Random numbers - Making fair decisions July 20, 2007
Posted by nbeyond in : science, speculation - extreme , 2commentsWhen I first heard about creating random numbers in one of the courses in math department many years ago, I could see some passion from the professor explaining about.
What’s so fascinating about generating random numbers? He must be acting….
This is exactly what I thought back then. Random numbers are random numbers. Just computer generated. As the course went on, I started to see the power of creating random numbers if we can create so many in a very short time. This may sound very strange though. This is somewhat true if you think this way.
Flipping a coin is exactly same to create random numbers. The question is how fast you can flip the coin.
If you think each random number as each individual like a human, creating so many random numbers in a short time can mean we can create so many individuals that live their own lives in a very short time. In other words, so many generation simulation in a very short time. Just imagine thousands of generations and how the generation changes generation by generation. This is undoable in reality because time goes so slow and we live very short time but very much doable if we make random numbers individual-like and have a power to create so many random numbers in a short time using computers.
What for?
A random number is a random number not a human. How can you think like that?
Yes, it is a number. Just think about why we flip a coin? Maybe to be fair! Why should it be fair? The meaning of FAIR is attached to decision makings. Could somebody just make some fair decisions for us? Yes, we flip a coin to have fair decisions so that we can settle on whatever issues of our interests. Creating random numbers is making fair decisions if we can. Yes, we can create so many of almost (I say almost) FAIR decisions in a very short time with a help of computers. I’ll continue this post with What kind of world, then, must these individuals (random numbers) live?
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This tiny little microorganism on my mind July 17, 2007
Posted by nbeyond in : science, tips , add a commentI am not a microbiologist but a modeler (definitely not a fashion model but a scientist using computers to simulate some physics happening in our life). Right now, I have this thing on my mind.
cordially linked from Facts About Cryptosporidium
This tiny little living thing called Cryptosporidium Oocyst is invisible to bare eyes, sphere-shape, sized around 4 to 6 micro meter, and resilient to endure various stresses such as chemical treatment, filtration, and some hot sun light.
This oocyst is a dormant status of this microorganism until it finds a host such as humans or animals. It develops some forms to number themselves in the host causing Diarrhea, weight loss, and abdominal cramping, etc. If you are a healthy person, this can be handled just OK by your body. But, if you are a person with immune system compromised, this can be deadly.
In 1993, the biggist oubreak has occurred in Milwaukee, USA, infecting about 400,000 people. This is a big number. Since then, it brought many issues to drinking water utility, government, and lawyers or many others. People sued the city government. Government had to raise tax money to pay this class action lawsuit. Guess what who got rich after all? Yes, they are lawyers. So, they reached to an agreement that they need a smarter way of doing it, because at the end it’s our health threatened by this thing not getting-money-back or paying-more-tax things.
Anyway, my interests are to understand the influence of this little thing on groundwater quality depending on some situations. I am still at a stage to conform substantial ideas so that I can take an action, in other words, model this thing’s life.
I have some thought on my mind still developing, but that must be ended in a week or so, because I have a clear deadline for this. I may keep this posted.
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Nature to stand out? - Part I July 12, 2007
Posted by nbeyond in : science, speculation - extreme , add a commentSince the article I wrote about Stand out from the crowd! What for?, the article reminds me of some figures I have made before. Let’s look at the figure first.
A world with a small difference of individuals
Imagine this picture as a world that you travel. Although there is some color variance, more or less we can call blue. Let’s name this world as the blue world. The blue world has a bluish difference we have one another in this world. Here, we do our own journey. Some may call the journey as a race from the bottom line to the top line of the world. As always, there is going to be winners or losers in this race if you prefer to call it a race. This means some finish the race earlier than the others. However, in this world, the difference is small happening in the limitation of blue.
Now, I want you to look at a different world.
A world with a big difference of individuals
This world has a wider range of colors. People with different abilities and characteristics. Different from the first world, this world has clearly some dominant paths of journeys among the different individuals. Most people like to follow these dominant paths to finish their races or journeys effectively to save their times, in other words, to stand out from the crowd. Because people living in this world are very different, thus, there surely exists the Standing-Out effect. Depending on whatever scientific areas, this standing-out effect is called slightly different in many Jargons. No worry that these scientific jargons are not important in this article.
I will continue Part II of nature to stand out showing individuals in the second world with more detailed description of their journeys.
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