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Town Hall
Back to the Future (February 2010)
Robots are becoming more human-like every day; the PETMAN robot will one day have everything from warm skin to sweat glands. Meanwhile, archaeologist Tim White has dedicated years to excavating and studying the delicate bones of a 4.4-million-year-old hominid. What do you find the most interesting--the insane inventions of the future, or the mysterious clues about our past? Do you think one is more important than the other?If you were a scientist, what would you study?
I would probably study the 4.4 million year old hominid, if one of either... Wouldn't want to get wired on a robot project.
(February 7, 2010 - 5:09 pm)
I love computers and hate primate evolution. I'd study Ardi to prove my theory that it was just a funny looking ape that had a bone disease and all the evidence of human evolution was the result of the bone disease and the only reason we have only found these is becasue only there bones were dense enough to last 4.4 million years. I love computer science though...
tough choice
(February 8, 2010 - 9:09 am)
Yeah, I'm not that into primate evolution. If we were all descended from apes we would all have opposable toes and knit with our feet.
I'm more into robots and stuff, I'm on a robotics team. Although I admit I'm anything but our cheif programmer.
I'd study robots because it would be an interesting challenge to design them efficently.
Issac, Area 51 isn't in hyperspace, it's in another dimension where everyone is named Radioactive Bacon.
(February 16, 2010 - 5:53 pm)
I would study Ardi. I think evolution is really cool and we can learn a lot from studying nature that could help us make better robots!
(February 21, 2010 - 4:35 pm)
i would most definetly study the future robot project. it would be so much cooler to work on something you could see when it was working then to find an old, virtually useless skelton of something that doesnt really prove anything except that yet another monkey species [ape! you can tell the difference because monkeys have tails and apes don't. --Ed.] has gone out of extinction. this will help to shape the future of safety for the u.s. army men and women. maybe you guys could do an article on the navy, coast guard and marines? i know that was kind of off subject, but whatever. also, what i think is extremely amusing is that when you post a comment, it puts asteriks by all the required fields, but it doesnt have one by the body. does this mean i can submit a blank message, or is it just a mistake? plus, i found another typo in this months magazine. i am now seriuosly appaled, becasue i wrote an letter of indignation about one i found in a previous magazine. i think it would have been corrected by now. im really off subject, so i think ill shut up now.
(February 21, 2010 - 8:21 pm)
I would study Ardi. I love history, and do believe in evolution. The whole point of evolution is that we CHANGE. Which would explain the toes.
I love to read and learn about history. The older the better. I learn a lot from my mom, who is in school studying to be an archaeologist. She wants to study Neanderthals (an ancient human race.). I very much believe in the "You have to know the past to understand the present" quote.
By the way, do you think you could do a article about Ancient Egypt? It is one of my favorite subjects. Thanks! :)
(February 24, 2010 - 3:09 pm)
evolution is not just changing, but moving forward. and losing opposable big toes is a step backward.
also what would be the evolutionary purpose of a mental conscious, it lowers our knowledge of why we would evolve certain and wastes our time. also if there is a reason that monkeys ad tails then what would be the point of getting rid of them? and if there wasn't a reason then what would be the pont of growig them in the first place?
how can we verify carbon dating is accurite? what if someone rubbed coal all over someones bones? how would we know that the carbon came from something else? the ground is not a sterile lab without variables that can alter carbon!
what if radioactive decay increases rapidly after a thousand years? ther are no rocks that we have been testing for a thousand years, how do we know how much carbon 14 is supposed to be in a million years? there is absolutely no proof of anything
Even if you don't believe in chemistry and carbon dating, it's hard to deny that we humans still have a bone where our tails used to be! Nowadays, since we walk upright, we don't need a tail for things like balancing or swinging from branches. --Ed.
(March 19, 2010 - 9:57 am)
I would probably study the robots. I LOVE computer science. I you want to see what I can do when I'm bored, go to [sorry, we can't publish links to your personal websites! --Ed.]. Not to mention I'm older than all those hominids any way.
(February 24, 2010 - 6:11 pm)
I apologize dear editors for the whole website ordeal, Ididn't know that was a rule, but it makes perfect sense. I just wanted to pointout that that was just a sampler site I did on a book review to, well,show people what I can do. I encourage you editors to visit it, even if you aren’tallowed to publish it. (I promise it is completely appropriate andreveals nothing about my so called "true identity") Not tomention since I love computer science, I'm totally obsessed with Internetsafety. Sorry again :)
PS.
Short question while I have your attention. How do youregulate what mail goes into the FMP? I mean do you use computer software thatrandomly picks them, or searches for key words such as Muse rocks, FMP, and evil hotpink bunnies? Or are you actually reading EVERY SINGLE FAN LETTER andpicking your favorite? I would very muchlike to know. Thank you for listing to me while I go out on a tangent. Goodby for real now. Possibly...
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(February 24, 2010 - 8:34 pm)
Okay, that's a tough choice. I would probably pick the robot thing, as long as I didn't have to do anything with electricity. The only kind of history I like is the Civil War. The reason? We are reading Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt. No offense to anyone who LOVE, LOVES IT, but our gifted class thinks it's kinda boring. So every time we have Doc Morton for a substitute, he gives us a history lesson on the Civil War. (P.S. Across Five Aprils is about the Civil War.) I get hooked. But I love futuristic stuff too, like flying cars and robots. I just would NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT like to have ANYTHING to do with (gag) electricity and circuits! I never understood it! Still a tough choice.
(March 3, 2010 - 10:05 pm)
Why don't you like electricity? I mean, I'm scared of being electrocuted as much as the next Muser, but it doesn't happen unless you do somehting really dangerous and obtuse. Robots=electricity, whether you like it or not,... unless you have them steam powered...
(March 20, 2010 - 11:21 am)
OMM (Oh my Muses), I loved Back to the Future III!
(April 5, 2010 - 9:07 pm)
I would study robots. Who cares about what happened 4.4 million years ago? and Id want to make currogates.
(June 12, 2010 - 5:28 pm)
I'd love the robots thing. Robots, robots, I love robots, robots are so great, I love, I love, I love robots because they are so cool... *starts singing weird chant about robots* Yes, I know. Great and cool do not rhyme. Get over it. I WILL PROGRAM ROBOTS TO DESTROY THE HOT PINK BUNNIES!!!!!!!
(June 17, 2010 - 4:56 pm)
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhmhmmmmmmmhmhmmmmmmmmm.............................
I DON'T KNOW! I think the robotics would be cool, but i am probably not the best to program a piece of machinary that will be around people (for first year and a half that i had glasses, i forgot to put them on every other morning,which created a probem in seeing the chalkboard in school... XP ;D)
The archeology thing would be cool too, but i understand that you need to be good at seeing things in plain sight, like searching on a bit of ground full of rocks to find one that looks like bone.... and i sadly have the tendency to be looking for something right in front of me and not see it. (my mom calls me an absentminded professor)
Out of the two, i think...... the robotics thing, conditionally. I would like to improve a bit at pre-algebra first. I like archeology, and would take a course if there were a place that offered it. Evolution is cool to study. XD. But I think it would be so cool to build my own, working robot.
(July 27, 2010 - 8:48 pm)