Posts Tagged "science"
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Kardashev scale: information, energy and civilization
This illustration of a future Dyson Swarm in #space connects many of our past photos to Carl Sagan. 🙂 Suppose we could do one of the endless “I’m just Sagan” meme photos here, but we are trying to be original. 🙂 In our last photo blog post, we talked about information theorist Claude Shannon and the links between data science (or information) and energy gradients (or entropy or thermodynamics). In 1964 Soviet (Russian) astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed the Kardashev scale. A Type I civilization could harness terrestrial power equivalent to 1960s Earth, Type II civilization an entire star, and a Type III civilization the energy output of an entire galaxy. Kardashev was expanding on earlier work by Leslie White who attempted to use a similar system to classify ancient human civilizations (thus connecting this photo with our very first photo on the Singularity and math models of ancient human societies). Carl Sagan modified this scale to interpolate between the different values and created a decimal system.… Read the restSteam Locomotives, Entropy, Information and Data Science
This is the first in series of short photo blog posts discussing the ideas of Carl Sagan (and others) relating civilization, energy, and information. Let’s start of by discussing entropy (energy), thermodynamics and information. There are multiple links (thermodynamics species a minimum amount of energy usage required for computation). The first one we’re interested in here is due to MIT professor Claude Shannon. Prof. Shannon provided the mathematical foundations relating information, data science, and thermodynamics. Specifically, his mathematical formulation for information is identical to that of negative entropy. (Entropy, sometimes confused with the similar concept of energy or rather energy gradients, is the disorder in the universe. You can think of it as the useable energy available. We’ll come to the steam locomotives in the photo in a bit.) There’s another relationship as well: it takes energy to perform computation, and there is a thermodynamic minimum on the amount of energy necessary for computation.… Read the restData Science History: Quipu, Inca talking knots
These are Quipu, the talking knots of the Inca. This is data science history! This historical monochrome illustration dates from ca. 1615. It was drawn by Spanish conquistadors documenting the Inca. It is impossible to administer a complex civilization without a means of processing data and information. (This is one of the ideas behind our SETI photo and blog post theme of the last few days. Recall our earlier posts on Carl Sagan‘s expansion of earlier ideas measuring civilization through energy and information.) Although the ancient Inca (of modern-day Peru, Chile Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina) lacked writing, the Inca did have this system of these “talking knots” that allowed them to record transactions and information about their empire. This system was in use by the Inca from the 3rd Millenium BC, and, amazingly, remains in isolated use in some parts of South America into the present day. A version of this article originally appeared as a photo post on our Instagram feed.… Read the restVery Large Array (“looks” like SETI, but is it?)
This is Nasa’s Very Large Array (VLA). This “looks” like SETI, but isn’t actually, as we’ll explain. Frustrated by the recent lack of intelligent life here on Earth (as evidenced by recent news stories — google late January 2015 if you’re reading this post in the future), we’re again looking towards the stars. This is Nasa’s Very Large Array, a set of radio telescopes that are the “go to” image everyone associates with SETI (The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence). Ironically, this array is not used for SETI at all. (The array just looks cool and the media uses it as “SETI” images. More evidence of lack of intelligent life on Earth, we guess. 🙂 Obviously the Drake equation will need to be revised given Earth’s recent loss of status on the intelligent life front this month. 🙂 This telescope array is from the 1970s in Socorro, NM, and may be outdated.… Read the restRecent Posts
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