'No signal' from targeted ET hunt

From The BBC

1 June 2012

The hunt for other intelligent civilisations has a new technique in its arsenal, but its first use has turned up no signs of alien broadcasts. Australian astronomers used "very long baseline interferometry" to examine Gliese 581, a star known to host planets in its "habitable zone". The hunt for aliens is fundamentally a vast numbers game, so the team's result should come as no surprise. Their report, posted online, will be published in the Astronomical Journal. In recent years, interest in such targeted searches has begun to surge as the hunt for planets outside the Solar System continues to find them at every turn. Astronomers currently estimate that every star in the night sky hosts, on average, 1.6 planets - implying that there are billions of planets out there yet to be confirmed. But a number of stars have already been identified as playing host to rocky planets at a distance not too hot and not too cold for liquid water - the first proxy for amenability to life.

Gliese 581, a red dwarf star about 20 light-years away, is a particularly interesting candidate for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or Seti. It has six planets, two of which are "super-Earths" likely to be in this habitable zone. So astronomers at Curtin University's International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia, put one of radio astronomy's highest-resolution techniques to work, listening in to the star system. Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) is the process of using several or many telescopes that are distant from one another, carefully combining their signals to make them effectively act as one large telescope, peering intently at a tiny portion of the sky. The team trained the Australian Long Baseline Array onto Gliese 581 for eight hours, listening in on a range of radio frequencies. The result was radio silence - but the team used their experience to validate VLBI as a technique particularly suited to this kind of targeted search. Seth Shostak, principal astronomer at the Seti Institute in the US, said that the approach's strength lies in the fraction of the sky it examines. "It's like they're looking at the sky through a 6-foot-long cocktail straw - a tiny bit of the sky, so they're only sensitive to signals that are coming from right around that star system," he told BBC News.

That is useful not only for getting a high-resolution view, but for excluding the signals from Earthly technologies that plague Seti efforts. "Figuring out 'is this ET or AT&T?' isn't always easy, and VLBI gives you a good way of discriminating, because if you find something from that tiny, tiny dot on the sky you can say that's not one of our satellites," Dr Shostak said. He added that the team's negative result was not disheartening, because the odds have it that the hunt for aliens, if it is ever to find them, will require thousands or millions of observations of this kind. "Consider the fact that you could've looked at the Earth for four billion years with radio antennas - here was a planet that's clearly in the habitable zone, has liquid oceans, and has an atmosphere - and yet unless you had looked in the last 70 years and were close enough, you wouldn't have found any intelligent life," he said. "The fact that we look at one star system and don't find a signal doesn't tell you that there's no intelligent life."

[The fact that no signal was received in the 8 hours of the study should certainly not be disheartening to anyone. As Dr Shostak rightly stated if you had aimed the same equipment at Earth 150 years ago you wouldn’t have picked up anything either – which doesn’t actually prove that no intelligent life existed here back then! It’s definitely a useful tool and a useful technique to look for – and possibly find – intelligent life out there but only life that has produced recognisable radio technology in the timeframe being looked at. It would be very nice to get a positive result but I’m not particularly holding my breath on this one – after all it’s a big-ass sky.]

Just Finished Reading: A Night to Remember by Walter Lord (FP: 1956)

I have long been fascinated by the tragedy of the Titanic. Part of it is, of course, that it’s such a great ‘story’ which is why so much has been written about it and why the mystique still resonates more than 100 years after the event. Part of it is, at least for me, the feeling that its sinking was arguably the beginning of the end of the Western world’s belief that progress was eternal and that, if we put our minds to it, we could conquer anything – especially the natural world. Maybe we could have recovered our Victorian optimism after the event if only the failure highlighted by its demise had not been underlined by the horrors of trench warfare just two short years later and the loss of a whole generation of young men on the killing fields of Europe. What makes the story a little more personal for me was that I discovered that two of the steerage passengers who embarked in Ireland at the start of a new life in America both had my surname and that they both died like so many others of their class. Whether or not they were any blood relation to me I have no idea. My surname is not exactly unusual in Southern Ireland so there’s a fair possibility that there was in fact no family relationship at all but I have neither confirmed nor denied it – yet.

The book itself is hailed (rightly in my opinion) as probably the classic on the subject. Numerous books had been written on and around these events in the years after the event but few it seemed caught the public’s imagination in quite the same way. For one thing the narrative is breathlessly told in just 169 pages starting with the sighting of the fateful iceberg and ending with the last lifeboat being picked up by the Carpathia around 6 hours later. As you can imagine the feel of the book is intense - indeed the whole narrative gripped me from beginning to end like a taught thriller. Despite knowing the overall story fairly well I found myself agonising over the lives of those involved and the decisions they made which either resulting in them living or dying on that fateful night. The very real sense of being there with the passengers and crew was conveyed by a mixture of meticulous detail (which was sometimes just a little too much) and the knowledge that the conversations attributed to the people described actually happened – though the author was confident enough in his skill to let the reader know when different people ‘remembered’ incidents and conversation differently as might be expected with the passage of decades before they were interviewed about the traumatic events of that night. I suppose what added an extra something was that I had recently watched the movie of the same name which (at the time unbeknownst to me) was based on this book. I watched it subsequently and managed to pick out snippets of conversation and some of the action that actually happened as the ship slowly sank into the freezing Atlantic.

What thrilled me in the film and thrilled me even more in this book was the tale of the Carpathia whose captain threw all caution to the wind and raced towards the last know position of the Titanic at full speed, at night, with icebergs known to be in the area. Unfortunately the Carpathia was over 50 miles away and had no way of getting to the Titanic before she sank with such a huge loss of life. Much closer, or so it seemed, was the Californian which might have been less than 12 miles away but apparently did nothing. Its captain was vilified and long denied that he was as close as some people believed him to be. He was definitely the villain of the piece and some people have criticised Lord for pointing the finger so solidly at him.

This is a great work of historical writing which will honestly thrill anyone who knows the story of the Titanic. Its style and delivery are practically faultless and for the few days it took me to read this short book I almost felt that I was standing shoulder to shoulder with the men and women on the boat deck awaiting the next lifeboat to be lowered into the icy water. A brilliant work and highly recommended. Just don’t ruin it by watching the James Cameron version afterwards!    

Cartoon Time.

Brilliant.....!

Just Finished Reading: The Philosophy of Neo-Noir edited by Mark T Conard (FP: 2007)

This was another one of those books whose title (and cover featuring Sean Young as the replicant Rachel from Bladerunner) made it irresistible to me. As my readership already know I am a huge fan of Film Noir and its modern successor Neo-Noir so I was really looking forward to reading about the philosophical underpinnings of the whole thing. I was however slightly disappointed with the whole thing – though only slightly and only until I adjusted my preconceptions a bit. For although the word Philosophy was prominently displayed on the front cover and even mentioned several times in the various articles between its covers the main thrust of the book was very much from the film studies genre rather from any philosophical point of view. Of course, by and large, this was no bad thing and I must admit that I did learn a thing or two about Neo-Noir in general and the movies discussed in particular it’s just that I would’ve liked a bit more philosophy and a bit less discussion of the cinematic arts (to say nothing of one particular section that I found almost unreadable as it was chock full of film jargon and, to be frank, so far up its own arse as never to see daylight again.)

Anyway….. After a general explanation of what exactly Neo-Noir was – basically Noir type movies made after the classic Noir films – a selection of authors dived into various movies to discuss the ins and outs of each one logically starting with Bladerunner (1982) as it appeared on the cover. This was probably the most philosophical of all the articles concentrating on the idea of humanity, free choice and authenticity in the Sartre sense. Then we had several interesting articles on Point Blank (1967) and Memento (2000) discussing personal identity (without memories who are we really?) and the nature of reality (how can we be sure that any of our experiences are actually real?). After that it got a bit less philosophical with a discussion of The Onion Field (1979) and the idea of guilt vs justice, A Simple Plan (1998) and the idea of moral corruption, Hard Eight (1996) and atonement, Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Kill Bill 1 & 2 (2003, 2004) and the idea of redemption. After that I felt that we moved fully away from any philosophic bent and moved straight onto film criticism (with a slight tinge of philosophy to shoe-horn the articles between the pages of a philosophical publication) as various authors discussed Chinatown (1974), Blood Simple (1984), Fargo (1996), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), The Big Lebowski (1998) and finally – and bizarrely to my mind – the 1980’s TV series Miami Vice.

Now I didn’t exactly dislike this book. Once I got over the mild disappointment of it not being as philosophical as I had hoped and expected it was reasonably interesting. I certainly learnt quite a bit about various aspects of Neo-Noir that I would probably never have considered prior to reading this book. It probably would have helped if I’d have seen more of the films being discussed (I think I managed about 50% to be honest) so maybe the feeling that it could have been a better more engaging book stems from my apparent ignorance of the modern genre. It’s certainly possible. So although I won’t be giving this a blanket recommendation I’ll leave it to other Noir fans to decide if this is a good book or not.   

Cartoon Time.

Cambridge boffins fear 'Pandora's Unboxing' and RISE of the MACHINES

By Brid-Aine Parnell for The Register

26th November 2012

Boffins at Cambridge University want to set up a new centre to determine what humankind will do when ultra-intelligent machines like the Terminator or HAL pose "extinction-level" risks to our species. A philosopher, a scientist and a software engineer are proposing the creation of a Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) to analyse the ultimate risks to the future of mankind - including bio- and nanotech, extreme climate change, nuclear war and artificial intelligence. Apart from the frequent portrayal of evil - or just misguidedly deadly - AI in science fiction, actual real scientists have also theorised that super-intelligent machines could be a danger to the human race. Jaan Tallinn, the former software engineer who was one of the founders of Skype, has campaigned for serious discussion of the ethical and safety aspects of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Tallinn has said that he sometimes feels he is more likely to die from an AI accident than from cancer or heart disease, CSER co-founder and philosopher Huw Price said.

Humankind's progress is now marked less by evolutionary processes and more by technological progress, which allows people to live longer, accomplish tasks more quickly and destroy more or less at will. Both Price and Tallinn said they believe the rising curve of computing complexity will eventually lead to AGI, and that the critical turning point after that will come when the AGI is able to write the computer programs and create the tech to develop its own offspring. “Think how it might be to compete for resources with the dominant species,” says Price. “Take gorillas for example – the reason they are going extinct is not because humans are actively hostile towards them, but because we control the environments in ways that suit us, but are detrimental to their survival.”

CSER hopes to gather experts from policy, law, risk, computing and science to advise the centre and help with investigating the risks. “At some point, this century or next, we may well be facing one of the major shifts in human history – perhaps even cosmic history – when intelligence escapes the constraints of biology,” Price said. “Nature didn’t anticipate us, and we in our turn shouldn’t take artificial general intelligence (AGI) for granted. "We need to take seriously the possibility that there might be a ‘Pandora’s box’ moment with AGI that, if missed, could be disastrous. With so much at stake, we need to do a better job of understanding the risks of potentially catastrophic technologies.”

[Much as I hate the word ‘boffin’ it’s good to see other people being as paranoid as I am about a future populated with killer robots of our own design. It’s just nice to know that it won’t be just me saying ‘I informed you thusly’ when the first Terminators infiltrate and start killing people.]

I still remember seeing this in the flesh (so to speak). I wish that we had more time just to gaze at the genius of the design and wonder at the powerful imagination housed in Michelangelo's mind. I mean he designed this statue of David to be looked at on a column from ground level. Looked at straight-on the proportions are all wrong, but looked at from a lower position the proportions are exactly right..... and he did that all in his head..... and then produced it out of stone.... with chisels...... I was, and still am, stunned by the ability of this man. The stature was literally awe inspiring and honestly took my breath away. I still remember seeing a young woman, probably an art student, gazing up at it simply entranced. I couldn't help smiling as I understood exactly what she was experiencing. This is a truly amazing work of art and if you ever get the opportunity to see the real thing I couldn't recommend that you do so more highly. 

Evolution in action......

Just Finished Reading: The Mosaic of Shadows by Tom Harper (FP: 2003)

Constantinople in 1095. When one of the Emperor’s bodyguards is killed by a mysterious and powerful weapon the leaders of his elite Varangian guard are at a loss to explain things. So his chief Minister turns to Demetrios Askiates, a former mercenary who has developed a reputation within the burgeoning middle-class as something of a solver of mysteries, to aid them in their investigations. Within hours of being assigned to the case Demetrios has already proven his worth by locating the spot where a would be assassin stood to fire his mysterious weapon and has managed to gain a fair description of the boy involved. But before he can investigate further it becomes obvious that powerful forces are ranged against him. Intrigue within the palace itself seems to be involved with fingers increasingly pointing to the Emperor’s younger brother. But with forces like these how would it be possible for Demetrios to gain enough evidence without putting himself and his family in mortal danger. If this was not enough to put the fear of the gods in him an army of Christian knights is approaching from the west – their intention to gain access to the Holy Land with or without the co-operation of Constantinople. Demetrios cannot but wonder if their arrival is a coincidence of if something much bigger that a simple palace coup is happening around him. With only weeks to provide answers Demetrios must find a killer in a city of thousands and increasingly watch his own back.

As a first novel this was very impressive indeed. The character of Demitrios is well drawn with depth, history and real motivations. Likewise the men and women (or more accurately woman) he needs to deal with during his investigation are rounded characters (in the main) if a little stereotypical. The plot is a little too clever and convoluted, and a little too long to be honest, but this is a common failing of first novels as the author tries to cram as much as possible into what might end up as their only book deal rather than the first of many. I have learnt to forgive such examples of over exuberance. Overall, cutting the author a modicum of slack, this is a solid example of historical political/crime thriller. Without the use of forensics, except for the very crudest kind, Demetrios is forced back on questioning witnesses (and suspects) and determining where the stories overlap and where they conflict – thereby hopefully arriving at what really happened. This he does very well and the progress is logical and honestly impressive. The protagonist wasn’t clear (at least to me) until the last quarter of the book and wasn’t really revealed until very late indeed which I enjoyed. He certainly kept me guessing, and turning pages, until the very end. Recommended.