Mercurial > thoughts
view org/ideas.org @ 130:14a568ba6b5d
world map idea.
author | Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu> |
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date | Mon, 21 Jul 2014 16:21:34 -0400 |
parents | 7f5ec998409f |
children | 823974ec6e0f |
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1 #+title: Big List O' Ideas2 #+author: Robert McIntyre3 #+email: rlm@mit.edu4 #+description: list of ideas from the last ~ 7 years5 #+keywords: aurellem ideas half-baked random6 #+SETUPFILE: ../../aurellem/org/setup.org7 #+INCLUDE: ../../aurellem/org/level-0.org8 #+babel: :mkdirp yes :noweb yes :exports both10 * Ideas12 This is a list of all the ideas I've had that I felt like writing down13 for the past ~ 8 years. Some of them could be practical inventions and14 are "just" waiting the that 95% perspiration to bring them to15 fruition, some are ideas for science fiction, and some are simple16 observations. Some are really only for my own personal notes and are17 not meant to be comprehensible. They are arranged roughly in reverse18 chronological order, with the most recent ideas at the top of the19 list. The ones at the bottom of the list are heavily influenced by my20 time at MIT.22 If you find some of these interesting and would like to collaborate on23 them with me or discuss them in more detail, I'd love to hear from24 you. You can email me at ideas@aurellem.org.26 If you want to use one of these ideas as your own and run with it,27 please feel free. I'd love to hear about it if you do.29 #+begin_quote30 There's no end to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care about31 getting credit.32 #+end_quote34 - world-map :: take a small table and paint the continents in35 toothpaste on the table. Make a slightly raised barrier36 around the table. Slowly pour water onto the table, and37 it will form the oceans!39 - stage magic rituals :: rituals should incorporate elements of stage40 magic. Foe example in Teller's tempest, they have a scene where41 they levitate a crown in front of someone, then put it on his42 head. They also have a wedding ceremony where they levitated the43 bride as well. Actual weddings and other ceremonies should44 incorporate stage magic as an enhancement.46 - isotope time dilation :: use a cyclotron to speed up rare isotopes47 developed in nuclear fusion experiments. The relativistic time48 dilation will stop the isotopes from decaying, and allow time to49 study them. This is based on radioactive isotopes that fall50 through the earth's atmosphere that take hundreds of times51 longer to decay than normal.53 - marsupial stimulation :: You take a freshly pouched marsupial baby,54 and show it videos and other interactive things while it matures55 in the pouch. What mental effects would this have?57 - dynamic re-keying :: Some older ways of tuning insturments sound58 better, but we use the even-tempered scale today because it makes59 it easier to switch keys. With electronic music, why not make60 key-annotations and dynamically re-tune the piece to sound good61 in the current key? Coule be done as a midi+annotation -> midi62 compiler for experimentation.64 - death always implies damage :: is is possible for a corpse to differ65 from a living person only in the fact that one is dead and the66 other is alive? NO! A corpse must always have some sort of67 molecular damage which causes the loss of function!69 - inner eye :: Surgically install a bunch of tiny cameras inside a70 person. Then, you can activate them all and get a71 picture of your internal organs for diagnostic72 purposes.74 - chaos rails :: should make a visulazation of the homoclinic tangle,75 it's truly beautiful.77 - context gobbler :: this would be in "inside-out macro" that takes78 the context (like you use for things like error, continuations,79 and friends) and transforms it to something else. Maybe useful?81 - cryonics middle ages :: some people say that cryonics is an82 experiment and that it is foolish to wait until we have revived a83 human. There is a middle ground where the procedure has a dismal84 success rate on humans, say 1 in 20, so that you'd be a fool to85 try revival. Nonetheless, this very risky procedure could be the86 legal proof of concept needed to create a new class of life87 between "living" and "dead": "stasis".89 - philosophy of the mirror :: neat thought experiment -- if you take a90 mirror of someone by actually reversing a person's chirality91 molecule by molecule, then will the only be able to read mirror92 writing? The answer is yes, by analogy to a purely mechanical93 scan-tron device. This is one of the only interesting transforms I94 know that can take a human brain and change it in subtle,95 non-destructive ways. It's also an argument against dualism.97 - biosphere in a bottle :: There are around 15 million species. 1598 million stem cells will fill only a tiny size, far less than a cubic99 inch. Preserve a single cell from every species on earth in this100 small space, and you will have a record of our current biosphere101 that can be protected. "Hold the genetic data of all species in102 your hand!"104 - chaos lock :: The "arrow of time" points in the direction of105 increasing entropy. The time evolution of chaotic106 systems depend exquisitely on their initial state. If107 you take a measurement of a chaotic system at any108 given point of time, you can evolve that system109 backwards or forwards based on your measurement. So110 let's say you start the chaotic system in a VERY low111 entropy state, then let it run for a while, then take112 a measurement with some uncertainty. Your113 measurement is pretty good, but obviously not114 PERFECT. If you evolve the chaotic system back in115 time, then you will see that you don't really reach116 a state with low entropy an hour before (the entropy117 is easy to measure with surrogates like alignment,118 etc). So use this technique to SEARCH for a more119 accurate measurement! This potentially can give you120 many more orders of magnitude than you could get alone121 just using an instrument. Sometimes it will give you122 bad results, the the odds of it doing that are123 infinitesimal, and you can just measure a couple of124 times.126 - cryo-evolution :: perhaps there would be a way to rapidly evolve a127 symbiotic bacterial organism that could protect128 human tissues from freezing damage.130 - suicide parasite :: sometimes, people kill themselves for no good131 reason. We often explain this with things like "hidden132 depression" or we say that they had something like chronic jaw or133 back pain. I think that smells of rationalization. I don't buy134 it. I propose that in many suicide cases there is a disease that135 causes the suicidal behavior. We already know that certain136 parasites have mind-bending properties in other animals, even137 mammals like mice. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a138 parasite that causes suicides in humans. Some problems:139 - What does the suicide parasite get out of it? :: This might be140 answered by the whole thing being a glitch caused by141 cross-species contamination. Toxoplasma works this way.142 - What predictions does a disease model make :: suicide should143 be more common among people who share a contagion144 vector. There should be suicides that don't make any145 sense : people who weren't really depressed, who had no146 reason to kill themselves. People who have killed themselves147 should have a higher incidence of some unknown parasite in148 their brains.150 - domestic insects :: People should eat more bugs because they're much151 more efficient, so why not do some major domestication research152 to make very appealing bugs? Beetles, in particular, seem to be153 excellent targets for domestication because they have extreme154 levels of genetic malleability.156 - birth-clones :: What if each person was intentionally split at birth157 into a normal embryo and a few "backup" cells which158 is then frozen. The backup cells are created just159 the same way as natural identical twins. The backups160 can be used to regenerate organs. etc. Also, it161 would be a good sci fi concept, because you could162 have a culture where people reward people who were163 especially awesome are "reborn" from their164 backups. Imagine having a young Bach every165 generation, etc.167 - pronunciation guide :: a simple webpage where you type in a word and168 it returns a simple, English sentence describing exactly how to169 pronounce the word. For people who don't want to learn IPA.171 - cortex-search :: use the repertoire of actions learned to limit the172 search space of possible actions.174 - learning to teleport :: scifi idea, this is a story about a person175 who is struggling with his/her society's ideas about176 teleportation. It's considered a fundamental part of being a177 member of that society (after all, the difference between animals178 and humans is that humans are creatures of pure information while179 animals are burdened with base matter, "that's how you travel the180 stars, etc") Humans are born normally, grow up, and then181 eventually transcend via destructive upload. Analogies to jumping182 off a diving board into a pool (which I simply /could not do/ for183 a long time), etc.185 - no-float-ice :: cup that has cross beams at the bottom where ice186 forms. Then when you drink liquid from the glass,187 the ice stays at the bottom and doesn't hit your188 lips. For bars and fancy things.190 - bitcoins for immigrants :: A common case with Mexican immigrants191 (illegal or not) is that they want to send money they've earned192 in the US back to their families in Mexico. They currently do this193 through things like Money Gram or Western Union, and they get194 fleeced in the process with fees. Bitcoin could greatly reduce195 the cost of sending money from America to Mexico, but I don't196 believe that it's currently used for that among Mexican197 immigrants currently due to lack of knowledge. I bet you could198 set up physical locations like those obnoxious Western Union huts199 in places like Texas, Arizona, etc, and greatly undercut200 them. Or, perhaps some educational seminars about bitcoin might201 be in order. There's some money to be made there because there is202 great demand, and it's a good thing to boot!204 - reverse eye-tracking :: A painting that is actually a digital screen205 with a camera. It records people's eye tracks permanently. It's206 "artistic" because paintings are normally these things that you207 look at without changing, but this one is changed the second you208 look at it, recording where /you/ looked forever for others to209 see. Make it be a painting of a woman and see the trolling as the210 breasts and groin area light up with interest from all the males211 passing by.213 - smart toilets :: Instead of using indirect measures like infrared214 detectors of the presence of a person, use computer215 vision to directly measure whether the toilet needs216 to be flushed. I think a lot of things will end up217 going this way as we get better computer vision.219 - validate chemopreservation :: chemopreservation is difficult to220 validate because it destroys the functionality of a brain, and221 brain simulation will take a long time to mature as a222 technology. However, one very powerful way to validate223 chemopreservation would be to have a person/animal learn224 something with high complexity such as a number or the solution225 to a maze, or a flashbulb memory. Then you preserve their brain226 chemically, slice it up, and read /that specific memory/ from the227 detailed brain scan. Much more difficult, but much more doable.229 - candy screw :: edible candy screw with candy nuts that you can screw230 as well.232 - better bibliography :: when writing a thesis or paper, have the233 bibliography not just be an opaque list of resources, but have it234 be a list of /summaries/ and /qualities/ that each paper has in235 the context of the paper being written. When examining a236 bibliography, I want to know if reading the papers in the237 bibliography are worth my time, and I also am probably also238 interested in exactly the things that are being discussed in the239 paper I'm reading. The bibliography is the perfect place to240 provide information about the referenced papers from the241 author's perspective. I will use this biographic form in my own242 thesis.244 - digital inter-library loan :: libraries at universities already do245 inter-library loans for books, so why not do the same for access246 to stupid paywalled digital papers? All the universities could247 allow access to articles for registered students to all the files248 available through any participating university. This could be249 achieved by sending requests through proxies at participating250 universities. Each university would decide who at the university251 can access the proxy network. Access to the proxy network could252 be made easy using something like http://libx.org/.254 - chess visual :: to show the vast size of the game trees considered255 by computers, show two people playing chess in a256 void. They are floating in space, and there is a257 simple chess board between them. Then, as they play,258 the game tree's they are considering are drawn259 behind him. The root of the tree starts centered in260 their heads or whatever they use to think, and the261 tree grows out from behind, never crossing the262 dividing plane between the two players. Each263 player's tree is a different color. As they grow,264 there are animations for pruning, etc. Eventually,265 they look like the hemispheres of a brain, wings,266 etc. A human's tree might occasionally have a long267 chain, while the computer tree would be more268 uniform. You could compare deep blue and a modern269 laptop. Use actual data when fighting two computers!271 - time verification :: some standard way to verify that some piece of272 data was recorded at a specific time. Might involve a time273 server, a key for each time period, something like that.275 - tamper proof gold bars :: [[http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/gold-plated-tungsten-alloy-bar.html][this site]] offers gold plated tungsten bars276 as "novelty" items. One reason to prefer coins is because they277 are much harder to counterfeit because there is less surface area278 to mass ratio. However, gold bars are still a great design279 because they can hold a lot of value in a small space. A gold bar280 could be given the same protections (and more) that gold coins281 have to offer by changing it into a "gold book", which would have282 hundreds of "pages" of gold bound together. This could be283 implemented with multiple steel rods going through the book which284 can be removed, or some more classier mechanism for holding the285 pages. The point is that the bar can be EASILY subdivided (and286 people would perform this test before buying), thus guaranteeing287 it's authenticity.289 - aurellem shirt :: I should make an aurellem star symbol tee-shirt.291 - touch vision :: inspired by GelSight, I want to reexamine cortex and292 see if I could implement touch as a very low range293 form of vision.295 - high school science :: this is a lesson in scientific ethics. The296 goal is to calculate /g/, the local gravitational297 acceleration. The students are told that the textbook says it's298 /exactly/ 9.81 before they start the experiment. See how they299 doctor their results to get closer to the textbook value. It's300 neat because for any given school, /g/ is probably *not* exactly301 equal to 9.81, because that is just an average!303 - opencourseware subtitles :: there are ladies who type up lectures304 while they are being given. These recordings should be kept and305 given to OCW for subtitles. If the timestamps of keys are306 recorded, then it is easy to make subtitles.308 - screen locking timing :: you use your computer camera to see if you309 are sitting in front of the computer. If you are, then the screen310 will never lock. If you are, then the screen will lock with a311 30-40 second timeout. It's an extension of using inactivity to312 initiate the countdown, just with more information.314 - mirror toilet :: a toilet with a square basin made or mirror instead315 or porcelain. That way, you can see how good of a316 wipe job you have done / watch how your excretion317 system works.319 - test dummies :: why don't we clone anencephalic humans and use then to320 test /in vivo/ human organ systems and drugs? It321 would be ethical as long as there are women who are322 willing to host the clones, and it would be a323 tremendous resource for studying the human body. I324 see nothing wrong with it morally, since no one is325 suffering, and it stands to save many lives throughout326 more advanced technology.328 - X-ray telepresence :: given that a doctor is operating on a patient329 via telepresence, one cool things you can do is shine X-rays into330 the patient to view the insides during real time. If the system331 was coupled with a Bayesian model of the layout of the structure,332 and the x-rays were only fired whenever the uncertainty of the333 model reached a certain threshold, then the radiation damage334 and surgery risk could be minimized.336 - superfluid vascular system :: I wonder what would happen if you337 replaced the blood in a human with a superfluid. What would the338 physical dynamics be? Would the superfluid flow through the339 vasculature, or would it ignore it and travel through the cells,340 or something else entirely. Since superfluids need to be cold to341 retain their superfluidity, how would the dynamics change during342 perfusion of a superfluid, where the fluid gains and looses343 superfluidity as it goes deeper into the body and is cooled by344 superfluid from upstream. In summary there are two things to345 simulate 1.) replace all blood in human with superfluid346 instantly. 2.) perfuse superfluid into human.348 - projective guessing :: I think that we read and see things by349 making a really good guess about what we're expecting to see,350 and then searching for our guess in what we see. If it really351 doesn't match, then we start to make more guesses / analyze the352 image from first principles, but most stuff is projective353 guessing.355 - Intestinal flora maintenance :: why not inoculate babies at birth356 with "ideal" gut flora instead of whatever bullshit they357 naturally get, thus giving them optimal digestive/nutrient358 extraction capabilities. Might also be able to make their farts359 not stink for life, too. MORE IMPORTANTLY, might help to360 preventatively stop some forms of /colic/, which affects 1 in 5361 babies and causes constant screaming and pain for about 5 weeks.363 - server culture : mirrors :: make a distributed system where people364 can mirror the websites of people they like -- essentially cover365 the server costs of favored websites. This could make popular366 websites run at no cost. The system would require that the367 mirrored content be the same as the official source. Sort of like368 bit-torrent for websites.370 - map programming :: one problem with functional programming is that371 in order to remain functional, you have to pass up arguments up372 into each calling function to get the full range of behavior373 from the lower level functions. Normally people come to a374 compromise involving abstraction and sparing use of dynamic375 variables to configure runtime behavior. What would be the376 advantages of making a programming language where every function377 receives one argument, a map, which contains all the symbol378 bindings it would ever need? This map is passed on to all379 subordinate functions. This way, you could replace functions on380 the fly, and arrange for there to be sensible defaults,381 etc. Might cause more harm than good but is an interesting idea.383 - rest nest :: a small EEG device you would attach to your head when384 you go to sleep at night. ML algorithms would determine385 your particular sleep cycles. This would mostly be an386 alarm clock that you could give a time range, say387 7:00AM - 7:15AM, and it would wake you up during an388 ideal time corresponding to then end of one of your 90389 min sleep cycles. You would feel much more rested upon390 waking up, and would wake up faster. There might be391 some other uses for the EEG data as well.393 - image compression :: use a library like gimp or opencv to process an394 image to make it have less entropy, then store the reverse of395 those operations along with the compressed simpler image as a396 super-compressed image file (possibly accepting some397 losses). Trades file size for decompression time, and allows one398 to cheat by using information in gimp/opencv to compress the399 image.401 - fixed cryopreservation :: why not use a fixative to buy enough time402 to ramp up cryoprotectants to an acceptable level at room403 temperature? Then, the whole system can be rapidly cooled and404 vitrified. This method "severs the biological link" in that the405 fixatives are highly toxic, but current vitrification procedures406 do this anyway since there can be a lot of freezing damage.408 - dilated security camera :: a security camera that would capture409 full video footage of everything at 60fps but then decide to keep410 only every 1 frame every 5 seconds unless there's something411 "interesting" happening.413 - bitcoin wallet :: Part of "server culture", this would be something414 like "coin.your-domain.com" which would serve as415 your personal trusted access to your own bitcoins416 from anywhere.418 - libpay :: this would be a free library which would enable419 micro-donations to software projects and other projects,420 so that you could donate a penny to "emacs" and it would421 be automatically split up to every person who has ever422 contributed to emacs in proportion to the amount of423 community esteem, code quantity, bugs fixed, whatever the424 community decides. This might make it possible for425 programmers to live entirely off of free programming.427 - distributed graphics :: Browser based graphics-card accelerated428 distributed computing API.430 - pronouns :: use capital letters A-Z instead of pronouns. They solve431 pronoun referents and gender neutrality, are short to432 say, and you can encode useful information into the433 choice of letter. For example, instead of "Meetings434 shall be presided over by the president, unless she is435 absent." USE "Meetings shall be presided over by the436 president, unless P is absent." We already use this a437 little, since I and U are reserved for the subject and438 object respectively.440 - phone DSP :: software app that inserts an audio DSP between the441 input to a phone and the output. The DSP is delicious442 and configurable, and can allow men to make their443 voices deeper, etc. The app would allow you to hear444 your own voice as others hear it. Most people hate how445 their own voice sounds. The app would also allow one to446 immediately change the parameters of the DSP using good447 presets.449 - predestined body learning :: a good example of predestined learning450 might be the mirror neurons.452 - restaurant receipt :: use a carbon copy receipt instead of two stupid453 copies.455 - anti google glass :: glasses with mounted lasers and computer vision456 that targets the cameras in google glass and destroy them.458 - wearable towel :: towel with clasp, velcro, whatever, that allows459 one to wear the towel more securely than just460 wrapping it tightly and hoping for the best.462 - crossdressing :: Easiest way to disguise oneself as a woman is to463 wear a burka.465 - book-mode :: intelligent color highlighting for books and466 articles. It would disambiguate pronouns and involved467 references. For example, if "Rachael" was assigned the468 color red, and "the blonde haired girl" refers to469 "Rachael", then "the blonde haired girl" would be470 colored red. Also, you could disambiguate multi part471 run-on sentences by highlighting each472 subcomponent. Maybe would also have applications to473 scientific reading.475 - Handheld light Rain measurement :: this would be a clear, teflon476 coated plastic disk with a camera underneath the disk. You would477 be able to hold the device out and it would measure the rate of478 accumulation of water droplets from fine mists and light rain by479 using computer vision to measure the diameters of the drops.481 - Big Brother Farming :: This would be a vision system that would482 individually monitor each plant and turn on water, etc to ensure483 maximum/uniform growth for each plant.485 - Discrete Faucet :: A faucet with discrete ticks instead of486 continuous.488 - Laser Circle :: take a glass microfiliment and shine a laser at one489 end at an oblique angle. It will make a perfect,490 large circle on the wall, converting a laser beam491 into a laser cone, preserving most of the energy of492 the laser.494 - Invisible Glass :: Take a container of liquid and embed a495 glass sculpture made out of glass that has exactly the same index496 of refraction and color of the liquid. Then the sculpture will be497 totally invisible in the container, and will only be revealed498 when the liquid is drained. The container might be a fancy499 wine/spirit bottle or an hourglass.501 - Caterpillar people :: A race of caterpillar like creatures gains502 intelligence after eons of predation by birds, etc. These503 caterpillar creatures still undergo metamorphosis into a large504 butterfly-like creature. The metamorphosis process turns the505 caterpillar's brain into mush and reforms it into a minimal,506 dumb, truly insect-like mind, completely destroying the person507 the caterpillar was. The society develops all sorts of customs and508 religious interpretations of the metamorphosis. It is viewed as509 good and natural by some since it is part of their life cycle and510 necessary to propagate the species, as only the butterflies can511 mate. Some think that the butterflies are still the same person512 because they have the same soul, even they no longer posses the513 memories or personality of the original caterpillar. Some see the514 butterfly form as the "true form" of the species, since the515 butterflies can fly, mate, and are beautiful. Many make a big516 deal out of the fact that 1-2% of the caterpillar's mind is517 actually preserved in the butterfly. Some see it as a terrible518 tragedy and argue that the caterpillars should try to stop the519 metamorphosis by technology. Practically, some very important520 members of society undergo hormone therapy and/or surgery to521 prevent metamorphosis so that they can live longer as themselves.523 This is a continuation of Marvin Minsky's ideas about pain being524 something that preserves our bodies while destroying our minds,525 something that is a remnant from our too harsh animal days that526 hasn't caught up to the fact that we have very complex brains527 now. It's a worst-case scenario about a maladaptive genetic528 legacy. Also, it's inspired by "There She Is!!!", which makes a529 compelling point about homosexuality by introducing a second530 gender characteristic (bunny/cat, male/female), which makes531 homophobia look very silly. Here, our own biological legacy of532 pain and death is made to look like the tragedy it is through the533 lens of the the caterpillar people.535 - relationships as a business :: [[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-Crisis.aspx][Turnover-Crisis]] is an excellent talk536 about the "culture of quitting," which is about better business537 by letting people go instead of keeping them around past their538 "apex". Focuses on information transfer. Cool idea of an alumni539 network, which for relationships would be a group of satisfied540 ex-lovers, who would recommend new people your way, and who might541 consider coming to you again, refreshed from their time away with542 new stories/experiences. I should look for examples of this and543 how they worked out.545 - coffee with tea :: /rlm-tea/ contains 2% sugar, 10% cream, and 20%546 dylan coffee. /dylan coffee/ contains 5% sugar,547 20% cream, and 10% rlm-tea. Start your mornings548 with recursion!550 - psychic crystal :: in a science fiction story, this would be an551 object that is very easy to move physically but is extremely552 difficult to move with telekinesis.554 - http://betsofbitco.in/ :: what a great place for an AI/person to555 prove themselves as a good predictor. I wish this could be556 automated.558 - true reflection :: don't forget about that mirror in the student559 center!, it's two mirrors at right angles, like staring at a560 corner of a room. The light reflects so that it shows you what561 you actually look like, instead of your mirror image.563 - remote control wasp :: use computer to drive wings with remote564 power/logic.566 - encrypted email phone book :: public (distributed?) database of567 email->private-key pairs, to enable automatic encryption.569 - universal eye color :: every equivalent creature will see each570 others' eyes as black -- it's universal. Even if the creatures571 see in radio waves, and their eyes are 2m long pieces of jagged572 metal, when those creatures look at each other, they will see573 black, the absence of light and color (since it's being absorbed574 by the sensor array).576 - intelligent microwave :: it learns where the hot nodes of its fields577 are, and uses them to evenly heat any food item. It has an infrared578 camera or something to keep track of how hot the food is. That way,579 you don't get bowls where the edges are boiling, while the center is580 still frozen. Requires a little bit of intelligence/vision, since581 the exact pattern of heating totally depends on the exact shape of582 the food. Wouldn't need a carousel, and wouldn't need a timer,583 just a desired temperature. Could also detect ice, and automatically584 defrost the parts which are frozen. Might be able to work much585 faster since it can avoid overheating; might have problems with586 heating the insides of thick things, might need a weight sensor too.588 + Would be much cleaner than other microwaves, since food would589 "sputter" and splash liquid much less.591 + Throw in some SIFT+R processing to match previously cooked foods592 and learn the exact heating profiles for things that have been593 cooked before -- it can get faster the more it's used.595 - compression :: brain-aware image compression algorithm597 - Credit card proxy :: would be a company which works like paypal598 except for real world transactions600 - Flesh pillow :: a pillow like the arm or torso of a human, complete601 with simulated temperature, bones, and heartbeat.603 - super screw :: a screw which has only one or two threads and instead604 uses compression to fit into a hole (the whole shank605 of the screw is split into multiple pieces to606 accomplish this; the tip is a point, then the middle607 bulges out and gets compressed when screwed in.609 - light filter :: (like light tweezers) to mechanically separate610 fluids with different index of refraction612 - chalk eraser project :: maybe make a directional eraser, for easy613 release of chalk dust, like fur, and how it likes to rest in a614 certain direction.616 - silver socks :: socks laced with silver for the antimicrobial617 properties.619 - UROP :: magnet gear/metal teeth tape621 - Rod of Moses :: device to distill urine through evaporation and622 easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert --623 produce drinkable water.625 - UROP :: Make the LED in line with the flow for the micro injector, so626 that it may transmit maximum flow. Motor that changes627 distance of internal magnet from windings depending on628 desired speed so as to obtain maximum power efficiency.630 - lottery scraper :: web scraper which monitors various lotteries,631 looking for "special" gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x632 winnings on Wednesdays) and computes expected value...634 - Memristiors novel design :: make an evolutionary algorithm to make635 old stuff using all four basic circuit elements.637 - Conductive concrete :: concrete that has embedded metal fibers so638 that it can conduct electricity.640 - little bitty melting pot :: might be useful for some types of641 manufacturing/3D printing -- how small can an induction melter be642 made, for example.644 - power strip/timer programmable combination :: meh646 - algorithms :: which learn what their inputs are and in what order,647 and can adapt to changing circumstances -- they648 remember previous arguments and adapt so as to respond649 to different connections.651 - true pure tones :: hear a true pure tone by direct stimulation of the652 nerves of the ear654 - mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp :: would be an object655 with two levers -- you pull on one lever and the other moves the656 same way, no matter what's in the way or what it is driving. This657 analogy could be useful to teach op amps to people.659 - paper folding device :: make it convenient to fold lots of papers in660 various ways.662 - concrete epoxy :: epoxy with sand/ some other solid material.664 - light capacitor :: suspend some ball of material with a high index665 of refraction and shine light into it so it gets stuck -- would666 the light stay trapped forever? Could you build up unlimited667 quantities of light inside the sphere (which could then be668 released slowly by frustrated internal reflection?670 - movie screening :: Movies always are too long at first. One way to671 shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the672 move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which673 there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people)674 better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I675 got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill676 which is composed entirely of the parts in which people had their677 eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their678 eyes off of? Just take those parts out!680 - optimize an article :: capture reading of a scientific article via681 screen capture while people read it, then use it to make the682 article better. like the movie-pruning idea.684 - super reading program :: teaches people the ideal mental mask to685 apply during reading so as to read very fast.687 - explosive thermite epoxy putty :: one part would contain the rust,688 one part the aluminum.690 - reading comprehension :: use the above screen capture routine to691 make a quiz program that constructs questions about the content692 you seemed to gloss over while reading. could be easy if the pdf693 came with embedded questions. Dylan: automatically generate694 word-cloud about the parts you found most interesting; help695 others who read the same stuff by drawing attention to the696 interesting parts.698 - hard sword :: make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of699 martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better700 sword.702 - close range wireless :: use the induction technology used to703 recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data704 without any metal at all!706 - reading :: is a form of synsethesia708 - DNA printer :: A machine which translates the text eg, "ACTGAC" into709 actual DNA711 - black generator :: ferro-fluid magnetic field suspended micro712 generator to make electricity714 - alcohol battery :: alcohol/fluid flow powered battery716 - folding razor blade sword ::718 - perfect pitch :: learn perfect pitch using another sense in719 combination (sight or touch)721 - kaleidoscope projector ::723 - razor blade de-sharpener :: for guilt free disposal725 - bricks :: filled with luminescent plant material727 - bio metallic structure :: metal grids with seeds inside, which grow728 together and form a durable biological matrix. The metal729 substrate delivers water. (maybe use plastic instead of metal?)730 Dylan: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical731 interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled732 photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures.734 - conducting extracellular matrix :: to allow better control of735 organic systems and an enhanced nervous system.737 - cross-modal memory hashing :: a way to retrieve memories more738 robustly.740 - flossing thimble-guards :: (these actually exist)742 - rules + lattice learning :: integrate lattice learning with rules by743 generating hypothetical examples745 - wooden refrigerator :: to give food a better taste Dylan: like746 barrels for wine, or planks for salmon. Maybe just have "flavor747 planks" for your pre-existing fridge. Need to mitigate effect of748 temperature on volatility?750 - radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule :: create precious751 metals or something else economically advantageous.753 - crowd preservation :: inoculate food with tons of harmless754 bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of755 preservation757 - old school preservation :: Pasteur - style holding jar with siphon758 as a way to store liquids at room temperature indefinitely w/o759 refrigeration.761 - restaurant policy :: Throw rude people out of restaurant as a matter762 of course -- make ambiance much better.764 - clean windows :: make something that mixes soap with fire hydrant765 water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it766 to clean windows of buildings.768 - ocarina :: make an ocarina out of pure silver770 - fire pen :: pen which burns words on to the page, thus never needing771 any ink. Is there a way to make it runnable from the772 human's energy?774 - website to design your own soda :: and label, and have it mailed to775 you / sell it from your own online store.777 - solar panels :: that float on the ocean779 - handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?) :: great for daisy chaining780 people, binding them to environment, etc.782 - vector based SOUND files :: like the pictures but with SOUND. codify783 sound in a language with enough symbols so that it can describe784 everything and encode it in that. would be like going from speech785 to text or smtg. Could also store sound as an image of the786 wavefront encoded as a vector image.788 - Mouse :: with a horizontal scroll wheel in addition to the vertical789 scroll wheel791 - logic maintenance system for big institutions :: to make sure the792 things they are thinking about doing are not retarded794 - http://www.regulations.gov/ :: cool site796 - genetically engineered glowing fruit :: sell seeds?798 - memory slide :: IF memories are encoded using particular sensory799 impressions, what happens if the sensory organ800 itself changes? those memories would become801 inaccessible. maybe this is why we can't remember802 much from our childhoods. also, could this happen803 throughout life as well? Could S remember stuff from804 his childhood?806 - make a completely indestructible phone :: no moving parts or display807 you should be able to slam it around all you want, and it will808 just work. brutally simple. aerogel around the battery, minimal809 interface - never gets too hot, and can be dropped into water. no810 holes -- uses field effects for everything from the buttons to811 inductive charging and data transfer.813 - midi to ocarina "tabs" program :: (online website? buy ocarinas from814 it too)816 - 3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns) :: like the 8.03817 lecture819 - lighter flint on spring :: make hot, throw it at something, and it820 makes sparkles!822 - nuclear energy :: Rebranding New+Clear Energy with informational823 campaign and public debate forum to enforce its824 transparent and open nature. France needn't be the825 world leader in nuclear energy. (Dylan)827 - bubbles :: Engineer a material which has both ductility and high828 surface tension to make the "third"829 minimal-surface-energy solution to a bubble suspended830 between two equal-diameter rings. (Solutions are831 cylindrical catenary curve, two separated half-bubbles,832 and a double-cone)834 - Textbook whose content can be varied continuously :: alter level of835 difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain836 other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from837 knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to838 guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of839 knowledge. /One./841 ** From Jacob's idea list843 - Roommate-canceling headphones: uses roommate's laptop mic to seed844 noise cancellation alg in your headphones (would this845 work?). -Update on sound canceling headphones that take feed from846 tv: how about ones that cancel people talking on the phone by847 receiving the phone signals and playing inverse sound848 waves. #signalprocessing ~jcole@mit.edu850 - ClackerAlert -- tells if you slam the keys too hard using sound data851 (and speed/jerkiness data)!.Prevents RSI ~jcole@mit.e853 - Panic Pin :: separate pin that you can tell someone if forced to854 identify your PIN (idea from idea about credit cards)