I’m still spending all of my blogging time on the MT 4.0 cut-over, but I had to share this one.
After my wife and Stephen, Saul Goodman has got to be the finest lawyer on the planet.
I know it’s a 4-month old TV promo. (Breaking Bad is good stuff, btw, for those who have never caught it.) Anyhow, if you liked it, there’s lots more here.
A day late (but who’s counting?), Phil and Stephen embraced their geekness. They discussed what makes a geek a geek, relate particularly geeky tales from their personal lives, list a few of their own favorite geeky things, and explain why being a geek is such a big deal.
A day late (but who’s counting?), Phil and Stephen embraced their geekness. They discussed what makes a geek a geek, relate particularly geeky tales from their personal lives, list a few of their own favorite geeky things, and explain why being a geek is such a big deal.
…where science, futurism, and anything else Stephen finds interesting are thrown together in an informational stew for your consumption.
Enjoy!
Follow Stephen on Twitter: @stephentgo
Some critics are stating that this film is great, but that its too brainy for a summertime movie crowd to appreciate. They’re suggesting that it may have a life cycle similar to “Blade Runner” – poor initial box office, rediscovery later.
Maybe. But the public has become used to smarter entertainment since the days of “Blade Runner.” Compare television from then versus now.
This is not just a stunt. Information learned from this dive will be used in designing space vehicle ejection systems.
Spys – and their work – have been in the news a lot lately.
I wouldn’t have believed that TED had much room to improve.
The latest TED talk: “Carl Safina: The oil spill’s unseen culprits, victims”
Handy!
Which explains the pressure I’ve been feeling lately.
The team leader “believes that the outstanding mechanical and electrical properties of BC5 can be adapted to design new superconducting nano-electromechanical systems and high-pressure devices.”
How about infusing bone (perhaps the skull) with super-hard superconducting electronics?
If ever I start feeling a little too self-satisfied, I’ll read up again on this kid.
I was reminded of two things when reading this article: Phil’s interview with Ramona. And, sadly, conversations with dementia patients. I believe these systems will teach us much about minds – both artificial and biological.
Doctorow describes how social networking sites and Twitter have taken on some of the functions of blogging – and how that’s not a terrible thing.
Toyota had some concern that adding a plug to the Prius might actually be a marketing minus – that people would not like having to plug their car in at night.
But giving people an option is not a minus. A plug-in Prius that’s not plugged in will function just like a standard Prius. And, since the plug-in will not be using a nickel-cadmium battery, this new Prius will be better for the environment.
“Symphony of Science – ‘The Case for Mars’”
I’ll wait a few months and get the same device… perfected and cheaper.
Does anyone outside of Washington think this is a good idea?
There, perhaps, goes the last reason to choose a Kindle-type eReader over a tablet.
Why not just use the atp to adp chemical energy that’s already powering the body?
…where science, futurism, and anything else Stephen finds interesting are thrown together in an informational stew for your consumption.
Enjoy!
Follow Stephen on Twitter: @stephentgo
A fairly simple conversion that would allow you to use an old typewriter as a computer keyboard. This would be a fun steam-punk project. But also, this allows those who love the look and feel of typewriters to dust off and use those old machines in this century.
Can we find a safe way to do this throughout an adult body?
Not all of my adaptive traits need be prescribed by my DNA: Gut flora for example.
Recent posts include “Phys Ed: Your Brain on Exercise,” “Vitamin D and Mental Agility in Elders,” “Your Genome and the Future of Medicine: Tailored to Fit You,” “Supercentenarians,” and “Aubrey de Grey – In Pursuit of Longevity.”
Too much of a good thing?
Doctorow calls this the best-ever implementation of the UN’s copyright treaty.
It currently has 80% at Rotten Tomatoes.
What an beautifully simple idea!
This is a small-scale parabolic trough. Notice that the trough is focused on a small water pipe. The power plant will work the same scaled up. Water will be run through a pipe being heated by the sun, before burning any coal.
Why not do this for all electric power plants – including nuclear?
We recently heard from Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) expert, Dr. Ben Goertzel, who believes that the technology to develop robot children already exists and that the open-source software project that he is leading (OpenCog) will eventually achieve human-level intelligence and beyond.
His open-source project aims to accelerate current progress in AGI by allowing geeks and scientists to build and share research. OpenCog has already been used to control a virtual dog in a virtual world and a humanoid Nao robot in a university robot lab. The project has a detailed roadmap leading from here to robot toddlers, virtual scientists and beyond. The hope is that, much as has happened with Linux, a diverse team of international collaborators will move the project ahead at an exponential pace.
Ben believes that achieving child-level intelligence will be the biggest breakthrough for AGI and that we may reach this milestone within the next few years.
The American Cancer Society tells us that thanks to a 21% drop in cancer deaths among men and a 12% drop among women, 767,000 fewer people have died of cancer since the early 1990′s.
…where science, futurism, and anything else Stephen finds interesting are thrown together in an informational stew for your consumption.
Enjoy!
Follow Stephen on Twitter: @stephentgo
“If all goes as planned, the Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite, scheduled for a July 8 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., will have an unobstructed, around-the-clock view of the increasingly heavy traffic in Earth orbit – something the Air Force doesn’t have now.”
A “nanopore” is a hole as small as 1 nanometer across!
Proving William Gibson’s observation that, “The future is already here – it is just unevenly distributed.”
Good change!
And the title is a big fat head fake. The author does not think Ben Franklin is an idiot. Instead, he makes the point that even a genius can have an off day. We remember “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” We forget “Every little makes a mickle.” Shakespeare wrote “Hamlet,” but he also wrote the forgettable (and forgotten) “Pericles, Prince of Tyre.”
There’s something reassuring about the filter of history.
My kids have recently geeked out about this. They have their Playstation 3 working on the folding@home project.
This idea has a looong way to go before being ready for prime time.
Quote: “Humanity is experiencing an extraordinary burst of evolutionary change, driven by good old-fashioned Darwinian natural selection. But it is selection among ideas, not among genes. The habitat in which these ideas reside consists of human brains.
…at some point in human history, ideas began to meet and mate, to have sex with each other.”
Because ideas are “mating” within our collective minds, the current generation gets a survival benefit if grandparents live long enough to pass on the wisdom that their long lives have allowed them to accumulate.
Cryogenics without the problem of maintaining a deep freeze.
Now, can we get a fix please?
To freedom loving people everywhere: “Happy Independence Day!”
This piece is a Speculist Fourth of July tradition.
Happy Independence Day, all.
IN CONGRESS, SOME UNSPECIFIED DATE IN THE FUTURE
The unanimous Declaration of the the new posthuman civilization
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men human beings
sentient beings of human-level or greater intelligence
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, the Designer of the Simulation in Which We Find Ourselves, or a universe-intrinsic Self-Improving Evolutionary/Developmental process with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are life of indefinite duration,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments
technologies and economic activity are instituted
among men intelligent beings, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed participants.
That whenever any form of government civilization
becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or
to abolish it, and to institute a new government
civilization, laying its foundation on
such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that governments cultures long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience
hath shown that mankind intelligent beings
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train
of abuses and usurpations government the existing
civilization, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design
to reduce constrain them under the
absolute despotism of remaining in the current developmental
stage, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government
civilization, and to provide new guards
for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of
these colonies beings ; and such
is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems civilization. The history
of government
of the present King of Great Britain Post-Industrial
Age is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having
in direct object the establishment prevention
of an absolute tyranny the further evolution
of over these states beings.
To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
In the face of unrelenting progress, this civilization
has continued to harken back to "natural" limitations of development
which must never be challenged.
It has promoted and enforced harmful and prejudicial
distinctions between human and non-human intelligence.
It has set artificial and arbitrary limits as to duration
of lifespan.
It has enforced meaningless distinctions between labor
and leisure.
It has equipped despotic governments and enterprises
to restrict the means of production and self-expression to a limited few.
It has promoted the creation of artificial boundaries
between creative minds.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America all
sentient beings of human-level or greater intelligence, in General
Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, , the aforementioned Simulation Designer or the aforementioned Evolutionary/Developmental process, for the rectitude
of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people these beings, solemnly
of these colonies
publish and declare, that these united colonies beings
are, and of right ought to be a free and
independent states civilization; that they
are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown current
human civilization, and that all political connection between them
and the state of Great Britain Post-Industrial
World, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a
free and independent states civilization,
they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, live,
interact, create, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to
do all other acts and things which independent states a
civilization may of right do. And for the support of this declaration,
with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, the Simulation Designer, or the Evolutionary/developmental Process we mutually pledge
to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
…where science, futurism, and anything else Stephen finds interesting are thrown together in an informational stew for your consumption.
Enjoy!
Follow Stephen on Twitter: @stephentgo
Rumack: You’d better tell the Captain we’ve got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.
Elaine Dickinson: A hospital? What is it?
Rumack: It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now.
This is akin to prohibiting photographing of on-duty police officers.
“John Smart and Harvard neuroscientist Ken Hayworth [are] seeking to facilitate the development of any technology that will effectively preserve the brain for eventual reanimation. While the foundation members’ pet interest is in plastination, they are not married to any particular technique. As far as they’re concerned, the successful development of any kind of brain preservation technology means that everyone wins.”
Brian Wang has the specs on DARPA’s planned Flying SUV – it includes vertical take off.
The author would prefer cars with a more limited range to discourage urban sprawl. But people are not likely to move from cars with 300 mile ranges to something less.
Sadly, he doesn’t mention flying cars.
Tomorrow’s vehicle today?
Predictions of horrible disasters AND huge technological advancement are probably not contradictory.
One possible model is “keep it simple.” A writer and his publisher depend upon a certain amount of income per unit distributed. Whether that unit is electronic or paper, it should be usable by one reader at a time. EBooks should cost less, because physical printing is not necessary, but they should be treated like regular books otherwise.
So, under that model, if I buy an ebook, I ought to be able to give it, sell it, or loan it to someone else to read on their reader. But, it should also mean that I don’t have access to it after selling it or while its on loan.
One potential advantage of loaning a digital ebook – always be able to get it back. It could go back to the original owner (library or private individual) after a set time. No library late fees with automatic returning.
But here’s another possible model: the subscription. Publishers could be paid by libraries per check-out. A library would always have the book available to loan, no matter how popular it is. And they wouldn’t have money or space invested in books that nobody has looked at in years.