0137's New Writeups

Robert A. Heinlein on Starship Troopers (idea)

2003-02-23T23:54:13Z

Note: You might want to read the Starship troopers node for some contextualization.

The following information is directly from Heinlein's essay on the subject, beginning on page 396 of 1:

Robert Heinlein began writing Starship Troopers in April 1958, in the middle of writing Stranger in a Strange Land, which likely achieved the widest left-wing acclaim of all his novels. He describes his immediate motivation as being President Eisenhower's cancellation of US nuclear testing, without requiring mutual US-Soviet inspections. Heinlein's reasons for disapproving of this decision, along with much of the rest of the United States' post-war foreign policy, is detailed in the essay 'Who are the Heirs of Patrick Henry?", also included in 1.

Here are some points, taken directly from the old man, relevant to the discussion above:

"1. 'Veteran' does not mean in English dictionaries or in this novel…

Simple machines in higher dimensions (idea)

2002-07-18T16:37:32Z

In basic physics mechanical constructs are described as composites of three elemental devices: the axial wheel, the inclined plane, and the lever. The method usually used to define the concept of 'simple machines' is to take many commonly seen mechanical devices (pulleys, knives, corkscrews) and show how they are composites of the three basics devices... rather then stating an explicit definition for the concept. This leads to a question...

In a two dimensional world, there would be no simple way of constructing an axial wheel; the axle could not be attached to anything that did not pass through the entire radius of the wheel, thereby preventing rotation.

Thus there seems to be only two simple machines in a two-dimensional Newtonian universe. This raises the question: if there are two in 2D, three in 3D, are there more than three in higher dimensions?

I could accept that that 2D is simply a degenerate case... after all, it…

speed of light (idea)

2002-06-28T20:46:34Z

One qualitative point which might bear mentioning is that the popular description of the speed of light as a 'universal speed limit' is extremely prone to misinterpretation.

Consider that you are planning a trip, and know that you must cover 100 miles of open highway to reach your destination. You know that the speed limit is 100 mph. . . To make this seem more like a 'natural law' than a human one, let us say that the fiendishly legislative powers that be have required cars to be installed with a device that triggers a massive implosion if you exceed the posted speed limit. Assuming that you cannot get around the device, then you know that it is impossible that you will arrive at your destination in less then one hour.

Unlike this hypothetical box of lethal over-regulation, the theory of special relativity imposes no theoretical constraints on the time it takes for you to cover any distance... from your perspective.

This is because one of the central…

Sophia Hapgood (person)

2002-06-27T22:10:18Z

Sophia was Indiana Jones's partner in crime/love interest/whatever in LucasArts 1992 adventure classic Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. She was a 'psychic' and expert on Atlantis mythology. Other then that she was more or less standard as Indy women go.

Fate of Atlantis was a unique game in several repsects (check out the node for more information)... not the least of which was the fact that you had the opportunity to 'control' both Indy and Sophia alternatingly during the game... this method of play was reprised to sometimes phenomenally clever effect in the later LucasArts game Day of the Tentacle.

Capitalism is not freedom (idea)

2002-06-27T15:39:53Z

I'm probably missing the point, but in Indonesia, the US, Argentina and Brazil I would say your problems come down to, respectively, corruption, over-legislation, fascism and (again) over-legislation. Can these be present, even persistent, in a capitalist system? Yes. But are they inherent?

I realize that attempting to posit a complete dichotomy between political and economic issues is inaccurate and misleading, but I believe it is still a point that bears repeating. I would assume from your writeup that you are strongly anti-communist and anti-socialist, due to the fact that regimes operating under these economic systems have been victim to rampant abuses of power.

Your problem seems to be more with corrupt political leaders enacting anti-capitalistic (anti-free market) legislation, or making deals in which they trade away things that are not theirs to trade. It's a matter of power... who it belongs to and how it is exercised; these are the people who…

Abstraction and Cognitive Modalities (idea)

2002-06-13T22:07:24Z

Introduction:

To the clockmaker, the universe runs like clockwork; to the computer scientist, the universe is based on equations, algorithmic... but in the elemental sense, what any person deals with most with is patterns; to the abstractionist, the universe is crystallized abstraction.

Let us say that abstraction consists of considering arbitrarily defined relationships between arbitrarily defined objects... where objects and relationships become interchangeable concepts. Now, of course, this definition has no content, but it should at least suggest to you some conception of 'pattern'. As for what kind of pattern, this should be left as vague as is possible, for it is the idea of 'pattern' that we will examine.

Abstraction is an attempt at understanding; we seem to have been built to recognize patterns, whether by design or by natural selection. Our ability to reason and conceptualize gives us the ability to bring patterns into our minds, thus…