Do you think this would be for the best in this scenario? Do you think this is what would happen? Discuss, friends.
>>7808774
Our first contact will be by radio or long distance communication, if it ever happens. It's arrogant to think any alien race would visit our planet at all.
>>7808786
This. I highly doubt ultra-intelligent beings with the capacity for interstellar travel will simply barge into a new planet and start pulling fish out of the water. If contact is ever made, it will be a long-distance communication, perhaps swapping of information represented in binary. Then, realistically, that's where it would end.
>>7808786
>>7808801
This self-hating hivemind is quite annoying, to be honest. We have Ph D's who devote their lives to study a determined species and you are trying to tell me that "highly scientifically-developed civilizations" won't give a fuck about a whole new planet full of new organisms to research?
I'm actually a bit too lazy to write down the statistics that I used but from really rough estimates, I'm assuming if somebody knows at least calculus 1 that puts them in the top 10% of mathematical minds.
Huh, I guess calc 1 people are pretty smart.
Well duh.
The majority of people don't say calculus is hard for no reason man.
https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
I'm sure some of you have read this already, and I'd encourage those of you who haven't to take the time to read through it in its entirety.
Essentially it's a sendup of how math is taught in the US and some thoughts on ways that might improve the situation (which are impossible because of the bureaucratic BS educators have to deal with and unionized educators, but that's a different topic to deal with).
I'm posting this to see what my fellow Americans think about this, and because I'm curious if non-American educational systems suffer from similar issues.
>>7808728
Lockhart gets to teach an upscale private institution, selecting for kids who are neurologically similar to himself: most teachers don't have that luxury.
Actual educational policy is developed as a conversation between between government (which is interested in ed. as a economic development tool), post secondary institutions (who are interested in ranking their prospects, and easily court the support of parents), special interest groups (who see math education as a necessary precursor to a democratic population), teachers (who are by and large dedicated professionals who are totally within their rights to make reasonable requests not to be held to insane standards), and math professionals (who have great intentions but generally live in an ivory tower bubble). Each group has a different stake and each sees an aspect of the system the others can't. Privileging any one approach, assuming you know best after a 20 page paper, and asking why the others can't fall in line disrespects thousands of folks who over the past century who have made the improvement of the education system their life goal.
I love Lockhart's work before I started teaching. Now it annoys me.
>>7808803
>Privileging any one approach, assuming you know best after a 20 page paper, and asking why the others can't fall in line disrespects thousands of folks who over the past century who have made the improvement of the education system their life goal.
These are some pretty big assumptions to make friend.
Additionally, intentions don't matter, results do.
>>7808821
Which results? What is the "job" of education? Do I measure my success in reduced poverty in my district? The wealth of my top students? Victory in math competitions? A better global attitude towards math? The base happiness of my students?
Hey /sci/ Long story short, I got a small amount of Formaldehyde on my wall and carpet from a fucking spill.
Is there anything in particular I can do to get rid of the smell?
I asked /adv/ and even /b/ just in case but no one knows anything and google just shows about how to get it off clothing.
>>7808684
Spray some Febreeze on it.
Don't spray HCI on it.
>>7808707
What about vinegar, everyone and their grandma is praising vinegar
In many ponderings of mine, I have questioned how natural selection would affect the appearance of out interstellar neighbors, while trying to break away from whatever styles are present here on earth. Has anyone here ever thought the same thing? Has anyone here made renderings of such beings?
I have reason to believe they would look somewhat similar
>>7808597
Me neither. Since I realized this, one of the things I've been thinking about in my seemingly endless free time is what they would look like, even wear.
>>7808592
Who knows? Intelligent species could have evolved from anything.
It would not surprise me if the first alien contact we have are with aliens that look creepily like humans or they're radioactive 70 metre long octopus things made of silicon that evolved in oceans of petroleum. That wear helmets.
What is the best linux distro for scientific purposes?
if you're doing high energy physics, Scientific Linux
if you're doing anything else, anything you're comfortable with
I've been using CentOS for Astro, but I don't that the specific distro really matters.
install gentoo
What made his brain so unique? Genetics, or just incredible mental training? I fail to see how it can be possible for someone's brain to be so beyond the ordinary that it almost seems hard to believe.
If you haven't read it, take a look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann#Cognitive_abilities
>>7808444
People studied Einstein's brain. They've also studies Gauss's brain. They've found significant anomalies in both.
I can't find any articles on Von Neumann's brain, though he was probably the greatest genius of the 20th century.
>>7808485
How can people study Gauss's brain in his time? Wasn't he born in 1777? Do they even have the equipment to hack his brain?
I like this quote from someone talking about von Neumann:
"Von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us."
How does one learn the "Science of Deduction" like Sherlock Holmes?
>>7808386
Sherlock Holmes had an uncanny sense of remembering small details. Like Jack Reacher.
So Sherlock Holmes gathered all these details and observations and applied regular-ass human logic an intuition (intuition is just logic we don't know the logic of) and arrived to a conclusion and solved mysteries.
Jack Reacher gathered all these small details and observations and comes to a conclusion then he goes and just fucking kills them all.
The only thing important here is that the ability to observe and gather information is the bottleneck for deduction. You can only form accurate ideas with accurate information, so intelligence relies on information gathering. The analysis from information come naturally to humans, it's why we're running the world.
>>7808408
To sum this up OP, basically you need to be observant.
>>7808386
quit posting pop-sci questions on this board.
What are you currently doing with your lives sci? I'm probably going to end up being a failure due to lack of motivation, mediocre genes, and stupidity. Waiting to die.
>>7808325
i'm in an entry level law enforcement job, and have been for nearly 11 years. one of my friends has promoted up to an administrative level. he has created 3 new open positions for a new rank he has created for civilian personnel. i am going before an oral board next week to try and get one of the positions. he is my friend, but he is also very by the book, and will be 1/5th of the oral board, so he cant just be like 'give anon the job'.
i have had so many co workers and supervisors tell me that i am too intelligent for this job, and that i should really be doing something else with my life. i dont know what specifically they mean. i am bored with my job as it currently is, and i lack direction in life. i have kids, but more or less a 50/50 custody with my ex wife. right now i am drinking. the ex has the kids, and i'm stressing about this oral board... so, yeah, i'm drinking.
>>7808332
I've never drank alcohol to the point of it getting me drunk. When i'm reminded of how boring it is to exist(every day) i take pills such as klonopin to make myself numb, the withdrawal is a nightmare, but at least it preoccupies me.
>>7808325
Bio Professor.
Spring classes begin tomorrow. No more sitting in my underwear playing video games all day
could you make a windmill powered ship? would it be inferior to a sail powered ship?
>>7808263
>what is efficiency
Every mechanical process loses some of the energy to inefficiencies. You can't make a windmill+gearbox+prop that is more efficient than just using a sail that takes up the same area.
>>7808268
what about when you're sailing in a different direction than the wind is blowing?
>>7808273
goof question bro :)
What's a ridiculously underserved, yet somehow easy to get funding, field that's pretty simple to get into?
>>7808234
bio anything
>>7808234
>>7808243
I don't think I could keep a straight face.
I'm just looking for something that's nice and consistent, not too difficult, and basically something I can just ride out for the rest of my life while giving me money to do things I actually care about.
What's your favorite algebraic structure /sci/?
Addition
>>7808218
Addition isn't a structure, and as an operation it is ambiguous
>>7808205
GL(3,R)
Could you guys tell me what specifically are the hangups currently of creating quantum computers or true artificial intelligence.
> What's the holdup with Quantum computing and Ai
The AI program. Once you figure out how to create a program that can literally "learn" and spread it to scan the internet, you will have a sentient AI that can think, decide and worst of all knows pretty much everything about humanity.
>>7808068
That's not a specific hangup. AI research is being done so what problems are they encountering?
>>7808059
>Quantum computers are better at machine learning
I swear to god, this fucking meme will never die.
I think i have found a link between a number of worldwide events and i'm trying to hypothesise my theory. Because I'm lacking in some of the relevant fields and i want to make sure it is what it is before releasing it to the masses.
I'm wondering if i post a number of questions and statements that some of you with a better brain than me will be able to rip it apart to see if it is correct and if not where i'm going wrong.
look forward to your comments
This better be good.
>>7807932
C'mon, son.
>>7807932
For starters you could post a question and stop waisting precious room with your shit thread
dunno if this is allowed, but here goes...
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Determine a in order for the integral to get the value 4
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Help is really appreciated, been stuck with this one for hours...
Hope you understand my french translation!
If it's not to much to ask for, I would need both solution and answer
>>7807905
I remember doing that in high school.
Nice trolling, by the way. 6/10
Impolite sage.
