ExactoKnight

12 ms·

91.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
> If the TMT costs X, then the 100-MT should cost about 11X, and with the 15% doubling factor, its ~15X for only a 3X increase in radius. The Thirty Meter Telescope cost $1 billion. So the 100 Metre Overwhelmingly Large Telescope would
92.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
I dream about the day where the U.S.'s spending on its military, and its spending on science research, are flipped.
93.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
You can nitpick the exceptions, but his general point about affluent living standards existing for 100 years in the West for most people is true.
94.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Even a negative finding holds important implications: if we successfully survey all of the exoplanets within 100 to 1000 light years and find no life or anything even close being habitable for humans, then it would gravely inform us of the
95.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Yeah, I really used the first questions as a way to give importance to how big the "Are we alone?" question is on the scale of humanity. That is to say, that arguably "Why are we here" is the only question of more signif
96.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
The James Webb Space Telescope, nicknamed the telescope that ate astronomy, has cost an enormous amount of money due to the need to get everything aligned absolutely perfect before launching because there will be no chance for repair. In co
97.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
It depends wouldn't it? If the biology and chemistry of those organisms prove to be completely different (e.g, by not being carbon based), then couldn't their bacteria prove to be utterly inert in relation to our bodies?
98.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Finding the existence of life on another planet holds MAJOR implications for many organized and unorganized religions. It would tell us whether abiogenesis and life is common, or something truly unique. So while discovering life on another
99.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Could the Square Kilometre Array, by measuring in the radio frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum, actually be capable of directly imaging the nearby spectroscopic signatures of exoplanets? I thought you needed to be capable of directly
100.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
The other project that needs to become a reality FAST is the construction of a telescope large enough to measure the spectra of exoplanets. Because once you find a habitable planet with oxygen in its atmosphere, you now have an irrefutable
101.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
I am flabbergasted that as a society we aren't rushing to build a 100 metre wide telescope mirror large enough for us to directly image the spectra of the potentially habitable exoplanets around us. A telescope this large could tell us
102.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Crowdfunding is a HORRIBLE financing model for real estate. Real estate is a long term investment, where risk is best reduced by diversifying risk across many real estate assets. Any crowdfunding model for real estate that seeks to raise f
103.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
The block chain offers the following unique benefits for asset transfer: - Assets move directly between entities — transfer and settlement are one-and-the-same — eliminating counterparty risk ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
104.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Sorry, but I don't like Hacker News turning into reddit threads where unproven speculation gets read as truth. Care to provide some substance to your claims with examples of precisely what kinds of funding supports (in $$$) the Canadia
105.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
It's a huge leap. AlphaGo used data to train itself well against a game with extremely clear rules and outputs. So while impressive, it's an example again of specialized AI. Real life is not at all like this, nor is what Google
106.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
No, it doesn't. Have you ever thought to consider that we are unable to understand our own brains due to being constrained exactly because of it?!
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
But how is that even possible? The best "AI" we have now are essentially just impressive exercises in data science, telling us in a surprisingly accurate ways things about the world that we already know. Give it something compl
108.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
You nailed it.
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
I do agree with this. One of the clearest inequalities emerging in A.I.-driven machine learning is how useless those techniques are unless you have access to a monstrously large amount of well categorized data. Currently you need to be one
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
No, it's Elon Musk whose understanding of AI is limited. I doubt Musk has ever actually built a neural network, or got close to coding one... because if he did, he would realize just how fragile and hard to generalize they are. Stackin
111.
by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Citation needed. Wikipedia is actually falling victim to the opposite: ideological tyranny imposed by a small cadre of editors. Some Wikipedia articles now show noticeable bias (e.g. compare the "Men's Rights 'movement'
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Did he actually succeed in getting a dual share class structure?!
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
It's the iron law of oligarchy at work. I struggle to find many tech companies outside of the big four that didn't begin to decline long term post-IPO.
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
This was a really good article that shifted my thinking away from simplistic Econ 101 thinking about real estate: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commen...
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Amazon Subscribe and Save gives you 15% off on your order if you schedule 6 or more items. Economies of scale to drive prices down by 15% over what you would normally pay do exist. E.g. Amazon can save money individual per-unit shipping co
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Is there any way they can survive the lawsuit?!
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
The core of this paper's claim seems to be that 0-mixin transactions leave user's exposed, however Monero has since prohibited these types of transactions. So yes, these types of transactions going backwards are exposed, but movi
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
Would love to be told why the law says this defence wouldn't work.
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
How many programmers could write a functional machine code? The wrong question is being asked. Modern programming techniques work because they have successfully abstracted this complexity.
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by ExactoKnight 9y ago
This reflects a failure of modern corporate structures to empower engineering to the role it should and (ought) to be having. Thankfully, this is changing rapidly and the valley is leading the way.

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