Mercurial > thoughts
view org/ideas.org @ 99:c7272bb5394e
adding more recommendations from loose sheets.
author | Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu> |
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date | Mon, 26 May 2014 02:19:52 -0400 |
parents | 7f5ec998409f |
children | 14a568ba6b5d |
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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 - stage magic rituals :: rituals should incorporate elements of stage35 magic. Foe example in Teller's tempest, they have a scene where36 they levitate a crown in front of someone, then put it on his37 head. They also have a wedding ceremony where they levitated the38 bride as well. Actual weddings and other ceremonies should39 incorporate stage magic as an enhancement.41 - isotope time dilation :: use a cyclotron to speed up rare isotopes42 developed in nuclear fusion experiments. The relativistic time43 dilation will stop the isotopes from decaying, and allow time to44 study them. This is based on radioactive isotopes that fall45 through the earth's atmosphere that take hundreds of times46 longer to decay than normal.48 - marsupial stimulation :: You take a freshly pouched marsupial baby,49 and show it videos and other interactive things while it matures50 in the pouch. What mental effects would this have?52 - dynamic re-keying :: Some older ways of tuning insturments sound53 better, but we use the even-tempered scale today because it makes54 it easier to switch keys. With electronic music, why not make55 key-annotations and dynamically re-tune the piece to sound good56 in the current key? Coule be done as a midi+annotation -> midi57 compiler for experimentation.59 - death always implies damage :: is is possible for a corpse to differ60 from a living person only in the fact that one is dead and the61 other is alive? NO! A corpse must always have some sort of62 molecular damage which causes the loss of function!64 - inner eye :: Surgically install a bunch of tiny cameras inside a65 person. Then, you can activate them all and get a66 picture of your internal organs for diagnostic67 purposes.69 - chaos rails :: should make a visulazation of the homoclinic tangle,70 it's truly beautiful.72 - context gobbler :: this would be in "inside-out macro" that takes73 the context (like you use for things like error, continuations,74 and friends) and transforms it to something else. Maybe useful?76 - cryonics middle ages :: some people say that cryonics is an77 experiment and that it is foolish to wait until we have revived a78 human. There is a middle ground where the procedure has a dismal79 success rate on humans, say 1 in 20, so that you'd be a fool to80 try revival. Nonetheless, this very risky procedure could be the81 legal proof of concept needed to create a new class of life82 between "living" and "dead": "stasis".84 - philosophy of the mirror :: neat thought experiment -- if you take a85 mirror of someone by actually reversing a person's chirality86 molecule by molecule, then will the only be able to read mirror87 writing? The answer is yes, by analogy to a purely mechanical88 scan-tron device. This is one of the only interesting transforms I89 know that can take a human brain and change it in subtle,90 non-destructive ways. It's also an argument against dualism.92 - biosphere in a bottle :: There are around 15 million species. 1593 million stem cells will fill only a tiny size, far less than a cubic94 inch. Preserve a single cell from every species on earth in this95 small space, and you will have a record of our current biosphere96 that can be protected. "Hold the genetic data of all species in97 your hand!"99 - chaos lock :: The "arrow of time" points in the direction of100 increasing entropy. The time evolution of chaotic101 systems depend exquisitely on their initial state. If102 you take a measurement of a chaotic system at any103 given point of time, you can evolve that system104 backwards or forwards based on your measurement. So105 let's say you start the chaotic system in a VERY low106 entropy state, then let it run for a while, then take107 a measurement with some uncertainty. Your108 measurement is pretty good, but obviously not109 PERFECT. If you evolve the chaotic system back in110 time, then you will see that you don't really reach111 a state with low entropy an hour before (the entropy112 is easy to measure with surrogates like alignment,113 etc). So use this technique to SEARCH for a more114 accurate measurement! This potentially can give you115 many more orders of magnitude than you could get alone116 just using an instrument. Sometimes it will give you117 bad results, the the odds of it doing that are118 infinitesimal, and you can just measure a couple of119 times.121 - cryo-evolution :: perhaps there would be a way to rapidly evolve a122 symbiotic bacterial organism that could protect123 human tissues from freezing damage.125 - suicide parasite :: sometimes, people kill themselves for no good126 reason. We often explain this with things like "hidden127 depression" or we say that they had something like chronic jaw or128 back pain. I think that smells of rationalization. I don't buy129 it. I propose that in many suicide cases there is a disease that130 causes the suicidal behavior. We already know that certain131 parasites have mind-bending properties in other animals, even132 mammals like mice. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a133 parasite that causes suicides in humans. Some problems:134 - What does the suicide parasite get out of it? :: This might be135 answered by the whole thing being a glitch caused by136 cross-species contamination. Toxoplasma works this way.137 - What predictions does a disease model make :: suicide should138 be more common among people who share a contagion139 vector. There should be suicides that don't make any140 sense : people who weren't really depressed, who had no141 reason to kill themselves. People who have killed themselves142 should have a higher incidence of some unknown parasite in143 their brains.145 - domestic insects :: People should eat more bugs because they're much146 more efficient, so why not do some major domestication research147 to make very appealing bugs? Beetles, in particular, seem to be148 excellent targets for domestication because they have extreme149 levels of genetic malleability.151 - birth-clones :: What if each person was intentionally split at birth152 into a normal embryo and a few "backup" cells which153 is then frozen. The backup cells are created just154 the same way as natural identical twins. The backups155 can be used to regenerate organs. etc. Also, it156 would be a good sci fi concept, because you could157 have a culture where people reward people who were158 especially awesome are "reborn" from their159 backups. Imagine having a young Bach every160 generation, etc.162 - pronunciation guide :: a simple webpage where you type in a word and163 it returns a simple, English sentence describing exactly how to164 pronounce the word. For people who don't want to learn IPA.166 - cortex-search :: use the repertoire of actions learned to limit the167 search space of possible actions.169 - learning to teleport :: scifi idea, this is a story about a person170 who is struggling with his/her society's ideas about171 teleportation. It's considered a fundamental part of being a172 member of that society (after all, the difference between animals173 and humans is that humans are creatures of pure information while174 animals are burdened with base matter, "that's how you travel the175 stars, etc") Humans are born normally, grow up, and then176 eventually transcend via destructive upload. Analogies to jumping177 off a diving board into a pool (which I simply /could not do/ for178 a long time), etc.180 - no-float-ice :: cup that has cross beams at the bottom where ice181 forms. Then when you drink liquid from the glass,182 the ice stays at the bottom and doesn't hit your183 lips. For bars and fancy things.185 - bitcoins for immigrants :: A common case with Mexican immigrants186 (illegal or not) is that they want to send money they've earned187 in the US back to their families in Mexico. They currently do this188 through things like Money Gram or Western Union, and they get189 fleeced in the process with fees. Bitcoin could greatly reduce190 the cost of sending money from America to Mexico, but I don't191 believe that it's currently used for that among Mexican192 immigrants currently due to lack of knowledge. I bet you could193 set up physical locations like those obnoxious Western Union huts194 in places like Texas, Arizona, etc, and greatly undercut195 them. Or, perhaps some educational seminars about bitcoin might196 be in order. There's some money to be made there because there is197 great demand, and it's a good thing to boot!199 - reverse eye-tracking :: A painting that is actually a digital screen200 with a camera. It records people's eye tracks permanently. It's201 "artistic" because paintings are normally these things that you202 look at without changing, but this one is changed the second you203 look at it, recording where /you/ looked forever for others to204 see. Make it be a painting of a woman and see the trolling as the205 breasts and groin area light up with interest from all the males206 passing by.208 - smart toilets :: Instead of using indirect measures like infrared209 detectors of the presence of a person, use computer210 vision to directly measure whether the toilet needs211 to be flushed. I think a lot of things will end up212 going this way as we get better computer vision.214 - validate chemopreservation :: chemopreservation is difficult to215 validate because it destroys the functionality of a brain, and216 brain simulation will take a long time to mature as a217 technology. However, one very powerful way to validate218 chemopreservation would be to have a person/animal learn219 something with high complexity such as a number or the solution220 to a maze, or a flashbulb memory. Then you preserve their brain221 chemically, slice it up, and read /that specific memory/ from the222 detailed brain scan. Much more difficult, but much more doable.224 - candy screw :: edible candy screw with candy nuts that you can screw225 as well.227 - better bibliography :: when writing a thesis or paper, have the228 bibliography not just be an opaque list of resources, but have it229 be a list of /summaries/ and /qualities/ that each paper has in230 the context of the paper being written. When examining a231 bibliography, I want to know if reading the papers in the232 bibliography are worth my time, and I also am probably also233 interested in exactly the things that are being discussed in the234 paper I'm reading. The bibliography is the perfect place to235 provide information about the referenced papers from the236 author's perspective. I will use this biographic form in my own237 thesis.239 - digital inter-library loan :: libraries at universities already do240 inter-library loans for books, so why not do the same for access241 to stupid paywalled digital papers? All the universities could242 allow access to articles for registered students to all the files243 available through any participating university. This could be244 achieved by sending requests through proxies at participating245 universities. Each university would decide who at the university246 can access the proxy network. Access to the proxy network could247 be made easy using something like http://libx.org/.249 - chess visual :: to show the vast size of the game trees considered250 by computers, show two people playing chess in a251 void. They are floating in space, and there is a252 simple chess board between them. Then, as they play,253 the game tree's they are considering are drawn254 behind him. The root of the tree starts centered in255 their heads or whatever they use to think, and the256 tree grows out from behind, never crossing the257 dividing plane between the two players. Each258 player's tree is a different color. As they grow,259 there are animations for pruning, etc. Eventually,260 they look like the hemispheres of a brain, wings,261 etc. A human's tree might occasionally have a long262 chain, while the computer tree would be more263 uniform. You could compare deep blue and a modern264 laptop. Use actual data when fighting two computers!266 - time verification :: some standard way to verify that some piece of267 data was recorded at a specific time. Might involve a time268 server, a key for each time period, something like that.270 - tamper proof gold bars :: [[http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/gold-plated-tungsten-alloy-bar.html][this site]] offers gold plated tungsten bars271 as "novelty" items. One reason to prefer coins is because they272 are much harder to counterfeit because there is less surface area273 to mass ratio. However, gold bars are still a great design274 because they can hold a lot of value in a small space. A gold bar275 could be given the same protections (and more) that gold coins276 have to offer by changing it into a "gold book", which would have277 hundreds of "pages" of gold bound together. This could be278 implemented with multiple steel rods going through the book which279 can be removed, or some more classier mechanism for holding the280 pages. The point is that the bar can be EASILY subdivided (and281 people would perform this test before buying), thus guaranteeing282 it's authenticity.284 - aurellem shirt :: I should make an aurellem star symbol tee-shirt.286 - touch vision :: inspired by GelSight, I want to reexamine cortex and287 see if I could implement touch as a very low range288 form of vision.290 - high school science :: this is a lesson in scientific ethics. The291 goal is to calculate /g/, the local gravitational292 acceleration. The students are told that the textbook says it's293 /exactly/ 9.81 before they start the experiment. See how they294 doctor their results to get closer to the textbook value. It's295 neat because for any given school, /g/ is probably *not* exactly296 equal to 9.81, because that is just an average!298 - opencourseware subtitles :: there are ladies who type up lectures299 while they are being given. These recordings should be kept and300 given to OCW for subtitles. If the timestamps of keys are301 recorded, then it is easy to make subtitles.303 - screen locking timing :: you use your computer camera to see if you304 are sitting in front of the computer. If you are, then the screen305 will never lock. If you are, then the screen will lock with a306 30-40 second timeout. It's an extension of using inactivity to307 initiate the countdown, just with more information.309 - mirror toilet :: a toilet with a square basin made or mirror instead310 or porcelain. That way, you can see how good of a311 wipe job you have done / watch how your excretion312 system works.314 - test dummies :: why don't we clone anencephalic humans and use then to315 test /in vivo/ human organ systems and drugs? It316 would be ethical as long as there are women who are317 willing to host the clones, and it would be a318 tremendous resource for studying the human body. I319 see nothing wrong with it morally, since no one is320 suffering, and it stands to save many lives throughout321 more advanced technology.323 - X-ray telepresence :: given that a doctor is operating on a patient324 via telepresence, one cool things you can do is shine X-rays into325 the patient to view the insides during real time. If the system326 was coupled with a Bayesian model of the layout of the structure,327 and the x-rays were only fired whenever the uncertainty of the328 model reached a certain threshold, then the radiation damage329 and surgery risk could be minimized.331 - superfluid vascular system :: I wonder what would happen if you332 replaced the blood in a human with a superfluid. What would the333 physical dynamics be? Would the superfluid flow through the334 vasculature, or would it ignore it and travel through the cells,335 or something else entirely. Since superfluids need to be cold to336 retain their superfluidity, how would the dynamics change during337 perfusion of a superfluid, where the fluid gains and looses338 superfluidity as it goes deeper into the body and is cooled by339 superfluid from upstream. In summary there are two things to340 simulate 1.) replace all blood in human with superfluid341 instantly. 2.) perfuse superfluid into human.343 - projective guessing :: I think that we read and see things by344 making a really good guess about what we're expecting to see,345 and then searching for our guess in what we see. If it really346 doesn't match, then we start to make more guesses / analyze the347 image from first principles, but most stuff is projective348 guessing.350 - Intestinal flora maintenance :: why not inoculate babies at birth351 with "ideal" gut flora instead of whatever bullshit they352 naturally get, thus giving them optimal digestive/nutrient353 extraction capabilities. Might also be able to make their farts354 not stink for life, too. MORE IMPORTANTLY, might help to355 preventatively stop some forms of /colic/, which affects 1 in 5356 babies and causes constant screaming and pain for about 5 weeks.358 - server culture : mirrors :: make a distributed system where people359 can mirror the websites of people they like -- essentially cover360 the server costs of favored websites. This could make popular361 websites run at no cost. The system would require that the362 mirrored content be the same as the official source. Sort of like363 bit-torrent for websites.365 - map programming :: one problem with functional programming is that366 in order to remain functional, you have to pass up arguments up367 into each calling function to get the full range of behavior368 from the lower level functions. Normally people come to a369 compromise involving abstraction and sparing use of dynamic370 variables to configure runtime behavior. What would be the371 advantages of making a programming language where every function372 receives one argument, a map, which contains all the symbol373 bindings it would ever need? This map is passed on to all374 subordinate functions. This way, you could replace functions on375 the fly, and arrange for there to be sensible defaults,376 etc. Might cause more harm than good but is an interesting idea.378 - rest nest :: a small EEG device you would attach to your head when379 you go to sleep at night. ML algorithms would determine380 your particular sleep cycles. This would mostly be an381 alarm clock that you could give a time range, say382 7:00AM - 7:15AM, and it would wake you up during an383 ideal time corresponding to then end of one of your 90384 min sleep cycles. You would feel much more rested upon385 waking up, and would wake up faster. There might be386 some other uses for the EEG data as well.388 - image compression :: use a library like gimp or opencv to process an389 image to make it have less entropy, then store the reverse of390 those operations along with the compressed simpler image as a391 super-compressed image file (possibly accepting some392 losses). Trades file size for decompression time, and allows one393 to cheat by using information in gimp/opencv to compress the394 image.396 - fixed cryopreservation :: why not use a fixative to buy enough time397 to ramp up cryoprotectants to an acceptable level at room398 temperature? Then, the whole system can be rapidly cooled and399 vitrified. This method "severs the biological link" in that the400 fixatives are highly toxic, but current vitrification procedures401 do this anyway since there can be a lot of freezing damage.403 - dilated security camera :: a security camera that would capture404 full video footage of everything at 60fps but then decide to keep405 only every 1 frame every 5 seconds unless there's something406 "interesting" happening.408 - bitcoin wallet :: Part of "server culture", this would be something409 like "coin.your-domain.com" which would serve as410 your personal trusted access to your own bitcoins411 from anywhere.413 - libpay :: this would be a free library which would enable414 micro-donations to software projects and other projects,415 so that you could donate a penny to "emacs" and it would416 be automatically split up to every person who has ever417 contributed to emacs in proportion to the amount of418 community esteem, code quantity, bugs fixed, whatever the419 community decides. This might make it possible for420 programmers to live entirely off of free programming.422 - distributed graphics :: Browser based graphics-card accelerated423 distributed computing API.425 - pronouns :: use capital letters A-Z instead of pronouns. They solve426 pronoun referents and gender neutrality, are short to427 say, and you can encode useful information into the428 choice of letter. For example, instead of "Meetings429 shall be presided over by the president, unless she is430 absent." USE "Meetings shall be presided over by the431 president, unless P is absent." We already use this a432 little, since I and U are reserved for the subject and433 object respectively.435 - phone DSP :: software app that inserts an audio DSP between the436 input to a phone and the output. The DSP is delicious437 and configurable, and can allow men to make their438 voices deeper, etc. The app would allow you to hear439 your own voice as others hear it. Most people hate how440 their own voice sounds. The app would also allow one to441 immediately change the parameters of the DSP using good442 presets.444 - predestined body learning :: a good example of predestined learning445 might be the mirror neurons.447 - restaurant receipt :: use a carbon copy receipt instead of two stupid448 copies.450 - anti google glass :: glasses with mounted lasers and computer vision451 that targets the cameras in google glass and destroy them.453 - wearable towel :: towel with clasp, velcro, whatever, that allows454 one to wear the towel more securely than just455 wrapping it tightly and hoping for the best.457 - crossdressing :: Easiest way to disguise oneself as a woman is to458 wear a burka.460 - book-mode :: intelligent color highlighting for books and461 articles. It would disambiguate pronouns and involved462 references. For example, if "Rachael" was assigned the463 color red, and "the blonde haired girl" refers to464 "Rachael", then "the blonde haired girl" would be465 colored red. Also, you could disambiguate multi part466 run-on sentences by highlighting each467 subcomponent. Maybe would also have applications to468 scientific reading.470 - Handheld light Rain measurement :: this would be a clear, teflon471 coated plastic disk with a camera underneath the disk. You would472 be able to hold the device out and it would measure the rate of473 accumulation of water droplets from fine mists and light rain by474 using computer vision to measure the diameters of the drops.476 - Big Brother Farming :: This would be a vision system that would477 individually monitor each plant and turn on water, etc to ensure478 maximum/uniform growth for each plant.480 - Discrete Faucet :: A faucet with discrete ticks instead of481 continuous.483 - Laser Circle :: take a glass microfiliment and shine a laser at one484 end at an oblique angle. It will make a perfect,485 large circle on the wall, converting a laser beam486 into a laser cone, preserving most of the energy of487 the laser.489 - Invisible Glass :: Take a container of liquid and embed a490 glass sculpture made out of glass that has exactly the same index491 of refraction and color of the liquid. Then the sculpture will be492 totally invisible in the container, and will only be revealed493 when the liquid is drained. The container might be a fancy494 wine/spirit bottle or an hourglass.496 - Caterpillar people :: A race of caterpillar like creatures gains497 intelligence after eons of predation by birds, etc. These498 caterpillar creatures still undergo metamorphosis into a large499 butterfly-like creature. The metamorphosis process turns the500 caterpillar's brain into mush and reforms it into a minimal,501 dumb, truly insect-like mind, completely destroying the person502 the caterpillar was. The society develops all sorts of customs and503 religious interpretations of the metamorphosis. It is viewed as504 good and natural by some since it is part of their life cycle and505 necessary to propagate the species, as only the butterflies can506 mate. Some think that the butterflies are still the same person507 because they have the same soul, even they no longer posses the508 memories or personality of the original caterpillar. Some see the509 butterfly form as the "true form" of the species, since the510 butterflies can fly, mate, and are beautiful. Many make a big511 deal out of the fact that 1-2% of the caterpillar's mind is512 actually preserved in the butterfly. Some see it as a terrible513 tragedy and argue that the caterpillars should try to stop the514 metamorphosis by technology. Practically, some very important515 members of society undergo hormone therapy and/or surgery to516 prevent metamorphosis so that they can live longer as themselves.518 This is a continuation of Marvin Minsky's ideas about pain being519 something that preserves our bodies while destroying our minds,520 something that is a remnant from our too harsh animal days that521 hasn't caught up to the fact that we have very complex brains522 now. It's a worst-case scenario about a maladaptive genetic523 legacy. Also, it's inspired by "There She Is!!!", which makes a524 compelling point about homosexuality by introducing a second525 gender characteristic (bunny/cat, male/female), which makes526 homophobia look very silly. Here, our own biological legacy of527 pain and death is made to look like the tragedy it is through the528 lens of the the caterpillar people.530 - relationships as a business :: [[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-Crisis.aspx][Turnover-Crisis]] is an excellent talk531 about the "culture of quitting," which is about better business532 by letting people go instead of keeping them around past their533 "apex". Focuses on information transfer. Cool idea of an alumni534 network, which for relationships would be a group of satisfied535 ex-lovers, who would recommend new people your way, and who might536 consider coming to you again, refreshed from their time away with537 new stories/experiences. I should look for examples of this and538 how they worked out.540 - coffee with tea :: /rlm-tea/ contains 2% sugar, 10% cream, and 20%541 dylan coffee. /dylan coffee/ contains 5% sugar,542 20% cream, and 10% rlm-tea. Start your mornings543 with recursion!545 - psychic crystal :: in a science fiction story, this would be an546 object that is very easy to move physically but is extremely547 difficult to move with telekinesis.549 - http://betsofbitco.in/ :: what a great place for an AI/person to550 prove themselves as a good predictor. I wish this could be551 automated.553 - true reflection :: don't forget about that mirror in the student554 center!, it's two mirrors at right angles, like staring at a555 corner of a room. The light reflects so that it shows you what556 you actually look like, instead of your mirror image.558 - remote control wasp :: use computer to drive wings with remote559 power/logic.561 - encrypted email phone book :: public (distributed?) database of562 email->private-key pairs, to enable automatic encryption.564 - universal eye color :: every equivalent creature will see each565 others' eyes as black -- it's universal. Even if the creatures566 see in radio waves, and their eyes are 2m long pieces of jagged567 metal, when those creatures look at each other, they will see568 black, the absence of light and color (since it's being absorbed569 by the sensor array).571 - intelligent microwave :: it learns where the hot nodes of its fields572 are, and uses them to evenly heat any food item. It has an infrared573 camera or something to keep track of how hot the food is. That way,574 you don't get bowls where the edges are boiling, while the center is575 still frozen. Requires a little bit of intelligence/vision, since576 the exact pattern of heating totally depends on the exact shape of577 the food. Wouldn't need a carousel, and wouldn't need a timer,578 just a desired temperature. Could also detect ice, and automatically579 defrost the parts which are frozen. Might be able to work much580 faster since it can avoid overheating; might have problems with581 heating the insides of thick things, might need a weight sensor too.583 + Would be much cleaner than other microwaves, since food would584 "sputter" and splash liquid much less.586 + Throw in some SIFT+R processing to match previously cooked foods587 and learn the exact heating profiles for things that have been588 cooked before -- it can get faster the more it's used.590 - compression :: brain-aware image compression algorithm592 - Credit card proxy :: would be a company which works like paypal593 except for real world transactions595 - Flesh pillow :: a pillow like the arm or torso of a human, complete596 with simulated temperature, bones, and heartbeat.598 - super screw :: a screw which has only one or two threads and instead599 uses compression to fit into a hole (the whole shank600 of the screw is split into multiple pieces to601 accomplish this; the tip is a point, then the middle602 bulges out and gets compressed when screwed in.604 - light filter :: (like light tweezers) to mechanically separate605 fluids with different index of refraction607 - chalk eraser project :: maybe make a directional eraser, for easy608 release of chalk dust, like fur, and how it likes to rest in a609 certain direction.611 - silver socks :: socks laced with silver for the antimicrobial612 properties.614 - UROP :: magnet gear/metal teeth tape616 - Rod of Moses :: device to distill urine through evaporation and617 easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert --618 produce drinkable water.620 - UROP :: Make the LED in line with the flow for the micro injector, so621 that it may transmit maximum flow. Motor that changes622 distance of internal magnet from windings depending on623 desired speed so as to obtain maximum power efficiency.625 - lottery scraper :: web scraper which monitors various lotteries,626 looking for "special" gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x627 winnings on Wednesdays) and computes expected value...629 - Memristiors novel design :: make an evolutionary algorithm to make630 old stuff using all four basic circuit elements.632 - Conductive concrete :: concrete that has embedded metal fibers so633 that it can conduct electricity.635 - little bitty melting pot :: might be useful for some types of636 manufacturing/3D printing -- how small can an induction melter be637 made, for example.639 - power strip/timer programmable combination :: meh641 - algorithms :: which learn what their inputs are and in what order,642 and can adapt to changing circumstances -- they643 remember previous arguments and adapt so as to respond644 to different connections.646 - true pure tones :: hear a true pure tone by direct stimulation of the647 nerves of the ear649 - mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp :: would be an object650 with two levers -- you pull on one lever and the other moves the651 same way, no matter what's in the way or what it is driving. This652 analogy could be useful to teach op amps to people.654 - paper folding device :: make it convenient to fold lots of papers in655 various ways.657 - concrete epoxy :: epoxy with sand/ some other solid material.659 - light capacitor :: suspend some ball of material with a high index660 of refraction and shine light into it so it gets stuck -- would661 the light stay trapped forever? Could you build up unlimited662 quantities of light inside the sphere (which could then be663 released slowly by frustrated internal reflection?665 - movie screening :: Movies always are too long at first. One way to666 shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the667 move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which668 there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people)669 better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I670 got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill671 which is composed entirely of the parts in which people had their672 eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their673 eyes off of? Just take those parts out!675 - optimize an article :: capture reading of a scientific article via676 screen capture while people read it, then use it to make the677 article better. like the movie-pruning idea.679 - super reading program :: teaches people the ideal mental mask to680 apply during reading so as to read very fast.682 - explosive thermite epoxy putty :: one part would contain the rust,683 one part the aluminum.685 - reading comprehension :: use the above screen capture routine to686 make a quiz program that constructs questions about the content687 you seemed to gloss over while reading. could be easy if the pdf688 came with embedded questions. Dylan: automatically generate689 word-cloud about the parts you found most interesting; help690 others who read the same stuff by drawing attention to the691 interesting parts.693 - hard sword :: make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of694 martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better695 sword.697 - close range wireless :: use the induction technology used to698 recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data699 without any metal at all!701 - reading :: is a form of synsethesia703 - DNA printer :: A machine which translates the text eg, "ACTGAC" into704 actual DNA706 - black generator :: ferro-fluid magnetic field suspended micro707 generator to make electricity709 - alcohol battery :: alcohol/fluid flow powered battery711 - folding razor blade sword ::713 - perfect pitch :: learn perfect pitch using another sense in714 combination (sight or touch)716 - kaleidoscope projector ::718 - razor blade de-sharpener :: for guilt free disposal720 - bricks :: filled with luminescent plant material722 - bio metallic structure :: metal grids with seeds inside, which grow723 together and form a durable biological matrix. The metal724 substrate delivers water. (maybe use plastic instead of metal?)725 Dylan: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical726 interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled727 photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures.729 - conducting extracellular matrix :: to allow better control of730 organic systems and an enhanced nervous system.732 - cross-modal memory hashing :: a way to retrieve memories more733 robustly.735 - flossing thimble-guards :: (these actually exist)737 - rules + lattice learning :: integrate lattice learning with rules by738 generating hypothetical examples740 - wooden refrigerator :: to give food a better taste Dylan: like741 barrels for wine, or planks for salmon. Maybe just have "flavor742 planks" for your pre-existing fridge. Need to mitigate effect of743 temperature on volatility?745 - radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule :: create precious746 metals or something else economically advantageous.748 - crowd preservation :: inoculate food with tons of harmless749 bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of750 preservation752 - old school preservation :: Pasteur - style holding jar with siphon753 as a way to store liquids at room temperature indefinitely w/o754 refrigeration.756 - restaurant policy :: Throw rude people out of restaurant as a matter757 of course -- make ambiance much better.759 - clean windows :: make something that mixes soap with fire hydrant760 water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it761 to clean windows of buildings.763 - ocarina :: make an ocarina out of pure silver765 - fire pen :: pen which burns words on to the page, thus never needing766 any ink. Is there a way to make it runnable from the767 human's energy?769 - website to design your own soda :: and label, and have it mailed to770 you / sell it from your own online store.772 - solar panels :: that float on the ocean774 - handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?) :: great for daisy chaining775 people, binding them to environment, etc.777 - vector based SOUND files :: like the pictures but with SOUND. codify778 sound in a language with enough symbols so that it can describe779 everything and encode it in that. would be like going from speech780 to text or smtg. Could also store sound as an image of the781 wavefront encoded as a vector image.783 - Mouse :: with a horizontal scroll wheel in addition to the vertical784 scroll wheel786 - logic maintenance system for big institutions :: to make sure the787 things they are thinking about doing are not retarded789 - http://www.regulations.gov/ :: cool site791 - genetically engineered glowing fruit :: sell seeds?793 - memory slide :: IF memories are encoded using particular sensory794 impressions, what happens if the sensory organ795 itself changes? those memories would become796 inaccessible. maybe this is why we can't remember797 much from our childhoods. also, could this happen798 throughout life as well? Could S remember stuff from799 his childhood?801 - make a completely indestructible phone :: no moving parts or display802 you should be able to slam it around all you want, and it will803 just work. brutally simple. aerogel around the battery, minimal804 interface - never gets too hot, and can be dropped into water. no805 holes -- uses field effects for everything from the buttons to806 inductive charging and data transfer.808 - midi to ocarina "tabs" program :: (online website? buy ocarinas from809 it too)811 - 3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns) :: like the 8.03812 lecture814 - lighter flint on spring :: make hot, throw it at something, and it815 makes sparkles!817 - nuclear energy :: Rebranding New+Clear Energy with informational818 campaign and public debate forum to enforce its819 transparent and open nature. France needn't be the820 world leader in nuclear energy. (Dylan)822 - bubbles :: Engineer a material which has both ductility and high823 surface tension to make the "third"824 minimal-surface-energy solution to a bubble suspended825 between two equal-diameter rings. (Solutions are826 cylindrical catenary curve, two separated half-bubbles,827 and a double-cone)829 - Textbook whose content can be varied continuously :: alter level of830 difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain831 other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from832 knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to833 guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of834 knowledge. /One./836 ** From Jacob's idea list838 - Roommate-canceling headphones: uses roommate's laptop mic to seed839 noise cancellation alg in your headphones (would this840 work?). -Update on sound canceling headphones that take feed from841 tv: how about ones that cancel people talking on the phone by842 receiving the phone signals and playing inverse sound843 waves. #signalprocessing ~jcole@mit.edu845 - ClackerAlert -- tells if you slam the keys too hard using sound data846 (and speed/jerkiness data)!.Prevents RSI ~jcole@mit.e848 - Panic Pin :: separate pin that you can tell someone if forced to849 identify your PIN (idea from idea about credit cards)