2008/10/29
Hanoi problem
Ted Talk: kevin Kelly
2008/10/28
What is Computation? How Does Nature Compute?
Adrian German over in Computer Science has organized what looks to be a fascinating conference, Midwest NKS 2008, that will be taking place this weekend, starting on Friday. There is an amazing array of speakers, either live or by videoconference, including Gregory Chaitin, David Deutsch, Ed Fredkin, Sir Anthony J. Legget, Charles Bennett, Stephen Wolfram, and more.
The theme of the conference is "What is Computation? How Does Nature Compute?". There will be talks on the physics of information, quantum computation, cellular automata (of course; NKS == Wolfram's New Kind of Science), and, generally, the nature of reality and computability.
Though there are some lunches and dinners that require paid registration, everything else is FREE, including all of the lectures and the coffee, donuts, and other refreshments. Events start at 8:30am Friday 10/31 and run until Sunday 11/2 at 12:15pm.
Full schedule and additional info
The theme of the conference is "What is Computation? How Does Nature Compute?". There will be talks on the physics of information, quantum computation, cellular automata (of course; NKS == Wolfram's New Kind of Science), and, generally, the nature of reality and computability.
Though there are some lunches and dinners that require paid registration, everything else is FREE, including all of the lectures and the coffee, donuts, and other refreshments. Events start at 8:30am Friday 10/31 and run until Sunday 11/2 at 12:15pm.
Full schedule and additional info
2008/10/22
Slides for Lecture 5 online
2008/10/20
A computer for living cells
"In a boost to the field of synthetic biology, researchers have created an RNA-based device that can control gene expression of target genes, thus regulating molecular processes in living cells, a paper in this week's Science reports. " Full story @ The Scientist
2008/10/16
Assignment 1: New Deadline
2008/10/15
Biology's Gift to a Complex World
"How studying biological interactions and evolution yields techniques for predicting the outcome of complex interactions". By John Holland @ The Scientist
Labels: biology, complexity
2008/10/13
Slides for Lecture 4 online
Lecture 4 - Organized Complexity, Information, and Symbols
Also see the lecture notes: Formalizing and Modeling the World
Also see the lecture notes: Formalizing and Modeling the World
Warren Weaver's View of Problems and Systems
Labels: complexity, information, symbols
Around the World
What kind of information is conveyed here? What do the figures represent?
By the way, the "Daft Punk is Playing in my House" video, by the LCD Soundsystem pays homage to the video above.
Michel Gondry at the Internet Movie Database
Daft Punk - Around the World by Michel Gondry
By the way, the "Daft Punk is Playing in my House" video, by the LCD Soundsystem pays homage to the video above.
Michel Gondry at the Internet Movie Database
Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar (High Quality Real Media Video). Description of Video by Michel Gondry
2008/10/08
links for lecture 4
Semiotics by Mick Underwood
Mayan Hieroglyphs on wikipedia
Egyptian Glyphs
Write Like an Egyptian
Cut up your Text!
