rlm@145: #+title: Big List O' Ideas
rlm@145: #+author: Robert McIntyre
rlm@145: #+email: rlm@mit.edu
rlm@145: #+description: list of ideas from Robert McIntyre
rlm@145: #+keywords: aurellem ideas half-baked random
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rlm@145: 
rlm@145: * Ideas
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rlm@145:   # :HTML_CONTAINER_CLASS: ideas
rlm@145:   # :END:
rlm@145: 
rlm@145:   This is a list of all the good ideas I've had that I felt like writing
rlm@145:   down for the past ~ 10 years. Some of them could be practical
rlm@145:   inventions and are "just" waiting for that 95% perspiration to bring
rlm@145:   them to fruition, some are ideas for science fiction, and some are
rlm@145:   simple observations.  They are arranged roughly in reverse
rlm@145:   chronological order, with the most recent ideas at the top of the
rlm@145:   list. The ones at the bottom of the list are heavily influenced by my
rlm@145:   time at MIT, the ones at the top, by my time at 21st Century Medicine.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145:   If you find some of these interesting and would like to collaborate on
rlm@145:   them with me or discuss them in more detail, I'd love to hear from
rlm@145:   you. You can email me at ideas@aurellem.org.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145:   If you want to use one of these ideas as your own and run with it,
rlm@145:   please feel free. I'd love to hear about it if you do.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145:   #+begin_quote
rlm@145:   There's no end to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care about
rlm@145:   getting credit.
rlm@145:   #+end_quote
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: 
rlm@145:   #+BEGIN_HTML
rlm@145: <hr/>
rlm@145:   #+END_HTML
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** The Ocean becomes a Drop 
rlm@145:    Upload faces challenges to grow into they type of person that can
rlm@145:    join the greater society -- a god. They have to go though quests
rlm@145:    that replicate all the things that humanity had to accomplish, like
rlm@145:    going to the moon, by themselves.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Butterfly Drone
rlm@145:    If big butterflies used to exist, then maybe we could make
rlm@145:    butterfly-inspired drones!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Methylation Sex-Symmetry Breaking
rlm@145:    Human sex cells have methylation patterns that encode male/female
rlm@145:    origin. If you combine two male patterns, the fetus grows "too
rlm@145:    fast" and dies. Two female patterns causes the fetus to enter a
rlm@145:    "vegatable" state and fail to develop. Evolutionary biologists say
rlm@145:    that this reflects the asymmetry of energy investement for creating
rlm@145:    offspring. If that's true, then species that cast-spawn will lack
rlm@145:    this asymmetry, and give clues about how to remove it in humans. If
rlm@145:    even cast spawners like sea urchins have it, then that means
rlm@145:    there's something deeper going on!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Homosexual Reproduction
rlm@145:    You take genetic material from two males and put it into an egg
rlm@145:    cell that has had all genetic material removed. Or, you take the
rlm@145:    genetic material from one egg and put it in another egg. This would
rlm@145:    allow homosexual couples to genetically reproduce. One technical
rlm@145:    challenge blocking this technique is that human gametes have
rlm@145:    methylation patterns that encode male/female origin, and only a
rlm@145:    male+female pattern gives rise to viable offspring. You could
rlm@145:    "recondition" male / female gametes to give them the opposite
rlm@145:    pattern, perhaps by incubating them in the appropriate
rlm@145:    environment. You also could try taking stem cells and making them
rlm@145:    form the appropriate structures in vitro.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Poly-Vitrification
rlm@145:    Large molecules such as PVP are able to vitrify at around -20C, and
rlm@145:    at farily small concentrations. IF they could be introduced into
rlm@145:    cells, they would be quite useful as vitrification agents. However,
rlm@145:    it's difficult to get them in because they are so big. So instead,
rlm@145:    use smaller agents which combine together into polymers at low
rlm@145:    temperature. In particular, Fructose, trehalose, and glycerol seem
rlm@145:    to have the desired properties (though you need to make versions of
rlm@145:    fructose and trehalose that can penetrate).
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Whole Brain Perfusion Embedding
rlm@145:    Do the standard EM embedding protocol, but skip the osmium step,
rlm@145:    and use the "perfusion pausing" method to prevent overextraction
rlm@145:    during the dehydration and embedding steps. I think that you can
rlm@145:    perfuse resins into the brain, simply because you can perfuse
rlm@145:    viscous rubber when doing vascular casts.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Very Slow Physiological Pressure Perfusion
rlm@145:    Less extreme example of the "perfusion pausing" trick -- just keep
rlm@145:    the perfusion running and don't put the perfusion target into the
rlm@145:    liquid as deep.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Perfusion Pausing
rlm@145:    One problem with doing perfusion of heads / organs where the veins
rlm@145:    freely leak fluid is that if you STOP the perfusion, you rapidly
rlm@145:    loose pressure in the organ as your perfusate leaks out. You can
rlm@145:    prevent this by submerging the organ/head/rat whatever in fluid at
rlm@145:    an appropriate deepness. You would have to slowly decrease the flow
rlm@145:    rate while simultaneously lowering the perfusing object into the
rlm@145:    fluid. To start again, reverse the process -- reengage the
rlm@145:    peristaltic pump slowly while removing the organ from the fluid.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Textbook Mimiricy Evolution
rlm@145:    As surgery becomes more common, there develops a distinct selective
rlm@145:    pressure for individuals' organ layouts to look more like the
rlm@145:    medical textbooks!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Transparent Skin
rlm@145:    Temporary / permament transparent skin. Allows for examination of
rlm@145:    organs / muscles and visual prevention of disease and detection or
rlm@145:    abnormalities / good things eg. excercise optimization.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Sweet Information
rlm@145:    Candy with a whole book written in it. Eat a book!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Targeted Immunosuppressant
rlm@145:    Just kill off the B-cells and friends that would cause problems in
rlm@145:    a organ-transplant / other situation. AIDS is good at killing these
rlm@145:    cells -- maybe make it can be modified to just target the ones that
rlm@145:    will cause problems. Then you can premptively kill off that part of
rlm@145:    someone's immune system before a transplant. ALSO, you can kill off
rlm@145:    everyone's defenses against other blood types and make people
rlm@145:    effectively type AB+ w.r.t blood transfusions. Actually, why not
rlm@145:    give babies this treatment so that they're automatically compatable
rlm@145:    with all blood types?  It would be like a blood transfusion
rlm@145:    vaccine. The immune system does this already when it's first
rlm@145:    growing; maybe it can be "retrained" to accept new things, or the
rlm@145:    mechanism of immune cell death be co-opted for these purposes.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Fuck-you Tetris
rlm@145:    Tetris that actively gives you the worst possible piece.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Pockets
rlm@145:    More things should have them! Chairs, tables, cups, hats,
rlm@145:    trashcans, basically anything is better with a pocket.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Colored Shower Head
rlm@145:    A shower head add-on that measures the temp of the water and
rlm@145:    changes the color of the water streams w/ an LED to show you the
rlm@145:    temperature. That way you can align to the color you want and see
rlm@145:    the temperature without feeling it.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Giant Dragonflies
rlm@145:    We could rapidly MAKE giant dragonflies by evolving modern
rlm@145:    dragonflies in an very oxygen rich environment!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Whirlpool of Light
rlm@145:    Shine a laser out into space. But the planet is spinning! What you
rlm@145:    get is a spiral of light! And as this signal expands, does it
rlm@145:    eventually reveal it's quantized nature?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Perfusion Cooking
rlm@145:    You do cardiac bypass on an animal like a pig, then pump in tasty,
rlm@145:    tasty perfusate (like marinade) into the animal's
rlm@145:    vasculature. Then, you switch out to saline and increase the
rlm@145:    temperature of the saline to rapidly and uniformly cook the
rlm@145:    animal. It could be the tastiest meat ever!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Timestamp Verification
rlm@145:    You sign your message, and it has a timestamp at the top, with a +-
rlm@145:    percision number.  Then you send it over to the public timestamp
rlm@145:    server, which only signs the message if it gets the message within
rlm@145:    the timestamp window. Or the computer just signs the message but
rlm@145:    puts a timestamp at the beginning. So if everyone trusts the
rlm@145:    timestamp server, you can get reliable timestamps, and prove
rlm@145:    priority on ideas, etc.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** The Great Computing Slow-Down
rlm@145:    In general, our computers are getting faster and faster according
rlm@145:    to Moore's law. However, eventually our brains will be made of the
rlm@145:    same stuff our computers are made of! This has very interesting
rlm@145:    consequences -- I can add 2+2 and get four in about a second. Since
rlm@145:    my neurons actually work at around 10-60 hertz in parallel, this
rlm@145:    means that it takes me around 10-30 operations to do this
rlm@145:    addition. That's actually not bad in terms of computing time. If my
rlm@145:    neurons were as fast as the latest transitors, then most
rlm@145:    calculators (made with earlier transistors) would be SLOWER than me
rlm@145:    at adding numbers. Only the newest, most optimized calculators
rlm@145:    would be faster, and then only about 10 times faster!  This means
rlm@145:    that once we begin to think at the speed of our technology, that
rlm@145:    technology will suddenly seem pitifully slow in comparison to how
rlm@145:    it seems now. And no amount of technical progress will remedy it,
rlm@145:    because that same progress will also make us all think
rlm@145:    faster. We'll either have to settle with living in "slow time" to
rlm@145:    do some computations, or learn to make smarter hardware with
rlm@145:    special optimizations. But this is actually really hard, because
rlm@145:    we'll be working with machines that will appear to us about as fast
rlm@145:    as MECHANICAL computers. So, in the future, all the cool parties
rlm@145:    will be in cyperspace at vastly accelerated speeds compared to how
rlm@145:    we exist now. But at these parties, the computers will SUCK!  Of
rlm@145:    course, this is one of the few things that can save us from AI
rlm@145:    risk, because those AI's won't seem so scary when the're build out
rlm@145:    of rickety old mechanical parts form our perspective.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Unitary Reverse Evolution of Chaos+Minds
rlm@145:    Chaotic systems diverge exponentially in state space. Do you get
rlm@145:    anything interesting when part of the physical system associated
rlm@145:    with the chaotic system is a object that performs some sort of
rlm@145:    computation? Is it possible for the computational system to play a
rlm@145:    percision-enabling role in determining the final/initial conditions
rlm@145:    of the chaotic system, just by tracing out thoughts in its decision
rlm@145:    paths? This is probably too vague of an idea right now, I just
rlm@145:    wanted to write it down.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Microwave-Time
rlm@145:    The cooking time you enter on most microwaves is insane. It's
rlm@145:    expressed in what I call a "hybrid base", a combination of base 10
rlm@145:    and base 60. You can get absurd things like 100 < 61, and 120 ==
rlm@145:    80! I wonder if these hybrid base systems could be very useful for
rlm@145:    some purposes!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Three Eyes
rlm@145:    If you had three eyes, would you still draw cubes like we currently
rlm@145:    draw them? Or would all 2D-representations of 3D space always look
rlm@145:    hopelessly fake?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Digital Taste/Smell Assay
rlm@145:    Get a grid of bacteria, each expressing a human taste/smell
rlm@145:    receptor linked to some sort of fluorscent activity or ion
rlm@145:    pump. Use a camera / electrical grid to transduce the smell / taste
rlm@145:    signal into bits! Inspired by gel-sight from MIT.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Childrens' Tool Shop
rlm@145:    I think that kids should be provided with tool shops -- these would
rlm@145:    be nice sheds with a good collection of tools to do various things
rlm@145:    -- circuit components and soldering irons, wires, a small lathe,
rlm@145:    drill press, belt sander, a centrifuge, microscope, and telescope,
rlm@145:    etc. The idea is that the kid can now think, "I could use X to do
rlm@145:    this thing that I'm thinking about" -- the building becomes an
rlm@145:    extension of the kid's body & mind.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Fluid Display
rlm@145:    Like the previous idea about matching refractances between glass
rlm@145:    and liquid, except you make a lot of switchable glass tubes in
rlm@145:    various patterns in the glass, and actively pump colored liquid
rlm@145:    through the tubes (the tubes have glass-like fluid in them by
rlm@145:    default.) The result is that you can cause the tubes to appear and
rlm@145:    dissappear, and vary their colors as well!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Immunoincompatibility
rlm@145:    Take the human genome, and refactor it so that it doesn't use a
rlm@145:    particular codon at all. Then remove the support from our ribosomes
rlm@145:    for that codon. What does this do for us? It makes us immune to
rlm@145:    almost all viruses! There is at least one bacteria that already
rlm@145:    does this to great effect.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Life Cycle
rlm@145:    It's called a cycle, right? So, the thing that repeats itself over
rlm@145:    and over, right? Not much of a cycle if you don't come back after
rlm@145:    you die, if you ask me!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Car with no Blind Spots
rlm@145:    Use some cameras in the back of the car to augment the rear-view
rlm@145:    mirror so that you never have to turn around in order to lane
rlm@145:    change.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Metabolic Windows and Freezing
rlm@145:    You freeze a set of cells using some cryo protocol and 60%
rlm@145:    survive. How can this be explained? It seems to me that if the
rlm@145:    cells are the same, and the conditions homogoneous, then all the
rlm@145:    cells should either die or live. However, suppose that there is a
rlm@145:    metabolic cycle that needs to be in a certain phase for the cell to
rlm@145:    survive. If the cells are asynchronous, then you might end up with
rlm@145:    some cells dying because there were in the wrong part of their
rlm@145:    cycle. This implies that you might be able to cryoprotect cells by
rlm@145:    causing them to enter a certain metabolic mode before freezing.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Cryonics Color Appeal
rlm@145:    Perfusate used by cryonics companies could have red food coloring
rlm@145:    in it. It's just a nice touch so that the cryonics patient looks
rlm@145:    more life-like than with clear CPAs, and hopefully might get
rlm@145:    treated with more respect.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: ** Paramagnetic CPA
rlm@145:    you take a CPA that can be influenced by magnetic fields so that
rlm@145:    its degrees of freedom are limited. Then, you release the field,
rlm@145:    instantaly increasing the size of the state space of the system and
rlm@145:    dramatically decreasing the temperature enough to plunge the system
rlm@145:    past homogenous nucleation temperature and directly to the glass
rlm@145:    transition temperature, creating a doubly unstable glass at much
rlm@145:    lower CPA concentrations than possible at conventional CPA
rlm@145:    concentrations. A major technical limitation facing this technique
rlm@145:    is that it's a very minor effect -- you can only get about 0.1C
rlm@145:    with most systems that have been studied so far.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - room temp noodles :: how does the physics of cooking noodles work?
rlm@145:      Could you use a vacuum instead of heat to force water into the
rlm@145:      noodle?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - personal carbon offset :: feel bad about contribuiting to global
rlm@145:      warming by using electricity / driving a car? Forget trying to
rlm@145:      "conserve" or "minimize your carbon footprint". Follow the
rlm@145:      Platinum rule -- make the world BETTER off than you found it!
rlm@145:      This would be a small, self contained system that sucks C02 out
rlm@145:      of the air. It uses electricity, but it's so efficient at
rlm@145:      removing CO2 that it more than offsets the CO2 produced by even a
rlm@145:      coal plant to produce that electricity. This way, you can still
rlm@145:      drive even a gas guzzler, but have a net negative carbon
rlm@145:      footprint! Maybe something cool could be done with the carbon as
rlm@145:      well. Use as much electricity as you want, but negate the damage
rlm@145:      to the enviroment with more technology. 
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - undoing spermogenesis :: with enough sperm, you can derive the
rlm@145:      donor's entire genome. You gain more confidence in the alleles
rlm@145:      for a particular gene the more sperm you have. Each additional
rlm@145:      sperm gives you the same sort of information you'd get flipping a
rlm@145:      coin and trying to decide whether the coin is H/T of H/H. Is
rlm@145:      there enough sperm in the the average load for you to be as
rlm@145:      confident as mitosis?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - mars life :: we could engineer life that could survive on mars
rlm@145:      (probably some non-vascular photosynthetic poikilohydric creature
rlm@145:      like a lichen) by taking an extremophile from Antarctica and
rlm@145:      evolving it in increasingly Martian conditions. This could be an
rlm@145:      easy start to a terraforming process.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - problem with Aubrey de Grey's ideas :: Aubrey de Grey says that we
rlm@145:      might be able to live forever by continually repairing our bodies
rlm@145:      at the cellular level -- he details 7 different mechanisms of
rlm@145:      damage and says that if all of them are dealt with /together/
rlm@145:      that it would stop aging. (You can't miss even one because
rlm@145:      they're all fatal.)  However, it doesn't take into account that
rlm@145:      we are also beings of information and that there is a very real
rlm@145:      software component to our existence. Even if our biological
rlm@145:      chassies can be maintained forever, I think it is unlikely that
rlm@145:      our minds will operate well far outside of the design constraints
rlm@145:      that we've evolved to handle. Say I programmed a webserver with
rlm@145:      the express goal of it being able to serve webpages for month on
rlm@145:      some stock server. I'll do fairly rigorous testing to make sure
rlm@145:      that it can handle the expected load then then some. Now say that
rlm@145:      you want to keep a particular instance of this webserver running
rlm@145:      indefinitely. (The program instance is like your mind and the
rlm@145:      computer it's running on is like your body). You might very well
rlm@145:      be able to keep the physical computer infrastructure running for
rlm@145:      forever by replacing hard drives / ram / CPUs, etc. However,
rlm@145:      since I designed the webserver to work for a month, it probably
rlm@145:      has memory leaks, rare stochastic bugs, or other built in limits
rlm@145:      / constraints (think log files or some date rollover shenanigans)
rlm@145:      that will ultimately kill the webserver even with eternally
rlm@145:      perfect hardware. Do you really expect that a webserver
rlm@145:      engineered to work for 1 month will run for 10 years without
rlm@145:      catastrophically crashing? Not even Apache can do this! In fact,
rlm@145:      if I put in the extreme effort to make it that robust, I've
rlm@145:      wasted time that I could have spent on other projects by pursuing
rlm@145:      an unnecessary engineering goal. Likewise, human minds have only
rlm@145:      ever run for at most 122 years before they are destroyed due to
rlm@145:      hardware degradation. Fixing the hardware doesn't change any
rlm@145:      software bugs that are almost certainly present in the human
rlm@145:      mind. Think of all the pathological things that can go wrong with
rlm@145:      a webserver, multiply it by a million, and that likely how
rlm@145:      evolution has designed our minds. For example, consider memory :
rlm@145:      why should you expect that we have evolved the ability to
rlm@145:      coherently organize memories past say 150 years? There's been
rlm@145:      absolutely no selective pressure for this ability, so you can bet
rlm@145:      that if there's any fitness to be gained from not having
rlm@145:      unlimited memory potential (such as better metabolic efficiency),
rlm@145:      we have it! You might think that maybe we would just forget
rlm@145:      things the same way that we sort of forget things that happen
rlm@145:      earlier in our lives, but complicated information processing
rlm@145:      systems don't have to fail gracefully when they're pushed far
rlm@145:      past their design constraints. A 150 year old person is just as
rlm@145:      likely to suffer a catastrophic psychosis due to software
rlm@145:      limitations associated with memory as he is to do something with
rlm@145:      all those memories we might consider reasonable. More likely, in
rlm@145:      fact, since there are so very many ways for a complicated
rlm@145:      software system to break and so few ways for it to run
rlm@145:      successfully. Therefore, I think Aubrey de Grey's "hardware-only"
rlm@145:      approach is missing a very important component of longevity
rlm@145:      science, and any successful effort to make people live orders of
rlm@145:      magnitude longer than they do naturally will need to deal with
rlm@145:      people's software as well as their hardware.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - validating neurocryopreservation :: Problem : you want to test
rlm@145:      whether a brain is functionally preserved through vitrification,
rlm@145:      but you don't want to figure out how to preserve all the other
rlm@145:      organs in the animal. It might be possible to keep the rest of
rlm@145:      the body at almost 0C and vitrify just the head for only a few
rlm@145:      minutes. Induce hypothermia, then separate out the head's blood
rlm@145:      supply from the rest of the body, then just cryoptotect and
rlm@145:      vitrify the head. Might need some sort of thermal guard to keep
rlm@145:      the outer head / neck from becoming too cold. You leave the
rlm@145:      spinal cord intact! Then you devitrify to 0C, remove
rlm@145:      cryoprotectant, and then reattach the blood supply. You can
rlm@145:      determine brain preservation using behavioral assays!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - freezing water purifier :: you slowly freeze water, but also run
rlm@145:      liquid water over the frozen mass. This takes away basically all
rlm@145:      impurities and creates "washed ice" then you melt the ice. Maybe
rlm@145:      you could re-use the heat from creating the ice to melt the ice?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - ultra strength :: allow a person to visualize their muscle
rlm@145:      recruitment patterns. Give them adrenaline and let them feel what
rlm@145:      it's like to have the normal limits removed. See if they can
rlm@145:      replicate the effects.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - phone names :: make a PX record for domain names that's like the MX
rlm@145:      record, except that it is a phone number instead of an IP
rlm@145:      address. That way, you can use the domain name registration
rlm@145:      system to provide names for phone numbers. Then, as long as you
rlm@145:      control the domain, you can point people to your current phone
rlm@145:      number by updating that record.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - edible flowers :: Edible white flowers that you put in a colored
rlm@145:      solution with flavor. When the flower turns the right color, it
rlm@145:      is also flavored and ready to eat!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - lead bone :: Could you fill in all the empty spaces in a bone with
rlm@145:      lead? Might be cool!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - the quest for life  :: Many stories that have immortal characters
rlm@145:      have the "immortal who wants to become mortal" trope. I want to
rlm@145:      story where the protagonist loses their immortality and feels
rlm@145:      /angry/ and ashamed about losing something that's so absolutely
rlm@145:      crucial to their identity. A reverse of "death makes life worth
rlm@145:      living", they feel that living forever is what makes life worth
rlm@145:      living. Now they've "lost their sunrise" or their "connection to
rlm@145:      the timeless universe" or something. So they go on a quest to get
rlm@145:      it back, learning about themselves along the way, and regaining
rlm@145:      the precious thing they lost in the beginning. Which, it they can
rlm@145:      actually gain their immortality back, means that they never lost
rlm@145:      it in the first place!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - world-map :: take a small table and paint the continents in
rlm@145:      toothpaste on the table. Make a slightly raised barrier around
rlm@145:      the table. Slowly pour water onto the table, and it will form the
rlm@145:      oceans!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - stage magic rituals :: rituals should incorporate elements of stage
rlm@145:      magic. For example in Teller's rendition of Shakespeare's
rlm@145:      Tempest, they have a scene where they levitate a crown in front
rlm@145:      of someone, then put it on his head. They also have a wedding
rlm@145:      ceremony where they levitated the bride as well. Actual weddings
rlm@145:      and other ceremonies should incorporate stage magic as an
rlm@145:      enhancement to the gravitas!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - isotope time dilation :: use a cyclotron to speed up rare isotopes
rlm@145:      developed in nuclear fusion experiments. The relativistic time
rlm@145:      dilation will stop the isotopes from decaying, and allow time to
rlm@145:      study them. This is based on radioactive isotopes that fall
rlm@145:      through the earth's atmosphere that take hundreds of times longer
rlm@145:      to decay than normal.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - marsupial stimulation :: You take a freshly pouched marsupial baby,
rlm@145:      and show it videos and other interactive things while it matures
rlm@145:      in the pouch. What mental effects would this have?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - The dynamically well tempered clavier :: Some older ways of tuning
rlm@145:      instruments sound better, but we use the even-tempered scale
rlm@145:      today because it makes it easier to switch keys. With electronic
rlm@145:      music, why not make key-annotations and dynamically re-tune the
rlm@145:      piece to sound good in the current key? Could be done as a
rlm@145:      midi+annotation -> midi compiler for initial experimentation.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - death always implies damage :: is is possible for a corpse to differ
rlm@145:      from a living person only in the fact that one is dead and the
rlm@145:      other is alive? NO! A corpse must always have some sort of
rlm@145:      molecular damage which causes the loss of function!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - inner eye :: Surgically install a bunch of tiny cameras inside a
rlm@145:      person. Then, you can activate them all and get a picture of your
rlm@145:      internal organs for diagnostic purposes.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - chaos rails :: The homoclinic tangle (which I call the "rails of
rlm@145:      chaos") is very beautiful. We couldn't even visualize it before
rlm@145:      computers because it's so complicated! Someone should make a
rlm@145:      visualization of it. Here's my inital [[/thoughts/images/rails-of-chaos.png][The Rails of Chaos]]
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - cryonics middle ages :: some people say that cryonics is an
rlm@145:      experiment and that it is foolish to wait until we have revived a
rlm@145:      human. There is a middle ground where the procedure has a dismal
rlm@145:      success rate on humans, say 1 in 20, so that you'd be a fool to
rlm@145:      try revival. Nonetheless, this very risky procedure could be the
rlm@145:      legal proof of concept needed to create a new class of life
rlm@145:      between "living" and "dead": "stasis".
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Minds and Mirrors :: neat thought experiment -- if you take a mirror
rlm@145:      of someone by actually reversing a person's chirality molecule by
rlm@145:      molecule, then will the only be able to read mirror writing? The
rlm@145:      answer is yes, by analogy to a purely mechanical scan-tron
rlm@145:      device. This is one of the only interesting transforms I know
rlm@145:      that can take a human brain and change it in subtle,
rlm@145:      non-destructive ways. It's also an argument against dualism.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - biosphere in a bottle :: There are around 15 million species. 15
rlm@145:      million stem cells will fill only a tiny size, far less than a cubic
rlm@145:      inch. Preserve a single cell from every species on earth in this
rlm@145:      small space, and you will have a record of our current biosphere
rlm@145:      that can be protected. "Hold the genetic data of all species in
rlm@145:      your hand!"
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - chaos lock :: The "arrow of time" points in the direction of
rlm@145:      increasing entropy. The time evolution of chaotic systems depend
rlm@145:      exquisitely on their initial state. If you take a measurement of
rlm@145:      a chaotic system at any given point of time, you can evolve that
rlm@145:      system backwards or forwards based on your measurement. So let's
rlm@145:      say you start the chaotic system in a VERY low entropy state,
rlm@145:      then let it run for a while, then take a measurement with some
rlm@145:      uncertainty. Your measurement is pretty good, but obviously not
rlm@145:      PERFECT. If you evolve the chaotic system back in time, then you
rlm@145:      will see that you don't really reach a state with low entropy an
rlm@145:      hour before (the entropy is easy to measure with surrogates like
rlm@145:      alignment, etc). So use this technique to SEARCH for a more
rlm@145:      accurate measurement! This potentially can give you many more
rlm@145:      orders of magnitude than you could get alone just using an
rlm@145:      instrument. Sometimes it will give you bad results, the the odds
rlm@145:      of it doing that are infinitesimal, and you can just measure a
rlm@145:      couple of times.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - cryo-evolution :: perhaps there would be a way to rapidly evolve a
rlm@145:      symbiotic bacterial organism that could protect human tissues
rlm@145:      from freezing damage.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - suicide parasite :: sometimes, people kill themselves for no good
rlm@145:      reason. We often explain this with things like "hidden
rlm@145:      depression" or we say that they had something like chronic jaw or
rlm@145:      back pain. I think that smells of rationalization. I don't buy
rlm@145:      it. I propose that in many suicide cases there is a disease that
rlm@145:      causes the suicidal behavior. We already know that certain
rlm@145:      parasites have mind-bending properties in other animals, even
rlm@145:      mammals like mice. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a
rlm@145:      parasite that causes suicides in humans. Some problems:
rlm@145:      - What does the suicide parasite get out of it? :: This might be
rlm@145:           answered by the whole thing being a glitch caused by
rlm@145:           cross-species contamination. Toxoplasma works this way.
rlm@145:      - What predictions does a disease model make :: suicide should
rlm@145:           be more common among people who share a contagion
rlm@145:           vector. There should be suicides that don't make any
rlm@145:           sense : people who weren't really depressed, who had no
rlm@145:           reason to kill themselves. People who have killed themselves
rlm@145:           should have a higher incidence of some unknown parasite in
rlm@145:           their brains. 
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - domestic insects :: People should eat more bugs because they're much
rlm@145:      more efficient, so why not do some major domestication research
rlm@145:      to make very appealing bugs? Beetles, in particular, seem to be
rlm@145:      excellent targets for domestication because they have extreme
rlm@145:      levels of genetic malleability. Remember that lobster was once
rlm@145:      seen as an animal only fit for prisoners to consume!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - birth-clones :: What if each person was intentionally split at birth
rlm@145:      into a normal embryo and a few "backup" cells which are then
rlm@145:      frozen. The backup cells are created just the same way as natural
rlm@145:      identical twins. The backups can be used to regenerate
rlm@145:      organs. etc. Also, it would be a good sci-fi concept, because you
rlm@145:      could have a culture where people reward people who were
rlm@145:      especially awesome are "reborn" from their backups. Imagine
rlm@145:      having a young Bach every generation, etc.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - pronunciation guide :: a simple webpage where you type in a word and
rlm@145:      it returns a simple, English sentence describing exactly how to
rlm@145:      pronounce the word. For people who don't want to learn IPA.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Learning to Teleport :: This is a story about a person who is
rlm@145:      struggling with his/her society's ideas about teleportation. It's
rlm@145:      considered a fundamental part of being a member of that society
rlm@145:      (after all, the difference between animals and humans is that
rlm@145:      humans are creatures of pure information while animals are
rlm@145:      burdened with base matter, "that's how you travel the stars,
rlm@145:      etc") Humans are born normally, grow up, and then eventually
rlm@145:      transcend via destructive upload. Analogies to jumping off a
rlm@145:      diving board into a pool (which I simply /could not do/ for a
rlm@145:      long time), etc.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - no-float-ice :: cup that has cross beams at the bottom where ice
rlm@145:      forms. Then when you drink liquid from the glass, the ice stays
rlm@145:      at the bottom and doesn't hit your lips. For bars and fancy
rlm@145:      things.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - bitcoins for immigrants :: A common case with Mexican immigrants
rlm@145:      (illegal or not) is that they want to send money they've earned
rlm@145:      in the US back to their families in Mexico. They currently do
rlm@145:      this through things like Money Gram or Western Union, and they
rlm@145:      get fleeced in the process with fees. Bitcoin could greatly
rlm@145:      reduce the cost of sending money from America to Mexico, but I
rlm@145:      don't believe that it's currently used for that among Mexican
rlm@145:      immigrants currently due to lack of knowledge. I bet you could
rlm@145:      set up physical locations like those obnoxious Western Union huts
rlm@145:      in places like Texas, Arizona, etc, and greatly undercut
rlm@145:      them. Or, perhaps some educational seminars about bitcoin might
rlm@145:      be in order. There's some money to be made there because there is
rlm@145:      great demand, and it's a good thing to boot!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - reverse eye-tracking :: A painting that is actually a digital screen
rlm@145:      with a camera. It records people's eye tracks permanently. It's
rlm@145:      "artistic" because paintings are normally these things that you
rlm@145:      look at without changing, but this one is changed the second you
rlm@145:      look at it, recording where /you/ looked forever for others to
rlm@145:      see. Make it be a painting of a woman and see the trolling as the
rlm@145:      breasts and groin area light up with interest from all the males
rlm@145:      passing by.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - smart toilets :: Instead of using indirect measures like infrared
rlm@145:      detectors of the presence of a person, use computer vision to
rlm@145:      directly measure whether the toilet needs to be flushed. I think
rlm@145:      a lot of things will end up going this way as we get better
rlm@145:      computer vision.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - validate chemopreservation :: chemopreservation is difficult to
rlm@145:      validate because it destroys the functionality of a brain, and
rlm@145:      brain simulation will take a long time to mature as a
rlm@145:      technology. However, one very powerful way to validate
rlm@145:      chemopreservation would be to have a person/animal learn
rlm@145:      something with high complexity such as a number or the solution
rlm@145:      to a maze, or a flashbulb memory. Then you preserve their brain
rlm@145:      chemically, slice it up, and read /that specific memory/ from the
rlm@145:      detailed brain scan. Much more difficult, but much more doable.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - candy screw :: edible candy screw with candy nuts that you can screw
rlm@145:      as well.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - better bibliography :: when writing a thesis or paper, have the
rlm@145:      bibliography not just be an opaque list of resources, but have it
rlm@145:      be a list of /summaries/ and /qualities/ that each paper has in
rlm@145:      the context of the paper being written. When examining a
rlm@145:      bibliography, I want to know if reading the papers in the
rlm@145:      bibliography are worth my time, and I also am probably also
rlm@145:      interested in exactly the things that are being discussed in the
rlm@145:      paper I'm reading. The bibliography is the perfect place to
rlm@145:      provide information about the referenced papers from the
rlm@145:      author's perspective. I will use this biographic form in my own
rlm@145:      thesis!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - chess visual :: to show the vast size of the game trees considered
rlm@145:      by computers, show two people playing chess in a void. They are
rlm@145:      floating in space, and there is a simple chess board between
rlm@145:      them. Then, as they play, the game tree's they are considering
rlm@145:      are drawn behind him. The root of the tree starts centered in
rlm@145:      their heads or whatever they use to think, and the tree grows out
rlm@145:      from behind, never crossing the dividing plane between the two
rlm@145:      players. Each player's tree is a different color. As they grow,
rlm@145:      there are animations for pruning, etc. Eventually, they look like
rlm@145:      the hemispheres of a brain, wings, etc. A human's tree might
rlm@145:      occasionally have a long chain, while the computer tree would be
rlm@145:      more uniform. You could compare deep blue and a modern
rlm@145:      laptop. Use actual data when fighting two computers!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - tamper proof gold bars :: [[http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/gold-plated-tungsten-alloy-bar.html][this site]] offers gold plated tungsten bars
rlm@145:      as "novelty" items. One reason to prefer coins is because they
rlm@145:      are much harder to counterfeit because there is less surface area
rlm@145:      to mass ratio. However, gold bars are still a great design
rlm@145:      because they can hold a lot of value in a small space. A gold bar
rlm@145:      could be given the same protections (and more) that gold coins
rlm@145:      have to offer by changing it into a "gold book", which would have
rlm@145:      hundreds of "pages" of gold bound together. This could be
rlm@145:      implemented with multiple steel rods going through the book which
rlm@145:      can be removed, or some more classier mechanism for holding the
rlm@145:      pages. The point is that the bar can be EASILY subdivided (and
rlm@145:      people would perform this test before buying), thus guaranteeing
rlm@145:      it's authenticity.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - high school science :: this is a lesson in scientific ethics. The
rlm@145:      goal is to calculate /g/, the local gravitational
rlm@145:      acceleration. The students are told that the textbook says it's
rlm@145:      /exactly/ 9.81 before they start the experiment. See how they
rlm@145:      doctor their results to get closer to the textbook value. It's
rlm@145:      neat because for any given school, /g/ is probably *not* exactly
rlm@145:      equal to 9.81, because that is just an average!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - opencourseware subtitles :: there are people who type up lectures at
rlm@145:      MIT while they are being given, so that hearing impared students
rlm@145:      can follow along. These recordings should be kept and given to
rlm@145:      OCW for subtitles. If the timestamps of keys are recorded, then
rlm@145:      it is easy to make subtitles.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - screen locking timing :: you use your computer camera to see if you
rlm@145:      are sitting in front of the computer. If you are, then the screen
rlm@145:      will never lock. If you are, then the screen will lock with a
rlm@145:      30-40 second timeout. It's an extension of using inactivity to
rlm@145:      initiate the countdown, just with more information.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - mirror toilet :: a toilet with a square basin made of mirror instead
rlm@145:      of porcelain. That way, you can see how good of a wipe job you
rlm@145:      have done / watch how your excretion system works.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - X-ray telepresence :: given that a doctor is operating on a patient
rlm@145:      via telepresence, one cool things you can do is shine X-rays into
rlm@145:      the patient to view the insides during real time. (This doesn't
rlm@145:      expose either the doctor or patient to chronically damaging
rlm@145:      amounts of X-rays) If the system was coupled with a Bayesian
rlm@145:      model of the layout of the structure, and the x-rays were only
rlm@145:      fired whenever the uncertainty of the model reached a certain
rlm@145:      threshold, then the radiation damage and surgery risk could be
rlm@145:      minimized.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - superfluid vascular system :: I wonder what would happen if you
rlm@145:      replaced the blood in a human with a superfluid. What would the
rlm@145:      physical dynamics be? Would the superfluid flow through the
rlm@145:      vasculature, or would it ignore it and travel through the cells,
rlm@145:      or something else entirely. Since superfluids need to be cold to
rlm@145:      retain their superfluidity, how would the dynamics change during
rlm@145:      perfusion of a superfluid, where the fluid gains and looses
rlm@145:      superfluidity as it goes deeper into the body and is cooled by
rlm@145:      superfluid from upstream. In summary there are two things to
rlm@145:      simulate 1.) replace all blood in human with superfluid
rlm@145:      instantly. 2.) perfuse superfluid into human.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - projective guessing :: I think that we read and see things by
rlm@145:      making a really good guess about what we're expecting to see,
rlm@145:      and then searching for our guess in what we see. If it really
rlm@145:      doesn't match, then we start to make more guesses / analyze the
rlm@145:      image from first principles, but most stuff is projective
rlm@145:      guessing.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Intestinal flora maintenance :: why not inoculate babies at birth
rlm@145:      with "ideal" gut flora instead of whatever bullshit they
rlm@145:      naturally get, thus giving them optimal digestive/nutrient
rlm@145:      extraction capabilities. Might also be able to make their farts
rlm@145:      not stink for life, too. MORE IMPORTANTLY, might help to
rlm@145:      preventatively stop some forms of /colic/, which affects 1 in 5
rlm@145:      babies and causes constant screaming and pain for about 5 weeks.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - server culture -- mirrors :: make a distributed system where people
rlm@145:      can mirror the websites of people they like -- essentially cover
rlm@145:      the server costs of favored websites. This could make popular
rlm@145:      websites run at no cost. The system would require that the
rlm@145:      mirrored content be the same as the official source. Sort of like
rlm@145:      bit-torrent for websites.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - map programming :: one problem with functional programming is that
rlm@145:      in order to remain functional, you have to pass up arguments up
rlm@145:      into each calling function to get the full range of behavior
rlm@145:      from the lower level functions. Normally people come to a
rlm@145:      compromise involving abstraction and sparing use of dynamic
rlm@145:      variables to configure runtime behavior. What would be the
rlm@145:      advantages of making a programming language where every function
rlm@145:      receives one argument, a map, which contains all the symbol
rlm@145:      bindings it would ever need? This map is passed on to all
rlm@145:      subordinate functions. This way, you could replace functions on
rlm@145:      the fly, and arrange for there to be sensible defaults,
rlm@145:      etc. Might cause more harm than good but is an interesting idea.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - rest nest :: a small EEG device you would attach to your head when
rlm@145:      you go to sleep at night. ML algorithms would determine your
rlm@145:      particular sleep cycles. This would mostly be an alarm clock that
rlm@145:      you could give a time range, say 7:00AM - 7:15AM, and it would
rlm@145:      wake you up during an ideal time corresponding to then end of one
rlm@145:      of your 90 min sleep cycles. You would feel much more rested upon
rlm@145:      waking up, and would wake up faster. There might be some other
rlm@145:      uses for the EEG data as well.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - image compression :: use a library like gimp or opencv to process an
rlm@145:      image to make it have less entropy, then store the reverse of
rlm@145:      those operations along with the compressed simpler image as a
rlm@145:      super-compressed image file (possibly accepting some
rlm@145:      losses). Trades file size for decompression time, and allows one
rlm@145:      to cheat by using information in gimp/opencv to compress the
rlm@145:      image. 
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - aldehyde-stabalized cryopreservation :: why not use a fixative to
rlm@145:      buy enough time to ramp up cryoprotectants to an acceptable level
rlm@145:      at room temperature? Then, the whole system can be rapidly cooled
rlm@145:      and vitrified. This method "severs the biological link" in that
rlm@145:      the fixatives are highly toxic, but current vitrification
rlm@145:      procedures do this anyway since there can be a lot of freezing
rlm@145:      damage.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - dilated security camera :: a security camera that would capture
rlm@145:      full video footage of everything at 60fps but then decide to keep
rlm@145:      only every 1 frame every 5 seconds unless there's something
rlm@145:      "interesting" happening.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - bitcoin wallet :: Part of "server culture", this would be something
rlm@145:                     like "coin.your-domain.com" which would serve as
rlm@145:                     your personal trusted access to your own bitcoins
rlm@145:                     from anywhere.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - libpay :: this would be a free library which would enable
rlm@145:             micro-donations to software projects and other projects,
rlm@145:             so that you could donate a penny to "emacs" and it would
rlm@145:             be automatically split up to every person who has ever
rlm@145:             contributed to emacs in proportion to the amount of
rlm@145:             community esteem, code quantity, bugs fixed, whatever the
rlm@145:             community decides. This might make it possible for
rlm@145:             programmers to live entirely off of free programming.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - pronouns :: use capital letters A-Z instead of pronouns. They solve
rlm@145:               pronoun referents and gender neutrality, are short to
rlm@145:               say, and you can encode useful information into the
rlm@145:               choice of letter. For example, instead of "Meetings
rlm@145:               shall be presided over by the president, unless she is
rlm@145:               absent." USE "Meetings shall be presided over by the
rlm@145:               president, unless P is absent." We already use this a
rlm@145:               little, since I and U are reserved for the subject and
rlm@145:               object respectively.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - phone DSP :: software app that inserts an audio DSP between the
rlm@145:                input to a phone and the output. The DSP is delicious
rlm@145:                and configurable, and can allow men to make their
rlm@145:                voices deeper, etc. The app would allow you to hear
rlm@145:                your own voice as others hear it. Most people hate how
rlm@145:                their own voice sounds. The app would also allow one to
rlm@145:                immediately change the parameters of the DSP using good
rlm@145:                presets.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - restaurant receipts :: use a carbon copy receipt instead of two stupid
rlm@145:      copies. 
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - crossdressing :: Easiest way to disguise oneself as a woman is to
rlm@145:                    wear a burka.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - book-mode :: intelligent color highlighting for books and
rlm@145:                articles. It would disambiguate pronouns and involved
rlm@145:                references. For example, if "Rachael" was assigned the
rlm@145:                color red, and "the blonde haired girl" refers to
rlm@145:                "Rachael", then "the blonde haired girl" would be
rlm@145:                colored red. Also, you could disambiguate multi part
rlm@145:                run-on sentences by highlighting each
rlm@145:                subcomponent. Maybe would also have applications to
rlm@145:                scientific reading.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Handheld light Rain measurement :: this would be a clear, teflon
rlm@145:      coated plastic disk with a camera underneath the disk. You would
rlm@145:      be able to hold the device out and it would measure the rate of
rlm@145:      accumulation of water droplets from fine mists and light rain by
rlm@145:      using computer vision to measure the diameters of the drops.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Big Brother Farming :: This would be a vision system that would
rlm@145:      individually monitor each plant and turn on water, etc to ensure
rlm@145:      maximum/uniform growth for each plant. 
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Discrete Faucet :: A faucet with discrete ticks instead of
rlm@145:      continuous. 
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Laser Circle :: take a glass microfiliment and shine a laser at one
rlm@145:                   end at an oblique angle. It will make a perfect,
rlm@145:                   large circle on the wall, converting a laser beam
rlm@145:                   into a laser cone, preserving most of the energy of
rlm@145:                   the laser.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Invisible Glass :: Take a container of liquid and embed a
rlm@145:      glass sculpture made out of glass that has exactly the same index
rlm@145:      of refraction and color of the liquid. Then the sculpture will be
rlm@145:      totally invisible in the container, and will only be revealed
rlm@145:      when the liquid is drained. The container might be a fancy
rlm@145:      wine/spirit bottle or an hourglass.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Caterpillar people :: A race of caterpillar like creatures gains
rlm@145:      intelligence after eons of predation by birds, etc. These
rlm@145:      caterpillar creatures still undergo metamorphosis into a large
rlm@145:      butterfly-like creature. The metamorphosis process turns the
rlm@145:      caterpillar's brain into mush and reforms it into a minimal,
rlm@145:      dumb, truly insect-like mind, completely destroying the person
rlm@145:      the caterpillar was. The society develops all sorts of customs and
rlm@145:      religious interpretations of the metamorphosis. It is viewed as
rlm@145:      good and natural by some since it is part of their life cycle and
rlm@145:      necessary to propagate the species, as only the butterflies can
rlm@145:      mate. Some think that the butterflies are still the same person
rlm@145:      because they have the same soul, even they no longer posses the
rlm@145:      memories or personality of the original caterpillar. Some see the
rlm@145:      butterfly form as the "true form" of the species, since the
rlm@145:      butterflies can fly, mate, and are beautiful. Many make a big
rlm@145:      deal out of the fact that 1-2% of the caterpillar's mind is
rlm@145:      actually preserved in the butterfly. Some see it as a terrible
rlm@145:      tragedy and argue that the caterpillars should try to stop the
rlm@145:      metamorphosis by technology. Practically, some very important
rlm@145:      members of society undergo hormone therapy and/or surgery to
rlm@145:      prevent metamorphosis so that they can live longer as themselves.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145:      This is a continuation of Marvin Minsky's ideas about pain being
rlm@145:      something that preserves our bodies while destroying our minds,
rlm@145:      something that is a remnant from our too harsh animal days that
rlm@145:      hasn't caught up to the fact that we have very complex brains
rlm@145:      now. It's a worst-case scenario about a maladaptive genetic
rlm@145:      legacy. Also, it's inspired by "There She Is!!!", which makes a
rlm@145:      compelling point about homosexuality by introducing a second
rlm@145:      gender characteristic (bunny/cat, male/female), which makes
rlm@145:      homophobia look very silly. Here, our own biological legacy of
rlm@145:      pain and death is made to look like the tragedy it is through the
rlm@145:      lens of the the caterpillar people.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - relationships as a business :: [[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-Crisis.aspx][Turnover-Crisis]] is an excellent talk
rlm@145:      about the "culture of quitting," which is about better business
rlm@145:      by letting people go instead of keeping them around past their
rlm@145:      "apex". Focuses on information transfer. Cool idea of an alumni
rlm@145:      network, which for relationships would be a group of satisfied
rlm@145:      ex-lovers, who would recommend new people your way, and who might
rlm@145:      consider coming to you again, refreshed from their time away with
rlm@145:      new stories/experiences. I should look for examples of this and
rlm@145:      how they worked out.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - psychic crystal :: in a science fiction story, this would be an
rlm@145:      object that is very easy to move physically but is extremely
rlm@145:      difficult to move with telekinesis.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - true reflection :: There's a "true mirror" in the MIT student center
rlm@145:      -- it's two normal mirrors at right angles, like staring at a
rlm@145:      corner of a room. The light reflects so that it shows you what
rlm@145:      you actually look like, instead of your mirror image.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - remote control wasp :: use computer to drive wings with remote
rlm@145:   power/logic.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - encrypted email phone book :: public (distributed?) database of
rlm@145:      email->private-key pairs, to enable automatic encryption.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - universal eye color :: every equivalent creature will see each
rlm@145:      others' eyes as black -- it's universal. Even if the creatures
rlm@145:      see in radio waves, and their eyes are 2m long pieces of jagged
rlm@145:      metal, when those creatures look at each other, they will see
rlm@145:      black, the absence of light and color (since it's being absorbed
rlm@145:      by the sensor array).
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - intelligent microwave :: it learns where the hot nodes of its fields
rlm@145:   are, and uses them to evenly heat any food item. It has an infrared
rlm@145:   camera or something to keep track of how hot the food is. That way,
rlm@145:   you don't get bowls where the edges are boiling, while the center is
rlm@145:   still frozen. Requires a little bit of intelligence/vision, since
rlm@145:   the exact pattern of heating totally depends on the exact shape of
rlm@145:   the food.  Wouldn't need a carousel, and wouldn't need a timer,
rlm@145:   just a desired temperature. Could also detect ice, and automatically
rlm@145:   defrost the parts which are frozen. Might be able to work much
rlm@145:   faster since it can avoid overheating; might have problems with
rlm@145:   heating the insides of thick things, might need a weight sensor too.
rlm@145:   
rlm@145:   + Would be much cleaner than other microwaves, since food would
rlm@145:     "sputter" and splash liquid much less.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145:   + Throw in some SIFT+R processing to match previously cooked foods
rlm@145:     and learn the exact heating profiles for things that have been
rlm@145:     cooked before -- it can get faster the more it's used.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Flesh pillow :: a pillow like the arm or torso of a human, complete
rlm@145:                   with simulated temperature, bones, and heartbeat.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - light filter :: (like light tweezers) to mechanically separate
rlm@145:                   fluids with different index of refraction
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - silver socks :: socks laced with silver for the antimicrobial
rlm@145:                   properties.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Rod of Moses :: device to distill urine through evaporation and
rlm@145:      easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert -- produce
rlm@145:      drinkable water and live an extra few days!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - lottery scraper :: web scraper which monitors various lotteries,
rlm@145:      looking for "special" gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x
rlm@145:      winnings on Wednesdays) and computes expected value...
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Memristiors novel design :: make an evolutionary algorithm to make
rlm@145:   old stuff using all four basic circuit elements.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Conductive concrete :: concrete that has embedded metal fibers so
rlm@145:      that it can conduct electricity.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - little bitty melting pot :: might be useful for some types of
rlm@145:      manufacturing/3D printing -- how small can an induction melter be
rlm@145:      made, for example.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - true pure tones :: hear a true pure tone by direct stimulation of the
rlm@145:      nerves of the ear
rlm@145:   
rlm@145: - mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp ::  would be an object
rlm@145:      with two levers -- you pull on one lever and the other moves the
rlm@145:      same way, no matter what's in the way or what it is driving. This
rlm@145:      analogy could be useful to teach op amps to people.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - light capacitor :: suspend some ball of material with a high index
rlm@145:      of refraction and shine light into it so it gets stuck -- would
rlm@145:      the light stay trapped forever? Could you build up unlimited
rlm@145:      quantities of light inside the sphere (which could then be
rlm@145:      released slowly by frustrated internal reflection?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - reading comprehension :: use the screen capture routine to make a
rlm@145:      quiz program that constructs questions about the content you
rlm@145:      seemed to gloss over while reading. could be easy if the pdf came
rlm@145:      with embedded questions.  Dylan: automatically generate
rlm@145:      word-cloud about the parts you found most interesting; help
rlm@145:      others who read the same stuff by drawing attention to the
rlm@145:      interesting parts.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - optimize an article :: capture reading of a scientific article via
rlm@145:      screen capture while people read it, then use it to make the
rlm@145:      article better. like the movie-pruning idea.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - movie pruning :: Movies always are too long at first. One way to
rlm@145:      shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the
rlm@145:      move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which
rlm@145:      there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people)
rlm@145:      better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I
rlm@145:      got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill
rlm@145:      which is composed entirely of the parts in which people had their
rlm@145:      eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their
rlm@145:      eyes off of? Just take those parts out!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - explosive thermite epoxy putty :: one part would contain the rust,
rlm@145:      one part the aluminum.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - concrete epoxy :: epoxy with sand/ some other solid material.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - hard sword :: make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of
rlm@145:                 martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better
rlm@145:                 sword.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - close range wireless :: use the induction technology used to
rlm@145:      recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data
rlm@145:      without any metal at all!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - perfect pitch :: learn perfect pitch using another sense in
rlm@145:                    combination (sight or touch)
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - bio metallic structure :: metal grids with seeds inside, which grow
rlm@145:      together and form a durable biological matrix. The metal
rlm@145:      substrate delivers water. (maybe use plastic instead of metal?)
rlm@145:      Dylan: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical
rlm@145:      interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled
rlm@145:      photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - conducting extracellular matrix :: to allow better control of
rlm@145:      organic systems and an enhanced nervous system.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - cross-modal memory hashing :: a way to retrieve memories more
rlm@145:      robustly. 
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - wooden refrigerator :: to give food a better taste Dylan: like
rlm@145:      barrels for wine, or planks for salmon. Maybe just have "flavor
rlm@145:      planks" for your pre-existing fridge. Need to mitigate effect of
rlm@145:      temperature on volatility?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule :: create precious
rlm@145:      metals or something else economically advantageous. Best
rlm@145:      transmutation I can come up with is mercury into gold, but it's
rlm@145:      not economically viable.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - preservation via crowding :: inoculate food with tons of harmless
rlm@145:      bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of
rlm@145:      preservation
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - old school preservation :: Pasteur - style holding jar with siphon
rlm@145:      as a way to store sterilized liquids at room temperature
rlm@145:      indefinitely w/o refrigeration.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - restaurant policy :: Throw rude people out of restaurant as a matter
rlm@145:      of course -- make ambiance much better.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - clean windows :: make something that mixes soap with fire hydrant
rlm@145:                    water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it
rlm@145:                    to clean windows of buildings.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - ocarina :: make an ocarina out of pure silver
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - fire pen :: pen which burns words on to the page, thus never needing
rlm@145:      any ink. Is there a way to make it runnable from body heat?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - website to design your own soda :: and label, and have it mailed to
rlm@145:      you / sell it from your own online store.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - solar panels :: that float on the ocean
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?) :: great for daisy chaining
rlm@145:      people, binding them to environment, etc.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - vector based SOUND files :: like the pictures but with SOUND. codify
rlm@145:      sound in a language with enough symbols so that it can describe
rlm@145:      everything and encode it in that. would be like going from speech
rlm@145:      to text or smtg. Could also store sound as an image of the
rlm@145:      wavefront encoded as a vector image.
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - genetically engineered glowing fruit :: They have some animals that
rlm@145:      can glow, but glowing fruit that you eat would be AWESOME!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - The body as a key to memory :: IF memories are encoded using
rlm@145:      particular sensory impressions, what happens if the sensory organ
rlm@145:      itself changes?  those memories would become inaccessible. maybe
rlm@145:      this is why we can't remember much from our childhoods. also,
rlm@145:      could this happen throughout life as well? Could S remember stuff
rlm@145:      from his childhood?
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - lighter flint on spring :: make hot, throw it at something, and it
rlm@145:      makes sparkles!
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - rare bubbles :: Engineer a material which has both ductility and high
rlm@145:              surface tension to make the "third"
rlm@145:              minimal-surface-energy solution to a bubble suspended
rlm@145:              between two equal-diameter rings. (Solutions are
rlm@145:              cylindrical catenary curve, two separated half-bubbles,
rlm@145:              and a double-cone)
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: - Textbook whose content can be varied continuously :: alter level of
rlm@145:      difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain
rlm@145:      other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from
rlm@145:      knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to
rlm@145:      guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of
rlm@145:      knowledge. /One./
rlm@145: 
rlm@145: 
rlm@145:    #+BEGIN_HTML
rlm@145: <p class="end"> Still want more? Visit the <a href="./ideas.html">Raw
rlm@145: Ideas</a> page, but prepare for extreme half-bakedness. </p>
rlm@145:    #+END_HTML