“Learn To Love Solitude”

November 30, 2012 in Film, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

It doesn’t seem there’s any solitude now. We’re all interconnected, we’re tracked and commodified by gadgets in our pockets 24/7. We’re consumers more than citizens, more icon than flesh. And how can we develop, ask ourselves the important questions without the quiet?

Yet people are still surprising when you get to know them. They’ve kept something in reserve. Maybe solitude has transformed. Maybe we’ve split ourselves, created our own doppelgangers. Not just because of ego, but also for self-preservation. Perhaps there’s still an inner self that we keep in a separate, uncluttered place. Via Biblioklept, a message to young people from Andrei Tarkovsky.

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A Brief Note From 1902 About A Whipped Man

November 30, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the June 23, 1902 Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

“My First Guest Tonight Became A Media Celebrity Last Week”

November 29, 2012 in Politics, Videos | Permalink

Bill Clinton’s masterful speech this year at the DNC was hailed by friends and foes alike as cinching the deal for President Obama, though 44 was also a superior candidate with a superior tech team. But Clinton wasn’t always such a great communicator. The 1988 introduction of then-Governor Clinton on a national stage was a fiasco as he droned on and on while nominating Michael Dukakis at the DNC. He did damage control with a full-on charm offensive during a subsequent chat with Johnny Carson.

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

November 29, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“For my senior project I’m doing a profile on sperm donors.”

Sperm Donors!!! (NYC)

Hey Guys.

I’m a senior at SUNY Purchase. For my senior project I’m doing a profile on sperm donors. Can any of you help me?!!!! I’m looking for donors, or anyone who tried to donate but wasn’t picked.

Your name will NOT be used in my article. I’m going to call you by a number. I just want to know about your experience and the process.If we talk and you decide not to be interviewed, that’s ok I’ll back off.

Best Wishes

“The Device Is A Remarkable Engineering Feat”

November 29, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Predictive text, the prompts you get on Google or a smartphone when you begin typing a word, is  thought of as an Information Age innovation, but it actually has its roots in the Chinese typewriter. From at Max McClure at Stanford’s site:

“For most Americans, predictive text is something cell phones do. From the T9 system on clamshell phones to autocomplete on smartphones, tough-to-type-on cell phones have been natural candidates for this kind of labor-saving input technology.

But in China, predictive text has been around far longer – since Mao Zedong was in power more than 50 years ago, in fact.

Stanford history Associate Professor Thomas Mullaney is an expert – virtually the only expert – on the Chinese typewriter. Though viewed as little more than a joke in the West, the device is a remarkable engineering feat.

Chinese typewriters have no keys. Instead, the typist moves a character-selection lever over a tray bed filled with metal character slugs. The typist then presses a type bar, and the lever picks up the character, inks it, types it and returns it to its place.

But with upward of 2,500 characters crammed into the tray bed, simply locating the correct one could be a daunting task for early Chinese typists. And when they rearranged the tray bed to improve their typing speeds, these workers happened to anticipate many of the advances of modern text prediction software.

‘Input issues that we’re dealing with now are questions that China was thinking about in the mid-20th century,’ said Mullaney.”

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The Making Of Donald Trump’s Cologne For Men

November 29, 2012 in Fake, Humor | Permalink

We sent in a forensic squad to recover Beefsteak Charlie’s sweaty golf shirt.

Precautions were taken.

We assigned our classiest scientists to the project.

Some brave souls were lost.

But at last…success!

Get Macy’s on the phone.

Some customers buy it by the gallon.

Now your husband smells great.

Did we get a cat?

Why does Daddy smell like a racist buffoon?

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“People Did Suggest The Idea That String Theory Might Be Different”

November 29, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

String Theory, the idea that all the forces in nature can be explained in one unified theory, is something I have trouble accepting. I believe in loose ends, dead ends and split ends. But I could be very, very wrong. From a Browser Five Books Q&A with Steven Gubser on the topic, a passage in which he addresses what’s probably the main criticism of the field: 

“Question:

One problem with string theory that I’ve heard is that there is not just one string theory, there are a number that coexist, rendering the predictive power of string theory, its ability to explain physical phenomena, void. Is that a valid criticism?

Steven Gubser:

Yes and no. It’s certainly oft-repeated. One quick comeback would be to say quantum field theory is like that too, but nobody complains about it. This is the theory that Richard Feynman won his Nobel Prize for, where you are describing the quantum mechanics of relativistic particles. And if you just start with that as your goal you get a wonderfully broad and inclusive structure, which can deal with all sorts of things – it can deal with electrons, protons, neutrons and so on and so forth. But by itself, it only has so much information and you have to supplement quantum field theory with a lot of specific knowledge of physics before you’re going to get anything out of it. The quick comeback would be to say, it’s always like that – whenever you have a theoretical framework it has always been the case that you have to include facts about the world. It’s true that historically, in the 1980s, people did suggest the idea that string theory might be different. That maybe in string theory, you wouldn’t have to add in facts about the world before you could get something out of the theory; you could just sit down and calculate everything. I never said that. I wasn’t working in string theory at the time. I wouldn’t have expected it, and it didn’t happen, but what else is new? It’s true of all theories that we know – so string theory is no better and no worse in that regard.

Where I really do worry is the extent to which string theory can be connected to modern experiment. It’s one thing to say that you have to put in facts about the world before you can get anything out, but a far greater worry is, once you put in facts about the world, what do you get? So what I’m working on right now is that very question. What can you get out about modern physics, once you are willing to use string theory as a calculational tool rather than saying it’s going to be just a theory which predicts everything from scratch? Instead you say, I’m going to use this set of ideas to understand experiments. In fact there have been a number of calculations in the past five to seven years, where some strikingly successful numerical predictions have come out of string theory.”

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Even More Proof That Donald Trump Is A Moron

November 29, 2012 in Misc. | Permalink

Donald Trump: Stormy, foggy, inclement.

Donald Trump isn’t a climatologist, unless “climatologist” means “bag of diarrhea.” In that case, Donald Trump is a huge climatologist, perhaps the biggest climatologist in the country. I mention a weather-related term because Donald Trump is one of those special people unworried about climate change. He’s sure it doesn’t exist. No chance. Nothing to trouble yourself over. Every NASA scientist is wrong and Donald Trump is right. His opinion isn’t merely a failure of intellect. You see, Donald Trump lives in a delusional bubble that extends in many directions. For instance, in a recent tweet he explained to young people, many of whom who are saddled with student-loan debt and struggling in a difficult job market, how they can put their financial troubles behind them.

_____________________________________

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump

With the economy still on a downward trajectory, the best investment young people can make now is buying property…

 _____________________________________

And, you know, kids, it wouldn’t kill you if you had some gold on hand. So, Donald Trump is detached enough to not realize that most people haven’t enjoyed the advantages he has, with a developer father who gave him a big hand up in the world of real estate and helped him out when he needed it most. But, of course, as is usually the case with Donald, ignorance certainly plays a role. I mean, how dumb do you have to be to joke about our scary weather on November 7, in the days after Hurricane Sandy caused fatalities and massive property damage?

  _____________________________________
Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump

It’s freezing and snowing in New York–we need global warming!

_____________________________________

Of course, Donald Trump doesn’t think these statements are callous because he can prove climate change is fiction.

_____________________________________

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump

From 1954 to 1960 there were 10 major hurricanes that hit the East Coast.

_____________________________________

Well, yes, there have always been hurricanes and all kinds of horrible weather, but that’s a shallow reading of the data, no better than when Trump was predicting that Mitt Romney would blow past President Obama in the polls in the last couple of weeks before the election. Why didn’t these hurricanes in the past cause the kind of flooding that this one did? Why were there deaths and wreckage in places that hadn’t seen such destruction in the history of recorded weather? It could be, perhaps, because the fucking water level is way fucking higher now because of fucking climate change. You know, the recorded fucking temperature has been warmer than fucking average every fucking month for fucking years and that causes the fucking ice (a fucking solid) to melt into fucking water (a fucking liquid). The possibility must, at least, be fucking considered.

Why don’t you scamps buy a townhouse or a parking garage?

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“At Least 23 Other People Built Prototype Light Bulbs Before Edison”

November 28, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

So-called job creators are full of crap and actual creators may even be overrated. If you get a great idea, there’s a good chance that someone else may be onto the same thing. The opening of “Are Inventions Inevitable?” at the Long Nose:

“Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879. What if he had never been born, Would we still have light bulbs? And would they still have been invented in 1879? It turns out that this is not just a philosophical question and the answer is yes, the light bulb would have been invented at roughly the same time. We know this because at least 23 other people built prototype light bulbs before Edison, including two groups who filed patents and fought legal battles with him over the rights (Sawyer and Mann in the U.S. and Swan in England).

This is not a strange coincidence that happened with electric lighting, it is the norm in both technological invention and scientific and mathematical discovery. Newton and Leibniz independently invented calculus, Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both filed a patent for the telephone on the same day — within three hours of each other — and sunspots were simultaneously discovered by four scientists living in four different countries.”

“I Was Born Ten Years Before Michael Jackson. I Remember That Distinctly.”

November 28, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

A seemingly homeless man woke up outside of a Georgia Burger King in 2004, beaten badly and without a memory. Since then, no amount of research or attempts to recollect have been able to uncover his identity. Now 64, Benjamin Kyle, as he is called these days, is still officially listed as “missing,” as only his whereabouts are known. He is a stranger to all–including himself. Kyle just did an Ask Me Anything at Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

_______________________________

Question:

Were there other things you forgot besides your identity that you had to relearn?

Answer: 

I’m not sure I had to re learn anything. It seems like whenever i need to do something, if i’ve done it before, I remember. When I got in a car I knew how to drive a car.

I had a dream where I repaired a restaurant stove. And remembered how to do it.

_______________________________

Question:

How do you know how old you are?

Answer:

I was born ten years before Michael Jackson. I remember that distinctly.

_______________________________

Question: 

What are your life goals – career, family, etc?

Answer:

Oh long term, I’m planning on dying. Hell, I’m 64. I plan on working until im dying. There will be no retirement or credit.

_______________________________

Question: 

Are you a time traveller?

Answer:

Everyone is a time traveler. They’re born, they live, and they die.

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“It Will No Longer Be Optional For Machines To Have Ethical Systems”

November 28, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Excellent post by psychologist Gary Marcus at the New Yorker site about the soul, so to speak, of machines, as driverless cars are poised to become the first contraptions to force the issue of AI ethical systems. The opening:

“Google’s driver-less cars are already street-legal in three states, California, Florida, and Nevada, and some day similar devices may not just be possible but mandatory. Eventually (though not yet) automated vehicles will be able to drive better, and more safely than you can; no drinking, no distraction, better reflexes, and better awareness (via networking) of other vehicles. Within two or three decades the difference between automated driving and human driving will be so great you may not be legally allowed to drive your own car, and even if you are allowed, it would be immoral of you to drive, because the risk of you hurting yourself or another person will be far greater than if you allowed a machine to do the work.

That moment will be significant not just because it will signal the end of one more human niche, but because it will signal the beginning of another: the era in which it will no longer be optional for machines to have ethical systems. Your car is speeding along a bridge at fifty miles per hour when errant school bus carrying forty innocent children crosses its path. Should your car swerve, possibly risking the life of its owner (you), in order to save the children, or keep going, putting all forty kids at risk? If the decision must be made in milliseconds, the computer will have to make the call.” (Thanks Browser.)

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1 Thing About Us Future People Won’t Believe

November 28, 2012 in Science/Tech | Permalink

  • College Admissions: Long ago, all universities didn’t have open admissions. Everyone attended college in person and there was limited space. Students had to apply and only some were chosen. Despite best efforts at meritocracy, this system was inefficient and prone toward nepotism. Many who could have thrived were excluded, and those who were lucky enough to attend often had to assume huge debt because there wasn’t the necessary scale to control costs. Education hasn’t improved in every way since it’s moved online and become open to everyone, but it’s decentralized nature allows for unparalleled reach and opportunity. Anyone with the ability to achieve has the chance to.

More Things About Us Future People Won’t Believe:

“Last Week, New York Finally Got To See The Rolling Stones”

November 28, 2012 in Videos | Permalink

For a special 1972 episode, Dick Cavett moved his talk show to Madison Square Garden to interview members of the Rolling Stones and show the group in performance.

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“In Whatever Form, Either Intelligence Or Stupidity, This Collective Behavior Has Existed For A Long Time”

November 28, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

There’s something about the hive mind that’s fascinating, the way large swaths of people can come to an often tacit consensus of things, the way we swarm to what we believe is the light. In the Information Age, we think of how Google and Wikipedia depend on the wisdom of the crowds to assemble unparalleled knowledge, but stupidity, too, can be the product of many. At Edge, MIT’s Professor Thomas Malone considers the power of collective thinking. An excerpt:

“Pretty much everything I’m doing now falls under the broad umbrella that I’d call collective intelligence. What does collective intelligence mean? It’s important to realize that intelligence is not just something that happens inside individual brains. It also arises with groups of individuals. In fact, I’d define collective intelligence as groups of individuals acting collectively in ways that seem intelligent. By that definition, of course, collective intelligence has been around for a very long time. Families, companies, countries, and armies: those are all examples of groups of people working together in ways that at least sometimes seem intelligent.

It’s also possible for groups of people to work together in ways that seem pretty stupid, and I think collective stupidity is just as possible as collective intelligence. Part of what I want to understand and part of what the people I’m working with want to understand is what are the conditions that lead to collective intelligence rather than collective stupidity. But in whatever form, either intelligence or stupidity, this collective behavior has existed for a long time.

What’s new, though, is a new kind of collective intelligence enabled by the Internet. Think of Google, for instance, where millions of people all over the world create web pages, and link those web pages to each other. Then all that knowledge is harvested by the Google technology so that when you type a question in the Google search bar the answers you get often seem amazingly intelligent, at least by some definition of the word ‘intelligence.’

Or think of Wikipedia, where thousands of people all over the world have collectively created a very large and amazingly high quality intellectual product with almost no centralized control. And by the way, without even being paid. I think these examples of things like Google and Wikipedia are not the end of the story. I think they’re just barely the beginning of the story. We’re likely to see lots more examples of Internet-enabled collective intelligence—and other kinds of collective intelligence as well—over the coming decades.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

November 28, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“I know that there must really be a way.”

help me find a shrinking potion (reno nv)

im looking for a real, working way to shrink. i know its very strange, but im serious, and i know that there must really be a way. i would like to shrink myself to 3inches tall. no joke. lol. im a 24 year old male. id do anything, anything to get a hold of something that really honestly works. thank you!

A Note From 1870 About A Discharged Patient

November 27, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the June 23, 1870 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“The nude body of a man was found floating in the river at the foot of Eagle Street, Greenpoint, yesterday afternoon, under most peculiar circumstances. The corpse was that of a man apparently about forty years of age, five feet eight or nine inches in height, with dark, closely cut hair and a smooth face, and had evidently been in the water only a few days.

Around the neck and wrists were found double wires twisted in a form of a necklace and bracelets. These were rather loose, leaving room between the wires and flesh for the insertion of a finger, and look as though they might have been designed for the attachment of cords, though for what real purpose is unknown. A portion of cotton sheet from a bed was wound about the body, which gives rise to the supposition that the deceased had been a patient of some hospital where he died of disease and subsequently was thrown overboard from the hospital ship to save the trouble of a decent interment.”

“The Country Will Literally Rise Above Any Other”

November 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The questions regarding contemporary China are fairly simple: Will it be merely an imitator or develop into an originator? Will it just appropriate or actually innovate? I’ve put up posts before about China’s Broad Sustainable Building Corporation, which is leading the way in erecting quick and clean high-rises. From Kathryn Blaze Carlson’s rather breathless National Post article about Broad’s latest and greatest project and China’s so-called tech prowess, which is far from a proven commodity:

“When Pierre Beaudet was told about a Chinese corporation’s plans to build the world’s tallest building in record speed — 2,749 soaring feet in just 90 days — the global studies professor marvelled Thursday: ‘Ah. There’s nothing they can’t do.’

Having already revolutionized construction by literally stacking factory-made modules like Lego blocks, Broad Sustainable Building Corporation is sending the world a message — not just about itself, but also about its home country: Make no mistake, China is an epicentre of technological progress and a nation worthy of awe.

‘It’s a symbol of their new superiority,’ said Takashi Fujitani, the director of Asia Pacific studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs’ Asian Institute in Toronto. ‘Modernity today is really about speed in a lot of ways, so being at the top of the world is about being able to do things fast.’

Decades ago, the United States and Russia flexed their muscles in a politically charged race to the moon; today, China is racing for the clouds. The phrase ‘the rise of China’ is uttered so often it is almost cliched, but if Broad is successful, the country will literally rise above any other.”

“No Woman Living Has Known Such Great And Terrible Events”

November 27, 2012 in Politics, Videos | Permalink

If you’ve read this blog for awhile, you’ve probably gotten the hint that I’m one of those rare progressives who doesn’t care much for the Kennedys. I know you’re not supposed to judge the art by the behavior of the artist, but I just can’t separate the political and the personal to the extent the Kennedys require. Still, this heartfelt 1969 clip of Merv Griffin interviewing family matriarch Rose the year after Robert’s assassination is certainly worth watching.

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“There Was Nothing Noble About What We Did”

November 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

We’re all prone to arguing our “side” rather than the facts and changing our opinions if our so-called enemies accept them. You see it in the minutiae of day-to-day life and you see it writ large in national policy. When President Obama relented and decided to use a health-care reform idea from the conservative Heritage Foundation (individual mandates), his counterparts branded the idea as a tool of socialism. When they got something they wanted they didn’t want it anymore. Emotion and narrative were more important than fact.

Marvin Miller, the first Major League Baseball Players Association union leader, who just passed away at 95, was no stranger to this phenomenon. When he went to court to fight for the players’ right to enjoy the same basic employment freedoms as any other American worker, team owners went ballistic. They had been in control of the game since the start, and they weren’t worried about what was right morally or for business; they just wanted to maintain that upper hand. Even if that was bad for the bottom line. Free agency and player movement, which Miller eventually won, grew fan interest, lifted attendance and TV ratings, and transformed the owners from millionaires into billionaires (or close to it). If the owners had been paying attention to facts instead of fighting for “their side,” they might have noticed this sooner.

There will be stories, no doubt, about how every modern player should attend Miller’s funeral, how they all owe him a debt. And that’s true. But every owner should be there as well. He did even more for them, though they fought him every step of the way. From Jeff Passan’s Yahoo! Sports piece about Miller’s passing:

“Over his 17 years as leader of the Major League Baseball Players Association, Miller instilled confidence in what was a fractured group of players and fear in ownership, preaching the strength of unity. During his tenure through 1982, Miller oversaw MLB’s first collective-bargaining agreement, gained free agency for players, weathered three strikes and two lockouts, and positioned the players to reap the benefits they do today, when the average major league salary is more than $3.4 million.

‘There was nothing noble about what we did,’ Miller said in a May interview with Yahoo! Sports. ‘We did what was right. That was always at the heart of it.’

Baseball’s era of labor discord has evolved into one of peace that’s now deep into its second decade.”

 

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“How Can We Be Expected To Imagine The Death Of A City?”

November 26, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

New York City residents have always joked, with gleeful cruelty, that California would one day sink into the ocean. But who’s all wet now? In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, James Atlas wonders in the New York Times if our city is ultimately to be submerged. An excerpt:

“There had been warnings. In 2009, the New York City Panel on Climate Change issued a prophetic report. ‘In the coming decades, our coastal city will most likely face more rapidly rising sea levels and warmer temperatures, as well as potentially more droughts and floods, which will all have impacts on New York City’s critical infrastructure,’ said William Solecki, a geographer at Hunter College and a member of the panel. But what good are warnings? Intelligence agents received advance word that terrorists were hoping to hijack commercial jets. Who listened? (Not George W. Bush.) If we can’t imagine our own deaths, as Freud insisted, how can we be expected to imagine the death of a city?

History is a series of random events organized in a seemingly sensible order. We experience it as chronology, with ourselves as the end point — not the end point, but as the culmination of events that leads to the very moment in which we happen to live. ‘Historical events might be unique, and given pattern by an end,’ the critic Frank Kermode proposed in The Sense of an Ending, his classic work on literary narrative, ‘yet there are perpetuities which defy both the uniqueness and the end.’ What he’s saying (I think) is that there is no pattern. Flux is all.

Last month’s ‘weather event’ should have taught us that. Whether in 50 or 100 or 200 years, there’s a good chance that New York City will sink beneath the sea. But if there are no patterns, it means that nothing is inevitable either. History offers less dire scenarios: the city could move to another island, the way Torcello was moved to Venice, stone by stone, after the lagoon turned into a swamp and its citizens succumbed to a plague of malaria. The city managed to survive, if not where it had begun. Perhaps the day will come when skyscrapers rise out of downtown Scarsdale.”

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Old Print Article: “Beach Combers’ Bonanza,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1897)

November 26, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

As we are tossed about in this shipwreck of a world, some people get free furniture and some bubonic plague. Coney Island residents were fortunate enough to be in the former camp in 1897 in the wake of the sinking of the Alvena. An excerpt about their bounty from an article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on January 27th of that year:

“The sinking of the Alvena last Thursday has proved a bonanza to the sand fleas and beach combers of Coney Island as well as to many other of its residents. Jack McPhee, one of the island’s most indefatigable beach combers, who for years has made his living from what is cast up by the sea, was the first to discover the treasures of the beach. He was out early yesterday morning, as he usually is after a heavy wind storm and discovered to his amazement and delight the beach strewn with barrels, casks, boxes, cases, bedding and sorts of ship supplies and furniture.

Further investigation showed that the cases, too, were full of brandy, champagne, and Burgundy. Then there were casks of claret and other choice imported wines, cases of imported Dutch herrings, crates of clothing, cases of fine preserves and confections, packages of canned goods of all sorts, fine inlaid wooden furniture and other articles which went to make up the cargo of the ocean liner.

McPhee did not stand long in contemplation of the treasures, but true to his Coney Island training, started to make hay while the sun shone. He gave his first attention as a matter of a course, to the wine, and had made two trips to his domicile before he finally made up his mind that there was enough for everyone, and as the early islanders were getting out of bed, he told everyone he met of his discovery. The news spread like wildfire, and in a short time the beach was lined with people–some even came with wagons to cart the stuff.

It soon became generally known that under the law, whatever was found must be turned in to the nearest police station within forty-eight hours or the finder would be guilty of a misdemeanor. That put somewhat of a damper upon the spirits of the searchers, but at the same time redoubled their energies in getting away with their find, before the police became aware of it. Some, in their greed, dragged cases and bundles up on the beach and buried them, marking the places in their memory. The high winds soon obliterated all traces of the caches and the goods will remain there intact, until suspicion shall have been lulled to sleep by time, when they will probably be dug up.

When finally the police heard of the find, Captain Knipe and a squad of men visited the beach, but almost everything was gone.”

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“This Machine Would Be The ‘Last Invention’ That Mankind Will Ever Make”

November 26, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

While I’m fully aware that humanity can off itself in any number of ways–climate change seems most prominent right now–I don’t think the Singularity will be the end of us. Carbon and silicon can synthesize quite nicely. But some people argue persuasively that the rise of the latter means doom for the former. Machines, meanwhile, seem suspiciously unconcerned. From “Humanity’s Last Invention and Our Uncertain Future” at the University of Cambridge site:

“In 1965, Irving John ‘Jack’ Good sat down and wrote a paper for New Scientist called Speculations concerning the first ultra-intelligent machine. Good, a Cambridge-trained mathematician, Bletchley Park cryptographer, pioneering computer scientist and friend of Alan Turing, wrote that in the near future an ultra-intelligent machine would be built.

This machine, he continued, would be the ‘last invention’ that mankind will ever make, leading to an ‘intelligence explosion’ – an exponential increase in self-generating machine intelligence. For Good, who went on to advise Stanley Kubrick on 2001: a Space Odyssey, the ‘survival of man’ depended on the construction of this ultra-intelligent machine.

Fast forward almost 50 years and the world looks very different. Computers dominate modern life across vast swathes of the planet, underpinning key functions of global governance and economics, increasing precision in healthcare, monitoring identity and facilitating most forms of communication – from the paradigm shifting to the most personally intimate. Technology advances for the most part unchecked and unabated.

While few would deny the benefits humanity has received as a result of its engineering genius – from longer life to global networks – some are starting to question whether the acceleration of human technologies will result in the survival of man, as Good contended, or if in fact this is the very thing that will end us.”

“Human Beings Want To Understand Themselves”

November 26, 2012 in Books, Excerpts | Permalink

The opening paragraphs of Thomas Nagel’s review of a pair of just-published volumes about morality in the New York Review of Books:

“Human beings want to understand themselves, and in our time such understanding is pursued on a wide front by the biological, psychological, and social sciences. One of the questions presented by these forms of self-understanding is how to connect them with the actual lives all of us continue to lead, using the faculties and engaging in the activities and relations that are described by scientific theories.

An important example is the universal human phenomenon of morality. Even if we come to accept descriptive theories of the different forms of morality based on evolutionary biology, neuroscience, or developmental and social psychology, each of us also holds specific moral views, makes moral judgments, and governs his conduct and political choices partly on the basis of those attitudes. How do we combine the external descriptive view of ourselves provided by empirical science with the active internal engagement of real life?”

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“You Can Get The Cost Down To Half A Million Dollars For Someone To Move To Mars”

November 26, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Elon Musk, who dreams big, believes he can create a Mars community of 80,000 during his lifetime. An excerpt from Discovery piece by Rob Coppinger about the proposed space colony:

“He also estimated that of the eight billion humans that will be living on Earth by the time the colony is possible, perhaps one in 100,000 would be prepared to go. That equates to potentially 80,000 migrants.

Musk figures the colony program — which he wants to be a collaboration between government and private enterprise — would end up costing about $36 billion. He arrived at that number by estimating that a colony that costs 0.25 percent or 0.5 percent of a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) would be considered acceptable.

The United States’ GDP in 2010 was $14.5 trillion; 0.25 percent of $14.5 trillion is $36 billion. If all 80,000 colonists paid $500,000 per seat for their Mars trip, $40 billion would be raised.

‘Some money has to be spent on establishing a base on Mars. It’s about getting the basic fundamentals in place,’ Musk said. ‘That was true of the English colonies [in the Americas]; it took a significant expense to get things started. But once there are regular Mars flights, you can get the cost down to half a million dollars for someone to move to Mars. Then I think there are enough people who would buy that to have it be a reasonable business case.'”

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It’s Actually A Few Thousand Hits

November 26, 2012 in Books, Excerpts, Humor | Permalink

Penn Jillette: A juggler or something.


I’m always overjoyed whenever I see Penn Jillette, but I soon realize that Andre the Giant has not, in fact, been reincarnated, and I return to sitting shiva.

Penn has written a new book, Every Day Is An Atheist Holiday!, which is being published to coincide with the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This time he’s named names. Considering what a high-powered show-biz career Penn’s had, you know it’s going to be juicy. The following questions are sure, at last, to be answered: Which, if any, of the Flying Karamazov Brothers have had gonorrhea? Does Brother Theodore smell like cabbage or does cabbage smell like Brother Theodore? Is it true Al Goldstein broke his hip while falling off of Gloria Leonard at the Ben-Gurion Retirement Center? Wow, and that’s just the beginning! Randomly open this book to any page, begin reading and you’ll quickly suspect it was that quiet fuck Teller who had all the brilliant ideas.

Penn also spills about his faux TV boss, Donald Trump, a bigoted, orange-headed buffoon who hasn’t been told the truth about himself very often. Apparently, Trump is upset that some blogs repeatedly ridicule him. From the New York Daily News:

The magician calls Trump’s boardroom behavior “free-form rants in front of a captive audience,” where the billionaire would whine “about articles written about him and defend himself against charges made, as far as I could tell, by random bloggers with a few hundred hits. Attacks that could have no impact on his life at all. It sounded like this cat was Googling himself, being bugged by what was written, and then defending himself to people who were trying to improve their careers by playing a TV game with him.”•

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