Headlines from Outerspace

Chindōgu is the Japanese art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem, but are in fact useless.

There are times when too many good headlines pop up all at once. Here's a sampling of what's going on circa 2018. In 2028, will this all be passé? In 2008, would it have been unfathomable?

On-chip excitation of nanodiamonds embedded in plasmonic waveguides
Oct 2018, phys.org

No clue, just headline wordporn.

Bitcoin miner sent to prison for stealing electricity from train network in China
Oct 2018, The Independent

A man in China has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after stealing electricity from a train network in order to mine bitcoin.

Two Companies Are Going to Manufacture Optical Fibers in Space
Sep 2018, Futurism

Eventually we will all live in computers orbiting the Earth. For now, this is an early example of otherworldly computer manufacturing.

Building a better brain-in-a-dish, faster and cheaper
Sept 2018, phys.org

"What we've done is establish a proof-of-principle protocol for a systematic, automated process to generate large numbers of brain organoids," said Alysson R. Muotri, Ph.D., professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine departments of Pediatrics and Cellular and Molecular Medicine, director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program and a member of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.


Image source: Gee, I sure wish I could attribute a source to this image, but it's been fetched by my "generic search engine" from pinterest (go figure, right?). In case readers here don't know what pinterest is, it's a way for image users to short-circuit Google's own copyright policies (under firm guidance by Getty) by taking images out of their source page and placing them on another page with way higher "finding power," as you might expect by any page owned by the search engine itself. 

Humans on a Chip

Treating humans like molecules are the main idea behind computational sociothermodynamics, which is the science of predicting human behavior based on thermodynamics models of particles. It's a way to gain insight into a really complex problem, and from a rather unsuspecting place. And we will be seeing a lot more of this in years to come.

Here's a new model that works by measuring how people distribute themselves as a function of the density of the crowd they're in. It's called a Density-Functional Fluctuation Theory of Crowds.

The model was originally designed for predicting the behavior of quantum systems, and it was already tested using fruit flies, because boy does science love fruit flies.

It generates a "frustration function" that measures the probability that someone will move to a new location given a specific density for that crowd. At a concert, for example, people will try to get a good spot, as long as it's not too crowded. When it gets too crowded, they'll move. And when it gets too crowded after that, they riot. Just kidding. (Not really.)

The model can then predict the "mood" of the crowd by how this frustration function evolves over time. In the article where I found this, it was suggested that this model could be used to predict a rowdy crowd before it starts. Or the moment a peaceful protest changes phase from a liquid to a gas, if you know what I mean.

Then again, who cares about a predictive model when we have neck-rec! [neck-recognition technology, an advance beyond face recognition]

This is a drone that detects movements in human faces and necks in order to accurately source heart rates and breathing rates of crowds. (I like to refer to this as physiodata, because that sounds good.)

In other words, the resolution is so fine that it can see and measure the pulse of your jugular vein, and then face-rec your id, of course. And it will do this for an entire crowd, and in less time than it takes you to snap a picture.


Post Script:
Mathematics can assist cities in addressing unstructured neighborhoods
Aug 2018, phys.org

[straight pasting here]
"...use satellite imagery and municipal data to develop mathematical algorithms that reveal slums and planned neighborhood are fundamentally different.

Their models clearly identify distinctions between the informal arrangement of underserviced urban areas and the formal structure of city neighborhoods. In two case studies, the researchers used real-world data to show that the physical layout of some unplanned neighborhoods does not allow space for sewer lines, roads or water pipes.

The team used a novel topological technique, based on connections between places, to characterize the first-time slums rather than a traditional geometric approach.

"By understanding the fundamental topology — the relationship between places of residence and work to urban infrastructure networks — we can determine parts of cities remain only incipiently connected," said coauthor Luís Bettencourt, director of the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation at the University of Chicago.
-phys.org


Notes:

Fruit flies and electrons: Researchers use physics to predict crowd behavior
Aug 2018, phys.org

Drone detects heartbeat and breathing rates
Sep 2017, BBC

Physiodata at Large
Oct 2017, Network Address

Urban Dynamics
Oct 2013, Network Address

The Sante Fe Institute always has cool stuff combining studies of computers, physics, social sciences.

This isn't what I meant by humans on a chip, but then again, yes it is:
3D 'organ on a chip' could accelerate search for new disease treatments
Oct 2018, phys.org

Background People

I've been real into conspiracy theories ever since Zecharia Sitchin's 12th Planet series. I was about 15, and convinced that there was an elliptically orbiting twelfth planet (eleventh? tenth? Can't keep track) filled with really smart people that would drop down and help us out once in a while. How else do you explain the Pyramids??

Because aliens, that's how.

It took me until college before I had the critical prowess to tackle that excuse for an answer. Now I like to use Michael Schirmer's Baloney Detection Kit.

Belief in conspiracy theories, as it is generally understood, comes from a lack of self-control. When you feel like you can't do anything to fix your life, you want to blame someone. And it's a lot easier to blame one big, scary, sinister, omnipotent force, one that is too big for you to fight, and too pervasive to ever fully understand.*

Conspiracy theories are also helpful if you have a hard time understanding how the world works. It's a lot easier to say everything is hidden purposefully, by a nefarious agent. That way you can't be blamed for not understanding, right?

But there's a great study that's been recently done which proves something different. It shows that the reason for us believing in conspiracy theories isn't necessarily because we feel a lack of control, but because we want to sound cool.

"Exclusive knowledge" is the key term here. Or simply exclusivity. Exclusivity makes people look cool. It's why clothiers burn their unsold wares at the end of the season. It's why gmail was invite-only. It's kind of why you can't read graffiti. And it's the most basic component of economics - supply and demand.

Everyone wants to know things that others don't. When you have exclusive knowledge, you're in-demand. But how do you prove that this is what makes people fall for stuff like flat earths and reptile people?

How? Well, you invent a conspiracy theory from scratch, preferably something happening in another country, far enough that you wouldn't have heard of it, but close enough that you can have some opinion, and then you feed it to people but tell them it's either a very popular theory, or an unpopular theory, and see how it gets received.

A totally made-up story unfolds in Germany, and is presented to the study participants, and with that, another little piece of information comes. Some are told that this story is believed by 80% of Germans, and some are told that it's only believed by 20% of Germans.

The study participants had already been tested for their propensity to believe or endorse conspiracy theories, and they were give a score. People with a high "conspiracy mentality quotient" were more likely to accept the fictitious conspiracy theory, but only if it was presented as not popular. For clarification, the exact same theory, when presented as generally accepted by most people, was not accepted.

Is there some way we can get climate change to be less popular of a theory??

*Also, believing in BS tends to happen more when you're prefrontal cortex hasn't been fully formed, which would be around 25 years old, give or take a few. 


Notes:
Want to Feel Unique? Believe in the Reptile People
May 2018, Knowing Neurons

On Background People

On Zecharia Sitchin, author of books about ancient astronauts

On Why Zecharia Sitchin is wrong about the ancient astronaut thing, from a PhD in Hebrew and ancient Semitic languages from University of Wisconsin-Madison, just in case you needed some balance in opinion

Post Script:
If you're interested, the fictitious conspiracy theory used in the study went like this:
A retired engineer had found evidence that these smoke detectors have serious side effects, emanating a ‘hypersound’ that causes nausea, gastritis and depression. This was forcefully rejected by VdS Schadenverhütung GmbH, the largest (and invented) producer of smoke detectors. The conspiracy: VdS was in cahoots with the government and knew about the dangerous smoke detectors, but did nothing.

The Flying Pantograph

Disney's Graffiti Drone needs some work.

It's called the PaintCopter: An Autonomous UAV for Spray Painting on 3D Surfaces, and it's by Disney's Research labs.

There is a big difference between this thing and the ones that have come before, in that this version has a constant supply of paint.

Otherwise, nothing to see here, except for the brief reminders below:

Artist Katsu's remote control graffiti machine, circa 2014, in WIRED

Algorithmically-directed graffiti machine at the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit, MoMA circa 2008.

Also let's not forget about this beautiful, remote graffiti alternative - lasers, by Graffiti Research Labs, circa 2010.

***

While we're at it, news in lettering; No seriously, it's more interesting than it sounds:

Have you ever wished you couldn't read as good as you do? You know, one day you're sitting there, reading, which a few hundred years ago was relegated to a fraction of the population, but you're there reading and you think to yourself, man, I'm so good at reading that I read --too fast--. I wish I couldn't read as good as I do. 

You are in luck, because some students who also wish they weren't so good at reading decided to make a font that is purposefully hard to read.

It's not illegible, it just rides the line just below perfectly legible. You have to struggle just a little bit, and that extra effort makes you remember what you're reading. 

So it is a font designed to be not read too well. Surely, this isn't easy to create, because if it's too illegible, it will convey no meaning at all.

More importantly, this is a great example of a thing I don't know what we call - when you design something to be hard to use on purpose. Like we got so good at something, that the design goal is now to go in the other direction. Speed bumps are not what I'm talking about; they're an afterthought. The dog bowl that stops your dog from eating too fast, and what else.  

Notes:

A Pantograph is an instrument for copying a drawing.

Disney 'graffiti drone' tags walls

Oct 2018, BBC News

Design and the Elastic Mind, Review. New York Times, 2008

Design and the Elastic Mind, MoMA, 2008

Graffiti Research Lab's L.A.S.E.R. Tag 

Sans Forgetica: new typeface designed to help students study
Jan 2018, RMIT Vietnam News

The Sans Forgetica font has received much press coverage, after researchers in Australia claimed they had designed a new font that would boost memory by making information that appeared in the new font feel more difficult to read—and therefore remembered better.

Previously claimed memory boosting font Sans Forgetica does not actually boost memory
May 2020, phys.org

CES 2019 The robot that draws on walls
Jan 2019, BBC

Wall-Crawling Robot Automates Mural Drawings
It's like a Roomba but on the wall, and it draws.

Post Script: Just Graffiti Things
NY Court Approves $6.7M Award for 5Pointz Graffiti Artists Whose Work Was Destroyed
Feb 2020, NBC New York

High Albedo Formula

It's pretty counter-intuitive, but a surface can lose heat even while being hit by sunlight. This is a big deal for buildings, especially the roofs of buildings, and especially when those buildings are in urban areas that experience the urban heat island effect.

We've been measuring the behavior of heat on a roof for a long time. It's called a measure of albedo, which takes into account both the ability of the surface to reflect heat, and also to dissipate it back into the atmosphere. These are two different things, and in this new technique, it is the second feature that makes it work.

Sure we can make things reflective. Painting them white is a good move. Shiny and white, even better. But how do we make it so that the roof also dissipates its heat better?

Think about the fins on an air conditioner. Their sole purpose is to rid of heat, a thousand strips of metal reaching into the air, far enough away from each other that they don't release their heat right back to themselves, and yet packed enough that they do a maximum job.

That's pretty much what this passive daytime radiative cooling technique does. It's more about the shape and structure and texture of the surface, which is a polymer coating made of foamlike nano-to-microscale air voids. I instead describe it as billions of little fingers, each one reaching out into the air to release the heat it carries from the mass behind it. They're also scattering and reflecting sunlight in every direction while they're at it.

No matter how you describe it, don't forget that this coating can be sprayed on like paint; it doesn't have to be made that way in the factory but can be applied out there in field. That makes this advance a really big deal.

Polymer coating cools down buildings
Sept 2018, phys.org

Entropy Goggles

A computer has been taught to distinguish between different arrangements of the elements and principles of design across artists and over time. But don't worry, it's nowhere near human.

Much of what makes this possible is the amount of artwork that has been digitized, ie, machine readable, ie, machine consumable. We can now feed our computers the same diet of cultural nutrients that we as photosensitive creatures enjoy, giving it a fair chance.

The computer can't see the things we see in a work of art. It can't see the richness and it can't assign meaning anywhere near the way we can. But it can do some things even better than us, especially if we give it a concise metric with which is can "familiarize" itself with the artwork.

The primary metric used here was one of complexity-entropy, where each pixel in an image was measured in terms of the complexity of its spatial patterns. A fully white square, or a square filled with all manner of colors and lines. Each pixel value is then added to give the picture an overall score.

The score of the different artworks in the database shifted in tandem with major accepted periods of artistic periods, making it look like this program has figured something out, can recognize something about our artifacts of cultural assimilation.

Machine learning enables physics-inspired metrics for analyzing art
Aug 2018, phys.org

Citizen Science

This jacket is so hi-tech even the manufacturers don't know what it does.

From what I can gather, this is the first instance of a graphene product on the consumer market.

There may be components of things we already use that incorporate it, or other materials used that are similar. But there haven't been any graphene watches or graphene duct tape yet. (I see something about a graphene light bulb from 2015?)

If you're not sure what graphene is, I should let someone with more authority impress upon you the hyperboles it bestows.

Sure stainless steel was a big deal. And synthetic plastics a triumph of man over nature (and may end up marking our place in the geological record). But graphene is all of those, and more.

It's everything-proof, anti-everything, and superconductive, whatever that means. It weighs less and holds more than anything else there is. It has made a new class of materials by subtracting a dimension from the entire arc of both human and nature's history, for it is, for all intents and purposes, a two-dimensional material.

And the greatest part is that it's not some crazy-long molecule with an unspellcheckable name, it's a bunch of carbon atoms. The same carbon atoms that have been floating around for eternity. By themselves, they usually make either graphene or diamonds, both just clumps of carbon atoms. But now, scientists have managed to trick them into planar arrangements only one atom thick.

Because we do not have experience with two-dimensional materials (because they do not exist anywhere else in the universe), we don't know what they can do, and we're pretty surprised by everything they've done so far.

After many years of development, the first thing we see is not a graphene/carbon nanotube powered-car by Tesla, or a graphene water filter by Brita, but a jacket by a high-end sports apparel manufacturer.

They don't even know why they did it*; the point is for consumers to wear it and discover what it does for them, for all of us. More of this to come, surely.

*I think we all know why they did it (publicity).


Notes:
Graphene Jacket. Part jacket. Part science experiment. Made with the only material in the world with a Nobel Prize
Aug 2018, Vollebak