For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If you hit a tuning fork twice as hard it will ring twice as loud but still at the same frequency. That's a linear response. If you hit a person twice as hard they're unlikely just to shout twice as loud. That property lets you learn more about the person than the tuning fork. - When Things Start to Think, 1999.
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The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus read more
The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's read more
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
It doesn't matter how new an idea is: what matters is how new it becomes.
It doesn't matter how new an idea is: what matters is how new it becomes.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
In a manner which matches the fortuity, if not the consequence, of Archimedes' bath and Newton's apple, the 3.6 million read more
In a manner which matches the fortuity, if not the consequence, of Archimedes' bath and Newton's apple, the 3.6 million year old fossil footprints were eventually noticed one evening in September 1976 by the paleontologist Andrew Hill, who fell while avoiding a ball of elephant dung hurled at him by the ecologist David Western.
For my confirmation, I didn't get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like most Lutheran boys. I read more
For my confirmation, I didn't get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like most Lutheran boys. I got a telescope. My mother thought it would make the best gift.
Theory provides the maps that turn an uncoordinated set of experiments or computer simulations into a cumulative exploration.
Theory provides the maps that turn an uncoordinated set of experiments or computer simulations into a cumulative exploration.
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is read more
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
Intel has announced its next chip: the Repentium.
Intel has announced its next chip: the Repentium.
