Author: DylanWest

Half Measures Can Save Lives In the Scribes Series, there is a type of sapient being that has four brains. If you want to know more about that, please read the books–I don’t want to spoil anything here. But I recently learned about animal brains in our world that are almost as strange. Those of dolphins, for example. Wait,… Continue reading Sleepy Brains

It’s the Little Things As promised, we’re taking a break from AI to return to other science topics. This time, we look at how we look at tiny things. Our light microscopes can see down to the mid nanometer range, but ones in the Scribes Series can see single-digit picometers. Here’s a refresher of the Greek prefixes: -millimeter… Continue reading How Small Can We See with Light?

“AI Will Soon Become AGI” In the last few years, AI has been improving exponentially. Some think that trend will continue forever and even accelerate until life on earth becomes unrecognizably futuristic. That AI will soon exceed human abilities in every way. (Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI) Certainly, the investors and CEOs need us to believe this so they can… Continue reading Speedbumps for Current AI

Some Danger is Already Here Last month we asked if AI would steal our jobs. This month, we ask if it will kill off humanity. Pleasant topic, I know, but worth considering. Let’s look under the digital bed and see if a monster is really hiding down there. So strap on your knee pads and, erm… turn… Continue reading Will AI Kill Us All?

A Better Question After the foreign language articles, we’re back to science! I’ve been putting off the topic of AI, but now that time has come. Let’s start with the elephant that’s not just in the room, it’s also standing on our chests and nibbling our ears: “Will AI steal my job?” To answer this, we must ask… Continue reading Will AI Steal My Job?

Language Exchange Calls I hope you had a good Easter. I watched a sermon where the pastor preached in French while another man interpreted everything into Arabic. Here’s the video, if you’re curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT_l63hIGzs I understood the sermon in both languages equally well: about 80%, which makes it an ideal comprehensible input video for me.  Speaking of… Continue reading How to Learn a Foreign Language, part 5

Language Exchange Calls It’s been over a year since we last talked about language learning, and I never finished explaining how to find a partner. Let’s pick that back up now. But first, here are the prior articles: How to Learn a Foreign Language – Part 1How to Learn a Foreign Language – Part 2How to Learn… Continue reading How to Learn a Foreign Language, part 4

Power Made vs Power Used Near the end of Scribes Emerge, Mallory says, “I think the power plant uses a pumped storage reservoir for extra output during peak demand.” She’s not talking about some futuristic tech in her world, but a well established one in ours. Let’s look a closer look. Some power plants are load-following, meaning they try… Continue reading How Pumped Storage Reservoirs Work

What would happen if humans lived very long lives and enjoyed true anti-aging tech and medical nanobots that eradicate disease? After building a time machine, going to the future, and coming back with a few time burns, I feel qualified to answer this now. -Dwurban, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Wait, what’s a time burn?… Continue reading What if we lived to be 1000 years old?

Are your goals too smart? I wrote a New Years devotional for my church writing group that may help you with your resolution. Hopefully you haven’t given up on it by now. Here’s my writeup: Outer space knows nothing of our new year. Alien telescopes pointed at Earth would find no celestial cause to celebrate January 1st—it’s… Continue reading New Years Goals