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Cake day: February 26th, 2024

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  • exocrinous@startrek.websitetoScience Memes@mander.xyzPolisci
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    6 months ago

    No, it’s observation. An experiment involves manipulating an independent variable while controlling other variables. There’s none of that in space, not counting the ISS and Apollo. That said, you can still test hypotheses using observation. And that’s equally true in both astronomy and in social sciences.







  • These pods are only used on rails with very low ridership. They would switch to a train if ridership increased.

    Look at it this way: you can have a train that has a capacity of 100 people, but it only runs once a day due to the low demand, and only 2 people want to ride it at that time of day…Or you can have 10 pods, which do not require as much railway maintenance, and they can carry the 10 people who actually want to use this railway, completely on demand.

    Yeah, a train is better if you want to move ten thousand people a day at peak hour. But this is a cheaper way to move ten people at different times across a day. And it’s a cheaper way of inducing the demand that would justify the more efficient kind of expansion.











  • If I built a robot pigeon that can fly, scavenge for crumbs, sing matings calls, and approximate sex with other pigeons, is that an AGI? It can’t read or write or talk or compose music or draw or paint or do math or use the scientific method or debate philosophy. But it can do everything a pigeon can. Is it general or not? And if it’s not, what makes human intelligence general in a way that pigeon intelligence isn’t?