The Chinese Room Argument 1. Overview Work in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has produced computer programs that can beat the world chess champion and defeat the best human players on the television quiz show Jeopardy. Searle argues that a good way to test a theory of mind, say a theory that holds that understanding can be created by doing such and such, is to imagine what it would be like to do what the theory says would create understanding. Imagine a native English speaker who knows no Chinese locked in a room full of boxes of Chinese symbols (a data base) together with a book of instructions for manipulating the symbols (the program). Searle goes on to say, “The point of the argument is this: if the man in the room does not understand Chinese on the basis of implementing the appropriate program for understanding Chinese then neither does any other digital computer solely on that basis because no computer, qua computer, has anything the man does not have.” 2. 2.1 Leibniz’ Mill 17. 2.2 Turing's Paper Machine 3. 4.
Architecture Imagine the renovation dilemmas. A huge penthouse of a converted 1930s office building in TriBeCa, New York, is to be turned into a functioning home for a family with three teenagers. In fact, we can not quite imagine the issues that faced Steven Harris Architects when the family showed up, literally, at the doorstep of the celebrated architect and asked if he’d like to work on their home. Harris said yes and proceeded to make his magic. The scale of the apartment is huge and the freedom from budget constraints allowed for some spectacular solutions. Harris’s work is often distinguished by clarity and light, by the use of glass, by the maximization of views and, above all, bold solutions. What emerged as a result of the TriBeCa Penthouse project, is a multi-level (27th and 28th floors) nearly 8,000 square-foot (743 square meter) family-friendly residence that includes self-contained guest quarters and a new glass-and-teak-beam rooftop pavilion that functions as a recreation room.
A piece of heaven on earth | Adorable Home According to its creators Guz Architects, this amazing building is ‘a contemporary tropical bungalow’. But we could not agree with this simple description. The Fish House, as the project is originally named, is a piece of heaven on earth, an architectural height, a modern oasis that would impress everybody. The house is located in Singapore, just a few meters from the ocean, and to be in unison with the surrounding environment, it is designed with a huge asymmetrical swimming pool and stunning garden on the roof. In addition to this breathtaking architecture you can add an extraordinary futuristic interior featured by amazing spaciousness, light and comfort. Apart from all the open areas, this home invites the sunlight in also through its huge windows revealing a spectacular panoramic view to the ocean. Are you not just “dying” to live here?! Via
The Armada House The Armada House was designed by Canadian studio KB Design and built in 2007 by Abstract Developments. This 5,299 square foot modern post and beam home is located in the Ten Mile Point/Wedgewood Estates neighborhood of Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. View the website Less is the New More: Making the Most of Small Spaces Good Design For Living in Small ApartmentsAs people migrate to smaller spaces, good design helps a lot. This is something they figured out in Europe long ago, that if you don't have a lot of horizontal room you can go vertical. Tumidei in Italy makes some of the nicest stuff, like this unit with lots of storage under the bed. This unit just raises the floor high enough for beds to slide under. This one looks a bit clinical, but has two single beds plus a pull-out double bed in between. When you read in the New York Times that professional couples with children are moving into small one-bedroom apartments in Manhattan and sleeping in closets, perhaps this stuff could be useful. None of this stuff is cheap, nor, as far as I can tell is it available in North America, but there are ideas here that demonstrate how people can share a space and still get a little privacy, a good place to work and a lot of storage in a very small envelope. Like this?
Creative Architecture Ideas Today’s collection is going to be a mix of amazing exterior and interior architecture designs. For most of us villas featured are out of reach .) but at least we may admire the creativity and luxury. And of course, we always may get inspired, right?! .) What about a cool contemporary beach house? Check The Desert Villa by Studio Aiko. Glass Bottom Pool by The Holiday Inn Shanghai Buit in Cabinetry by Idhea Deer Shaped Pylons by DesignDepot VitraHaus @ Weil am Rhein, Germany by VitraHaus Casa Finisterra by Rees Roberts Skateboard House by PAS Living Wall by Patrick Blanc Interior Studio by Ina Matt Elevator Room by OMA Terraced House in Casavells by 05 AM Arquitectura Plantagon Vertical Greenhouse by Plantagon Lego Development Office by Rosan-Bosch Floating Fountains by Isamu Noguchi Corner Bookshelf by Factor Architecture 36 Clipper Bay Home by FGR Architects Clifton House, South Africa by SAOTA Waccabuc House by Chan Li Lin Las Palmeras Beach House by Greg Wright Architects 55 Blair Road by Ong & Ong
Evolution of Whales @ nationalgeographic.com Get a taste of what awaits you in print from this compelling excerpt. The coast of southern Alaska grows glaciers and brooding rain forests. Hot weather is rare, but since sunup the day had brought nothing else. By afternoon everyone was sweltering. We were still exclaiming about the visit minutes later when the sea to starboard erupted. It would be the height of arrogance to think we inspired 40-ton (40,000-kilogram) organic submarines to compete with us. More than 80 living species of mammals are classified as whales, or, as taxonomists say, cetaceans (from ketos, the Greek name for sea monster). But what did the first whales look like? At last a series of fossil discoveries has unveiled whales’ distant past. Get the whole story in the pages of National Geographic magazine.
The crayola-fication of the world: How we gave colors names, and it messed with our brains (part I) | Empirical Zeal “Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.”—Herman Melville, Billy Budd Spectral Rhythm. Screen Print by Scott Campbell. In Japan, people often refer to traffic lights as being blue in color. Blue and green are similar in hue. One of the first fences in this color continuum came from an unlikely place – crayons. Reconstructing the rainbow. In modern Japanese, midori is the word for green, as distinct from blue. And it’s not just Japanese. (Update: Some clarifications here. I find this fascinating, because it highlights a powerful idea about how we might see the world. Imagine that you had a rainbow-colored piece of paper that smoothly blends from one color to the other. A map of color for an English speaker. But if you think about it, there’s a real puzzle here. And here’s what they found.