"It's an equation Jim, but not as we know it!"

Silver (2013) in “The Signal and the Noise” refers to Drake’s equation, which has fascinated me since my teens. It is a formula that provides a framework for predicting the number of intelligent extraterrestrial species in the galaxy. Due to the high number of parameters and uncertainties that make up Drake's equation, Silver describes how the extreme range of results depend on the initial ‘inputs’. Given the variables presented they are estimates. I made a connection to Drake's work through BBC BASIC programming:

'The Nursing Process'
'Computer-Aided Patient Assessment'
'Blood Groups'
'Shades of Grey'

As time went on the simplicity of 'The NP' gave way to DIM arrays, which can provide data structures, and DEF PROC and DEF FN with parameters. 

The evidence for the elements of Drake's equation has made great strides since the 1990s. Despite the remaining uncertainties, Silver notes that Drake's equation has provided a useful lens for astronomers, plus - philosophers and the lay-person to think about life, the universe and everything.

Is there an implicit theory – an equation – in Hodges’ model?

See also: BBC BASIC

Previously: 'Sagan' : 'SETI' ; 'math' : 'Publication list (2024)'

Nate Silver (2013). “The Signal and the Noise”, Notes 89, London: Penguin. p.488.

Title Ack. the original is often misattributed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE

A Voyage in Cosmic Health ... loneliness

Individual

|

     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

Group

[2] 'Most pressingly, Voyager 1 has severe memory loss It stopped speaking clearly on November 14. All they received at JPL was a carrier signal. This was described to me in many ways: flatlining, an interstellar dial tone, useless ones and zeros, gibberish, no data. Imagine your friend is on a long journey and sends you a detailed letter every day, then, one day, empty envelopes start arriving. What happened to your friend? How do you help?' p.21.

[1] 'VOYAGER 1 SUFFERS MANY AILMENTS OF AGE. It has arthritis. During its planetary encounters, the team excitedly swung the camera and other instruments this way and that; this squeezed the lubricant out of the bearings of its articulated platform. Only painstakingly slow movements could loosen its joints. It also has heart disease, as Todd Barber, its propulsion engineer, explained. The arteries that deliver its propellant, which keeps it perfectly pointed at Earth, are partially clogged. Barber calls himself a space plumber and wore a shirt with flying saucers on it as we spoke in the Voyager office. He had considered all the usual cardiological remedies.  Diet: unfortunately, Voyager eats only the propellant hydrazine, total junk food.  Exercise: they haven't thought of a way to fire the thrusters to clear the blockage.  Medication: so they've relaxed its alignment a bit and fire its thrusters less often; in other words, Voyager is on beta blockers.' p.21.

My source - with thanks - brilliant writing! 

Roeder O. TERMINATION SHOCK. Last Days of a Lonely Interstellar Spacecraft. FT Magazine, August 3/4 2024. pp.18-27. https://www.ft.com/content/0f2dce04-ec78-4aeb-808c-cff5b5135699

https://www.ft.com/content/90b6aaaa-b192-48d9-bd43-e6f41978ad1c

Written in the Stars: Is this blog a zibaldone?

"One proof among a thousand of how purely physical systems influence intellectual and metaphysical ones is the system of Copernicus. For the thinker, the Copernican system completely changes the idea of nature and man conceived and thought of as natural in the old, so-called Ptolemaic system. It reveals a plurality of worlds, shows that man is not a unique being, in the same way as the position, movement, destiny of the world is not unique, and opens up an immense field of thoughts about the infinity of creatures that, according to all the laws of analogy, must live on other planets that are entirely analogous to our own, and those planets which, though we cannot see them, may also move around other suns, namely the stars." pp.81-82.

Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837)

Leopardi, G. (2013) zibaldone: The Notebooks of Leopardi. London: Penguin Group.

The question I have long asked...

What about you?

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

Are We Alone?

Image: http://www.ozmarecords.com/product/voyager-golden-record-3xlp-box-set

The Farthest - run

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

In 1976 a lower sixth student new to the grammar school competes in the annual cross country. The previous victor had won every year. Listening to his friends, another win was a given. Not in 1976. The new student never won at Secondary School, but he was on the team. Out most dinner times, training from Ashton around Garswood. The day after, the  form teacher said something in the vein of  -"Oh there'll be  presentations!" The student listened and still listens. There never was a presentation, not a whisper; but the journey, the run - continues... and the student is grateful for that ...

"The Revolving Boy" - and Girls 'one day soon'?

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group

"Derv soon discovers that he has an extraordinary sense of direction: he is also acutely uncomfortable unless he is able to "unwind" before going to bed each night the number of times he has turned during the day. Some of all this he understands when he learns how he had been born - weightless - in space. But it is not until a friendly teacher gains the family's confidence and takes him to a group of scientists that he begins to fathom the true explanation of his unique capabilities." (sleeve notes, 1967).

space medicine, birth in space,  radiation sources, DNA-RNA, safety, low Earth orbit, high Earth orbit, weightlessness, microgravity, birth, conception, speculation, sex in space: apogee-perigee? Why? Love? Newton's Laws of Motion? Einstein: Line of Sight? "Where there's a will...."  minerals, growth - development, bones, diet, mobility, space-Earth: 'Home'? Species - Homo ?

Book cover: Friedberg, The Revolving Boy, 1967

human rights, unborn child, guardianship, non-nationality: Citizen of the World, parenthood, friendship freedom choice Law: Individual:Group Earth challenges: Space & Antarctica Treaties... 'top and tail' - Arctic

Additional links:

Sagan, C. (1973) Communication With Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Ceti). M.I.T. Press.

Vakoch, D.A. (ed.) (2011) Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, New York: NY, State University of New York Press.

Ack. Thanks to my friend Paul Brown who told me about this book c.1973.

Exoplanets, exobiology, exocortex, exocare ...?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/may/14/godvsatanindeepspace

Exoplanets

planets outside the solar system

An exoplanet (or extrasolar planet) is a planet orbiting a star different from the Sun (the "exo" prefix means "outside" in Greek). Up until now, one has found mainly gas giant planets, which are easier to detect than telluric planets. However, due to the increasing sensitivity of the detection methods, one already begins to observe the first planets of sizes comparable to the Earth.

Source: http://media4.obspm.fr/exoplanets/pages_definition/questce.html

Exobiology

The term exobiology ... covers the search for life beyond Earth, and the effects of extraterrestrial environments on living things.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobiology

Exocortex

-noun
An artificial external information processor that augments the brain's high-level cognition. Julia used her exocortex to access the memory of her tenth birthday.
Source: Fleming, N. The next wave. New Scientist, 14 May 2011. 210, 2812, p.33.

Exobuilding

ExoBuilding explores the novel design space that emerges when an individual‟s physiological data and the fabric of building architecture are linked. In its current form ExoBuilding is a tent - like structure that externalises a person's physiological data in an immersive and visceral way. This is achieved by mapping abdominal breathing to its shape and size, displaying heart beat through sound and light effects and mapping electro dermal activity to a projection on the tent fabric.
Source: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~hms/pdfs/SchnadelbachEtAl_ExoBuilding_CameraReady_AuthorVersion.pdf

(8 April 2013 #DTMD13)

Exoskeleton

http://www.infoniac.com/hi-tech/top-10-robotic-exoskeletons.html

n.
ex·o·skel·e·ton ( k s -sk l -tn). n. A hard outer structure, such as the shell of an insect or crustacean, that provides protection or support for an organism.

Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/exoskeleton

exoskeleton: A medical device that allows individuals with severe spinal cord injury to walk and enhances rehabilitation for stroke victims.
Source: http://tagdef.com/exoskeleton

Exocare: Depends on your perspective - context / situation sensitive

Care exercised by a planet, or that planet's representation (on Earth the UN) towards life on other worlds, includes ethics, protocols and first contact.
See also: https://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/details/seti-and-policy

Care not delivered by statutory health services. Care delivered by the individual also described as self-care.

Care directed at specific celestial objects, often as a result of long held ethnocultural beliefs and customs, the moon for example.

Care that extends 'human ecosystems' to what is external to the physical self, to encompass Gaia - the Earth and biosphere. Love directed not at a single person, or thing but the sense of what is whole.

Also refers to the use of a conceptual framework to frame reflections on health and social care - individually, socially or globally. Provides a means to integrate concepts of care according to the situation and salience incorporating the individual-group (population); the local, global and glocal.

Holistic interferometry

Since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the moon, the instrument has evolved with bigger lenses and mirrors. Despite additional advances in optics, physical constraints eventually prompted development in other directions. Rather than one optical or radio telescope, why not combine the inputs of several, tens, hundreds... ?

The health career model can act as an interferometer
for health across the care spectrum*.

We desperately need holistic interferometry for the personal, social, community (urban, rural and nomadic), national and global health care challenges we face.

* Which includes much of the electromagnetic.

Links:

SETI@home

Seti Inst.

LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory

Image source: Seti League
http://www.setileague.org/array2k/array2kb.jpg

1st Contact: ET and care on the front line

ET as in 'extraterrestrial' may seem remote from nursing and health care, but where there's a will....

Health and social care appears to become ever more specialised with each turn of the policy machine. People's lives are experienced as being ever more complex. Health care is filled with uncertainty and the public present with multi-diagnostic, person-centred, choice bearing, (usually) recovery directed problems, needs and strengths.

Pity then the care workers on the front line, at the point of 1st contact. Like the baseball catcher it helps if they can field the knowledge and skills required to cover physical, mental health and possibly learning disabled clients. You have to hope that coaches recognise that Hodges' model can help the team be aware and fully prepared to cope with 1st contact supporting and facilitating what follows. So, how does your team get to grips with complex care?

Additional links:

Baileff, A. (2004) Developing high quality first contact nursing in Southampton NHS Walk-in Centres. At, Innovations in Partnership, Practice and Education, 3rd Annual Scholarship Conference, Portsmouth UK, 2 Jul 2004. Southampton, UK, University of Southampton. http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/9197/

Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence http://www.setileague.org/general/protocol.htm

Image and source: Louisville Slugger OXFB Omaha Pro Series 13 Inch First Base Baseball Mitt from
Formerly - anaconda sports

'P' also for 'complexity' and 'power supply'!

Oh dear! My PC a senior citizen at 5 years old this month is poorly. The power supply had indeed given up the ghost on Saturday and I've a (red) confession to make: the CPU runs constantly, processing data from -

SETI@Home
Rosetta
LHC
SZTAKI

Not very green I know. I do invest time switching other things off at home and work, to save some money and CO2. We could save a fortune at work...

I'm writing this on Matt's laptop, so no Skype at present. Hope to be sorted soon - funds...!

I'm still reading and thinking things through - static archive, website, Hodges-informatics, students (podcasts!). It's quite frustrating having attended the Drupal meeting last Wednesday in Manchester. Having listened to some great talk-throughs covering specific modules, you're left itchy to try stuff while the thoughts are hot. The next meeting is December 19th, just hope there are no school carol services then! In the Pro Drupal Development book there's a section on a simple XML-RPC Server. Which is why I'm thinking.... Reading this stuff I feel like a Beach Boy - Wouldn't It Be Nice!! Well, it sure would... Chris, Steve and the other established Drupalers are keen to have others up-front, sharing their experience and for beginners to show work in progress and seek help with problems. Now there's a future aim and one that may be hard to dodge (which is what I need)....

I've been given admin rights to an established, but still emerging Drupal website. Someone trusts me and for that I'm really grateful. This is another very useful way to learn. I can check how this already well populated site is configured, how the content types are used... and pick up and report errors. Plus sharing some insights from Manchester.

On Saturday I lost an update to the socio-tech paper, the notes are no longer recycling bound. As you're reading this I'll be downloading the file from an e-mail I sent to myself last Friday night. Can't afford downtime on this project there's scope for 5-7k words, I've 6k, but a lot still to do. I'm pleased to learn I can include some B&W figures.

Speaking of 'P' again - some of our visitors arrive at the website having searched for 'p'. Google picks up the 'p' in p-jones. I should have realised of course: the heart of Hodges' model - COMPLEXITY. Although many of the forms of complexity are completely over my head. We need tools to understand complexity within the humanities - social sciences: is that possible without maths? There are certainly books and journals out there.

Must go: Sam - our dog is stood up at the door with his legs crossed and a wolfish grin (of discomfort). OK let's go...