George Musser
@georgemusser.com
contributing editor, Scientific American, Nautilus; contributing writer, Quanta; author, Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation, Spooky Action at a Distance, Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory; planetary scientist, local historian, bassist, salsero
Swipe up to try a new variant on Conway's Game of Life. And another. And another. This is how artificial-life researchers spread the joy after the #ALIFE2025 conference! They say it's like TikTok, but I wouldn't know.... ⚙️🧫 rulehunt.org?rulesetHex=7... #cellularautomata #gameoflife
October 11, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Swipe up to try a new variant on Conway's Game of Life. And another. And another. This is how artificial-life researchers spread the joy after the #ALIFE2025 conference! They say it's like TikTok, but I wouldn't know.... ⚙️🧫 rulehunt.org?rulesetHex=7... #cellularautomata #gameoflife
Tech is depleting not only material resources but also intellectual resources, especially common knowledge. Political polarization erodes agreement on the most basic facts and concepts. "It's almost like seeing the ozone layer deplete before our eyes," said @audreyt.org at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫
October 9, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Tech is depleting not only material resources but also intellectual resources, especially common knowledge. Political polarization erodes agreement on the most basic facts and concepts. "It's almost like seeing the ozone layer deplete before our eyes," said @audreyt.org at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫
Evolution has an arrow of time toward greater complexity. It's driven neither by mutation nor by crossover/sex but by symbiogenesis, argued @blaiseaguera.bsky.social (following Lynn Margulis) at #ALIFE2025. He showed lots of cool CoreWar-like competing programs. whatisintelligence.antikythera.org ⚙️🧫
October 9, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Evolution has an arrow of time toward greater complexity. It's driven neither by mutation nor by crossover/sex but by symbiogenesis, argued @blaiseaguera.bsky.social (following Lynn Margulis) at #ALIFE2025. He showed lots of cool CoreWar-like competing programs. whatisintelligence.antikythera.org ⚙️🧫
Richard Löffler creates lifelike oil droplets during the public event at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫
October 8, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Richard Löffler creates lifelike oil droplets during the public event at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫
Another mirroring illusion for your puzzling pleasure, created by @eijiwatanabe.bsky.social, demonstrated by @sinalana.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫
October 8, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Another mirroring illusion for your puzzling pleasure, created by @eijiwatanabe.bsky.social, demonstrated by @sinalana.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫
Here's a depressing solution to the Fermi Paradox: In a hostile Galaxy, we won't ever see aliens because, if we did, we'd be dead already, mused Georgii Karelin of @oistedu.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫
October 7, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Here's a depressing solution to the Fermi Paradox: In a hostile Galaxy, we won't ever see aliens because, if we did, we'd be dead already, mused Georgii Karelin of @oistedu.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. ⚙️🧫
The usual explanation for great music is that it's predictable but not too predictable. But there's more to it, said @frosas.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. We prefer music when we perceive agency behind it. Improvisation trumps a prepared performance. See paper at www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy.... ⚙️🧫
October 7, 2025 at 3:12 AM
The usual explanation for great music is that it's predictable but not too predictable. But there's more to it, said @frosas.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. We prefer music when we perceive agency behind it. Improvisation trumps a prepared performance. See paper at www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy.... ⚙️🧫
Monkeys on typewriters would take eons to generate π, but much MUCH less time to generate a program that would generate π, said @hectorzenil.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. He has a cool applet to prove the point at demonstrations.wolfram.com/InfiniteMonk.... ⚙️🧫
October 7, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Monkeys on typewriters would take eons to generate π, but much MUCH less time to generate a program that would generate π, said @hectorzenil.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. He has a cool applet to prove the point at demonstrations.wolfram.com/InfiniteMonk.... ⚙️🧫
For A.I. to feel empathy, it has to be able to feel pain, argued roboticist Minoru Asada in a provocative talk at #ALIFE2025. He has built a pain signal into his robots. I hope it doesn’t inure them to others’ misery, as we see all too often in people. www.er.ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp/asadalab/?pa... ⚙️🧫
October 7, 2025 at 12:25 AM
For A.I. to feel empathy, it has to be able to feel pain, argued roboticist Minoru Asada in a provocative talk at #ALIFE2025. He has built a pain signal into his robots. I hope it doesn’t inure them to others’ misery, as we see all too often in people. www.er.ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp/asadalab/?pa... ⚙️🧫
In this bizarre #opticalillusion, an object seems to switch direction when viewed in a mirror. Mathematician and puzzle-maker Kokichi Sugihara wrote it up for the @euromathsoc.bsky.social magazine at euromathsoc.org/magazine/art... and created a very helpful video at youtu.be/vGxTKpOt6xU?....
October 3, 2025 at 9:47 AM
In this bizarre #opticalillusion, an object seems to switch direction when viewed in a mirror. Mathematician and puzzle-maker Kokichi Sugihara wrote it up for the @euromathsoc.bsky.social magazine at euromathsoc.org/magazine/art... and created a very helpful video at youtu.be/vGxTKpOt6xU?....
As if to confirm my feelings of alienation from a world going mad, the German trains booked me onto car 24, but there is no car 24.
September 15, 2025 at 12:51 PM
As if to confirm my feelings of alienation from a world going mad, the German trains booked me onto car 24, but there is no car 24.
Columbia says it hired an expert on negotiation. Must be the same one who advised Neville Chamberlain.
July 25, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Columbia says it hired an expert on negotiation. Must be the same one who advised Neville Chamberlain.
On a whim, I asked Amazon Alexa about flying saucers and was troubled to hear that most scientists deem them extraterrestrial in origin. What other misconceptions and conspiracies do these smart speakers promulgate? 🧪
March 31, 2025 at 5:40 PM
On a whim, I asked Amazon Alexa about flying saucers and was troubled to hear that most scientists deem them extraterrestrial in origin. What other misconceptions and conspiracies do these smart speakers promulgate? 🧪
Wait, Bozos is celebrating freedom by saying you're not free? He wants to minimize coercion by coercing? I think high-school English teachers discussing Orwell now have a new example of doublethink.
February 27, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Wait, Bozos is celebrating freedom by saying you're not free? He wants to minimize coercion by coercing? I think high-school English teachers discussing Orwell now have a new example of doublethink.
Google Maps caved. I am deleting the app and, if I have to use paper maps from here on, so be it.
February 11, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Google Maps caved. I am deleting the app and, if I have to use paper maps from here on, so be it.
Great story by @nadiadrake.bsky.social for @sciam.bsky.social on how her father designed and transmitted the famous Arecibo interstellar message to M13. 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
November 20, 2024 at 3:40 PM
Great story by @nadiadrake.bsky.social for @sciam.bsky.social on how her father designed and transmitted the famous Arecibo interstellar message to M13. 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
The heavier your car, the safer you are in a collision, but the more damage you do to the other car. There’s an optimal weight that minimizes total fatalities: ~4000 lbs., the Economist estimates from police reports from 14 U.S. states. (Curb weight, I think.) 🧪 www.economist.com/interactive/...
September 9, 2024 at 6:19 PM
The heavier your car, the safer you are in a collision, but the more damage you do to the other car. There’s an optimal weight that minimizes total fatalities: ~4000 lbs., the Economist estimates from police reports from 14 U.S. states. (Curb weight, I think.) 🧪 www.economist.com/interactive/...
The answer seems to be yes.
September 8, 2024 at 7:50 PM
The answer seems to be yes.
Here's a Google Maps fail I've never seen before: It puts me in Amman even though I'm in Larnaca. Could IDF spoofing be messing with GPS positioning this far out?
September 8, 2024 at 6:34 PM
Here's a Google Maps fail I've never seen before: It puts me in Amman even though I'm in Larnaca. Could IDF spoofing be messing with GPS positioning this far out?
You are 3.8 billion years old, says @saraimari.bsky.social at #MindFest2024. You can trace parts of your body all the way back to the origins of life. 🧪
February 1, 2024 at 5:18 PM
You are 3.8 billion years old, says @saraimari.bsky.social at #MindFest2024. You can trace parts of your body all the way back to the origins of life. 🧪
OK, this pushes me over the edge. The arrogance of the NYT is breathtaking. I will cancel presently.
August 5, 2023 at 3:25 PM
OK, this pushes me over the edge. The arrogance of the NYT is breathtaking. I will cancel presently.
@wayt.bsky.social had a very nice highly graphical explainer in Scientific American many years ago... I myself wrote a short news story on pulsar timing arrays in 2006
July 2, 2023 at 4:13 PM
@wayt.bsky.social had a very nice highly graphical explainer in Scientific American many years ago... I myself wrote a short news story on pulsar timing arrays in 2006
Isn't this typical of the New York Times: give wall-to-wall coverage to a story I couldn't care less about, then wonder why everyone is so obsessed about that story. Why doesn't the NYT ever question itself? They still owe the world a huge apology for the 2016 election.
June 24, 2023 at 8:54 AM
Isn't this typical of the New York Times: give wall-to-wall coverage to a story I couldn't care less about, then wonder why everyone is so obsessed about that story. Why doesn't the NYT ever question itself? They still owe the world a huge apology for the 2016 election.