Mercurial > thoughts

annotate org/ideas.org @ 138:98ba603e251a

Find changesets by keywords (author, files, the commit message), revision number or hash, or revset expression.
more ideas.
author Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date Sun, 30 Nov 2014 12:40:33 -0800
parents 8bf12217d0fa
children 695c5f257d37
rev   line source
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@42 11
rlm@43 12 This is a list of all the ideas I've had that I felt like writing down
rlm@90 13 for the past ~ 8 years. Some of them could be practical inventions and
rlm@47 14 are "just" waiting the that 95% perspiration to bring them to
rlm@47 15 fruition, some are ideas for science fiction, and some are simple
rlm@48 16 observations. Some are really only for my own personal notes and are
rlm@48 17 not meant to be comprehensible. They are arranged roughly in reverse
rlm@48 18 chronological order, with the most recent ideas at the top of the
rlm@48 19 list. The ones at the bottom of the list are heavily influenced by my
rlm@48 20 time at MIT.
rlm@43 21
rlm@43 22 If you find some of these interesting and would like to collaborate on
rlm@43 23 them with me or discuss them in more detail, I'd love to hear from
rlm@43 24 you. You can email me at ideas@aurellem.org.
rlm@43 25
rlm@52 26 If you want to use one of these ideas as your own and run with it,
rlm@52 27 please feel free. I'd love to hear about it if you do.
rlm@52 28
rlm@62 29 #+begin_quote
rlm@62 30 There's no end to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care about
rlm@62 31 getting credit.
rlm@62 32 #+end_quote
rlm@62 33
rlm@138 34 - microwave time :: the cooking time you enter on most microwaves is
rlm@138 35 insane. It's expressed in what I call a "hybrid base", a
rlm@138 36 combination of base 10 and base 60. You can get absurd things
rlm@138 37 like 100 < 61, and 120 == 80! I wonder if these hybrid base
rlm@138 38 systems could be very useful for some purposes!
rlm@138 39
rlm@138 40 - three-eyes :: if you had three eyes, would you still draw cubes like
rlm@138 41 we currently draw them? Or would all 2D-representations of 3D
rlm@138 42 space always look hopelessly fake?
rlm@138 43
rlm@138 44 - visual taste/smell assay :: get a grid of bacteria, each expressing
rlm@138 45 a human taste/smell receptor linked to some sort of fluorscent
rlm@138 46 activity or ion pump. Use a camera / electrical grid to transduce
rlm@138 47 the smell / taste signal into bits!
rlm@138 48
rlm@138 49 - carabiner mushroom lock :: you can take a trapazodial carabiner and
rlm@138 50 make it so that a chain link is caught between the wide end of
rlm@138 51 the carabiner and another chain attached to the carabiner.
rlm@138 52
rlm@138 53 - children's tool shop :: I think that kids should be provided with
rlm@138 54 tool shops -- these would be nice sheds with a good collection of
rlm@138 55 tools to do various things -- circuit components and soldering
rlm@138 56 irons, wires, a small lathe, drill press, belt sander, a
rlm@138 57 centrifuge, microscope, and telescope, etc. The idea is that the
rlm@138 58 kid can now think, "I could use X to do this thing that I'm
rlm@138 59 thinking about" -- the building becomes an extension of the kid's
rlm@138 60 body & mind.
rlm@138 61
rlm@138 62 - fluid display :: like the previous idea about matching refractances
rlm@138 63 between glass and liquid, except you make a lot of
rlm@138 64 switchable glass tubes in various patterns in the
rlm@138 65 glass, and actively pump colored liquid through the
rlm@138 66 tubes (the tubes have glass-like fluid in them by
rlm@138 67 default.) The result is that you can cause the
rlm@138 68 tubes to appear and dissappear, and vary their
rlm@138 69 colors as well!
rlm@138 70
rlm@137 71 - immunoincompatibility :: take the human genome, and refactor it so
rlm@137 72 that it doesn't use a particular codon at all. Then remove the
rlm@137 73 support from our ribosomes for that codon. What does this do for
rlm@137 74 us? It makes us immune to almost all viruses!
rlm@137 75
rlm@137 76 - life cycle :: it's called a cycle, right? So, the thing that repeats
rlm@137 77 itself over and over, right? Not much of a cycle if
rlm@137 78 you don't come back after you die, if you ask me!
rlm@137 79
rlm@137 80 - car with no blind spots :: use some cameras in the back of the car
rlm@137 81 to augment the rear-view mirror so that you never have to turn
rlm@137 82 around in order to lane change.
rlm@137 83
rlm@137 84 - partial cell death :: you freeze a set of cells using some cryo
rlm@137 85 protocol and 60% survive. How can this be explained? It seems to
rlm@137 86 me that if the cells are the same, and the conditions
rlm@137 87 homogoneous, then all the cells should either die or
rlm@137 88 live. However, suppose that there is a metabolic cycle that needs
rlm@137 89 to be in a certain phase for the cell to survive. If the cells
rlm@137 90 are asynchronous, then you might end up with some cells dying
rlm@137 91 because there were in the wrong part of their cycle. This implies
rlm@137 92 that you might be able to cryoprotect cells by causing them to
rlm@137 93 enter a certain metabolic mode before freezing.
rlm@137 94
rlm@137 95 - cryonics color appeal :: perfusate used by cryonics companies should
rlm@137 96 have red food coloring in it. It's just a nice touch so that the
rlm@137 97 cryonics patient looks more life-like than with clear CPAs, and
rlm@137 98 hopefully might get treated with more respect.
rlm@137 99
rlm@137 100 - paramagnetic CPA :: you take a CPA that can be influenced by
rlm@137 101 magnetic fields so that its degrees of freedom are limited. Then,
rlm@137 102 you release the field, instantaly increasing the size of the
rlm@137 103 state space of the system and dramatically decreasing the
rlm@137 104 temperature enough to plunge the system past homogenous
rlm@137 105 nucleation temperature and directly to the glass transition
rlm@137 106 temperature, creating a doubly unstable glass at much lower CPA
rlm@137 107 concentrations than possible at conventional CPA concentrations.
rlm@137 108
rlm@137 109 - room temp noodles :: how does the physics of cooking noodles work?
rlm@137 110 Could you use a vacuum instead of heat to force water into the
rlm@137 111 noodle?
rlm@137 112
rlm@137 113 - personal carbon offset :: feel bad about contribuiting to global
rlm@137 114 warming by using electricity / driving a car? Forget trying to
rlm@137 115 "conserve" or "minimize your carbon footprint". Follow the
rlm@137 116 Platinum rule -- make the world BETTER off than you found it!
rlm@137 117 This would be a small, self contained system that sucks C02 out
rlm@137 118 of the air. It uses electricity, but it's so efficient at
rlm@137 119 removing CO2 that it more than offsets the CO2 produced by even a
rlm@137 120 coal plant to produce that electricity. This way, you can still
rlm@137 121 drive even a gas guzzler, but have a net negative carbon
rlm@137 122 footprint! Maybe something cool could be done with the carbon as
rlm@137 123 well. Use as much electricity as you want, but negate the damage
rlm@137 124 to the enviroment with more technology.
rlm@137 125
rlm@137 126 - undoing spermogenesis :: with enough sperm, you can derive the
rlm@137 127 donor's entire genome. You gain more confidence in the alleles
rlm@137 128 for a particular gene the more sperm you have. Each additional
rlm@137 129 sperm gives you the same sort of information you'd get flipping a
rlm@137 130 coin and trying to decide whether the coin is H/T of H/H. Is
rlm@137 131 there enough sperm in the the average load for you to be as
rlm@137 132 confident as mitosis?
rlm@137 133
rlm@136 134 - mars life :: we could engineer life that could survive on mars
rlm@136 135 (probably some non-vascular photosynthetic
rlm@136 136 poikilohydric creature like a lichen) by taking an
rlm@136 137 extremophile from Antarctica and evolving it in
rlm@136 138 increasingly Martian conditions. This could be an easy
rlm@136 139 start to a terraforming process.
rlm@136 140
rlm@134 141 - problem with Aubrey de Grey's ideas :: Aubrey de Grey says that we
rlm@134 142 might be able to live forever by continually repairing our bodies
rlm@134 143 at the cellular level -- he details 7 different mechanisms of
rlm@134 144 damage and says that if all of them are dealt with /together/
rlm@134 145 that it would stop aging. (You can't miss even one because
rlm@134 146 they're all fatal.) However, it doesn't take into account that
rlm@134 147 we are also beings of information and that there is a very real
rlm@134 148 software component to our existence. Even if our biological
rlm@134 149 chassies can be maintained forever, I think it is unlikely that
rlm@134 150 our minds will operate well far outside of the design constraints
rlm@134 151 that we've evolved to handle. Say I programmed a webserver with
rlm@134 152 the express goal of it being able to serve webpages for month on
rlm@134 153 some stock server. I'll do fairly rigorous testing to make sure
rlm@134 154 that it can handle the expected load then then some. Now say that
rlm@134 155 you want to keep a particular instance of this webserver running
rlm@134 156 indefinitely. (The program instance is like your mind and the
rlm@134 157 computer it's running on is like your body). You might very well
rlm@134 158 be able to keep the physical computer infrastructure running for
rlm@134 159 forever by replacing hard drives / ram / CPUs, etc. However,
rlm@134 160 since I designed the webserver to work for a month, it probably
rlm@135 161 has memory leaks, rare stochastic bugs, or other built in limits
rlm@134 162 / constraints (think log files or some date rollover shenanigans)
rlm@135 163 that will ultimately kill the webserver even with eternally
rlm@134 164 perfect hardware. Do you really expect that a webserver
rlm@135 165 engineered to work for 1 month will run for 10 years without
rlm@135 166 catastrophically crashing? Not even Apache can do this! In fact,
rlm@135 167 if I put in the extreme effort to make it that robust, I've
rlm@135 168 wasted time that I could have spent on other projects by pursuing
rlm@135 169 an unnecessary engineering goal. Likewise, human minds have only
rlm@134 170 ever run for at most 122 years before they are destroyed due to
rlm@134 171 hardware degradation. Fixing the hardware doesn't change any
rlm@134 172 software bugs that are almost certainly present in the human
rlm@134 173 mind. Think of all the pathological things that can go wrong with
rlm@134 174 a webserver, multiply it by a million, and that likely how
rlm@134 175 evolution has designed our minds. For example, consider memory :
rlm@134 176 why should you expect that we have evolved the ability to
rlm@134 177 coherently organize memories past say 150 years? There's been
rlm@134 178 absolutely no selective pressure for this ability, so you can bet
rlm@134 179 that if there's any fitness to be gained from not having
rlm@134 180 unlimited memory potential (such as better metabolic efficiency),
rlm@134 181 we have it! You might think that maybe we would just forget
rlm@134 182 things the same way that we sort of forget things that happen
rlm@134 183 earlier in our lives, but complicated information processing
rlm@134 184 systems don't have to fail gracefully when they're pushed far
rlm@134 185 past their design constraints. A 150 year old person is just as
rlm@134 186 likely to suffer a catastrophic psychosis due to software
rlm@134 187 limitations associated with memory as he is to do something with
rlm@134 188 all those memories we might consider reasonable. More likely, in
rlm@134 189 fact, since there are so very many ways for a complicated
rlm@134 190 software system to break and so few ways for it to run
rlm@134 191 successfully. Therefore, I think Aubrey de Grey's "hardware-only"
rlm@134 192 approach is missing a very important component of longevity
rlm@134 193 science, and any successful effort to make people live orders of
rlm@134 194 magnitude longer than they do naturally will need to deal with
rlm@134 195 people's software as well as their hardware.
rlm@134 196
rlm@133 197 - validating neurocryopreservation :: Problem : you want to test
rlm@133 198 whether a brain is functionally preserved through vitrification,
rlm@133 199 but you don't want to figure out how to preserve all the other
rlm@133 200 organs in the animal. It might be possible to keep the rest of
rlm@133 201 the body at almost 0C and vitrify just the head for only a few
rlm@133 202 minutes. Induce hypothermia, then separate out the head's blood
rlm@133 203 supply from the rest of the body, then just cryoptotect and
rlm@133 204 vitrify the head. Might need some sort of thermal guard to keep
rlm@133 205 the outer head / neck from becoming too cold. You leave the
rlm@133 206 spinal cord intact! Then you devitrify to 0C, remove
rlm@133 207 cryoprotectant, and then reattach the blood supply. You can
rlm@133 208 determine brain preservation using behavioral assays!
rlm@133 209
rlm@133 210 - freezing water purifier :: you slowly freeze water, but also run
rlm@133 211 liquid water over the frozen mass. This takes away basically all
rlm@133 212 impurities and creates "washed ice" then you melt the ice. Maybe
rlm@133 213 you could re-use the heat from creating the ice to melt the ice?
rlm@133 214
rlm@133 215 - ultra strength :: allow a person to visualize their muscle
rlm@133 216 recruitment patterns. Give them adrenaline and let
rlm@133 217 them feel what it's like to have the normal limits
rlm@133 218 removed. See if they can replicate the effects.
rlm@133 219
rlm@133 220 - phone names :: make a PX record for domain names that's like the MX
rlm@133 221 record, except that it is a phone number instead of
rlm@133 222 an IP address. That way, you can use the domain name
rlm@133 223 registration system to provide names for phone
rlm@133 224 numbers. Then, as long as you control the domain, you
rlm@133 225 can point people to your current phone number by
rlm@133 226 updating that record.
rlm@133 227
rlm@133 228 - edible flowers :: Edible white flowers that you put in a colored
rlm@133 229 solution with flavor. When the flower turns the
rlm@133 230 right color, it is also flavored and ready to eat!
rlm@133 231
rlm@131 232 - suicide cryonics :: according to [[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html][this]], people who commit impulsive
rlm@131 233 suicides have a newfound sense of the importance of life. Perhaps
rlm@131 234 they are good cryonics targets.
rlm@131 235
rlm@131 236 - lead bone :: Could you fill in all the empty spaces in a bone with
rlm@131 237 lead? Might be cool.
rlm@131 238
rlm@131 239 - the quest for life :: Every stupid story has the "immortal who
rlm@131 240 wants to become mortal" or some other such idea. I want to story
rlm@131 241 where the protagonist loses their immortality and feels /angry/
rlm@131 242 and ashamed about losing something that's so absolutely crucial
rlm@131 243 to their identity. A reverse of "death makes life worth living",
rlm@131 244 they feel that living forever is what makes life worth
rlm@131 245 living. Now they've "lost their sunrise" or their "connection to
rlm@131 246 the timeless universe" or something. So they go on a quest to get
rlm@131 247 it back, learning about themselves along the way, and regaining
rlm@131 248 the precious thing they lost in the beginning.
rlm@131 249
rlm@130 250 - world-map :: take a small table and paint the continents in
rlm@130 251 toothpaste on the table. Make a slightly raised barrier
rlm@130 252 around the table. Slowly pour water onto the table, and
rlm@130 253 it will form the oceans!
rlm@130 254
rlm@95 255 - stage magic rituals :: rituals should incorporate elements of stage
rlm@95 256 magic. Foe example in Teller's tempest, they have a scene where
rlm@95 257 they levitate a crown in front of someone, then put it on his
rlm@95 258 head. They also have a wedding ceremony where they levitated the
rlm@95 259 bride as well. Actual weddings and other ceremonies should
rlm@95 260 incorporate stage magic as an enhancement.
rlm@95 261
rlm@95 262 - isotope time dilation :: use a cyclotron to speed up rare isotopes
rlm@95 263 developed in nuclear fusion experiments. The relativistic time
rlm@95 264 dilation will stop the isotopes from decaying, and allow time to
rlm@95 265 study them. This is based on radioactive isotopes that fall
rlm@95 266 through the earth's atmosphere that take hundreds of times
rlm@95 267 longer to decay than normal.
rlm@95 268
rlm@95 269 - marsupial stimulation :: You take a freshly pouched marsupial baby,
rlm@95 270 and show it videos and other interactive things while it matures
rlm@95 271 in the pouch. What mental effects would this have?
rlm@95 272
rlm@135 273 - dynamic re-keying :: Some older ways of tuning instruments sound
rlm@95 274 better, but we use the even-tempered scale today because it makes
rlm@95 275 it easier to switch keys. With electronic music, why not make
rlm@95 276 key-annotations and dynamically re-tune the piece to sound good
rlm@135 277 in the current key? Could be done as a midi+annotation -> midi
rlm@95 278 compiler for experimentation.
rlm@95 279
rlm@95 280 - death always implies damage :: is is possible for a corpse to differ
rlm@95 281 from a living person only in the fact that one is dead and the
rlm@95 282 other is alive? NO! A corpse must always have some sort of
rlm@95 283 molecular damage which causes the loss of function!
rlm@95 284
rlm@95 285 - inner eye :: Surgically install a bunch of tiny cameras inside a
rlm@95 286 person. Then, you can activate them all and get a
rlm@95 287 picture of your internal organs for diagnostic
rlm@95 288 purposes.
rlm@95 289
rlm@135 290 - chaos rails :: should make a visualization of the homoclinic tangle,
rlm@95 291 it's truly beautiful.
rlm@95 292
rlm@95 293 - context gobbler :: this would be in "inside-out macro" that takes
rlm@95 294 the context (like you use for things like error, continuations,
rlm@95 295 and friends) and transforms it to something else. Maybe useful?
rlm@95 296
rlm@91 297 - cryonics middle ages :: some people say that cryonics is an
rlm@91 298 experiment and that it is foolish to wait until we have revived a
rlm@91 299 human. There is a middle ground where the procedure has a dismal
rlm@91 300 success rate on humans, say 1 in 20, so that you'd be a fool to
rlm@91 301 try revival. Nonetheless, this very risky procedure could be the
rlm@91 302 legal proof of concept needed to create a new class of life
rlm@91 303 between "living" and "dead": "stasis".
rlm@91 304
rlm@91 305 - philosophy of the mirror :: neat thought experiment -- if you take a
rlm@91 306 mirror of someone by actually reversing a person's chirality
rlm@94 307 molecule by molecule, then will the only be able to read mirror
rlm@91 308 writing? The answer is yes, by analogy to a purely mechanical
rlm@94 309 scan-tron device. This is one of the only interesting transforms I
rlm@91 310 know that can take a human brain and change it in subtle,
rlm@91 311 non-destructive ways. It's also an argument against dualism.
rlm@91 312
rlm@91 313 - biosphere in a bottle :: There are around 15 million species. 15
rlm@91 314 million stem cells will fill only a tiny size, far less than a cubic
rlm@91 315 inch. Preserve a single cell from every species on earth in this
rlm@91 316 small space, and you will have a record of our current biosphere
rlm@91 317 that can be protected. "Hold the genetic data of all species in
rlm@92 318 your hand!"
rlm@91 319
rlm@90 320 - chaos lock :: The "arrow of time" points in the direction of
rlm@90 321 increasing entropy. The time evolution of chaotic
rlm@90 322 systems depend exquisitely on their initial state. If
rlm@90 323 you take a measurement of a chaotic system at any
rlm@90 324 given point of time, you can evolve that system
rlm@90 325 backwards or forwards based on your measurement. So
rlm@90 326 let's say you start the chaotic system in a VERY low
rlm@90 327 entropy state, then let it run for a while, then take
rlm@90 328 a measurement with some uncertainty. Your
rlm@90 329 measurement is pretty good, but obviously not
rlm@90 330 PERFECT. If you evolve the chaotic system back in
rlm@90 331 time, then you will see that you don't really reach
rlm@90 332 a state with low entropy an hour before (the entropy
rlm@90 333 is easy to measure with surrogates like alignment,
rlm@90 334 etc). So use this technique to SEARCH for a more
rlm@90 335 accurate measurement! This potentially can give you
rlm@90 336 many more orders of magnitude than you could get alone
rlm@90 337 just using an instrument. Sometimes it will give you
rlm@90 338 bad results, the the odds of it doing that are
rlm@90 339 infinitesimal, and you can just measure a couple of
rlm@90 340 times.
rlm@90 341
rlm@90 342 - cryo-evolution :: perhaps there would be a way to rapidly evolve a
rlm@90 343 symbiotic bacterial organism that could protect
rlm@90 344 human tissues from freezing damage.
rlm@90 345
rlm@87 346 - suicide parasite :: sometimes, people kill themselves for no good
rlm@87 347 reason. We often explain this with things like "hidden
rlm@87 348 depression" or we say that they had something like chronic jaw or
rlm@87 349 back pain. I think that smells of rationalization. I don't buy
rlm@87 350 it. I propose that in many suicide cases there is a disease that
rlm@88 351 causes the suicidal behavior. We already know that certain
rlm@87 352 parasites have mind-bending properties in other animals, even
rlm@87 353 mammals like mice. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a
rlm@88 354 parasite that causes suicides in humans. Some problems:
rlm@87 355 - What does the suicide parasite get out of it? :: This might be
rlm@87 356 answered by the whole thing being a glitch caused by
rlm@87 357 cross-species contamination. Toxoplasma works this way.
rlm@88 358 - What predictions does a disease model make :: suicide should
rlm@88 359 be more common among people who share a contagion
rlm@88 360 vector. There should be suicides that don't make any
rlm@87 361 sense : people who weren't really depressed, who had no
rlm@87 362 reason to kill themselves. People who have killed themselves
rlm@87 363 should have a higher incidence of some unknown parasite in
rlm@87 364 their brains.
rlm@86 365
rlm@89 366 - domestic insects :: People should eat more bugs because they're much
rlm@89 367 more efficient, so why not do some major domestication research
rlm@94 368 to make very appealing bugs? Beetles, in particular, seem to be
rlm@94 369 excellent targets for domestication because they have extreme
rlm@94 370 levels of genetic malleability.
rlm@87 371
rlm@87 372 - birth-clones :: What if each person was intentionally split at birth
rlm@87 373 into a normal embryo and a few "backup" cells which
rlm@87 374 is then frozen. The backup cells are created just
rlm@87 375 the same way as natural identical twins. The backups
rlm@88 376 can be used to regenerate organs. etc. Also, it
rlm@87 377 would be a good sci fi concept, because you could
rlm@87 378 have a culture where people reward people who were
rlm@87 379 especially awesome are "reborn" from their
rlm@88 380 backups. Imagine having a young Bach every
rlm@87 381 generation, etc.
rlm@86 382
rlm@94 383 - pronunciation guide :: a simple webpage where you type in a word and
rlm@94 384 it returns a simple, English sentence describing exactly how to
rlm@84 385 pronounce the word. For people who don't want to learn IPA.
rlm@86 386
rlm@87 387 - cortex-search :: use the repertoire of actions learned to limit the
rlm@87 388 search space of possible actions.
rlm@87 389
rlm@83 390 - learning to teleport :: scifi idea, this is a story about a person
rlm@83 391 who is struggling with his/her society's ideas about
rlm@83 392 teleportation. It's considered a fundamental part of being a
rlm@83 393 member of that society (after all, the difference between animals
rlm@83 394 and humans is that humans are creatures of pure information while
rlm@83 395 animals are burdened with base matter, "that's how you travel the
rlm@83 396 stars, etc") Humans are born normally, grow up, and then
rlm@83 397 eventually transcend via destructive upload. Analogies to jumping
rlm@83 398 off a diving board into a pool (which I simply /could not do/ for
rlm@83 399 a long time), etc.
rlm@83 400
rlm@87 401 - no-float-ice :: cup that has cross beams at the bottom where ice
rlm@87 402 forms. Then when you drink liquid from the glass,
rlm@87 403 the ice stays at the bottom and doesn't hit your
rlm@87 404 lips. For bars and fancy things.
rlm@87 405
rlm@82 406 - bitcoins for immigrants :: A common case with Mexican immigrants
rlm@82 407 (illegal or not) is that they want to send money they've earned
rlm@82 408 in the US back to their families in Mexico. They currently do this
rlm@82 409 through things like Money Gram or Western Union, and they get
rlm@82 410 fleeced in the process with fees. Bitcoin could greatly reduce
rlm@82 411 the cost of sending money from America to Mexico, but I don't
rlm@82 412 believe that it's currently used for that among Mexican
rlm@82 413 immigrants currently due to lack of knowledge. I bet you could
rlm@82 414 set up physical locations like those obnoxious Western Union huts
rlm@82 415 in places like Texas, Arizona, etc, and greatly undercut
rlm@82 416 them. Or, perhaps some educational seminars about bitcoin might
rlm@82 417 be in order. There's some money to be made there because there is
rlm@82 418 great demand, and it's a good thing to boot!
rlm@82 419
rlm@81 420 - reverse eye-tracking :: A painting that is actually a digital screen
rlm@82 421 with a camera. It records people's eye tracks permanently. It's
rlm@81 422 "artistic" because paintings are normally these things that you
rlm@81 423 look at without changing, but this one is changed the second you
rlm@81 424 look at it, recording where /you/ looked forever for others to
rlm@81 425 see. Make it be a painting of a woman and see the trolling as the
rlm@81 426 breasts and groin area light up with interest from all the males
rlm@81 427 passing by.
rlm@81 428
rlm@80 429 - smart toilets :: Instead of using indirect measures like infrared
rlm@80 430 detectors of the presence of a person, use computer
rlm@80 431 vision to directly measure whether the toilet needs
rlm@80 432 to be flushed. I think a lot of things will end up
rlm@80 433 going this way as we get better computer vision.
rlm@80 434
rlm@77 435 - validate chemopreservation :: chemopreservation is difficult to
rlm@77 436 validate because it destroys the functionality of a brain, and
rlm@77 437 brain simulation will take a long time to mature as a
rlm@77 438 technology. However, one very powerful way to validate
rlm@77 439 chemopreservation would be to have a person/animal learn
rlm@77 440 something with high complexity such as a number or the solution
rlm@80 441 to a maze, or a flashbulb memory. Then you preserve their brain
rlm@80 442 chemically, slice it up, and read /that specific memory/ from the
rlm@77 443 detailed brain scan. Much more difficult, but much more doable.
rlm@77 444
rlm@75 445 - candy screw :: edible candy screw with candy nuts that you can screw
rlm@75 446 as well.
rlm@76 447
rlm@74 448 - better bibliography :: when writing a thesis or paper, have the
rlm@80 449 bibliography not just be an opaque list of resources, but have it
rlm@74 450 be a list of /summaries/ and /qualities/ that each paper has in
rlm@80 451 the context of the paper being written. When examining a
rlm@80 452 bibliography, I want to know if reading the papers in the
rlm@74 453 bibliography are worth my time, and I also am probably also
rlm@74 454 interested in exactly the things that are being discussed in the
rlm@74 455 paper I'm reading. The bibliography is the perfect place to
rlm@74 456 provide information about the referenced papers from the
rlm@80 457 author's perspective. I will use this biographic form in my own
rlm@74 458 thesis.
rlm@74 459
rlm@73 460 - digital inter-library loan :: libraries at universities already do
rlm@80 461 inter-library loans for books, so why not do the same for access
rlm@73 462 to stupid paywalled digital papers? All the universities could
rlm@73 463 allow access to articles for registered students to all the files
rlm@73 464 available through any participating university. This could be
rlm@73 465 achieved by sending requests through proxies at participating
rlm@73 466 universities. Each university would decide who at the university
rlm@73 467 can access the proxy network. Access to the proxy network could
rlm@73 468 be made easy using something like http://libx.org/.
rlm@73 469
rlm@72 470 - chess visual :: to show the vast size of the game trees considered
rlm@72 471 by computers, show two people playing chess in a
rlm@72 472 void. They are floating in space, and there is a
rlm@72 473 simple chess board between them. Then, as they play,
rlm@72 474 the game tree's they are considering are drawn
rlm@72 475 behind him. The root of the tree starts centered in
rlm@72 476 their heads or whatever they use to think, and the
rlm@72 477 tree grows out from behind, never crossing the
rlm@72 478 dividing plane between the two players. Each
rlm@72 479 player's tree is a different color. As they grow,
rlm@72 480 there are animations for pruning, etc. Eventually,
rlm@72 481 they look like the hemispheres of a brain, wings,
rlm@72 482 etc. A human's tree might occasionally have a long
rlm@72 483 chain, while the computer tree would be more
rlm@72 484 uniform. You could compare deep blue and a modern
rlm@72 485 laptop. Use actual data when fighting two computers!
rlm@72 486
rlm@71 487 - time verification :: some standard way to verify that some piece of
rlm@71 488 data was recorded at a specific time. Might involve a time
rlm@73 489 server, a key for each time period, something like that.
rlm@71 490
rlm@70 491 - tamper proof gold bars :: [[http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/gold-plated-tungsten-alloy-bar.html][this site]] offers gold plated tungsten bars
rlm@70 492 as "novelty" items. One reason to prefer coins is because they
rlm@70 493 are much harder to counterfeit because there is less surface area
rlm@70 494 to mass ratio. However, gold bars are still a great design
rlm@70 495 because they can hold a lot of value in a small space. A gold bar
rlm@70 496 could be given the same protections (and more) that gold coins
rlm@70 497 have to offer by changing it into a "gold book", which would have
rlm@70 498 hundreds of "pages" of gold bound together. This could be
rlm@70 499 implemented with multiple steel rods going through the book which
rlm@70 500 can be removed, or some more classier mechanism for holding the
rlm@70 501 pages. The point is that the bar can be EASILY subdivided (and
rlm@70 502 people would perform this test before buying), thus guaranteeing
rlm@70 503 it's authenticity.
rlm@70 504
rlm@68 505 - aurellem shirt :: I should make an aurellem star symbol tee-shirt.
rlm@68 506
rlm@86 507 - touch vision :: inspired by GelSight, I want to reexamine cortex and
rlm@86 508 see if I could implement touch as a very low range
rlm@86 509 form of vision.
rlm@86 510
rlm@67 511 - high school science :: this is a lesson in scientific ethics. The
rlm@67 512 goal is to calculate /g/, the local gravitational
rlm@67 513 acceleration. The students are told that the textbook says it's
rlm@67 514 /exactly/ 9.81 before they start the experiment. See how they
rlm@67 515 doctor their results to get closer to the textbook value. It's
rlm@67 516 neat because for any given school, /g/ is probably *not* exactly
rlm@67 517 equal to 9.81, because that is just an average!
rlm@67 518
rlm@67 519 - opencourseware subtitles :: there are ladies who type up lectures
rlm@67 520 while they are being given. These recordings should be kept and
rlm@67 521 given to OCW for subtitles. If the timestamps of keys are
rlm@67 522 recorded, then it is easy to make subtitles.
rlm@67 523
rlm@66 524 - screen locking timing :: you use your computer camera to see if you
rlm@66 525 are sitting in front of the computer. If you are, then the screen
rlm@66 526 will never lock. If you are, then the screen will lock with a
rlm@67 527 30-40 second timeout. It's an extension of using inactivity to
rlm@66 528 initiate the countdown, just with more information.
rlm@66 529
rlm@66 530 - mirror toilet :: a toilet with a square basin made or mirror instead
rlm@67 531 or porcelain. That way, you can see how good of a
rlm@66 532 wipe job you have done / watch how your excretion
rlm@66 533 system works.
rlm@66 534
rlm@80 535 - test dummies :: why don't we clone anencephalic humans and use then to
rlm@62 536 test /in vivo/ human organ systems and drugs? It
rlm@62 537 would be ethical as long as there are women who are
rlm@62 538 willing to host the clones, and it would be a
rlm@67 539 tremendous resource for studying the human body. I
rlm@62 540 see nothing wrong with it morally, since no one is
rlm@67 541 suffering, and it stands to save many lives throughout
rlm@62 542 more advanced technology.
rlm@62 543
rlm@62 544 - X-ray telepresence :: given that a doctor is operating on a patient
rlm@62 545 via telepresence, one cool things you can do is shine X-rays into
rlm@62 546 the patient to view the insides during real time. If the system
rlm@80 547 was coupled with a Bayesian model of the layout of the structure,
rlm@67 548 and the x-rays were only fired whenever the uncertainty of the
rlm@62 549 model reached a certain threshold, then the radiation damage
rlm@62 550 and surgery risk could be minimized.
rlm@62 551
rlm@62 552 - superfluid vascular system :: I wonder what would happen if you
rlm@62 553 replaced the blood in a human with a superfluid. What would the
rlm@62 554 physical dynamics be? Would the superfluid flow through the
rlm@62 555 vasculature, or would it ignore it and travel through the cells,
rlm@62 556 or something else entirely. Since superfluids need to be cold to
rlm@62 557 retain their superfluidity, how would the dynamics change during
rlm@62 558 perfusion of a superfluid, where the fluid gains and looses
rlm@62 559 superfluidity as it goes deeper into the body and is cooled by
rlm@67 560 superfluid from upstream. In summary there are two things to
rlm@62 561 simulate 1.) replace all blood in human with superfluid
rlm@62 562 instantly. 2.) perfuse superfluid into human.
rlm@51 563
rlm@59 564 - projective guessing :: I think that we read and see things by
rlm@67 565 making a really good guess about what we're expecting to see,
rlm@59 566 and then searching for our guess in what we see. If it really
rlm@59 567 doesn't match, then we start to make more guesses / analyze the
rlm@59 568 image from first principles, but most stuff is projective
rlm@59 569 guessing.
rlm@59 570
rlm@67 571 - Intestinal flora maintenance :: why not inoculate babies at birth
rlm@59 572 with "ideal" gut flora instead of whatever bullshit they
rlm@59 573 naturally get, thus giving them optimal digestive/nutrient
rlm@67 574 extraction capabilities. Might also be able to make their farts
rlm@94 575 not stink for life, too. MORE IMPORTANTLY, might help to
rlm@91 576 preventatively stop some forms of /colic/, which affects 1 in 5
rlm@94 577 babies and causes constant screaming and pain for about 5 weeks.
rlm@59 578
rlm@56 579 - server culture : mirrors :: make a distributed system where people
rlm@56 580 can mirror the websites of people they like -- essentially cover
rlm@56 581 the server costs of favored websites. This could make popular
rlm@56 582 websites run at no cost. The system would require that the
rlm@56 583 mirrored content be the same as the official source. Sort of like
rlm@67 584 bit-torrent for websites.
rlm@56 585
rlm@56 586 - map programming :: one problem with functional programming is that
rlm@56 587 in order to remain functional, you have to pass up arguments up
rlm@67 588 into each calling function to get the full range of behavior
rlm@56 589 from the lower level functions. Normally people come to a
rlm@67 590 compromise involving abstraction and sparing use of dynamic
rlm@67 591 variables to configure runtime behavior. What would be the
rlm@56 592 advantages of making a programming language where every function
rlm@67 593 receives one argument, a map, which contains all the symbol
rlm@56 594 bindings it would ever need? This map is passed on to all
rlm@56 595 subordinate functions. This way, you could replace functions on
rlm@56 596 the fly, and arrange for there to be sensible defaults,
rlm@56 597 etc. Might cause more harm than good but is an interesting idea.
rlm@56 598
rlm@55 599 - rest nest :: a small EEG device you would attach to your head when
rlm@55 600 you go to sleep at night. ML algorithms would determine
rlm@55 601 your particular sleep cycles. This would mostly be an
rlm@55 602 alarm clock that you could give a time range, say
rlm@55 603 7:00AM - 7:15AM, and it would wake you up during an
rlm@55 604 ideal time corresponding to then end of one of your 90
rlm@55 605 min sleep cycles. You would feel much more rested upon
rlm@55 606 waking up, and would wake up faster. There might be
rlm@55 607 some other uses for the EEG data as well.
rlm@55 608
rlm@50 609 - image compression :: use a library like gimp or opencv to process an
rlm@50 610 image to make it have less entropy, then store the reverse of
rlm@50 611 those operations along with the compressed simpler image as a
rlm@80 612 super-compressed image file (possibly accepting some
rlm@80 613 losses). Trades file size for decompression time, and allows one
rlm@50 614 to cheat by using information in gimp/opencv to compress the
rlm@50 615 image.
rlm@50 616
rlm@47 617 - fixed cryopreservation :: why not use a fixative to buy enough time
rlm@42 618 to ramp up cryoprotectants to an acceptable level at room
rlm@42 619 temperature? Then, the whole system can be rapidly cooled and
rlm@42 620 vitrified. This method "severs the biological link" in that the
rlm@47 621 fixatives are highly toxic, but current vitrification procedures
rlm@42 622 do this anyway since there can be a lot of freezing damage.
rlm@38 623
rlm@67 624 - dilated security camera :: a security camera that would capture
rlm@58 625 full video footage of everything at 60fps but then decide to keep
rlm@58 626 only every 1 frame every 5 seconds unless there's something
rlm@58 627 "interesting" happening.
rlm@58 628
rlm@40 629 - bitcoin wallet :: Part of "server culture", this would be something
rlm@40 630 like "coin.your-domain.com" which would serve as
rlm@40 631 your personal trusted access to your own bitcoins
rlm@40 632 from anywhere.
rlm@40 633
rlm@40 634 - libpay :: this would be a free library which would enable
rlm@40 635 micro-donations to software projects and other projects,
rlm@47 636 so that you could donate a penny to "emacs" and it would
rlm@47 637 be automatically split up to every person who has ever
rlm@40 638 contributed to emacs in proportion to the amount of
rlm@40 639 community esteem, code quantity, bugs fixed, whatever the
rlm@47 640 community decides. This might make it possible for
rlm@40 641 programmers to live entirely off of free programming.
rlm@40 642
rlm@45 643 - distributed graphics :: Browser based graphics-card accelerated
rlm@45 644 distributed computing API.
rlm@41 645
rlm@40 646 - pronouns :: use capital letters A-Z instead of pronouns. They solve
rlm@40 647 pronoun referents and gender neutrality, are short to
rlm@40 648 say, and you can encode useful information into the
rlm@40 649 choice of letter. For example, instead of "Meetings
rlm@40 650 shall be presided over by the president, unless she is
rlm@42 651 absent." USE "Meetings shall be presided over by the
rlm@40 652 president, unless P is absent." We already use this a
rlm@40 653 little, since I and U are reserved for the subject and
rlm@40 654 object respectively.
rlm@40 655
rlm@40 656 - phone DSP :: software app that inserts an audio DSP between the
rlm@40 657 input to a phone and the output. The DSP is delicious
rlm@40 658 and configurable, and can allow men to make their
rlm@40 659 voices deeper, etc. The app would allow you to hear
rlm@40 660 your own voice as others hear it. Most people hate how
rlm@40 661 their own voice sounds. The app would also allow one to
rlm@47 662 immediately change the parameters of the DSP using good
rlm@40 663 presets.
rlm@40 664
rlm@47 665 - predestined body learning :: a good example of predestined learning
rlm@40 666 might be the mirror neurons.
rlm@40 667
rlm@47 668 - restaurant receipt :: use a carbon copy receipt instead of two stupid
rlm@40 669 copies.
rlm@40 670
rlm@41 671 - anti google glass :: glasses with mounted lasers and computer vision
rlm@41 672 that targets the cameras in google glass and destroy them.
rlm@41 673
rlm@40 674 - wearable towel :: towel with clasp, velcro, whatever, that allows
rlm@40 675 one to wear the towel more securely than just
rlm@40 676 wrapping it tightly and hoping for the best.
rlm@40 677
rlm@47 678 - crossdressing :: Easiest way to disguise oneself as a woman is to
rlm@44 679 wear a burka.
rlm@41 680
rlm@40 681 - book-mode :: intelligent color highlighting for books and
rlm@40 682 articles. It would disambiguate pronouns and involved
rlm@93 683 references. For example, if "Rachael" was assigned the
rlm@93 684 color red, and "the blonde haired girl" refers to
rlm@93 685 "Rachael", then "the blonde haired girl" would be
rlm@93 686 colored red. Also, you could disambiguate multi part
rlm@93 687 run-on sentences by highlighting each
rlm@93 688 subcomponent. Maybe would also have applications to
rlm@93 689 scientific reading.
rlm@40 690
rlm@40 691 - Handheld light Rain measurement :: this would be a clear, teflon
rlm@47 692 coated plastic disk with a camera underneath the disk. You would
rlm@40 693 be able to hold the device out and it would measure the rate of
rlm@40 694 accumulation of water droplets from fine mists and light rain by
rlm@40 695 using computer vision to measure the diameters of the drops.
rlm@40 696
rlm@40 697 - Big Brother Farming :: This would be a vision system that would
rlm@40 698 individually monitor each plant and turn on water, etc to ensure
rlm@40 699 maximum/uniform growth for each plant.
rlm@40 700
rlm@40 701 - Discrete Faucet :: A faucet with discrete ticks instead of
rlm@47 702 continuous.
rlm@40 703
rlm@40 704 - Laser Circle :: take a glass microfiliment and shine a laser at one
rlm@40 705 end at an oblique angle. It will make a perfect,
rlm@40 706 large circle on the wall, converting a laser beam
rlm@47 707 into a laser cone, preserving most of the energy of
rlm@40 708 the laser.
rlm@40 709
rlm@40 710 - Invisible Glass :: Take a container of liquid and embed a
rlm@40 711 glass sculpture made out of glass that has exactly the same index
rlm@40 712 of refraction and color of the liquid. Then the sculpture will be
rlm@40 713 totally invisible in the container, and will only be revealed
rlm@40 714 when the liquid is drained. The container might be a fancy
rlm@40 715 wine/spirit bottle or an hourglass.
rlm@40 716
rlm@47 717 - Caterpillar people :: A race of caterpillar like creatures gains
rlm@40 718 intelligence after eons of predation by birds, etc. These
rlm@47 719 caterpillar creatures still undergo metamorphosis into a large
rlm@40 720 butterfly-like creature. The metamorphosis process turns the
rlm@40 721 caterpillar's brain into mush and reforms it into a minimal,
rlm@40 722 dumb, truly insect-like mind, completely destroying the person
rlm@47 723 the caterpillar was. The society develops all sorts of customs and
rlm@40 724 religious interpretations of the metamorphosis. It is viewed as
rlm@40 725 good and natural by some since it is part of their life cycle and
rlm@47 726 necessary to propagate the species, as only the butterflies can
rlm@40 727 mate. Some think that the butterflies are still the same person
rlm@47 728 because they have the same soul, even they no longer posses the
rlm@47 729 memories or personality of the original caterpillar. Some see the
rlm@40 730 butterfly form as the "true form" of the species, since the
rlm@40 731 butterflies can fly, mate, and are beautiful. Many make a big
rlm@47 732 deal out of the fact that 1-2% of the caterpillar's mind is
rlm@40 733 actually preserved in the butterfly. Some see it as a terrible
rlm@47 734 tragedy and argue that the caterpillars should try to stop the
rlm@40 735 metamorphosis by technology. Practically, some very important
rlm@40 736 members of society undergo hormone therapy and/or surgery to
rlm@40 737 prevent metamorphosis so that they can live longer as themselves.
rlm@40 738
rlm@40 739 This is a continuation of Marvin Minsky's ideas about pain being
rlm@40 740 something that preserves our bodies while destroying our minds,
rlm@40 741 something that is a remnant from our too harsh animal days that
rlm@40 742 hasn't caught up to the fact that we have very complex brains
rlm@40 743 now. It's a worst-case scenario about a maladaptive genetic
rlm@40 744 legacy. Also, it's inspired by "There She Is!!!", which makes a
rlm@40 745 compelling point about homosexuality by introducing a second
rlm@40 746 gender characteristic (bunny/cat, male/female), which makes
rlm@40 747 homophobia look very silly. Here, our own biological legacy of
rlm@47 748 pain and death is made to look like the tragedy it is through the
rlm@47 749 lens of the the caterpillar people.
rlm@40 750
rlm@46 751 - relationships as a business :: [[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-Crisis.aspx][Turnover-Crisis]] is an excellent talk
rlm@46 752 about the "culture of quitting," which is about better business
rlm@46 753 by letting people go instead of keeping them around past their
rlm@47 754 "apex". Focuses on information transfer. Cool idea of an alumni
rlm@46 755 network, which for relationships would be a group of satisfied
rlm@46 756 ex-lovers, who would recommend new people your way, and who might
rlm@46 757 consider coming to you again, refreshed from their time away with
rlm@46 758 new stories/experiences. I should look for examples of this and
rlm@46 759 how they worked out.
rlm@43 760
rlm@47 761 - coffee with tea :: /rlm-tea/ contains 2% sugar, 10% cream, and 20%
rlm@43 762 dylan coffee. /dylan coffee/ contains 5% sugar,
rlm@43 763 20% cream, and 10% rlm-tea. Start your mornings
rlm@43 764 with recursion!
rlm@43 765
rlm@43 766 - psychic crystal :: in a science fiction story, this would be an
rlm@43 767 object that is very easy to move physically but is extremely
rlm@43 768 difficult to move with telekinesis.
rlm@43 769
rlm@40 770 - http://betsofbitco.in/ :: what a great place for an AI/person to
rlm@40 771 prove themselves as a good predictor. I wish this could be
rlm@40 772 automated.
rlm@40 773
rlm@44 774 - true reflection :: don't forget about that mirror in the student
rlm@44 775 center!, it's two mirrors at right angles, like staring at a
rlm@44 776 corner of a room. The light reflects so that it shows you what
rlm@44 777 you actually look like, instead of your mirror image.
rlm@33 778
rlm@33 779 - remote control wasp :: use computer to drive wings with remote
rlm@32 780 power/logic.
rlm@32 781
rlm@47 782 - encrypted email phone book :: public (distributed?) database of
rlm@44 783 email->private-key pairs, to enable automatic encryption.
rlm@32 784
rlm@44 785 - universal eye color :: every equivalent creature will see each
rlm@44 786 others' eyes as black -- it's universal. Even if the creatures
rlm@44 787 see in radio waves, and their eyes are 2m long pieces of jagged
rlm@44 788 metal, when those creatures look at each other, they will see
rlm@44 789 black, the absence of light and color (since it's being absorbed
rlm@44 790 by the sensor array).
rlm@32 791
rlm@33 792 - intelligent microwave :: it learns where the hot nodes of its fields
rlm@83 793 are, and uses them to evenly heat any food item. It has an infrared
rlm@32 794 camera or something to keep track of how hot the food is. That way,
rlm@32 795 you don't get bowls where the edges are boiling, while the center is
rlm@32 796 still frozen. Requires a little bit of intelligence/vision, since
rlm@32 797 the exact pattern of heating totally depends on the exact shape of
rlm@47 798 the food. Wouldn't need a carousel, and wouldn't need a timer,
rlm@47 799 just a desired temperature. Could also detect ice, and automatically
rlm@32 800 defrost the parts which are frozen. Might be able to work much
rlm@47 801 faster since it can avoid overheating; might have problems with
rlm@32 802 heating the insides of thick things, might need a weight sensor too.
rlm@32 803
rlm@39 804 + Would be much cleaner than other microwaves, since food would
rlm@39 805 "sputter" and splash liquid much less.
rlm@32 806
rlm@39 807 + Throw in some SIFT+R processing to match previously cooked foods
rlm@39 808 and learn the exact heating profiles for things that have been
rlm@54 809 cooked before -- it can get faster the more it's used.
rlm@32 810
rlm@47 811 - compression :: brain-aware image compression algorithm
rlm@32 812
rlm@44 813 - Credit card proxy :: would be a company which works like paypal
rlm@44 814 except for real world transactions
rlm@32 815
rlm@33 816 - Flesh pillow :: a pillow like the arm or torso of a human, complete
rlm@33 817 with simulated temperature, bones, and heartbeat.
rlm@33 818
rlm@47 819 - super screw :: a screw which has only one or two threads and instead
rlm@47 820 uses compression to fit into a hole (the whole shank
rlm@33 821 of the screw is split into multiple pieces to
rlm@33 822 accomplish this; the tip is a point, then the middle
rlm@33 823 bulges out and gets compressed when screwed in.
rlm@33 824
rlm@47 825 - light filter :: (like light tweezers) to mechanically separate
rlm@33 826 fluids with different index of refraction
rlm@33 827
rlm@33 828 - chalk eraser project :: maybe make a directional eraser, for easy
rlm@33 829 release of chalk dust, like fur, and how it likes to rest in a
rlm@33 830 certain direction.
rlm@33 831
rlm@44 832 - silver socks :: socks laced with silver for the antimicrobial
rlm@44 833 properties.
rlm@32 834
rlm@53 835 - UROP :: magnet gear/metal teeth tape
rlm@53 836
rlm@82 837 - Rod of Moses :: device to distill urine through evaporation and
rlm@53 838 easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert --
rlm@53 839 produce drinkable water.
rlm@32 840
rlm@47 841 - UROP :: Make the LED in line with the flow for the micro injector, so
rlm@44 842 that it may transmit maximum flow. Motor that changes
rlm@44 843 distance of internal magnet from windings depending on
rlm@44 844 desired speed so as to obtain maximum power efficiency.
rlm@32 845
rlm@47 846 - lottery scraper :: web scraper which monitors various lotteries,
rlm@44 847 looking for "special" gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x
rlm@44 848 winnings on Wednesdays) and computes expected value...
rlm@34 849
rlm@34 850 - Memristiors novel design :: make an evolutionary algorithm to make
rlm@34 851 old stuff using all four basic circuit elements.
rlm@34 852
rlm@44 853 - Conductive concrete :: concrete that has embedded metal fibers so
rlm@44 854 that it can conduct electricity.
rlm@34 855
rlm@44 856 - little bitty melting pot :: might be useful for some types of
rlm@44 857 manufacturing/3D printing -- how small can an induction melter be
rlm@44 858 made, for example.
rlm@34 859
rlm@44 860 - power strip/timer programmable combination :: meh
rlm@34 861
rlm@47 862 - algorithms :: which learn what their inputs are and in what order,
rlm@44 863 and can adapt to changing circumstances -- they
rlm@44 864 remember previous arguments and adapt so as to respond
rlm@44 865 to different connections.
rlm@34 866
rlm@47 867 - true pure tones :: hear a true pure tone by direct stimulation of the
rlm@44 868 nerves of the ear
rlm@43 869
rlm@43 870 - mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp :: would be an object
rlm@43 871 with two levers -- you pull on one lever and the other moves the
rlm@43 872 same way, no matter what's in the way or what it is driving. This
rlm@47 873 analogy could be useful to teach op amps to people.
rlm@34 874
rlm@47 875 - paper folding device :: make it convenient to fold lots of papers in
rlm@34 876 various ways.
rlm@34 877
rlm@34 878 - concrete epoxy :: epoxy with sand/ some other solid material.
rlm@34 879
rlm@47 880 - light capacitor :: suspend some ball of material with a high index
rlm@43 881 of refraction and shine light into it so it gets stuck -- would
rlm@43 882 the light stay trapped forever? Could you build up unlimited
rlm@43 883 quantities of light inside the sphere (which could then be
rlm@43 884 released slowly by frustrated internal reflection?
rlm@34 885
rlm@40 886 - movie screening :: Movies always are too long at first. One way to
rlm@34 887 shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the
rlm@34 888 move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which
rlm@34 889 there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people)
rlm@34 890 better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I
rlm@34 891 got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill
rlm@47 892 which is composed entirely of the parts in which people had their
rlm@34 893 eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their
rlm@34 894 eyes off of? Just take those parts out!
rlm@34 895
rlm@47 896 - optimize an article :: capture reading of a scientific article via
rlm@44 897 screen capture while people read it, then use it to make the
rlm@44 898 article better. like the movie-pruning idea.
rlm@35 899
rlm@44 900 - super reading program :: teaches people the ideal mental mask to
rlm@44 901 apply during reading so as to read very fast.
rlm@35 902
rlm@44 903 - explosive thermite epoxy putty :: one part would contain the rust,
rlm@47 904 one part the aluminum.
rlm@34 905
rlm@44 906 - reading comprehension :: use the above screen capture routine to
rlm@44 907 make a quiz program that constructs questions about the content
rlm@44 908 you seemed to gloss over while reading. could be easy if the pdf
rlm@44 909 came with embedded questions. Dylan: automatically generate
rlm@44 910 word-cloud about the parts you found most interesting; help
rlm@44 911 others who read the same stuff by drawing attention to the
rlm@44 912 interesting parts.
rlm@34 913
rlm@44 914 - hard sword :: make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of
rlm@44 915 martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better
rlm@44 916 sword.
rlm@32 917
rlm@44 918 - close range wireless :: use the induction technology used to
rlm@44 919 recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data
rlm@44 920 without any metal at all!
rlm@32 921
rlm@44 922 - reading :: is a form of synsethesia
rlm@32 923
rlm@44 924 - DNA printer :: A machine which translates the text eg, "ACTGAC" into
rlm@44 925 actual DNA
rlm@32 926
rlm@44 927 - black generator :: ferro-fluid magnetic field suspended micro
rlm@44 928 generator to make electricity
rlm@32 929
rlm@44 930 - alcohol battery :: alcohol/fluid flow powered battery
rlm@32 931
rlm@44 932 - folding razor blade sword ::
rlm@32 933
rlm@44 934 - perfect pitch :: learn perfect pitch using another sense in
rlm@44 935 combination (sight or touch)
rlm@32 936
rlm@44 937 - kaleidoscope projector ::
rlm@32 938
rlm@44 939 - razor blade de-sharpener :: for guilt free disposal
rlm@32 940
rlm@44 941 - bricks :: filled with luminescent plant material
rlm@32 942
rlm@47 943 - bio metallic structure :: metal grids with seeds inside, which grow
rlm@44 944 together and form a durable biological matrix. The metal
rlm@44 945 substrate delivers water. (maybe use plastic instead of metal?)
rlm@44 946 Dylan: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical
rlm@44 947 interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled
rlm@44 948 photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures.
rlm@32 949
rlm@44 950 - conducting extracellular matrix :: to allow better control of
rlm@44 951 organic systems and an enhanced nervous system.
rlm@32 952
rlm@44 953 - cross-modal memory hashing :: a way to retrieve memories more
rlm@44 954 robustly.
rlm@32 955
rlm@47 956 - flossing thimble-guards :: (these actually exist)
rlm@32 957
rlm@44 958 - rules + lattice learning :: integrate lattice learning with rules by
rlm@44 959 generating hypothetical examples
rlm@32 960
rlm@47 961 - wooden refrigerator :: to give food a better taste Dylan: like
rlm@44 962 barrels for wine, or planks for salmon. Maybe just have "flavor
rlm@44 963 planks" for your pre-existing fridge. Need to mitigate effect of
rlm@44 964 temperature on volatility?
rlm@32 965
rlm@35 966 - radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule :: create precious
rlm@35 967 metals or something else economically advantageous.
rlm@32 968
rlm@47 969 - crowd preservation :: inoculate food with tons of harmless
rlm@44 970 bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of
rlm@44 971 preservation
rlm@32 972
rlm@47 973 - old school preservation :: Pasteur - style holding jar with siphon
rlm@47 974 as a way to store liquids at room temperature indefinitely w/o
rlm@47 975 refrigeration.
rlm@32 976
rlm@47 977 - restaurant policy :: Throw rude people out of restaurant as a matter
rlm@44 978 of course -- make ambiance much better.
rlm@32 979
rlm@47 980 - clean windows :: make something that mixes soap with fire hydrant
rlm@44 981 water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it
rlm@44 982 to clean windows of buildings.
rlm@32 983
rlm@44 984 - ocarina :: make an ocarina out of pure silver
rlm@32 985
rlm@35 986 - fire pen :: pen which burns words on to the page, thus never needing
rlm@47 987 any ink. Is there a way to make it runnable from the
rlm@35 988 human's energy?
rlm@32 989
rlm@44 990 - website to design your own soda :: and label, and have it mailed to
rlm@44 991 you / sell it from your own online store.
rlm@35 992
rlm@44 993 - solar panels :: that float on the ocean
rlm@43 994
rlm@35 995 - handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?) :: great for daisy chaining
rlm@43 996 people, binding them to environment, etc.
rlm@35 997
rlm@35 998 - vector based SOUND files :: like the pictures but with SOUND. codify
rlm@35 999 sound in a language with enough symbols so that it can describe
rlm@35 1000 everything and encode it in that. would be like going from speech
rlm@43 1001 to text or smtg. Could also store sound as an image of the
rlm@35 1002 wavefront encoded as a vector image.
rlm@32 1003
rlm@44 1004 - Mouse :: with a horizontal scroll wheel in addition to the vertical
rlm@44 1005 scroll wheel
rlm@32 1006
rlm@47 1007 - logic maintenance system for big institutions :: to make sure the
rlm@44 1008 things they are thinking about doing are not retarded
rlm@32 1009
rlm@47 1010 - http://www.regulations.gov/ :: cool site
rlm@32 1011
rlm@44 1012 - genetically engineered glowing fruit :: sell seeds?
rlm@32 1013
rlm@36 1014 - memory slide :: IF memories are encoded using particular sensory
rlm@36 1015 impressions, what happens if the sensory organ
rlm@36 1016 itself changes? those memories would become
rlm@47 1017 inaccessible. maybe this is why we can't remember
rlm@36 1018 much from our childhoods. also, could this happen
rlm@47 1019 throughout life as well? Could S remember stuff from
rlm@36 1020 his childhood?
rlm@32 1021
rlm@47 1022 - make a completely indestructible phone :: no moving parts or display
rlm@36 1023 you should be able to slam it around all you want, and it will
rlm@36 1024 just work. brutally simple. aerogel around the battery, minimal
rlm@36 1025 interface - never gets too hot, and can be dropped into water. no
rlm@36 1026 holes -- uses field effects for everything from the buttons to
rlm@36 1027 inductive charging and data transfer.
rlm@32 1028
rlm@44 1029 - midi to ocarina "tabs" program :: (online website? buy ocarinas from
rlm@44 1030 it too)
rlm@32 1031
rlm@44 1032 - 3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns) :: like the 8.03
rlm@44 1033 lecture
rlm@32 1034
rlm@40 1035 - lighter flint on spring :: make hot, throw it at something, and it
rlm@40 1036 makes sparkles!
rlm@32 1037
rlm@44 1038 - nuclear energy :: Rebranding New+Clear Energy with informational
rlm@44 1039 campaign and public debate forum to enforce its
rlm@44 1040 transparent and open nature. France needn't be the
rlm@44 1041 world leader in nuclear energy. (Dylan)
rlm@32 1042
rlm@44 1043 - bubbles :: Engineer a material which has both ductility and high
rlm@44 1044 surface tension to make the "third"
rlm@44 1045 minimal-surface-energy solution to a bubble suspended
rlm@44 1046 between two equal-diameter rings. (Solutions are
rlm@44 1047 cylindrical catenary curve, two separated half-bubbles,
rlm@44 1048 and a double-cone)
rlm@38 1049
rlm@38 1050 - Textbook whose content can be varied continuously :: alter level of
rlm@38 1051 difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain
rlm@38 1052 other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from
rlm@38 1053 knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to
rlm@38 1054 guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of
rlm@40 1055 knowledge. /One./
rlm@40 1056
rlm@40 1057 ** From Jacob's idea list
rlm@40 1058
rlm@47 1059 - Roommate-canceling headphones: uses roommate's laptop mic to seed
rlm@43 1060 noise cancellation alg in your headphones (would this
rlm@40 1061 work?). -Update on sound canceling headphones that take feed from
rlm@40 1062 tv: how about ones that cancel people talking on the phone by
rlm@40 1063 receiving the phone signals and playing inverse sound
rlm@40 1064 waves. #signalprocessing ~jcole@mit.edu
rlm@40 1065
rlm@40 1066 - ClackerAlert -- tells if you slam the keys too hard using sound data
rlm@40 1067 (and speed/jerkiness data)!.Prevents RSI ~jcole@mit.e
rlm@40 1068
rlm@40 1069 - Panic Pin :: separate pin that you can tell someone if forced to
rlm@41 1070 identify your PIN (idea from idea about credit cards)