Category: Existence
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Eternal river… For ever changing…
Ancient Egyptians considered the Nile river to be the source of all life. The steady northward path of the river has nourished the fertile valleys of northeast Africa for millions of years and in doing so, shaped the course of human civilization. The Nile's unchanging path, however, has been a geologic mystery because long-lived rivers…
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Moving… Thinking of moving… Standing still!
Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) work on the principle that measurable changes in electrical brain activity occur just by thinking about performing a task. Signals can be read, evaluated, and then converted into control signals via a machine learning system, which can then be used to operate a computer or a prosthesis. In a recently published study,…
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Abstract thoughts…
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have leveraged machine learning to interpret human brain scans, allowing the team to uncover the regions of the brain behind how abstract concepts, like justice, ethics and consciousness, form. In this study, Just and his team scanned the brains of nine participants using a functional MRI. The team sifted through…
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Limits of measurements… Limits of out self…
The limits of classical measurements of mechanical motion have been pushed beyond expectations in recent years. But the sensitivity that we can achieve using purely conventional means is limited. For example, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics implies the presence of "measurement backaction": the exact knowledge of the location of a particle invariably destroys any…
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Artificial leaves… True gas… Artificial beings… True existence…
A widely-used gas that is currently produced from fossil fuels can instead be made by an 'artificial leaf' that uses only sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, and which could eventually be used to develop a sustainable liquid fuel alternative to gasoline. (1) What is natural? What is artificial? In a cosmos without definitions, something extraordinary…
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