sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLXII

The latest batch. (I'm trying to do these posts before the batches get too big, which means they are more frequent.)

Towards Origins of Virtual Artificial Life

I have a new paper, "Towards Origins of Virtual Artificial Life: an overview".  This is in a special issue of PhilTransRoySocB, on Origins of Life.  I am also one of the three editors of that SI (but this paper was still properly peer reviewed, handled by one of the other editors, I hasten to add!)  

abstract:

The field of artificial life (ALife) studies ‘life as it could be’, in contrast to biology’s study of ‘life as we know it to be’. This includes a wide range of potential physical substrates, from synthetic biology (new genes), through xenobiology (new amino acids and DNA bases), inorganic chemistry (different structural elements), soft and hard robotics (new kinds of bodies) and also virtual life (existing inside a computer). Since any such life forms are artificial, the originating mechanisms can be similarly artificial, or can attempt to emulate natural mechanisms. Given the wide range of possible substrates and origins, it is crucial to have good definitions, and well-defined ways to detect and measure life, if and when it originates. This overview examines the current state of the art in ALife in defining, detecting and originating its subject matter, with its main focus on virtual life. After discussing common properties of several definitions of life, the overview synthesizes an engineering-focussed definition, in terms of abstract requirements, generic designs and specific implementation mechanisms, and then reviews the current state of the art through this lens. Although virtual ALife that satisfies all these requirements is yet to be exhibited, significant progress has been made on engineering individual mechanisms and, arguably, partially alive systems.

I had fun writing it, thinking about ALife in the context of origins of life.  Given it is artificial life, that implies an artificer, so it has to be an engineering origin rather than a natural origin.  So I get to exercise my Requirements Engineering knowledge.

It's open access, and can be found at doi:10.1098/rstb.2024.0298

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXLIX

The latest batch:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXLII

 Our Inverness bookshop purchases:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXXIV

 The latest batch:

The Systems Engineering book is a bit weird.  On the spine it says "Blanchard et al", implying at least two more authors; on the front cover it says "Blanchard Fabrycky", which sounds like a single author.  It's actually by Benjamin S. Blanchard and Wolter J. Fabrycky, who are multiply credited in the table of contents as the authors of every individual chapter (so, 25 times).

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXXI

 The latest batch, being his'n'hers birthday presents:

Conversation 2023: Eastercon day 2

Today started with a panel on Why Did You Build it That Way? or questionable engineering choices in fiction.  The chat devolved into a lot of non-fictional issues the panel had experienced in their day jobs.  I liked the definitions: safety is about random breaking, security is about targetted attacks.  Also, safety is never the number one priority, after all, "a stationary train is perfectly safe" (I assume they mean, provided it's not sharing a track with a moving train!)

Next was the panel Wanted Undead or Alive, about necromancers, ghosts and the undead.  There was some interesting categorisation.  Undead were once alive, have died, then have come back, but not "fully".  There is also the issue of whether they have come back willingly, or by force.  There is a story (I didn't catch the title) with two halves of an undead: the zombie body and the ghost "spirit" asking a necromancer to kill that body.

Next, GoH Kari Sperring was interviewed by Juliet McKenna.  We discovered that she learned to write through Trek fanfic, and that she writes technical works under her academic name, Kari Maunde.

Danna Staaf then gave a talk about her new book The Lady And The Octopus, about the amazing life of Jeanne Villepreux-Power, who lived in the 18th century, started in relative poverty, and became a marine biologist and invented the modern aquarium.  (I ordered the book.)

The annual Hay Lecture this year was delivered by Colin Carlson, on the effect of climate change on our health.  This is all interlinked with foodwebs, parasites, food production, and more: "it's complicated".  There were lots of little bits woven together to make an overall story of how feedbacks interact in non-obvious ways.  For example, reducing beef production to reduce greenhouse gases would increase the number of pigs and chickens raised, which would increase the probability of more pandemics...

Imagining Reproductive Futures was delivered by the team working on a research project about human reproduction in space, both in reality and in fiction.  Badly Written Disease had a panel discussing terrible descriptions of medical issues in fiction.  To end the day, the Multiverse Magic panel discussed Many Worlds in fiction, including the recent brilliant film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.

And so to bed.

 

sequestering carbon, one Christmas at a time X

His ’n’ hers Christmas presents:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXVI

 It's been a while since the last update, so there are rather more in the pile than usual:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXV

 The latest batch:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXI

 The final batch before Christmas:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXIX

 The latest batch:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXVI

 The latest batch:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CIV

The latest batch: something to read for the next few months!

view from a hotel window

I’m in a hotel near Heathrow, at the EPSRC Global Grand Challenges Retreat, talking about cross-disciplinary research.

When tackling a #WickedProblem, even defining the problem domain is a political act - Susan Stepney on tackling #globalchallenges through cross-disciplinarity at the @EPSRC #EPSRC_EngineeringGGCR @GCRF pic.twitter.com/kszFUo9Hyr

— Ellie Gilvin (@egilvers) March 3, 2020

I took the Heathrow Express for part of the journey; the in-train announcements looked as if they had been hacked by an alien.

the black line wasn’t visible, but even without it, the messages didn’t make any sense

The view from my room window is over the interior of the hotel, with a rather bizarre moon on display.

once in a blue moon?

don’t read before flying

Read the whole thing.  It makes for terrifying reading, if only because it’s going to happen again, and again, and again...

How the Boeing 737 Max Disaster Looks to a Software Developer

So Boeing produced a dynamically unstable airframe, the 737 Max. That is big strike No. 1. Boeing then tried to mask the 737’s dynamic instability with a software system. Big strike No. 2. Finally, the software relied on systems known for their propensity to fail (angle-of-attack indicators) and did not appear to include even rudimentary provisions to cross-check the outputs of the angle-of-attack sensor against other sensors, or even the other angle-of-attack sensor. Big strike No. 3.

I believe the relative ease—not to mention the lack of tangible cost—of software updates has created a cultural laziness within the software engineering community. Moreover, because more and more of the hardware that we create is monitored and controlled by software, that cultural laziness is now creeping into hardware engineering—like building airliners. Less thought is now given to getting a design correct and simple up front because it’s so easy to fix what you didn’t get right later.

It is likely that MCAS, originally added in the spirit of increasing safety, has now killed more people than it could have ever saved. It doesn’t need to be “fixed” with more complexity, more software. It needs to be removed altogether.

book review: A Burglar's Guide to the City

Geoff Manaugh.
A Burglar's Guide to the City.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2016

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There is a standard way to use a building: enter by the doors, look though the windows. There is a standard way to use a city: travel along the roads. Burglars don’t use buildings and cities in standard way: some enter buildings though windows, drop through hatches and ceilings, cut through walls; some move around cities through tunnels, either pre-existing or self-dug. Manaugh describes many of these alternate uses: some exceedingly clever, some just plain dumb. And he describes attempts to thwart the burglars, from law-enforcement helicopter patrols to high security panic rooms.

I have come across, in fiction if not in reality, many of the concepts here, but they are all engagingly presented. One aspect I found particularly intriguing was how law enforcement could get lost in certain kinds of locations. In one case it was helicopter pilots over a regular grid of streets, in another it was officers on the ground in a huge building with several identical parts. Both were lost in “a maze of twisty little passages, all alike”. We know the solution to this: drop landmarks. Law enforcement would like home owners to paint identifiers on their roofs. Alternatively, architects could design more varied structures: “a maze of twisty little passages, all different”, with the necessary landmarks already present.

Being able to think “sideways”, like a burglar, is a useful skill when designing any artefact: it will be misused, if not on purpose, then at least accidentally. Having these misuses catered for up front in the design is a plus. Having these literally concrete examples in mind can makes for more vivid analogies when trying to think sideways.

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For all my book reviews, see my main website.

book review: Artemis

Andy Weir.
Artemis.
Del Rey. 2017

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The moon has a small town, Artemis, population 2000. Most of the inhabitants are either super-wealthy, or the ordinary blue-collar people keeping the town running, and working as tourist guides. Some are criminals. Jazz is a bit of both: a legitimate porter, and a smuggler to keep the wolf from the door. But she’s making no headway in saving to pay off a big debt, so when one of her super-wealthy smuggling customers offers her what looks like a great deal for some sabotage, she decides to take it. But the job doesn’t go as planned, and soon Jazz is on the run, and the worst is, she doesn’t even know who’s after her! She will need all her moon-smarts just to survive, let alone win out.

This is a fast paced romp, essentially based on a huge McGuffin, but with plenty of engineering know-how needed to solve all the problems. Jazz is a drop-out, which is why she wants money; she also has a well-developed business ethic, which is why she gets into trouble in the first place; she also happens to be an engineering genius, which is how she gets even deeper into trouble.

The book superficially has a YA vibe, but Jazz is not a teenager, she’s in her mid-20s. So occasionally the story and the vibe clash somewhat. However, this is an interestingly-drawn world, both the politics of Artemis, and its Earth-based back story. I enjoyed the grunge-tech feel to life on the moon (although I’m sure there are holes in the engineering, and in the chemistry). And I particularly appreciated how the ending panned out.

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For all my book reviews, see my main website.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time LXXXIX

The latest batch, including the eight we bought on holiday in Hay-on-Wye: