Electronics and computers have a long history in music making, from theremins (patented in the 1920s and most famously appearing in the Star Trek theme song) and synthesizers to the now-ubiquitous electric guitar. Pretty much from the moment we figured out how to produce electrical currents and do work with them in the 18th century, we've been harnessing it for play as well. Mostly we humans are actually choosing which notes to play when, although looping, noise, and random composition techniques give away some control … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Siri, Compose a Sonata
artificial intelligence
Science Corner: Artificial Intelligence Deploys Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
My son finds decision-making challenging at times (OK, who doesn't?) and eeny, meeny, miny, moe helps him break his internal deadlock. Actually, it did until he realized it was deterministic and he could decide the outcome by choosing where to start. So now he waves his hand around while he sings a song for a while, then opts for whatever he's pointing at when the song ends. I'm not sure it's actually a random process, but it seems like it must be closer than the original version. Plus he finds it satisfying which is … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Artificial Intelligence Deploys Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
Science Corner: Dr. Internet, MD
It's 3am. You wake up hot and clammy. A cactus withered and died in your mouth. Joints you never knew you had scream for WD-40. Breathing hurts. Blinking hurts. You can feel your fingernails growing, and that hurts. Did you get the flu? Zika? Are you patient zero for the latest emerging plague? You could go see a doctor, but you're a graduate student with rudimentary health insurance whose coverage documentation you barely skimmed because c'mon, you're young and healthy and you don't plan on getting sick--no, you don't … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Dr. Internet, MD
Science Corner: Go with God
Almost 20 years after IBM's Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in chess, Google's AlphaGo has proven superior at the game of Go. If you are unfamiliar with the relative complexity of the two games, know that each achievement employed cutting edge artificial intelligence research. Now consider how far computers have come in two decades in general; for reference, Google was still over a year away from being founded when the chess match took place. The primary challenge with Go is the astronomical number of possibilities; … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Go with God
Science in Review: The World of Tomorrow, Today
Note: I'm departing a bit from my usual schedule to bring you another sci-fi movie review, this time for Tomorrowland; there will be spoilers. I consider these films to be both contributions to and barometers of the public science conversation. As I watched Tomorrowland with my kids, I kept coming back to the increasingly puzzling notion that it had been "refuted" by Mad Max: Fury Road. While I can certainly understand how a post-apocalyptic story can have a hopeful subtext, I don't see why we can't also have … [Read more...] about Science in Review: The World of Tomorrow, Today