The Semantic Web and other stuff....

"What the heck is the semantic web?", you ask. Damned if I know, but thanks to Google, we've heard about it and the Wolfram|Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine. "And what's that?", you also ask.

First things first. Here's where you can read more about the semantic web, which all sounds a bit "iffy" to me. And then, there's that egghead's invention known as the Wolfram|Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine. What does it do? Well as far as I can tell at a glance, it collects information that's related to a given topic and then tries to boil it all down from soup to gravy, until there's just the essential core answer left. So if you asked it "What's the universe for?" you'd likely get an answer like "somewhere for you to live."

That's an oversimplification from an undereducated observer, but I'll take another shot at it - it links diverse sources of information based on their containing a common theme or subject, and then tries to give you an answer based on where you're coming from with the question. And it won't replace Google any time soon, so relax, Kiddies.

Moving along to the Hubble Telescope and NASA, I think we'd be better off spending money on projects like that, rather than on missions to Mars, for example, because Hubble shows us more of the universe than we will ever see any other way. Real life isn't like hopping onto The Enterprise with Captain Janeway and her crew, and whizzing off at Warp 9 somewhere. For starters, if you hit the Warp 9 switch from a near standstill, it would probably plaster everyone against the walls like a fresh coat of paint. They don't mention that. They also don't mention that at the speed of light, which is so far impossible to achieve because of the energy required to do so, a round trip from here to the next nearest star system would take just under nine years. Sending messages there and back would also take that long. And going there in the flesh will continue to be impossible, because it is simply too far away for any kind of technology we've got or are likely to ever have. So let's put the money into something more useful, like Hubble and Hubble Two.... It's time we got smart.