Owen Nieuwenhuyse wrote:

> > Yes, but only if you don't count electronics under computer-based stuff.

>

> Electronics can be fun!

> I have dabbled a little, but I couldn't design anything myself.



I usualy use the software electronics lab simulator, the real stuff

costs too much (except setting appart existing stuff of course ;). 



I know the last thing I was working on was a bitwise pattern recotnigion

circut. It just felt silly for me, that if you place something winding

in front of a presence detector, the door keeps opening. What I have

constructed can detect any pattern from 2 bits up to however components

you chain up in it. It uses RAM chips (actualy flip-flop switches, but

that's the same thing) that pass the signal forward to then next RAM

unit in the chain on each timer step, creating a map of the signal at

any timer step so far; then each RAM unit compares it's content with the

current signal and if the entire sequence (in the units from first to

this one) matches, then a pattern is confirmed. Practicaly, I expect it

would be cost-effective to make such a circut (chip) that can handle up

to about 1000 bit patterns.



> > Fact is that I do not see a difference between the two, both

> > are about how systems work; of course I understand that the normal

> > biologists are too short-minded to understand that and admit that

> > machines are non-organic lifeforms.

>

> ??? I saw one of your posts about that. Sound like some kind of emotional

> transference/projection. Unusual.



I guess you've been reading what I was telling Gary Forbis on CAP in

thread called "AI Love".



It's a bit diffirent, Gary thinks that it is logical that, if it is

unknown for both humans and machines that they have emotions, it must be

considered that humans have them and machines don't... Well it dosen't

seem to fit My logic, what do You think? The point of that discussion

was to add some mathematical logic to the usual people's carelessness.



People usualy do not care about the comformity of machines, they are

often left to freeze (batteries and switches) or suffocate in toxic dust

(power supply units). Some healthy logic puts togather the foundations

for a bit more morale in this area. The result is of course better

function of the machine and longer lifetime.



> > Nice to hear that. What type of engines do you prefer?  My favorites are

> > the bigger electric motors and the Wankel engine.

> 

> I am keen on racy 4-stroke twin cylinder bike engines. They sound neat!



Yes, the sounds surely rock; pure solid bass! I would need a subwolfer

on my headphones to reproduce it. =]



Have you ever been in a hydro-powerplant, next to a generator while it

was working? It's the other kind of sound that also rocks. I've been in

a micro hydro-powerplant (inflow pipe is 1/2 a meter; 500m drop) and I

know the ground around the poweplant shook when it was on. I can only

imagine what is it like in that new biggest hydro-powerplant (6x 10.5

meter inflow pipes; 1000m drop I think).



> These new fuel cells sound interesting, but I would prefer really good

> batteries.

> The generation-transmission-battery-electric motor  system is grossly

> inefficient. - I still think running costs are lower for electrics-if you

> can create durable batteries! 



Well, I well know what powersource would I use, if it wasn't illegal to

use it. I would use the mini-format nuclear (uranium heats bimetals that

produce electricity). It would be rather small and would last forever.

You might think that radiation is in question here, but to tell you: as

much uranium it would take for a car, the radiation would probably be

way lower from what you get by driving on a granite-cube road. And

secondly, it surely is cost-effective to buy that little uranium if you

get a free ride for the rest of the existance of the car.



The biggest problem would probably be what happens if you crash with

such a car: !!!***BANG***!!! [insert mushroom clouds here] => Just

kidding.



> How long do you think it will be before we all change over to

> a "hydrogen economy"? - that seems to be the major long-term transport

> plan for now.



Hydrogen dosen't grow on trees and you can't either pump it from

anywhere like you do fuel or gass. So, no long term here. Compressed air

is a better and safer carier of energy, which sounds quite sad to me

("balh, compressed air?!").



> Not neccesarily-I haven't heard of any hub-center emotors without bearings.

> Any articles? I have heard of energy storage flywheels using mag-lev

> bearings, though.



I've read it in the one and only sci-technical magazine in our country.

It's in Slovene of course.



With buses, the point are the mechnanical transfers, that don't exist

all of the sudden. The new busses are as silent as a ghost*, if you

exclude the diesel at the back. Also, it has nearly paper-thin floor,

just thick enough to support the passengers and include the electric

wires. Not to mention it regenerates electricity on breaking.



* = It's absolutely awesome feel if you stand on the edge of the

sidewalk and the bus whooshes by you in the dark. It of course has

lights inside, so that adds a cool light projection effect, next to the

fact that everything you hear is how it cuts trough the air and the soft

beep of all six electric motors. It feels truly inposible that such a

giant vehicle, moving so fast and so close is not making a sound.



> There is an operation that effectively gives you a stomach valve, but they

> don't do it until you get really ill.

> 

> > I have got one very usefull suggestions here for you: Drink more water!

> > I just hope the water in pipelines at your place is any better than mine

> > here (it is drinkable yes, but it's taste (read: pH) is orrible, I guess

> > I could almost use it instead of acid-suppressors ;). I myself had some

> > quite bad problems with digestion (not as bad as yours of course),

> > resulting in a sharp pain whenever my stomach is empty for a while. I

> > found that if I drink water, the problem dissapears. Of course note that

> > this means about 1/2 litters of water per pain occurance, that might

> > repeat up to 3 times in a day.

> ON:

> I don't get direct pain, just all these strange symptoms, like cold sweats

> and weak legs. I could try drinking more water.

> 

> I drink a lot of coffee, to counteract the antidepressants.

> I could ask my psych about alternatives. Coffee is a bit corrosive!

> >

> > > I suppose I shall just have to wait and see if the condition improves or

> > > worsens.

> > > It has been slowly deteriorating for several years, now.

> > > A sign of worsening is increased food sensitivity, with nausea and

> vomiting.

> > > I am not at the vomiting stage yet.

> >

> > Heh, I guess I could list my problems here too. =>

> >

> > The main one is that I have high blood preasure and low hemoglobin

> > content, which means that when I need more oxygen (e.g.: when I'm

> > running), my heart beat pops to above 200 BPM, so my blood preasure

> > increases way above what is normal. I wouldn't care about it, if it

> > didn't cause the wires in my nose to explode, resulting in some minor

> > bleeding and some quite annoying iching for the next 2 months... =[

> >

> > I guess your problems are way beyond mine, so I guess I can say that

> > you're pretty good to keep that up.

> ON:

> Long-term high blood pressure is not good. -bad for your heart.

> 

> My problems are not life-threatening, just a bit tiring at times.

> There must be drugs around that can counteract the symptoms without

> being hazardous-I will ask around - (Usenet??)

> >

> > > I started investigating "mind-agents" and directed dream states, but I

> think

> > > I have lost interest in that for now.-this AI stuff on the internet has

> my

> > > attention.

> > > I have ordered some library "interloan" books by a psychologist-author,

> > > "Lilly"

> > > I should look him up on Dogpile-I will do that now.

> > > I think there is one called: Meta-programming the Human Biocomputer.

> > > That sounds interesting.

> >

> > Yes, the word "Meta" catches one's attention, as with METAsearch engines

> > and MET(h)A tea, etc. ;]

> ON:

> I didn't find anything-they must be long out of print.

> >

> > Well you got me interested, I will lookup those terms. However I fear it

> > has something to do with stuff like "Neural Nets" (in other words: Way

> > too alternative methods).

> ON:

> A lot of games use NN techniques nowdays-they are becoming quite

> main-stream in some types of applications-they are good for adaptive

> reactions.

> You can get them in C++ gaming libraries.

> 

> I was thinking about proposing an NN process to fit in with the visual

> recognition model/technique set that I was discussing.

> -running the video signal through a series of comparators. You may be able

> to pick out known object signatures without detail overload, and where

> contrast

> is too bad for edge-tracing.

> It would be interesting to work out an indexing system for that-you would

> need

> several passes through the same "frame", and look for standard dimension/

> area signals.

> The horizontal and vertical switch signals can be incorporated as

> characteristic

> coded "spikes" to calibrate the comparator signal.

> They also could just be carried seperately on a second channel-or several

> parallel channels.

> These techniques can be integrated into more conventional table/list/value

> type operations.

> You should have run into this type of thing in electronics.

> 

> I may look into NN techniques a bit more.

> >

> > > Read from you later!

> >

> > I guess I might note that: 1. I always read all of your mails,

> > regardless of the fact that I don't reply to everything you write and 2.

> > I appreciate you keeping up posting, it dosen't matter what you write or

> > what you ask me, keeping up a discussion adds the feel of support.

> 

> ON: Neat!   :-)

> >

> >

> > One of the topics I was about to offer you is... Psychotechnology. It's

> > not firmly defined as the word, so I do not know if it's the right one.

> > It's supposed to mean about the same thing as Biotechnology (using

> > lifeforms to make something that you need), with the "psycha" inplace of

> > "bio". It's morally very cruel to use it, but as my analisys have shown

> > that the used subjects do not feel anything bad to it, if it's all done

> > as it should be.

> >

> > Pratically, it is using psychology on people to make something that you

> > need, Jordi's worst nightmare. => It is done the right way, when the

> > subjects are not drained in the process. Politicians are quite used to

> > using this.

> ON:

> Yes-children and spouses get quite good at it!

> It would be good to use on CAP, to get some constructive input!

> 

> Sometime a bit of "trolling" can get a constructive response.

> 

> I don't like being Trolled just for the sake of grandstanding,

> though. :-(

> 

> Tell me a bit about this AI Meta Search-How AI is it?

> Is it conversationally interactive? - does it it search within a sub-list

> of returns with more refined queries?

> Does it do semantic similarity matching?

> Can it massage other search engines to give logical-string searches?

> 

> I quite like Dogpile, or DirectSeek (an on-pc based freeware system)





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