Adrian's Science Blog

I recently started listening to a podcast called “ Start with This “. It’s about creative writing and is produced by the same guys who write “ Welcome to Nightvale “, so it’s worth a look. The show itself is pretty neat, because they explain a specific aspect of writer’s craft, but then they give you  2 assignments  to help solidify it. One assignment is for “consuming” and the other is for “creating”: Consume: They assign a story to read/watch/listen to, which is usually a good example of whatever they were talking about. Create: They assign a writing prompt or some other task that requires you to  do  whatever they were talking about. I recently listened to a great SWT episode about Agency. The purpose of this article is to briefly explain “agency” in the context of creative writing, and then to publish my attempt at the “Create” assignment, which is a writing prompt. What is Agency? Agency  is the ability of a character to freely make choices and affect the s...

  Science Fiction Makes Us Smarter The effects of pop-culture on a society's trajectory are very subtle and complex. However, it becomes much more pronounced whenever a large group is quickly thrust into a novel situation, one that requires the emergence of collective decision.   I’ve been inspired recently by Dr. Jacob Foster, a UCLA sociologist and former physicist who studies collective intelligence. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where he gave a fascinating talk about his research on the social nature of cognition. A fascinating point he presented is that people often fall back on stories to determine their actions in a new situation, so if a large group of people is working under a common narrative, surprisingly coordinated behavior can emerge. He gave the example of the January 2021 GameStop short-squeeze, which was neat. This essay will explore the nature of stories in the collective decision process. I will first ou...

  Finnegans Wake : Genius or Gibberish? riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend  of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to  Howth Castle and Environs.  Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen-  core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy  isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor  had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse  to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper  all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to  tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a  kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in  vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a  peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory  end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface. That was the first 2 pa...

There is a cartoon TV series that I enjoy called Avatar: The Last Airbender . For the uninitiated, the premise is that in this magical parallel universe humanity is broken into four sects. Each sect is defined by the ability of some folks to manipulate one of the four classical elements at will, ie. fire, earth, water, and wind. These people are thus dubbed Firebenders, Earthbenders, Waterbenders, and Airbenders respectively, and the sects they belong to are the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and Air Nomads. I sometimes find it amusing to view the field of engineering in a similar manner, each specific discipline forms a sect (Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical, etc). With that in mind, we could call each individual engineer a ChemBender, or an Electrobender, or a Mechbender, etc. And the Electrical Engineering Empire is catchy enough.  Jokes aside, I would like to hone in on a more important aspect of the show, the idea of the “Avatar”. This is the sole individual who has...

     It is always a fun, but futile exercise to peg one particular thing as the pinnacle of man, as the human race has many accomplishments under its belt with hopefully many more to come. However, I think it is wise to step back occasionally and ponder these accomplishments, understand their merits, and truly admire the size of the giants we all stand on. Notable candidates can include the moon landing and the space agencies of the ‘60s who pursued it, the vaccines and antibiotics that have steadily extended our lifespans, the airplane which connects us physically or the internet that connects us virtually. That list obviously goes on, and regardless of the current state of the world I think we can all agree that we’ve accomplished an awful lot.      I am not arguing for any specific event or technology to be considered the pinnacle of man, as they all are important and have profoundly improved our situation. The purpose of this article is to remind us of ...

I wrote an article a bit ago, called Electrical Engineering: The Pinnacle of Man, arguing that Electrical Engineering is one of mankind’s greatest achievement. This was based on the fact that through its application we can now control electrons, the substance that surrounds and controls most things, at will. Which is pretty crazy if you think about it. However, I don’t want anyone to interpret that as if I hold electrical engineers higher than any other discipline, because I don’t. I am also not arguing that all engineering disciplines are created equal, even though on most levels that is certainly true.  To set up, I want you to let your mind wander through humanity’s technical accomplishments and ponder their meaning. Try to freely percolate through the astonishingly large heap of abstraction that is engineering, science, and mathematics. Begin to play it like a game of shoots and ladders, not with the goal of reaching the top but of examining each rung. I get caught up in thou...