Science!
- Mongrel
- Posts: 21333
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
- Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line
Re: Science!
Cosmos Magazine In a surprising and unexpected find, scientists debunk the possibility that we're all simulations in a computer somewhere, fairly strongly too
I mean, you can still press on with "Well, maybe the "computer" is [**magic**]", but certainly this pushes the theory from the practical and possible into mere imagination.
I mean, you can still press on with "Well, maybe the "computer" is [**magic**]", but certainly this pushes the theory from the practical and possible into mere imagination.
- Brantly B.
- Woah Dangsaurus
- Posts: 3679
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:40 pm
Re: Science!
The pair initially set out to see whether it was possible to use a technique known as quantum Monte Carlo to study the quantum Hall effect
That is the nerdiest sentence I've read in a long time.
Now, the finding is technically that the known universe cannot be simulated by any computing device capable of existing in the known universe, but I think begging the question at that point is getting into some sort of ENIAC of the Gods scenario.
- Mongrel
- Posts: 21333
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
- Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line
Re: Science!
Yeah, I mean, it's at the "religion" stage now, where a truly stubborn type just handwave an explanation and say "a higher power does it with [unknowable stuff]".
And I mean, hey maybe they're right - you never know! But you can say that about most religions.
And I mean, hey maybe they're right - you never know! But you can say that about most religions.
- Mongrel
- Posts: 21333
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
- Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line
Re: Science!
No worries Scott, they're working on fixing that!
I'd make a joke about that just being the way West Virginia looks all the time anyway, but uh, this is pretty bleak. If there's any benzene in that smoke (and there's a fair chance there is), everyone in that town is going to die a horrible cancerous death.
To say nothing of what happens when all that crap goes into the Ohio valley waters and then the Mississippi.
- Mongrel
- Posts: 21333
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
- Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line
Re: Science!
WaPo: Expanding on previous research, Yale study not only confirms a very basic biological difference between conservatives and liberals, but has found a way to override it
Essentially, they argue that turning conservatives into liberals is most easily achieved by making people feel safe.
Arguably, the reverse process has been well used for some time, as conservatives have already naturally intuited how to make liberals conservative is by terrifying them.
It's probably not all as simple as this, but if it holds up, it'd balance out the conservative noise machine fear factory at least.
Essentially, they argue that turning conservatives into liberals is most easily achieved by making people feel safe.
Arguably, the reverse process has been well used for some time, as conservatives have already naturally intuited how to make liberals conservative is by terrifying them.
It's probably not all as simple as this, but if it holds up, it'd balance out the conservative noise machine fear factory at least.
Re: Science!
You mean a liberal isn't a conservative who just spent the night in jail?
- Mongrel
- Posts: 21333
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
- Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line
Re: Science!
Thad wrote:You mean a liberal isn't a conservative who just spent the night in jail?
If the study's to be believed, it's close to the opposite - oddly enough!
Re: Science!
62°24", 13°48"
Placeholder for something witty that doesn't make me sound like an asshole
Re: Science!
Heh, I remember seeing those in a middle school textbook. Never saw the internal mechanism until now, though.
: Mention something from KPCC or Rachel Maddow
: Go on about Homeworld for X posts
: Go on about Homeworld for X posts
- Mongrel
- Posts: 21333
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
- Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line
Re: Science!
A new machine learning engine apparently is now the world's best Chess/Go/Etc player after 8 or so hours of iterations.
https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-futur ... arns-chess
https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-futur ... arns-chess
Since AlphaZero did not benefit from any chess knowledge, which means no games or opening theory, it also means it had to discover opening theory on its own. And do recall that this is the result of only 24 hours of self-learning. The team produced fascinating graphs showing the openings it discovered as well as the ones it gradually rejected as it grew stronger!
We can see that in the early games, AlphaZero was quite enthusiastic about playing the French Defense, but after two hours (this so humiliating) began to play it less and less.
The Caro-Kann fared a good deal better, and held a prime spot in AlphaZero's opening choices until it also gradually filtered it out. So what openings did AlphaZero actually like or choose by the end of its learning process? The English Opening and the Queen's Gambit!
The paper also came accompanied by ten games to share the results. It needs to be said that these are very different from the usual fare of engine games. If Karpov had been a chess engine, he might have been called AlphaZero. There is a relentless positional boa constrictor approach that is simply unheard of. Modern chess engines are focused on activity, and have special safeguards to avoid blocked positions as they have no understanding of them and often find themselves in a dead end before they realize it. AlphaZero has no such prejudices or issues, and seems to thrive on snuffing out the opponent’s play. It is singularly impressive, and what is astonishing is how it is able to also find tactics that the engines seem blind to.
Re: Science!
I, for one, welcome our new machine learning overlords.
- zaratustra
- Posts: 1665
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:45 pm
- Mongrel
- Posts: 21333
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
- Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line
Re: Science!
https://www.theguardian.com/science/200 ... ch.science
All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.
Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on.
Her cunning has not stopped there. One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 30 guests