MPJ

It's hard to create a list of all the scientists in the history of mathematics and physics who better applied theoretical knowledge into the hardware that ultimately worked and moved the world to the next step of existence. But if we try to do it, John von Neumann would be among the top five in the list of scientific GOATs. Probably the best of all of his contributions is in the history of computer science - along with Arthur Burks and Herman Goldstine, he published a paper* in 1946 that practically described the architecture of a modern computers as we are familiar with today.


However, what he will be most remembered for is not a machine in existence today but one that is still just a theoretical and basically only an idea. Not yet anyways. In short, design of a von Neumann probe or a self-replicating spacecraft is not that far-fetched from all what we know today and if humanity sees its survival on Earth difficult in the future (to say the least) and tries to became interstellar or at least interplanetary species, von Neumann probe will indeed become the reality. If realized, that invention could, one day, be used to explore entire Milky Way galaxy in a relatively small amount of time.

The idea behind the probe is to use materials already available and accessible on rocky planets, moons and asteroids. The self-replicating spacecraft without all the limitations introduced by humans aboard (food, energy, small acceleration, sudden changes of direction, artificial gravity, health hazards, etc) would be able to travel from system to system, mine all the materials it needs to print even more spacecrafts and probes and move on. Ultimately, reaching the exponential curve of self-creation, the single craft would be able to build a vast number of copies of itself traveling in all directions.


By the worst estimate**, it would take up to 10 million years to dispatch millions of probes across the Milky Way (assuming the travel speed is about 1/10th of the speed of light). Of course, the first goal of exploring our galactical neighborhood, say within 100 light years in diameter, would be probably measured by centuries instead.

There are numerous challenges behind the machine exploration in such fashion and probably the main one would be to not have exponential self-creation be the goal itself and instead to send probes into real missions. For example, what come first to mind is to set the goal to explore nearby systems only for finding the nearest Earth-like planet and stop as soon as the mission is achieved. The replicated probes could be given new assignments after, i.e. to serve as ice haulers from outer system to inner planets if needed or to serve as a science probes from different regions of the planetary system they were last located.


I wanted this blog post to be both, short description of von Neumann's vision being one of Jules Verne's type of potential future and a small recommendation for one amazing novel series. In the science fiction, there are lots of 'von Neumann probe' plots in all media, especially acting as berserkers or villains in various novels and movies such as the Borg of Star Trek, a self-replicating bio-mechanical race or insect-like replicators from Stargate SG-1 TV show. 

Part of Serbia lands below Danube river is pretty mountainous, with complex geology especially in eastern parts where Carpathian and Balkan mountains collided and over eons formed Serbian Carpathians with total of 14 independent mountain ranges in existence today. These rocks date back to the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion - 541 million years ago) with limestones and dolomites mainly formed from late Jurassic to early Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago. There are dozens of large caves within these mountains and many with tourist paths built to visit and admire their beauty and history. Two of them we visited last week and they both gave us extraordinary experience and impressions. 


However, the first cave in this blog story belongs to the one formed in the foothill of an ancient volcano of the nowadays mountain of Bukulja in western Serbia, although the recent paper posted a theory that the mountain is much younger (15 million year ago) and instead formed in tectonic processes. Whatever the case, the Risovača cave is definitely unique in the Balkans and probably on several occasions hosted families of Neanderthals during the Late Pleistocene era. Numerous tools from this period similar to those found within other Neanderthal sites across Europe are found here and preserved for display in local museum. Like with other groups and due to small numbers overall, Neanderthals most likely went extinct due to assimilation with modern humans in process called "bred into extinction". More about it I wrote in Neanderthals, Humans and Shared Caves.

During the same time, the cave hosted various dominant animals from the same period like cave lion, hyena and bear. This image is from the local museum of Arandjelovac and it's special space is occupied by the cave bear fully assembled from the bones found in the cave. The bones belonged to more than one animal, formed a skeleton up to three meters high which was approximately the average height for the cave bears. Those behemoths could go up to 1 ton in mass and 3.5 meters in height.


In the Balkans, during the last couple of millenniums of coexisting of Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals, our ancestors lived mainly along the rivers, especially Danube to the north while Neanderthals occupied more inland territories, no doubt in vicinity of caves like this one. There are strong evidence that Neanderthals buried their dead and most likely not in the caves themselves which is the main reason for the lack of the human remains excavated to date.

Compared to the Risovača, two other two caves, Ravništarka - named after the nearby village and Lazar's cave, after a rebel man who found shelter there in the time of Ottoman empire, stand out with their natural beauty rich in cave jewelry and mineral formations.   


Ravništarka cave is pretty long and one of those river caves with the small stream flowing it's entire length. The water dug the whole canal of around 500 meters and the mountain minerals did the rest. Numerous stalactites and stalagmites decorated the tourist path, like the one in this image in shape of a flying horse. Dozens of other pareidolia decorating wall formations are made of glittering calcite which under the LED lights give the amazing feeling of surreality. 

Lazar's cave on the other end, with it's large entrance is probably hiding more history than it is currently known. For its wide space within, it was always center of human activity ever since the copper age. During the bronze age, Lazar's Cave played the role of a hunting station, and in the iron age it became a center of metallurgy. Even in the recent history the cave attracted people for multiple reasons. Numerous legends are circulating around with one claiming that lots of Serbian soldiers hid inside after surviving the battle of Kosovo and the defeat by the invading army of the Ottoman Empire on June 15, 1389. 


Even though, the caves could be crowded with tourists, we had luck that all three were free of public at the opening hours and browsing the mysterious caverns alone added extra feeling afterwards. Somehow it felt like we traveled back in time and all the sites inside caves seen in pristine condition looked unearthly beautiful and alien.

Following photos and videos are the best we could do with modest smartphones in dark light conditions, but some of them turned out really phenomenal.

Risovača cave:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ienEnC1xypJBdNut7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwEWXtFiKhE
https://www.nmar.rs/en/risovaca-cave/

The start of the second world war in the Balkans was known as the "April War" that lasted no more than 10 days in the operation called "Führer Directive No. 25". The swift conflict ended on April 14th in armistice based on unconditional surrender of Yugoslav military forces. My grandfather was a 22 years old corporal in the former Yugoslav army when he was transferred to a war camp in Germany in mid-April 1941, along with other 30,000 surrendered soldiers. He spent next four years in Nazi military camp leaving behind his young wife and 2-year-old son.

I am sure it was not easy for him to cope the entire time of imprisonment and captivity, especially in the beginning, but considering all the horrors of the most cruel encampments of Nazi Germany, unconditional surrender of the entire Yugoslav Army came with negotiated terms and agreement of fair treatment of all the prisoners during captivity in various labor camps in the following years. Perhaps the main trauma for all the former soldiers came in the second part of 1945, after the fall of Hitler's Third Reich, when all of them along with more than 7 million of displaced people ended for several months in the chaos of the immediate post war traumatic experience of trying to find their way home. After his return to Serbia under completely new regime, the life treated him pretty well and the post-war time is perhaps the best described with his own words "Although I was not a member of the communist party, I think I was respected in society, I became a councilor of the municipality of Nis and a member of the council of the electronic industry. Above all I was proud of my family and 50 years of marriage."


Doing a hard labor in the fields and machine workshop helped him to pass through the war relatively undisturbed and, if we exclude the short April war in the beginning, I am sure the bullet holes in the car he used to maintain was his only reminder of all the horrors of the war. He was pretty quiet about all what happened to him for years, until one of our family gatherings about thirty years ago when he opened his soul and told us the most of what happened in those four years and especially couple of those last months in 1945 when he headed back home on foot. 

When it comes to the space exploration within hard science fiction, the one where science is embedded in the narrative to the point that it is impossible to tell a story without it, only rare novels stand out among all the others in the ocean of short stories and novels published online and within traditional ways. Sure it's not really possible to be familiar with entire vast universe of sci-fi literature of today compared to the past times especially before internet when was easier not to miss noticeable book on the public shelf.  

However, even today, the true classics in the genre are easily recognizable, perhaps in all those moments during or after reading when we wonder not if the plot is possible or scientifically plausible but when we fail to distinguish the fiction part from the real science. To achieve this, authors can't rely on their writing narrative only but also to their ability to successfully entangle science and fiction and not only for those who understands the scientific background with ease.


Despite Andy Weir's latest novel "Project Hail Mary" being only partly true hard science fiction, it might be one of those rare gems after all. It has everything, Martian type of humor, real apocalyptic villain, amazing friendship among main protagonists, author's proposed answer to the origin of life in our galactic neighborhood, couple of twists in the 'how I didn't see that one coming' fashion and the genuine and tearful happy ending.

On the other side, to be entirely honest, apocalyptical scenario, even though nicely scientifically plotted, is too far fetched for my taste and understanding but still it is a bright refreshment comparing to the usual man-made villainy we used to deal with in most of science fiction of today. The same goes for a fictitious lifeform capable of transferring energy into mass and vice versa. It does look strained and not very much in Weir's fashion considering his previous books that are more scientifically based on the technology of today.


Nevertheless, it is easy to conclude that "Project Hail Mary" is coming with an instant classic flavor and undoubtedly standing shoulder to shoulder with all timers such as "Contact" by Carl Sagan or "Rendezvous With Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke or several modern authors who boldly explored science behind artificial intelligence, vacuum decay, block universe, holographic principle, simulation theory etc. I genuinely enjoyed reading it and will be anxiously looking forward for the upcoming movie.

Image ref:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISS-10/.../Russian_Orlan_Spacesuit

Book reviews
https://www.mpj.one/search/label/books?&max-results=12 

We all want to build apps that people want to use. Beyond actually having a great idea for an app, UX design is an important part of pulling this off. 

While the services of a digital strategy agency can be invaluable for helping you zero in on the points you need to cover for UX design, there are some tips that you should know before you get started.

Easy Navigation 

People should not feel like they need a map to find their way around your app. If they have been to a screen once, they should be able to get there again with no problem. Make the navigation features of the app obvious and make the destination of different actions clear. Users will appreciate the ability to find different pages without feeling like they are starting from the beginning every time they open the app.

Information Presentation

How much have you thought about how you present information in your app? Is text the right way to go? Maybe you should use graphs and charts. Maybe it should be photos or videos. Take a close look at the information you need to reach users and think about the most effective way to communicate that information in your app. 

Do the Work for Them

People want apps to make things easy for them. The more you can remove steps from the process, the more they will like the app. As an example, if you already have their information, automatically populate any forms as much as possible. Steps like this can save the user time and it will make the app more enjoyable and more convenient.

Intuitive Design

Users open apps with certain expectations concerning the way they will work. From their experience with the platform and other apps, they are used to certain types of controls and they have been conditioned by experience. You should try to use these expectations to create an app that is intuitive. Instead of feeling like they are using something new, it should feel familiar.

Help Them Out

Even with the best attempts at intuitive design, some features might need a little explanation. First, you could create screen overlays that appear the first time a user encounters a screen to teach them about the different features and functions. You could also create a help page to cover some of the common issues or questions users might have.

The Right Features

App features are one topic you are likely to cover with digital strategy services. One common issue is that many developers get the idea that more features will make better apps. Even if you are interested in a popular feature like augmented reality, you should always consider whether the feature adds value. The best apps don’t have the most features, they have the right features.

Be Brief

Most brand strategy services pros will tell you that you should try to keep text brief in an app. Unless you are talking about a news app or a reading app, most people are not downloading your app to read. Convey any information in as few words as you can. You may also want to consider using images or videos where possible.

Easy on Push Notifications

When it is done right, using push notifications can be great for engaging users and bringing them back to the app. With that said, you need to be careful not to overdo it. If their phone is constantly being pinged with notifications from your app, users will get annoyed and they might choose to uninstall. Also, make sure the notifications are useful and that they add value.

As a final point, don’t be afraid to try new things and run tests. You might not get it perfect every time, but careful experimentation can be a good way to uncover the secrets that will set your app ahead of the competition.

Image source:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/silver-imac-on-top-of-brown-wooden-table-326502/

For a long time, IT infrastructure has been a problem for enterprises. It requires significant investment and expertise to set up. This has traditionally made it difficult for operations to manage their IT resources at the optimal levels. They would either waste money by going over their needs or they would create problems for their teams by not investing enough in resources.

This all started to change when cloud computing became widely available. With cloud computing services, you had an affordable option that made it possible to buy resources that are targeted toward your needs. Not only that, but the resources were much more flexible and they could easily scale with your operation.

While it did relieve a major issue for some enterprises, cloud computing does still have its complications. You still need to manage, monitor and configure resources. This can be time-consuming and complicated for teams that need to work on things like DevSecOps. Fortunately, solutions like Infrastructure as Code (IaC) can help to relieve some of this burden.

Solving Problems With IaC

Under conventional infrastructure management, teams or individuals would have to manually configure hardware assets as needed. This could be time-consuming and it could lead to issues with consistency within the infrastructure. It would also cause issues with transparency in the infrastructure. Since no one knew exactly what was going on throughout the entire system, it would make it difficult to solve problems. As an example, if there was a failure that shut the system down, you would need to go through a long process of elimination to find the issue and fix it. 

To solve some of these issues, teams started developing scripts to automate some of the processes. However, this could cause issues as well. Scripts might be able to solve some issues with DevOps security, but you might have issues with different coders writing scripts in different ways. You might also have a range of scripts that some people on the team understand, but others may be unaware of them.

Infrastructure as Code solves many of these problems by codifying the processes that go into configuring and managing infrastructure. Instead of having different people configuring, deploying and managing resources in their own way. IaC uses code that is controlled by rules to make the job easier and the end result more consistent.

The Benefits of Implementing IaC

Whether it is security in DevOps or anything else, IaC has a lot to offer. First and foremost, it delivers on the promise that running the same command will provide the same result. Knowing what to expect every time is a real advantage.

IaC is also faster and more efficient than using manual processes. With the ability to automate management and provisioning, you can save your teams a lot of time. This can be especially useful when you need to scale a system up or down.

It also aligns better with DevOps. With codified infrastructure, teams can follow the same standardized steps for working through the CI/CD pipeline with best practices already built into the code from the beginning. It can even allow for an integration of DevSecOps from the very beginning of the development process. This can make security in DevOps more consistent and more reliable. 

IaC not only makes the process more efficient and easier, it offers more reliable environments across the board. With that said, there are a lot of IaC tools available. You need to consider your needs and consult with your teams to find the tools that will offer the most for your operation.

Image source:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/matrix-background-1089438/

Cosmologically speaking, humans and all other animal forms of life (here on Earth) don't live very long. We can thank for this fact to the evolutionary design of life based on organic chemistry we are all made of. We came a long way from the point in history when evolution started to boost our development from hunter-gatherers into today's dominant species. But do we live longer today than before? Despite common belief and compared to our ancestors who lived in the past dozen of millenniums, the life span of humans today, enhanced by miracles of modern ways of living which in short list include improved health care and nutrition, better sanitation, access to clean running water and immunization, is not dramatically extended, if at all.

Yes, the life expectancy (average life span of entire population) of the ancient times was way shorter than today but this statistical data was misleading for the fact of the vast number of people in distant past who died very young due to high child mortality caused by numerous deaths of young people who didn't survive all the hazards of deadly diseases and various infections and epidemics. But many of those who experienced adulthood, actually lived to a ripe old age. If we exclude life expectancy from the table and check couple of known people from, for example Roman history, emperor Tiberius died at the age of 77 while empress Livia, wife of Augustus, lived until she was 87 years old.


At the dawn of third millennium, if we are talking about lifespan globally, it is estimated to be around 75 years in average. Depending on the quality of life in our societies, this number is a little higher or a little lower but in retrospective, the rise of our civilization and all the benefits of the scientific discoveries 'only' managed to notably reduce large number of deaths among young population but not to extend individual life span itself. As it seems, significantly prolonging our carbon-based life with all we know today is a hard nut to crack.

Seeing me confused, Phil paused to give me more time to reflect. To be honest, I couldn't fathom how anybody would react to all this. Literally in just couple of minutes I have learned the origin of life and the entire structure of, well, everything. And yet, at that moment I felt like more is coming. Like the truth only started to unveil and I am about to understand the fate of what was undoubtedly beyond my comprehension.. The fate of the universe.. No less.

"Universe is collapsing." - Phil continued. "The very foundation of the casting sphere started to subside within itself and there is nothing I can do from my end."

"Do you refer to those white frames I saw five years ago?" - I recalled from the previous experience. "Those flashes of the world from normal texture to the frames from the lighthouse site where I was teleported?"

"No. Nothing like that. What I showed you before was just a dream I projected into your sentient driver. I wanted to introduce myself and show you a glimpse of the reality. To ease this conversation a bit. As a matter of fact, this evolutionary biological world is the real deal. The danger is physically real and unavoidable." - The words emphasized the last sentence. "Teleportation is real though. With help of these primordial orbs I can teleport any object anywhere in the universe, just by taking it out from its dimension and put it on the different sub-coordinates. Three-dimensional casting object would follow accordingly."

"Actually, that makes perfect sense.." - I pondered the dimensional logic. "Considering that you are from one dimension higher." After all, the higher dimension is just a set of infinite number of its subdimensions. The flashes from the physics class and equations of relations between 3d and 2d came to my mind. It could be the same with higher dimensions, only vastly complicated... But something else he said started to bother me as well.