[RD] Daily Graphs and Charts

[SS-18 ICBM]

Err, I just told you how you can.

No you didn't. You just had some vague assertions about "brain scans" and "other biological indicators". The first is unreliable considering how little we know yet about which parts of the brain do what and the latter...comprises what, exactly?

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Now you are talking about quality, not quantity. But of course they are vague. We still have a lot to learn and I am not a neurologist. But I know that there is a material reflection of our emotional world and that it is within our reach to monitor and analyze this reflection. Will that enable use to create some detailed blueprint of one's emotional world? Maybe, but a loooong way to go. Different levels of emotional well-being are much more within our reach though.
The by you requested example for the latter are hormone levels. I am sure there are other ways feelings can manifest themselves in the body.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Yeah, those graphs about "the 1%" have the annoying habit of always ending in 2007. I've made the point before that part of the reason why the wealthiest got so much wealthier than everybody else is because their wealth is so volatile (in the sense that they have a very high "beta" wrt economic growth). In periods of economic growth they get much richer, in periods of economic contraction they take a bigger hit than everybody else (see the hit they took around 2001 in Winner's graph). The "issue" is of course that the US has had many more good years than bad years, and so people with high "betas" got overwhelmingly richer. A little mentioned fact is that "the 1%" lost much more from 2008-2011, even in relative terms, than the average american.

Hmm. Not buying this. The richest have been getting richer at the expense of the poorer, and no artistic portrait of such a pattern will make any difference to that.

BTW, do you regard a billionaire's assets falling 20% in value as the moral equivalent of 1 in 5 poor people losing their all income and their assets and having to take their children to soup kitchens? Is the latter in fact lower if said billionaire's assets drop 21%?

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Interpretation of proton NMR readouts.

Spoiler :

 

[aronnax]

Dear Canada, about you withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol. See graph below.

 

[Leoreth]

Looks like someone is out to beat USA #1.

 

[Monsterzuma]

that's what tar sand strip mining gets you.

they probably didn't even include the deforestation's effect on the CO2 balance.

 

[kronic]

I'm missing Australia in this chart. Their performance shouldn't be too impressive either.

 

[Quackers]

According to the wikipedia entry Australia is indead ahead of the USA in per capita CO2 emissions. Glorius Qatar is leading the pack by head and shoulders though! Go Qatar!

 

[GoodSarmatian]

WTH ? I knew Americans produce more emmissions than Germans, but twice as much ?
My contribution:

 

[madviking]

I'm gonna steal this.

 

[aronnax]

Yeah! It's better to just say, biologically, there are no such things as vegetables.

 

[Leoreth]

I like this thread. GoodSarmatian's post seems to refer to the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Although I'd rather say that the inclination to discuss remains low even as knowledge increases, after you're past the "mountain". I've often witnessed knowledgeable people giving up on the silliness coming from people on the mountain.

Edit: I've just realized I've even said the tomato thing once on these boards

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I think one part of getting past the mountain is to realize you said something stupid about the topic earlier, and this realization makes you more wary to express your half knowledge in the future. It takes a while to achieve the level of understanding that makes you confident again.

 

[aronnax]

I actually think Mount Stupid should be a lot higher.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Spoiler :

clickable white dots with more info: http://envisioningtech.com/

Arcologies in my lifetime would be very nice, but I think we need more big white dots on the energy front to make this scenario roll. Thorium by 2035 is not going to cut it.

 

[Leoreth]

If only a quarter of that was true, it would already be amazing. Everytime I see something like this I get into Randall Munroe "The future will be awesome" mode.

I think it's a little too optimistic, though. Especially the space column. AI might even be spot on.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Personal fabricators, molecular assemblers...
Somehow I think all this sci-fi nanotech stuff is just our age's flying car.
I also don't get the commercial spaceflight thing. How many eccentric billionaires are there ? I think a lot of these technologies will be possible, but won't get developed for lack of market incentives. Makes a nice tech tree for a near future cv mod though.
I can understand the optimism about non-commerfial spaceflight, the stuff that get's done by governments for scientific or military purposes or just for prestige. Spaceflight seems to have stagnated quite a bit after the end of the Cold War, but China's economic rise is likely to reinvigorate competition if the Western powers can afford such vanities. If they can't, the new space race might be betwen China and India.

This post may or may not have been written on Mount Stupid.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Biotech seems to be on the level.

 

[Winner]

I also don't get the commercial spaceflight thing. How many eccentric billionaires are there ? I think a lot of these technologies will be possible, but won't get developed for lack of market incentives. Makes a nice tech tree for a near future cv mod though.

AFAIK the business plan is to target the whole upper-middle class and above. Of course they call suborbital jumps "spaceflight", which kind of takes the wow factor out of this.

but China's economic rise is likely to reinvigorate competition if the Western powers can afford such vanities. If they can't, the new space race might be betwen China and India.

No. India is waaaaaay too poor for this kind of stuff and China doesn't have the right stuff to accept a race.

(And my knowledge of space-related stuff is above-average, so I hope I am not just providing more proof for the awesome graph that was posted a while ago).