Seen at Meiji Jingu shrine gardens.
Ale can also see hippopotamus in Japanese parks π
I’ve read many Neal Stephenson books, but I think Snow Crash, the last one I read is the best Neal Stephenson book ever. I think it is much better than Cryptonomicon, even though it is not so well known.
It is a SF book published in 1992, and what it is interesting is that in the novel Neal introduces many new concepts and ideas that became REAL during the last years. For example, the concept and word “avatar” started to be used after Snow Crash used it for the first time. Also the concept of “Metaverse” as a virtual world where avatars can interact is very well detailed in the novel. The word “Metaverse” did not become widely used but many of the characteristics of the Metaverse explained in the novel were implemented later on in video games like Ultima Online, Second Life or WOW. If fact the designers of Second Life recognized having been deeply inspired by Snow Crash.
Another thing I liked about the novel is the protagonist, his name is “Hiro Protagonist”, he is a hacker and he always carries a katana with him (Mmm, this sounds familiar to me). This is Hiro Protagonists’s presentation at the beginning of the book:
“Last of the freelance hackers
Greatest sword fighter in the world
Stringer, Central Intelligence Corporation
Specializing in software-related intel
(music, movies & microcode) ”
Some other paragraphs from the book that I liked:
“No languages whatsoever are descended from Sumerian. It is an agglutinative tongue, meaning that it is a collection of morphemes or syllables that are grouped into words -very unusual”
I didn’t know that Sumerian was an agglutinative tongue like Japanese.
“I thought the Hebrews were monotheists. How could they worship Asherah?”
“Monolatrists. They did not deny the existense of other gods. But they were only supposed to worship Yahweh. Asherah was venerated as the consort of Yahweh.
I learned what monolatrism means, before I had no idea.
“Many linguists have tried to understand Babel, the question of why human language tends to fragment, rather than converging on a common tongue.”
You can order Snow Crash from Amazon, if you like SF you will love this book.
I met Asimo five years ago and he became my favorite robot. Asimo is not new, what is new is an BMI (Brain Machine Interface) made by Honda and Shimazu Corporation that allows humans to control the robots movements just by thinking about it.
VΓdeo que muestra el sistema en funcionamiento.
BMI (Brain Machine Interface) are not new, de in fact there are already some “affordable” products on sale that facilitate the control of certain computer functions just by thinking about them. What is new about the Honda system is the combination of Electroencephalography (EEG) and “near-infrared spectroscopy” together. It is the first time both techniques are used together.
The EEG analyzes electric potential changes on the skull surface, and the near-infrared spectroscopy extracts data about how the blood is moving inside the brain. Combining both sources of information gives the system enough robustness to be able to move Asimo’s hands and legs just by thinking about it and the accuracy is higher than 90%!
Sources: Pinktentacle y Honda.