changeset 87:79d17299ada0

misc ideas.
author Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date Mon, 10 Mar 2014 12:58:36 -0400
parents 1904bdd70254
children e0f8793b7aaf
files org/ideas.org
diffstat 1 files changed, 43 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-) [+]
line wrap: on
line diff
     1.1 --- a/org/ideas.org	Mon Dec 30 00:02:37 2013 -0500
     1.2 +++ b/org/ideas.org	Mon Mar 10 12:58:36 2014 -0400
     1.3 @@ -31,6 +31,48 @@
     1.4  getting credit.
     1.5  #+end_quote
     1.6  
     1.7 +- suicide parasite :: sometimes, people kill themselves for no good
     1.8 +     reason. We often explain this with things like "hidden
     1.9 +     depression" or we say that they had something like chronic jaw or
    1.10 +     back pain. I think that smells of rationalization. I don't buy
    1.11 +     it. I propose that in many suicide cases there is a disease that
    1.12 +     causes the suicidal behaviour. We already know that certain
    1.13 +     parasites have mind-bending properties in other animals, even
    1.14 +     mammals like mice. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a
    1.15 +     parasite that causes suicuides in humans. Some problems:
    1.16 +     - What does the suicide parasite get out of it? :: This might be
    1.17 +          answered by the whole thing being a glitch caused by
    1.18 +          cross-species contamination. Toxoplasma works this way.
    1.19 +     - What predictions does a disease model make :: suicuide should
    1.20 +          be more common amone people who share a contaion
    1.21 +          vector. There should be suicuides that don't make any
    1.22 +          sense : people who weren't really depressed, who had no
    1.23 +          reason to kill themselves. People who have killed themselves
    1.24 +          should have a higher incidence of some unknown parasite in
    1.25 +          their brains. 
    1.26 +
    1.27 +- domestic insects :: People should eat more bugs, but why not do some
    1.28 +     major domestication research to make very appealing bugs?
    1.29 +
    1.30 +- birth-clones :: What if each person was intentionally split at birth
    1.31 +                  into a normal embryo and a few "backup" cells which
    1.32 +                  is then frozen. The backup cells are created just
    1.33 +                  the same way as natural identical twins. The backups
    1.34 +                  can be used to regenerate organs. ect. Also, it
    1.35 +                  would be a good sci fi concept, because you could
    1.36 +                  have a culture where people reward people who were
    1.37 +                  especially awesome are "reborn" from their
    1.38 +                  backups. Imagine having a young bach every
    1.39 +                  generation, etc.
    1.40 +
    1.41 +- cortex-search :: use the repertoire of actions learned to limit the
    1.42 +                   search space of possible actions.
    1.43 +
    1.44 +- no-float-ice :: cup that has cross beams at the bottom where ice
    1.45 +                  forms. Then when you drink liquid from the glass,
    1.46 +                  the ice stays at the bottom and doesn't hit your
    1.47 +                  lips. For bars and fancy things.
    1.48 +
    1.49  - bitcoins for immigrants :: A common case with Mexican immigrants
    1.50       (illegal or not) is that they want to send money they've earned
    1.51       in the US back to their families in Mexico. They currently do this
    1.52 @@ -674,7 +716,7 @@
    1.53       knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to
    1.54       guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of
    1.55       knowledge. /One./
    1.56 -
    1.57 +- * Invalid capture template
    1.58  
    1.59  ** From Jacob's idea list
    1.60