fiat luxemburg

Alternatively,

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:39:52 -0500

I guess “the future is joy-proof” isn’t something I don’t believe.

a BMW slogan, which is false

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:22:44 -0500

keyholez:

“Joy is futureproof.”

More like AwesomeCog!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:29:30 -0500

In 2002 America’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, best known for developing the internet four decades ago, embarked on a futuristic initiative called Augmented Cognition, or “AugCog”. Commander Dylan Schmorrow, a cognitive scientist with the navy, devised a crown of sensors to monitor activity in the brain such as blood flow and oxygen levels. The idea was that modern warfare requires soldiers to think like never before. They have to do things that require large amounts of information, such as manage drones or oversee a patrol from a remote location. The system can help soldiers make sense of the flood of information streaming in. So if the sensors detect that the wearer’s spatial memory is becoming saturated, new information will be sent in a different form, say via an audio alert instead of text. In a trial in 2005 the device achieved a 100% improvement in recall and a 500% increase in working memory. [The Economist 2/27/10]

Tumblr won’t even take my $9. I guess they have standards...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:57:26 -0500

Tumblr won’t even take my $9. I guess they have standards (but what are they!?)

Also, small moves.

"Just as our medical quacks have claimed"

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:33:00 -0500

keyholez:

[…]As a concentrated source of EPA, snake oil is a credible anti-inflammatory agent and might indeed confer therapeutic benefits. Since essential fatty acids are known to absorb transdermally, it is not far-fetched to think that inflamed skin and joints could benefit by the actual anti-inflammatory action of locally applied oil just as the Chinese physicians and our medical quacks have claimed.[…]

Richard A. Kunin, MD
2698 Pacific Ave
San Francisco, CA 94115

From the Western Journal of Medicine, August 1989.

Admit that you’re pretty disappointed there’s not vitamin D in there.

"A portable, plugless, brain-to-computer interface using electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes..."

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:38:57 -0500

“A portable, plugless, brain-to-computer interface using electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes strapped to the scalp has been developed by a team in the US. The device may allow paraplegics and others who have lost control of their limbs to control prosthetic devices and other equipment using their thoughts alone.”

- Recent University of Maryland work covered at PhysOrg.

staff: Now testing: Pages You can now add static pages to your...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:47:42 -0500

staff:

Now testing: Pages

You can now add static pages to your blog, with a few very useful options. Head to your blog’s Customize page and click the “Pages” menu to get started. There are currently three types of Pages you can create:

Standard Layout. Create a simple page with a title and body using your current theme.

Custom Layout. Create a page with a completely separate layout.

Redirect. Forward a route to a page on another domain. Useful for maintaining links when moving your domain name over to Tumblr.

Developers: Check out the Theme Docs for instructions on implementing the new {block:Pages} tag.

Time to go?

Don’t worry, it’ll be fun if (when) well all do...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:12:11 -0500

Don’t worry, it’ll be fun if (when) well all do it!

“Who would ever want email on their phone?”

(via spime)

spime via braincraft

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:06:09 -0500

spime via braincraft

More ev on the "talk to me about the iPad being silly after Christmas" position

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:27:57 -0500

More ev on the "talk to me about the iPad being silly after Christmas" position

skyscraper:dexxus on flickr

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:28:08 -0500

skyscraper:dexxus on flickr

"The term “spasm war” is now almost standard jargon in military and government circles and, to some..."

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:17:12 -0500

“The term “spasm war” is now almost standard jargon in military and government circles and, to some degree, in journalism as well. I believe the expression originated in briefings I gave some years ago in which some war-plan proposals were referred to as “orgiastic spasms of destruction.” During one of these briefings, I said to the audience, “You people do not have a war plan. You have a ‘war-gasm.’ ” These expressions were put forward with no particular reference to their sexual implications, but some of my colleagues, more conversant with Freudian concepts and literature than I, argue that the term “spasm war” is more accurate and descriptive than one might like to think. The point is, in any event, outside the scope of this discussion.”

- On Escalation - Herman Kahn (via unpublishedrhyme) (via absalomabsalom)

This is the worst infographic ever. This data is meaningless...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:58:00 -0500

This is the worst infographic ever. This data is meaningless without the total number of songs.

darkwingdach:

Autostraddle: Why Taylor Swift Offends Little Monsters, Feminists, and Weirdos

Die.

married life

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:54:51 -0500

keyholez:

We chased keema, brussels sprouts, and mushrooms with champagne with vitamin D and flaxseed oil with champagne.

So, hipster vitamin party, no?

#scienceconfessions

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:21:33 -0500

#scienceconfessions

keyholez: Well, jeepers. My initial judgment, based on Lux’s...

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:45:00 -0500

keyholez:

Well, jeepers. My initial judgment, based on Lux’s summary alone, was that the project seemed dangerous and maybe a little evil; on closer inspection, the project seems dangerous and maybe a little evil!

[…]After all, what’s the worst that could happen if you create an arbitrary human mind without having any clue what you’re actually doing?”

It’s really not cool to fabricate a soul, keep it trapped in a box, torture it, drive it crazy, try to make it un-crazy, reboot it, etc. […]

On the first point, this is a risk even when one brings life into the world the old fashioned way. On the second (and no one should underestimate how seriously Keyholez takes the charge of uncoolness), I think I’ve made it clear how I feel about ~~souls~~. As explained by Keyholez₂₀₀₉:

This has to do with being a materialist — i.e. not a religion-crazed imbecile. Where do you, o wise and honorable Reverend Greif, think love happens? The soul, you little muppet? […]

These people call themselves intellectuals, but they have yet to adjust their worldview to align with the basic scientific discoveries of the last several centuries, so they end up accidentally spouting nonsense, invoking some ghostly person-essence that does all the loving and the smooching, totally independent from nasty, Scrooge-like “brain chemistry,” which no one should trust their daughter with. [Emphasis added]

Here’s the hypothetical I’d like to run through: We fabricate this ~~soul~~ in this box and run the torturous program once. So, we do a little bit of evil. Then we do it again and again and again. More evil? Now, what if we put the ~~soul~~ in the box and just run a simulation that is totally awesome (or design a brain that enjoys what another considers torture, but we’ll leave that alone for the moment). Negative evil (“goodness”?) points? What if we run more happy simulations than we do sad ones and still come out with more insight into the operation of the brain? Net positive on the good/evil thing and science points! Everybody wins!

The point is that ethics gets pretty murky if you can just start generating more utils by running more supercomputers no matter what you do with that capability. Hey, what if we can simulate trillions of happy existences for the same resources it would take to provide for a million “real” people over the course of their lives? If the soul in the box is equally ethically salient (as Keyholez₂₀₁₀ is suggesting) we’d be remiss for wasting our money on inefficient version 1.0 embodied ~~souls~~.

But I don’t think any of this is relevant for the same reason I’ve always dismissed speculation about singularity-style technological advancement scenarios that focus overly narrowly on AI/whole-brain simulation: We’ll get halfway there first, and that will be wacky enough.

I wish I’d been using tags so I could call up all the examples of brain-computer interfaces I’ve posted about and try to demonstrate that there’s progress being made in the field (as opposed to directionless, largely non-sequential localized advances). Instead I’ll just finally getting around to posting about the new X PRIZE: $10 million for some sort of big progress on brain-computer interface systems (they’ve neither fully defined the criteria for success nor finished raising the money, but it’s the thought that counts).

The last X PRIZE went to Virgin Galactic for progress in commercial space flight, and that’s not exactly commonplace. I realize that just because a lot of nerds are trying to buy incremental progress on this front isn’t going to usher in a new era all that soon.

But that line of work and the sort of things the Bluebrain folks are working one will converge before either reaches any sort revolutionary potential on its own. We’ll have ambiguous hybrid cases before we have to ask about whether what’s in the box is a ~~soul~~ created ex-nihilio or not.

Well, I think it is interesting

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:24:00 -0500

In general I thought that religiously restrictive dietary practices tended to largely overlap or be nested inside on another. More specifically, without getting into drawing pictures, Jewish and Muslim dietary restrictions are similar-ish in a lot of ways and so overlap a bunch. It’s possible to follow both, although you’d get some weirdness in doubling-up on incantations during slaughterings. Each also allows or proscribes things the other does not, so it would also be possible to follow one but not the other. In the midst of the overlap is vegetarianism (as in Hinduism) and within that the Xtreme Jain version of vegetarianism (no root vegetables, kills too many bacteria, etc.).

With that general tendency towards concordance in mind, I was surprised to learn that Sikhism (and the consensus among meat eating Hindus) explicitly prohibits eating ritually slaughtered animals, the only kind allowed in Judaism and Islam! They have jhatka meat (as opposed to kosher or halal) which is

Meat from an animal which has been killed by a single strike of a sword or axe to sever the head, as opposed to Jewish slaughter or Islamic slaughter in which the animal is killed by ritually slicing the throat. It has been described as the antithesis of ritual slaughter. [Wikipedia]

Basically the reason is that the Abrahamic fetishization of the killing process is creepy, which is a reasonable position.

But also, Sikh temples only serve vegetarian food precisely because everyone is allowed to eat it (as per said general concordance) and it would be mean to do otherwise (also very reasonable).

In conclusion, for the World’s 5th largest religion I sure don’t know much about Sikhism!

almostepistles: so the pilot wrote a manifesto, but it has been taken down at the request of the...

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:53:08 -0500

almostepistles:

so the pilot wrote a manifesto, but it has been taken down at the request of the FBI.

Looks like the FBI can’t stop Wonkette!

It’s sort of worth a look!

"The next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World"

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:53:00 -0500

They are charging money for this…

You’ve committed your life to Jesus. You know you’re saved. But when the Rapture comes what’s to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind.

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you’ve received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets (via io9)

Tumblr Staff: Dashboard API: Part 1

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:52:00 -0500

Tumblr Staff: Dashboard API: Part 1:

I asked Leoncrawl to ask Tumblr about this and then it happened?