From extropians-request@extropy.org Wed Nov 23 15:48:33 1994 Return-Path: extropians-request@extropy.org Received: from usc.edu (usc.edu [128.125.253.136]) by chaph.usc.edu (8.6.8.1/8.6.4) with SMTP id PAA09310 for ; Wed, 23 Nov 1994 15:48:24 -0800 Received: from news.panix.com by usc.edu (4.1/SMI-3.0DEV3-USC+3.1) id AA02154; Wed, 23 Nov 94 15:46:51 PST Received: (from exi@localhost) by news.panix.com (8.6.9/8.6.9) id SAA24804; Wed, 23 Nov 1994 18:04:23 -0500 Date: Wed, 23 Nov 1994 18:04:23 -0500 Message-Id: <199411232304.SAA24804@news.panix.com> To: Extropians@extropy.org From: Extropians@extropy.org Subject: Extropians Digest #94-11-274 - #94-11-285 X-Extropian-Date: November 23, 374 P.N.O. [18:03:22 UTC] Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org X-Mailer: MailWeir 1.0 Status: RO Extropians Digest Wed, 23 Nov 94 Volume 94 : Issue 326 Today's Topics: Environment Survey [1 msgs] ENVIRONMENT: Is the Sun "exploding"? Was: Nature's real plan [1 msgs] Human Cloning (I hate "medical ethicists") [1 msgs] META: re: BASICS [1 msgs] Paglia [2 msgs] POLITICS: Chomsky on Democracy [1 msgs] POLL: Environment [1 msgs] PRICING PROPOSALS FOR THE INTERNET [1 msgs] Wavelets [2 msgs] Wavelets, Image compression [1 msgs] Administrivia: Note: I have increased the frequency of the digests to four times a day. The digests used to be processed at 5am and 5pm, but this was too infrequent for the current bandwidth. Now digests are sent every six hours: Midnight, 6am, 12pm, and 6pm. If you experience delays in getting digests, try setting your digest size smaller such as 20k. You can do this by addressing a message to extropians@extropy.org with the body of the message as ::digest size 20 -Ray Approximate Size: 26866 bytes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dkrieger@netcom.com (Dave Krieger) Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 10:33:43 -0800 Subject: [#94-11-274] POLITICS: Chomsky on Democracy At 3:02 PM 11/17/94, Phil G. Fraering wrote: (re Vigdor:) >I would like to recommend that everyone exclude this guy. I don't >have any love lost for the Republicans and Democrats, but the >problems endemic to our government are mainly due (I think most >of us agree here) to the vast extent of its rule and not simply >because people don't influence how it exercices it. I agree strongly. I told Vigdor how to present his thinking (what there is of it) in a way extropians would respect, and he ignored my advice. If you don't plonk Vig, you have only yourself to blame for any resulting hypertension. dV/dt who finds "::exclude all" and selective resending a more soothing remedy than aspirin ------------------------------ From: dkrieger@netcom.com (Dave Krieger) Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 10:33:46 -0800 Subject: [#94-11-275] PRICING PROPOSALS FOR THE INTERNET At 8:25 PM 11/17/94, Harry S. Hawk wrote: >A University of Michigan researcher proposes letting Internet users >bid for priority status for their e-mail by attaching the highest >prices they are willing to pay for quick delivery. "Smart" network >switches would then monitor and adjust the price of admission based on >network congestion. Sounds like Hal Varian, who came out to visit us at Agorics last month. He and his colleagues are doing good work. You can reach his WWW home page via ours. == dV/dt _____________==_ / == \ | Agorics == | David Krieger dkrieger@netcom.com | Inc. == == | Director of Publications | == == | Agorics, Inc. ph 415 941 8224 | == == == | 300 Third Street fax 415 941 8225 | == == == == | Los Altos, CA 94022 \________________/ The URL for the Agorics, Inc. WWW home page is ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/agorics/agorics.html ------------------------------ From: Elizabeth Schwartz Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 23:38:30 -0500 (EST) Subject: [#94-11-276] META: re: BASICS Geoff Dale writes: > > Speaking as Anarch (the adjudicator of the list justice system) ask away. I > deliberately phrased the list rules (now available on the web, see my .sig > below) to indicate that it was against the rules to argue the basics, but > not to question them. > > For example of what IS against the rules look at this message: > >From: GREG NEWTON > >Subject: Laissez faire is worse! - was Reading List. > >X-Message-Number: #94-11-245 > I think we need two headers here, perhaps, or does Greg's thread have the same audience as my potential thread? I'm reading Locke, Paine, Friedman, and Hofstaeder in chunks, and do have questions about rights, transitional States, etc. Well, we can try it out. Thanks for the pointer to the new PPL rules; I'd missed that, when the switch happened. I consent! seeya Betsy ------------------------------ From: nancc@netcom.com (Nancie Clark) Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 21:10:09 -0800 (PST) Subject: [#94-11-277] Paglia I only have time to join in on weekends or briefly during week. Yet, the subject of Camille Paglia caught my eye. In reference to Paglia and her work as an author and lecturer, my thoughts are varied. Paglia, although spear-heading a number of areas of feminism, presents a duality in her own character, similar to the duality she often criticizes in modern American women who, although, perhaps, not of her intellectual elk, are valid co-conspirators in advancing the rights and recognition of women in general. For example, a target for Paglia is Gloria Steinem. Steinem has appealed to a large division of the movement because she is honest enough to admit that she has gone through spells of insecurity. In her book, Revolution From Within, Steinem gives credit to others - both men and women - who have made strides in this regard. Paglia calls Steinem "bourgeois". Paglia has been criticized probably more than any other female activist speaker. Betty Friedan can be strong willed, yet Paglia pushes further - harder. I wonder how much good she is actually doing when she yells at students. I wonder how much good she is doing by knocking other female activists who happen to be dissimilar by nature. Why such an obsterperous knee jerk? There are activists such as Pam Zoline (Co-Founder Telluride Institute, renown author and artist), who welcome others to join in. Best selling author Mark Baker wrote a book entitled Women which describes the personal transformations experienced by women in the past twenty years, as well as the startling challenges we face. (My writing was included in the book.) Here are two examples of authors with a welcoming tone to diversity. The more the merrier. I do appreciate Paglia's articulation. I appreciate her appreciation of femme fatales. She has searched out a nook for herself - one that does indeed intimidates many; a calling card for others. Although I haven't had a talk with Paglia yet, I may in the future. Whether a vamp or a tramp, in my opinion, it really doesn't matter. It's a matter of style. Nancie Clark ------------------------------ From: price@price.demon.co.uk (Michael Clive Price) Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 15:17:33 GMT Subject: [#94-11-278] ENVIRONMENT: Is the Sun "exploding"? Was: Nature's real plan Gregory Sullivan quotes Tipler: > The Sun is becoming more luminous every day, [....] A main sequence star is a star that burns almost exclusively hydrogen and has a definite relationship between it's mass and luminosity. Stars, whilst residing on the main sequence, burn stably and the impression given is that most of a star's luminous history is spent on the main-sequence. Plotted on a stellar Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of mass or temperature against absolute luminosity the main-sequence sprawls across it in a tight line. Later in life a star starts burning helium, leaves the main-sequence and typically expands into a red giant, goes nova, becomes a white dwarf, etc etc. Often we read that the Sun is a main-sequence star, but according to one book I read the Sun has already left the main-sequence. It showed the Sun's position as distinctly off-main-sequence, already moving towards the red giant sector. This seems to agree with Tipler's observation that the Sun is warming up day-by-day. Also the recent Scientific American article, "The Evolution of the Earth" (Oct 1994) says that the Sun may well have been only 75% as bright during the Archean era (4.5- 2.5 billion years ago). So, my question is, is the Sun on the main-sequence? Was it ever? Were all those cute astronomy books lying to me when I was a kid? If the Sun isn't on the main-sequence would correcting this view counteract the rosy meme of Mother Nature providing for and protecting the Earth? Michael Price price@price.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ From: nancc@netcom.com (Nancie Clark) Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 22:39:05 -0800 (PST) Subject: [#94-11-279] Paglia Ridder to Paglia post. After being briefed about one area in which Paglia shows warranted distain -- the area of education and her thoughts about educational structures hiring in unqualified individuals to represent the feminine and gay movement. I clearly understand why she would be argumentative. Yet, it seems that camouflagees who she is referring to in this regard are fem/gay nazis, uninterested in betterment of peoples' understanding. Individuals who have latched onto the Feminist movement. Paglia makes a strong point. I do not know, however, how prevalent this is. ------------------------------ From: MckenzieO@aol.com Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 22:10:57 -0500 Subject: [#94-11-280] POLL: Environment Nancy L wrote, on Nov. 16: >I could go on -- I grew up on a farm >in Nebraska -- but I think I've made my point. The country is >heaven, my >boy. It's cheap livin', with a lot less wear and tear on the >nerves. Well, I for one am completely convinced. Can I come live with you out there, Nancy, wherever you are? I can be packed in no time. :-) McKenzie Oerting Miami, FL ------------------------------ From: rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray) Date: Sat, 19 Nov 94 22:42:04 WET Subject: [#94-11-281] Human Cloning (I hate "medical ethicists") I just saw a local news story on the success of human "cloning" experiments. What this really is is embryo cloning, or the creation of twins or triples from one embryo. Apparently the process is already banned in Germany, Japan, and the UK. Medical Ethicists are "horrified" over the possibilities. Creation of back-up babies in case a pregnancy fails, creation of "spare parts" babies for organ transplants (gasp!), catalogs where infertile couples look through them at babies already born and choose to purchase a "copy". I frankly don't see what is so horrifying about any of this. These people act like it would be the end of civilization, or some kind of Third Reich. A recent time magazine poll found 74% of the population against cloning and only 15% for. 40% wanted a "temporary halt to the research", 37% wanted it stopped, only 15% or so percent wanted it continued. These same medical ethicists who support abortion, condemn the creation of clones for organ transplants and fetal tissue research. IMHO, there needs to be a definite criticism of these people, who are in essense, influencing government and university policy from their ivory towers. Could you imagine "space ethicists" condemning research into cosomology, or "physics ethicists" condemning research into the atom? Why is life, and the human body, such a taboo for these people? It just makes me irritated to even see medical ethicists speak. It seems like a bogus field to be in. I can just imagine a future cryonics court case where one of them is called in as an "expert witness" -Ray ------------------------------ From: agraps@netcom.com (Amara Graps) Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 20:48:52 -0800 Subject: [#94-11-282] Wavelets From: sullivan@blaze.cs.jhu.edu (Gregory Sullivan) >Video watchers will be interested in the competitiveness of wavelet methods >versus other methods for video compression. There was a posting from former >list member Timothy May on the direct broadcast satellite newsgroup a few >days ago in which he said that the MPEG video compression (not wavelet based >I believe) used on the new DSS system made the picture ``unwatchable'' and >literally gave him headaches. ... >future. Do you think wavelet compression will displace MPEG? Should it? >Can it cure Tim's headaches? Imagining Tim May with a headache is indeed a disturbing thought! (Just kidding Tim) You probably could have guessed my answer based on my previous wavelet posts, but the answer is 'yes', I think wavelet compression schemes should replace MPEG. Last June, I heard a man named Martin Vetterli speak at Dolby Labs in San Franscisco about wavelets. He's a specialist in video and audio compression, and after he gave a preliminary overview on wavelets, much of the rest of his talk revolved around "filter banks" and the like. He spent a little time talking about the current compression schemes, and this is what he said about MPEG. He said that MPEG has severe problems when some of the key bits are lost in the transmission, one simply can't reconstruct the original image or signal when those key bits are lost. However, if you lose the same bits in wavelet compression, you can still easily reconstruct your original signal or image. Wavelets have a gentler signal "degradation." In my own reading and studying of wavelets in the last year, I've seen many many examples of image reconstructions where only about 5 to 20 percent of the number of wavelet coefficients were kept (in the decomposion), and all aspects of the images were easily made out: high contrast edges were maintained at a relatively high resolution, and low contrast areas were kind of washed in with large constant pixels like you'd want them to be. I looked into what is used for the HDTV standard. It is apparently based on Fourier transforms. Wavelets came too late to have a real chance in this race, but they are apparently quite competitive in the audio realm. The aspect of wavelets that I'm especially intrigued by is "adaptive waveforms." This is where you have a whole collection of wave functions that satisfy a set of mathematical criteria (smooth orthogonal basis functions with compact support etc.). Then you run an algorithm to choose the most appropriate waveform for your signal. Your algorithm chooses the waveform in which the coefficients (remember you are decomposing your original signal into a linear superposition of wavelet functions with coefficient terms), when rearranged into a decreasing order, decrease as rapidly as possible. The algorithm calculates the entropy and other "information cost functions" on the rate of decrease to tell you the best waveform. My spouse thought of a number of cryptographic applications with this technique when he heard it. I can think of a lot of general purpose data reduction applications where one might want to let the algorithm choose which basis function to use in transforming your data. So I take it that people here might be interested in seeing a version of my paper published in Extropy? My original that I'm submitting to the SEAM conference (still working on it..) is rather lengthy- about 20-25 pages with about 7-10 figures. I'm trying to focus on the applications and not get bogged down in too much math, even though that is an important part. Amara ********************************************************************** Amara Graps email: agraps@netcom.com Computational Physicist vita: finger graps@clio.arc.nasa.gov Intergalactic Reality bio: finger -lm agraps@netcom.com ********************************************************************** "I like reality. It tastes of bread." --Jean Anouilh ------------------------------ From: edgar@spectrx.sbay.org (Edgar W. Swank) Date: Sun, 20 Nov 94 00:06:44 PST Subject: [#94-11-283] Environment Survey -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Phil Goetz posted the following survey, Questions: Answer yes or no. 1. Natural ecosystems and other natural life forms (e.g., not cows) are good things worth preserving, even if there is no material benefit and significant material loss to us from doing so. NO. 2. Natural ecosystems are being disrupted, species eradicated, and the environment polluted at rates beyond optimal. Two NO's and a qualified Yes. 3. There is a danger that if we do not reduce such disruption, eradication, and pollution soon, it will be "too late" (feel free to give your own interpretation of "too late"). NO. 4. The Earth will soon have too many humans. NO. 5. The Earth has too many humans already. NO. 6. Population should increase until the Earth contains as many humans as it can support. Qualified YES. I would rather say should be -allowed- to increase; procreation should be a matter of individual choice subject to individual economic circumstances. 7. Everyone should be content to live in a city. Country living is a luxury which takes too many resources per individual. NO. Actually cost of living is generally higher in large cities. Individuals should choose where to live based on personal preferences constrained by their economic capabilities. 8. The Earth is ours, and we have no obligations to other species. YES!!! This is not to say that individuals desiring to do so may not "adopt" and protect some limited (by their economic ability) number of other species of their preference. 9. Intellect is the greatest virtue, and creatures with greater intellect should eventually replace all creatures of lesser intellect. Qualified YES. "Eventually" could be a long time. Until then, I would say "control" instead of "replace" as long as other species are "useful" to us. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBLs6tO94nNf3ah8DHAQHXWQQAhkYVjNN6fij/yn1L6sS1JCpNQgiQxjfH tiQwyAdgChPLkZ+jkGbWbsifFVFzZW0t+/b2//uSiTRPPT0AHJkiR48eIXwh+N8c Y9kYDtufILP9Easx4ctRHNYgSZnbVPBOwzrM/P9sMEbJQLggVBRBPD1XO4XKFGDo 6ffw0zg6h4Y= =iNm2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- edgar@spectrx.sbay.org (Edgar W. Swank) SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005 Cupertino, Ca ------------------------------ From: jbaker@halcyon.com (James Baker) Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:38:37 -0800 Subject: [#94-11-284] Wavelets, Image compression From: sullivan@blaze.cs.jhu.edu (Gregory Sullivan) >Video watchers will be interested in the competitiveness of wavelet methods >versus other methods for video compression. There was a posting from former >list member Timothy May on the direct broadcast satellite newsgroup a few >days ago in which he said that the MPEG video compression (not wavelet based >I believe) used on the new DSS system made the picture ``unwatchable'' and >literally gave him headaches. ... >future. Do you think wavelet compression will displace MPEG? Should it? >Can it cure Tim's headaches? > My own experience with MPEG didn't give me a headache but I had the impression that the picture was somehow "dead" compared to uncompressed video. The demo that made this clear to me was at a show called _Digital Convergence_ in LA a couple of years ago. I think it was organized by Seybold. In the demo 16 monitors were set up together showing the same program. Each monitor's image was compressed twice as much as the previous one. (ie, No compression, 2:1, 4:1, 8:1 16:1 ..... 32K:1). The last few were very blocky. The first few had no artifacts I could consciously identify but even the 2:1 MPEG compression seemed way less "live" than the uncompressed video. The effect was more pronounced with action content (a clip from Terminator II) than talking heads. BTW I noticed no such "dead image" effect with motion JPEG. ---------------- On a related topic I predict that broadcast HDTV will die in about 1997 when desktop video offers HDTV quality images and TV broadcasters still don't have ubiquitous HDTV service. ---------------- James Baker | Seattle, WA USA | jbaker@halcyon.com | ------------------------------ From: hanson@hss.caltech.edu (Robin Hanson) Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 11:47:01 -0800 Subject: [#94-11-285] Wavelets Amara Graps writes: >You probably could have guessed my answer based on my previous >wavelet posts, but the answer is 'yes', I think wavelet >compression schemes should replace MPEG. ... Wavelets have a >gentler signal "degradation." I posted here a few years ago about how impressed I was with fractal compression, patented and marketed by Iterated Systems. Not only did it degrade much more gently than MPEG, but it seemed clearly better on statistical criteria -- in ability to predict the original image for a given number of bits in the compressed image. How do wavlet compressions compare with fractal compressions on such "objective" criteria? Robin Hanson ------------------------------ End of Extropians Digest V94 #326 *********************************