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Reducing Randomness
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FRONT PAGE NEWS
Hi everyone! It is a tendency of humans to attribute some of the events in their life to pure chance. A wide range of sayings has even built up around a belief in randomness, such as “What were the chance of that happening?” and “I was born lucky”. But what if randomness only -appears- to be random? If the mind knows the factors that affect chance then it may be able to automatically develop processing steps to alter chance. Whether the mind affects chance positively or negatively probably depends though on whether the person believes themselves to be lucky, as the mind will usually default to the programming that it is most often exposed to. An example of this may be soul-mates, two random numbers in the Universe who 'lock on' to each other's number and are drawn together. The closer the pair of numbers get to each other, the more that randomness decreases until finally they meet. Other popular applications that could arise from taking the randomness out of random include lotteries, card draws, weather manipulation and the prediction of particle positions (useful for transporter technology, Trek fans!) What set me on the path of exploring this subject was, as has happened frequently, a flash of inspiration provided by fiction. In this case, it was a part of the final episode of the original version of the card-dueling Japanese anime 'Yu-Gi-Oh', in which one of the main characters (Atem the Pharaoh) knows precisely what card he will be drawing next, because his will is dictating it. There is not a YouTube clip to illustrate it, but you can read a transcript of this part. Whilst I was at university, the psychology department ran a public experiment where they placed a machine in the library lobby that asked you to press a button to select whether a head or tails coin toss would be generated, the aim being to test whether there was evidence of people having pre-cognitive psychic ability. Rather than rely on chance or use precognition, I took an alternative approach. I visualized a tails toss being represented by a binary '0' number and heads by a '1' and then before pressing the 'guess button', I would fix an image of a '0' or '1' in my mind depending on what I wanted the outcome of the toss to be and believed that the machine's selection should be influenced by my will. The psychologists had stated in the machine's instructions that a normal rate of successful prediction should be 1 in 4 attempts (even though with only two possible outcomes available, it should be 1 in 2 under perfect conditions – but humans aren't perfect!) Using this visualization technique, I lowered the odds to an average of 1 in 2. I shared my findings with the psychology department by email. I didn't get a reply! If chance could be expressed as a measurable scientific force then that would suggest that exerting an influence on 'force carrier' particles like bosons could alter events in your favor. This concept is represented visually by the Marvel comic book mutant character Longshot, who emits a field from his body that affects chance. Incan shamen also believe that blueprints in a person's spiritual energy field exert an influence on how events external to the body unfold. If this sounds unlikely, remember that different people and different medias can often represent the same universal insight in varying forms. Once one understands how the mind can affect chance then it becomes possible to begin considering how those processes could be converted into random-variable tracking software that performs the same functions. Anything at all can be turned into binary numbers, as math is a universal language. Microsoft's Kinect motion-tracking technology already has some capability to extrapolate the positions of objects that its cameras cannot see within its visual range. Because of the size that objects scanned by Kinect's sensors need to be in order to be registered though, it obviously cannot see particles. But since computer-controlled detectors that can display particle movement tracks on a screen already exist in particle research machinery such as the Large Hadron Collider, perhaps consumer tracking hardware like Kinect could be adapted to project these particles as non see-through holographic people in motion (rendering a cloud of colliding particles as a crowd of colliding humans!) so that the software could make predictions in real-time about their upcoming positions. A name for something that takes the randomness out of random numbers could be an 'actuator', because one is turning the numbers into what they actually are instead of what they might be. As exciting as all this sounds, however, there are also equal arguments in favour of randomness in some applications, because it is through random, unexpected occurrences that evolution occurs and new possibilities come to light. Without an element of chaos, humanity would stand still and stagnate (not to mention that life would be terribly dull if every variable was predictable and controllable). Sometimes, there is a lot to be said for letting Lady Luck be in the driving seat! This editorial expands upon text originally featured in a larger 11/28/2011 Sambiglyon article entitled “Reducing Randomness"”.
Fleet Goldenberg Sambiglyon Community Manager
APP DEV DIARY
In Episode 11 of the App Dev Diary, 'Programming the App Buttons', we begin programming the functionality of the buttons so that they switch the screen back and forth between the front page of the app and its Help page when touched!
EDITORIAL ARTICLE HUB We've created a hub page for our newsletter front-page editorials, along with preview text, so they can be found easily.
SMOOTHER SURFING
If you have not yet taken part in Sam's online survey of the ease of use of its website and you are interested in doing so then there is still time to take part!
THIS WEEK'S FLEET GOLDENBERG 'DEVELOPER DIARY' HIGHLIGHTS ON FACEBOOK
The text-size increase has also been applied to the search box. We have added the enlarged search box to the new 'Sam's Big Life' site for 8-12 year olds too. You can see the updates in this image.
Over the years, I figured out the mechanics of the Kamehameha (thanks to my engineering degree, funnily) ... and then I was reminded of an age old life lesson about mastering the fundamentals of a subject first. Because I found I could only harness enough potential to warm my palms up nicely. Still, I keep trying and achieving a bit more. I might release enough potential to heat a hot dog one day!
UPCOMING EVENTS
If you wish your upcoming event to be highlighted in our newsletter and website calendar then please email your news, preferably with a week's advance notice before the date of the event, to marty@sambiglyon.org
Date: Every Sunday, the Garden of Healthy Aging, Eduisland 2, 1PM SL (Pacific) Time Presenter: Zsuzsa Tomsen Description: Join Occupational Therapy @ Thomas Jefferson University every Sunday at the Garden of Healthy Aging for a weekly discussion event about being active in senior years. SLurl Teleport Link: http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%202/104/86/21/
Date: Sunday 3 June, Greece, 12noon SL (Pacific) Time, 10pm in real-world Greek time. Presenter: Mariposa Melodie Description: The earlier time is to accommodate our tour guide, Mariposa Melodie, who lives in Greece in both RL and SL. Join us as she shares a bit of her country's history, culture, and beauty. We will start our visit at the Acropolis, travel to Plaka, and then to Athens - where we will visit the Presidential House, Monument of Unknown Soldier, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, and a Greek Orthodox Church. Time permitting, we will end at the beautiful Aegean Sea. Please wear low lag clothes and comfortable walking shoes. SLurl Teleport Link: http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/GREECE/141/135/22/
Date: Sunday 10 June, Virtual Pioneers, 5pm SL (Pacific) Time Presenter: Spiff Whitfield Description: Spiff's Famous Greet and Meet - an informal time to hang out with friends and have relaxed conversation. Newbies welcome. SLurl Teleport Link: http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%209/99/95/22/
Date: Sunday 17 June, Buona Pesca Archipelago, 5pm SL (Pacific) Time. Presenters: Wittsofwanda Zapatero and sim owner, Cesta Franizzi Description: SLurl Teleport Link: http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/Buona%20Pesca/128/128/29/
Date: Sunday 24 June, Virtual Pioneers, 5pm SL (Pacific) Time Presenter: Spiff Whitfield Description: Spiff's Famous Greet and Meet - an informal time to hang out with friends and have relaxed conversation. Newbies welcome. SLurl Teleport Link: http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%209/99/95/22/
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK We love to hear from our readers through any of our the contact channels at the head of this newsletter about any subject that's on their minds!
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Going through my image archive, I found a picture I made during prototyping for my old 
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