David Brin's Contrary Brin (RSS Feed)
08-28-2007, 07:42 PM
Dousing the overheated political lamp for a moment.... how about another item for those prediction registries?
Remember my Sun-ghosts from SUNDIVER?
Now glance at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20264620/
"The new computer simulations suggest that in the gravity-free environment of space, the plasma particles will bead together to form string-like filaments that then twist into corkscrew shapes. The helical strands resemble and are themselves electrically charged and attracted to one another. The computer-modeled plasma particles can also divide to form two copies of the original structure and even "evolve" into more stable structures that are better able to survive in the plasma. "These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter," said study team member V.N. Tsytovich of the Russian Academy of Science. "
Huh!
As I recall, there are two wikis to track my predictions (one by Tony Fisk)
http://www.necsi.org/community/wiki/index.php/ICCS06/David_Brin
and
http://earthbydavidbrin.pbwiki.com/
Plus - http://www.technovelgy.com/ tracks modern events/trends that were first mentioned in science fiction
DOes a track record like this actually gain one influence? Ah, human nature. It's amazing there was ever an Enlightenment, at all.
I recently went into one of the wikis to deposit a few of the hits I've collected, just over the last year. Only spent a few minutes, though. Any volunteer who wants to help keep these up to date... maybe cross referencing them... ;-)
The latest hit? The cover story of this month's (8 or 9 2007) Scientific American says that saccades (tiny eye movements) not only allow us to see, but quantify on what we are focused when looking at a scene. Is Citizen personality-testing (as in Sundiver) far behind?
And if so, will this be a tool for some elite to use, to oppress us forever? Or - if we share it - will this keep us from being dominated by monsters, ever again?
Stay tuned.
----
Oh, I am posting an updated Ostrich Paper tonight, on Kos. Please swarm it....a collaborative contrarian product of http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
(Original Post) (http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2007/08/does-being-right-ever-count-for-much.html)
Remember my Sun-ghosts from SUNDIVER?
Now glance at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20264620/
"The new computer simulations suggest that in the gravity-free environment of space, the plasma particles will bead together to form string-like filaments that then twist into corkscrew shapes. The helical strands resemble and are themselves electrically charged and attracted to one another. The computer-modeled plasma particles can also divide to form two copies of the original structure and even "evolve" into more stable structures that are better able to survive in the plasma. "These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter," said study team member V.N. Tsytovich of the Russian Academy of Science. "
Huh!
As I recall, there are two wikis to track my predictions (one by Tony Fisk)
http://www.necsi.org/community/wiki/index.php/ICCS06/David_Brin
and
http://earthbydavidbrin.pbwiki.com/
Plus - http://www.technovelgy.com/ tracks modern events/trends that were first mentioned in science fiction
DOes a track record like this actually gain one influence? Ah, human nature. It's amazing there was ever an Enlightenment, at all.
I recently went into one of the wikis to deposit a few of the hits I've collected, just over the last year. Only spent a few minutes, though. Any volunteer who wants to help keep these up to date... maybe cross referencing them... ;-)
The latest hit? The cover story of this month's (8 or 9 2007) Scientific American says that saccades (tiny eye movements) not only allow us to see, but quantify on what we are focused when looking at a scene. Is Citizen personality-testing (as in Sundiver) far behind?
And if so, will this be a tool for some elite to use, to oppress us forever? Or - if we share it - will this keep us from being dominated by monsters, ever again?
Stay tuned.
----
Oh, I am posting an updated Ostrich Paper tonight, on Kos. Please swarm it....a collaborative contrarian product of http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
(Original Post) (http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2007/08/does-being-right-ever-count-for-much.html)