Is The Zombie Apocalypse Upon Us?

Via Probably Bad News:


Thanks to Jessie: talented craftswoman, dedicated mother, loving wife, and savvy entrepreneur & arbitrageur. Here's to another quarter century of excellence. Happy Birthday.

Truth Claim of the Day

I have to say, this is fast becoming my favorite bit of material for this blog (can you tell?). I'm hoping to put together a couple of "How to Deceive with Statistics" posts soon, and something else big is (hopefully) on its way for mid-month.

Today's truth claim is a bit lengthy, as it represents (in my estimation, anyway) a rich, full, complex worldview in a few short lines:

You seem to have a misconception that as life advances, order increases. This hinges on one's definition of 'order'.

A human being, considered as a closed system, is in a high state of entropy, a high state of disorder. We are a constant, unending, gigantic chemical reaction, and that means we are wasting a great deal of energy. A grown person, purely by virtue of being tens of kilos more of reactant material, is wasting more energy than a baby. Thus over time, the system 'a person' experiences increasing entropy. -- This is obviously a very simplified and abstracted example, but is necessary to demonstrate that a living being is not an ordered or order-increasing element of a system; life is the ultimate grower of disorder.

Life expands. When it has the potential to do so, it often does on an exponential scale. Everything that is life is powered by chemical energy, and so as life spreads, more and more energy is wasted. Life is like a naturally occuring function of the universe which _increases the rate of entropy_.

You could classify entropy-increasing mechanisms into various classes: Atomic Decay, Physical interaction (space rocks collide, cause heat), Chemical Interaction (oxidization of a material), Sustained Chemical Interaction (natural production of simple hydrocarbons), Simple life (mono or low-count cellular organisms, like algae), Complex life (like squirrels), and I believe, Spaceborne Life, which we will soon be.

With this examination, you could derive that as the universe ages, more complex and more powerful means of increasing entropy necessarily develop. Life (and we) are just a natural part of the process designed to guide the universe on its path to entropic maximum, as quickly as possible.

While I don't know how much I subscribe to the fact, one could make the argument that such a fascinating, sensible, and seemingly *purposeful* system is likelier to have a designer. A designer is by no means required, but still definitely not excluded.

Please, discuss. I'd especially be interested in hearing thoughts about the practical implications of thinking about Life in these terms. Not to bias the discussants with my own thoughts, but I'm seeing a fascinating fusion of Weston from Perelandra and the Joker from The Dark Knight. The context (among the flame-ish comments) is here.

Cartoon'd

From MadMen Yourself.

Truth Claim of the Day

Artificial Intelligence and The Meaning of Human Thought edition

[...] the question of whether a machine can think is no more interesting than the question of whether or not a submarine can swim.

Please, discuss. the context is here (an interesting read overall, but long).

Where Science meets Awesome

For those who read this blog regularly, you know I have two main topics on my mind most of the time: research and zombies. Well, a recent book from Nova Publishers includes an unusual article I think I'd find very interesting. Can you guess which one it is? "One of these things is not like the others..."

If any reader has access to this book, I would love to take a look at a copy!

UPDATE: I actually found a link to the pdf over at Marginal Revolution (a blog you should all probably be reading).

SECOND UPDATE: The BBC comments on the paper here. Hat tip to Katie, who should have left the link in the comments, but we love her so much it's all OK.

Truth Claim of the Day

The main cause of cynicism about business is consumer narcissism. [...]
When you offer a business mediocre compensation, you should expect and be satisfied by mediocre quality.

Please, discuss. The context is found here.