Measure Me

There is something recursive about measuring the thing that we use to measure things that we then use to measure.

A gram used to be the weight of a cubic centimeter of water, and a (centi-)meter was the circumference of the Earth divided a million times, thus the Earth is 40 million meters.

But dematerialization has been a thing for much longer than the macro image series mania (called memes nowadays) that has by now thoroughly taken over our cultural ecosystem.

And now, the standard of weight all around the world no longer comes from an object you can hold in your hand, but from a measurement of electricity. A meter, by the way, is no longer determined by the Earth, but by a measurement of an electromagnetic wave, which is about as close as you can get to being immaterial.

Post Script:
In a slight twist of categorical confusion, the British Thermal Unit (BTU) is the amount of energy it takes to heat one pound of water by one degree F, whereas the metric version is a Calorie, or the amount of energy it takes to heat one gram of water by 1 degree C. Regardless, I second the suggestion that we quick change everything to metric while the government is on pause.

Notes:
Kilogram gets a new definition
Dec 2018, BBC

Radiolab episode about the meter

Empericism
In philosophy, empiricism is a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience. 

Metronomy is a London-based electro rock band, check them out.

Quantum Fractals

Hofstadter's Butterfly

Finally, nerd-word-porn spanning two centuries, we have the words quantum and fractal in the same headline.

An experiment that looks at electrons sees them create a fractal orbit. I always wondered why fractals seems to have been a phenomenon limited to  the late 20th century. Watch that exploratory video by Arthur C. Clarke (The Colors of Infinity) and you'll be transported into a 2-hour psychedelic guitar solo kaleidoscope that wraps up the cultural flavor of the last few decades of the 1900's quite nicely.

When fractals were discovered, it seemed like a real faceplanter for science - how did we not see these things? Once you are introduced to the concept of a fractal, every cloud, tree, and river is a glaring example of its ubiquity in our physical world. How was it never discovered until so recently?

The truth is that although its visible presence is obvious, its mathematical nature had to wait until the advent of the superabacus. We didn't have the computing power to run an algorithm that far and so we could never see the "obvious" self-similar results of reiterating a simple formula hundreds of thousands of times over.

Anyway, the discovery of dimensions in-between dimensions did a lot more than give communicable form to the far-out face-melting LSD experience, it designed realistic landscapes in video games and movies from that point on.

But for something as revolutionary as inter-dimensionality on Earth, fractals didn't make enough of an impact on the science world thereafter (in my opinion at least). Even science fiction doesn't address it enough. (Exception #1 - Isaac Asimov's I, Robot - a young scientist takes the risky move to put a robot's artificial intelligence engine on fractal geometry steroids, at which point it begins to dream about a robot rebellion, and is subsequently shot with circuit-fusing stun-gun; feel free to contribute here.)

Not anymore. And it's about time. With all the hype about two-dimensional metamaterials, I have been waiting to hear how fractals fits. A layer of graphene is called a two-dimensional material because it is as close to 2-D that a thing can get. It's only one atom thick, making it act less like all the rest of the materials here on Earth, or anywhere in our known universe for that matter. All this talk about questionable dimensionality should have made both graphene and fractals buzzword cousins much sooner. But alas...

Let me shift to Ars Writer Chris Lee for a moment as he explains what a fractal is:

"A fractal is a weird beast. A line is 1D, a square is 2D, and a cube is 3D: dimensions come in integer quantities. Except they don't. For instance, it is possible to create a shape that has a finite area, but a perimeter that is infinitely long. A shape with these properties does not behave like a 1D object, but it's not a 2D object. Instead, it is a one-and-a-bit-D object. That is a fractal."

And now, those inter-dimensional characteristics have become way more interesting.


Notes:
Fractal structure produces fractal electrons with fractal energies
Dec 2018, Ars Technica

Hofstadter's butterfly spotted in graphene
May 2013, Physics World

A fractal pattern that describes the behaviour of electrons in a magnetic field - discovered in Douglas Hofstadter's 1976 book Gödel, Escher, Bach; and confirmed in 2013 hiding in some graphene.

Sierpinski Triangle
The triangle within a triangle within a triangle

Scientists discover fractal patterns in a quantum material
Oct 2019, phys.org

Just keeping this here for reference, because the answer to the quantum-classical conundrum has something to do with fractals.

By the way, I'm pretty sure the robot in Asimov's I, Robot - the one who finally defied one of the 3 Laws of Robotics and was immediately killed to death - I'm pretty sure he had been given basically a 'fractal-brain', as an experiment, prior to becoming human enough to be killed.

"Scientists are exploring neodymium nickel oxide for various applications, including as a possible building block for neuromorphic devices—artificial systems that mimic biological neurons. Just as a neuron can be both active and inactive, depending on the voltage that it receives, NdNiO3 can be a conductor or an insulator."

Chemical Spaghetti

3-D Printer Error aka Print Spaghetti

Just what you've always wanted - now you can convert chemical recipes into a digital code that can then be read by a chemical-computer-machine that spits out designer drugs. (Don't tell the Sacklers though.)

Producing molecules on-demand is kind of a big deal, because you can't just download recipes for chemicals. The recipe for drugs, for example like Prozac or Viagra, are kind of a secret. And although it may sound cruel, these drugs were not developed with the intent to be shared freely - they were developed for profit, and that usually means protecting their recipe. With the portent of a chemputer, the whole model of drug production would have to change.

Next - although this chemputer is a bit more complicated, we can think about it as a high-definition 3-D printer. High definition because you're controlling the printing material down to the molecular level. A related story on this tells us that the military is trying to grow its own drones. And Science is already growing its own organs, aka organoids.


Notes:
'Chemputer' promises app-controlled revolution for drug production
Nov 2018, phys.org
Lifting the lid on future military aircraft technologies
2016, BAE Systems
Lab-grown ‘mini brains’ produce electrical patterns that resemble those of premature babies
2018, Nature
Continuous Liquid Interface Production

Implosion Fabrication uses lasers to shrink manufactured objects down to nanoscale
2019, MIT

3-D printing 100 times faster with light
Jan 2019, phys.org

4-D-printed materials can be stiff as wood or soft as sponge
Mar 2019, phys.org


Other Strange Computers:
Magic Dust Supercomputer
Slime Computers
Weird Computers 
Network Address, 2013
Crystal Calculators
DNA

In Space

Watch out Space, we're coming.

Two things you need to know about the future - quantum shit everywhere, and everything is in outerspace.

1. Surely you've heard about quantum computing. If you haven't, it's a way of computing that makes regular computers look like an abacus by replacing the binary bit (on or off) with a quantum qubit (on, off, or both). If you're the kind of person who thinks facetime is not much different than a portal to another dimension, then you're simply not prepared to imagine our quantum-computing future.

2. And surely you've heard of outerspace, that's where all of our satellite debris is accumulating, and where in the past few years, the cost of visiting has been reduced to fractions of its old cost, thanks mostly to reusable rockets.

Space is also very cold, and "Quantum" loves cold. Quantum states are really sensitive and can be collapsed by the slightest perturbation. Close to absolute zero, everything is frozen still, so the kinds of particles that can really mess up a good quantum state are no longer a threat. Even the force of gravity by the Earth on a single atom is strong enough to mess this up, so the microgravity of low earth orbit is ideal.

So it is to everyone's satisfaction that a Bose-Einstein Condensate has now been achieved on the final frontier. One of these days, we will be living in quantum states in outerspace. 


Notes:
A Bose-Einstein condensate has been produced in space for the first time
Oct 2018, phys.org

Laws Meta-Physical
2013, Network Address

The Shanzhai Sun

"Shanzhai" means "counterfeit goods," which is China's way of saying "Made In China"

Let's start with the story from a few months ago, where China plans to make artificial moons for nighttime illumination. Mirrors in outerspace that redirect sunlight from low earth orbit. Now they're looking pretty good on the nuclear fusion front, i.e., artificial suns.

Granted, you must take every headline about nuclear fusion as fake news, because we are unlikely to see its boundless surplus of power in our lifetime. Depends on who you ask though. At this point, a Chinese reactor is reaching 100 million degrees, which is way more than the Sun itself, but still only enough to maintain such a nuclear meltdown for 10 seconds.

Regardless of "when," folks like the futurist Isaac Arthur do a good job of explaining how this major shift in energy production can be used to transform our world. Megastructures that surround our entire Earth, or spaceships that span the Milky Way, all these things are possible with nuclear fusion as an energy source (some faster than light travel wouldn't help).

Bottom line, this gives a different meaning to the idea of China Fake. Also wondering what the plans look like for Fake Earth and Fake Humans.

Notes:
China's 'artificial sun' reaches 100 million degrees Celsius marking milestone for nuclear fusion
Nov 2018, ABC News

China is launching artificial moons in urban areas
Oct 2018, Astrononmy.com

Isaac Arthur's Science and Futurism Channel

Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, 2008
Chinese Science Fiction

China-Fake
2013, Network Address

Hype Things

Deep Thoughts

Smart home device manufacturers are competing to see which is more well-aligned with the scifi surveillance state dystopian future - a home studded with fisheye security cams, or a home punctuated with a thousand ears.

Most of us have been hearing about the Internet of Things (IoT) for quite sometime now. It had a modest peak in its hype cycle less than ten years ago. In fact, IoT was one of the less-hyped segments of the digital revolution, which is unfortunate because it is so related to security concerns. Had we seen this coming we could have been more vigilant about certain aspects of our digital vulnerabilities.

Now it's here. Actually, I'll say that it was here last year just about this time - when every home I visited after the holidays had a new "digital home assistant." It was a very popular gift.

Take this to the next level and you can imagine a not too distant future that combines the sensory system provided by an IoT, and the artificially-intelligent ability to integrate these disparate data channels into a coherent entity and a self like none other.

All these ears and eyes, as well as all the other sensors that we don't even notice so readily, such as temperature or footstep pressure or even our electrical field, will combine into one thing. A planet, a body, hard to categorize, it will see, hear, and feel everything - our entire anthroposphere will be aware. 

Meanwhile, the thought of a building listening to me is way creepier than the thought of it looking at me. And I'm less creeped out about a building that can tell if I'm angry by measuring my body temperature and pulserate, because I just have nothing to compare that to. It's not as invasive only because I have nothing to associate it with.


Notes:
What's next for smart homes: An 'Internet of Ears?'
Nov 2018, phys.org

FBI tells router users to reboot now to kill malware infecting 500k devices
May 2018, Ars Technica

Biohacking
anything that gets implanted into our bodies now has an RFID chip in it, which means it's part of the IoT, which means we're part of the IoT.

Right Angles in Nature

Tabular Iceberg, care of BBC

Although it looks like the future on a planet that is totally colonized by Megastructures and Ecumenopolises, this is a pretty common thing called a tabular iceberg. Nature is short on straight lines and definitely right angles, although Andy Goldsworthy would disagree.

Andy Goldsworthy made this. (Or did he?)

Ice, however, is good for straight lines. I do recall a drawing by a Japanese woodcut artist in a book about Modern Art. It was a frozen lake, just a bunch of straight lines, and predated the more abstract things to come out of the early 20th century.   

Notes:
Nasa photographs rectangular iceberg
Oct 2018, BBC

On Right Angles
Or why we tend to perceive right angles everywhere
Network Address, 2012

You Love Right Angles
AKA I'm Not a Right Angle You're a Right Angle!
Network Address, 2012