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Eudaemons
The Eudaemons were a small group headed by graduate physics students J. Doyne Farmer and Norman Packard at the University of California Santa Cruz in the late 1970s. The group's immediate objective was to find a way to beat roulette using a concealed computer, with the ulterior motive of using the money made from roulette to fund a scientific community. The name of the group was inspired by the eudaimonism philosophy. History During one summer, the two students began using scientific instruments to conduct research on a roulette wheel which they had bought. With a camera and an oscilloscope, they tracked the motion of the roulette wheel and were able to figure out a formula involving trigonometric functions and four variables. The period of rotation of the roulette wheel and the period of rotation of the ball around the roulette wheel were among the four variables. Using a computer that they had built, they were able to predict which of the roulette's wheel's octant (plane geo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Packard
Norman Harry Packard (born 1954 in Billings, Montana) is a chaos theory physicist and one of the founders of the Prediction Company and ProtoLife. He is an alumnus of Reed College, with a PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Packard is known for his contributions to chaos theory, complex systems, and artificial life. He coined the phrase "the edge of chaos". Biography Between 1976 and 1981, Packard formed the Dynamical Systems Collective at UC Santa Cruz with fellow physics graduate students, Robert Shaw (Physicist), Rob Shaw, J. Doyne Farmer, Doyne Farmer, and James P. Crutchfield, James Crutchfield. The collective was best known for its work in probing chaotic systems for signs of order. Around the same time, he worked with J. Doyne Farmer, Doyne Farmer and other friends in Santa Cruz, California to form the Eudaemons collective, to develop a strategy for beating the roulette wheel using a toe-operated computer. The computer could, in theory, predict in what area ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roulette
Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the color red or black, whether the number is odd or even, or if the number is high or low. To determine the winning number, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track running around the outer edge of the wheel. The ball eventually loses momentum, passes through an area of deflectors, and falls onto the wheel and into one of the colored and numbered pockets on the wheel. The winnings are then paid to anyone who has placed a successful bet. History The first form of roulette was devised in 18th-century France. Many historians believe Blaise Pascal introduced a primitive form of roulette in the 17th century in his search for a perpetual motion machine. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Shaw (physicist)
Robert Stetson Shaw (born 1946) is an American physicist who was part of Eudaemonic Enterprises in Santa Cruz in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1988 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his work in chaos theory. Chaos theory Shaw was one of the pioneers of chaos theory and his work at University of California, Santa Cruz on the subject was among the first research into the relationship between predictable motion and chaos in a landmark PhD thesis. He was part of the Dynamical Systems Collective with J. Doyne Farmer, Norman Packard, and James Crutchfield. The collective, also known as the Santa Cruz Chaos Cabal, was best known for its work in probing chaotic systems for signs of order. A documentary is being made about Shaw's life, his art, and his science, entitled ''Strange Attractors: a movie for curious people''. Roulette While at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Shaw also worked briefly with the Eudaemons, a group of physicists attempting to create a co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Eudaemonic Pie
''The Eudaemonic Pie'' is a non-fiction book about gambling by American author Thomas A. Bass. The book was initially published in April 1985 by Houghton Mifflin. Overview The book focuses on a group of University of California, Santa Cruz, physics graduate students (known as the Eudaemons) who in the late 1970s and early 1980s designed and employed miniaturized computers, hidden in specially modified platform soled shoes, to help predict the outcome of casino roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ... games. The players knew, presumably from the earlier work of Shannon and Thorp, that by capturing the state of the ball and wheel and taking into account peculiarities of the particular wheels being played they could increase their odds of selecting a winning numb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eudaimonism
Eudaimonia (; ) is a Greek word literally translating to the state or condition of ''good spirit'', and which is commonly translated as ''happiness'' or '' welfare''. In the works of Aristotle, ''eudaimonia'' was the term for the highest human good in older Greek tradition. It is the aim of practical philosophy-prudence, including ethics and political philosophy, to consider and experience what this state really is and how it can be achieved. It is thus a central concept in Aristotelian ethics and subsequent Hellenistic philosophy, along with the terms ''aretē'' (most often translated as ''virtue'' or ''excellence'') and ''phronesis'' ('practical or ethical wisdom'). Discussion of the links between ''ēthikē aretē'' (virtue of character) and ''eudaimonia'' (happiness) is one of the central concerns of ancient ethics, and a subject of disagreement. As a result, there are many varieties of eudaimonism. Definition and etymology In terms of its etymology, ''eudaimonia'' is an a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laplace's Demon
In the history of science, Laplace's demon was a notable published articulation of causal determinism on a scientific basis by Pierre-Simon Laplace in 1814. According to determinism, if someone (the demon) knows the precise location and momentum of every particle in the universe, their past and future values for any given time are entailed; they can be calculated from the laws of classical mechanics. English translation This intellect is often referred to as ''Laplace's demon'' (and sometimes ''Laplace's Superman'', after Hans Reichenbach). Laplace himself did not use the word "demon", which was a later embellishment. As translated into English above, he simply referred to: ''"Une intelligence ... Rien ne serait incertain pour elle, et l'avenir, comme le passé, serait présent à ses yeux."'' This idea seems to have been widespread around the time that Laplace first expressed it in 1773, particularly in France. Variations can be found in Maupertuis (1756), Nicolas de Condo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MIT Blackjack Team
The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and other leading colleges; they used card counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at blackjack worldwide. The team and its successors operated successfully from 1979 through the beginning of the 21st century. Many other blackjack teams around the world have been formed with the goal of beating the casinos. Blackjack and card counting Blackjack can be legally beaten by a skilled player. Beyond the basic strategy of when to hit and when to stand, individual players can use card counting, shuffle tracking, or hole carding to improve their odds. Since the early 1960s, a large number of card counting schemes have been published, and casinos have adjusted the rules of play in an attempt to counter the most popular methods. The idea behind all card counting is that, because a low card is usually bad and a high card usually good, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Data Science
Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, structured, or unstructured data. Data science also integrates domain knowledge from the underlying application domain (e.g., natural sciences, information technology, and medicine). Data science is multifaceted and can be described as a science, a research paradigm, a research method, a discipline, a workflow, and a profession. Data science is "a concept to unify statistics, data analysis, informatics, and their related methods" to "understand and analyze actual phenomena" with data. It uses techniques and theories drawn from many fields within the context of mathematics, statistics, computer science, information science, and domain knowledge. However, data science is different from computer science and information science. Turing Awar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Determinism
Determinism is the Metaphysics, metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and considerations. Like Eternalism (philosophy of time), eternalism, determinism focuses on particular events rather than the future as a concept. Determinism is often contrasted with free will, although some philosophers claim that the two are compatibilism, compatible. A more extreme antonym of determinism is indeterminism, or the view that events are not deterministically caused but rather occur due to random chance. Historically, debates about determinism have involved many philosophical positions and given rise to multiple varieties or interpretations of determinism. One topic of debate concerns the scope of determined systems. Some philosophers have maintained that the entire universe is a single determinate system ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Making A New Science
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Breaking Vegas
''Breaking Vegas'' is an American television series that premiered on the History Channel in 2004. The series covers the great lengths people have gone to make money, sometimes illegally, from casinos. Many episodes have to do with cheats who illegally take money from the casino using sleight-of-hand tricks or some sort of gadget. Namely, these scams include pastposting and card marking. Other episodes include famous examples of legal money-making techniques such as card counting. Some episodes are about legal strategies like winning at the craps table by throwing at certain angles using a certain grip with certain numbers at the top, or taking advantage of a worn-out ball bearing and a thus tilted roulette wheel. The series was inspired by the two-hour History Channel movie entitled ''Breaking Vegas: The True Story of the MIT Blackjack Team'', written and directed by Bruce David Klein and produced by Atlas Media Corp. The episode "Professor Blackjack" is about MIT The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History (U
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categorize history as a social science, while others see it as part of the humanities or consider it a hybrid discipline. Similar debates surround the purpose of history—for example, whether its main aim is theoretical, to uncover the truth, or practical, to learn lessons from the past. In a more general sense, the term ''history'' refers not to an academic field but to the past itself, times in the past, or to individual texts about the past. Historical research relies on primary and secondary sources to reconstruct past events and validate interpretations. Source criticism is used to evaluate these sources, assessing their authenticity, content, and reliability. Historians strive to integrate the perspectives of several sources to devel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
