A saying reconsidered and other thoughts
Dec. 29th, 2004 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herewiss13Has anyone else ever heard the saying "Hotter than a hoot owl going east on a noon train."?
No? Well, it's on of my grandfather's favorites and he's managed to infect the rest of the family. It's really quite mellifluous once you're used to it.
Tonight I made the mistake of thinking about that I was saying. Never a good idea.
If you're looking for an expression that means "really hot" shouldn't the hoot owl be on a noon train going west? The Sun moves from east to west, so a west-bound train under the noon time sun is going to stay directly under the sun for just that much longer...and the noontime sun is presumably at the angle that maximizes solar exposure and therefore heat.
So while a hoot owl going east on a noon train is going to be hot, it won't be as hot as a hoot owl going west on a noon train. Am I right? Does the logic pan out?
...I'm still undecided as to whether or not I should confront my grandfather with this inconsistency. He's under the impression that I think too much as it is.
_________________________________
Re-reading a pulpy old "Shadowrun" novel, from the dying days of cyberpunk where they mixed in magic as a last resort. Can't deny that dragons, elves, cybernectics and datajacks makes for an entertaining combination, but it brought to the foreground a theory about man-machine interface that's been kicking around the hindbrain for awhile. Most cyberpunk (original or derivative) gets it wrong.
The classic icon is of someone with a computer plug, all nice and chrome-y, in their forehead...or a pair of burnished steel contact points at the temples. But whether you're navigating through cyberspace or piloting a war machine, why on earth do you want a direct link to the pre-frontal cortex? There's nothing useful there!
"The Matrix" got it more right, though I doubt they thought it through in the same way. Come in from the back. Let me tell you why:
1) The vast majority of your interface with any machine, computer or robot, is going to be visual. We're a vision-oriented species, so it stands to reason. If you're pumping visual information into the brain, it makes sense to pump it directly into those parts of the brain dedicated to processing said information, right? Just so happens that the visual cortex (cortices?) are located smack-dab in the back of the brain. Crack a bat against the back of someone's head hard enough and you can make them go blind. Running wires from a datajack on the front of the skull, all the way to the back is just stupid. Start in back and work your way forward.
2) Cyber-interfaces, again computer or robotic, are designed to cut out the middle-man. The keyboard or joystick slows us down; better to be the joystick. Instead of moving your muscles to move the control machinery to send an electric signal to move the real machinery (or software), just send the signal direct.
Kinesthetics and motor-skills are all mostly in the hind-brain too. Wire 'em up...don't waste time with the neocortex. If you want the machine to be your body, then hook it into the brain in place of the body. The body doesn't hook into the brain at the front.
3) As well as the major interface(s) in the back of the skull, you might want a couple little sockets right behind the ears. Substitute the feed from your battlemech's gyroscope for the data coming in from your own inner ear and you can use your brain's machinery to automatically balance whatever it is you're piloting. This takes place below the conscious level. Yet another strike against the bright-shiny forehead plug.
4) This takes care of all output and most input. The only other thing I can think of is some sockets along the spine or limbs for reflex. I'm particularly taken with an image from "Iron Dragon's Daughter" where needles slide up through the heel of the palm into the forearm.
Muscle memory is just that: muscle memory. When you touch something hot, your hand jerks away before the signal ever reaches the brain. So route any tactile data through the body, so you can take advantage of those involuntary responses. The man relying on pure intellect alone is at a disadvantage to the one who flinches when he's winged. The first guy is thinking "I've been shot, I'd better seek cover" when the second guy is already prone. This is just as applicable in pure cyberspace scenarios as it is when piloting machinery.
Just some things to remember the next time you read a story where peoples' brains aren't locked inside their skulls.
___________
And, finally, "The Life Aquatic" with Bill Murray and Owen Wilson is just plain weird. Good, whimsical and weird.
It's also a true tragi-comedy, so don't say you haven't been warned. Really. I mean it.
____________
http://quiz.ravenblack.net/blood.pl?biter=Herewiss Why not give it a shot?
No? Well, it's on of my grandfather's favorites and he's managed to infect the rest of the family. It's really quite mellifluous once you're used to it.
Tonight I made the mistake of thinking about that I was saying. Never a good idea.
If you're looking for an expression that means "really hot" shouldn't the hoot owl be on a noon train going west? The Sun moves from east to west, so a west-bound train under the noon time sun is going to stay directly under the sun for just that much longer...and the noontime sun is presumably at the angle that maximizes solar exposure and therefore heat.
So while a hoot owl going east on a noon train is going to be hot, it won't be as hot as a hoot owl going west on a noon train. Am I right? Does the logic pan out?
...I'm still undecided as to whether or not I should confront my grandfather with this inconsistency. He's under the impression that I think too much as it is.
_________________________________
Re-reading a pulpy old "Shadowrun" novel, from the dying days of cyberpunk where they mixed in magic as a last resort. Can't deny that dragons, elves, cybernectics and datajacks makes for an entertaining combination, but it brought to the foreground a theory about man-machine interface that's been kicking around the hindbrain for awhile. Most cyberpunk (original or derivative) gets it wrong.
The classic icon is of someone with a computer plug, all nice and chrome-y, in their forehead...or a pair of burnished steel contact points at the temples. But whether you're navigating through cyberspace or piloting a war machine, why on earth do you want a direct link to the pre-frontal cortex? There's nothing useful there!
"The Matrix" got it more right, though I doubt they thought it through in the same way. Come in from the back. Let me tell you why:
1) The vast majority of your interface with any machine, computer or robot, is going to be visual. We're a vision-oriented species, so it stands to reason. If you're pumping visual information into the brain, it makes sense to pump it directly into those parts of the brain dedicated to processing said information, right? Just so happens that the visual cortex (cortices?) are located smack-dab in the back of the brain. Crack a bat against the back of someone's head hard enough and you can make them go blind. Running wires from a datajack on the front of the skull, all the way to the back is just stupid. Start in back and work your way forward.
2) Cyber-interfaces, again computer or robotic, are designed to cut out the middle-man. The keyboard or joystick slows us down; better to be the joystick. Instead of moving your muscles to move the control machinery to send an electric signal to move the real machinery (or software), just send the signal direct.
Kinesthetics and motor-skills are all mostly in the hind-brain too. Wire 'em up...don't waste time with the neocortex. If you want the machine to be your body, then hook it into the brain in place of the body. The body doesn't hook into the brain at the front.
3) As well as the major interface(s) in the back of the skull, you might want a couple little sockets right behind the ears. Substitute the feed from your battlemech's gyroscope for the data coming in from your own inner ear and you can use your brain's machinery to automatically balance whatever it is you're piloting. This takes place below the conscious level. Yet another strike against the bright-shiny forehead plug.
4) This takes care of all output and most input. The only other thing I can think of is some sockets along the spine or limbs for reflex. I'm particularly taken with an image from "Iron Dragon's Daughter" where needles slide up through the heel of the palm into the forearm.
Muscle memory is just that: muscle memory. When you touch something hot, your hand jerks away before the signal ever reaches the brain. So route any tactile data through the body, so you can take advantage of those involuntary responses. The man relying on pure intellect alone is at a disadvantage to the one who flinches when he's winged. The first guy is thinking "I've been shot, I'd better seek cover" when the second guy is already prone. This is just as applicable in pure cyberspace scenarios as it is when piloting machinery.
Just some things to remember the next time you read a story where peoples' brains aren't locked inside their skulls.
___________
And, finally, "The Life Aquatic" with Bill Murray and Owen Wilson is just plain weird. Good, whimsical and weird.
It's also a true tragi-comedy, so don't say you haven't been warned. Really. I mean it.
____________
http://quiz.ravenblack.net/blood.pl?biter=Herewiss Why not give it a shot?
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-31 03:07 pm (UTC)then it becomes a disease you spread to everyone that reads your tainted literature.
and your grey matter becomes tough and chewy.