On the first Doctor Who adventure game

June 6, 2010 Jason Thibeault

The newest Doctor Who episode wasn’t a TV episode; rather, it was an adventure game. So to speak. In it, the Doctor takes Amy to meet the Beatles, but finds the London of 1963 to have been destroyed by his archenemies, the Daleks, and the entire human race but one survivor to have been exterminated. But how could they have altered the timeline in such a massive way, you ask? Ah, but therein lies the rub, and I won’t spoil that little nugget for you! Suffice it to say, it’s a worthy problem for the good Doctor to have to unravel.

I have to say, though, the “adventure” game isn’t really worthy of the hype that it’s gotten, especially considering the designers made Broken Sword. 80% of the game was made up of sneaking, there was precious little in the way of puzzle solving (and what WAS there was mostly silly mouse games), and the voice acting… wow. While they used the real cast, they were very obviously unused to the idea of acting for a video game instead of live action. I will grant you that it was made for kids and non-gamers to be able to enjoy, but I was really hoping for actual puzzles. You know, instead of a “don’t touch the sides” maze and what amounts to a game of Dalek Dalek Revolution.

The fact that it lasted roughly as long as an episode even with all the retries after being hit with stray Dalek blasts repeatedly during the climax, it’s canonical, and it involves the Daleks, made it interesting enough to not feel like my efforts were a total waste. Knowing that they intend to charge non-UK-residents for it in July, however, does feel like a bit of a ripoff… depending on how much they expect people to pay, I guess.

For those that are wondering, no, I don’t live in the UK. I downloaded it from a third-party site that had the installer available even to those on the wrong side of the pond, and it wasn’t terribly difficult to figure out how to circumvent BBC’s region locking on the installer. It merely tries to get to a region-checking script on the BBC homepage that uses Geo IP’s to do its checking. I can think of a few ways around that off the top of my head, but no, I won’t share how to do it. Either figure it out yourself (trust me, it would be a more rewarding puzzle than actually playing through the game!), or wait to see how much it costs when it comes out.

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Good evidence for methane-based life on Titan

June 5, 2010 Jason Thibeaultabiogenesis, evidence7 Comments

NASA has released papers based on several readings from Cassini’s recent fly-by of Saturn’s icy moon Titan. Amazingly, there’s strong evidence confirming the hypothesis that there is methane-based, hydrogen-consuming life on the surface, considering the observed chemical makeup matching very closely to several of the necessary conditions for the hypothesis.

One key finding comes from a paper online now in the journal Icarus that shows hydrogen molecules flowing down through Titan’s atmosphere and disappearing at the surface. Another paper online now in the Journal of Geophysical Research maps hydrocarbons on the Titan surface and finds a lack of acetylene.

This lack of acetylene is important because that chemical would likely be the best energy source for a methane-based life on Titan, said Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., who proposed a set of conditions necessary for this kind of methane-based life on Titan in 2005. One interpretation of the acetylene data is that the hydrocarbon is being consumed as food. But McKay said the flow of hydrogen is even more critical because all of their proposed mechanisms involved the consumption of hydrogen.

“We suggested hydrogen consumption because it’s the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth,” McKay said. “If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth.”

Cassini is scheduled to make a few more fly-bys, so more data is forthcoming, and I guarantee I’ll be watching for any evidence to confirm or refute this theory. One way or another, we absolutely need to do more research.

There’s a certain parsimony to the thought that life, as rare and wonderful and special as it apparently is in this universe, can arise on a planet with so much difference from our own, and in our back yard. I want there to be life on Titan, desperately, because it gives us more information we can plug into the Drake Equation. It tells us that maybe life ISN’T as rare as we think it is, and that the chemical processes that lead to abiogenesis are not as singular as we might be led to believe otherwise — it’s just that our planet, with its specific conditions, happens to be one type of place where life can flourish and intelligence can emerge over time. That doesn’t make our planet less special; in fact, it makes it more special.

That notwithstanding, I’m well aware that this universe often presents tantalizing hints at amazing possibilities that turn out to be mostly projection on humanity’s part. I will not ascribe this evidence with more portend than it has. There could very well be other natural processes at work that we don’t yet understand, as stated by the scientists in the original article; or even processes that we DO already understand, but are rare, causing the chemical states we’ve observed, without the necessity of life. There could turn out to be not terribly much special about Titan at all, in fact. We mustn’t jump to the conclusion that life exists just because that would be thrilling. Our data could be wrong, or inaccurate, or our conception of certain chemical processes could turn out to need tweaking for a special borderline case that we’d heretofore not discovered.

But a guy can wax rapturous about the possibility, right?

Why prayer is nonsense – part 5

June 4, 2010December 10, 2015 Jason Thibeaultevidence, NDP, science, society4 Comments

4 – Even if it IS useless, what’s the harm?

This is the final part in a five-part series. Please see the Master Post if you haven’t already read the previous parts, because this part relies heavily on definitions and arguments that have been set down in those previous sections.

so why pray?

The conclusion to this series is, admittedly, the most difficult to write, as it entails tying together the disparate threads I’ve left in the previous posts in such a way that the tapestry can be viewed from high altitude to get a sense for how well thought-out each argument is, and how the overarching thesis is correct. This is, arguably, the goal of all persuasive writing on abstract concepts, however I feel that simply reiterating or retreading the ground we’ve already covered is insufficient for these purposes.

Therefore, I will employ a visual instead. Below is a matrix of all the types of deity-properties, and the complications presented for each type of prayer. I have touched on many of these contradictions and issues already in the previous parts, so it is important that you are at least passingly familiar with the specific terms and definitions I’ve used.

I will be including a very important property at the very bottom of this list that I have not discussed as of yet, and it will be hidden below the fold so as to avoid spoiling the surprise. To read this graph in reference to a particular deity, select all the properties that you ascribe to that deity and look at the type of prayer you want to examine, then look to see if any property of your deity happens to directly conflict or present significant obstacles for that type of prayer.

As I’ve stated in part 2, many of these properties conflict with one another for some pretty overwhelming reasons. However, even assuming that you can reconcile certain properties with one another, you should assume that a “no” in any category is a dealbreaker for that type of prayer for the reasons previously discussed.

Legend:

– This type of prayer will almost certainly have an effect (whether good, or neutral, to the person that prays) in the presence of a deity with this particular property
– It’s possible that this prayer may be answered, but may also be ignored. Will depend mostly on other properties of this deity. If no other properties contradict, there’s insufficient information as to whether a prayer would be worthwhile — it could depend on this deity’s mood.
– This type of prayer either directly conflicts with, or significant obstacles are posed by, this deity’s property. A prayer of this sort is either worthless and will be ignored, or could get you smote (an obviously detrimental effect).

	Interventionary	Imprecatory	Guidance	Sycophantic	Redemptive
Omniscience
Omnipotence
Omnibenevolence
Omnipresence
Larger than the universe
Being pure good
Has a plan
Requires active praise
Alpha and omega
Reveals self unequivocally

Continue reading “Why prayer is nonsense – part 5” →

Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman

June 3, 2010 Jason ThibeaultCanada, science19 Comments

You will read the remainder of this post in Morgan Freeman’s voice.

We don’t get The Science Channel in Canada, and I don’t have cable anyway, so I’m going to have to download it via torrents until it comes out in DVD format. Freeman was interviewed on CNN recently about this new series, and he somehow managed to gain more of my respect than I thought was possible with his answers:

One of the CNN hosts, Kiran Chetry, began the interview stating, “You are a man of God”, with Freeman snickering while replying, “And when did I ever say that?” Chetry corrected herself and said, “you are a man of faith.” Again, Freeman came back with “If faith is what you believe, then yes,” then alluding to a belief in science.
[…]
Freeman warns that people who believe in a literal view of the bible, may not find appeal in the series.

That’s their loss, of course. Theists got him as God in Bruce Almighty, and we get him in this series. And I am stoked.

Even Stepvhen on Islam Vs Christianity

June 2, 2010 Jason ThibeaultChristianity, Islam

A classic to brighten your day.

DNA replication, sans life!

June 1, 2010 Jason Thibeaultabiogenesis5 Comments

NewScientist reports on experiments that have shown that it is possible for strands of DNA to replicate, without life, near geothermal vents in deep ocean areas. That’s right — DNA replication without life. This is akin to hand-cranking a motor to get it started, then letting it run on its own power thereafter.

In air, particles typically shift into a colder current because they are more likely to be pushed away by warmer, more energetic molecules than those on the cooler, calmer side. The researchers reckon a similar process would occur in the fluid in the vents.

Over time, the DNA templates, polymerase and nucleotides would collect at the bottom of a pore. Once there, they could become concentrated enough for the polymerase to bind new nucleotides to the single-strand DNA templates, replicating the original DNA (see diagram).

To test this theory, Mast and Braun put these ingredients into tubes 1.5 millimetres long. They used a laser to heat one side of the water and create thermal convection. Sure enough, they found that the DNA doubled every 50 seconds (Physical Review Letters, vol 104, p 188102).

“Proving” abiogenesis is just about impossible, this far removed from the event in question. Guessing the exact combination that led to life on our planet might be more difficult than we’d anticipated, because it seems we keep finding plausible methods. The fact is, proving that it is possible in a number of different ways, takes a huge chunk out of the argument that the only possible way that life could have started, is if a personal deity did it through an act of will. Now that we know that abiogenesis is possible via a number of routes, that SHOULD end the argument, but unless we have some sort of ironclad proof for one particular method of abiogenesis, the argument will of course continue. And even if we do have that ironclad proof, it will probably persist regardless, while the God Squad attempts to co-opt abiogenesis as their deity’s mode of creation. That’s just a guess of course; you never know how these developments will really shape future philosophical debate.

Regardless, I’m fascinated by these developments. It gives me hope for our future — or if not our own future, possibly the future of some planet that we intentionally seed via directed panspermia. So long as life continues somewhere and somehow in this universe, I will feel as though there’s still a chance this universe will be understood and all its mysteries plumbed.

Lousy Canuck

… Because I don't watch enough hockey, drink enough beer, or eat enough bacon.

Month: June 2010