String Theory, Digital Brains, and Hell Phones

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I’m too tired and busy to talk about all that I read in depth today, so I thought I would start some new postings called SpellBook (catchy right?) that will be under the category of Link Magic. It’s similar to the SpellBound entries under Eye Candy and will highlight some of the more interesting things I’ve recently read online.

Here’s today’s serving:
Moving Beyond String Theory

This fall, Columbia University mathematician Peter Woit has published a critique of string theory (Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory), pointing out that in more than three decades, string theory still has yet to make a single prediction that can be verified in the lab or through the lens of a telescope. If all scientific disciplines maintained such fluffy and forgiving standards, Woit argues, science would devolve into little more than medieval disputations about angels and heads of pins.

Paul Allen’s Digital Brain

When the Microsoft co-founder donated $100 million for the project, his stipulations were that the map be open access and free.

“The brain is one of the richest green fields of science,” Allen told Wired News. “There’s so much yet to be discovered. So I brought together a group of scientists and asked them to tell me what could be done that wasn’t yet being done — something that could be accomplished within a reasonable number of years and advance the whole field.”

Cell Phones? Hell Phones!

I don’t have a cell phone. In fact, I’m here today to tell you that they’re the work of the devil. Switch yours off for five minutes and I’ll explain why.

Interruptability
Phones have always been interrupting machines. Like a screaming baby demanding to be fed, a phone demands your attention as soon as it rings. It requires you to be interruptable. And a hell phone, unlike a house phone, tags along with you wherever you go, nagging.

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