Is Fun a Mark of Intelligence?

It seems to me that, in order to have “fun” a creature needs some sort of self-awareness: “I am doing something that amuses me.” There’s some more than basic cause/effect analysis going on, there, as well: “I do this thing and I have fun.” Can we say it’s a creative process?

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Some Stuff About Nuclear Reactors

Back in 1992, I was on a project in New Jersey, and had some free time, so I took my camera-bag and my rental car and just … wandered in … to one of the big powerplants on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. There was no security at the gate, no security at the building, and the place was gigantic.

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Quench

The most dramatic moment in making a Japanese sword is the quenching. In part, that’s because if you have failures in your welds, the blade may suddenly delaminate, turn into a pretzel, or crack.

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