Would You Bet Your LIFE On Science?

This guy did.





Heh, nice music. Somehow I feel that donning a Faraday suit and dancing with lightning bolts is more heroic than the old Feynman bowling ball trick...



Flinching at the last possible second!

There is a thin line between heroism and stupidity. That line is called knowledge.

FAMILIAR Part 4: Aligned Resources

One important reason why the Star Wars series of films has such a wide appeal is due to its story structure. George Lucas was inspired by Joseph Campbell's book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and deliberately applied Campbell's ideas into his storyline.

Campbell was studying comparative mythology and wanted to find out if there are common elements between major myths around the world that have lasted for thousands of years. He elucidated a fundamental structure which he called the "monomyth" or "the hero's journey" and summarized it like this:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

The monomyth is divided into three sections - "Departure", "Initiation" and "Return". Each of these sections has a set of characteristic stages, for example "Supernatural Aid" in Departure where the hero encounters an old wizard (Obi-Wan!) who provides him with special tools (Lightsabre!) and advice (Use the Force!) for the adventure ahead.

Only a few world myths contain all these stages, some of them only have a few stages and others have them in a different order. Campbell's monomyth is thus criticized for focusing on the similarities and glossing over the differences between the myths, and scholars have also questioned its usefulness and general validity.

Nonetheless the monomyth has been an influential tool for plot development; aside from Star Wars, popular movies like The Lion King and the Matrix series (possibly the Harry Potter series as well) have story structures that are modelled on the monomyth.

I won't go into further details of the monomyth here, but suffice to say that by using a comparative strategy, Campbell was able to create a common resource out of the dozens of diverse mythologies in the world. He recognized that it is impossible to do this based on any single myth.

Indeed, I would argue that in general single cases only represent data and not knowledge. Outside the context of mythology, even single cases that are firmly rooted in physical evidence cannot really enlighten us about the nature of our Universe; we can only learn about them, not from them.

In other words, they have descriptive but not prescriptive value.

**********

The power of comparative analysis was driven home in my mind very early in my graduate student career by my advisor.

During a genomics lecture he illustrated this by showing a single sequence from one species of animal. For example, here's part of the amino acid sequence of a human gene:

MYNMMETELKPPGPQQTSGGGGGNSTAAAAGGNQKNSPDRVKRPMNAFMVWSRGQRRKMAQEN...

Well, it's a string of letters. You can't learn much just by staring at it.

But when you do an alignment with homologous genes from many other species...






... important features immediately jump out at you.

The yellow blocks represent regions that are completely identical over hundreds of millions of years of evolution - it's a good bet that those regions are functionally crucial. Blue and green blocks are identical only among some species, while white areas exhibit high variability.

Therefore, you can see regions of similarities as well as regions of differences. Regions that are common to mammals, or just to rodents, or unique to one species which may reflect functions that are only relevant to those group of animals.

This is knowledge.

Whether it is science or history, information derived from a single case is only descriptive of the case itself - in order to understand fundamental principles, produce testable predictions or to "give advice" to other people, you must have data from more than one case. With an increasing number of aligned cases comes a more accurate and more refined knowledge of the subject matter.

Hence the "analogy" aspect of FAMILIAR - knowledge obtained by comparing the features of complex systems and aligning them into a structured resource, not only at the same organizational level, but also across organizational levels.

I am aware that argument from analogy is a logical fallacy, but that does not preclude the use of an "analogy machine" like FAMILIAR to start the investigation by generating hypotheses and enabling cross-discipline visualization.

Having a systematic way to align single cases into a common resource allows people to see both the similarities and differences between the cases. Where the cases are too different in key areas to be effectively compared, proposed models can be rejected as uninformative. Where cases have striking similarities over numerous key characteristics, there is compelling support for a fundamental structure among them.

However, human knowledge is wildly varible in format. How is it possible to align diverse forms of knowledge into one common resource?

Stay tuned for the next post on the FAMILIAR Core.

Downfall Of Gods

As a true blue Star Wars fan, it's unavoidable that I would sometimes ponder about the implications of its story arc.

Not sure if movie reviewers have noticed this, but I've discovered a recurring theme that runs through the entire story -

The hunger for absolute power gradually corrupts and ruins everything.

Just consider this:

1. In the beginning of the story, the Jedi Order was supposed to represent the light side of the Force - all that is wise and good.

They defeated the evil Sith Lords and have enjoyed great social power and prestige in the Old Republic for a thousand generations.

So why is it that when they felt an imbalance in the Force, they automatically assumed that it's the Sith who needed downsizing?

Indeed, their obsession with the absolute eradication of the Sith completely blinded them to the Darkness that lies within themselves. As the separatist war progressed, the Jedi Order would make more and more compromises to its core principles until it eventually turned on itself - a Jedi Knight would become a Sith!

From that point onwards, the Jedi Order was doomed.

2. The Jedi turncoat was Anakin Skywalker-slash-Darth Vader, the chief protagonist of the whole series.

Anakin's personal story is a microcosm of the main theme - a kind, brilliant boy who slowly develops a thirst for power after a personal tragedy and numerous setbacks.

He realizes that he always wants more power and comes to believe that he can do the absolute good, if only he can acquire the absolute power.

Eventually this quest for power will cost him everything that he treasures - ironically the very people he wants to protect with that power.

3. Interestingly, the same motif is repeated once again during the Empire; except that this time the "hapless" victim was none other than Emperor Palpatine himself!

He was obsessed with the elimination of his enemy, perhaps the only thing he had in common with the Jedi.

A wicked, scheming political wizard, Palpatine had manipulated many evil people in order to rise to great power.

With practically all of the Old Republic's military might under his command, he could have simply rendered the Jedi harmless, but he wanted to kill them all.

He wanted this so much that he was willing to take a huge risk by converting a Superstar Goody-Two-Shoes Jedi Knight to become his own apprentice, gambling that Anakin's desire for power would wipe out any trace of good left inside.

Unfortunately for the Emperor, Anakin was far more conflicted than that.

Blissfully unaware of this inner conflict, Palpatine even had the audacity to order Anakin to bring his powerful son to Palpatine's personal lair, so that he can witness their mutual destruction.

Talk about a recipe for disaster.

Of course, the Emperor never achieved absolute power and was killed - ironically by his greatest ally...

**********

In this sixth article about social systems, I am going to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of Centralized rule vs Power Sharing.

From the leadership's point of view, centralized rule is certainly more convenient.

Without dissent from other powerful groups, the leadership class (or a single leader) can quickly and decisively impose new policies that has the potential for a lot of good.

Conversely, an evil leadership class can also quickly and decisively impose new policies that can cause a lot of damage to society.

Without external checks and balances, nobody can stop them. Using internal "self-regulation" as a means of checks and balances will only be effective if members of the leadership class are not acting in unison, which isn't likely to happen if there is an effective centralized rule.

Unfortunately, power sharing via "rule-by-committee" isn't perfect either. When there are many powerful political groups fighting it out in parliament, policies will take much longer to pass, if they ever do. All this politicking can render unitary action very difficult, making the government weak and indecisive.

Thus, it's not surprising that most audacious conquerors in history, such as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Hitler all utilized direct, centralized command.

In particular, Alexander quickly conquered and united all the city states of Ancient Greece - previously ruled by committees.

Nonetheless, even a dictator needs to have some form of checks and balances in order to avoid making mistakes that can ruin everything.

After all, he wants to gain absolute power, not to lose his entire kingdom.

But in order to get accurate feedback from other people, he must give them enough power to counteract some of the decisions he might make in the future.

Giving away power in order to gain more power?

The quest for absolute power is an unsustainable, impossible quest.

At the end, the dictator either gives away too much power and become sidelined, or seizes too much power and becomes a victim of his own mistakes.

That is the reason why even till today, the only sustainable method for leaders to hold on to power is a broadly centralized rule with much of the power shared by groups acting as checks and balances on each other.

OK, now let's imagine for the moment that a single, absolute power does exist and is somehow sustainable.


















Is this the face of ultimate good or ultimate evil?

Wouldn't you be at least a little bit disturbed by an absolute authority who is checked by no one and is answerable to no one?

He is advised by no one and constrained by nothing.

Under normal circumstances, a personal relationship with a powerful authority can confer special benefits to you. A leader may be willing to listen to you because your idea may benefit him - for example, to help him gain more power or avoid making stupid mistakes that will cost him his crown.

But what can you offer the absolute authority of the Universe? A friendly hug???

He doesn't lack power and never makes mistakes - not from his point of view anyway.

As I have written in the previous article, human social groups are stable precisely because they do not have absolute power; they only have emergent authority derived from their component individuals. Critical mass and organization help to keep the group behaviour locked into rigidity.

But how would an absolute authority maintain behavioural stability?

You would expect him to do whatever he wants, wouldn't you?

To make up rules, to break rules, to constantly change his mind, to redefine love as hate and hate as love, to redefine good as evil and evil as good, to redefine true as false and false as true - all on a whim.

There is no one to stop him.

It's worse if this ultimate power is supernatural - not only can you do nothing about it, you can't even see it coming!

So how can anyone really feel comforted by a belief in a supernatural absolute authority?

Any ordinary person should only feel constant fear.

But yet many people say they feel comfort and peace when they think of a supernatural authority.

Perhaps they are unaware of the full implications of such an authority. Maybe they are misattributing their confidence in emergent authority to a faith in supernatural authority. It is also possible that they are actually feeling fear, but calling it "comfort" so as to avoid offending the supernatural authority.

In any case, it's not the existence of a supernatural authority that really matters; it's whether such a supernatural authority has any relevance to human life.

Is he listening?

Does he even know you?

If an absolute power decides to passively watch as millions of people starve and thousands of believers who are all faithful to him kill each other in horrific ways (even as relatively powerless humans struggle to find solutions) ...

Do you think you can change his mind?

And do you think you can believe in the promises that he makes?

Kids Science Fest!

The Kids Science Fest! event is part of the science.08 festival and is held at the Annexe Hall 2 of the Singapore Science Centre.

Admission to this carnival is free, so if you have kids who are interested, you can still head there for a fun time tomorrow.

What do they have in store for you? Fresh Brainz visited the Science Fest today and uncovered a flurry of activity!















Here, a cheerful demonstrator shows some children how to prepare mini-rockets using fizzy Redoxon tablets, water and empty film containers.

I tried to catch a photo of a rocket in flight, but they pop up really fast and I could only capture a faint spray of water and the foam they leave behind.

Rocket fuel - now in delicious blackcurrant flavour!



















There are a few workshops for kids to do some hands-on experiments. This young man is playing with a bowl of cornstarch mixture, which is a type of non-Newtonian fluid.

Really odd stuff - if you treat it gently, it will flow like a liquid, but if you strike it hard, it will react like a solid.

Just like human beings!

Cornstarch can behave in bizarre ways when put under constant vibration. Check out this video that shows you how it can transform into a teeming mass of disgusting "alien fingers".



















If you are not into wet stuff, here's a dry workshop for learning about electrical circuits and electronic components.















The theme of the carnival is about speed and reaction time, so here's a game to see how fast you can shoot hoops.



















This slope lets children try out different combinations of weight and wheel size for the toy car to roll down at maximum speed.



















The "Save the Marbles" game also uses an inclined plane - colourful marbles roll through a regular array of plastic pins randomly, and the player tries to catch as many falling marbles as possible using a sliding bucket.

Any player who manages to catch more than 30 marbles gets to sign her/his name on a "Board of Fame".

Neat.



















Here they come!

*tik tik tik...*












In addition to workshops, there are also stage games - for the kids to participate in quizzes and maybe win a prize or two.












Looking a bit out of place is this small, dark alcove featuring some medical imaging panels.

There seems to be many MRI scans of brainz in here.

Which reminds me: it's time to catch the science show!



















The "Think Quick!" science show is presented by Alan Gill and Bron Veale from Scitech in Perth, Australia.

Here's a huge brain prop sitting quietly in the foreground while Bron and Alan get ready for the show.

As a neurogeek, I am duty-bound to inform you that this brain is not anatomically accurate; the gyri are modelled haphazardly, it doesn't appear to have a temporal lobe and the cerebellum is too small.

I know you don't care.

*muack*













Alan starts off the show with an introduction about how we are all different, but our brainz work in a similar way.

Notice those balloons in the background? To test our reaction time, the audience has to clap twice whenever a balloon gets popped.

(To find out where some additional balloons are hidden, check out the previous photo).












For a science show it certainly has many elements of drama. The two presenters adopt an "odd couple" approach and engage in bickering and one-upmanship to entertain the audience.

Here are some of the highlights:















Alan offers to help Bron relax.

"First, let's measure your blood pressure!"















"And here's a balloon for you! Close your eyes and imagine yourself on an island... in the middle of an ocean... surrounded by palm trees..."















*sneak sneak...*















*POP!*

*Scream*

*clap-clap*

As you can see, this is not a relaxing science show.















In fact I think it is the most energetic science show I've seen so far. Here's Bron running around off-stage to demonstrate that an athlete must have a quick mind as well as a nimble body.












Next up - memory test!

How many faces can you remember?

"Who is this?"

Christopher Lee!

The presenters have adapted their show for the Singapore audience by putting up ten familiar local faces.















"Have you seen this man?"

Bet you didn't see that coming.














It turns out that people can only hold a small amount of information in their short-term memory - around seven items at a time.

Most people cannot remember all ten faces. I can only recall eight names now.















So how can you memorize huge amounts of information? Take for example the exact value of Pi, which is made of decimals that don't repeat and go on forever.

How to tackle such a large task?















Break it down into many small chunks, why of course!

I should mention that when I was in secondary school, the school invited some whiz-kid from the USA to "inspire" the students.

To demonstrate his intellectual superiority over the rest of us, he recited Pi to thirty-plus decimal places and we were expected to applaud and be in awe.

My fellow classmate snickered: "He could be making it all up. Who would know?"

Besides, what is the purpose of memorizing Pi? A party trick?

If you really want to impress - make a bizarre discovery, cure a disease or invent a longer lasting light bulb.















Now that we know the usefulness of chunking data, let's try the memory test again...

"Who is this?"

Brad Pitt!

Angelina Jolie!

Technically, Brangelina should be regarded as one functional unit.















Darth Vader!

Surprisingly there are many kids who are familiar with Star Wars characters - looks like the prequels have exacted a severe toll on the younger generation.

Larkin: "I look forward to working with you, Lord Vader".

Vader: "You're beautiful..."

Admiral: "Vader?"

Vader: "What?!?? Erm... I mean erm... destroying the rebel base will be a beautiful victory!"

Admiral: "Quite, Lord Vader. Please continue."

Vader: "What?!??"

Star Wars has been spoofed to death a thousand times over.















By chunking the faces into groups it becomes easier to remember them.

This kid in orange could recall eight names: "... plus that guy who looks like you."

Alan: "You mean Brad Pitt?"

Bron: "You don't look like Brad Pitt!"













More odd couple moments...















The presenters asked for two volunteers to help with their demonstrations.

Here, the children clap their hands once and Bron has to point towards the direction of the sound with her eyes closed.

So far so good.















Then Alan makes Bron wear this ridiculous looking rig that switches over the left and right direction of hearing.

Quite a struggle now...















It's time for Alan to perform his demonstration!

The young volunteer throws a tennis ball at Alan and he catches it with no difficulty.















In retaliation, Bron gets Alan to wear inverting glasses while trying to catch tennis balls.















Oops... it's impossible!

During one of the throws, the volunteer actually managed to hit Alan on the face with the ball.

*THUNK!*

Bullseye.















Finally, one more demonstration - the ability to read jumbled words, an observation that is often attributed to research conducted at Cambridge University.















A simple statement of truth?...















...of course they waste no time in resuming their fight...















And thus ends the show. I was ready to do some calping but I noticed that people were clapping, so I clapped instead.

Whew... luckily I was thinking fast!















After the show, Alan and Bron let some curious kids and parents try out their bizarre switcheroo gadgets.















Aside from the Kids Science Fest, I should also mention that there is a "Science of F1" exhibition in the Science Centre main building now. You'll need to pay the admission fee to enter the main building but if you haven't been inside for a while it's worth a visit (since the Dinosaurs are still around).














Here's an actual F1 racing car, on display for a limited time only. I like the speckled appearance of the carbon fibre wheel struts.



















From behind you can see that the part of the car behind the driver tapers into a thin knife-edge.

Aerodynamics is critical when you are roaring along at over 300 km/h.



















In keeping with the racing theme, a couple of FSAE racing cars from NUS are featured here.















Also on display is this fiery red Ferrari. Not sure why this is here, since it is a luxury sports car and not really a race car. Maybe it shares some technology with Ferrari F1 cars.














At around US$1,000,000 each it's not surprising that there are only two of them in Singapore.

I can never afford to buy one of these, nor do I want to.

Hmm... that suddenly reminds me of something!

A "vehicle" that I have which is also very rare and valuable.












The TIE/sa bomber.

Well, we were talking about Star Wars just now.

It's a vintage 1980 Kenner die-cast metal toy - apparently only 10,000 of these were ever made.

A mint-condition TIE bomber in its original packaging can fetch over US$1,000 in auctions. Well, I didn't buy this toy at age five just to NOT open the pack, so it won't be worth that much.

Still, it's a beauty.













Very few toys nowadays are made so detailed that they resemble movie props. Maybe that's a reason why these are so coveted.













As a parting shot, here's a close-up of the engines behind the bomber: not a 651-horse Berlinetta V12, but a pair of 125-KTU Sienar P-s4.

Roar.


Would you like to know more?

About a previous science.08 event:
- Science in the Gardens
- X-periment! 2008