June 2012
1 post
Neuroscience of Deus Ex: Human Revolution (via... →
In the video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution, neuroscience meets synthetic augmentation in a fascinating and terrifying manner. The game focuses on the war between people who are neurologically augmented, and those who are too principled (or too poor) to seek artificial augmentation. The question of what makes us human is critical to the story and the path you choose to take in its conclusion. But...
May 2012
15 posts
Bio-chemical circuits may make you a man of a... →
The Unbearable Stasis of "Accelerating Change"
… and other “pseudo-transcendentalizing narratives … futurological re-run(s) proposed as fresh insight in the form of glossy pages” to wit,
And when I declare that the more assertively “techno-transcendental” varieties of futurological discourse (like the transhumanists, the singularitarians, the techno-immortalists, the nano-cornucopians, the...
“You have 2.5 billion heart beats in a lifetime. Imagine if you could choose how...”
– Is sci-fi surgery so outrageous? - Telegraph
“Daydreaming through a Database of Emotional States” #socialai”
– Social AI | Applied Artificial Intelligence, @ Murdoch University, Perth, Australia.
Open the pod bay doors, HAL. →
Where Speech Recognition Is Going. Voice-controlled interfaces are showing up in mobile phones, TVs, and automobiles.
nano vacuum tubes →
3d blood vessels →
“Smart Pebble robots replicate objects the way a good hive mind should (video)”
– http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/28/smart-pebble-robots-replicate-objects-the-way-a-good-hive-mind-s/
Every screen a multi-touch computer →
“The idea that there should be a screen that’s not a computer, we’ll laugh at that in two years.
“Every screen should be touch, every screen should be a computer and should be able to see out as well as see in. That is the way the world is heading [and] those screens are going to be big, small, wall-sized and desk-sized.”
Wifi blocking wallpaper →
House to examine plan for United Nations to... →
infoneer-pulse:
House lawmakers will consider an international proposal next week to give the United Nations more control over the Internet.
The proposal is backed by China, Russia, Brazil, India and other UN members, and would give the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) more control over the governance of the Internet.
It’s an unpopular idea with lawmakers on both sides of the...
America's Most Innovative Neighborhood: 15 Square... →
CITE will intentionally be an imperfect place, one where everything won’t always work properly, where researchers will find more frustration than they ever do in a lab. CITE will not be a “smart” city in the desert, as many planners and engineers may dream of constructing from scratch. “We’re a dumb city,” Brumley says, “and we bring smart technology to the dumb city, or the ‘legacy’ city, to...
April 2012
5 posts
JPMorgan: we can extract more from African wallets →
prepaidafrica: JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) is pushing transaction banking in Africa. John Coulter, senior country officer for sub-Saharan Africa, told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit, “We have got the capital and the capability as a bank to extract more from an African wallet.”
Oh good, because extracting more from African wallets is definitely the way to help the people of Africa.
Could Nokia beat Project Glass to the AR market? -... →
Robert Reich: Why the Buffett Rule Sets the Bar... →
robertreich:
Next Monday most Americans will be filing their income taxes for tax year 2011. This year, though, tax day has special significance. If there’s one clear policy contrast between Democrats and Republicans in the 2012 election, it’s whether America’s richest citizens should be paying more.
…
What is Basic Income? Where Can I Learn about... →
basicincome:
Get Started:
U.S. Basic Income Guarantee
Universal Basic Income
Basic Income Guarantee (wikipedia)
Take Action:
Follow @BasicIncome on Twitter
Join Basic Income Google+ Group
Join Basic Income Facebook Community
ReShare this Tumblr.
Think you can make it viral? Let’s…
Google Project Glass
March 2012
6 posts
Earth's Perpetual Ocean Machine
WatchTranshumanism (old-sk00l) by Arthur Sloman
“Plastic Bottle Skylights | Liquid Solar Lightbulbs”
– Plastic Bottle Skylights - 9bytz
“Solar Demi” is a genius. Someone should send an expedition to equip with social, local, mobile technology to see what else Demi can do.
Stargazing from Space, courtesy @Astro_Pettit and...
The Stars as Viewed from the International Space Station. from AJRCLIPS on Vimeo. Timelapse videos depicting the stars from low earth orbit, as viewed from the International Space Station. Images edited using Adobe Lightroom with some cropping to make the stars the focal point of each shot, and with manipulation of the contrast to bring out the stars a bit more. The video plays best if you let...
Mystical Brain (2006)
Objective measures of subjective experience will fundamentally transform our understanding of what it means to be temporarily human over the coming decade. “This short documentary reveals the exploratory work of a team from the University of Montreal who seek to understand the states of grace experienced by mystics and those who meditate. Filmmaker Isabelle Raynauld offers up scientific...
Maps of Time: Data As Narrative →
February 2012
5 posts
#4 Paid App: Magic Butt, Interactive Ass →
Really, humans? I mean … really?
Nomad Planets Not Oddballs After All? →
Good news for nomads everywhere … you are not alone; in fact, there might be more of us, than them.
So you want to train for a luxurious life aboard...
So you say you want to train yourself for the luxurious life aboard the international space station? You could start with a year on the road in a 32’ RV.
That’s our primary roadmap for 2012; which has the side benefit of enabling any number of interesting experiments and productive hacking opportunities along the way. Of course, living aboard the RoboRig Environmental Awareness...
X-Bus: Transform Your Commute
Details at http://www.vta.org/xbus Gilroy to Lockheed Light Rail in just over an hour, with wifi http://www.vta.org/schedules/SC_121.html There is zero reason to not have self-driving, 100% solar-powered, electric-engine buses running in synchronized pods well before 2030. Only reason forecast is not for 2020 is widespread institutional mailaise and incumbent energy interests working to slow...
January 2012
3 posts
Wireless Slum Lord Data Pricing Turns Back Clock...
The most ancient of readers will recall when “Ma Bell” tried to charge us for connecting a second rotary-dial phone to the same line, in the same home. So obviously full of #FAIL on a thousand metrics. Grown ups in general will remember when incumbent DSL internet providers in the 1990’s tried to charge us for using a home hub or router to share our land line internet connection...
Core issue that killed #MLK was...
It’s so not about race. The core issue that killed #MLK was moving beyond superficial distinctions of color and creed, taking on the core malignancy of the human condition: escalating and unsustainable economic inequality. King’s evolving political advocacy in his later years … paralleled the teachings of the progressive Highlander Research and Education Center, with whom King...
December 2011
4 posts
Top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed. ... →
When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many...
Real Terminator Robot a Sexy Fashion Model?
“For testing special clothing.” Right. Got it. “PETMAN is an anthropomorphic robot developed by Boston Dynamics for testing special clothing used by US military personnel. PETMAN balances itself as it walks, squats and does calisthenics. PETMAN simulates human physiology by controlling temperature, humidity and sweating inside the clothing to provide realistic test conditions....
Decriminalization: A Step in the Right Direction
Decriminalization: A Step in the Right DirectionThe illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. — Carl SaganIf the words “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” don’t include the right to experiment with your...
Grokking Higgs Boson
via Matt Riddley, WSJ: “The most memorable metaphor was offered by David Miller of University College, London. Since Mr. Waldegrave had been a colleague of Margaret Thatcher, Mr. Miller chose to portray the Higgs field thus: “Imagine a cocktail party of political-party workers who are uniformly distributed across the floor, all talking to their nearest neighbors. The ex-prime minister...
November 2011
2 posts
Anthropocene:Our Massive Impact On Earth, In... →
We’re a very young species in geological terms. Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Homo sapiens didn’t show up until 2 million years ago. But in our short stint so far—and especially since the industrial revolution—humans have changed the planet’s ecosystem in profound ways. We’ve built sprawling megacities and transportation networks to connect them, altered the composition of the atmosphere...
EthernetTV Future Shock: A Primer From The Modern... →
The Singularity Already Happened and Is In The Process of Happening; marking the year 2029 more like the time at which a critical mass of 8 billion humans will look back, defining that new default reality.
October 2011
6 posts
Now @RollingStone says declaring War on Poverty is...
Couldn’t make this shit up in fiction. Oops, sorry, inappropriate word there. Permalink for this entry: http://j.mp/RollingStoneThoughtPolice
Signed in with Facebook (you’re not even allowed to be part of the conversation, unless you do so) and attempted to respond to a commenter to Matt Taibbi’s article, My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters. Here’s the...
Looking for a Clear Message? #ows #99percent
September 2011
1 post
BioDigital Human: Explore the Body in 3D →
Yes. It’s true. We’ve been studying you, human. We’ve learned quite a lot. Now, for the first time, you can log into our scan database, hosted in the mother ship servers. The human frame is indeed an interesting and intricate substrate; a worthy challenge to reverse engineer, extend, augment, and hack into something potentially useful some day. We’re getting there.
August 2011
9 posts
Be the Exponential Accelerating Change in the...
Be the exponential accelerating change in the world. Make human enhancement history. Propel @FixedDoc to double it’s pledged budget during this last 12 hour full pledge press. From the site: What does “disabled” mean when a man with no legs can run faster than many Olympic sprinters? With prenatal screening able to predict hundreds of probable conditions, who should determine what kind of...
We have met the Eyeborg and it is Us