Facebook Chatbot UI Design.

Sacred Mathematics - Japanesse Temple Geometry

This is a book about a special kind of geometry that was invented and widely practiced in Japan during the centuries when Japan was isolated from Western influences. Japanese geometry is a mixture of art and mathematics. The experts communicated with one another by means of sangaku, which are wooden tablets painted with geometrical figures and displayed in Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each tablet states a theorem or a problem. It is a challenge to other experts to prove the theorem or to solve the problem. It is a work of art as well as a mathematical statement. Sangaku are perishable, and the majority of them have decayed and disappeared during the last two centuries, but enough of them have survived to fill a book with examples of this unique Japanese blend of exact science and exquisite artistry.

Copyright © 2008 by Princeton University Press and Oxford

http://kknop.com/math/sangaku.pdf

How does cashless society work?

If there is one post to this tumblr I want to see reblogged like crazy, it’s this one.

So how would a cashless society work? This is, IMHO, one of the most important questions to ask when discussing Star Trek in general. 

Roddenberry had a vision which continues to motivate and inspire people today, because it envisioned humanity so far beyond its time. It allowed the show to craft an ideal. Something that may never be completely achieved, but that should be strived for continually. Providing not a roadmap, but a light to follow. 

Social issues are incredibly important, and are not to be understated when discussing this specific topic- they are the fundamental ideals within the Star Trek universe. But close behind this is the concept of economic enlightenment. In fact, I would argue they are fundamentally one in the same. In order for us to find love among all of us, without any hate or envy or fear, we need to find means of providing for everyone, so that everyone can be given the same opportunities to choose how they live their lives. 

One aspect of this Roddenberry version of a fair and enlightened global society would be one with no cash. 

But How Does That Work?

How, can anything work without cash? Or to clarify, money? I don’t believe it could right now, but in the future, if certain issues were solved, we could be well on our way. Here are three aspects of our society that will need to be addressed or achieved before we would even be close:

1. There needs to be a movement to Post-Scarcity

People need to have easy access to homes, health, and the basic comforts that money currently is required to attain. 

There’s a lot of talk about a “post-scarcity” economy. With 3d-printers, efficient production, and global access to information we are already moving towards this. But one big hurdle in this issue is energy. Until we find a means of providing nearly limitless energy to the entire planet, a post-scarcity society will be very hard to maintain. (Cold fusion is an exciting potential leap forward)

2. Automation for the dangerous jobs and Universal Basic Income

We need robots to do the repetitive and dangerous jobs people shouldn’t do or just don’t want to do. The more these jobs are taken up by robots, the more there will be a need for a Universal Basic Income. The general concept is this: companies that produce goods while removing jobs from the market will need to pay tax on the robots that were once paying jobs. The money will then be given to the citizens as a dividend. This will eventually be the foundation for providing a universal live-able distribution of resources to everyone. 

3. Debt needs to be reversed 

The final issue is debt will need to be removed from society. This is arguably the hardest to understand and I imagine even harder to implement. Our current understanding of economics runs on debt. Person A gives money to Person B so that person B can make more money and give back that money (plus interest) to person A. The problem is this seems to allow the money to be consolidated into large pools. Currently the top 8 richest people in the world hold more wealth than the bottom half. 

We need a way to believe in a society that can work in reverse. A society where we pay it forward, rather than pay it back. This is where I haven’t fully understood the ideas being proposed. But one thing is certain, those in the top 1% will need to provide for those in need for this to ever work. There needs to be a rational, if not spiritual enlightenment among the richest in the world that we need to all have a place in society. A place unburdened by overwhelming fiscal obligation. When people don’t owe money, they can make the choices that benefit themselves and the rest of us at the same time. Rather than the choice that just makes them money.

I honestly think this is the biggest hurdle out of all of them. Because while the other issues can be solved with technological and political progress, this one truly requires a global enlightenment. Yes things like bitcoin and ethereum might help, but this is a bigger problem than just banking access and credit.

*Takes Deep Breath*

So that’s one take on Roddenberry’s vision of a cashless society. It’s something I truly hope comes to fruition.  A world where people are secure in knowing they have access to healthcare, a home, and the ability to pursue their passion. A world where all its people are freed to be their best self. Where creativity and science and kindness have priority. Orchestras could play in the park for free. Artists could make paintings of anything for anyone they wish. Scientists can spend their time inventing what they believe will help the planet the most. And we can finally get to the business of exploring the stars. 

4DAR ARKit Unity

Developer  应高选 has been experimenting with 4DViews’ free 4D captures and shares the results - particularly striking is this one using the new Apple ARKit and Unity software:

4DAR with ARKit and Unity3D, real man and real scale. iPhone6s test.

Here is an example using the same assets at a smaller scale:

应高选’s YouTube channel can be found here

4DViews on PK (from last week) Here

[Update 10/07/17]

Here is a video from 4DAR demonstrating how to put together your ownin 5 minutes:

Almost realtime visual tutorial on using 4DViews volumetric capture sequence with Unity and Apple ARKit, for fast hologram display

Skateboarding Visualizations v1

Project from Convivial Studios and Pier 9 attach sensors to skateboards to capture movement data to create 3D printed sculptures:

The hidden science and art underlying skateboard tricks is a source of fascination. We created motion tracking device to get data about the skateboard position during the execution of tricks. The data and trails of the tricks are then used to create sculptures and immortalize the motion of the skateboard and the style of the individual skateboarder. Amongst the possible applications for this project, this work focused on creating artistic visualizations from skateboard tricks.

More info including links to tutorials can be found here

5 Demos Where Code Meets Music

Latest Nat & Friends showcases a selection of web based experiments exploring sound and music (plus a couple of Google assistant easter eggs):

Music is a fun way to explore technologies like coding, VR, and machine learning. Here are a few musical demos and experiments that you can play with – created by musicians, coders, and some friends at Google.

More Here

Death Mask

Programming project from Or Fleisher and Anastasis Germanidis combines Augmented Reality and Machine Learning, using a Neural Net trained for age prediction through mobile camera device:

‘Death-Mask’ predicts how long people have to live and overlays that in the form of a “clock” above they’re heads in augmented reality.  The project uses a machine learning model titled AgeNet for the prediction process. Once predicted it uses the average life expectancy in that location to try and estimate how long one has left.

The aesthetic inspiration derives from the concept of death masks. These are sculptures meant to symbolize the death of a person by casting his face into a sculpture (i.e mask).

The experiment uses ARKit to render the visual content in augmented reality on an iPad and CoreML to run the machine learning model in real-time. The project is by no means an accurate representation of one’s life expectancy and is more oriented towards the examination of public information in augmented reality in the age of deep learning.

Link

Timelapse of Star Trails over Sparks Lake, Oregon

How Do Hurricanes Form?

Hurricanes are the most violent storms on Earth. People call these storms by other names, such as typhoons or cyclones, depending on where they occur.

The scientific term for ALL of these storms is tropical cyclone. Only tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean or eastern and central Pacific Ocean are called “hurricanes.”

Whatever they are called, tropical cyclones all form the same way.

Tropical cyclones are like giant engines that use warm, moist air as fuel. That is why they form only over warm ocean waters near the equator. This warm, moist air rises and condenses to form clouds and storms.

As this warmer, moister air rises, there’s less air left near the Earth’s surface. Essentially, as this warm air rises, this causes an area of lower air pressure below.

This starts the ‘engine’ of the storm. To fill in the low pressure area, air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes in. That “new” air near the Earth’s surface also gets heated by the warm ocean water so it also gets warmer and moister and then it rises.

As the warm air continues to rise, the surrounding air swirls in to take its place. The whole system of clouds and wind spins and grows, fed by the ocean’s heat and water evaporating from the surface.

As the storm system rotates faster and faster, an eye forms in the center. It is vey calm and clear in the eye, with very low air pressure.

Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land, because they are no longer being “fed” by the energy from the warm ocean waters. However, when they move inland, they can drop many inches of rain causing flooding as well as wind damage before they die out completely. 

There are five types, or categories, of hurricanes. The scale of categories is called the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and they are based on wind speed.

How Does NASA Study Hurricanes?

Our satellites gather information from space that are made into pictures. Some satellite instruments measure cloud and ocean temperatures. Others measure the height of clouds and how fast rain is falling. Still others measure the speed and direction of winds.

We also fly airplanes into and above hurricanes. The instruments aboard planes gather details about the storm. Some parts are too dangerous for people to fly into. To study these parts, we use airplanes that operate without people. 

To learn more about how we study hurricanes, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/main/index.html

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

the clicking sound of the rack is oddly satisfying.

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