Entries this day: Order Shoko State_of_My_Life_Address coasters

Order

7:11am JST Wednesday 2 June 2004

I just read Kurzweil's Law (aka "the law of accelerating returns"). As I read some of the comments, I heard the front door to the building open and close and a woman come in totally crying. She seemed to be alone, and in insatiable sadness. (I went out to see if it was Shoko, and found that it's Jo, who I don't know all that well, so I chose not to knock on her door to offer help. I'd be more disruptive than helpful, I'm sure (which brings up an interesting point that my small brain is barely able to keep track of))

So back in my room, thinking about chaos and disruptive technologies and now a woman crying. She's in her own bit of chaos right now; will she emerge 'on the other side' with a bit more order in her life? Even as I type, I can hear that she's stopped crying and has gone toward the restroom, presumably to wash her face, to recover from the chaos of sadness.

- - - -

I like the line about "noise is unpredictable. information is too."

I want to apply this to learning languages, when noise slowly becomes predictable and turns into information. Does that mean noise and information are the same? That we just don't know the language of noise? Probably.

- - - -

I take the the first comment on the page as some guy all, "hey man you can't mean that machines will replace humans."

I think the intent is not that machines will replace humans, but that machines could replace humans. But more specifically he's not talking about machines replacing humans; he's talking about evolution happening more quickly in machines than it does in humans.

I can take the idea backwards a step (or two?) and oh yes here we go: big bang and ya got a lot of hydrogen everywhere. (Take it back three steps and something doesn't work right with the time dimension; matter coalescing into protons and atoms happened more quickly than step 2, star formation). Via gravity (Mr Hamm said he read a tome titled "GRAVITY" that was this thick, indicated with outstretched fingers. "And after I read it, I realized that the author also had no idea what gravity really is."), hydrogen slowly coalesced into communities. All the hydrogen atoms were like, hey, look at us! we're making networks of hydrogen; we're more advanced than that silly disperced hydrogen that has nowhere to go and nothing to do..

The communities of hydrogen were happily communing until they started to shove too close together, hey man, get off me! and bang chaos, helium was formed, and before the hydrogen community knew it, a star had been born. This was a new technology of actually creating new types of matter just by smashing old matter together (via that mysterious gravity).

Stars were like, wow, we're cool (though they actually meant they were hot) and they made all kinds of elements. Smashing hydrogen into helium and boron and carbon and iron etc until the star got too dense for its own good and the gravity overpowered the solar output and kaslam, the star collapsed until kablowie, chaos in the form of a nova, or in January, a supernova. (and I don't even like American football)

The star blew itself and its elements across its back yard and all those elements were like, aw man, now what are we going to do? because it seemed like the end of the world.

But actually it was the beginning of a new world, something called a planet, many of which group together in their own little communities around stars, all revolving according to the magic of gravity. Planets would spin around going, ha ha, look at us! We're too smart (small) to nova ourselves to bits like you silly stars. And the planets spun around keeping themselves evenly warm (except for Venus, who has her own thing going on), until something started cooking down in the oceans or the crust (according to some research I read recently) and bangcells were formed.

That's where Kurzweil's article picks up the story. Hydrogen formation was quick, but star formation took billions of years. Planet formation millions of years, and cell formation not quite as long.

Back to the point: Will machines replace humans? I don't know. Did planets replace stars? No. Will life replace planets? No; life just lives on them. Will life learn how to live without planets? Possibly. Does this mean planets won't be necessary for life? Maybe. Will it mean planets won't exist? Not likely.

Will machines replace humans? I still don't know. Will machines be able to 'live' (reproduce themselves) without humans (forget humans); without biology? it looks like it.

The point of the article is not whether subsequent things will replace other things, but that the speed of evolution increases exponentially because it (evolution) uses the more advanced techniques produced by one process to create the next processes.

Evolution applies positive feedback in that the more capable  methods
resulting from one stage of evolutionary progress are used to create
the next stage.  Each epoch of evolution has progressed more rapidly
by building on the products of the previous stage.

Evolution quit working with just the nuclear process of making atoms to the physical process of making cells. Then to the biological process of making life.

- - - -

Back to my feeble brain and body. It's taken me an hour to write all this. A sentient computer could write this in a fraction of a second. But Kurzweil's law implies the computer won't even have to write this; it will just know it and use these ideas to make cooler things still, and evolution will go on.

- - - -

One more brainwave: need a distinction between "processes within a framework" and "processes across frameworks (within a larger framework)" and "evolution across frameworks" and "evolution within a framework"

8:22am

Shoko

1:46pm JST Wednesday 2 June 2004

Interesting: new information: it was Shoko.

I took a fat nap after eating breakfast, and then pondered the idea of information being the same as noise. What is the difference?

When does information matter? Does compilied historical information necessarily turn into technology?

I've noticed a distinction between digital information, and analog information stored digitally. My journal is that, it seems: analog language stored digitally.

My hunch is that everything is information, but we humans for various reasons choose to decide what information is important information. We do this because our brains are too small to grok all information.

State of My Life Address

State of My Life Address

Since my last update, I had a ridiculously painful cramp in my lower
back, went to the chiropractor two days in a row for massage,
accupuncture and two types of heat therapy.  But don't worry; my back
is mostly perfect now.

- - - 

This evening I made plans with two of my friends to climb Mt Fuji next
month.  We're going to make a three day adventure of it: up on the
afternoon of July 12th, down on July 13th, and then bask in an onsen
in Izu overnight in a bed and breakfast.  There are four official
trails up the mountain.  We're choosing the most difficult one (just
to say we did it, and) because it's the least crowded.  We'll go down
a different trail (which therefore requires a trek halfway around the
crater) so it will be like we climbed *over* Mt Fuji.  Should be great
fun.

- - - 

I have done a bit of research and have found there may be as many as
30 roller coasters in the greater Tokyo area.  It seems that some of
the parks no longer exist, so maybe there are only 20-few coasters,
but there are still plenty that I've not seen.  Including some bigger
ones.

I'm scheduled to go with my friend Jen who will photograph some of the
coasters at Yumiuriland on June 10th.  And on that same day, Dan (my
awesome ex-roommate) and I will go bunjee jumping!!

- - - 

Speaking of my awesome ex-roommate, Dan sent me a link to pb and I'm
interested in joining their 47th Global Voyage (October - January
2005).  It should be an amazing adventure!

- - - 

Just last week I began learning Mandarin.  I learned [are you well?],
[I am well.], [he], [she], and [thank you].  This includes reading and
writing the seven kanji for these words and phrases.  Tomorrow is my
second lesson.

In Japanese, I'm far from fluent, but I can exchange basic
biographical information, make plans to meet people and describe my
daily activities.  Awesome.

- - - 

I hope you're doing great.

  With Love
  - Rob

coasters

4:26pm JST Wednesday 2 June 2004

There seem to be about 20 roller coasters in the greater Tokyo area. 30 are listed in the rcdb, but some are closed.

Most of them are in parks with 1 or 2 kiddie coasters. I will ask someone to help me check the websites of these parks to confirm which ones have coasters, and how to get to the parks.

19 coasters in Osaka.