Recent content by StrayCatalyst

Breadboard, with a side of kitbashing.

The amount of control we currently have is pretty poor - note that she has a less than 50% success rate, and that arm only has a few DOF. It's progress, and will lead to further progress, and I'm all for it - but it's nowhere near the "people fused their brain with nanobots, while they still...

I've driven a cab in a large city - I was pretty familiar with junkies. They're human, but their addiction becomes the most important thing - it eclipses all else, in all too many cases. I had people offer me sex, for enough money to buy a rock. I've had people try to rob me for the same...

The human brain has a lot of features in common with all other human brains, but not nearly enough for a one-size-fits-all "enhancement" nanobot. If there were a way to network human brains directly with computers, then it might be possible to take advantage of the computer for storage, and for...

Divorce - when love dies, it doesn't leave a vacuum. It leaves behind an equal volume of anger, hurt, and rage, with the target being the person you used to be married to. My divorce was fairly mellow, by the standards of divorces. We had nothing fiscally worth fighting over, and no kids...

You carry microbes around with you. Unless the body were sterilized, decomposition wouldn't need to wait for external sources of microbes. You're also carrying around a few litres of acid in your stomach, as well... at a ph of 1.5-3.5, it will start digesting its way through the stomach promptly.

Industrial lasers cut by heating the material - then blasting it with compressed gases, generally. Their "target" isn't moving, and is not more than an inch or so from the "weapon", so it's not really all that equivalent. For a laser to do lethal damage to a target, it would need to be able to...

If you're talking "read the brainwaves and produce an amplified signal of the same frequencies, created by a carefully built device" then it's just an engineering problem. A complicated one, but it's still possible. If it's "amplify the brain waves so that they are, themselves, made so...

Assuming the following: Every government on Earth knows about the 70 year timeline, believes it to be true, and isn't gripped by religious hysteria that causes them to do nothing meaningful. The incoming destructive event cannot be slowed down, or caused to change course. Spending on space...

From Earth with the naked eye, the Moon is pretty small. If a nuclear weapon were detonated on the Moon, would it be visible from Earth? Would it make a difference if the device were detonated during local daytime (in full sunlight) as far as visibility is concerned? If it makes a...

If the way you live makes you happy, and you aren't getting in trouble for it, it's okay. I know many people with some degree of Aspberger's, and a few who are further along the autism spectrum - some are recluses, others have small circles of friends. If you're looking for a semi-social...

As the government is treating Americans as suspects - to be closely monitored, lied to, and feared - while government secrecy is at an all time high (so much for "the most transparent administration in history") I look at the NSA widespread, warrantless, suspicionless domestic spying program as...

Old VWs, welding, treehouses, video games, electronics, and learning. I'll often pick a subject and read a few basic books about it - chemistry was a fairly recent one.

I'm part of Mensa, where everybody has an IQ of greater than 140 - but there are about as many physicists and mathematicians as any other random sampling of people. IQ is a fairly inaccurate way of determining if a person can solve problems, or has the dedication needed to get through college.

Two fictional items. Adamantium is said to be nearly indestructible, while lightsabers do a great deal of damage - but are not infinitely fast. In the movie, a lightsaber was able to slowly, eventually damage armor in the ship - so the question becomes, how long is the lightsaber allowed to...