139 time. If my neurons were as fast as the latest transitors, then
rlm@141	140 most calculators would be SLOWER than me at adding numbers. Only
rlm@141	141 the newest, most optimized calculators would be faster, and then
rlm@141	142 only about 10 times faster! This means that once we begin to
rlm@141	143 think at the speed of our technology, that technology will
rlm@141	144 suddenly seem pitifully slow in comparison to how it seems
rlm@141	145 now. And no amount of technical progress will remedy it, because
rlm@141	146 that same progress will also make us all think faster. We'll
rlm@141	147 either have to settle with living in "slow time" to do some
rlm@141	148 computations, or learn to make smarter hardware with special
rlm@141	149 optimizations. But this is actually really hard, because we'll be
rlm@141	150 working with machines that will appear to us about as fast as
rlm@141	151 MECHANICAL computers. So, in the future, all the cool parties
rlm@141	152 will be in cyperspace at vastly accelerated speeds compared to
rlm@141	153 how we exist now. But at these parties, the computers will SUCK!
rlm@141	154 Of course, this is one of the few things that can save us from AI
rlm@141	155 risk, because those AI's won't seem so scary when the're build
rlm@141	156 out of rickety mechanical parts form our perspective.
rlm@141	157
rlm@141	158 </div></div>
rlm@141	159 <div class="project"><h2>unitary reverse evolution of chaos+minds</h2><div class="description">Chaotic systems diverge
rlm@141	160 exponentially in state space. Do you get anything interesting
rlm@141	161 when part of the physical system associated with the chaotic
rlm@141	162 system is a object that performs some sort of computation? Is it
rlm@141	163 possible for the computational system to play a
rlm@141	164 percision-enabling role in determining the final/initial
rlm@141	165 conditions of the chaotic system, just by tracing out thoughts in
rlm@141	166 its decision paths? This is probably too vague of an idea right
rlm@141	167 now, I just wanted to write it down.
rlm@141	168
rlm@141	169 </div></div>
rlm@141	170 <div class="project"><h2>microwave time</h2><div class="description">the cooking time you enter on most microwaves is
rlm@141	171 insane. It's expressed in what I call a "hybrid base", a
rlm@141	172 combination of base 10 and base 60. You can get absurd things
rlm@141	173 like 100 < 61, and 120 == 80! I wonder if these hybrid base
rlm@141	174 systems could be very useful for some purposes!
rlm@141	175
rlm@141	176 </div></div>
rlm@141	177 <div class="project"><h2>three-eyes</h2><div class="description">if you had three eyes, would you still draw cubes like
rlm@141	178 we currently draw them? Or would all 2D-representations of 3D
rlm@141	179 space always look hopelessly fake?
rlm@141	180
rlm@141	181 </div></div>
rlm@141	182 <div class="project"><h2>visual taste/smell assay</h2><div class="description">get a grid of bacteria, each expressing
rlm@141	183 a human taste/smell receptor linked to some sort of fluorscent
rlm@141	184 activity or ion pump. Use a camera / electrical grid to transduce
rlm@141	185 the smell / taste signal into bits!
rlm@141	186
rlm@141	187 </div></div>
rlm@141	188 <div class="project"><h2>carabiner mushroom lock</h2><div class="description">you can take a trapazodial carabiner and
rlm@141	189 make it so that a chain link is caught between the wide end of
rlm@141	190 the carabiner and another chain attached to the carabiner.
rlm@141	191
rlm@141	192 </div></div>
rlm@141	193 <div class="project"><h2>children's tool shop</h2><div class="description">I think that kids should be provided with
rlm@141	194 tool shops – these would be nice sheds with a good collection of
rlm@141	195 tools to do various things – circuit components and soldering
rlm@141	196 irons, wires, a small lathe, drill press, belt sander, a
rlm@141	197 centrifuge, microscope, and telescope, etc. The idea is that the
rlm@141	198 kid can now think, "I could use X to do this thing that I'm
rlm@141	199 thinking about" – the building becomes an extension of the kid's
rlm@141	200 body & mind.
rlm@141	201
rlm@141	202 </div></div>
rlm@141	203 <div class="project"><h2>fluid display</h2><div class="description">like the previous idea about matching refractances
rlm@141	204 between glass and liquid, except you make a lot of
rlm@141	205 switchable glass tubes in various patterns in the
rlm@141	206 glass, and actively pump colored liquid through the
rlm@141	207 tubes (the tubes have glass-like fluid in them by
rlm@141	208 default.) The result is that you can cause the
rlm@141	209 tubes to appear and dissappear, and vary their
rlm@141	210 colors as well!
rlm@141	211
rlm@141	212 </div></div>
rlm@141	213 <div class="project"><h2>immunoincompatibility</h2><div class="description">take the human genome, and refactor it so
rlm@141	214 that it doesn't use a particular codon at all. Then remove the
rlm@141	215 support from our ribosomes for that codon. What does this do for
rlm@141	216 us? It makes us immune to almost all viruses!
rlm@141	217
rlm@141	218 </div></div>
rlm@141	219 <div class="project"><h2>life cycle</h2><div class="description">it's called a cycle, right? So, the thing that repeats
rlm@141	220 itself over and over, right? Not much of a cycle if
rlm@141	221 you don't come back after you die, if you ask me!
rlm@141	222
rlm@141	223 </div></div>
rlm@141	224 <div class="project"><h2>car with no blind spots</h2><div class="description">use some cameras in the back of the car
rlm@141	225 to augment the rear-view mirror so that you never have to turn
rlm@141	226 around in order to lane change.
rlm@141	227
rlm@141	228 </div></div>
rlm@141	229 <div class="project"><h2>partial cell death</h2><div class="description">you freeze a set of cells using some cryo
rlm@141	230 protocol and 60% survive. How can this be explained? It seems to
rlm@141	231 me that if the cells are the same, and the conditions
rlm@141	232 homogoneous, then all the cells should either die or
rlm@141	233 live. However, suppose that there is a metabolic cycle that needs
rlm@141	234 to be in a certain phase for the cell to survive. If the cells
rlm@141	235 are asynchronous, then you might end up with some cells dying
rlm@141	236 because there were in the wrong part of their cycle. This implies
rlm@141	237 that you might be able to cryoprotect cells by causing them to
rlm@141	238 enter a certain metabolic mode before freezing.
rlm@141	239
rlm@141	240 </div></div>
rlm@141	241 <div class="project"><h2>cryonics color appeal</h2><div class="description">perfusate used by cryonics companies should
rlm@141	242 have red food coloring in it. It's just a nice touch so that the
rlm@141	243 cryonics patient looks more life-like than with clear CPAs, and
rlm@141	244 hopefully might get treated with more respect.
rlm@141	245
rlm@141	246 </div></div>
rlm@141	247 <div class="project"><h2>paramagnetic CPA</h2><div class="description">you take a CPA that can be influenced by
rlm@141	248 magnetic fields so that its degrees of freedom are limited. Then,
rlm@141	249 you release the field, instantaly increasing the size of the
rlm@141	250 state space of the system and dramatically decreasing the
rlm@141	251 temperature enough to plunge the system past homogenous
rlm@141	252 nucleation temperature and directly to the glass transition
rlm@141	253 temperature, creating a doubly unstable glass at much lower CPA
rlm@141	254 concentrations than possible at conventional CPA concentrations.
rlm@141	255
rlm@141	256 </div></div>
rlm@141	257 <div class="project"><h2>room temp noodles</h2><div class="description">how does the physics of cooking noodles work?
rlm@141	258 Could you use a vacuum instead of heat to force water into the
rlm@141	259 noodle?
rlm@141	260
rlm@141	261 </div></div>
rlm@141	262 <div class="project"><h2>personal carbon offset</h2><div class="description">feel bad about contribuiting to global
rlm@141	263 warming by using electricity / driving a car? Forget trying to
rlm@141	264 "conserve" or "minimize your carbon footprint". Follow the
rlm@141	265 Platinum rule – make the world BETTER off than you found it!
rlm@141	266 This would be a small, self contained system that sucks C02 out
rlm@141	267 of the air. It uses electricity, but it's so efficient at
rlm@141	268 removing CO2 that it more than offsets the CO2 produced by even a
rlm@141	269 coal plant to produce that electricity. This way, you can still
rlm@141	270 drive even a gas guzzler, but have a net negative carbon
rlm@141	271 footprint! Maybe something cool could be done with the carbon as
rlm@141	272 well. Use as much electricity as you want, but negate the damage
rlm@141	273 to the enviroment with more technology.
rlm@141	274
rlm@141	275 </div></div>
rlm@141	276 <div class="project"><h2>undoing spermogenesis</h2><div class="description">with enough sperm, you can derive the
rlm@141	277 donor's entire genome. You gain more confidence in the alleles
rlm@141	278 for a particular gene the more sperm you have. Each additional
rlm@141	279 sperm gives you the same sort of information you'd get flipping a
rlm@141	280 coin and trying to decide whether the coin is H/T of H/H. Is
rlm@141	281 there enough sperm in the the average load for you to be as
rlm@141	282 confident as mitosis?
rlm@141	283
rlm@141	284 </div></div>
rlm@141	285 <div class="project"><h2>mars life</h2><div class="description">we could engineer life that could survive on mars
rlm@141	286 (probably some non-vascular photosynthetic
rlm@141	287 poikilohydric creature like a lichen) by taking an
rlm@141	288 extremophile from Antarctica and evolving it in
rlm@141	289 increasingly Martian conditions. This could be an easy
rlm@141	290 start to a terraforming process.
rlm@141	291
rlm@141	292 </div></div>
rlm@141	293 <div class="project"><h2>problem with Aubrey de Grey's ideas</h2><div class="description">Aubrey de Grey says that we
rlm@141	294 might be able to live forever by continually repairing our bodies
rlm@141	295 at the cellular level – he details 7 different mechanisms of
rlm@141	296 damage and says that if all of them are dealt with <i>together</i>
rlm@141	297 that it would stop aging. (You can't miss even one because
rlm@141	298 they're all fatal.) However, it doesn't take into account that
rlm@141	299 we are also beings of information and that there is a very real
rlm@141	300 software component to our existence. Even if our biological
rlm@141	301 chassies can be maintained forever, I think it is unlikely that
rlm@141	302 our minds will operate well far outside of the design constraints
rlm@141	303 that we've evolved to handle. Say I programmed a webserver with
rlm@141	304 the express goal of it being able to serve webpages for month on
rlm@141	305 some stock server. I'll do fairly rigorous testing to make sure
rlm@141	306 that it can handle the expected load then then some. Now say that
rlm@141	307 you want to keep a particular instance of this webserver running
rlm@141	308 indefinitely. (The program instance is like your mind and the
rlm@141	309 computer it's running on is like your body). You might very well
rlm@141	310 be able to keep the physical computer infrastructure running for
rlm@141	311 forever by replacing hard drives / ram / CPUs, etc. However,
rlm@141	312 since I designed the webserver to work for a month, it probably
rlm@141	313 has memory leaks, rare stochastic bugs, or other built in limits
rlm@141	314 / constraints (think log files or some date rollover shenanigans)
rlm@141	315 that will ultimately kill the webserver even with eternally
rlm@141	316 perfect hardware. Do you really expect that a webserver
rlm@141	317 engineered to work for 1 month will run for 10 years without
rlm@141	318 catastrophically crashing? Not even Apache can do this! In fact,
rlm@141	319 if I put in the extreme effort to make it that robust, I've
rlm@141	320 wasted time that I could have spent on other projects by pursuing
rlm@141	321 an unnecessary engineering goal. Likewise, human minds have only
rlm@141	322 ever run for at most 122 years before they are destroyed due to
rlm@141	323 hardware degradation. Fixing the hardware doesn't change any
rlm@141	324 software bugs that are almost certainly present in the human
rlm@141	325 mind. Think of all the pathological things that can go wrong with
rlm@141	326 a webserver, multiply it by a million, and that likely how
rlm@141	327 evolution has designed our minds. For example, consider memory :
rlm@141	328 why should you expect that we have evolved the ability to
rlm@141	329 coherently organize memories past say 150 years? There's been
rlm@141	330 absolutely no selective pressure for this ability, so you can bet
rlm@141	331 that if there's any fitness to be gained from not having
rlm@141	332 unlimited memory potential (such as better metabolic efficiency),
rlm@141	333 we have it! You might think that maybe we would just forget
rlm@141	334 things the same way that we sort of forget things that happen
rlm@141	335 earlier in our lives, but complicated information processing
rlm@141	336 systems don't have to fail gracefully when they're pushed far
rlm@141	337 past their design constraints. A 150 year old person is just as
rlm@141	338 likely to suffer a catastrophic psychosis due to software
rlm@141	339 limitations associated with memory as he is to do something with
rlm@141	340 all those memories we might consider reasonable. More likely, in
rlm@141	341 fact, since there are so very many ways for a complicated
rlm@141	342 software system to break and so few ways for it to run
rlm@141	343 successfully. Therefore, I think Aubrey de Grey's "hardware-only"
rlm@141	344 approach is missing a very important component of longevity
rlm@141	345 science, and any successful effort to make people live orders of
rlm@141	346 magnitude longer than they do naturally will need to deal with
rlm@141	347 people's software as well as their hardware.
rlm@141	348
rlm@141	349 </div></div>
rlm@141	350 <div class="project"><h2>validating neurocryopreservation</h2><div class="description">Problem : you want to test
rlm@141	351 whether a brain is functionally preserved through vitrification,
rlm@141	352 but you don't want to figure out how to preserve all the other
rlm@141	353 organs in the animal. It might be possible to keep the rest of
rlm@141	354 the body at almost 0C and vitrify just the head for only a few
rlm@141	355 minutes. Induce hypothermia, then separate out the head's blood
rlm@141	356 supply from the rest of the body, then just cryoptotect and
rlm@141	357 vitrify the head. Might need some sort of thermal guard to keep
rlm@141	358 the outer head / neck from becoming too cold. You leave the
rlm@141	359 spinal cord intact! Then you devitrify to 0C, remove
rlm@141	360 cryoprotectant, and then reattach the blood supply. You can
rlm@141	361 determine brain preservation using behavioral assays!
rlm@141	362
rlm@141	363 </div></div>
rlm@141	364 <div class="project"><h2>freezing water purifier</h2><div class="description">you slowly freeze water, but also run
rlm@141	365 liquid water over the frozen mass. This takes away basically all
rlm@141	366 impurities and creates "washed ice" then you melt the ice. Maybe
rlm@141	367 you could re-use the heat from creating the ice to melt the ice?
rlm@141	368
rlm@141	369 </div></div>
rlm@141	370 <div class="project"><h2>ultra strength</h2><div class="description">allow a person to visualize their muscle
rlm@141	371 recruitment patterns. Give them adrenaline and let
rlm@141	372 them feel what it's like to have the normal limits
rlm@141	373 removed. See if they can replicate the effects.
rlm@141	374
rlm@141	375 </div></div>
rlm@141	376 <div class="project"><h2>phone names</h2><div class="description">make a PX record for domain names that's like the MX
rlm@141	377 record, except that it is a phone number instead of
rlm@141	378 an IP address. That way, you can use the domain name
rlm@141	379 registration system to provide names for phone
rlm@141	380 numbers. Then, as long as you control the domain, you
rlm@141	381 can point people to your current phone number by
rlm@141	382 updating that record.
rlm@141	383
rlm@141	384 </div></div>
rlm@141	385 <div class="project"><h2>edible flowers</h2><div class="description">Edible white flowers that you put in a colored
rlm@141	386 solution with flavor. When the flower turns the
rlm@141	387 right color, it is also flavored and ready to eat!
rlm@141	388
rlm@141	389 </div></div>
rlm@141	390 <div class="project"><h2>suicide cryonics</h2><div class="description">according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html">this</a>, people who commit impulsive
rlm@141	391 suicides have a newfound sense of the importance of life. Perhaps
rlm@141	392 they are good cryonics targets.
rlm@141	393
rlm@141	394 </div></div>
rlm@141	395 <div class="project"><h2>lead bone</h2><div class="description">Could you fill in all the empty spaces in a bone with
rlm@141	396 lead? Might be cool.
rlm@141	397
rlm@141	398 </div></div>
rlm@141	399 <div class="project"><h2>the quest for life </h2><div class="description">Every stupid story has the "immortal who
rlm@141	400 wants to become mortal" or some other such idea. I want to story
rlm@141	401 where the protagonist loses their immortality and feels <i>angry</i>
rlm@141	402 and ashamed about losing something that's so absolutely crucial
rlm@141	403 to their identity. A reverse of "death makes life worth living",
rlm@141	404 they feel that living forever is what makes life worth
rlm@141	405 living. Now they've "lost their sunrise" or their "connection to
rlm@141	406 the timeless universe" or something. So they go on a quest to get
rlm@141	407 it back, learning about themselves along the way, and regaining
rlm@141	408 the precious thing they lost in the beginning.
rlm@141	409
rlm@141	410 </div></div>
rlm@141	411 <div class="project"><h2>world-map</h2><div class="description">take a small table and paint the continents in
rlm@141	412 toothpaste on the table. Make a slightly raised barrier
rlm@141	413 around the table. Slowly pour water onto the table, and
rlm@141	414 it will form the oceans!
rlm@141	415
rlm@141	416 </div></div>
rlm@141	417 <div class="project"><h2>stage magic rituals</h2><div class="description">rituals should incorporate elements of stage
rlm@141	418 magic. Foe example in Teller's tempest, they have a scene where
rlm@141	419 they levitate a crown in front of someone, then put it on his
rlm@141	420 head. They also have a wedding ceremony where they levitated the
rlm@141	421 bride as well. Actual weddings and other ceremonies should
rlm@141	422 incorporate stage magic as an enhancement.
rlm@141	423
rlm@141	424 </div></div>
rlm@141	425 <div class="project"><h2>isotope time dilation</h2><div class="description">use a cyclotron to speed up rare isotopes
rlm@141	426 developed in nuclear fusion experiments. The relativistic time
rlm@141	427 dilation will stop the isotopes from decaying, and allow time to
rlm@141	428 study them. This is based on radioactive isotopes that fall
rlm@141	429 through the earth's atmosphere that take hundreds of times
rlm@141	430 longer to decay than normal.
rlm@141	431
rlm@141	432 </div></div>
rlm@141	433 <div class="project"><h2>marsupial stimulation</h2><div class="description">You take a freshly pouched marsupial baby,
rlm@141	434 and show it videos and other interactive things while it matures
rlm@141	435 in the pouch. What mental effects would this have?
rlm@141	436
rlm@141	437 </div></div>
rlm@141	438 <div class="project"><h2>dynamic re-keying</h2><div class="description">Some older ways of tuning instruments sound
rlm@141	439 better, but we use the even-tempered scale today because it makes
rlm@141	440 it easier to switch keys. With electronic music, why not make
rlm@141	441 key-annotations and dynamically re-tune the piece to sound good
rlm@141	442 in the current key? Could be done as a midi+annotation -> midi
rlm@141	443 compiler for experimentation.
rlm@141	444
rlm@141	445 </div></div>
rlm@141	446 <div class="project"><h2>death always implies damage</h2><div class="description">is is possible for a corpse to differ
rlm@141	447 from a living person only in the fact that one is dead and the
rlm@141	448 other is alive? NO! A corpse must always have some sort of
rlm@141	449 molecular damage which causes the loss of function!
rlm@141	450
rlm@141	451 </div></div>
rlm@141	452 <div class="project"><h2>inner eye</h2><div class="description">Surgically install a bunch of tiny cameras inside a
rlm@141	453 person. Then, you can activate them all and get a
rlm@141	454 picture of your internal organs for diagnostic
rlm@141	455 purposes.
rlm@141	456
rlm@141	457 </div></div>
rlm@141	458 <div class="project"><h2>chaos rails</h2><div class="description">should make a visualization of the homoclinic tangle,
rlm@141	459 it's truly beautiful.
rlm@141	460
rlm@141	461 </div></div>
rlm@141	462 <div class="project"><h2>context gobbler</h2><div class="description">this would be in "inside-out macro" that takes
rlm@141	463 the context (like you use for things like error, continuations,
rlm@141	464 and friends) and transforms it to something else. Maybe useful?
rlm@141	465
rlm@141	466 </div></div>
rlm@141	467 <div class="project"><h2>cryonics middle ages</h2><div class="description">some people say that cryonics is an
rlm@141	468 experiment and that it is foolish to wait until we have revived a
rlm@141	469 human. There is a middle ground where the procedure has a dismal
rlm@141	470 success rate on humans, say 1 in 20, so that you'd be a fool to
rlm@141	471 try revival. Nonetheless, this very risky procedure could be the
rlm@141	472 legal proof of concept needed to create a new class of life
rlm@141	473 between "living" and "dead": "stasis".
rlm@141	474
rlm@141	475 </div></div>
rlm@141	476 <div class="project"><h2>philosophy of the mirror</h2><div class="description">neat thought experiment – if you take a
rlm@141	477 mirror of someone by actually reversing a person's chirality
rlm@141	478 molecule by molecule, then will the only be able to read mirror
rlm@141	479 writing? The answer is yes, by analogy to a purely mechanical
rlm@141	480 scan-tron device. This is one of the only interesting transforms I
rlm@141	481 know that can take a human brain and change it in subtle,
rlm@141	482 non-destructive ways. It's also an argument against dualism.
rlm@141	483
rlm@141	484 </div></div>
rlm@141	485 <div class="project"><h2>biosphere in a bottle</h2><div class="description">There are around 15 million species. 15
rlm@141	486 million stem cells will fill only a tiny size, far less than a cubic
rlm@141	487 inch. Preserve a single cell from every species on earth in this
rlm@141	488 small space, and you will have a record of our current biosphere
rlm@141	489 that can be protected. "Hold the genetic data of all species in
rlm@141	490 your hand!"
rlm@141	491
rlm@141	492 </div></div>
rlm@141	493 <div class="project"><h2>chaos lock</h2><div class="description">The "arrow of time" points in the direction of
rlm@141	494 increasing entropy. The time evolution of chaotic
rlm@141	495 systems depend exquisitely on their initial state. If
rlm@141	496 you take a measurement of a chaotic system at any
rlm@141	497 given point of time, you can evolve that system
rlm@141	498 backwards or forwards based on your measurement. So
rlm@141	499 let's say you start the chaotic system in a VERY low
rlm@141	500 entropy state, then let it run for a while, then take
rlm@141	501 a measurement with some uncertainty. Your
rlm@141	502 measurement is pretty good, but obviously not
rlm@141	503 PERFECT. If you evolve the chaotic system back in
rlm@141	504 time, then you will see that you don't really reach
rlm@141	505 a state with low entropy an hour before (the entropy
rlm@141	506 is easy to measure with surrogates like alignment,
rlm@141	507 etc). So use this technique to SEARCH for a more
rlm@141	508 accurate measurement! This potentially can give you
rlm@141	509 many more orders of magnitude than you could get alone
rlm@141	510 just using an instrument. Sometimes it will give you
rlm@141	511 bad results, the the odds of it doing that are
rlm@141	512 infinitesimal, and you can just measure a couple of
rlm@141	513 times.
rlm@141	514
rlm@141	515 </div></div>
rlm@141	516 <div class="project"><h2>cryo-evolution</h2><div class="description">perhaps there would be a way to rapidly evolve a
rlm@141	517 symbiotic bacterial organism that could protect
rlm@141	518 human tissues from freezing damage.
rlm@141	519
rlm@141	520 </div></div>
rlm@141	521 <div class="project"><h2>suicide parasite</h2><div class="description">sometimes, people kill themselves for no good
rlm@141	522 reason. We often explain this with things like "hidden
rlm@141	523 depression" or we say that they had something like chronic jaw or
rlm@141	524 back pain. I think that smells of rationalization. I don't buy
rlm@141	525 it. I propose that in many suicide cases there is a disease that
rlm@141	526 causes the suicidal behavior. We already know that certain
rlm@141	527 parasites have mind-bending properties in other animals, even
rlm@141	528 mammals like mice. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a
rlm@141	529 parasite that causes suicides in humans. Some problems:
rlm@141	530
rlm@141	531 <dl><dt>What does the suicide parasite get out of it?</dt>
rlm@141	532 <dd>This might be answered by the whole thing being a glitch caused by cross-species contamination. Toxoplasma works this way.
rlm@141	533 </dd>
rlm@141	534 <dt>What predictions does a disease model make</dt><dd>suicide should
rlm@141	535 be more common among people who share a contagion
rlm@141	536 vector. There should be suicides that don't make any
rlm@141	537 sense : people who weren't really depressed, who had no
rlm@141	538 reason to kill themselves. People who have killed themselves
rlm@141	539 should have a higher incidence of some unknown parasite in
rlm@141	540 their brains.
rlm@141	541
rlm@141	542 </dd>
rlm@141	543 </dl>
rlm@141	544 </div>
rlm@141	545
rlm@141	546 </div></div>
rlm@141	547 <div class="project"><h2>domestic insects</h2><div class="description">People should eat more bugs because they're much
rlm@141	548 more efficient, so why not do some major domestication research
rlm@141	549 to make very appealing bugs? Beetles, in particular, seem to be
rlm@141	550 excellent targets for domestication because they have extreme
rlm@141	551 levels of genetic malleability.
rlm@141	552
rlm@141	553 </div></div>
rlm@141	554 <div class="project"><h2>birth-clones</h2><div class="description">What if each person was intentionally split at birth
rlm@141	555 into a normal embryo and a few "backup" cells which
rlm@141	556 is then frozen. The backup cells are created just
rlm@141	557 the same way as natural identical twins. The backups
rlm@141	558 can be used to regenerate organs. etc. Also, it
rlm@141	559 would be a good sci fi concept, because you could
rlm@141	560 have a culture where people reward people who were
rlm@141	561 especially awesome are "reborn" from their
rlm@141	562 backups. Imagine having a young Bach every
rlm@141	563 generation, etc.
rlm@141	564
rlm@141	565 </div></div>
rlm@141	566 <div class="project"><h2>pronunciation guide</h2><div class="description">a simple webpage where you type in a word and
rlm@141	567 it returns a simple, English sentence describing exactly how to
rlm@141	568 pronounce the word. For people who don't want to learn IPA.
rlm@141	569
rlm@141	570 </div></div>
rlm@141	571 <div class="project"><h2>cortex-search</h2><div class="description">use the repertoire of actions learned to limit the
rlm@141	572 search space of possible actions.
rlm@141	573
rlm@141	574 </div></div>
rlm@141	575 <div class="project"><h2>learning to teleport</h2><div class="description">scifi idea, this is a story about a person
rlm@141	576 who is struggling with his/her society's ideas about
rlm@141	577 teleportation. It's considered a fundamental part of being a
rlm@141	578 member of that society (after all, the difference between animals
rlm@141	579 and humans is that humans are creatures of pure information while
rlm@141	580 animals are burdened with base matter, "that's how you travel the
rlm@141	581 stars, etc") Humans are born normally, grow up, and then
rlm@141	582 eventually transcend via destructive upload. Analogies to jumping
rlm@141	583 off a diving board into a pool (which I simply <i>could not do</i> for
rlm@141	584 a long time), etc.
rlm@141	585
rlm@141	586 </div></div>
rlm@141	587 <div class="project"><h2>no-float-ice</h2><div class="description">cup that has cross beams at the bottom where ice
rlm@141	588 forms. Then when you drink liquid from the glass,
rlm@141	589 the ice stays at the bottom and doesn't hit your
rlm@141	590 lips. For bars and fancy things.
rlm@141	591
rlm@141	592 </div></div>
rlm@141	593 <div class="project"><h2>bitcoins for immigrants</h2><div class="description">A common case with Mexican immigrants
rlm@141	594 (illegal or not) is that they want to send money they've earned
rlm@141	595 in the US back to their families in Mexico. They currently do this
rlm@141	596 through things like Money Gram or Western Union, and they get
rlm@141	597 fleeced in the process with fees. Bitcoin could greatly reduce
rlm@141	598 the cost of sending money from America to Mexico, but I don't
rlm@141	599 believe that it's currently used for that among Mexican
rlm@141	600 immigrants currently due to lack of knowledge. I bet you could
rlm@141	601 set up physical locations like those obnoxious Western Union huts
rlm@141	602 in places like Texas, Arizona, etc, and greatly undercut
rlm@141	603 them. Or, perhaps some educational seminars about bitcoin might
rlm@141	604 be in order. There's some money to be made there because there is
rlm@141	605 great demand, and it's a good thing to boot!
rlm@141	606
rlm@141	607 </div></div>
rlm@141	608 <div class="project"><h2>reverse eye-tracking</h2><div class="description">A painting that is actually a digital screen
rlm@141	609 with a camera. It records people's eye tracks permanently. It's
rlm@141	610 "artistic" because paintings are normally these things that you
rlm@141	611 look at without changing, but this one is changed the second you
rlm@141	612 look at it, recording where <i>you</i> looked forever for others to
rlm@141	613 see. Make it be a painting of a woman and see the trolling as the
rlm@141	614 breasts and groin area light up with interest from all the males
rlm@141	615 passing by.
rlm@141	616
rlm@141	617 </div></div>
rlm@141	618 <div class="project"><h2>smart toilets</h2><div class="description">Instead of using indirect measures like infrared
rlm@141	619 detectors of the presence of a person, use computer
rlm@141	620 vision to directly measure whether the toilet needs
rlm@141	621 to be flushed. I think a lot of things will end up
rlm@141	622 going this way as we get better computer vision.
rlm@141	623
rlm@141	624 </div></div>
rlm@141	625 <div class="project"><h2>validate chemopreservation</h2><div class="description">chemopreservation is difficult to
rlm@141	626 validate because it destroys the functionality of a brain, and
rlm@141	627 brain simulation will take a long time to mature as a
rlm@141	628 technology. However, one very powerful way to validate
rlm@141	629 chemopreservation would be to have a person/animal learn
rlm@141	630 something with high complexity such as a number or the solution
rlm@141	631 to a maze, or a flashbulb memory. Then you preserve their brain
rlm@141	632 chemically, slice it up, and read <i>that specific memory</i> from the
rlm@141	633 detailed brain scan. Much more difficult, but much more doable.
rlm@141	634
rlm@141	635 </div></div>
rlm@141	636 <div class="project"><h2>candy screw</h2><div class="description">edible candy screw with candy nuts that you can screw
rlm@141	637 as well.
rlm@141	638
rlm@141	639 </div></div>
rlm@141	640 <div class="project"><h2>better bibliography</h2><div class="description">when writing a thesis or paper, have the
rlm@141	641 bibliography not just be an opaque list of resources, but have it
rlm@141	642 be a list of <i>summaries</i> and <i>qualities</i> that each paper has in
rlm@141	643 the context of the paper being written. When examining a
rlm@141	644 bibliography, I want to know if reading the papers in the
rlm@141	645 bibliography are worth my time, and I also am probably also
rlm@141	646 interested in exactly the things that are being discussed in the
rlm@141	647 paper I'm reading. The bibliography is the perfect place to
rlm@141	648 provide information about the referenced papers from the
rlm@141	649 author's perspective. I will use this biographic form in my own
rlm@141	650 thesis.
rlm@141	651
rlm@141	652 </div></div>
rlm@141	653 <div class="project"><h2>digital inter-library loan</h2><div class="description">libraries at universities already do
rlm@141	654 inter-library loans for books, so why not do the same for access
rlm@141	655 to stupid paywalled digital papers? All the universities could
rlm@141	656 allow access to articles for registered students to all the files
rlm@141	657 available through any participating university. This could be
rlm@141	658 achieved by sending requests through proxies at participating
rlm@141	659 universities. Each university would decide who at the university
rlm@141	660 can access the proxy network. Access to the proxy network could
rlm@141	661 be made easy using something like <a href="http://libx.org/">http://libx.org/</a>.
rlm@141	662
rlm@141	663 </div></div>
rlm@141	664 <div class="project"><h2>chess visual</h2><div class="description">to show the vast size of the game trees considered
rlm@141	665 by computers, show two people playing chess in a
rlm@141	666 void. They are floating in space, and there is a
rlm@141	667 simple chess board between them. Then, as they play,
rlm@141	668 the game tree's they are considering are drawn
rlm@141	669 behind him. The root of the tree starts centered in
rlm@141	670 their heads or whatever they use to think, and the
rlm@141	671 tree grows out from behind, never crossing the
rlm@141	672 dividing plane between the two players. Each
rlm@141	673 player's tree is a different color. As they grow,
rlm@141	674 there are animations for pruning, etc. Eventually,
rlm@141	675 they look like the hemispheres of a brain, wings,
rlm@141	676 etc. A human's tree might occasionally have a long
rlm@141	677 chain, while the computer tree would be more
rlm@141	678 uniform. You could compare deep blue and a modern
rlm@141	679 laptop. Use actual data when fighting two computers!
rlm@141	680
rlm@141	681 </div></div>
rlm@141	682 <div class="project"><h2>time verification</h2><div class="description">some standard way to verify that some piece of
rlm@141	683 data was recorded at a specific time. Might involve a time
rlm@141	684 server, a key for each time period, something like that.
rlm@141	685
rlm@141	686 </div></div>
rlm@141	687 <div class="project"><h2>tamper proof gold bars</h2><div class="description"><a href="http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/gold-plated-tungsten-alloy-bar.html">this site</a> offers gold plated tungsten bars
rlm@141	688 as "novelty" items. One reason to prefer coins is because they
rlm@141	689 are much harder to counterfeit because there is less surface area
rlm@141	690 to mass ratio. However, gold bars are still a great design
rlm@141	691 because they can hold a lot of value in a small space. A gold bar
rlm@141	692 could be given the same protections (and more) that gold coins
rlm@141	693 have to offer by changing it into a "gold book", which would have
rlm@141	694 hundreds of "pages" of gold bound together. This could be
rlm@141	695 implemented with multiple steel rods going through the book which
rlm@141	696 can be removed, or some more classier mechanism for holding the
rlm@141	697 pages. The point is that the bar can be EASILY subdivided (and
rlm@141	698 people would perform this test before buying), thus guaranteeing
rlm@141	699 it's authenticity.
rlm@141	700
rlm@141	701 </div></div>
rlm@141	702 <div class="project"><h2>aurellem shirt</h2><div class="description">I should make an aurellem star symbol tee-shirt.
rlm@141	703
rlm@141	704 </div></div>
rlm@141	705 <div class="project"><h2>touch vision</h2><div class="description">inspired by GelSight, I want to reexamine cortex and
rlm@141	706 see if I could implement touch as a very low range
rlm@141	707 form of vision.
rlm@141	708
rlm@141	709 </div></div>
rlm@141	710 <div class="project"><h2>high school science</h2><div class="description">this is a lesson in scientific ethics. The
rlm@141	711 goal is to calculate <i>g</i>, the local gravitational
rlm@141	712 acceleration. The students are told that the textbook says it's
rlm@141	713 <i>exactly</i> 9.81 before they start the experiment. See how they
rlm@141	714 doctor their results to get closer to the textbook value. It's
rlm@141	715 neat because for any given school, <i>g</i> is probably <b>not</b> exactly
rlm@141	716 equal to 9.81, because that is just an average!
rlm@141	717
rlm@141	718 </div></div>
rlm@141	719 <div class="project"><h2>opencourseware subtitles</h2><div class="description">there are ladies who type up lectures
rlm@141	720 while they are being given. These recordings should be kept and
rlm@141	721 given to OCW for subtitles. If the timestamps of keys are
rlm@141	722 recorded, then it is easy to make subtitles.
rlm@141	723
rlm@141	724 </div></div>
rlm@141	725 <div class="project"><h2>screen locking timing</h2><div class="description">you use your computer camera to see if you
rlm@141	726 are sitting in front of the computer. If you are, then the screen
rlm@141	727 will never lock. If you are, then the screen will lock with a
rlm@141	728 30-40 second timeout. It's an extension of using inactivity to
rlm@141	729 initiate the countdown, just with more information.
rlm@141	730
rlm@141	731 </div></div>
rlm@141	732 <div class="project"><h2>mirror toilet</h2><div class="description">a toilet with a square basin made or mirror instead
rlm@141	733 or porcelain. That way, you can see how good of a
rlm@141	734 wipe job you have done / watch how your excretion
rlm@141	735 system works.
rlm@141	736
rlm@141	737 </div></div>
rlm@141	738 <div class="project"><h2>test dummies</h2><div class="description">why don't we clone anencephalic humans and use then to
rlm@141	739 test <i>in vivo</i> human organ systems and drugs? It
rlm@141	740 would be ethical as long as there are women who are
rlm@141	741 willing to host the clones, and it would be a
rlm@141	742 tremendous resource for studying the human body. I
rlm@141	743 see nothing wrong with it morally, since no one is
rlm@141	744 suffering, and it stands to save many lives throughout
rlm@141	745 more advanced technology.
rlm@141	746
rlm@141	747 </div></div>
rlm@141	748 <div class="project"><h2>X-ray telepresence</h2><div class="description">given that a doctor is operating on a patient
rlm@141	749 via telepresence, one cool things you can do is shine X-rays into
rlm@141	750 the patient to view the insides during real time. If the system
rlm@141	751 was coupled with a Bayesian model of the layout of the structure,
rlm@141	752 and the x-rays were only fired whenever the uncertainty of the
rlm@141	753 model reached a certain threshold, then the radiation damage
rlm@141	754 and surgery risk could be minimized.
rlm@141	755
rlm@141	756 </div></div>
rlm@141	757 <div class="project"><h2>superfluid vascular system</h2><div class="description">I wonder what would happen if you
rlm@141	758 replaced the blood in a human with a superfluid. What would the
rlm@141	759 physical dynamics be? Would the superfluid flow through the
rlm@141	760 vasculature, or would it ignore it and travel through the cells,
rlm@141	761 or something else entirely. Since superfluids need to be cold to
rlm@141	762 retain their superfluidity, how would the dynamics change during
rlm@141	763 perfusion of a superfluid, where the fluid gains and looses
rlm@141	764 superfluidity as it goes deeper into the body and is cooled by
rlm@141	765 superfluid from upstream. In summary there are two things to
rlm@141	766 simulate 1.) replace all blood in human with superfluid
rlm@141	767 instantly. 2.) perfuse superfluid into human.
rlm@141	768
rlm@141	769 </div></div>
rlm@141	770 <div class="project"><h2>projective guessing</h2><div class="description">I think that we read and see things by
rlm@141	771 making a really good guess about what we're expecting to see,
rlm@141	772 and then searching for our guess in what we see. If it really
rlm@141	773 doesn't match, then we start to make more guesses / analyze the
rlm@141	774 image from first principles, but most stuff is projective
rlm@141	775 guessing.
rlm@141	776
rlm@141	777 </div></div>
rlm@141	778 <div class="project"><h2>Intestinal flora maintenance</h2><div class="description">why not inoculate babies at birth
rlm@141	779 with "ideal" gut flora instead of whatever bullshit they
rlm@141	780 naturally get, thus giving them optimal digestive/nutrient
rlm@141	781 extraction capabilities. Might also be able to make their farts
rlm@141	782 not stink for life, too. MORE IMPORTANTLY, might help to
rlm@141	783 preventatively stop some forms of <i>colic</i>, which affects 1 in 5
rlm@141	784 babies and causes constant screaming and pain for about 5 weeks.
rlm@141	785
rlm@141	786 </div></div>
rlm@141	787 <div class="project"><h2>server culture : mirrors</h2><div class="description">make a distributed system where people
rlm@141	788 can mirror the websites of people they like – essentially cover
rlm@141	789 the server costs of favored websites. This could make popular
rlm@141	790 websites run at no cost. The system would require that the
rlm@141	791 mirrored content be the same as the official source. Sort of like
rlm@141	792 bit-torrent for websites.
rlm@141	793
rlm@141	794 </div></div>
rlm@141	795 <div class="project"><h2>map programming</h2><div class="description">one problem with functional programming is that
rlm@141	796 in order to remain functional, you have to pass up arguments up
rlm@141	797 into each calling function to get the full range of behavior
rlm@141	798 from the lower level functions. Normally people come to a
rlm@141	799 compromise involving abstraction and sparing use of dynamic
rlm@141	800 variables to configure runtime behavior. What would be the
rlm@141	801 advantages of making a programming language where every function
rlm@141	802 receives one argument, a map, which contains all the symbol
rlm@141	803 bindings it would ever need? This map is passed on to all
rlm@141	804 subordinate functions. This way, you could replace functions on
rlm@141	805 the fly, and arrange for there to be sensible defaults,
rlm@141	806 etc. Might cause more harm than good but is an interesting idea.
rlm@141	807
rlm@141	808 </div></div>
rlm@141	809 <div class="project"><h2>rest nest</h2><div class="description">a small EEG device you would attach to your head when
rlm@141	810 you go to sleep at night. ML algorithms would determine
rlm@141	811 your particular sleep cycles. This would mostly be an
rlm@141	812 alarm clock that you could give a time range, say
rlm@141	813 7:00AM - 7:15AM, and it would wake you up during an
rlm@141	814 ideal time corresponding to then end of one of your 90
rlm@141	815 min sleep cycles. You would feel much more rested upon
rlm@141	816 waking up, and would wake up faster. There might be
rlm@141	817 some other uses for the EEG data as well.
rlm@141	818
rlm@141	819 </div></div>
rlm@141	820 <div class="project"><h2>image compression</h2><div class="description">use a library like gimp or opencv to process an
rlm@141	821 image to make it have less entropy, then store the reverse of
rlm@141	822 those operations along with the compressed simpler image as a
rlm@141	823 super-compressed image file (possibly accepting some
rlm@141	824 losses). Trades file size for decompression time, and allows one
rlm@141	825 to cheat by using information in gimp/opencv to compress the
rlm@141	826 image.
rlm@141	827
rlm@141	828 </div></div>
rlm@141	829 <div class="project"><h2>fixed cryopreservation</h2><div class="description">why not use a fixative to buy enough time
rlm@141	830 to ramp up cryoprotectants to an acceptable level at room
rlm@141	831 temperature? Then, the whole system can be rapidly cooled and
rlm@141	832 vitrified. This method "severs the biological link" in that the
rlm@141	833 fixatives are highly toxic, but current vitrification procedures
rlm@141	834 do this anyway since there can be a lot of freezing damage.
rlm@141	835
rlm@141	836 </div></div>
rlm@141	837 <div class="project"><h2>dilated security camera</h2><div class="description">a security camera that would capture
rlm@141	838 full video footage of everything at 60fps but then decide to keep
rlm@141	839 only every 1 frame every 5 seconds unless there's something
rlm@141	840 "interesting" happening.
rlm@141	841
rlm@141	842 </div></div>
rlm@141	843 <div class="project"><h2>bitcoin wallet</h2><div class="description">Part of "server culture", this would be something
rlm@141	844 like "coin.your-domain.com" which would serve as
rlm@141	845 your personal trusted access to your own bitcoins
rlm@141	846 from anywhere.
rlm@141	847
rlm@141	848 </div></div>
rlm@141	849 <div class="project"><h2>libpay</h2><div class="description">this would be a free library which would enable
rlm@141	850 micro-donations to software projects and other projects,
rlm@141	851 so that you could donate a penny to "emacs" and it would
rlm@141	852 be automatically split up to every person who has ever
rlm@141	853 contributed to emacs in proportion to the amount of
rlm@141	854 community esteem, code quantity, bugs fixed, whatever the
rlm@141	855 community decides. This might make it possible for
rlm@141	856 programmers to live entirely off of free programming.
rlm@141	857
rlm@141	858 </div></div>
rlm@141	859 <div class="project"><h2>distributed graphics</h2><div class="description">Browser based graphics-card accelerated
rlm@141	860 distributed computing API.
rlm@141	861
rlm@141	862 </div></div>
rlm@141	863 <div class="project"><h2>pronouns</h2><div class="description">use capital letters A-Z instead of pronouns. They solve
rlm@141	864 pronoun referents and gender neutrality, are short to
rlm@141	865 say, and you can encode useful information into the
rlm@141	866 choice of letter. For example, instead of "Meetings
rlm@141	867 shall be presided over by the president, unless she is
rlm@141	868 absent." USE "Meetings shall be presided over by the
rlm@141	869 president, unless P is absent." We already use this a
rlm@141	870 little, since I and U are reserved for the subject and
rlm@141	871 object respectively.
rlm@141	872
rlm@141	873 </div></div>
rlm@141	874 <div class="project"><h2>phone DSP</h2><div class="description">software app that inserts an audio DSP between the
rlm@141	875 input to a phone and the output. The DSP is delicious
rlm@141	876 and configurable, and can allow men to make their
rlm@141	877 voices deeper, etc. The app would allow you to hear
rlm@141	878 your own voice as others hear it. Most people hate how
rlm@141	879 their own voice sounds. The app would also allow one to
rlm@141	880 immediately change the parameters of the DSP using good
rlm@141	881 presets.
rlm@141	882
rlm@141	883 </div></div>
rlm@141	884 <div class="project"><h2>predestined body learning</h2><div class="description">a good example of predestined learning
rlm@141	885 might be the mirror neurons.
rlm@141	886
rlm@141	887 </div></div>
rlm@141	888 <div class="project"><h2>restaurant receipt</h2><div class="description">use a carbon copy receipt instead of two stupid
rlm@141	889 copies.
rlm@141	890
rlm@141	891 </div></div>
rlm@141	892 <div class="project"><h2>anti google glass</h2><div class="description">glasses with mounted lasers and computer vision
rlm@141	893 that targets the cameras in google glass and destroy them.
rlm@141	894
rlm@141	895 </div></div>
rlm@141	896 <div class="project"><h2>wearable towel</h2><div class="description">towel with clasp, velcro, whatever, that allows
rlm@141	897 one to wear the towel more securely than just
rlm@141	898 wrapping it tightly and hoping for the best.
rlm@141	899
rlm@141	900 </div></div>
rlm@141	901 <div class="project"><h2>crossdressing</h2><div class="description">Easiest way to disguise oneself as a woman is to
rlm@141	902 wear a burka.
rlm@141	903
rlm@141	904 </div></div>
rlm@141	905 <div class="project"><h2>book-mode</h2><div class="description">intelligent color highlighting for books and
rlm@141	906 articles. It would disambiguate pronouns and involved
rlm@141	907 references. For example, if "Rachael" was assigned the
rlm@141	908 color red, and "the blonde haired girl" refers to
rlm@141	909 "Rachael", then "the blonde haired girl" would be
rlm@141	910 colored red. Also, you could disambiguate multi part
rlm@141	911 run-on sentences by highlighting each
rlm@141	912 subcomponent. Maybe would also have applications to
rlm@141	913 scientific reading.
rlm@141	914
rlm@141	915 </div></div>
rlm@141	916 <div class="project"><h2>Handheld light Rain measurement</h2><div class="description">this would be a clear, teflon
rlm@141	917 coated plastic disk with a camera underneath the disk. You would
rlm@141	918 be able to hold the device out and it would measure the rate of
rlm@141	919 accumulation of water droplets from fine mists and light rain by
rlm@141	920 using computer vision to measure the diameters of the drops.
rlm@141	921
rlm@141	922 </div></div>
rlm@141	923 <div class="project"><h2>Big Brother Farming</h2><div class="description">This would be a vision system that would
rlm@141	924 individually monitor each plant and turn on water, etc to ensure
rlm@141	925 maximum/uniform growth for each plant.
rlm@141	926
rlm@141	927 </div></div>
rlm@141	928 <div class="project"><h2>Discrete Faucet</h2><div class="description">A faucet with discrete ticks instead of
rlm@141	929 continuous.
rlm@141	930
rlm@141	931 </div></div>
rlm@141	932 <div class="project"><h2>Laser Circle</h2><div class="description">take a glass microfiliment and shine a laser at one
rlm@141	933 end at an oblique angle. It will make a perfect,
rlm@141	934 large circle on the wall, converting a laser beam
rlm@141	935 into a laser cone, preserving most of the energy of
rlm@141	936 the laser.
rlm@141	937
rlm@141	938 </div></div>
rlm@141	939 <div class="project"><h2>Invisible Glass</h2><div class="description">Take a container of liquid and embed a
rlm@141	940 glass sculpture made out of glass that has exactly the same index
rlm@141	941 of refraction and color of the liquid. Then the sculpture will be
rlm@141	942 totally invisible in the container, and will only be revealed
rlm@141	943 when the liquid is drained. The container might be a fancy
rlm@141	944 wine/spirit bottle or an hourglass.
rlm@141	945
rlm@141	946 </div></div>
rlm@141	947 <div class="project"><h2>Caterpillar people</h2><div class="description">A race of caterpillar like creatures gains
rlm@141	948 intelligence after eons of predation by birds, etc. These
rlm@141	949 caterpillar creatures still undergo metamorphosis into a large
rlm@141	950 butterfly-like creature. The metamorphosis process turns the
rlm@141	951 caterpillar's brain into mush and reforms it into a minimal,
rlm@141	952 dumb, truly insect-like mind, completely destroying the person
rlm@141	953 the caterpillar was. The society develops all sorts of customs and
rlm@141	954 religious interpretations of the metamorphosis. It is viewed as
rlm@141	955 good and natural by some since it is part of their life cycle and
rlm@141	956 necessary to propagate the species, as only the butterflies can
rlm@141	957 mate. Some think that the butterflies are still the same person
rlm@141	958 because they have the same soul, even they no longer posses the
rlm@141	959 memories or personality of the original caterpillar. Some see the
rlm@141	960 butterfly form as the "true form" of the species, since the
rlm@141	961 butterflies can fly, mate, and are beautiful. Many make a big
rlm@141	962 deal out of the fact that 1-2% of the caterpillar's mind is
rlm@141	963 actually preserved in the butterfly. Some see it as a terrible
rlm@141	964 tragedy and argue that the caterpillars should try to stop the
rlm@141	965 metamorphosis by technology. Practically, some very important
rlm@141	966 members of society undergo hormone therapy and/or surgery to
rlm@141	967 prevent metamorphosis so that they can live longer as themselves.
rlm@141	968
rlm@141	969 <p>
rlm@141	970 This is a continuation of Marvin Minsky's ideas about pain being
rlm@141	971 something that preserves our bodies while destroying our minds,
rlm@141	972 something that is a remnant from our too harsh animal days that
rlm@141	973 hasn't caught up to the fact that we have very complex brains
rlm@141	974 now. It's a worst-case scenario about a maladaptive genetic
rlm@141	975 legacy. Also, it's inspired by "There She Is!!!", which makes a
rlm@141	976 compelling point about homosexuality by introducing a second
rlm@141	977 gender characteristic (bunny/cat, male/female), which makes
rlm@141	978 homophobia look very silly. Here, our own biological legacy of
rlm@141	979 pain and death is made to look like the tragedy it is through the
rlm@141	980 lens of the the caterpillar people.
rlm@141	981 </p>
rlm@141	982 </div></div>
rlm@141	983 <div class="project"><h2>relationships as a business</h2><div class="description"><a href="http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-Crisis.aspx">Turnover-Crisis</a> is an excellent talk
rlm@141	984 about the "culture of quitting," which is about better business
rlm@141	985 by letting people go instead of keeping them around past their
rlm@141	986 "apex". Focuses on information transfer. Cool idea of an alumni
rlm@141	987 network, which for relationships would be a group of satisfied
rlm@141	988 ex-lovers, who would recommend new people your way, and who might
rlm@141	989 consider coming to you again, refreshed from their time away with
rlm@141	990 new stories/experiences. I should look for examples of this and
rlm@141	991 how they worked out.
rlm@141	992
rlm@141	993 </div></div>
rlm@141	994 <div class="project"><h2>coffee with tea</h2><div class="description"><i>rlm-tea</i> contains 2% sugar, 10% cream, and 20%
rlm@141	995 dylan coffee. <i>dylan coffee</i> contains 5% sugar,
rlm@141	996 20% cream, and 10% rlm-tea. Start your mornings
rlm@141	997 with recursion!
rlm@141	998
rlm@141	999 </div></div>
rlm@141	1000 <div class="project"><h2>psychic crystal</h2><div class="description">in a science fiction story, this would be an
rlm@141	1001 object that is very easy to move physically but is extremely
rlm@141	1002 difficult to move with telekinesis.
rlm@141	1003
rlm@141	1004 </div></div>
rlm@141	1005 <div class="project"><h2><a href="http://betsofbitco.in/">http://betsofbitco.in/</a></h2><div class="description">what a great place for an AI/person to
rlm@141	1006 prove themselves as a good predictor. I wish this could be
rlm@141	1007 automated.
rlm@141	1008
rlm@141	1009 </div></div>
rlm@141	1010 <div class="project"><h2>true reflection</h2><div class="description">don't forget about that mirror in the student
rlm@141	1011 center!, it's two mirrors at right angles, like staring at a
rlm@141	1012 corner of a room. The light reflects so that it shows you what
rlm@141	1013 you actually look like, instead of your mirror image.
rlm@141	1014
rlm@141	1015 </div></div>
rlm@141	1016 <div class="project"><h2>remote control wasp</h2><div class="description">use computer to drive wings with remote
rlm@141	1017 power/logic.
rlm@141	1018
rlm@141	1019 </div></div>
rlm@141	1020 <div class="project"><h2>encrypted email phone book</h2><div class="description">public (distributed?) database of
rlm@141	1021 email->private-key pairs, to enable automatic encryption.
rlm@141	1022
rlm@141	1023 </div></div>
rlm@141	1024 <div class="project"><h2>universal eye color</h2><div class="description">every equivalent creature will see each
rlm@141	1025 others' eyes as black – it's universal. Even if the creatures
rlm@141	1026 see in radio waves, and their eyes are 2m long pieces of jagged
rlm@141	1027 metal, when those creatures look at each other, they will see
rlm@141	1028 black, the absence of light and color (since it's being absorbed
rlm@141	1029 by the sensor array).
rlm@141	1030
rlm@141	1031 </div></div>
rlm@141	1032 <div class="project"><h2>intelligent microwave</h2><div class="description">it learns where the hot nodes of its fields
rlm@141	1033 are, and uses them to evenly heat any food item. It has an infrared
rlm@141	1034 camera or something to keep track of how hot the food is. That way,
rlm@141	1035 you don't get bowls where the edges are boiling, while the center is
rlm@141	1036 still frozen. Requires a little bit of intelligence/vision, since
rlm@141	1037 the exact pattern of heating totally depends on the exact shape of
rlm@141	1038 the food. Wouldn't need a carousel, and wouldn't need a timer,
rlm@141	1039 just a desired temperature. Could also detect ice, and automatically
rlm@141	1040 defrost the parts which are frozen. Might be able to work much
rlm@141	1041 faster since it can avoid overheating; might have problems with
rlm@141	1042 heating the insides of thick things, might need a weight sensor too.
rlm@141	1043
rlm@141	1044 <ul>
rlm@141	1045 <li>Would be much cleaner than other microwaves, since food would
rlm@141	1046 "sputter" and splash liquid much less.
rlm@141	1047
rlm@141	1048 </li>
rlm@141	1049 <li>Throw in some SIFT+R processing to match previously cooked foods
rlm@141	1050 and learn the exact heating profiles for things that have been
rlm@141	1051 cooked before – it can get faster the more it's used.
rlm@141	1052
rlm@141	1053 </li>
rlm@141	1054 </ul>
rlm@141	1055
rlm@141	1056 </div></div>
rlm@141	1057 <div class="project"><h2>compression</h2><div class="description">brain-aware image compression algorithm
rlm@141	1058
rlm@141	1059 </div></div>
rlm@141	1060 <div class="project"><h2>Credit card proxy</h2><div class="description">would be a company which works like paypal
rlm@141	1061 except for real world transactions
rlm@141	1062
rlm@141	1063 </div></div>
rlm@141	1064 <div class="project"><h2>Flesh pillow</h2><div class="description">a pillow like the arm or torso of a human, complete
rlm@141	1065 with simulated temperature, bones, and heartbeat.
rlm@141	1066
rlm@141	1067 </div></div>
rlm@141	1068 <div class="project"><h2>super screw</h2><div class="description">a screw which has only one or two threads and instead
rlm@141	1069 uses compression to fit into a hole (the whole shank
rlm@141	1070 of the screw is split into multiple pieces to
rlm@141	1071 accomplish this; the tip is a point, then the middle
rlm@141	1072 bulges out and gets compressed when screwed in.
rlm@141	1073
rlm@141	1074 </div></div>
rlm@141	1075 <div class="project"><h2>light filter</h2><div class="description">(like light tweezers) to mechanically separate
rlm@141	1076 fluids with different index of refraction
rlm@141	1077
rlm@141	1078 </div></div>
rlm@141	1079 <div class="project"><h2>chalk eraser project</h2><div class="description">maybe make a directional eraser, for easy
rlm@141	1080 release of chalk dust, like fur, and how it likes to rest in a
rlm@141	1081 certain direction.
rlm@141	1082
rlm@141	1083 </div></div>
rlm@141	1084 <div class="project"><h2>silver socks</h2><div class="description">socks laced with silver for the antimicrobial
rlm@141	1085 properties.
rlm@141	1086
rlm@141	1087 </div></div>
rlm@141	1088 <div class="project"><h2>UROP</h2><div class="description">magnet gear/metal teeth tape
rlm@141	1089
rlm@141	1090 </div></div>
rlm@141	1091 <div class="project"><h2>Rod of Moses</h2><div class="description">device to distill urine through evaporation and
rlm@141	1092 easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert --
rlm@141	1093 produce drinkable water.
rlm@141	1094
rlm@141	1095 </div></div>
rlm@141	1096 <div class="project"><h2>UROP</h2><div class="description">Make the LED in line with the flow for the micro injector, so
rlm@141	1097 that it may transmit maximum flow. Motor that changes
rlm@141	1098 distance of internal magnet from windings depending on
rlm@141	1099 desired speed so as to obtain maximum power efficiency.
rlm@141	1100
rlm@141	1101 </div></div>
rlm@141	1102 <div class="project"><h2>lottery scraper</h2><div class="description">web scraper which monitors various lotteries,
rlm@141	1103 looking for "special" gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x
rlm@141	1104 winnings on Wednesdays) and computes expected value…
rlm@141	1105
rlm@141	1106 </div></div>
rlm@141	1107 <div class="project"><h2>Memristiors novel design</h2><div class="description">make an evolutionary algorithm to make
rlm@141	1108 old stuff using all four basic circuit elements.
rlm@141	1109
rlm@141	1110 </div></div>
rlm@141	1111 <div class="project"><h2>Conductive concrete</h2><div class="description">concrete that has embedded metal fibers so
rlm@141	1112 that it can conduct electricity.
rlm@141	1113
rlm@141	1114 </div></div>
rlm@141	1115 <div class="project"><h2>little bitty melting pot</h2><div class="description">might be useful for some types of
rlm@141	1116 manufacturing/3D printing – how small can an induction melter be
rlm@141	1117 made, for example.
rlm@141	1118
rlm@141	1119 </div></div>
rlm@141	1120 <div class="project"><h2>power strip/timer programmable combination</h2><div class="description">meh
rlm@141	1121 </div></div>
rlm@141	1122
rlm@141	1123 <div class="project"><h2>algorithms...</h2><div class="description">which learn what their inputs are and in what order,
rlm@141	1124 and can adapt to changing circumstances – they
rlm@141	1125 remember previous arguments and adapt so as to respond
rlm@141	1126 to different connections.
rlm@141	1127
rlm@141	1128 </div></div>
rlm@141	1129 <div class="project"><h2>true pure tones</h2><div class="description">hear a true pure tone by direct stimulation of the
rlm@141	1130 nerves of the ear
rlm@141	1131
rlm@141	1132 </div></div>
rlm@141	1133 <div class="project"><h2>mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp</h2><div class="description">would be an object
rlm@141	1134 with two levers – you pull on one lever and the other moves the
rlm@141	1135 same way, no matter what's in the way or what it is driving. This
rlm@141	1136 analogy could be useful to teach op amps to people.
rlm@141	1137
rlm@141	1138 </div></div>
rlm@141	1139 <div class="project"><h2>paper folding device</h2><div class="description">make it convenient to fold lots of papers in
rlm@141	1140 various ways.
rlm@141	1141
rlm@141	1142 </div></div>
rlm@141	1143 <div class="project"><h2>concrete epoxy</h2><div class="description">epoxy with sand/ some other solid material.
rlm@141	1144
rlm@141	1145 </div></div>
rlm@141	1146 <div class="project"><h2>light capacitor</h2><div class="description">suspend some ball of material with a high index
rlm@141	1147 of refraction and shine light into it so it gets stuck – would
rlm@141	1148 the light stay trapped forever? Could you build up unlimited
rlm@141	1149 quantities of light inside the sphere (which could then be
rlm@141	1150 released slowly by frustrated internal reflection?
rlm@141	1151
rlm@141	1152 </div></div>
rlm@141	1153 <div class="project"><h2>movie screening</h2><div class="description">Movies always are too long at first. One way to
rlm@141	1154 shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the
rlm@141	1155 move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which
rlm@141	1156 there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people)
rlm@141	1157 better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I
rlm@141	1158 got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill
rlm@141	1159 which is composed entirely of the parts in which people had their
rlm@141	1160 eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their
rlm@141	1161 eyes off of? Just take those parts out!
rlm@141	1162
rlm@141	1163 </div></div>
rlm@141	1164 <div class="project"><h2>optimize an article</h2><div class="description">capture reading of a scientific article via
rlm@141	1165 screen capture while people read it, then use it to make the
rlm@141	1166 article better. like the movie-pruning idea.
rlm@141	1167
rlm@141	1168 </div></div>
rlm@141	1169 <div class="project"><h2>super reading program</h2><div class="description">teaches people the ideal mental mask to
rlm@141	1170 apply during reading so as to read very fast.
rlm@141	1171
rlm@141	1172 </div></div>
rlm@141	1173 <div class="project"><h2>explosive thermite epoxy putty</h2><div class="description">one part would contain the rust,
rlm@141	1174 one part the aluminum.
rlm@141	1175
rlm@141	1176 </div></div>
rlm@141	1177 <div class="project"><h2>reading comprehension</h2><div class="description">use the above screen capture routine to
rlm@141	1178 make a quiz program that constructs questions about the content
rlm@141	1179 you seemed to gloss over while reading. could be easy if the pdf
rlm@141	1180 came with embedded questions. Dylan: automatically generate
rlm@141	1181 word-cloud about the parts you found most interesting; help
rlm@141	1182 others who read the same stuff by drawing attention to the
rlm@141	1183 interesting parts.
rlm@141	1184
rlm@141	1185 </div></div>
rlm@141	1186 <div class="project"><h2>hard sword</h2><div class="description">make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of
rlm@141	1187 martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better
rlm@141	1188 sword.
rlm@141	1189
rlm@141	1190 </div></div>
rlm@141	1191 <div class="project"><h2>close range wireless</h2><div class="description">use the induction technology used to
rlm@141	1192 recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data
rlm@141	1193 without any metal at all!
rlm@141	1194
rlm@141	1195 </div></div>
rlm@141	1196 <div class="project"><h2>reading</h2><div class="description">is a form of synsethesia
rlm@141	1197
rlm@141	1198 </div></div>
rlm@141	1199 <div class="project"><h2>DNA printer</h2><div class="description">A machine which translates the text eg, "ACTGAC" into
rlm@141	1200 actual DNA
rlm@141	1201
rlm@141	1202 </div></div>
rlm@141	1203 <div class="project"><h2>black generator</h2><div class="description">ferro-fluid magnetic field suspended micro
rlm@141	1204 generator to make electricity
rlm@141	1205
rlm@141	1206 </div></div>
rlm@141	1207 <div class="project"><h2>alcohol battery</h2><div class="description">alcohol/fluid flow powered battery
rlm@141	1208
rlm@141	1209 </div></div>
rlm@141	1210 <div class="project"><h2>folding razor blade sword</h2><div class="description">
rlm@141	1211
rlm@141	1212 </div></div>
rlm@141	1213 <div class="project"><h2>perfect pitch</h2><div class="description">learn perfect pitch using another sense in
rlm@141	1214 combination (sight or touch)
rlm@141	1215
rlm@141	1216 </div></div>
rlm@141	1217 <div class="project"><h2>kaleidoscope projector</h2><div class="description">
rlm@141	1218
rlm@141	1219 </div></div>
rlm@141	1220 <div class="project"><h2>razor blade de-sharpener</h2><div class="description">for guilt free disposal
rlm@141	1221
rlm@141	1222 </div></div>
rlm@141	1223 <div class="project"><h2>bricks</h2><div class="description">filled with luminescent plant material
rlm@141	1224
rlm@141	1225 </div></div>
rlm@141	1226 <div class="project"><h2>bio metallic structure</h2><div class="description">metal grids with seeds inside, which grow
rlm@141	1227 together and form a durable biological matrix. The metal
rlm@141	1228 substrate delivers water. (maybe use plastic instead of metal?)
rlm@141	1229 Dylan: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical
rlm@141	1230 interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled
rlm@141	1231 photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures.
rlm@141	1232
rlm@141	1233 </div></div>
rlm@141	1234 <div class="project"><h2>conducting extracellular matrix</h2><div class="description">to allow better control of
rlm@141	1235 organic systems and an enhanced nervous system.
rlm@141	1236
rlm@141	1237 </div></div>
rlm@141	1238 <div class="project"><h2>cross-modal memory hashing</h2><div class="description">a way to retrieve memories more
rlm@141	1239 robustly.
rlm@141	1240
rlm@141	1241 </div></div>
rlm@141	1242 <div class="project"><h2>flossing thimble-guards</h2><div class="description">(these actually exist)
rlm@141	1243
rlm@141	1244 </div></div>
rlm@141	1245 <div class="project"><h2>rules + lattice learning</h2><div class="description">integrate lattice learning with rules by
rlm@141	1246 generating hypothetical examples
rlm@141	1247
rlm@141	1248 </div></div>
rlm@141	1249 <div class="project"><h2>wooden refrigerator</h2><div class="description">to give food a better taste Dylan: like
rlm@141	1250 barrels for wine, or planks for salmon. Maybe just have "flavor
rlm@141	1251 planks" for your pre-existing fridge. Need to mitigate effect of
rlm@141	1252 temperature on volatility?
rlm@141	1253
rlm@141	1254 </div></div>
rlm@141	1255 <div class="project"><h2>radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule</h2><div class="description">create precious
rlm@141	1256 metals or something else economically advantageous.
rlm@141	1257
rlm@141	1258 </div></div>
rlm@141	1259 <div class="project"><h2>crowd preservation</h2><div class="description">inoculate food with tons of harmless
rlm@141	1260 bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of
rlm@141	1261 preservation
rlm@141	1262
rlm@141	1263 </div></div>
rlm@141	1264 <div class="project"><h2>old school preservation</h2><div class="description">Pasteur - style holding jar with siphon
rlm@141	1265 as a way to store liquids at room temperature indefinitely w/o
rlm@141	1266 refrigeration.
rlm@141	1267
rlm@141	1268 </div></div>
rlm@141	1269 <div class="project"><h2>restaurant policy</h2><div class="description">Throw rude people out of restaurant as a matter
rlm@141	1270 of course – make ambiance much better.
rlm@141	1271
rlm@141	1272 </div></div>
rlm@141	1273 <div class="project"><h2>clean windows</h2><div class="description">make something that mixes soap with fire hydrant
rlm@141	1274 water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it
rlm@141	1275 to clean windows of buildings.
rlm@141	1276
rlm@141	1277 </div></div>
rlm@141	1278 <div class="project"><h2>ocarina</h2><div class="description">make an ocarina out of pure silver
rlm@141	1279
rlm@141	1280 </div></div>
rlm@141	1281 <div class="project"><h2>fire pen</h2><div class="description">pen which burns words on to the page, thus never needing
rlm@141	1282 any ink. Is there a way to make it runnable from the
rlm@141	1283 human's energy?
rlm@141	1284
rlm@141	1285 </div></div>
rlm@141	1286 <div class="project"><h2>website to design your own soda</h2><div class="description">and label, and have it mailed to
rlm@141	1287 you / sell it from your own online store.
rlm@141	1288
rlm@141	1289 </div></div>
rlm@141	1290 <div class="project"><h2>solar panels</h2><div class="description">that float on the ocean
rlm@141	1291
rlm@141	1292 </div></div>
rlm@141	1293 <div class="project"><h2>handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?)</h2><div class="description">great for daisy chaining
rlm@141	1294 people, binding them to environment, etc.
rlm@141	1295
rlm@141	1296 </div></div>
rlm@141	1297 <div class="project"><h2>vector based SOUND files</h2><div class="description">like the pictures but with SOUND. codify
rlm@141	1298 sound in a language with enough symbols so that it can describe
rlm@141	1299 everything and encode it in that. would be like going from speech
rlm@141	1300 to text or smtg. Could also store sound as an image of the
rlm@141	1301 wavefront encoded as a vector image.
rlm@141	1302
rlm@141	1303 </div></div>
rlm@141	1304 <div class="project"><h2>Mouse</h2><div class="description">with a horizontal scroll wheel in addition to the vertical
rlm@141	1305 scroll wheel
rlm@141	1306
rlm@141	1307 </div></div>
rlm@141	1308 <div class="project"><h2>logic maintenance system for big institutions</h2><div class="description">to make sure the
rlm@141	1309 things they are thinking about doing are not retarded
rlm@141	1310
rlm@141	1311 </div></div>
rlm@141	1312 <div class="project"><h2><a href="http://www.regulations.gov/">http://www.regulations.gov/</a></h2><div class="description">cool site
rlm@141	1313
rlm@141	1314 </div></div>
rlm@141	1315 <div class="project"><h2>genetically engineered glowing fruit</h2><div class="description">sell seeds?
rlm@141	1316
rlm@141	1317 </div></div>
rlm@141	1318 <div class="project"><h2>memory slide</h2><div class="description">IF memories are encoded using particular sensory
rlm@141	1319 impressions, what happens if the sensory organ
rlm@141	1320 itself changes? those memories would become
rlm@141	1321 inaccessible. maybe this is why we can't remember
rlm@141	1322 much from our childhoods. also, could this happen
rlm@141	1323 throughout life as well? Could S remember stuff from
rlm@141	1324 his childhood?
rlm@141	1325
rlm@141	1326 </div></div>
rlm@141	1327 <div class="project"><h2>make a completely indestructible phone</h2><div class="description">no moving parts or display
rlm@141	1328 you should be able to slam it around all you want, and it will
rlm@141	1329 just work. brutally simple. aerogel around the battery, minimal
rlm@141	1330 interface - never gets too hot, and can be dropped into water. no
rlm@141	1331 holes – uses field effects for everything from the buttons to
rlm@141	1332 inductive charging and data transfer.
rlm@141	1333
rlm@141	1334 </div></div>
rlm@141	1335 <div class="project"><h2>midi to ocarina "tabs" program</h2><div class="description">(online website? buy ocarinas from
rlm@141	1336 it too)
rlm@141	1337
rlm@141	1338 </div></div>
rlm@141	1339 <div class="project"><h2>3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns)</h2><div class="description">like the 8.03
rlm@141	1340 lecture
rlm@141	1341
rlm@141	1342 </div></div>
rlm@141	1343 <div class="project"><h2>lighter flint on spring</h2><div class="description">make hot, throw it at something, and it
rlm@141	1344 makes sparkles!
rlm@141	1345
rlm@141	1346 </div></div>
rlm@141	1347 <div class="project"><h2>nuclear energy</h2><div class="description">Rebranding New+Clear Energy with informational
rlm@141	1348 campaign and public debate forum to enforce its
rlm@141	1349 transparent and open nature. France needn't be the
rlm@141	1350 world leader in nuclear energy. (Dylan)
rlm@141	1351
rlm@141	1352 </div></div>
rlm@141	1353 <div class="project"><h2>bubbles</h2><div class="description">Engineer a material which has both ductility and high
rlm@141	1354 surface tension to make the "third"
rlm@141	1355 minimal-surface-energy solution to a bubble suspended
rlm@141	1356 between two equal-diameter rings. (Solutions are
rlm@141	1357 cylindrical catenary curve, two separated half-bubbles,
rlm@141	1358 and a double-cone)
rlm@141	1359
rlm@141	1360 </div></div>
rlm@141	1361 <div class="project"><h2>Textbook whose content can be varied continuously</h2><div class="description">alter level of
rlm@141	1362 difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain
rlm@141	1363 other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from
rlm@141	1364 knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to
rlm@141	1365 guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of
rlm@141	1366 knowledge. <i>One.</i>
rlm@141	1367 </div></div>
rlm@141	1368 </div>
rlm@141	1369
rlm@141	1370
rlm@141	1371
rlm@141	1372 </div>
rlm@141	1373
rlm@141	1374 <div id="outline-container-1-1" class="outline-3">
rlm@141	1375 <h3 id="sec-1-1"><span class="section-number-3">1.1</span> From Jacob's idea list</h3>
rlm@141	1376 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-1-1">
rlm@141	1377
rlm@141	1378
rlm@141	1379 <ul>
rlm@141	1380 <li>Roommate-canceling headphones: uses roommate's laptop mic to seed
rlm@141	1381 noise cancellation alg in your headphones (would this
rlm@141	1382 work?). -Update on sound canceling headphones that take feed from
rlm@141	1383 tv: how about ones that cancel people talking on the phone by
rlm@141	1384 receiving the phone signals and playing inverse sound
rlm@141	1385 waves. #signalprocessing ~jcole@mit.edu
rlm@141	1386
rlm@141	1387 </li>
rlm@141	1388 <li>ClackerAlert – tells if you slam the keys too hard using sound data
rlm@141	1389 (and speed/jerkiness data)!.Prevents RSI ~jcole@mit.e
rlm@141	1390
rlm@141	1391 </li>
rlm@141	1392 <li>separate pin that you can tell someone if forced to
rlm@141	1393 identify your PIN (idea from idea about credit cards)
rlm@141	1394 </li>
rlm@141	1395 </ul>
rlm@141	1396
rlm@141	1397 </div>
rlm@141	1398 </div>
rlm@141	1399 </div>
rlm@141	1400 </div>
rlm@141	1401
rlm@141	1402 <div id="postamble">
rlm@141	1403 <p class="date">Date: 2015-02-04 23:52:02 EST</p>
rlm@141	1404 <p class="author">Author: Robert McIntyre</p>
rlm@141	1405 <p class="creator">Org version 7.7 with Emacs version 23</p>
rlm@141	1406 <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer">Validate XHTML 1.0</a>
rlm@141	1407
rlm@141	1408 </body>
rlm@141	1409 </html>

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