&
PHOTOS: GETTY, DREAMSTIME ILLUSTRATION: SAM FALCONER
- LAVA FLOWS
Hawaiian and Icelandic volcanoes produce
slow-moving lava. Lava temperature is
700-1,200°C, so it melts or ignites most
things. A house on stilts of titanium or
tungsten might survive, if the stilts were
strong enough to withstand the lava
pushing against them. - AIRBORNE ASH
Violent volcanoes, such as Vesuvius and
Mount St Helens, tend to explode and
throw up several cubic kilometres of ash
and rock. A 30cm-thick ash layer can be
heavy enough to cause roofs to collapse, so
you’ll need a reinforced roof with a steep
pitch to stop the ash building up too much. - POISONOUS GAS
After an eruption, pyroclastic flows can
engulf a town in superheated steam and
poisonous sulphur dioxide or asphyxiating
carbon dioxide. To escape this, you’ll need
an airtight home with an air supply –
preferably underground. But ensure your
access hatch doesn’t get blocked!
THE THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
Could I build a house that would survive a volcanic eruption?
To make
we use sof a e a
simulates neurons
connected in networks like in
a brain. These networks are
trained with data until they
can learn patterns or make
predictions about what data
of UK people actually have
coeliac disease, yet 7 per
cent believe they have a
gluten intolerance
1
per cent
was a T. rex’s top speed –
even a fairly fit human
could outrun it at full pelt
11
km/h
IN NUMBERS
g
lik h h l
understand speech or
recognise car number plates,
so in this respect computers
can learn a little bit like
humans. But humans are still
much better – we can learn
l d st
u be of d ffe e deas
As we still don’t fully
understand how brains work,
computers are unlikely to be
as good at learning as
humans for hundreds of
years. PB
e computers learn,
software that
might come next. Methods
like these help computers
complex concepts and a va
number of different ideas.
Can computers
learn like
humans?
Robots would definitely
love BBC Magazines