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Posts Tagged ‘SmartPlanet’

May
15
2012

Odds and Ends: Realities Virtual and Actual

Today we have two improbable virtual realities, each more mind-blowing than the last.

The first is Walden:The Videogame (probably not the actual title). This virtual simulation of Henry Thoreau’s book of the same name, wherein he lived in the woods to escape from too-busy society, has stirred up a predictably snarky/cranky reaction.

But I would play it. I also read books and go out of doors from time to time. They are not mutually exclusive, snark notwithstanding.

Next up: 2Pac, the virtual personality, and others to come. The age of the virtual person may be upon us. Let me be the first to point out that The Onion saw this coming a mile away.

Roger Ebert, whose specially-developed artificial voice software is discussed in the SmartPlanet article, proposes an interesting variant on the Turing test – to create a synthesized voice capable of telling funny jokes.

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May
12
2012

Odds and Ends: Perception and Reality

File under “ju-whaaaa?”: Amy Kraft reports at SmartPlanet that students at Cornell have created a watch that measures its user’s perception of time. (!) Let me be the first to point out how appropriate it is that this happened at Kurt Vonnegut‘s alma mater. And if that weren’t enough, the watch’s creators provide instructions for making your own. It’s relatively cheap, but you need access to a 3-D printer.

And on the subject of perception and reality, and also (since I’ve invoked Vonnegut) depression, I’ve begun reading a book-length essay entitled “Against Happiness”, by one Eric Wilson. In it, he argues, not against joy or real happiness, but against the manic “I’m doing great have a nice day” brand of American happiness that he considers soul-killing. He makes a lot of disclaimers near the beginning that preclude most of the knee-jerk objections provoked by the title of his essay – for instance, that debilitating criminal depression is not the same as the inspiring melancholy he’s arguing for.

Brings something Kafka said to mind – that literature (Wilson is an English professor) should affect us like the death of a close friend; that it’s “an axe for the frozen sea within us”.

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Apr
16
2012

Odds and Ends: The Wire, Too Many Genomes, and Yoga Wicca Sex Magic

This well-done video essay makes a cogent argument in an accessible format about the role the aesthetic of The Wire played in getting its point across. If you love The Wire, it’s well worth your time. If you are intrigued by the idea of the video essay, ditto.

And this fascinating blog entry on SmartPlanet details how our brain cells are a riot of multiple genomes – complicating the advance of personalized medicine.

And, just for fun, here is a sordid tale of a yoga sex coven from the Daily Beast.

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Mar
24
2012

Who’s Afraid of the Singularity?

The ever-interesting SmartPlanet recently featured a post on transhumanism, a fascinating philosophical movement that amounts to a sort of technotheology that has, for its adherents, very practical implications.

To refer to transhumanism as such is not to dismiss it but to give due credit to its scope. For man transhumanists, their central concern is the Singularity – the point at which artificial intelligence outstrips human intelligence and beyond which predicting anything becomes impossible. Click on that link and explore the Humanity Plus website for a fuller picture of the transhumanist movement.

Hyper Evolution and Technical Jesus are sister websites that offer a decidedly Christian spin on what many might otherwise consider a dystopian vision of the future. And the Cyborg Buddha blog, over at the website for the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, offer ongoing reflections on technology and compassion as evinced in Buddhist thought. And this 2008 paper from The Journal of Evolution and Technology explores transhumanist ideas from a Hindu perspective.

A quick Google search reveals that Islamic thinkers have also considered transhumanism:

My point in all of this is not to plug for transhumanism as a philosophy or movement; but as a reporter interested in science, and a science fiction geek, it is one of those weird and wonderful intellectual areas where fact and fiction get promiscuous, and where anything is possible.

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Mar
21
2012

The Wright Stuff

SmartPlanet reports the jaw-dropping news that an inventor successfully designed, built, and used a pair of wings for flight.

From the article:

While flapping his arms generated about 5 percent of the necessary power to achieve lift, the other 95 percent came from motors that provided 2,000 Watts of continuous power. The entire system is a wireless (haptic) concept, meaning that with the addition of video game controllers and smartphone technology, he was able to use his arms to control the contraption and navigate a flight that lasted about 60 seconds.

This is truly amazing.

Following science and tech news constantly affirms what William Gibson has said about the future: it’s here – it just isn’t widely available yet.

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