Ruggero - Jan 4, 2010, 3:26p
Excellent post.

Biological systems are far more complex than any of the system we've been able to come up with so far.

So far.

There'll be a time when the products of our minds will be more complex and smarter than us all. And probably at that time it won't make much sense anymore to talk about 'products of our minds' and 'us' because they will merge one into the other. If you think more carefully, this actually already happened. Do you wear contact lenses? Do you have a tooth filled? Do you have a hip replacement? Do you know of Oscar Pistorius? Technology is rough, but it's slowly integrating with biology. And not only at the macroscopical level. The most interesting works are in nanotechnolgy, where the distinction between an engineer and a chemist (or a biologist) becomes pretty hard to make.
Biological systems of course are still much smarter than robots. This is partly because biology writes information on DNA (about 3 nm), where current technology only goes down to 32 nm. And partly because we don't know how to handle matter properly yet. What is DNA if not a self-assembly material?

'Cleaner' substrates? There's nothing really clean even in engineering, believe me. 'Simpler' would sound much better.

Is there a basic biological principle we are missing? I don't know. I only know that there's a lot more to know about the language used in nucleic acids. If the principle is there, it has to be written down somewhere.

A question: does a virus chemotax?


nikhil - Jan 4, 2010, 8:00p
As far as I know, a virus doesn't have any ability to actively move through space. A bacterium, on the other hand, uses flagella as propellers to execute a biased random walk through space. So I guess that a single virus wouldn't be able to chemotax. I haven't really looked into it though, and perhaps the right experiment hasn't even been tried, so I could be wrong.


Sundar - Jan 10, 2010, 5:44p
Nice post, I do find biology interesting when written this way. I hated it because I did not want any part of dissection and infact, refused to in high school.

PS - engineers do not always deconstruct human made devices, sometimes it is also nature like "Big bang" - unless you are differentiating between engineers and scientists


nikhil - Jan 15, 2010, 12:44p
yep, i'm distinguishing engineers, who build things, from scientists, who try to understand how non-human-made things (nature, socieities, human minds) might work.

oh how vegetarian of you :)

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omar the french duke - Dec 23, 2009, 11:42a
I type this now on the google phone virtual keyboard. I was very skeptical of virtual keyboards but I must say this one is growing on me.

I too am baffled by the lack of pinch.

You should fiddle with the new phone when you get a chance. It is vastly improved.


Sachin - Dec 24, 2009, 11:47a
Obviously I'm highly biased towards the iPhone. But I will start by saying I too am very impressed by the new Android phones. I think Android will give Apple a run in the coming years and ultimately might win because it's open. (although rumors claim the new iphone in 2010 is the first true redesign, 3G and 3GS were just refreshes. so Android is sorta competing with 2.5 year old tech in terms of software and gestures)

Ok, i'm going to battle 2 points to this article (i could argue more)

1. I find the Palm Pre gestures 100% UNNATURAL. I remember saying that the first time i every used one. The various swipes, card metaphor, etc are 100% learned. NO ONE can pick up this phone and just use it. When both my mom and my dad got their iphones, i remember not getting a chance to show them anything. (I think both times I was leaving down right after we went to the apple store). I never had to teach them anything, they got it naturally. And they are old!

I think your bias towards the palm gestures is largely because it's the first touch device you've used. That's always going to feel more natural than something you see later. But all the palm gestures are modal, which i find to be terrible. you have to swipe to enter this "card view" before you can swipe up cards to quit. Having these modes will confuse normal people. What mode am I in? Why does this gesture work in mode X but not mode Y?

2. The keyboard. You really can't diss a virtual keyboard unless you've used it for like a week and gotten used to it. I can type so freakin fast on my iPhone, much faster than I've seen people type on their bb. now when I do use a BB or other physical keyboard phone, it's seems too laborious. Having to push down hard enough for the physical click slows me down. If i'm already touching the key, register it and let me move on. And then correct for my mistakes. It's such a better experience.

And of course the touch screen gives you more free screen space, but that's a separate issue. It is nice that the keyboard itself can change based on what you are typing. web address, email address, phone number, they each have their own layout. I think optimization of keyboard layout and correction on touch screen phones is going to be huge in the coming years.


and on a random aside, switch to posterous, dammit. You'll get way more page views, and i'll be notified of new comments via email. and all the other random stuff...


Sachin - Dec 24, 2009, 11:50a
You need a lot of faith to type a long comment here. I kept mine on my clipboard just in case it didn't appear in a few minutes :)


omar - Jan 1, 2010, 7:51a
nikhil's blogging technology is so last decade


nikhil - Jan 3, 2010, 11:58a
actually, my blog uses technology circa 1998. so it's actually from 2 decades ago!

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Mike - Apr 13, 2019, 6:43a
Phase 1

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