FS3 assignment: How is computing changing the way you think?

And now for something completely different:

Watch my TEDx video.

Now think: how is the information and computing technology changing the way you think and learn? What do you take for granted? What do you wish you could do? Where do you think this is going? And what questions would you ask on this theme?

Let's start here and continue the discussion in class.

An interesting video that dealt with lots of what we've talked about.

I thought this was fun.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020702.html

FS3 assignment

In what situations specifically has not being able to influence the outcome (i.e. pure observation only as we discussed in class) had a significant impact on research?

At what point is a theory deemed an acceptable and valid model by the scientific community?

How we know when to distinguish between invalid data and limitations of a scientific model in astronomy (i.e. the superluminal neutrinos as an obvious invalid data)?

Given that astronomical objects are so outside the scale of human existence, how do we know that our understanding of them is accurate (similar to how quantum mechanics is so different from the behavior of everyday objects)?

Some useful links

You can find a lot of useful material (copies of the lecture slides, links to useful articles, etc.) at my old Ay 21 webpage