Brian Beckman: On Analog Computing, Beckman History and Life in the Universe Redux | Charles

Laurens

Awesome video Smiley

Maybe it has been far too long since Brian was on channel 9... but he sure makes it worth waiting for Big Smile

Charles
Welcome Change

In reply to Laurens

#Mar 10th @ 2:50 PM

Agreed. Brian is a hero to many of us. Thanks, Brian!
C

Richard.Hein
Stay on Target

The analog computer videos are amazing. It was so interesting to see and hear them describe finding the right shape of the surface, to solve a particular problem.

Someone told me that QM and GR were incompatible mathematically, but I didn't understand how that could be (after all, isn't all mathematics, at the root, based on the same underlying axioms and theorems). He thought I wouldn't understand if he tried to explain; but I think I get the idea. Thanks Brian. Smiley

dot_tom

Brain is definately a programming hero of mine. The dude is a modern day Feynman, and has been responsible for much pleasant head scratching followed by much reading and some little learning on my part.

jomit

Every time I hear Brian, he makes me feel I am just a 'carbon based life form'...... Excellent video guys and thanks Charles for these ETI videos Smiley

akopacsi

Ah, great video. A cosmology related question popped up in mind while I was watching this... Maybe Brian or somebody else here can answer it. If Time is not a fixed variable, but it can be distorted, how can we know if the Universe is 13.7 billion years old... Or even, does it make any sense to talk about its age? If Time is "expanding" or is being distorted, maybe the Universe was born just before the moment we call Now... (Sorry, if it's a stupid question.)

Something else. Brian, you talked about a truck simulator software in another video some years ago and you said something like that maybe you will never see its source code, but the basic idea behind the simulation of metal pieces was quite obvious... now it's an open source software. So you can check it out, if you want.

exoteric
newspeak :: a -> IO ()

Brian and Erik really have an interesting past. Thanks for sharing. Smiley

brianbec

In reply to akopacsi

#Mar 11th @ 9:05 AM

Hi Akopacsi -- The rough idea on time is this: Consider a path -- a 1-dimensional curve -- passing through points in space-time. Every point along that curve has a particular set of 4 coordinates: 3 space coordinates and 1 time coordinate, for any reasonable choice of coordinate systems. Now, parameterize that curve by the incremental distance along the curve: as you move from one point to another, you go a certain "distance" in 4-space, a distance measured by the "metric tensor," which is a generalization of the Pythagorean or Euclidean distance. Locally, that incremental distance is sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2 - dt^2) (notice the minus sign!). This distance measure is unique for a choice of metric tensor and is called the "proper time." It's a kind of cosmological average of proper times over the Hubble motion of galaxies along their curves that measures the age of the Universe backwards 13 or 16 billion years. Very rough idea, but hope that adds some clarity.

I'll take another look at "Rigs of Rods," one of my all-time favorite pieces of software!

Richard.Hein
Stay on Target

I was thinking about the analog fire control computer today, and protein folding and neurotransmitters, and how measurement of all electrical activity in the brain as a function of time would map back to the dynamic surface of the molecular interaction. I haven't ever heard the idea that the brain could be an analog computer in that sense, but after seeing that fire control video it really is making me wonder. Of course, the chemical interaction is just one part of the entire process, but often I have assumed that the "intelligence" lies in the electrical state of the system, but that might just be an artifact ... energy transfer and not computation at all. Of course I have no idea if any of this is close.