Blog

„I realize that an island-sized nuclear waste dump called ‚The Tomb‘ in the middle of the Pacific Ocean sounds like some straight-up Godzilla sci-fi shit.“

Fantastische Formen: Kreis, Dreieck, Viereck

„MIT’s Mini Cheetahs […] frolicking, back-flipping […] and generally acting fun and cute“

// Sorry, muss ich hier einfach die Antwort fast komplett zitieren, in voller, wahnsinniger Pracht:

Q: Is there a way to create a shortcut to remote start my truck? […]

A: I do this by putting a google home mini next to my echo.
I then created a Shortcut so that when I say “Start my car” it makes a web request to my HA (hass.io) instance which then triggers an automation that makes a TTS request to my google home mini that makes it say “Alexa, start my car”, then waits 7 seconds, then says “Alexa, <insert your pin code here>.”
It startles my wife when she’s home and Google and Alexa start talking to each other out of nowhere but other than that it works great. And the idea of getting Google to talk to Alexa has opened up a host of other automations (really just controlling lights with Siri that only work with Alexa).

Der „mysteriöse Blob“ aus dem Pariser Zoo ist momentan in allen Medien präsent, hier meine Lieblingsauszüge:

Herkunft:

• „Blobs are normally found on forest floors in Europe“³
• „a Texas woman discovered a rapidly-expanding yellow blob growing in her backyard“³

Fähigkeiten:

• „can move without legs or wings“²
• „When separated from oatmeal, the Blob’s favorite snack, the slime mold learned to cross a bridge filled with a bad-tasting chemical“⁴
• „You can even put it in the microwave for a few minutes“¹
• „Just add a few drops of water, and „voila!“ the blob comes to life again“¹
• „Blobs of any size can be created, there is no known limit“¹
• „can solve mazes, help make music“⁴

Rezeption:

• „It is not pretty, unless you like yellow“⁴
• „People complain that the yellow blob looks like dog vomit“⁴
• „sloth-like propulsion does not make it an obvious crowd-puller“¹
• „Visitors to the exhibit should try to place themselves in the mold’s metaphorical shoes. They should try to become a slime mould. They should try to imagine what does Physarum ‚think‘, what dreams Physarum sees when it sleeps […] They might try to invent a joke which sounds funny from the slime mould’s point of view.“⁴

Quellen: 1, 2, 3, 4

Nach dem ersten Panel dachte ich, Südamerika versucht ihre Bildrechte zu schützen… oder trollt wie die Profis.

Anschnallen bitte: „If 120 experts in 12 different fields were sent back 10,000 years, could they recreate the 21 century in 100 years?“
Wow, many number, such science!

„Ten experts (CEOs, professors) of each of the fields of math,
[…]
use solar eclipses and parlor tricks to be accepted as leaders of a German tribe unconditionally
[…]
Let’s assume conflict between the professors and tribe members is not a factor
[…]
The experts are ageless but
[…]
How far into the future can they push the tribe, or whoever else they conquer, in [100 years]?“

(Hervorhebungen von mir.)
Antworten (zur Zeit): Meiste Upvotes:
„You can’t get anywhere close to that technology level. The best you could do […]
If your group of people can boost the life expectancy long enough to actually have grandparents. […]“
Die akzeptierte Antwort hingegen:
„Not a full 21st century world, but we can get close to it in some ways.“ [Es folgt ein detaillierter, Civilization-artiger, 26-Schritte-Schlachtplan.]

BONUS-UPDATE: kurz später eingetrudelt: Building a phone charger 500 years ago. Highlight aus den Kommentaren: „The biggest problem I think is how to get (more or less exactly) 5V DC. Maybe with use of some fruits or potatoe (I remember you can get electricity with them)“

Und Menschen. Alle.
Die Headline im Link (jaja meine auch) ist ein bisschen clicky-baity, es geht eher um die Zusammenarbeit von Menschen und Robotern. Und wahrscheinlich weil die Quelle das WSJ ist, zum Abschluss ein sneaky kapitalistischer Schlag in den menschlichen Magen:

Other requirements for our remote-controlled future include „a tolerance for working for a lower wage, since remote operation could allow companies to outsource driving, construction and service jobs to call centers in cheaper labor markets,“ the report adds.

Da kann selbst humoriger Swag nicht mithalten.

Internetlinguistin Gretchen McCulloch entwirft retrospektive Science-Fiction zu

“scare quotes,” Pseudo-Important Caps, the ~ironic ~tilde, ✨faux-enthusiastic sparkles✨, s p a c e s t r e t c h e d d e a d p a n, and the. passive. aggressive. period., […] as well as the deliciously archaic “afk”

(Ich habe aber das Gefühl, dass die 200 Jahre übertrieben sind??)

Alles, was man gerne von Borisov (weniger berühmt und weniger zigarrenförmig als der erste interstellare Eindringling, ʻOumuamua), wissen würde, u.a.: kommt er wirklich aus einem anderen Sonnensystem?

„[S]ix suggestions have been made as to how this might be something else. Four of them are quite definitely wrong. The other two would be really unlikely.
[…]
So this object almost certainly got sent to us long, long ago, from a star far, far away. (But as stated above, not from a galaxy far, far away.)“

„So, the curious galactic explorers try something different. They send a robotic probe to a small, quiet space rock orbiting near the life-rich planet, just to keep an eye on things.
[…] obviously extremely unlikely.“