IdeaFestival

Cassini: "Life chemistry" scattered throughout solar system

[Cross posted from Kentucky Space] According to The Space Fellowship, from studies of Saturn's moons like Iapetus, pictured here, the Cassini mission has confirmed that "complex organic molecules" are widely scattered in our solar system.

Wayne

False color image of Iapetus: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Fictioneers spin fable and fact

At the Near Future Laboratory, Julian Bleecker has published a think piece and the original schematics for the Star Trek communicator.

You're not just going to find that anywhere.

Of course there isn't a real communicator - though I'm not sure, I get confused about these things - but the point of Design Fiction: A short essay on science, design, fact and fiction, is that fictioneers - I'm thinking of you, Bruce Sterling and Cory Doctorow - influence future technology by adding their fertile ideas to the collective now. Bleecker wants to know how that process happens:

Extending this idea that science fiction is implicated in the production of things like science fact, I wanted to think about how this happens, so that I could figure out the principles and pragmatics of doing design, making things that create different sorts of near future worlds. So, this is a bit of a think-piece, with examples and some insights that provide a few conclusions about why this is important as well as how it gets done. How do you entangle design, science, fact and fiction in order to create this practice called 'design fiction' that, hopefully, provides different, undisciplined ways of envisioning new kinds of environments, artifacts and practices.

If you're interested in how the latest developments are bridging the 2D and 3D worlds, check out the lab. And give Design Fiction it a read.

Wayne

Hat tip: Futurismic

Image credit: Simon Zirkunow

IF Conversations: David Mohney on Curry Stone Prize for humanitarian design

In this IdeaFestival Conversation, David Mohney, Dean Emeritus, College of Design, University of Kentucky, talks about the unique Curry Stone Prize for humanitarian design. The first annual $100,000 award was given at the 2008 IdeaFestival, Louisville, Kentucky.

architecture, innovation

Mars soil Asparagus friendly?

OK, so the headline has been used before. But attending a conference, Pamela Gay - a.k.a. Star Stryder - adds to what scientists can say with some certainty about the science done by the now-expired Mars Phoenix Lander and the potential for future habitability.

The session started with a broad overview of the results everyone was waiting to hear: Is there evidence of past liquid water and is their the possibility Mars can (at other temperatures) support life. The answer is a qualified yes.

Having confirmed water ice and a soil Ph of 7.7, the planet might actually grow something if it weren't so numbingly cold. She also reports that with luck, the lander, which exceeded its life expectancy by months but ultimately succumbed to the polar winter - could phone home should it thaw enough in the Martian spring.

Wayne

Make is simple

Could a renewed emphasis on simplicity tame the inherent - and sometimes needlessly added - complexity in nature and business?

Wayne

IdeaFestival

Irrational markets elude staid market theories

Market experts should give more thought to irrational thinking, according to Mahrt-Smith, an associate professor of finance at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management who spoke last week at the University of Toronto.

Behavioral finance offers a fresh way to view the market ups and downs.

One of the roles of behavioural finance, which is the study of non-rational decision-making and the ways such decisions impact financial markets, is to fill in the gaps of rational finance theories, Mahrt-Smith explained. For instance, behavioural finance acknowledges that investors have different expectations about investments, and that changes in investor confidence levels can impact the markets. In addition, the theory shows that emotions can play a role in investing.

Wayne

Urban transitions

Maybe its just because I'm currently reading Caryatids (hardcover) and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (Stanza, if you have an iPhone, get it) simultaneously, the near future has been of interest. That in mind, see Adam Greenfield's blog, where he logs fourteen transitions to a networked urbanism, such as "from expiring to persistent," and "from ownership to use." Add Clay Shirky to the mix and you've got some observant and supple thinking about networked societies and ambient, intelligent landscapes.

Wayne

Adam Greenfield, ambient intelligence, Ubiquitous computing, urbanism

Robofish "sniffs like a puppy dog"

A little latex and clever mechanics can go a long way. Although this robotic fish could someday contribute to cleaner oceans, I can't figure out whether I'm impressed or just a wee bit creeped out right now.

Wayne

Wikipedia: bionics

robotics, bionics, biomimicry

The Boy, Kirk

As mentioned before I have an unnatural obsession with all things Star Trek. So imagine my response when I first viewed THIS! I know there are several of you out there, lurking around, saluting the Vulcan peace sign and inwardly saying, "Live long and prosper."

Once, long ago (14 years exactly) I was attending a reading conference in Atlanta. It was most gratifying and I was just taking a break when I saw a Klingon walking into the Hyatt across the street. What? Klingons in Atlanta!???? I skipped the afternoon sessions and ended up registering for the International Science Fiction Conference which just happened to be happening the same time as my reading conference. I learned many things that day. One, that some people really do know Klingon and use it frequently and two, that there are way too many people who know how to speak Klingon. But I also learned that there are many people out there like me, who enjoy James T. Kirk, Spock, Captain Picard and the many other incarnations of this fabulous story.

So until my Harry Potter movie comes out I will anxiously await this movie which will show us how Spock and Kirk met and began a wondrous journey in outer space. Can you hear me say "EEEEP"!!!

Tina

Patent rights, creative wrong?

Inventors "buying and selling key components of their discoveries" beats the winner-take-all system of patent rights as a motivating force, according to the results of some research from Caltech.

As opposed to the single-winner structure of patents, which can dissuade potential competitors, markets take advantage of the fact the 50 percent of people consistently believe that they're better than the median, which, statistically speaking, is impossible. Structuring some games so that the partial solutions were rewarded resulted in more collaboration and faster development of good solutions to problems, a point investigators were able to make by asking volunteers to solve the knapsack problem.

Sure there is a correlation between R&D and patentable solutions, but not, perhaps, between that and financial performance. If the Caltech research is to be believed, the incentives are just all wrong.

Wayne

game theory