Word: batteau
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Speculation doesn't have to be practical. It is enough that it is intellectually interesting and satisfying. And there is always the chance that something may come of it--like the metal image of the mathematical concept of a mobius strip that Batteau built "for the heck of it," and which is currently being seriously studied for its properties. It may shed some light on the effects of chromosome aberrations in genes...
...Batteau's special interest is "information machines," computers and the like. Electronic gadgets can be built which can handle information fed into them, like the clock radio and the electronic "brain." Batteau, who teaches Engineering 200, affectionately called "Applied Science Fiction" by its devotees, has great hopes for the future of information machines. But, he cautions, the information which humans handle is so large that he doubts whether an anthropomorphic robot will ever be built. There is however, just the chance that...
...built a machine that can "reproduce" the work of any artist, whose style is distinctly recognizable. By giving the machine an electronic "character," the builder can make it paint a Rembrandt or a van Gogh that stumps the experts. But there are definite limits to these potentialities. As Batteau points out, three months of human experience is enough information to saturate a computer the size of the Earth for as long as the machine could last...
...does creating them. There must be "signals," the speculator's term for actual scientific fact, as well as "noise," the vague and indefinite element of speculation, in order for an idea to have any validity. Ordinary science has a high signal-to-noise ratio; speculation is mostly noise, Batteau admits, but not entirely...
...Campbell--whom Batteau claims has "more ideas per cubic inch than any man I've ever known"--says, "the necessity for philosophic speculation is not being met in out society. The old tools of thought are wearing thin, and new ones have to be developed. Old thoughts are beginning to yield diminishing returns. The job of the speculator is to develop these new tools of thought, so vital to progress...