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Engineers have finally completed a full-scale moving mock-up of China's wacky transport idea, the Transit Elevated Bus (TEB), a large straddling bus that allows cars to drive underneath it.
The prototype was unveiled on Tuesday in Hebei province’s Qinhuangdao city.
The TEB is about 22-metres (72.2-feet) long, 7.8-metres (25.3-feet)
wide, and 4.8-metres (15.8-feet) tall. It can pack up to 300 passengers,
but underneath, multiple cars less than 2-metres (6.6-feet) tall can
drive under the TEB.
The TEB crawled rather slowly at the short 300-metre demo track, but
engineers brushed it off because it was more a proof of concept than a
technical test run. Song You Zhou, chief engineer, says the team behind the TEB plans to make the vehicle commercially available within a year to a year and a half.
The TEB could be a cost-effective way solve traffic congestion because it can carry hundreds of passengers at a time, without disrupting the regular flow of vehicles underneath.
The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a philosophical
movement that took place primarily in Europe and, later, in North
America, during the late 17thand early 18thcentury.
Its participants thought they were illuminating human intellect and
culture after the "dark" Middle Ages. Characteristics of the
Enlightenment include the rise of concepts such as reason, liberty and
the scientific method. Enlightenment philosophy was skeptical of
religion — especially the powerful Catholic Church — monarchies and
hereditary aristocracy. Enlightenment philosophy was influential in
ushering in the French and American revolutions and constitutions.
Historians disagree on precisely when the Enlightenment began, though
most agree that the Enlightenment's origins are tied to the Scientific
Revolution in the 1600s, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Enlightenment culminated in the French Revolution (1789-1799) and was followed by the Romantic period.
Major figures of the Enlightenment include Voltaire, John Locke, Thomas
Hobbes, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant,
Isaac Newton and Thomas Jefferson.
The Scientific Revolution
"The origins of the philosophical ideas that would lead to the
Enlightenment began during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648)," said Susan Abernethy,
a Colorado-based historian and writer. "This was a long and bloody
conflict fought mostly over religion and caused a great deal of social
disruption. Men started to question and criticize the concepts of
nationalism and warfare."
The Age of Exploration, in which Columbus "discovered" the New World,
"exposed men to other philosophies and cultures," said Abernethy. "And
finally, after centuries of exploitation and abuse by monarchies and the
church, regular citizens of Europe were exasperated and began to write
and speak up."
"In addition, the ideas of the Renaissance
led men to examine the tangible world more closely, which led to
greater scientific study," Abernethy said. This movement is known as the
Scientific Revolution.
The Scientific Revolution began with the publication of Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric (sun-centered) universe theory in 1543. The many discoveries of the Scientific Revolution include Johann Kepler's three laws of planetary motion, Galileo Galilei's theories of motion and inertia and Tycho Brahe's new view of the stars and how they work, according to the history department at Indiana University Northwest. The Scientific Revolution ended with Isaac Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation and understanding of a mechanical universe in the late 1600s.
With each new scientific discovery, the accepted Judeo-Christian
understanding of the universe changed. Gradually, thinkers embraced the
Copernican-Newtonian paradigm. This paradigm holds that while the God
created the universe, science defined it, and it is through science that
humans can understand it, according to Indiana University Northwest.
Intellectuals began to see the universe as possibly infinite and full of
motion. This paradigm set the stage for Enlightenment philosophy and
the embrace of mankind's rational thoughts.
Philosophical concepts
"During the Enlightenment, there was more emphasis on
scientific methods, secularization of learning, religious tolerance,
universal education, individual liberty, reason, progress and the
separation of church and state," said Abernethy. Some key Enlightenment
concepts are: Reason: Enlightenment philosophers believed that
rational thought could lead to human improvement and was the most
legitimate mode of thinking. They saw the ability to reason as the most
significant and valuable human capacity, according to PBS.
Reason could help humans break free from ignorance and irrationality,
and learning to think reasonably could teach humans to act reasonably,
as well. Enlightenment philosophers saw reason as having an equalizing
effect on humanity, because everyone's thoughts and behavior would be
guided by reason.
Enlightenment intellectuals thought that all human endeavors should aim
to increase knowledge and reason, rather than elicit emotional
responses. They advocated for universal education and secularized
learning, said Abernethy.
Skepticism:Rather than being content with blind faith,
Enlightenment thinkers wanted proof that something was true. They
tested popular notions with scientifically controlled experiments and
personal experience, though skepticism of one's own senses was another
factor in Enlightenment thought, and caused complicated philosophical
conundrums, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Enlightenment intellectuals were skeptical of the divine right of kings
and monarchies in general, scientific claims about the natural world,
the nature of reality and religious doctrine. "Theologians sought to
reform their faith during the Enlightenment while maintaining a true
faith in God," said Abernethy. The deist movement became popular during
the Enlightenment. Deism holds that God exists but does not intervene on
Earth. The universe proceeds according to natural, scientifically based
laws. Several of America's Founding Fathers were deists, including
Thomas Jefferson.
Religious tolerance:Though skeptical of religious
institutions, many Enlightenment thinkers believed that people should be
free to worship as they wished. "The intellectuals of the Enlightenment
vigorously sought to restrict the political power of organized religion
in an effort to curtail the outbreak of intolerant religious wars,"
said Abernethy.
Liberty:The Enlightenment tolerance of religion is
related to the movement's emphasis on personal liberty. This concept
holds that God and/or nature gave all humans basic rights and humans
should be free to act without oppressive restriction. "These
philosophers emphasized that government had no authority over an
individual's conscience," Abernethy explained. "Individuals had rights,
all men were equal and legitimate political power is based on the
consent of the people and is obligated to be representative of the
people's will."
Progress:The centuries before the Enlightenment were
characterized by rapid changes, from the discoveries of the Scientific
Revolution to the exploration of the world and the advancement in art
technique during the Renaissance. Largely because of this, Enlightenment
thinkers believed that the human condition was improving over time.
Philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, both Scotsmen, tied
Enlightenment ideals to politics, economic policies and more, according
to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Empiricism vs. rationalism:Empiricism is associated
with British Enlightenment philosophers, including John Locke, George
Berkeley and Hume. Empiricists argued that all human knowledge comes
through the senses and sensory experiences. Rationalists, who lived
primarily in continental Europe, argued that senses were untrustworthy
and knowledge came from the mind, through conceiving of or intuiting
ideas, according to Loyola University New Orleans.
Toward the end of the period, philosophers began to consider exactly
what they meant by the term "enlightenment." German philosopher Immanuel
Kant offered this definition in his essay "What Is Enlightenment?":
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage [many
interpret nonage as "immaturity"]. Nonage is the inability to use one's
own understanding without another's guidance … Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.
Major figures
Abernethy discussed the following men who made significant contributions to the Enlightenment:
John Comenius (1592-1670) was a Czech intellectual who
espoused universal education and practical instruction. He was
instrumental in introducing pictorial textbooks written in the
vernacular of the student rather than Latin. He advocated for lifelong
learning and the development of logical thinking as opposed to
memorization by rote. He wanted education to be given to women and
impoverished children.
The Dutchman Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) was a prodigious
intellectual who laid the foundation for international law based on the
concept of natural law. He was one of the pioneers in putting forth the
idea of a society of states governed not by force and warfare but by
laws and mutual agreement to enforce those laws. He also espoused the
idea of religious tolerance.
Englishmen who were influential in the Enlightenment include Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke
(1632-1704). Hobbes championed absolutism for the sovereign but he
believed in the right of the individual and the equality of all men. He
stated that political communities should be based on a "social contract"
meaning individuals consent either explicitly or tacitly to surrender
some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler (or to
the decision of the majority) in exchange for the protection of their
remaining rights. Locke promoted the opposite type of government, which
was a representative government.
The French Philosophes (philosophers) took the Enlightenment to new heights. Charles-Louis de Secondat, better known as the Baron de Montesquieu
(1689-1755), developed the work of John Locke and espoused the concept
of the separation of power by creating divisions in government.
François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), better known asVoltaire,
was a prolific writer who used satire and criticism to incite social
and political change. He wrote attacks on the Catholic Church and
exposed injustices. He promoted the concepts of freedom of religion,
freedom of expression and the separation of church and state. His
writings were popular and reached many readers.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712-1778)
wrote the book "The Social Contract," in which he championed for a form
of government based on small, direct democracy, which openly signifies
the will of the population.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was not as interested in
inciting revolution but wanted to collect and disseminate Enlightenment
knowledge. He embarked on a mammoth project to create the
"Encyclopaedia, or a Systemic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and
Crafts." Many writers contributed to the 35-volume work, which as edited
by Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. The "Encyclopaedia" would
incorporate all of the world's knowledge and spread it to other
countries all over the world.
David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher who gained fame as an essayist, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
He was a highly influential empiricist who argued that humans were a
bundle of sensations with no true selves (this is called the Bundle
Theory) and that ethics were based on emotion rather than moral
principles.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German philosopher
central to the Enlightenment. He synthesized rationalism and empiricism
through his theories about human autonomy and set the stage for later
philosophical movements, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Adam Smith (1723-1790), a close friend of Hume, was a
Scottish philosopher and economist most famous for his theory of the
"invisible hand of the market," according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. His book "The Wealth of Nations" laid the foundation for free market economics.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)was an English mathematician
and physicist who laid the foundation for classical mechanics and
calculus. Newton developed the laws of motion and universal gravitation, which led to improvements in understanding the Copernican heliocentric universe, according to the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826),an American Founding
Father, was heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophy and spent
several years in France. He wrote the Declaration of Independence, which
stressed Enlightenment ideas such as liberty, fundamental human rights
and equality (though not for slaves), according to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
Enlightenment approach to science
The Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution "saw a vast expansion
in our knowledge about the world, and in the accuracy of this
knowledge," said UK-based historian and writer Robert Wilde. "Part of
this was down to the development of what we would consider modern
scientific method," Though others had posited variations on the scientific method, Newton laid the groundwork for method we know today, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Thanks to increased literacy and the falling cost of books, the means
of spreading results of science experiments improved, as did the
willingness of thinkers and scientists to discuss them and adopt them,
Wilde told Live Science. "I do want to mention the proto-scientists such
as Gregory of Tours and other who came before: people had never stopped
trying to understand the world, it was just that the successful
development of modern science occurred now," he said.
How the Enlightenment changed the world
"It cannot be stressed enough how instrumental the Enlightenment ideas
were in changing history and society around the globe," said Abernethy.
We still hold many Enlightenment ideals dear. Some of the scientific
theories have evolved, but many remain as their Enlightenment authors
wrote them. The concepts of liberty, reason and equality influenced
early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft [mother of Mary Shelley, author of
"Frankenstein"], American abolitionist Frederick Douglass and other
seminal leaders.
"The ideas of religious tolerance and the separation of church and
state did indeed lead to a reduction in wars due to religious
differences," said Abernethy. As the power of the church waned,
societies like the Freemasons and the Illuminati gained traction.
Literary salons and coffeehouses emerged as new places to socialize and
discuss ideas. Education for children became more widespread, and more
universities were founded. Literacy rates increased dramatically, and
public libraries and museums were introduced.
"The concepts of the Enlightenment led to many revolutions, which had a
tremendous effect on changing history and society," said Abernethy. "In
1688, English Protestants were instrumental in overthrowing the
Catholic monarch James II and installing the Protestant monarchs William
and Mary. Afterwards, the English Parliament ratified a new Bill of
Rights granting more personal freedoms for Englishmen."
The most famous Enlightenment-influenced revolutions were the French and American.
The American Revolution
"The Founding Fathers adopted many of the ideas of the Enlightenment
philosophers in writing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights," said
Abernethy. They gave less power to the government and more power to the
people. She added that they also established universal education in
America.
[Related: What Is Democracy? and What Is Freedom?]
The French Revolution
The French Revolution took the English coup a step further and
eliminated monarchy altogether. King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie
Antoinette, were beheaded and a Republican form of government was
established.
"There's a debate about whether the Enlightenment affected society, or
whether a society changing through different means affected the
Enlightenment," said Wilde. "Either way, the ideas of Enlightenment …
influenced a French middle class to want a voice in government. In 1789,
[this desire] produced a Third Estate, which broke away from royal
rule, and triggered the French Revolution."
Though Enlightenment philosophy emphasized seemingly positive ideals
like liberty and tolerance, Wilde noted that it could be taken to
extremes. "It's important to stress that the Enlightenment thinkers
weren't exactly sticking to the ideals of others … and the extremes of
Enlightenment thought, such as a rejection of the church, have been
blamed for the terror in the revolution." The brutality of the
revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars demonstrate the limits of
attempting to remake society along purely rational lines. By Jessica Szalay
(The painting above, by John Trumbull, depicts the moment on June 28, 1776,
when the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to
the Second Continental Congress. The document incorporated many
Enlightenment ideas.)
When it comes to casinos, it's no secret that the house always wins.
And while roulette might be one of the most popular of the Vegas
games, it's also got some of the worst odds. Unless you have an uncanny
knowledge of physics, that is.
Back in the '70s, a mathematician called J. Doyne Farmer famously built a machine
that allowed him to skew the odds of roulette so significantly in his
favour that he's since been banned from all the casinos in Nevada. And
now a colleague has just told the internet how it works.
Before we get started, let's make it very clear that we're not
endorsing gambling (or using science to do anything illegal). But
there's some pretty bad-ass physics and statistics to be learned here.
The new insight into the roulette-beating machine was revealed over on Quora this week, when someone asked the world wide web "What do physicists know that lets them win at casinos?"
The top-voted answer came from Richard Muller,
a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, who
admitted that a colleague of his once built a device that allowed him to
beat the roulette table.
As Muller explains:
"It worked as follows: to encourage people to bet at roulette, it has been traditional to allow bets to be made after the wheel is spun and the ball is flung, but only before it
begins to drop. In that second or two, there is enough information to
allow a measurement and computation that will, for example, double your
odds of winning.
If the computation simply rules out half of the wheel as
unlikely, then the odds jump up highly in your favour. Whereas before,
your odds of winning might be 98:100 (so you lose), if you exclude half
of the numbers, your odds become 196:100; you win big!
You don't have to predict the number where it will fall. You only
have to increase your odds by 3 percent to go from losing on average to
winning on average."
With that in mind, Muller explains that the machine worked by
attaching a switch to the player's toes. The player would tap one switch
each time the ball completed a full spin, and the other switch each
time the wheel spun.
From that data, a small pocket computer could calculate the odds and
let him know, via a tap on the leg, where he should place his bet. All
in the small window of time before the ball stops spinning.
Of course, to figure this out, he first had to calibrate his
device using a real casino roulette wheel, which he did by buying his
own wheel and testing it in his garage before hitting the tables.
"The casinos don't have the right to search you, so how can they guard against devices such as that?" writes Muller.
"To do that, they have lobbied to make a law that they can exclude any
person without cause. They choose to do that only when they see someone
consistently beating the odds. They can't get their money back, but they
can stop losing ... Indeed, my friend (who was then a gradate student
at Berkeley) was put on the list."
To be clear, Muller doesn't specify that he's talking about
Farmer in his answer, but the story definitely matches up with Farmer's
famous casino scam.
And for all the doubters out there, this isn't just a science
urban legend. Back in 2012, researchers Michael Small from the
University of Western Australia, and Chi Kong Tse from Hong Kong
Polytechnic University, published a paper that showed for the first time in a peer-reviewed journal how this process works.
The team was able to demonstrate that simply knowing the rate at
which the wheel and ball are spinning - before the ball starts bouncing
and everything gets random - is enough to skew the odds.
In fact, by using a system similar to Farmer's where they
recorded each time the ball or wheel passed a certain point, they showed
that they could win on average 18 percent of the time - well above the
negative 2.7 percent currently expected from a random bet.
"Knowing the initial conditions allows you to beat the odds," said Small at the time. "In some cases you can beat them quite significantly."
The release of that publication actually prompted the first public response from Farmer about his machine,
and he admitted that their technique was very similar to the one he'd
used in his device - except that Small and Kong Tse had assumed that the
main force slowing the ball down was friction with the rim, whereas he'd calculated that it was air resistance.
So does using physics to outsmart the house pay off? It can...
until the casino figures out what you're up to and bans you for life, as
was the case with Farmer, who definitely didn't get rich off his
scheme.
"He says he almost made enough money to pay for the roulette
wheel he had purchased to perfect his instrument at home before going
out 'into the field'," recalls Muller. Damn.
However, I don't think J. Doyne Farmer was the first to do this. Claude Shannon,the father of information theory was also involved in the creation of
the first wearable computer, which would be used to beat roulette.
Claude Shannon had an interesting friend - Alan Turing.
"According to an interview Shannon did, they
were on friendly terms and often had lunch together, but Turing thought
that Shannon was going down the wrong route:
[Turing]
was interested. He somehow didn’t always believe these . . . my ideas .
. . he didn’t believe they were in the right direction. I got a fair
amount of negative feedback almost.
As it turns out, of course, both routes have been incredibly productive." More here. Well worth a look.
One can only imagine what results they would have achieved had Alan Turing not committed suicide.
