Artificial Life discussion panel

This evening I took part in a discussion on Artificial Life, organised by the Science Museum as part of their Frankenstein Festival, a celebration of 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

We arrived early, so had a look round the Science Museum itself first.  I was reminiscing about earlier visits, including the Foucault Pendulum, and "cases and cases of beetles" (although that may have been the Natural History museum), when, lo and behold!

a pile of Beetles, amongst others

The museum then closed, clearing out the crowds, before reopening for the evening event.  So we went for a walk around South Kensington, looking at some of the magnificent old buildings, and their extensions.

the juxtaposition of the new (green glass) and the old (mellow stone)

Then it was time for me to go and meet the other panellists, and see the venue.

the stage is set

A little later the audience arrived.  Once we were seated on the stage, the lights blinded us to them, so we just had a nice chat between us about Artificial Life for an hour, ably encouraged by our moderator.  I hope the audience enjoyed it!

bus stop time

There’s an old saying that:

time is a device to prevent everything happening at once,
space is a device to prevent it all happening in Cambridge

And now I have discovered that Cambridge Railway Station bus stops each have their own time zone!

I wonder what the time is at the other railway station stops?

I’m off to the Cambridge Philosophical Society’s one day meeting on What we don’t know about the Universe from the very small to the very big.  By this evening I hope to have better knowledge of my lack of knowledge.

view from a hotel window

This “hotel” is Chicheley Hall, which has rather more character than the modern chains. 

It’s my second stay here; this time I’m attending a two day residential workshop on Computation by Natural Systems.  A lovely frosty morning view!  And I am looking forward to many interesting scientific talks. 

But first, off to breakfast...

7:25 am, BST

Inferno

I'm at "A beautiful Accident", the opening conference of Meta.Morf 2018 in Trondheim.  Part of the experience is the "Inferno" performance art project.

colleagues in demi-exo-skeletons

I felt as if I was in a Disco episode of Dr Who and the Cybermen.  And I mean that in a good way.

bookish view from a hotel window

I'm in Trondheim, Norway, for the Meta.Morf "Beautiful Accident" Conference.  It's rather icy out at the moment, although not too cold, at about -3C:

some ice in the dock

The hotel is lovely, and warm.  But the view from my window is a little odd (if somewhat apt):

view into the hotel

The hotel is built in a square, with some of the rooms overlooking the central dining atrium, rather than the exterior.  Down on the floor you can some furniture and a cutlery tray.  They look Lilliputian, but actually they give a scale for the "books", which are actually just wallpaper, and the spines are about two feet high.

Schrödinger's cat caught in the act

The snow captures the very moment that the cat splits in two: