epistemology | Subluminal

6 September 2012

Perceptive hash

Continuing with metrics…

Everybody can easily recognize a tune, a famous painting or the face of a friend. Not so for a computer, who must first digitize the information, and operate on this dataset to find similarities. Back in the beginning of computer era, people though that it would be easy to recognize characters or voice, but technology had hard time with these issues. OCR is still perfectible, while voice recognition is still not common (things are getting better, but Siri is still fallible)

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25 August 2012

english, epistemology, science

Welcome to the metrics

Everything that can be measured can be managed – Peter Drucker

The measure of things is the keystone for progress, in science, but also in the society.
Because measuring allows to make decision, by empowering evaluation and the comparison between elements, and thus to make optimal choices and perform improvements. But measuring something is not always easy. Continue reading →

27 April 2012

epistemology, français, science life, traductions

Toi et tes recherches

English readers : this post is about a French translation of R. Hamming’s talk
‘You and your research’ I’ve made.
You can already enjoy the text in your own language!

J’ai enfin terminé la traduction du fameux discours de Richard Hamming ‘You and your research‘, en collaboration (silencieuse) avec Dr. Goulu.

La voici, au format html. Elle est complète, mais nécessite une légère révision pour corriger un peu le style et homogénéiser les locutions.

En voici un extrait:

Lorsque l’on est célèbre, il est difficile de travailler sur de petits problèmes. C’est ce que pourtant fit Shannon. Après avoir fondé théorie de l’information, comment réitérer un tel succès? Les grands scientifiques font souvent cette erreur. Ils n’arrivent pas à se contenter de planter les petits glands qui ensuite font de beaux et grands chênes. Ils s’attaquent tout de suite aux gros morceaux. Et ce n’est pas la façon dont les choses se font. C’est donc une autre raison pour laquelle une reconnaissance précoce finit par vous stériliser. Je vais même vous donner ma citation préférée.
L’Institute for Advanced Study à Princeton, a, à mon avis, ruiné plus de bons scientifiques que n’importe quelle autre institution, à en juger par la différence entre ce que ces scientifiques ont fait avant leur arrivée et ce qu’ils ont fait ensuite. Non pas qu’ils ne sont pas qu’ils s’en sortaient mal, mais s’ils étaient géniaux avant d’arriver, ils n’étaient que simplement bons après.

Bonne lecture !

25 April 2012

english, epistemology, mood, science

Faster than light !

No shame !

That’s what Nature said to those Prometheuses who wanted to steal the neutrinos from the realm of light (via).

No shame, because they put themselves at risk, claiming that the centenary rule that nothing can go faster than light might not be so unbreakable, while keeping their calm at all time.

: “point 5 past light !”

The best is their allegations re-opened the debate on what the speed of light really is the limit of.

Even though I’m not a specialist in special relativity, I was pleased to hear the crazy theories like this one :

The speed of light is like a barrier. You cannot cross it, but you can be already on the other side, where the neutrinos might be.
Photons are exactly on the wall : they cannot go any slower or faster.
(as heard on the radio).

I liked this picture because it relates to two (mis?)conception that I have.

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17 February 2012

english, epistemology, mood, science, skepticality

Bombykol

I recently read the book “Bad Science” by Ben Goldacre (it’s worth buying, but if you are remote, you can still visit the Pirate Bay… There is also some very nice material on this website).
It’s an excellent book, about great scientific scams, such as homeopathy, memory of water, alledged extra-benefits of highly expensive cosmetics and nutrition), and gives a good discussion about Placebo effect. Continue reading →

11 February 2012

art & science, english, epistemology, projects, resources

The two cultures

I OCRed the manuscript of the famous “The Two Cultures” lecture by R.C. Snow.
You can find an html version, or read the original version in a poorly-scanned pdf.

I like this text, because it gives an overview of the consequences of the forced choice you have to make, at some point, between hard (scientific) and soft (humanities) knowledge.
I don’t want to choose. I guess I’m a bit oldschool.

I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can’t read any poetry. – Randall Jarrell

Here’s an extract of “The two cultures” :

The non-scientists have a rooted impression that the scientists are shallowly optimistic, unaware of man’s condition. On the other hand, the scientists believe that the literary intellectuals are totally lacking in foresight, peculiarly unconcerned with their brother men, in a deep sense anti-intellectual, anxious to restrict both art and thought to the existential moment. And so on.
Anyone with a mild talent for invective could produce plenty of this kind of subterranean back-chat. On each side there is some of it which is not entirely baseless. It is all destructive. Much of it rests on misinterpretations which are dangerous. I should like to deal with two of the most profound of these now, one on each side.

14 January 2012

epistemology, français, language, science, traductions

Une parabole

English readers : this post is about a French translation of E.W. Dijkstra’s ‘Parable’ (archive EWD594) I’ve made.
You can already enjoy the text in your own language!

J’ai traduit pour vos beaux yeux une parabole que l’on doit au Prof. Edsger W. Dijkstra, légende de la programmation informatique. Elle est tirée de l’archive EWD594.

Vous avez à disposition une version html, si cela vous plaît mieux. Assez parlé, la voici :

Il y a quelques années de cela, une société de chemin de fer fut fondée, et l’un de ses administrateurs — probablement un commercial — découvrit que les investissements initiaux pourraient être réduits de manière significative si seuls cinquante pour cent des voitures étaient équipées de toilettes; il fut donc décidé qu’il en serait de la sorte.

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25 July 2011

2 Comments

epistemology, français, science, traductions