Flights of the butterfly

  • CLIMATE CHANGE & OBESITY

    The planet is facing a crisis. No, the planet is not facing any crisis. The ape-descended lifeforms have a problem. The climate is changing. No surprise. It does that all the time. The Climate Engine is a very complex and complicated system. Start by differentiating between the two terms: COMPLICATED: a ball of string left…

  • ROSWELL

    I always come up with the same question. If the Incident at Roswell was truly a crashed alien spacecraft, why did it crash? An alien has the technology to pilot a craft, at the very minimum, within our solar system. The alien can avoid all the obstacles, has the technology to power the craft and…

  • The Rules of the Railway

    Once upon a time, a very long time ago when I was a little boy, I had an electric train set. My Dad built it and it was beautiful. It had scenery and a tunnel. I hope my Dad knows now that I appreciate all the effort he went to. But there were problems. The…

  • The Onion

    The universe is like an onion. Well, not exactly, but there are aspects of it that are definitely onionesque. I am referring to the solving of problems. From this point of view there is a property of the universe that seems like an onion. Trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, from our first…

  • Facts

    Ah, facts. Don’t we just love ‘em? Here’s a fun fact: there aren’t any. Well, not in Realworld anyway. The other day, a young man, nice but arrogant, told me something. He said it was a fact. He said it more than once and said it emphatically. Facts do exist, but only in somewhere like…

  • AI and Babies

    I am told that AI is developing at an astonishing rate and will soon threaten all humanity. First, if AI is truly developing as well as accelerating, then by the time it is in a position to exterminate us it will have realised that exterminating any species has never been a good idea and will…

  • Intelligent, clever, or wise

    There are three bits to think about. Intelligence        is the ability to review a data set, deduce an underlying algorithm and use the algorithm to reveal a new point on the data set. Cleverness        is the ability to review a data  set, deduce an underlying algorithm and then manipulate it to show that a…

  • Light and stuff

    It was the day of the Big Bang and we were all very excited. I had decided to surf the leading edge of the expansion( nod to Dark Star). I had borrowed my Mum’s ironing board and prepared a package of sandwiches and a flask of coffee. I also had one of those revolving yellow…

  • MH370

    There has been so much speculation about this disaster that I have been reluctant to add to the confusion. But there is one aspect of it that seemed so obvious that I assumed it must have been considered and discounted. Now, it seems the net is so full of weird opinions and theories that there…

  • Ockham’s Razor

    We need to get this out of the way before we do any complicated stuff. William of Ockham (1287 – 1347) The trouble with Ockham’s razor is that it’s a two-edged blade and you can get a nasty cut if you start slashing about with it indiscriminately. There are many ways of stating, or misquoting,…