Jakeva - Slashdot User

Tokyo's 'Oldest Man' Had Been Dead 30 Years 1

Posted by samzenpus on Friday July 30, 2010 @01:48PM from the not-so-old-after-all dept.

Japanese officials estimate that Sogen Kato, Japan's oldest living man, hasn't been living for at least 30 years. His family now stands accused of collecting his pension payments fraudulently. From the article: "Welfare officials had tried to meet Mr. Kato since early this year. But when they went to visit, family members repeatedly chased them away, according to Tomoko Iwamatsu, an Adachi ward official. Authorities grew suspicious and sought an investigation by police, who forced their way into the house on Wednesday. They discovered a mummified body, believed to be Kato, lying in his bed, wearing underwear and pajamas, covered with a blanket."

Researchers Build Evolving Brain Computer? 114

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 13, 2010 @09:30AM from the but-can-it-make-pie dept.

destinyland writes "'We have mimicked how neurons behave in the brain,' announces an international research team from Japan and Michigan Tech. They've built an 'evolutionary circuit' in a molecular computer that evolves to solve complex problems, and the molecular computer also exhibits brain-like massive parallel processing. 'The neat part is, approximately 300 molecules talk with each other at a time during information processing,' says physicist Ranjit Pati of Michigan Tech. When viewed with a scanning tunneling microscope, the evolving patterns bear an uncanny resemblance to the human brain as seen by a Functional MRI. Using the electrically charged tip of a tunneling microscope, they've individually set molecules to a desired state, essentially writing data to the system. And while conventional computers are typically built using two-state (0, 1) transistors, the molecular layer is built using a hexagonal molecule, and can switch among four conducting states — 0, 1, 2 and 3, suggesting it may ultimately have more AI potential than quantum computing."

Comment why not just buy a microscope? (Score 1) 50

by Jakeva on Thursday November 12, 2009 @02:23AM (#30069896) Attached to: Turning a Cell Phone Into a Microscope

They're only slightly less clunky than that thing. And they don't require an internet connection.

Comment Re:56 Mentions of God (Score 1) 48

by Jakeva on Thursday November 12, 2009 @01:47AM (#30069758) Attached to: Origin of Species To Be Given For Free, With FUD

I see Kirk is adding in mentions of Nazis and racism... how divine.

Because evolutionary principle/thought definitely had nothing to do with Nazi thought or racist thought....

I don't know how you can get around eugenics as being something that seemed to come out of evolutionary concepts. I'm not trolling. I'm not even accusing evolution of being wrong or false or whatever. I'm saying that eugenics, which was behind Hitler/Nazi thought and to some extent behind racism - at least, if the racism is born out of other things (including religion, e.g., antisemitism) - seems to be a logical progression from evolutionary thought. Improvements come from lots of breeding/procreation -> must be going on today -> there must be "inferior" races currently alive -> why not help evolution along and get rid of these inferior races.

You're totally right, as long as your point is that nazis used evolution as their reasoning. Not trolling either, just pointing out that the nazis were WRONG to try to help evolution along. The reason is that you can't possibly help evolution along. You would have to see the future, and you would have to see millions of years into the future, and along every different timeline created by every different combination of mutations in every species. Where would we be if the ridiculous little mouse hadn't out-survived the dinosaurs?

Comment um (Score 1) 3

by Jakeva on Thursday November 12, 2009 @01:41AM (#30069732) Attached to: Maine Wind Farm In Doubt Because Site Is Too Windy

I would think that such heavy winds would produce enough energy to subsidize the cost of "more burly" turbines.

Comment Re:Other fields... (Score 4, Funny) 92

by Jakeva on Thursday November 12, 2009 @01:20AM (#30069616) Attached to: Mimicking Materials and Structures In Nature

Hmmm, I wonder what parameters give a mutation of ID/creationism an advantage.... A higher degree of logical circularity maybe?

If creationists are right, then God created circular logic............. ohmygod! I just proved nothing!

Comment Re:paper in your wallet (Score 1) 1007

by Jakeva on Thursday November 12, 2009 @01:13AM (#30069582) Attached to: Best Tool For Remembering Passwords?

Really? That works? My password is hunter32. Seems like i can see it still though. :P

um... i see your password. i see no ****'s at all. are you Benaiah on all your sites? Ima try to login as you :D

Why a High IQ Doesn't Mean You're Smart 808

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @01:17PM from the but-not-all-idiots-are-savant dept.

D1gital_Prob3 writes "How can a 'smart' person act foolishly? Keith Stanovich, professor of human development and applied psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, has grappled with this apparent incongruity for 15 years. He says it applies to more people than you might think. To Stanovich, however, there is nothing incongruous about it. IQ tests are very good at measuring certain mental faculties, he says, including logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability and working-memory capacity — how much information you can hold in mind."

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