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I think there is some interest on this site for a post on basic Cryptography. It's a subject often mentioned on this site, but other than a few side explanations to supplement certain articles, there isn't much here on the subject.
In response to
Baltimore?
Not Baltimore, but Montgomery County.
In response to
A Common Form of Erroneous Thinking about the Universe
This argument begs the question, it is only works if God does not exist. You're trying to prove that there is no God, and everything is created naturally.
Your say:
All of our opinions about what is naturally possible must be based, by definition, on observations of nature.
This statement is correct if there is no outside force helping the Universe along. But if there is a God then what you are observing is not natural, it was put in place, or at least helped along, by a divine being.
Note that I am an atheist, this is just a standard rebuttal.
Damn, I was afraid it would show that. So a more difficult query.
Although, that is a sign that Google is already experimenting with that idea, only with a far simpler algorithm.
There's been a big back-and-forth about how big an impact QA can make on information-retrieval. A few points:
Writing a proper natural language question isn't necessarily easier than writing a Google query. You don't always know what you need to know, and providing feedback from the QA system is very difficult. You can iterate towards the right query fairly well, as your searching teaches you better keywords.
The percentage of queries that can be answered by a single sentence is substantial, but might be smaller than you think. People also use search engines to navigate around, to find long articles of interest, and to carry out tasks (e.g. shopping).
The strictly informational queries probably aren't that important to Google's revenue. The best queries to be serving are the ones where the user wants to buy something, because that's where people will pay for advertising. If a competitor takes away the informational searches but can't serve the commerce searches too, I doubt Google will be sweating much.
True. When I said that, I was thinking of a service that does what Watson does and gives Google-style answers.
So, if the query "What is the capital of the United States" was made, at the top it would say Washington D.C. and after that it would show search results, similar to how Google shows answers to unit conversion searches.
I'd say that the challenge depends on the business model. Making it efficient enough to be profitable as a free web service will be quite tough, so your estimates are probably appropriate. On the other hand, if they can charge $200/month for it, then those estimates are very conservative...
This is the next step for Google to take. If another company manages get this service out for free first, they will be the new search engine everyone goes to. This alone could be highly profitable if they aren't as reluctant to use ads as Google is.
Of course. Most of it will be in the wrong direction, that's the point. It might not be best for you, but maybe it will be the best thing for the group.
Sorry, should have been clearer. There are examples where scientists have had incorrect theories that science has accepted, which has set back scientific progress for decades.
This may not be due to running with it, maybe they did give their ideas a great deal of thought before writing about them, so your point may still be valid.
In response to
Do biases matter?
Having lots of people making leaps in different directions might also make science progress faster overall.
Yes, but some of this might be in the wrong direction. We have plenty of examples where scientists have gone with incorrect theories...
Hard to distinguish from shock/adrenaline, but cool.
I have a relevant story. I was once hiking down a mountain, and near the top I slipped and fell on a rock, cutting my knee to the bone. When I saw it, I calmly called out to the person I was hiking with to get gauze pads, without any panicking or shouting. He helped, and I was able to make it down on my own.
The way I did it was by looking at the situation and seeing what had to be done, then figuring out the best way to do it. I'm not sure if this was normal, but it was an immediate reaction for me.
Moral: Search for goals than find an optimal path to achieve them, even in stressful situations. The way to do this is by drilling a procedure in your head until you can do it by instinct. Not specifics, as you can't plan for things like nails in your shoes. But you can plan general emergencies procedures, like remove the puncture, clean the wound, and apply pressure.
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Well, I'm interested in doing a meetup if y'all are. I'd be willing to host here in Baltimore. I guess express interest and availability here or in PM?
I already said this in a PM, but for the sake of showing public support I will say that I would go to a meetup.