Interesting read on the current state of cosmological thinking.

The Atlantic: What happened before the Big Bang?

In May of last year Stephen Hawking gave a talk for Google in which he said that philosophy was dead, and that it was dead because it had failed to keep up with science, and in particular physics. Is he wrong or is he describing a failure of philosophy that your project hopes to address?

Maudlin: Hawking is a brilliant man, but he's not an expert in what's going on in philosophy, evidently. Over the past thirty years the philosophy of physics has become seamlessly integrated with the foundations of physics work done by actual physicists, so the situation is actually the exact opposite of what he describes. I think he just doesn't know what he's talking about. I mean there's no reason why he should. Why should he spend a lot of time reading the philosophy of physics? I'm sure it's very difficult for him to do. But I think he's just . . . uninformed.

You got to have a lot of cojones to offer a critique of Hawking.

Read the whole thing; best pocket summary of the current state of what we know I've read for awhile.

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So. How about printing your next home? No, not printing the blueprints: printing the house itself.

...using a big robotic type printer.

Yes, there's already a model printer, and they're working on a full size one. Homes, of almost any imaginably useful and artistically satisfying shape, can be built in a day or two. 2800 sq ft homes. In a day or two. Using a LOT less workers.

Txchnologist: Printing a Home.

It can take anywhere from six weeks to six months to build a 2,800-square-foot, two-story house in the U.S., mostly because human beings do all the work. Within the next five years, chances are that 3D printing (also known by the less catchy but more inclusive term additive manufacturing) will have become so advanced that we will be able to upload design specifications to a massive robot, press print, and watch as it spits out a concrete house in less than a day. Plenty of humans will be there, but just to ogle.

...wonder what that will do to the construction industry? And to the skilled craftsmen who are currently employed in those skills? And to the skill-sets of those craftsmen?

We're going to reach a point, sooner rather than later, where robots of some sort are able to do most, if not all, of the work that humans currently do. Cheaper and faster than humans.

What do we do ...when we reach that point ...with the humans?

More specifically, where does the income come from to purchase the output and goods of the 99% robotic printers & factories, when the humans who are the recipients of those goods, have no jobs with which to earn the money with which to purchase those goods?

We're headed for a train wreck. Soon. Much, much sooner than we think.

IF ...if we try and keep the current socio-economic model of the value of human activity.

Something is going to have to give. Dunno what. But something.

Posted by: fairwhether at 07:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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An interesting discussion on the origins of man.

Rethinking Out of Africa

We may find there are other people than the Denisovans and the Neanderthals to be recognized from their DNA in these regions— there may well be more surprises to come. For example there is evidence both from fossils and recent DNA that even Africa had an overlap of modern and archaic humans, with the possibility in a continent so large that there were other descendants of heidelbergensis living there alongside Homo sapiens. These populations could have exchanged DNA too, evidence of which might be found in the genomes of living Africans. We will also get the first good look at functional DNA in the genomes of ancient individuals. For the first time, we can make a comparison, not just between the chimp genome and the modern human genome, but we can now add in the Neanderthal genome and the Denisovan genome. We can start to see what unites those three human genomes compared with the chimpanzees. What evolved along the modern human line to make us what we are? And then individually, what made the Neanderthals what they were? What made the Denisovans what they were? This will have an impact, of course, on our own nature, what makes a modern human a modern human. Already a number of bits of DNA have been identified that are distinct among humans, where the Neanderthals are like chimpanzees.

It's a long slog, but read the whole thing.

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Separating the wheat from the chaff ...a compilation of studies on the effectiveness of various supplements.

Snake Oil?

...just click on stuff, and watch the bubbles. V. handy.

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Ha! As it turns out, moderate beer-drinking is also good for your health.

Yahoo Health: 10 Surprising Health Benefits of Beer

For the best bone-building benefits, reach for pale ale, since a 2010 study of 100 types of beer from around the word identified these brews as richest in silicon ...

...More than 100 studies also show that moderate drinking trims risk of heart attacks and dying from cardiovascular disease by 25 to 40 percent, Harvard reports. A beer or two a day can help raise levels of HDL, the "good” cholesterol that helps keep arteries from getting clogged.

...A 2005 study tracking the health of 11,000 older women showed that moderate drinkers (those who consumed about one drink a day) lowered their risk of mental decline by as much as 20 percent, compared to non-drinkers. In addition, older women who downed a drink a day scored as about 18 months "younger,” on average, on tests of mental skills than the non-drinkers.

...In a 2005 review of 50 studies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that moderate drinkers live longer.The USDA also estimates that moderate drinking prevents about 26,000 deaths a year, due to lower rates of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes

Read the whole thing.

GREAT news you can use.

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