Working hypothesis: There are substantial arguments from Physics, Physical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, and Entropy that intelligent life could only arise in a universe with exactly three macroscopic spacial dimensions. If that seems overly technical, I’m taking a stab at the […]
Michael Edward Johnson
Posts by Michael Edward Johnson
Mahalo, Part III
Mahalo, as I noted in my launch coverage back in May, is “a search engine where users get hand-crafted portal-like results for common search queries.” Mahalo’s founder Jason Calacanis and I are both connected to Larry Sanger, so between that […]
Mahalo, Part II
A few months ago I covered the launch of Mahalo, a new “people-powered” search engine which aims to make human-crafted, intelligent portals for the most common search terms (example). I explained the search engine as “based on the theory that […]
Quote of the Week: July 8
I wasn’t sure about whether to keep up my weekly quotes during this month of science, but since I found one that connects rather ironically with my next science topic, I took it as a sign. This quote is from […]
Scientific Research (1/5: Gut Flora)
I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with science: on one hand, it provides a uniquely privileged (and fascinating) look into the mechanisms of reality. On the other, the practice of science is often distorted by institutional and financial factors, […]
Quote of the Week: July 1
From a column entitled “How To Keep Hostile Jerks From Taking Over Your Online Community“: Teresa invented a technique called disemvowelling — removing the vowels from some or all of a fiery message-board post. The advantage of this is that […]
Quote of the Week: June 24 (updated)
From Paul Graham’s essay, Writing, Briefly: I think it’s far more important to write well than most people realize. Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas; it generates them. If you’re bad at writing and don’t like to do it, you’ll miss […]
Quote of the Week: June 17
Lawrence Lessig, speaking about the scorched-earth inefficiencies of modern copyright in Free Culture: The list could go on, but the obvious point is this: Physical property and the intangible property we call copyright are different. Jefferson pointed to one difference. […]
Quote of the Week: June 10
From the NYT: The world’s cleverest designers, said Dr. Polak, a former psychiatrist who now runs an organization helping poor farmers become entrepreneurs, cater to the globe’s richest 10 percent, creating items like wine labels, couture and Maseratis. And iPods. […]
A Treat
I’m almost done with a series of posts– they’re on the abstract side, but they were fun to write and should be a treat to read. Expect something big ‘soonish’.