rlm@43: #+title: Big List O' Ideas rlm@43: #+author: Robert McIntyre rlm@43: #+email: rlm@mit.edu rlm@43: #+description: list of ideas from the last ~ 7 years rlm@47: #+keywords: aurellem ideas half-baked random rlm@43: #+SETUPFILE: ../../aurellem/org/setup.org rlm@43: #+INCLUDE: ../../aurellem/org/level-0.org rlm@43: #+babel: :mkdirp yes :noweb yes :exports both rlm@43: rlm@42: * Ideas rlm@42: rlm@43: This is a list of all the ideas I've had that I felt like writing down rlm@90: for the past ~ 8 years. Some of them could be practical inventions and rlm@47: are "just" waiting the that 95% perspiration to bring them to rlm@47: fruition, some are ideas for science fiction, and some are simple rlm@48: observations. Some are really only for my own personal notes and are rlm@48: not meant to be comprehensible. They are arranged roughly in reverse rlm@48: chronological order, with the most recent ideas at the top of the rlm@48: list. The ones at the bottom of the list are heavily influenced by my rlm@48: time at MIT. rlm@43: rlm@43: If you find some of these interesting and would like to collaborate on rlm@43: them with me or discuss them in more detail, I'd love to hear from rlm@43: you. You can email me at ideas@aurellem.org. rlm@43: rlm@52: If you want to use one of these ideas as your own and run with it, rlm@52: please feel free. I'd love to hear about it if you do. rlm@52: rlm@62: #+begin_quote rlm@62: There's no end to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care about rlm@62: getting credit. rlm@62: #+end_quote rlm@62: rlm@141: - whole brain perfusion embedding :: Do the standard EM embedding rlm@141: protocol, but skip the osmium step, and use the "perfusion rlm@141: pausing" method to prevent overextraction during the dehydration rlm@141: and embedding steps. I think that you CAN perfuse resins into the rlm@141: brain, simply because you CAN perfuse viscous rubber when doing rlm@141: vascular casts. rlm@141: rlm@141: - perfusion pausing :: One problem with doing perfusion is that if you rlm@141: STOP the perfusion, you rapidly loose pressure in the organ as rlm@141: your perfusate leaks out. You can prevent this by submerging the rlm@141: organ/head/rat whatever in FLUID at the appropriate level. Use rlm@141: something inert like flurocarbon to avoid problems. You would rlm@141: have to slowly decrease the flow rate while simultaneously rlm@141: lowering the perfusing object into the fluid. To start again, rlm@141: reverse the process -- reengage the peristaltic pump slowly while rlm@141: removing the organ from the fluid. rlm@141: rlm@141: - evoultionary textbook mimiricy :: as surgery becomes more common, rlm@141: there develops a distinct selective pressure for individuals rlm@141: organ layout to look more like the medical textbooks! :P rlm@141: rlm@141: - transparent skin :: temporary / permament transparent skin. Allows rlm@141: for examination of organs / muscles and visual prevention of rlm@141: disease and detection or abnormalities / good things rlm@141: eg. excercise. rlm@141: rlm@141: - sweet information :: candy with a whole book written in it. Eat a rlm@141: book! rlm@141: rlm@141: - targeted immunosuppressant :: just kill off the B-cells and friends rlm@141: that would cause problems in a organ-transplant / other rlm@141: situation. AIDS is good at killing these cells -- maybe make it rlm@141: just target the ones that will cause problems. Then you can rlm@141: premptively kill off that part of someone's immune system before rlm@141: a transplant. ALSO, you can kill off everyone's defenses against rlm@141: other blood types and make people effectively type AB+ w.r.t rlm@141: blood transfusions. Actually, why not give babies this treatment rlm@141: so that they're automatically compatable with all blood types? rlm@141: The immune system has this already when it's first growing; maybe rlm@141: it can be "retrained" to accept new things, or the mechanism of rlm@141: immune cell death be co-opted for these purposes. rlm@141: rlm@141: - fuck you tetris :: tetris that actively gives you the worst possible piece. rlm@141: rlm@140: - pockets :: more things should have them! rlm@140: rlm@140: - colored shower head :: a shower head add on that measures the temp rlm@140: of the water and changes the color of the water streams w/ an LED rlm@140: to show you the temperature. That way you can align to the color rlm@140: you want and see the temperature without feeling it. rlm@140: rlm@140: - giant dragonflies :: we could rapidly MAKE giant dragonflies by rlm@140: evolving modern dragonflies in an very oxygen rich environment! rlm@140: rlm@140: - anesthetic surgery courtesty video :: as a matter of courtesy, rlm@140: whenever you go under anesthetic, the doctors should provide you rlm@140: with a video of the surgery / recovery after you are concious rlm@140: again. The recording should begin about 3 minutes before rlm@140: anesthetic, and continue until both you and the docor agree to rlm@140: stop recording, or you leave the hospital. rlm@140: rlm@140: - whirlpool of light :: shine a laser out into space. But the planet rlm@140: is spinning! What you get is a spiral or light! And as this rlm@140: signal expands, does it eventually reveal it's wuantized nature? rlm@140: rlm@140: - perfusion coking :: EOM rlm@140: rlm@140: - whatever :: asdfsadasda asda rlm@140: rlm@140: - timestamp verification :: you sign your message, and it has a rlm@140: timestamp at the top, with a +- percision number. Then you send rlm@140: it over to the public timestamp server, which only signs the rlm@140: message if it gets the message within the timestamp window. Or rlm@140: the computer just signs the message but puts a timestamp at the rlm@140: beginning. So if everyone trusts the timestamp server, you can rlm@140: get reliable timestamps, and prove priority on ideas, etc. rlm@140: rlm@139: - the great computing slow-down :: in general, our computers are rlm@139: getting faster and faster. However, eventually our brains will be rlm@139: made of the same stuff our computers are made of! This has very rlm@139: interesting consequences -- I can add 2+2 and get four in about a rlm@139: second. Since my neurons actually work at around 10-60 hertz in rlm@139: parallel, this means that it takes me around 10-30 operations to rlm@139: do this addition. That's actually not bad in terms of computing rlm@139: time. If my neurons were as fast as the latest transitors, then rlm@139: most calculators would be SLOWER than me at adding numbers. Only rlm@139: the newest, most optimized calculators would be faster, and then rlm@139: only about 10 times faster! This means that once we begin to rlm@139: think at the speed of our technology, that technology will rlm@139: suddenly seem pitifully slow in comparison to how it seems rlm@139: now. And no amount of technical progress will remedy it, because rlm@139: that same progress will also make us all think faster. We'll rlm@139: either have to settle with living in "slow time" to do some rlm@139: computations, or learn to make smarter hardware with special rlm@139: optimizations. But this is actually really hard, because we'll be rlm@139: working with machines that will appear to us about as fast as rlm@139: MECHANICAL computers. So, in the future, all the cool parties rlm@139: will be in cyperspace at vastly accelerated speeds compared to rlm@139: how we exist now. But at these parties, the computers will SUCK! rlm@139: Of course, this is one of the few things that can save us from AI rlm@139: risk, because those AI's won't seem so scary when the're build rlm@139: out of rickety mechanical parts form our perspective. rlm@139: rlm@139: - unitary reverse evolution of chaos+minds :: chaotic systems diverge rlm@139: exponentially in state space. Do you get anything interesting rlm@139: when part of the physical system associated with the chaotic rlm@139: system is a object that performs some sort of computation? Is it rlm@139: possible for the computational system to play a rlm@139: percision-enabling role in determining the final/initial rlm@139: conditions of the chaotic system, just by tracing out thoughts in rlm@139: its decision paths? This is probably too vague of an idea right rlm@139: now, I just wanted to write it down. rlm@139: rlm@138: - microwave time :: the cooking time you enter on most microwaves is rlm@138: insane. It's expressed in what I call a "hybrid base", a rlm@138: combination of base 10 and base 60. You can get absurd things rlm@138: like 100 < 61, and 120 == 80! I wonder if these hybrid base rlm@138: systems could be very useful for some purposes! rlm@138: rlm@138: - three-eyes :: if you had three eyes, would you still draw cubes like rlm@138: we currently draw them? Or would all 2D-representations of 3D rlm@138: space always look hopelessly fake? rlm@138: rlm@138: - visual taste/smell assay :: get a grid of bacteria, each expressing rlm@138: a human taste/smell receptor linked to some sort of fluorscent rlm@138: activity or ion pump. Use a camera / electrical grid to transduce rlm@138: the smell / taste signal into bits! rlm@138: rlm@138: - carabiner mushroom lock :: you can take a trapazodial carabiner and rlm@138: make it so that a chain link is caught between the wide end of rlm@138: the carabiner and another chain attached to the carabiner. rlm@138: rlm@138: - children's tool shop :: I think that kids should be provided with rlm@138: tool shops -- these would be nice sheds with a good collection of rlm@138: tools to do various things -- circuit components and soldering rlm@138: irons, wires, a small lathe, drill press, belt sander, a rlm@138: centrifuge, microscope, and telescope, etc. The idea is that the rlm@138: kid can now think, "I could use X to do this thing that I'm rlm@138: thinking about" -- the building becomes an extension of the kid's rlm@138: body & mind. rlm@138: rlm@138: - fluid display :: like the previous idea about matching refractances rlm@138: between glass and liquid, except you make a lot of rlm@138: switchable glass tubes in various patterns in the rlm@138: glass, and actively pump colored liquid through the rlm@138: tubes (the tubes have glass-like fluid in them by rlm@138: default.) The result is that you can cause the rlm@138: tubes to appear and dissappear, and vary their rlm@138: colors as well! rlm@138: rlm@137: - immunoincompatibility :: take the human genome, and refactor it so rlm@137: that it doesn't use a particular codon at all. Then remove the rlm@137: support from our ribosomes for that codon. What does this do for rlm@137: us? It makes us immune to almost all viruses! rlm@137: rlm@137: - life cycle :: it's called a cycle, right? So, the thing that repeats rlm@137: itself over and over, right? Not much of a cycle if rlm@137: you don't come back after you die, if you ask me! rlm@137: rlm@137: - car with no blind spots :: use some cameras in the back of the car rlm@137: to augment the rear-view mirror so that you never have to turn rlm@137: around in order to lane change. rlm@137: rlm@137: - partial cell death :: you freeze a set of cells using some cryo rlm@137: protocol and 60% survive. How can this be explained? It seems to rlm@137: me that if the cells are the same, and the conditions rlm@137: homogoneous, then all the cells should either die or rlm@137: live. However, suppose that there is a metabolic cycle that needs rlm@137: to be in a certain phase for the cell to survive. If the cells rlm@137: are asynchronous, then you might end up with some cells dying rlm@137: because there were in the wrong part of their cycle. This implies rlm@137: that you might be able to cryoprotect cells by causing them to rlm@137: enter a certain metabolic mode before freezing. rlm@137: rlm@137: - cryonics color appeal :: perfusate used by cryonics companies should rlm@137: have red food coloring in it. It's just a nice touch so that the rlm@137: cryonics patient looks more life-like than with clear CPAs, and rlm@137: hopefully might get treated with more respect. rlm@137: rlm@137: - paramagnetic CPA :: you take a CPA that can be influenced by rlm@137: magnetic fields so that its degrees of freedom are limited. Then, rlm@137: you release the field, instantaly increasing the size of the rlm@137: state space of the system and dramatically decreasing the rlm@137: temperature enough to plunge the system past homogenous rlm@137: nucleation temperature and directly to the glass transition rlm@137: temperature, creating a doubly unstable glass at much lower CPA rlm@137: concentrations than possible at conventional CPA concentrations. rlm@137: rlm@137: - room temp noodles :: how does the physics of cooking noodles work? rlm@137: Could you use a vacuum instead of heat to force water into the rlm@137: noodle? rlm@137: rlm@137: - personal carbon offset :: feel bad about contribuiting to global rlm@137: warming by using electricity / driving a car? Forget trying to rlm@137: "conserve" or "minimize your carbon footprint". Follow the rlm@137: Platinum rule -- make the world BETTER off than you found it! rlm@137: This would be a small, self contained system that sucks C02 out rlm@137: of the air. It uses electricity, but it's so efficient at rlm@137: removing CO2 that it more than offsets the CO2 produced by even a rlm@137: coal plant to produce that electricity. This way, you can still rlm@137: drive even a gas guzzler, but have a net negative carbon rlm@137: footprint! Maybe something cool could be done with the carbon as rlm@137: well. Use as much electricity as you want, but negate the damage rlm@137: to the enviroment with more technology. rlm@137: rlm@137: - undoing spermogenesis :: with enough sperm, you can derive the rlm@137: donor's entire genome. You gain more confidence in the alleles rlm@137: for a particular gene the more sperm you have. Each additional rlm@137: sperm gives you the same sort of information you'd get flipping a rlm@137: coin and trying to decide whether the coin is H/T of H/H. Is rlm@137: there enough sperm in the the average load for you to be as rlm@137: confident as mitosis? rlm@137: rlm@136: - mars life :: we could engineer life that could survive on mars rlm@136: (probably some non-vascular photosynthetic rlm@136: poikilohydric creature like a lichen) by taking an rlm@136: extremophile from Antarctica and evolving it in rlm@136: increasingly Martian conditions. This could be an easy rlm@136: start to a terraforming process. rlm@136: rlm@134: - problem with Aubrey de Grey's ideas :: Aubrey de Grey says that we rlm@134: might be able to live forever by continually repairing our bodies rlm@134: at the cellular level -- he details 7 different mechanisms of rlm@134: damage and says that if all of them are dealt with /together/ rlm@134: that it would stop aging. (You can't miss even one because rlm@134: they're all fatal.) However, it doesn't take into account that rlm@134: we are also beings of information and that there is a very real rlm@134: software component to our existence. Even if our biological rlm@134: chassies can be maintained forever, I think it is unlikely that rlm@134: our minds will operate well far outside of the design constraints rlm@134: that we've evolved to handle. Say I programmed a webserver with rlm@134: the express goal of it being able to serve webpages for month on rlm@134: some stock server. I'll do fairly rigorous testing to make sure rlm@134: that it can handle the expected load then then some. Now say that rlm@134: you want to keep a particular instance of this webserver running rlm@134: indefinitely. (The program instance is like your mind and the rlm@134: computer it's running on is like your body). You might very well rlm@134: be able to keep the physical computer infrastructure running for rlm@134: forever by replacing hard drives / ram / CPUs, etc. However, rlm@134: since I designed the webserver to work for a month, it probably rlm@135: has memory leaks, rare stochastic bugs, or other built in limits rlm@134: / constraints (think log files or some date rollover shenanigans) rlm@135: that will ultimately kill the webserver even with eternally rlm@134: perfect hardware. Do you really expect that a webserver rlm@135: engineered to work for 1 month will run for 10 years without rlm@135: catastrophically crashing? Not even Apache can do this! In fact, rlm@135: if I put in the extreme effort to make it that robust, I've rlm@135: wasted time that I could have spent on other projects by pursuing rlm@135: an unnecessary engineering goal. Likewise, human minds have only rlm@134: ever run for at most 122 years before they are destroyed due to rlm@134: hardware degradation. Fixing the hardware doesn't change any rlm@134: software bugs that are almost certainly present in the human rlm@134: mind. Think of all the pathological things that can go wrong with rlm@134: a webserver, multiply it by a million, and that likely how rlm@134: evolution has designed our minds. For example, consider memory : rlm@134: why should you expect that we have evolved the ability to rlm@134: coherently organize memories past say 150 years? There's been rlm@134: absolutely no selective pressure for this ability, so you can bet rlm@134: that if there's any fitness to be gained from not having rlm@134: unlimited memory potential (such as better metabolic efficiency), rlm@134: we have it! You might think that maybe we would just forget rlm@134: things the same way that we sort of forget things that happen rlm@134: earlier in our lives, but complicated information processing rlm@134: systems don't have to fail gracefully when they're pushed far rlm@134: past their design constraints. A 150 year old person is just as rlm@134: likely to suffer a catastrophic psychosis due to software rlm@134: limitations associated with memory as he is to do something with rlm@134: all those memories we might consider reasonable. More likely, in rlm@134: fact, since there are so very many ways for a complicated rlm@134: software system to break and so few ways for it to run rlm@134: successfully. Therefore, I think Aubrey de Grey's "hardware-only" rlm@134: approach is missing a very important component of longevity rlm@134: science, and any successful effort to make people live orders of rlm@134: magnitude longer than they do naturally will need to deal with rlm@134: people's software as well as their hardware. rlm@134: rlm@133: - validating neurocryopreservation :: Problem : you want to test rlm@133: whether a brain is functionally preserved through vitrification, rlm@133: but you don't want to figure out how to preserve all the other rlm@133: organs in the animal. It might be possible to keep the rest of rlm@133: the body at almost 0C and vitrify just the head for only a few rlm@133: minutes. Induce hypothermia, then separate out the head's blood rlm@133: supply from the rest of the body, then just cryoptotect and rlm@133: vitrify the head. Might need some sort of thermal guard to keep rlm@133: the outer head / neck from becoming too cold. You leave the rlm@133: spinal cord intact! Then you devitrify to 0C, remove rlm@133: cryoprotectant, and then reattach the blood supply. You can rlm@133: determine brain preservation using behavioral assays! rlm@133: rlm@133: - freezing water purifier :: you slowly freeze water, but also run rlm@133: liquid water over the frozen mass. This takes away basically all rlm@133: impurities and creates "washed ice" then you melt the ice. Maybe rlm@133: you could re-use the heat from creating the ice to melt the ice? rlm@133: rlm@133: - ultra strength :: allow a person to visualize their muscle rlm@133: recruitment patterns. Give them adrenaline and let rlm@133: them feel what it's like to have the normal limits rlm@133: removed. See if they can replicate the effects. rlm@133: rlm@133: - phone names :: make a PX record for domain names that's like the MX rlm@133: record, except that it is a phone number instead of rlm@133: an IP address. That way, you can use the domain name rlm@133: registration system to provide names for phone rlm@133: numbers. Then, as long as you control the domain, you rlm@133: can point people to your current phone number by rlm@133: updating that record. rlm@133: rlm@133: - edible flowers :: Edible white flowers that you put in a colored rlm@133: solution with flavor. When the flower turns the rlm@133: right color, it is also flavored and ready to eat! rlm@133: rlm@131: - suicide cryonics :: according to [[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html][this]], people who commit impulsive rlm@131: suicides have a newfound sense of the importance of life. Perhaps rlm@131: they are good cryonics targets. rlm@131: rlm@131: - lead bone :: Could you fill in all the empty spaces in a bone with rlm@131: lead? Might be cool. rlm@131: rlm@131: - the quest for life :: Every stupid story has the "immortal who rlm@131: wants to become mortal" or some other such idea. I want to story rlm@131: where the protagonist loses their immortality and feels /angry/ rlm@131: and ashamed about losing something that's so absolutely crucial rlm@131: to their identity. A reverse of "death makes life worth living", rlm@131: they feel that living forever is what makes life worth rlm@131: living. Now they've "lost their sunrise" or their "connection to rlm@131: the timeless universe" or something. So they go on a quest to get rlm@131: it back, learning about themselves along the way, and regaining rlm@131: the precious thing they lost in the beginning. rlm@131: rlm@130: - world-map :: take a small table and paint the continents in rlm@130: toothpaste on the table. Make a slightly raised barrier rlm@130: around the table. Slowly pour water onto the table, and rlm@130: it will form the oceans! rlm@130: rlm@95: - stage magic rituals :: rituals should incorporate elements of stage rlm@95: magic. Foe example in Teller's tempest, they have a scene where rlm@95: they levitate a crown in front of someone, then put it on his rlm@95: head. They also have a wedding ceremony where they levitated the rlm@95: bride as well. Actual weddings and other ceremonies should rlm@95: incorporate stage magic as an enhancement. rlm@95: rlm@95: - isotope time dilation :: use a cyclotron to speed up rare isotopes rlm@95: developed in nuclear fusion experiments. The relativistic time rlm@95: dilation will stop the isotopes from decaying, and allow time to rlm@95: study them. This is based on radioactive isotopes that fall rlm@95: through the earth's atmosphere that take hundreds of times rlm@95: longer to decay than normal. rlm@95: rlm@95: - marsupial stimulation :: You take a freshly pouched marsupial baby, rlm@95: and show it videos and other interactive things while it matures rlm@95: in the pouch. What mental effects would this have? rlm@95: rlm@135: - dynamic re-keying :: Some older ways of tuning instruments sound rlm@95: better, but we use the even-tempered scale today because it makes rlm@95: it easier to switch keys. With electronic music, why not make rlm@95: key-annotations and dynamically re-tune the piece to sound good rlm@135: in the current key? Could be done as a midi+annotation -> midi rlm@95: compiler for experimentation. rlm@95: rlm@95: - death always implies damage :: is is possible for a corpse to differ rlm@95: from a living person only in the fact that one is dead and the rlm@95: other is alive? NO! A corpse must always have some sort of rlm@95: molecular damage which causes the loss of function! rlm@95: rlm@95: - inner eye :: Surgically install a bunch of tiny cameras inside a rlm@95: person. Then, you can activate them all and get a rlm@95: picture of your internal organs for diagnostic rlm@95: purposes. rlm@95: rlm@135: - chaos rails :: should make a visualization of the homoclinic tangle, rlm@95: it's truly beautiful. rlm@95: rlm@95: - context gobbler :: this would be in "inside-out macro" that takes rlm@95: the context (like you use for things like error, continuations, rlm@95: and friends) and transforms it to something else. Maybe useful? rlm@95: rlm@91: - cryonics middle ages :: some people say that cryonics is an rlm@91: experiment and that it is foolish to wait until we have revived a rlm@91: human. There is a middle ground where the procedure has a dismal rlm@91: success rate on humans, say 1 in 20, so that you'd be a fool to rlm@91: try revival. Nonetheless, this very risky procedure could be the rlm@91: legal proof of concept needed to create a new class of life rlm@91: between "living" and "dead": "stasis". rlm@91: rlm@91: - philosophy of the mirror :: neat thought experiment -- if you take a rlm@91: mirror of someone by actually reversing a person's chirality rlm@94: molecule by molecule, then will the only be able to read mirror rlm@91: writing? The answer is yes, by analogy to a purely mechanical rlm@94: scan-tron device. This is one of the only interesting transforms I rlm@91: know that can take a human brain and change it in subtle, rlm@91: non-destructive ways. It's also an argument against dualism. rlm@91: rlm@91: - biosphere in a bottle :: There are around 15 million species. 15 rlm@91: million stem cells will fill only a tiny size, far less than a cubic rlm@91: inch. Preserve a single cell from every species on earth in this rlm@91: small space, and you will have a record of our current biosphere rlm@91: that can be protected. "Hold the genetic data of all species in rlm@92: your hand!" rlm@91: rlm@90: - chaos lock :: The "arrow of time" points in the direction of rlm@90: increasing entropy. The time evolution of chaotic rlm@90: systems depend exquisitely on their initial state. If rlm@90: you take a measurement of a chaotic system at any rlm@90: given point of time, you can evolve that system rlm@90: backwards or forwards based on your measurement. So rlm@90: let's say you start the chaotic system in a VERY low rlm@90: entropy state, then let it run for a while, then take rlm@90: a measurement with some uncertainty. Your rlm@90: measurement is pretty good, but obviously not rlm@90: PERFECT. If you evolve the chaotic system back in rlm@90: time, then you will see that you don't really reach rlm@90: a state with low entropy an hour before (the entropy rlm@90: is easy to measure with surrogates like alignment, rlm@90: etc). So use this technique to SEARCH for a more rlm@90: accurate measurement! This potentially can give you rlm@90: many more orders of magnitude than you could get alone rlm@90: just using an instrument. Sometimes it will give you rlm@90: bad results, the the odds of it doing that are rlm@90: infinitesimal, and you can just measure a couple of rlm@90: times. rlm@90: rlm@90: - cryo-evolution :: perhaps there would be a way to rapidly evolve a rlm@90: symbiotic bacterial organism that could protect rlm@90: human tissues from freezing damage. rlm@90: rlm@87: - suicide parasite :: sometimes, people kill themselves for no good rlm@87: reason. We often explain this with things like "hidden rlm@87: depression" or we say that they had something like chronic jaw or rlm@87: back pain. I think that smells of rationalization. I don't buy rlm@87: it. I propose that in many suicide cases there is a disease that rlm@88: causes the suicidal behavior. We already know that certain rlm@87: parasites have mind-bending properties in other animals, even rlm@87: mammals like mice. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a rlm@88: parasite that causes suicides in humans. Some problems: rlm@87: - What does the suicide parasite get out of it? :: This might be rlm@87: answered by the whole thing being a glitch caused by rlm@87: cross-species contamination. Toxoplasma works this way. rlm@88: - What predictions does a disease model make :: suicide should rlm@88: be more common among people who share a contagion rlm@88: vector. There should be suicides that don't make any rlm@87: sense : people who weren't really depressed, who had no rlm@87: reason to kill themselves. People who have killed themselves rlm@87: should have a higher incidence of some unknown parasite in rlm@87: their brains. rlm@86: rlm@89: - domestic insects :: People should eat more bugs because they're much rlm@89: more efficient, so why not do some major domestication research rlm@94: to make very appealing bugs? Beetles, in particular, seem to be rlm@94: excellent targets for domestication because they have extreme rlm@94: levels of genetic malleability. rlm@87: rlm@87: - birth-clones :: What if each person was intentionally split at birth rlm@87: into a normal embryo and a few "backup" cells which rlm@87: is then frozen. The backup cells are created just rlm@87: the same way as natural identical twins. The backups rlm@88: can be used to regenerate organs. etc. Also, it rlm@87: would be a good sci fi concept, because you could rlm@87: have a culture where people reward people who were rlm@87: especially awesome are "reborn" from their rlm@88: backups. Imagine having a young Bach every rlm@87: generation, etc. rlm@86: rlm@94: - pronunciation guide :: a simple webpage where you type in a word and rlm@94: it returns a simple, English sentence describing exactly how to rlm@84: pronounce the word. For people who don't want to learn IPA. rlm@86: rlm@87: - cortex-search :: use the repertoire of actions learned to limit the rlm@87: search space of possible actions. rlm@87: rlm@83: - learning to teleport :: scifi idea, this is a story about a person rlm@83: who is struggling with his/her society's ideas about rlm@83: teleportation. It's considered a fundamental part of being a rlm@83: member of that society (after all, the difference between animals rlm@83: and humans is that humans are creatures of pure information while rlm@83: animals are burdened with base matter, "that's how you travel the rlm@83: stars, etc") Humans are born normally, grow up, and then rlm@83: eventually transcend via destructive upload. Analogies to jumping rlm@83: off a diving board into a pool (which I simply /could not do/ for rlm@83: a long time), etc. rlm@83: rlm@87: - no-float-ice :: cup that has cross beams at the bottom where ice rlm@87: forms. Then when you drink liquid from the glass, rlm@87: the ice stays at the bottom and doesn't hit your rlm@87: lips. For bars and fancy things. rlm@87: rlm@82: - bitcoins for immigrants :: A common case with Mexican immigrants rlm@82: (illegal or not) is that they want to send money they've earned rlm@82: in the US back to their families in Mexico. They currently do this rlm@82: through things like Money Gram or Western Union, and they get rlm@82: fleeced in the process with fees. Bitcoin could greatly reduce rlm@82: the cost of sending money from America to Mexico, but I don't rlm@82: believe that it's currently used for that among Mexican rlm@82: immigrants currently due to lack of knowledge. I bet you could rlm@82: set up physical locations like those obnoxious Western Union huts rlm@82: in places like Texas, Arizona, etc, and greatly undercut rlm@82: them. Or, perhaps some educational seminars about bitcoin might rlm@82: be in order. There's some money to be made there because there is rlm@82: great demand, and it's a good thing to boot! rlm@82: rlm@81: - reverse eye-tracking :: A painting that is actually a digital screen rlm@82: with a camera. It records people's eye tracks permanently. It's rlm@81: "artistic" because paintings are normally these things that you rlm@81: look at without changing, but this one is changed the second you rlm@81: look at it, recording where /you/ looked forever for others to rlm@81: see. Make it be a painting of a woman and see the trolling as the rlm@81: breasts and groin area light up with interest from all the males rlm@81: passing by. rlm@81: rlm@80: - smart toilets :: Instead of using indirect measures like infrared rlm@80: detectors of the presence of a person, use computer rlm@80: vision to directly measure whether the toilet needs rlm@80: to be flushed. I think a lot of things will end up rlm@80: going this way as we get better computer vision. rlm@80: rlm@77: - validate chemopreservation :: chemopreservation is difficult to rlm@77: validate because it destroys the functionality of a brain, and rlm@77: brain simulation will take a long time to mature as a rlm@77: technology. However, one very powerful way to validate rlm@77: chemopreservation would be to have a person/animal learn rlm@77: something with high complexity such as a number or the solution rlm@80: to a maze, or a flashbulb memory. Then you preserve their brain rlm@80: chemically, slice it up, and read /that specific memory/ from the rlm@77: detailed brain scan. Much more difficult, but much more doable. rlm@77: rlm@75: - candy screw :: edible candy screw with candy nuts that you can screw rlm@75: as well. rlm@76: rlm@74: - better bibliography :: when writing a thesis or paper, have the rlm@80: bibliography not just be an opaque list of resources, but have it rlm@74: be a list of /summaries/ and /qualities/ that each paper has in rlm@80: the context of the paper being written. When examining a rlm@80: bibliography, I want to know if reading the papers in the rlm@74: bibliography are worth my time, and I also am probably also rlm@74: interested in exactly the things that are being discussed in the rlm@74: paper I'm reading. The bibliography is the perfect place to rlm@74: provide information about the referenced papers from the rlm@80: author's perspective. I will use this biographic form in my own rlm@74: thesis. rlm@74: rlm@73: - digital inter-library loan :: libraries at universities already do rlm@80: inter-library loans for books, so why not do the same for access rlm@73: to stupid paywalled digital papers? All the universities could rlm@73: allow access to articles for registered students to all the files rlm@73: available through any participating university. This could be rlm@73: achieved by sending requests through proxies at participating rlm@73: universities. Each university would decide who at the university rlm@73: can access the proxy network. Access to the proxy network could rlm@73: be made easy using something like http://libx.org/. rlm@73: rlm@72: - chess visual :: to show the vast size of the game trees considered rlm@72: by computers, show two people playing chess in a rlm@72: void. They are floating in space, and there is a rlm@72: simple chess board between them. Then, as they play, rlm@72: the game tree's they are considering are drawn rlm@72: behind him. The root of the tree starts centered in rlm@72: their heads or whatever they use to think, and the rlm@72: tree grows out from behind, never crossing the rlm@72: dividing plane between the two players. Each rlm@72: player's tree is a different color. As they grow, rlm@72: there are animations for pruning, etc. Eventually, rlm@72: they look like the hemispheres of a brain, wings, rlm@72: etc. A human's tree might occasionally have a long rlm@72: chain, while the computer tree would be more rlm@72: uniform. You could compare deep blue and a modern rlm@72: laptop. Use actual data when fighting two computers! rlm@72: rlm@71: - time verification :: some standard way to verify that some piece of rlm@71: data was recorded at a specific time. Might involve a time rlm@73: server, a key for each time period, something like that. rlm@71: rlm@70: - tamper proof gold bars :: [[http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/gold-plated-tungsten-alloy-bar.html][this site]] offers gold plated tungsten bars rlm@70: as "novelty" items. One reason to prefer coins is because they rlm@70: are much harder to counterfeit because there is less surface area rlm@70: to mass ratio. However, gold bars are still a great design rlm@70: because they can hold a lot of value in a small space. A gold bar rlm@70: could be given the same protections (and more) that gold coins rlm@70: have to offer by changing it into a "gold book", which would have rlm@70: hundreds of "pages" of gold bound together. This could be rlm@70: implemented with multiple steel rods going through the book which rlm@70: can be removed, or some more classier mechanism for holding the rlm@70: pages. The point is that the bar can be EASILY subdivided (and rlm@70: people would perform this test before buying), thus guaranteeing rlm@70: it's authenticity. rlm@70: rlm@68: - aurellem shirt :: I should make an aurellem star symbol tee-shirt. rlm@68: rlm@86: - touch vision :: inspired by GelSight, I want to reexamine cortex and rlm@86: see if I could implement touch as a very low range rlm@86: form of vision. rlm@86: rlm@67: - high school science :: this is a lesson in scientific ethics. The rlm@67: goal is to calculate /g/, the local gravitational rlm@67: acceleration. The students are told that the textbook says it's rlm@67: /exactly/ 9.81 before they start the experiment. See how they rlm@67: doctor their results to get closer to the textbook value. It's rlm@67: neat because for any given school, /g/ is probably *not* exactly rlm@67: equal to 9.81, because that is just an average! rlm@67: rlm@67: - opencourseware subtitles :: there are ladies who type up lectures rlm@67: while they are being given. These recordings should be kept and rlm@67: given to OCW for subtitles. If the timestamps of keys are rlm@67: recorded, then it is easy to make subtitles. rlm@67: rlm@66: - screen locking timing :: you use your computer camera to see if you rlm@66: are sitting in front of the computer. If you are, then the screen rlm@66: will never lock. If you are, then the screen will lock with a rlm@67: 30-40 second timeout. It's an extension of using inactivity to rlm@66: initiate the countdown, just with more information. rlm@66: rlm@66: - mirror toilet :: a toilet with a square basin made or mirror instead rlm@67: or porcelain. That way, you can see how good of a rlm@66: wipe job you have done / watch how your excretion rlm@66: system works. rlm@66: rlm@80: - test dummies :: why don't we clone anencephalic humans and use then to rlm@62: test /in vivo/ human organ systems and drugs? It rlm@62: would be ethical as long as there are women who are rlm@62: willing to host the clones, and it would be a rlm@67: tremendous resource for studying the human body. I rlm@62: see nothing wrong with it morally, since no one is rlm@67: suffering, and it stands to save many lives throughout rlm@62: more advanced technology. rlm@62: rlm@62: - X-ray telepresence :: given that a doctor is operating on a patient rlm@62: via telepresence, one cool things you can do is shine X-rays into rlm@62: the patient to view the insides during real time. If the system rlm@80: was coupled with a Bayesian model of the layout of the structure, rlm@67: and the x-rays were only fired whenever the uncertainty of the rlm@62: model reached a certain threshold, then the radiation damage rlm@62: and surgery risk could be minimized. rlm@62: rlm@62: - superfluid vascular system :: I wonder what would happen if you rlm@62: replaced the blood in a human with a superfluid. What would the rlm@62: physical dynamics be? Would the superfluid flow through the rlm@62: vasculature, or would it ignore it and travel through the cells, rlm@62: or something else entirely. Since superfluids need to be cold to rlm@62: retain their superfluidity, how would the dynamics change during rlm@62: perfusion of a superfluid, where the fluid gains and looses rlm@62: superfluidity as it goes deeper into the body and is cooled by rlm@67: superfluid from upstream. In summary there are two things to rlm@62: simulate 1.) replace all blood in human with superfluid rlm@62: instantly. 2.) perfuse superfluid into human. rlm@51: rlm@59: - projective guessing :: I think that we read and see things by rlm@67: making a really good guess about what we're expecting to see, rlm@59: and then searching for our guess in what we see. If it really rlm@59: doesn't match, then we start to make more guesses / analyze the rlm@59: image from first principles, but most stuff is projective rlm@59: guessing. rlm@59: rlm@67: - Intestinal flora maintenance :: why not inoculate babies at birth rlm@59: with "ideal" gut flora instead of whatever bullshit they rlm@59: naturally get, thus giving them optimal digestive/nutrient rlm@67: extraction capabilities. Might also be able to make their farts rlm@94: not stink for life, too. MORE IMPORTANTLY, might help to rlm@91: preventatively stop some forms of /colic/, which affects 1 in 5 rlm@94: babies and causes constant screaming and pain for about 5 weeks. rlm@59: rlm@56: - server culture : mirrors :: make a distributed system where people rlm@56: can mirror the websites of people they like -- essentially cover rlm@56: the server costs of favored websites. This could make popular rlm@56: websites run at no cost. The system would require that the rlm@56: mirrored content be the same as the official source. Sort of like rlm@67: bit-torrent for websites. rlm@56: rlm@56: - map programming :: one problem with functional programming is that rlm@56: in order to remain functional, you have to pass up arguments up rlm@67: into each calling function to get the full range of behavior rlm@56: from the lower level functions. Normally people come to a rlm@67: compromise involving abstraction and sparing use of dynamic rlm@67: variables to configure runtime behavior. What would be the rlm@56: advantages of making a programming language where every function rlm@67: receives one argument, a map, which contains all the symbol rlm@56: bindings it would ever need? This map is passed on to all rlm@56: subordinate functions. This way, you could replace functions on rlm@56: the fly, and arrange for there to be sensible defaults, rlm@56: etc. Might cause more harm than good but is an interesting idea. rlm@56: rlm@55: - rest nest :: a small EEG device you would attach to your head when rlm@55: you go to sleep at night. ML algorithms would determine rlm@55: your particular sleep cycles. This would mostly be an rlm@55: alarm clock that you could give a time range, say rlm@55: 7:00AM - 7:15AM, and it would wake you up during an rlm@55: ideal time corresponding to then end of one of your 90 rlm@55: min sleep cycles. You would feel much more rested upon rlm@55: waking up, and would wake up faster. There might be rlm@55: some other uses for the EEG data as well. rlm@55: rlm@50: - image compression :: use a library like gimp or opencv to process an rlm@50: image to make it have less entropy, then store the reverse of rlm@50: those operations along with the compressed simpler image as a rlm@80: super-compressed image file (possibly accepting some rlm@80: losses). Trades file size for decompression time, and allows one rlm@50: to cheat by using information in gimp/opencv to compress the rlm@50: image. rlm@50: rlm@47: - fixed cryopreservation :: why not use a fixative to buy enough time rlm@42: to ramp up cryoprotectants to an acceptable level at room rlm@42: temperature? Then, the whole system can be rapidly cooled and rlm@42: vitrified. This method "severs the biological link" in that the rlm@47: fixatives are highly toxic, but current vitrification procedures rlm@42: do this anyway since there can be a lot of freezing damage. rlm@38: rlm@67: - dilated security camera :: a security camera that would capture rlm@58: full video footage of everything at 60fps but then decide to keep rlm@58: only every 1 frame every 5 seconds unless there's something rlm@58: "interesting" happening. rlm@58: rlm@40: - bitcoin wallet :: Part of "server culture", this would be something rlm@40: like "coin.your-domain.com" which would serve as rlm@40: your personal trusted access to your own bitcoins rlm@40: from anywhere. rlm@40: rlm@40: - libpay :: this would be a free library which would enable rlm@40: micro-donations to software projects and other projects, rlm@47: so that you could donate a penny to "emacs" and it would rlm@47: be automatically split up to every person who has ever rlm@40: contributed to emacs in proportion to the amount of rlm@40: community esteem, code quantity, bugs fixed, whatever the rlm@47: community decides. This might make it possible for rlm@40: programmers to live entirely off of free programming. rlm@40: rlm@45: - distributed graphics :: Browser based graphics-card accelerated rlm@45: distributed computing API. rlm@41: rlm@40: - pronouns :: use capital letters A-Z instead of pronouns. They solve rlm@40: pronoun referents and gender neutrality, are short to rlm@40: say, and you can encode useful information into the rlm@40: choice of letter. For example, instead of "Meetings rlm@40: shall be presided over by the president, unless she is rlm@42: absent." USE "Meetings shall be presided over by the rlm@40: president, unless P is absent." We already use this a rlm@40: little, since I and U are reserved for the subject and rlm@40: object respectively. rlm@40: rlm@40: - phone DSP :: software app that inserts an audio DSP between the rlm@40: input to a phone and the output. The DSP is delicious rlm@40: and configurable, and can allow men to make their rlm@40: voices deeper, etc. The app would allow you to hear rlm@40: your own voice as others hear it. Most people hate how rlm@40: their own voice sounds. The app would also allow one to rlm@47: immediately change the parameters of the DSP using good rlm@40: presets. rlm@40: rlm@47: - predestined body learning :: a good example of predestined learning rlm@40: might be the mirror neurons. rlm@40: rlm@47: - restaurant receipt :: use a carbon copy receipt instead of two stupid rlm@40: copies. rlm@40: rlm@41: - anti google glass :: glasses with mounted lasers and computer vision rlm@41: that targets the cameras in google glass and destroy them. rlm@41: rlm@40: - wearable towel :: towel with clasp, velcro, whatever, that allows rlm@40: one to wear the towel more securely than just rlm@40: wrapping it tightly and hoping for the best. rlm@40: rlm@47: - crossdressing :: Easiest way to disguise oneself as a woman is to rlm@44: wear a burka. rlm@41: rlm@40: - book-mode :: intelligent color highlighting for books and rlm@40: articles. It would disambiguate pronouns and involved rlm@93: references. For example, if "Rachael" was assigned the rlm@93: color red, and "the blonde haired girl" refers to rlm@93: "Rachael", then "the blonde haired girl" would be rlm@93: colored red. Also, you could disambiguate multi part rlm@93: run-on sentences by highlighting each rlm@93: subcomponent. Maybe would also have applications to rlm@93: scientific reading. rlm@40: rlm@40: - Handheld light Rain measurement :: this would be a clear, teflon rlm@47: coated plastic disk with a camera underneath the disk. You would rlm@40: be able to hold the device out and it would measure the rate of rlm@40: accumulation of water droplets from fine mists and light rain by rlm@40: using computer vision to measure the diameters of the drops. rlm@40: rlm@40: - Big Brother Farming :: This would be a vision system that would rlm@40: individually monitor each plant and turn on water, etc to ensure rlm@40: maximum/uniform growth for each plant. rlm@40: rlm@40: - Discrete Faucet :: A faucet with discrete ticks instead of rlm@47: continuous. rlm@40: rlm@40: - Laser Circle :: take a glass microfiliment and shine a laser at one rlm@40: end at an oblique angle. It will make a perfect, rlm@40: large circle on the wall, converting a laser beam rlm@47: into a laser cone, preserving most of the energy of rlm@40: the laser. rlm@40: rlm@40: - Invisible Glass :: Take a container of liquid and embed a rlm@40: glass sculpture made out of glass that has exactly the same index rlm@40: of refraction and color of the liquid. Then the sculpture will be rlm@40: totally invisible in the container, and will only be revealed rlm@40: when the liquid is drained. The container might be a fancy rlm@40: wine/spirit bottle or an hourglass. rlm@40: rlm@47: - Caterpillar people :: A race of caterpillar like creatures gains rlm@40: intelligence after eons of predation by birds, etc. These rlm@47: caterpillar creatures still undergo metamorphosis into a large rlm@40: butterfly-like creature. The metamorphosis process turns the rlm@40: caterpillar's brain into mush and reforms it into a minimal, rlm@40: dumb, truly insect-like mind, completely destroying the person rlm@47: the caterpillar was. The society develops all sorts of customs and rlm@40: religious interpretations of the metamorphosis. It is viewed as rlm@40: good and natural by some since it is part of their life cycle and rlm@47: necessary to propagate the species, as only the butterflies can rlm@40: mate. Some think that the butterflies are still the same person rlm@47: because they have the same soul, even they no longer posses the rlm@47: memories or personality of the original caterpillar. Some see the rlm@40: butterfly form as the "true form" of the species, since the rlm@40: butterflies can fly, mate, and are beautiful. Many make a big rlm@47: deal out of the fact that 1-2% of the caterpillar's mind is rlm@40: actually preserved in the butterfly. Some see it as a terrible rlm@47: tragedy and argue that the caterpillars should try to stop the rlm@40: metamorphosis by technology. Practically, some very important rlm@40: members of society undergo hormone therapy and/or surgery to rlm@40: prevent metamorphosis so that they can live longer as themselves. rlm@40: rlm@40: This is a continuation of Marvin Minsky's ideas about pain being rlm@40: something that preserves our bodies while destroying our minds, rlm@40: something that is a remnant from our too harsh animal days that rlm@40: hasn't caught up to the fact that we have very complex brains rlm@40: now. It's a worst-case scenario about a maladaptive genetic rlm@40: legacy. Also, it's inspired by "There She Is!!!", which makes a rlm@40: compelling point about homosexuality by introducing a second rlm@40: gender characteristic (bunny/cat, male/female), which makes rlm@40: homophobia look very silly. Here, our own biological legacy of rlm@47: pain and death is made to look like the tragedy it is through the rlm@47: lens of the the caterpillar people. rlm@40: rlm@46: - 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: about the "culture of quitting," which is about better business rlm@46: by letting people go instead of keeping them around past their rlm@47: "apex". Focuses on information transfer. Cool idea of an alumni rlm@46: network, which for relationships would be a group of satisfied rlm@46: ex-lovers, who would recommend new people your way, and who might rlm@46: consider coming to you again, refreshed from their time away with rlm@46: new stories/experiences. I should look for examples of this and rlm@46: how they worked out. rlm@43: rlm@47: - coffee with tea :: /rlm-tea/ contains 2% sugar, 10% cream, and 20% rlm@43: dylan coffee. /dylan coffee/ contains 5% sugar, rlm@43: 20% cream, and 10% rlm-tea. Start your mornings rlm@43: with recursion! rlm@43: rlm@43: - psychic crystal :: in a science fiction story, this would be an rlm@43: object that is very easy to move physically but is extremely rlm@43: difficult to move with telekinesis. rlm@43: rlm@40: - http://betsofbitco.in/ :: what a great place for an AI/person to rlm@40: prove themselves as a good predictor. I wish this could be rlm@40: automated. rlm@40: rlm@44: - true reflection :: don't forget about that mirror in the student rlm@44: center!, it's two mirrors at right angles, like staring at a rlm@44: corner of a room. The light reflects so that it shows you what rlm@44: you actually look like, instead of your mirror image. rlm@33: rlm@33: - remote control wasp :: use computer to drive wings with remote rlm@32: power/logic. rlm@32: rlm@47: - encrypted email phone book :: public (distributed?) database of rlm@44: email->private-key pairs, to enable automatic encryption. rlm@32: rlm@44: - universal eye color :: every equivalent creature will see each rlm@44: others' eyes as black -- it's universal. Even if the creatures rlm@44: see in radio waves, and their eyes are 2m long pieces of jagged rlm@44: metal, when those creatures look at each other, they will see rlm@44: black, the absence of light and color (since it's being absorbed rlm@44: by the sensor array). rlm@32: rlm@33: - intelligent microwave :: it learns where the hot nodes of its fields rlm@83: are, and uses them to evenly heat any food item. It has an infrared rlm@32: camera or something to keep track of how hot the food is. That way, rlm@32: you don't get bowls where the edges are boiling, while the center is rlm@32: still frozen. Requires a little bit of intelligence/vision, since rlm@32: the exact pattern of heating totally depends on the exact shape of rlm@47: the food. Wouldn't need a carousel, and wouldn't need a timer, rlm@47: just a desired temperature. Could also detect ice, and automatically rlm@32: defrost the parts which are frozen. Might be able to work much rlm@47: faster since it can avoid overheating; might have problems with rlm@32: heating the insides of thick things, might need a weight sensor too. rlm@32: rlm@39: + Would be much cleaner than other microwaves, since food would rlm@39: "sputter" and splash liquid much less. rlm@32: rlm@39: + Throw in some SIFT+R processing to match previously cooked foods rlm@39: and learn the exact heating profiles for things that have been rlm@54: cooked before -- it can get faster the more it's used. rlm@32: rlm@47: - compression :: brain-aware image compression algorithm rlm@32: rlm@44: - Credit card proxy :: would be a company which works like paypal rlm@44: except for real world transactions rlm@32: rlm@33: - Flesh pillow :: a pillow like the arm or torso of a human, complete rlm@33: with simulated temperature, bones, and heartbeat. rlm@33: rlm@47: - super screw :: a screw which has only one or two threads and instead rlm@47: uses compression to fit into a hole (the whole shank rlm@33: of the screw is split into multiple pieces to rlm@33: accomplish this; the tip is a point, then the middle rlm@33: bulges out and gets compressed when screwed in. rlm@33: rlm@47: - light filter :: (like light tweezers) to mechanically separate rlm@33: fluids with different index of refraction rlm@33: rlm@33: - chalk eraser project :: maybe make a directional eraser, for easy rlm@33: release of chalk dust, like fur, and how it likes to rest in a rlm@33: certain direction. rlm@33: rlm@44: - silver socks :: socks laced with silver for the antimicrobial rlm@44: properties. rlm@32: rlm@53: - UROP :: magnet gear/metal teeth tape rlm@53: rlm@82: - Rod of Moses :: device to distill urine through evaporation and rlm@53: easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert -- rlm@53: produce drinkable water. rlm@32: rlm@47: - UROP :: Make the LED in line with the flow for the micro injector, so rlm@44: that it may transmit maximum flow. Motor that changes rlm@44: distance of internal magnet from windings depending on rlm@44: desired speed so as to obtain maximum power efficiency. rlm@32: rlm@47: - lottery scraper :: web scraper which monitors various lotteries, rlm@44: looking for "special" gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x rlm@44: winnings on Wednesdays) and computes expected value... rlm@34: rlm@34: - Memristiors novel design :: make an evolutionary algorithm to make rlm@34: old stuff using all four basic circuit elements. rlm@34: rlm@44: - Conductive concrete :: concrete that has embedded metal fibers so rlm@44: that it can conduct electricity. rlm@34: rlm@44: - little bitty melting pot :: might be useful for some types of rlm@44: manufacturing/3D printing -- how small can an induction melter be rlm@44: made, for example. rlm@34: rlm@44: - power strip/timer programmable combination :: meh rlm@34: rlm@47: - algorithms :: which learn what their inputs are and in what order, rlm@44: and can adapt to changing circumstances -- they rlm@44: remember previous arguments and adapt so as to respond rlm@44: to different connections. rlm@34: rlm@47: - true pure tones :: hear a true pure tone by direct stimulation of the rlm@44: nerves of the ear rlm@43: rlm@43: - mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp :: would be an object rlm@43: with two levers -- you pull on one lever and the other moves the rlm@43: same way, no matter what's in the way or what it is driving. This rlm@47: analogy could be useful to teach op amps to people. rlm@34: rlm@47: - paper folding device :: make it convenient to fold lots of papers in rlm@34: various ways. rlm@34: rlm@34: - concrete epoxy :: epoxy with sand/ some other solid material. rlm@34: rlm@47: - light capacitor :: suspend some ball of material with a high index rlm@43: of refraction and shine light into it so it gets stuck -- would rlm@43: the light stay trapped forever? Could you build up unlimited rlm@43: quantities of light inside the sphere (which could then be rlm@43: released slowly by frustrated internal reflection? rlm@34: rlm@40: - movie screening :: Movies always are too long at first. One way to rlm@34: shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the rlm@34: move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which rlm@34: there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people) rlm@34: better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I rlm@34: got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill rlm@47: which is composed entirely of the parts in which people had their rlm@34: eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their rlm@34: eyes off of? Just take those parts out! rlm@34: rlm@47: - optimize an article :: capture reading of a scientific article via rlm@44: screen capture while people read it, then use it to make the rlm@44: article better. like the movie-pruning idea. rlm@35: rlm@44: - super reading program :: teaches people the ideal mental mask to rlm@44: apply during reading so as to read very fast. rlm@35: rlm@44: - explosive thermite epoxy putty :: one part would contain the rust, rlm@47: one part the aluminum. rlm@34: rlm@44: - reading comprehension :: use the above screen capture routine to rlm@44: make a quiz program that constructs questions about the content rlm@44: you seemed to gloss over while reading. could be easy if the pdf rlm@44: came with embedded questions. Dylan: automatically generate rlm@44: word-cloud about the parts you found most interesting; help rlm@44: others who read the same stuff by drawing attention to the rlm@44: interesting parts. rlm@34: rlm@44: - hard sword :: make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of rlm@44: martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better rlm@44: sword. rlm@32: rlm@44: - close range wireless :: use the induction technology used to rlm@44: recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data rlm@44: without any metal at all! rlm@32: rlm@44: - reading :: is a form of synsethesia rlm@32: rlm@44: - DNA printer :: A machine which translates the text eg, "ACTGAC" into rlm@44: actual DNA rlm@32: rlm@44: - black generator :: ferro-fluid magnetic field suspended micro rlm@44: generator to make electricity rlm@32: rlm@44: - alcohol battery :: alcohol/fluid flow powered battery rlm@32: rlm@44: - folding razor blade sword :: rlm@32: rlm@44: - perfect pitch :: learn perfect pitch using another sense in rlm@44: combination (sight or touch) rlm@32: rlm@44: - kaleidoscope projector :: rlm@32: rlm@44: - razor blade de-sharpener :: for guilt free disposal rlm@32: rlm@44: - bricks :: filled with luminescent plant material rlm@32: rlm@47: - bio metallic structure :: metal grids with seeds inside, which grow rlm@44: together and form a durable biological matrix. The metal rlm@44: substrate delivers water. (maybe use plastic instead of metal?) rlm@44: Dylan: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical rlm@44: interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled rlm@44: photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures. rlm@32: rlm@44: - conducting extracellular matrix :: to allow better control of rlm@44: organic systems and an enhanced nervous system. rlm@32: rlm@44: - cross-modal memory hashing :: a way to retrieve memories more rlm@44: robustly. rlm@32: rlm@47: - flossing thimble-guards :: (these actually exist) rlm@32: rlm@44: - rules + lattice learning :: integrate lattice learning with rules by rlm@44: generating hypothetical examples rlm@32: rlm@47: - wooden refrigerator :: to give food a better taste Dylan: like rlm@44: barrels for wine, or planks for salmon. Maybe just have "flavor rlm@44: planks" for your pre-existing fridge. Need to mitigate effect of rlm@44: temperature on volatility? rlm@32: rlm@35: - radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule :: create precious rlm@35: metals or something else economically advantageous. rlm@32: rlm@47: - crowd preservation :: inoculate food with tons of harmless rlm@44: bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of rlm@44: preservation rlm@32: rlm@47: - old school preservation :: Pasteur - style holding jar with siphon rlm@47: as a way to store liquids at room temperature indefinitely w/o rlm@47: refrigeration. rlm@32: rlm@47: - restaurant policy :: Throw rude people out of restaurant as a matter rlm@44: of course -- make ambiance much better. rlm@32: rlm@47: - clean windows :: make something that mixes soap with fire hydrant rlm@44: water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it rlm@44: to clean windows of buildings. rlm@32: rlm@44: - ocarina :: make an ocarina out of pure silver rlm@32: rlm@35: - fire pen :: pen which burns words on to the page, thus never needing rlm@47: any ink. Is there a way to make it runnable from the rlm@35: human's energy? rlm@32: rlm@44: - website to design your own soda :: and label, and have it mailed to rlm@44: you / sell it from your own online store. rlm@35: rlm@44: - solar panels :: that float on the ocean rlm@43: rlm@35: - handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?) :: great for daisy chaining rlm@43: people, binding them to environment, etc. rlm@35: rlm@35: - vector based SOUND files :: like the pictures but with SOUND. codify rlm@35: sound in a language with enough symbols so that it can describe rlm@35: everything and encode it in that. would be like going from speech rlm@43: to text or smtg. Could also store sound as an image of the rlm@35: wavefront encoded as a vector image. rlm@32: rlm@44: - Mouse :: with a horizontal scroll wheel in addition to the vertical rlm@44: scroll wheel rlm@32: rlm@47: - logic maintenance system for big institutions :: to make sure the rlm@44: things they are thinking about doing are not retarded rlm@32: rlm@47: - http://www.regulations.gov/ :: cool site rlm@32: rlm@44: - genetically engineered glowing fruit :: sell seeds? rlm@32: rlm@36: - memory slide :: IF memories are encoded using particular sensory rlm@36: impressions, what happens if the sensory organ rlm@36: itself changes? those memories would become rlm@47: inaccessible. maybe this is why we can't remember rlm@36: much from our childhoods. also, could this happen rlm@47: throughout life as well? Could S remember stuff from rlm@36: his childhood? rlm@32: rlm@47: - make a completely indestructible phone :: no moving parts or display rlm@36: you should be able to slam it around all you want, and it will rlm@36: just work. brutally simple. aerogel around the battery, minimal rlm@36: interface - never gets too hot, and can be dropped into water. no rlm@36: holes -- uses field effects for everything from the buttons to rlm@36: inductive charging and data transfer. rlm@32: rlm@44: - midi to ocarina "tabs" program :: (online website? buy ocarinas from rlm@44: it too) rlm@32: rlm@44: - 3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns) :: like the 8.03 rlm@44: lecture rlm@32: rlm@40: - lighter flint on spring :: make hot, throw it at something, and it rlm@40: makes sparkles! rlm@32: rlm@44: - nuclear energy :: Rebranding New+Clear Energy with informational rlm@44: campaign and public debate forum to enforce its rlm@44: transparent and open nature. France needn't be the rlm@44: world leader in nuclear energy. (Dylan) rlm@32: rlm@44: - bubbles :: Engineer a material which has both ductility and high rlm@44: surface tension to make the "third" rlm@44: minimal-surface-energy solution to a bubble suspended rlm@44: between two equal-diameter rings. (Solutions are rlm@44: cylindrical catenary curve, two separated half-bubbles, rlm@44: and a double-cone) rlm@38: rlm@38: - Textbook whose content can be varied continuously :: alter level of rlm@38: difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain rlm@38: other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from rlm@38: knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to rlm@38: guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of rlm@40: knowledge. /One./ rlm@40: rlm@40: ** From Jacob's idea list rlm@40: rlm@47: - Roommate-canceling headphones: uses roommate's laptop mic to seed rlm@43: noise cancellation alg in your headphones (would this rlm@40: work?). -Update on sound canceling headphones that take feed from rlm@40: tv: how about ones that cancel people talking on the phone by rlm@40: receiving the phone signals and playing inverse sound rlm@40: waves. #signalprocessing ~jcole@mit.edu rlm@40: rlm@40: - ClackerAlert -- tells if you slam the keys too hard using sound data rlm@40: (and speed/jerkiness data)!.Prevents RSI ~jcole@mit.e rlm@40: rlm@40: - Panic Pin :: separate pin that you can tell someone if forced to rlm@41: identify your PIN (idea from idea about credit cards)