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:: MAX BLACK ::

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --C.S. Lewis

"The Swiss pocket knife of conservative thought on the web..." - Eli Kardrakian

"Bookmark Max and dump your subscription to the newspaper; if you don't have a birdcage you really don't need it anyway..." - Shirley St. James

:: Thursday, June 17, 2004 ::

Massively Parallel Bioprocessor--Mob Based Intelligence

In 1906, English scientist Francis Galton visited a country livestock fair and stumbled upon an intriguing contest. An ox was about to be slaughtered, and the villagers in attendance were invited to guess the animal's weight after being slaughtered and dressed. Nearly 800 gave it a go, and not surprisingly, no one hit the exact mark: 1,198 pounds. Astonishingly, however, the average of those 800 guesses came close - very close indeed.

It was 1,197 pounds.

From a fascinating book: The Wisdom of Crowds, by By James Surowiecki [>]

Update: Coincidentally, another author proposes utilizing statistical physics for predicative data, suggesting "people in the aggregate seem to follow the same basic physical laws as matter" like gasses.

As an example, Mr. Ball analogizes the crush of a traffic jam to a phase transition; the tipping point at which water turns from a liquid to a solid. These are both fascinating scientific conjectures; given the state of technology, they probably shouldn't be taken too lightly either.

:: Max 3:13 PM [+] ::
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