Why we're launching the Frontier Biodefense Fellowship
4 tuntia sitten
12.8.07
Future Fantastic: Immortals - Tämä Gillian Andersonin juontama dokumenttisarja vuodelta 1996 oli se, josta sain aikoinaan itse ensikontaktin transhumanistisiin meemeihin. Googlea ei juuri ollut käytettävissä siihen aikaan, joten ensitartunta saikin itää rauhassa useita vuosia ennen kuin löysin sen uudelleen.
11.8.07
Augmentistit vs. Immersionistit
In a few years, new users of the Metaverse will probably be unable to understand what this debate was about. They will not understand how someone can consider having _more options_ as a bad thing. Everyone can have multiple avatars, say one for role playing and one for social networking, business and learning under her or his RL identity. Those who want to use a single avatar can install voice masking software coupled to the microphone input.
Lifeboat Foundation järjestää railgun-kilpailun tämän vuoden X Prize Cupissa.
Galactic Suite - Galaksin kallein avaruushotelli avaa ovensa mahdollisesti 2012. Kolme yötä maksaa neljä miljoonaa dollaria.
Elävää plasmapölyä
Quite bizarrely, not only do these helical strands interact in a counterintuitive way in which like can attract like, but they also undergo changes that are normally associated with biological molecules, such as DNA and proteins, say the researchers. They can, for instance, divide, or bifurcate, to form two copies of the original structure. These new structures can also interact to induce changes in their neighbours and they can even evolve into yet more structures as less stable ones break down, leaving behind only the fittest structures in the plasma. -- The researchers hint that perhaps an inorganic form of life emerged on the primordial earth, which then acted as the template for the more familiar organic molecules we know today.
5 Duct Tape Methods to Save the Earth
In a few years, new users of the Metaverse will probably be unable to understand what this debate was about. They will not understand how someone can consider having _more options_ as a bad thing. Everyone can have multiple avatars, say one for role playing and one for social networking, business and learning under her or his RL identity. Those who want to use a single avatar can install voice masking software coupled to the microphone input.
Lifeboat Foundation järjestää railgun-kilpailun tämän vuoden X Prize Cupissa.
Galactic Suite - Galaksin kallein avaruushotelli avaa ovensa mahdollisesti 2012. Kolme yötä maksaa neljä miljoonaa dollaria.
Elävää plasmapölyä
Quite bizarrely, not only do these helical strands interact in a counterintuitive way in which like can attract like, but they also undergo changes that are normally associated with biological molecules, such as DNA and proteins, say the researchers. They can, for instance, divide, or bifurcate, to form two copies of the original structure. These new structures can also interact to induce changes in their neighbours and they can even evolve into yet more structures as less stable ones break down, leaving behind only the fittest structures in the plasma. -- The researchers hint that perhaps an inorganic form of life emerged on the primordial earth, which then acted as the template for the more familiar organic molecules we know today.
5 Duct Tape Methods to Save the Earth
9.8.07
Tuplaparannus
Barry Bonds' HR Record Tainted by Elbow 'Armor'? - Robottikäsi ja steroideja. Baseball-tähdellä on kyberpunk hallussa, mutta kasvoton urheilumegakorporaatio yrittää painostaa.
The apparatus is hinged at the elbow. It is a literal "hitting machine" that allows Bonds to release his front arm on the same plane during every swing. It largely accounts for the seemingly magical consistency of every Bonds stroke. -- Several years back, baseball was rightfully scandalized by the revelation that Sammy Sosa had "corked" his bat. The advantages conferred by the Bonds "hitting machine," however, far exceed anything supplied by cork. Ultimately, it appears the Bonds "achievement” must be regarded as partly the product of “double duplicity" -- steroidal and mechanical.
BME: Ashley Crawford: Post-Gender
When someone’s beliefs mean that they feel justified in doing something that harms me, then I guess that’s the time to start arguing about the truth. Other people’s transition or gender identity doesn’t do that. It’s only if they start telling me what to do with my gender and my body that it becomes an issue. Les Feinberg made a very wise statement on this subject: “My right to be me is tied with a thousand threads to your right to be you.”
A levitating wirelessly powered lightbulb
DarpaWatch - DARPA:n konferenssista.
Mies muokkaa (väitetysti) peukalonsa sopivimmiksi iPhonen käyttöön. Seuraavan kännykkämallin tullessa täytyy taas vaihtaa sormet uusiin.
Blatant benevolence and conspicuous consumption
Heroism, of course, is a pretty high-risk strategy. But if you survive, you really have proved the quality of your genes. As the old saw has it, faint heart never won fair lady. On the other hand a soft heart, it appears, wins a gentleman.
The apparatus is hinged at the elbow. It is a literal "hitting machine" that allows Bonds to release his front arm on the same plane during every swing. It largely accounts for the seemingly magical consistency of every Bonds stroke. -- Several years back, baseball was rightfully scandalized by the revelation that Sammy Sosa had "corked" his bat. The advantages conferred by the Bonds "hitting machine," however, far exceed anything supplied by cork. Ultimately, it appears the Bonds "achievement” must be regarded as partly the product of “double duplicity" -- steroidal and mechanical.
BME: Ashley Crawford: Post-Gender
When someone’s beliefs mean that they feel justified in doing something that harms me, then I guess that’s the time to start arguing about the truth. Other people’s transition or gender identity doesn’t do that. It’s only if they start telling me what to do with my gender and my body that it becomes an issue. Les Feinberg made a very wise statement on this subject: “My right to be me is tied with a thousand threads to your right to be you.”
A levitating wirelessly powered lightbulb
DarpaWatch - DARPA:n konferenssista.
Mies muokkaa (väitetysti) peukalonsa sopivimmiksi iPhonen käyttöön. Seuraavan kännykkämallin tullessa täytyy taas vaihtaa sormet uusiin.
Blatant benevolence and conspicuous consumption
Heroism, of course, is a pretty high-risk strategy. But if you survive, you really have proved the quality of your genes. As the old saw has it, faint heart never won fair lady. On the other hand a soft heart, it appears, wins a gentleman.
7.8.07
Jos tuulee, kasvata siivet
Copyright regime vs. civil liberties - Ruotsin Piraattipuolueen perustajan Rickard Falkvingen Google-puhe.
OCD, for all the suffering it inflicts, is nothing more than the brain doing something it's supposed to do--warning you of danger--but doing it very badly. Living in the world means living with risks: real ones, imagined ones, exaggerated ones. That's not an easy lesson, but it's a powerful lesson--one that, once learned, can offer a paradoxical state of peace.
'It is not a disease, it is a way of life' - Autistien oikeuksista
"Nobody would dispute the place for interventions that alleviate areas of difficulty, while leaving the areas of strength untouched. But to talk about a 'cure for autism' is a sledge-hammer approach and the fear would be that in the process of alleviating the areas of difficulty, the qualities that are special - such as the remarkable attention to detail, and the ability to concentrate for long periods on a small topic in depth - would be lost. Autism is both a disability and a difference. We need to find ways of alleviating the disability while respecting and valuing the difference."
Resomaatio - Ruumiin keittäminen on promession ohella ekologisempi vaihtoehto polttohautaukselle.
Rakenna liian poikkeavan näköinen talo ja naapurit kivittävät sen.
Partial transcript of Hughes on Cyborgs at TV07
In 1960, NASA asked these two researcher, one a musician and the other a psychologist, what do we do if we send astronauts up into space for a year and they suddenly start babbling weird prose into the microphone? These two guys imagined a bodysuit that would monitor their telemetry from the astronauts in space, monitor their mental condition, and also have tubes and wires going into their body so that ground control could say, “Uh oh, looks like they’re losing their head,” and push a button to release Haldol or Prozac, whatever they needed. So, that was actually the origin of the term “cyborg.”
Ja jotta emme aivan maan pinnalla pysyisi, mietitään vielä aikakonetta, joka voisi kehittyä avaruusajasta itsestään sekä nanolevitointia Casimir-efekti kääntämällä ja neljän galaksin yhteentörmäystä, josta syntyy yksi universumin suurimmista galakseista plus kahdeksan miljoonan vuoden ikäistä bakteeria, joka heräsi henkiin jäistä.
"Teknologia on aina muuttanut liiketoimintamalleja", oli Falkvingen viesti muutosta vastaan epätoivoisesti haraavalle tekijänoikeusteollisuudelle. Hän kertoi esimerkkinä, kuinka sata vuotta sitten suurin työllistäjä Tukholman kaupungissa oli yhtiö, joka sahasi talvisin jäätä alueen järvistä ja varastoi sitä suurissa varastorakennuksissa myytäväksi kaupunkilaisille lämpiminä vuodenaikoina. Sähköverkkojen rakentamisen ja jääkaappien yleistymisen myötä koko tämä teollisuus kuoli täysin, ja uudet työpaikat saivat korvata jääkauppiaiden entiset työpaikat. Kun korvaa sähköverkon netillä ja jääkaapit tietokoneilla, vertaus kuvaa yllättävän osuvasti sitä, mistä tekijänoikeusteollisuuden tämän päivän liiketoimintaongelmissa on kysymys.When Worry Hijacks The Brain - Pakko-oireisesta häiriöstä.
OCD, for all the suffering it inflicts, is nothing more than the brain doing something it's supposed to do--warning you of danger--but doing it very badly. Living in the world means living with risks: real ones, imagined ones, exaggerated ones. That's not an easy lesson, but it's a powerful lesson--one that, once learned, can offer a paradoxical state of peace.
'It is not a disease, it is a way of life' - Autistien oikeuksista
"Nobody would dispute the place for interventions that alleviate areas of difficulty, while leaving the areas of strength untouched. But to talk about a 'cure for autism' is a sledge-hammer approach and the fear would be that in the process of alleviating the areas of difficulty, the qualities that are special - such as the remarkable attention to detail, and the ability to concentrate for long periods on a small topic in depth - would be lost. Autism is both a disability and a difference. We need to find ways of alleviating the disability while respecting and valuing the difference."
Resomaatio - Ruumiin keittäminen on promession ohella ekologisempi vaihtoehto polttohautaukselle.
Rakenna liian poikkeavan näköinen talo ja naapurit kivittävät sen.
Partial transcript of Hughes on Cyborgs at TV07
In 1960, NASA asked these two researcher, one a musician and the other a psychologist, what do we do if we send astronauts up into space for a year and they suddenly start babbling weird prose into the microphone? These two guys imagined a bodysuit that would monitor their telemetry from the astronauts in space, monitor their mental condition, and also have tubes and wires going into their body so that ground control could say, “Uh oh, looks like they’re losing their head,” and push a button to release Haldol or Prozac, whatever they needed. So, that was actually the origin of the term “cyborg.”
Bans on drug enhancement in sport may go the way of earlier prohibitions on women and remunerationTour de France olisi hyvä kisa aloittaa kaikkien suoritusta parantavien aineiden salliminen, koska sen "puhtauteen" ei kovin moni usko kuitenkaan, joten aineiden salliminen tekisi siitä yleisönkin silmissä reilumman. Ennen vanhaan kilpajuoksijat eivät edes käyttäneet valmentajia, koska sen katsottiin pilaavan kisojen amatöörihengen. Nykyään valmentaja tietysti kuuluu peliin olennaisena osana. Säännöt muuttuivat, koska kehityksen myötä niiden oli pakko muuttua. Dopingia tai keinotekoisia osia pidetään nykypäivänä kisat pilaavana tekijänä, mutta tulevaisuudessa ne kuuluvat peliin siinä missä valmentajatkin.
If spectators are seeking to reset their body mass index through pharmacology, or taking pills that enhance their memory, is it really reasonable that athletes should make do with bodies that have not seen such benefits? The more the public comes to live with the mixed and risk-related benefits of enhancement, the more it will appreciate that allowing such changes need not rob sport of its drama, nor athletes of their need for skill, training, character and dedication.
This is the difference between therapy and enhancement. You don't need bad vision to get the surgery. Wavefront, if you've got the bucks for it, reliably gives you 20/16 or better. If your vision ends up corrected but not enhanced, you can go back for a second pass. Players calculate every increment. Pro golfers seek "to optimize any competitive advantage," a LASIK surgeon told the Los Angeles Times. "They're already tuned in to the best clubs, the best putter, the best ball. ... Clearly having great vision is one of the best competitive advantages you can have." Eyes are just another piece of equipment. If you don't like 'em, change 'em.Mikä voisi olla toinen aloitteen tekevä urheilulaji? Esimerkiksi suunnistus. Jos käytät nopeimman reitin etsivää robottia tavallisessa elämässä, se on ok, mutta jos käytät sitä suunnistuskilpailuissa, se on huijausta siihen asti kunnes apurobotit otetaan osaksi peliä. Peukalokompassin sijaan suunnistajalla voisi olla feelSpace-vyö, kompassi-implantti tai parhaita speedrun-reittejä laskeva apuohjelma. Kehonrakennuksessa on jo käsittääkseni omat sarjansa aineiden käyttäjille ja tavallisille, joten samaa pitäisi ajaa muihinkin lajeihin. Eivätkä kyborgiurheilijat tietenkään pyri tavallisten urheilijoiden sekaan, kuten aikuiset eivät mene pelaamaan junnujen sarjaan - junnuilta voisi mennä äkkiä pelimotivaatio. Tosin painissa ja nyrkkeilyssä painavammat urheilijat yrittävät päästä mahdollisimman kevyeen sarjaan, joten dopingin valvominen muuttuisi ehkä dopingsarjalaisten pitämiseen poissa tavallisten sarjasta... joka taas johtaisi siihen, että kaikki keinot sallivat kisat olisivat reilumpia katsojien silmissä, koska eihän niistä normaaleista tiedä mitä aineita ne salaa käyttävät.
Ja jotta emme aivan maan pinnalla pysyisi, mietitään vielä aikakonetta, joka voisi kehittyä avaruusajasta itsestään sekä nanolevitointia Casimir-efekti kääntämällä ja neljän galaksin yhteentörmäystä, josta syntyy yksi universumin suurimmista galakseista plus kahdeksan miljoonan vuoden ikäistä bakteeria, joka heräsi henkiin jäistä.
6.8.07
Satunnaisia muistiin tarrautuneita sanontoja
'Minä, minä, minä' on yhtä hölmöä kuin 'me, me, me.'"Sinun iässäsi minun piti juoda kuraa ja varastaa naapuriheimoilta karjaa."
"Meidän sukupolvemme joutui maksamaan elokuvista, joten tasapuolisuuden vuoksi teidänkin sukupolvenne täytyy maksaa."
"On perverssiä, että tätä teknologiaa käytetään musiikin lataajien seuraamiseen netissä sen sijaan, että sitä käytettäisiin poliitikkojen tekemien päätösten seuraamiseen."
"Miksi meillä pitäisi olla oma 'raamattu'? Kukaan meistä ei kaipaa sisäisesti ristiriitaista kasaa epämääräisiä vertauksia, joita pidetään niin pyhänä, ettei niitä saa muuttaa."
"Kristinusko on heikkojen ja avuttomien uskonto: joku toinen kuolee puolestasi, koska olet itse niin avuton; joku toinen pelastaa sinut, koska et osaa kuin istua ja odottaa; joku vahvempi pitää puoliasi, kun menet polvillesi ja maksat suojelurahaa taivaalliselle mafiapomolle."
"Typerä maha, minua et kyllä pysäytä!" (kommentti vatsataudin kourissa kamppailevalta)
"Mikä opetuksellinen päämäärä on sillä, että opettaja ottaa oppilaan kynäkotelon ja levittää sisällön lattialle, ja kun oppilas protestoi, opettaja hakee rehtorin paikalle? Onko tarkoitus takoa oppilaiden päähän, että auktoriteettihahmon tekemänä tällainen käytös on hyväksyttävää?"
'Miksi on olemassa jotain sen sijaan ettei olisi mitään?' on väärä kysymys. Oikea kysymys kuuluu: 'Miksi on olemassa vain jotain sen sijaan, että olisi kaikki?'
Mieluummin palvelen vapaaehtoisena utopiassa kuin olen pakotettu hallitsemaan dystopiassa.
on nuoria jotka ovat niin tietämättömiä aiemmasta etteivät he näe nykyhetkessä mitään outoa.
- Alvin Toffler
"My measure of success for this is that IOC [International Olympic Committee] bans everything that we do."
- Joe Bielitzki, DARPA
"This is not science fiction, this is science action."
4.8.07
Amber Hawk Swanson tilasi itseltään näyttävän Realdollin, antoi sille nimeksi Amber ja meni sen kanssa naimisiin Vegasissa.
In January she got word that her doll was nearly finished. “The total time from the beginning of my discussions with them to eventually picking her up to be mine was nine months,” Swanson says. “Which of course cracks me up, thinking about her as my twin, my wife, and a baby of sorts.”
This is your brain on love
You see someone, you click, and you're euphoric. And in response, your ventral tegmental area uses chemical messengers such as dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin to send signals racing to a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens with the good news, telling it to start craving. -- The attraction signal turns the love object into a habit, and then an obsession. According to a 1999 study in the journal Psychological Medicine, people newly in love have serotonin levels 40% lower than normal people do -- just like people with obsessive-compulsive disorders.
New recipe for sustainability: stem-cell burgers
Consumers will almost certainly accept cultured meat regardless of metaphysical reservations. Stem-cell hamburger will have no e-coli, no salmonella. It will have no fat - or only fat put there as an additive. Taste won't be much of a problem, since we'll probably have meat of many tastes, possibly including raisin-cranberry and tutti-frutti. (Meat has scarcely any taste now, for that matter, except from spices and filler used to mimic one.) And Prof. Haagsman says that cultured meat will taste the same as animal meat - because the protein content (which imparts taste) will be the same.
Ray Kurzweilin Singularity Is Near -elokuva ensi vuonna.
The Big List of Aging Diseases
In January she got word that her doll was nearly finished. “The total time from the beginning of my discussions with them to eventually picking her up to be mine was nine months,” Swanson says. “Which of course cracks me up, thinking about her as my twin, my wife, and a baby of sorts.”
This is your brain on love
You see someone, you click, and you're euphoric. And in response, your ventral tegmental area uses chemical messengers such as dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin to send signals racing to a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens with the good news, telling it to start craving. -- The attraction signal turns the love object into a habit, and then an obsession. According to a 1999 study in the journal Psychological Medicine, people newly in love have serotonin levels 40% lower than normal people do -- just like people with obsessive-compulsive disorders.
New recipe for sustainability: stem-cell burgers
Consumers will almost certainly accept cultured meat regardless of metaphysical reservations. Stem-cell hamburger will have no e-coli, no salmonella. It will have no fat - or only fat put there as an additive. Taste won't be much of a problem, since we'll probably have meat of many tastes, possibly including raisin-cranberry and tutti-frutti. (Meat has scarcely any taste now, for that matter, except from spices and filler used to mimic one.) And Prof. Haagsman says that cultured meat will taste the same as animal meat - because the protein content (which imparts taste) will be the same.
Ray Kurzweilin Singularity Is Near -elokuva ensi vuonna.
The Big List of Aging Diseases
3.8.07
Muista johtopäätöksellinen välimatka
Concept Funneling
The concept funneling effect implies that if you are writing something on transhumanism (or any esoteric topic), even if you manage to purge popular culture from your mental toolbox, people will still “understand” your ideas in terms of whatever is “hip”. And if you are misunderstood at the start of your writing, you will not have a chance to clarify yourself; people will automatically make the phony connection and start substituting their own experiences for your explanations. It may not be a good idea to write for the “common public”, or any group which lacks the mental building blocks to form transhumanist ideas; for if they misunderstand you once, you will probably never get to explain things properly at all.
Ja tästä hypätään hetkeksi takaisin alkulähteille:
Singularity Writing Advice
The scientist has no instincts that track whether the words and conclusions he's using are fifty inferential steps removed from the evidence the audience is previously familiar with. He knows that the layman doesn't know the conclusions; he doesn't realize that the layman doesn't know the premises. Reporting a result new to his scientific tribe, he takes one or two inferential steps backward to the common wisdom of his tribe; obviously this is a persuasive argument. The layman is not persuaded, and so the scientist thinks the layman is an idiot. And in turn the layman has no instinct that someone offering blatantly unsupported conclusions might be working fifty inferential steps away; he thinks the scientist is a lunatic. How often does a hunter-gatherer in a tribe with no written literature wind up more than two or three inferential steps away from everyone else?
The concept funneling effect implies that if you are writing something on transhumanism (or any esoteric topic), even if you manage to purge popular culture from your mental toolbox, people will still “understand” your ideas in terms of whatever is “hip”. And if you are misunderstood at the start of your writing, you will not have a chance to clarify yourself; people will automatically make the phony connection and start substituting their own experiences for your explanations. It may not be a good idea to write for the “common public”, or any group which lacks the mental building blocks to form transhumanist ideas; for if they misunderstand you once, you will probably never get to explain things properly at all.
Ja tästä hypätään hetkeksi takaisin alkulähteille:
Singularity Writing Advice
The scientist has no instincts that track whether the words and conclusions he's using are fifty inferential steps removed from the evidence the audience is previously familiar with. He knows that the layman doesn't know the conclusions; he doesn't realize that the layman doesn't know the premises. Reporting a result new to his scientific tribe, he takes one or two inferential steps backward to the common wisdom of his tribe; obviously this is a persuasive argument. The layman is not persuaded, and so the scientist thinks the layman is an idiot. And in turn the layman has no instinct that someone offering blatantly unsupported conclusions might be working fifty inferential steps away; he thinks the scientist is a lunatic. How often does a hunter-gatherer in a tribe with no written literature wind up more than two or three inferential steps away from everyone else?
2.8.07
Mixtape
New Freedom Destroys Old Culture: A response to Nick Carr - Muistuttaa erehdyttävästi sitä, kun ihmisyyden nykyisten rajoitusten sanotaan olevan ihmisyyden ydin.
This isn’t just Carr of course. As people come to realize that freedom destroys old forms just as surely as it creates new ones, the lament for the long-lost present is going up everywhere. As another example, Sven Bikerts, the literary critic, has a post in the Boston Globe, Lost in the blogosphere, that is almost indescribably self-involved. His two complaints are that newspapers are reducing the space allotted to literary criticism, and too many people on the Web are writing about books. In other words, literary criticism, as practiced during Bikerts’ lifetime, was just right, and having either fewer or more writers are both lamentable situations.
Sotilaille biosiru päähän tarkkailemaan elintoimintoja
Clemson scientists have formulated a gel that mimics human tissue and reduces the chances of the body rejecting the biochip, which has been a problem in the past. The researcher predicts the biochip is five years away from human trials.
Rapture of the Nerds, Not
It’s also interesting to think about what would happen if we applied “Rapture of the Nerds” reasoning more widely. Can we ignore nuclear warfare because it’s the Armageddon of the Nerds? Can we ignore climate change because it’s the Tribulation of the Nerds? Can we ignore modern medicine because it’s the Jesus healing miracle of the Nerds?
Who’s Minding the Mind? - Salkku pöydällä saa käyttäytymään kilpailuhenkisemmin, puhdistusaineen tuoksu saa käyttäytymään siistimmin.
This isn’t just Carr of course. As people come to realize that freedom destroys old forms just as surely as it creates new ones, the lament for the long-lost present is going up everywhere. As another example, Sven Bikerts, the literary critic, has a post in the Boston Globe, Lost in the blogosphere, that is almost indescribably self-involved. His two complaints are that newspapers are reducing the space allotted to literary criticism, and too many people on the Web are writing about books. In other words, literary criticism, as practiced during Bikerts’ lifetime, was just right, and having either fewer or more writers are both lamentable situations.
Sotilaille biosiru päähän tarkkailemaan elintoimintoja
Clemson scientists have formulated a gel that mimics human tissue and reduces the chances of the body rejecting the biochip, which has been a problem in the past. The researcher predicts the biochip is five years away from human trials.
Rapture of the Nerds, Not
It’s also interesting to think about what would happen if we applied “Rapture of the Nerds” reasoning more widely. Can we ignore nuclear warfare because it’s the Armageddon of the Nerds? Can we ignore climate change because it’s the Tribulation of the Nerds? Can we ignore modern medicine because it’s the Jesus healing miracle of the Nerds?
Who’s Minding the Mind? - Salkku pöydällä saa käyttäytymään kilpailuhenkisemmin, puhdistusaineen tuoksu saa käyttäytymään siistimmin.
31.7.07
Ei enää koskaan kuivaa maata
The Atlantica Expeditions - Uuden merenalaisia siirtokuntia esittelevän kirjan Undersea Colonies kirjoittanut Dennis Chamberland pyrkii avaamaan maailman ensimmäisen pysyvän merenalaisen siirtokunnan Floridan rannikolle. Ensimmäiset kolme akvanauttia aikovat rikkoa meren alla elämisen ennätyksen oleskelemalla Leviathan Habitatissa 80 päivää vuonna 2009 (rikkoen Rick Presleyn aikaisemman 69 päivän ennätyksen). Pitkän aikavälin päämääränä on rakentaa kokonainen merenalainen kaupunki. Merenalaiset siirtokunnat ovat olleet suunnitelmissa jo pitkään (katso Tales of Future Past - Undersea Colonies ja Wikipedia - Underwater Habitat), mutta todellisuutta niistä ei ole vielä tullut. Ehkä on aika yrittää uudelleen tuoreilla ideoilla.
Then in 2012, the Challenger Station habitat – the largest manned undersea habitat ever built, will be launched off the Florida coast and establish the first permanent undersea human colony.Our efforts do not represent an underwater hotel, not an outpost or a way-station, not a laboratory. We are a human community. We are the first humans who will move there and stay with no intention of ever calling dry land our home again. We represent the first generation of a people who will live out their lives beneath the sea.
Video, jossa abortinvastaisen mielenosoituksen osanottajilta kysytään yksinkertainen kysymys: "Jos abortti olisi lainvastaista, miten lakia rikkovia naisia pitäisi rangaista?"
Crowd Farm - Kerätään energiaa ihmisjoukkojen liikkumisesta.
The Maglev Wind Turbine Power Plant - Valtava magneettisesti leijuva tuuliturbiini.
Miksi ihmiset harrastavat seksiä? Siihen on monia syitä.
Eksperttipotilaat ovat oman sairautensa asiantuntijoita. Jokaisen pitäisi olla eksperttipotilas vanhenemisen suhteen.
Copy killers
DRM is Lysenkoism for the digital age. It's an ideologically correct lie that's been concocted to bilk the entertainment industry out of a fortune. DRM products make buying media less attractive, but its peddlers don't care - their industry won't crater when a hopeless strategy is defeated by brutal, uncaring mathematics. They want to make their fortunes and move on to the next bunch of luvvies: yesterday it was software, today it's movies, tomorrow they'll be peddling their junk to the healthcare industry for "protecting" health records.
Then in 2012, the Challenger Station habitat – the largest manned undersea habitat ever built, will be launched off the Florida coast and establish the first permanent undersea human colony.Our efforts do not represent an underwater hotel, not an outpost or a way-station, not a laboratory. We are a human community. We are the first humans who will move there and stay with no intention of ever calling dry land our home again. We represent the first generation of a people who will live out their lives beneath the sea.
Video, jossa abortinvastaisen mielenosoituksen osanottajilta kysytään yksinkertainen kysymys: "Jos abortti olisi lainvastaista, miten lakia rikkovia naisia pitäisi rangaista?"
Crowd Farm - Kerätään energiaa ihmisjoukkojen liikkumisesta.
The Maglev Wind Turbine Power Plant - Valtava magneettisesti leijuva tuuliturbiini.
Miksi ihmiset harrastavat seksiä? Siihen on monia syitä.
Eksperttipotilaat ovat oman sairautensa asiantuntijoita. Jokaisen pitäisi olla eksperttipotilas vanhenemisen suhteen.
Copy killers
DRM is Lysenkoism for the digital age. It's an ideologically correct lie that's been concocted to bilk the entertainment industry out of a fortune. DRM products make buying media less attractive, but its peddlers don't care - their industry won't crater when a hopeless strategy is defeated by brutal, uncaring mathematics. They want to make their fortunes and move on to the next bunch of luvvies: yesterday it was software, today it's movies, tomorrow they'll be peddling their junk to the healthcare industry for "protecting" health records.
28.7.07
Would you give up your immortality to ensure the success of a posthuman world? - Ronald Baileyn kolmas raportti Transvisionista. Vastaus otsikon kysymykseen on tietysti kyllä, mutta posthumaanin maailman täydellinen onnistuminen tarkoittaisi myös sitä, ettei minun tarvitsisi tehdä tällaista valintaa.
TransVision 2007: the good, the bad and the ugly - George Dvorskyn raportti Transvisionista. Osallistujia olisi saanut olla enemmän (kuten aina) ja keskustelun laatu vaihteli laidasta laitaan (kuten aina), mutta William Shatnerin puhe oli innostava ja sehän on tärkeintä.
Kuvia Flickrissä
TransVision 2007: the good, the bad and the ugly - George Dvorskyn raportti Transvisionista. Osallistujia olisi saanut olla enemmän (kuten aina) ja keskustelun laatu vaihteli laidasta laitaan (kuten aina), mutta William Shatnerin puhe oli innostava ja sehän on tärkeintä.
Kuvia Flickrissä
27.7.07
Freezing or Uploading? - Lisää tuoretta juttua Transvisionista.
-- Transhumanist thinking arose at the very beginning of the Enlightenment. For example, Royal Society member Robert Hooke speculated in 1665 about the creation of "artificial organs" to enhance human faculties. In 1769, French Encyclopedist Denis Diderot envisaged a future in which it would be possible to reanimate the dead, create human-animal hybrids and take human brains apart and put them back together again. In 1780, Benjamin Franklin predicted that through the progress of science "in a thousand years...all Diseases may, by sure means, be prevented or cured, not even excepting that of Old Age, and our Lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian Standard." French Mathematician, the Marquis de Condorcet declared in 1795 that "nature has set no term to the perfection of human faculties; that the perfectibility of man is truly indefinite."
Cyberev.com ja Lifenaut.com - Martine Rothblattin kyberneettinen biostaasi. Vaikka ei pystyisi selviämään elämästä hengissä itse itsenään, voi ainakin jättää itsestään mahdollisimman paljon aineistoa (siis omia beemejään) suhteellisen ikuisesti kestävän virtuaalihahmon luontia varten. Jokainen ihminen on multimedia-elämänkerran arvoinen.
Make That a Double - Tämä kofeiinilainaus muistiin.
"I'm concerned that impressionable adolescents exposed to marketing messages that promote caffeine as a performance enhancer will later turn to stronger drugs, like steroids or Ritalin or cocaine."
-- Transhumanist thinking arose at the very beginning of the Enlightenment. For example, Royal Society member Robert Hooke speculated in 1665 about the creation of "artificial organs" to enhance human faculties. In 1769, French Encyclopedist Denis Diderot envisaged a future in which it would be possible to reanimate the dead, create human-animal hybrids and take human brains apart and put them back together again. In 1780, Benjamin Franklin predicted that through the progress of science "in a thousand years...all Diseases may, by sure means, be prevented or cured, not even excepting that of Old Age, and our Lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian Standard." French Mathematician, the Marquis de Condorcet declared in 1795 that "nature has set no term to the perfection of human faculties; that the perfectibility of man is truly indefinite."
Cyberev.com ja Lifenaut.com - Martine Rothblattin kyberneettinen biostaasi. Vaikka ei pystyisi selviämään elämästä hengissä itse itsenään, voi ainakin jättää itsestään mahdollisimman paljon aineistoa (siis omia beemejään) suhteellisen ikuisesti kestävän virtuaalihahmon luontia varten. Jokainen ihminen on multimedia-elämänkerran arvoinen.
Make That a Double - Tämä kofeiinilainaus muistiin.
"I'm concerned that impressionable adolescents exposed to marketing messages that promote caffeine as a performance enhancer will later turn to stronger drugs, like steroids or Ritalin or cocaine."
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