We are stardust, no need to pave paradise. Space Elevators, Space Hotels, and Space Tourism
"Most NASA programs would surely evolve to make use of the space elevator facility. In particular, the focus of NASA's manned space program is likely to move beyond low Earth orbit, to the Moon, Mars, or the asteroid belt. Lunar development in particular could reduce the cost of large construction projects in Earth orbit by supplying materials for lower launch costs.
The International Space Station might get relocated to Lagrange point One (L1), where it could serve as a staging area for missions to a Mars base. NASA astronauts would then book passage on a commercial flight to the space hotel, then catch a space taxi over to their space station." |
Long-Term Growth As A Sequence of Exponential Modes by Robin Hanson points to a singularly obvious point.
| "In this paper we have thus attempted the neglect task of more formally describing long term world product growth as a sequence of exponential growth modes. We found that a time series of world product over the last two million years can be comfortably described as either as a sum of four exponentials, or as a CES-combination of three exponentials. (An earlier period of exponential growth in brain sizes may be the relevant previous growth mode.)" | Not generally prone to projecting personal insights gained by omphaloskepsis (oh, c'mon, look it up!), I have always thought that "life" does not have a definitive diminuative departure point. Bacteria are small, viruses are tiny, the Prions - Puzzling Infectious Proteins are truly primal.
| "So, a couple new ground rules now seem to govern infectious diseases. The first is that naked proteins--prions--can be infectious and can cause infectious diseases. The second and potentially more troubling is that, like other infectious agents, prions can jump species' barriers and cause deadly diseases in humans." | Kuru: The Dynamics of a Prion Disease
| "According to Cohen et al., prions cause a variety of degenerative neurologic diseases that can be infectious, inherited, or sporadic in origin. The cause of the sporadic forms is unknown; inherited forms are caused by up to twenty different mutations of the human PrP gene; and the infectious forms are transmitted through contact with or consumption of previously infected tissues." |
Sebastian Bleasdale writes a comprehesive and very readable synopsis of our current understanding, in Entropy and the Universe.
"A beginning, a muddle, and an end."
D. Larkin | Grokking our present state accurately, and so having the ability to make any kind of predictive sense, is what Hans Moravec does with aplomb as he quanswers When will computer hardware match the human brain? Equally telling are the Open Peer Commentaries on his paper which demonstrate the cognitive dynamism this field enjoys.
| "Dr Moravec estimates that Deep Blue can apply about 3 million MIPS in
its problem domain. I'm guessing that we can build an equivalent,
affordable machine today that is not restricted to the chess domain.If
so, the hardware for human-level AI is available today, and human-level
AI is "merely" a small matter of programming." | A logical step towards machine intelligence is being taken by Intelligenesis, whose nominal 'head' is Ben Goertzel. Here he describes Wild Computing - Steps Toward a Philosophy of Internet Intelligence.
| "The Webmind system provides a general "agents operating system" for managing systems of software agents that share meaning amongst each other, transform each other, and interact in various ways; the agents may live in the RAM of a single machine, may be run on multiple processors, and may live across many machines connected by high-bandwidth cable." | Involution: On the Structure and Process of
Existence, Revisited draws lines in the fields of spime and discovers chaorder.
| "Using systematic analysis of phenomena across levels of complexity of existence enables a clearer understanding of the underlying structure and evolutionary process of the universe." | The Principia Cybernetica by means of author F. Heylighen puts The Social Superorganism and its
Global Brain under the macroscope, and decides that at the moment we more closely resemble slime mold than panoptic sentience.
| "Although
many people tend to see the super-organism philosophy as a totalitarian or collectivist
ideology, the opposite is true: further integration will basically increase individual freedom
and diversity." | Transitional (Wednes)day, the glass is half empty/full, and our minds are brought to warming recognition of a reason to get out of bed. Eliezer S. Yudkowsky, with fine style and cosmic humor, delivers us from mediocrity with a FAQ about the Meaning of Life. I was in a blue funk; now I'm just funky.
| "There's no such thing as science." |
Luminary futurists are looking into the light with these Comments on Vinge's Singularity. Contributors include Alexander Chislenko, Anders Sandberg, Max More and many others; as well as the sagacious Eliezer S. Yudkowsky!
"The options before us appear to be limited:
1. Achieve some form of 'singularity' -- or at least a phase shift, to a higher and more
knowledgeable society (one that may have problems of its own that we can't imagine.)
2. Self-destruction
3. Retreat into some form of more traditional human society. One that discourages the sorts of extravagant exploration that might lead to results 1 or 2."
David Brin |
a page dedicated to the memory of Sasha Chislenko....
Networking in the Mind Age
Nick Bostrom is a marvel of curiosity; personified. In the quote below he is responding to the lack of motivation among American youth to pursue science or mathematics. When Machines Outsmart Humans (will they need therapy?) is an article of extraordinary clarity on the philosophic and tangible aspects of how we will deal with created intelligence.
| "We didn't evolve to enjoy mathematics. Those who do are freaks. A really inspirational teacher who can convey the real meaning of mathematics and show how it all hangs together will no doubt make the subject more exciting. However, it is probably more feasible to develop a drug that increases intellectual curiosity (maybe by raising acetylcoline and/or dopamine levels) than it is to install one truly inspirational teacher in every class room. " | Sri Bostrom points us to Robin Hanson as a prime example of a true polymath; a species I think sorely missing from today's political biota. Here Sir Hanson displays novel excogitation and creates a new system of governance; Futarchy: Vote Values, But Bet Beliefs.
"Futarchy seems promising if we accept the following three assumptions:
* Democracies fail largely by not aggregating available information.
* It is not that hard to tell rich happy nations from poor miserable ones.
* Betting markets are our best known institution for aggregating information." | The morsel of space debris that made a close encounter with us in the southern Yukon continues to impress researchers, as Purdue puts this
Primordial Meteorite in a Class by Itself.
| "A chemical analysis of a rare, uncontaminated 4.5 billion-year-old
meteorite that fell to Earth earlier this year shows that its composition sets it apart from other
meteorites found on Earth, giving scientists a glimpse of the solar system that has not been seen before." | Daryl E. Chubin, Senior Policy Officer, National Science
Board Office, NSF, shows us the political edge of the scientific mobius in Transcending the Places That Hold Us:
Public Policy and Participation in Science; and invites us to get active.
| "Federal programs targeted to particular groups is no longer a viable policy strategy. Affirmative action as we know it is dead." | The Walrus came, so I'll clam up and leave; to return earlier. Time Travel
| "The evidence for travel in both directions in time exists in special relativity, general
relativity and thermodynamics, and generally throughout the physical sciences. Without
reverse time travel there are considerable philosophical and theoretical difficulties, such as
that posed by Dirac's multiple infinite negative mass-energy background." | In Physics we trust by Tarun Biswas is a humorous, biting and often bang-on examination of physics as religion. His intuition that the Third Coming (Newton and Einstein, eh) is imminent may not be merely immanent.
| "Let me start by annoying anthropologists." | The Global Resources Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists brings us the map, wherein the fingerprints and harbingers of global warming are detailed. The effects are already being clearly felt (at least I feel it, and it's all the talk y'know...) here in our part of the north, with warmer dryer (sic, already!) winters and wetter cooler summers - we hardly had summer this year, more like a long spring and an early fall.
| "Although many of the indicators are concentrated in North
America and Europe -- where the science is the strongest -- the
map clearly illustrates the global nature of climate changes." | What is endosymbiosis? Dr Lynn Margulis cooperates with our interest:
Microbiological Collaboration of the Gaia Hypothesis.
| "All life on earth is a unified spatiotemporal system with no clear-cut boundaries." | As Rachael Carson did a whole Model of Reality ago, David Pimentel and friends provide a dire warning; this time of impending biocaust.
Ecology of Increasing Disease: Population growth and environmental degradation
| "The crowding of people into urban areas; the
movement of populations into new environments; the increased use of chemicals
that pollute soils, water, and air; the misuse of antibiotics, leading to resistance in
disease microbes; and growing malnutrition all contribute to the worldwide
increase of human diseases." | To help fully appreciate the amazing field through which I am, the Rational Enquirer provides Twenty Science Attitudes.
| "Empathy for the human condition. Contrary to popular belief, there is a value system in science, and it is based on humans being the only organisms that can "imagine" things that are not triggered by stimuli present at the immediate time in their environment; we are, therefore, the only creatures to "look" back on our past and plan our future." | E-terview with Alexander Chislenko C!
| "I can't resist the temptation to criticize the
terms "digital" and "electronic" here. These are just
surface observations of current technologies. Our DNA
is more quantized than our software, and electrons
play a more direct and crucial role in keeping our
bodies or physical tools together than they play in
transmitting information in the fiber-optic networks.
The real direction of development in the last 15
billion years has been the liberation of functions
from their physical carriers." |
 Soon it will be aurora borealis time again here in the Yukon - I was disappointed that during the solar storm earlier this summer we were immersed in our almost endless daylight, which would have been fine except that we're experiencing an unusually grey and cool season - Auroral Sounds primes the ionospheric fire.
| Electric silk. Soft, rippling, crackly | By way of ghost rocket I have been introduced to Nanodot - News and Discussion of Coming Technologies, which brought me to Zyvex...assembling tomorrow which led back to the Foresight Institute and a dense yet important essay (warning?) Some Limits to Global Ecophagy
by Biovorous Nanoreplicators,
with Public Policy Recommendations.
| "Perhaps the earliest-recognized and best-known danger of molecular nanotechnology is the risk that
self-replicating nanorobots capable of functioning autonomously in the natural environment could
quickly convert that natural environment (e.g., "biomass") into replicas of themselves (e.g.,
"nanomass") on a global basis, a scenario usually referred to as the "gray goo problem" but perhaps
more properly termed "global ecophagy." " | Where else could I go from there but to Self Replicating Systems and Molecular Manufacturing by Ralph C. Merkle. Almost antique in this field - originally published in 1992 - it remains a seminal work.
| "This should let us create a low cost manufacturing technology able to build almost any product that is (a) specified with atomic precision and (b) is consistent with the laws of chemistry and physics." | A Compendium of hurl-worthy comments and experiences from the readers of Heartless Bitches International. I'm in troubled surfing territory tonight; oh no.
| "Men who find out I am a scientist and then want to get into some sort of
intellectual pissing match. I don't really care who is smarter, to tell you the truth.
On the other hand I am not going to "play dumb" to satisfy their egos and
guess what? That makes me a castrating bitch!" |
Having filled up with enough negativity to fuel the black light for a while, what do I do but find more. In a highly critical review of Fashionable Nonsense - Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science, Eric Lott deepens my angst; am I really Old Left?
| "Like Richard Rorty, the bland old man of this
camp, Sokal and Bricmont lament that
"remnants of the left have collaborated in
driving the last nail in the coffin of the ideals of
justice and progress," which, translated,
means the new social movements make us
exNew Left white guys feel unimportant." |
Winging it on a higher plane, Anthony Giddens administers fine anti-venom in a lecture that identifies the three big changes simply running through most of our lives, for
most people, living across the face of the world. Globalisation, scientific innovation and technological change coupled with custom and tradition in retreat, all point toward a need for Third Way politics. I like the feeling that the words "fuzzy sovereignty" give as they memetically worm their way toward the rot of (inner)nationalism.
| "Whatever happens in the near future, just
as market philosophies of a crude kind really dominated the last
20 or so years, the debate around Third Way politics, the debate
around civil society, the debate around third sector and voluntary
groups will be the centre point of political debate, discussions
and political structures for the next 20 years." | In reply to his most vaunted critic, Murray Bookchin delivers a stunning blow to those who would co-opt our re-evolutionary insights for their own pejorative purposes. Comments on the International Social Ecology
Network Gathering and the "Deep Social
Ecology" of John Clark
| "We are facing a real crisis in this truly counterrevolutionary time--not only in
society's relationship with the natural world but in human consciousness itself. By
designating himself as a "social deep ecologist or a deep social ecologist," Clark
has obfuscated earnest attempts to demarcate the differences between a
deadening mystical, often religious, politically inert, and potentially reactionary
tendency in the ecology movement, and one that is trying to emphasize the need
for fundamental social change and fight uncompromisingly the 'present state of
political culture.'" | The Anxiety of Clearings by Paul Carter is a prose poem that elevates observation to a whole new level, weaving archetypal insight with Homo Ethical exsight; and the process wreaks recognition of divine loss.
| "A true scientist, not driven by the purblindness of economic greed, is also a seer, a dreamer, drifting between the visible and the invisible, the without and the within." | In one of the cleanest, most precice essays of it's kind, Albert E. Smith asks the Einstein Question: Does God Play At Dice? Actually Albert did not ask, but rather baldly stated:
| "Der Herr Gott würfelt nicht." | Well, here it is. The opportunity we've all been waiting for but really didn't have to wait for since when it is built, it will be as if it had already been built; so we can stop waiting. How to Construct a Time Machine "A Time Machine, that is, a device for exploring Time, is no more difficult to conceive of than a
Space Machine, whether you consider Time as the fourth dimension of Space or as a locus
essentially different because of its contents."
Edward Teller, whose very mention sends an odd chill into me, writes an essay on Science and Morality.(!) He makes his case very well, but it is still deeply disturbing.
| "I am still asked on occasion whether I am not sorry for having invented such a terrible thing as the
hydrogen bomb. The answer is, I am not."
| 
Max Tegmark the Amtrak keg mixer, is a scientist with an infectiously ticklish spot for things cosmological and quantum; in fact Everything! Mad Max is relatively placed within the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, though his absolute position may never be known.
| "The only postulate in this theory is that all structures that exist mathematically exist also physically, by which we mean that in those complex enough to contain self-aware substructures (SASs), these SASs will subjectively perceive themselves as existing in a physically "real'' world." |
I just had to see if theoryofeverything.com had domained the ultimate answer. And yep, here is a Framework for a Theory of Everything by Douglas A. Pinnow, Ph.D.
"I am satisfied with a glimpse of the marvelous structure
of the existing world, striving to comprehend a portion."
Albert Einstein, 1931 |
Clarity by refutation is state of the art in this
Reply to Sci Am By Y. Bar-Yam.
| "Is life on earth
probable or improbable? This question can only be
answered by knowing not what is but what the
alternatives are." | John J Reilly's review of The End of the World:
The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction, by John Leslie, presents the case in far more succinct fashion than the tome itself that we must make our choices with utmost care.
| "There are ethicists who argue that, since
there will inevitably be unhappy people in any human population, it would be better if there were no
such populations. As my grammar school principal used to say, it's just a few who spoil it for all the
rest." | Humans and Future Communications Systems
Bernulf Kanitscheider, University of Giessen
| "Disconnection from the network will
require justification. He who cuts the communication channel will later on be asked why
he did so, and he will have to defend himself." | Ever closer to present attention Alan G Carter and Colston Sanger detail Some Weird Stuff. This is an amazing realm that includes such pellucid Homo Noeticae as Richard Feynman, Teilhard de Chardin, Vernor Vinge and the below quoted GSB, as well as questions on all our minds like (erk) What went wrong with game theory?
"In all mathematics it becomes apparent, at some stage, that we have for some time been
following a rule without being consciously aware of the fact. This might be described as
the use of a covert convention. A recognisable aspect of the advancement of
mathematics consists of the advancement of the consciousness of what we are doing,
whereby the covert becomes overt. Mathematics is in this respect psychedelic."
George Spencer-Brown | Whether or not we aspire to cosmic consciousness, our consciousness is cosmic. Cosmic Ancestry is the theory of panspermia, updated with recent developments, a healthy dollop of Lovelock, and ably presented by Brig Klyce.
| "We propose that Gaian processes are not blindly found and peculiar to Earth, but are pre-existent and universal; life from space brings Gaian processes with it. We suggest that Gaian processes are necessary for higher forms of life to emerge and succeed on any planet." |
Covering much the same territory,
The Cosmic and the Terrestrial: Environments of Living Nature takes the more traditional, and currently prevalent view that life is of terrestrial origin.
| "A vast and deep cosmic ocean of light, in which our planet earth is
an isolated and remote terrestrial island. An outcrop of terrestrial nature braving
the eternal cosmic swells of the local and the distant universal cosmic
environment." | The Variability of the 'Fundamental Constants' is a fascinating exploration by Rupert Sheldrake of what we take for granted. Do not underestimate the gravity of this anthropic principle's principal conundrums.
| "From around 1928 to 1945, the velocity of light appeared to be about 20 km/s lower than before and after this period." | Joanna L. Mountain, whose main field of interest is human population genetics, brings us up to date on Human Evolutionary Genetics.
| "With the results of these simulations in
mind, we can state that the regional groups (Africa, Asia, Oceania, and
Europe) have been isolated from one another for at least 25,000 years.
Populations within these regions appear to have been isolated for shorter
periods of time." | How likely are chance resemblances between languages? Well, let's see...hmm...
| "We simply have no great intuitive feel for
probabilities. Most people's eyes glaze over when you start talking about the chances of the
chances of r events among n objects over t trials with a single event probability of p." | Gerard K. O'Neill provides ample argument that we are alone, but this does not mean we need despair our solitude. Space Colonization and SETI is the subject of this interview conducted by John Kraus for Cosmic Search Magazine.
| "We have just barely, within the past few decades, just a microsecond
on the cosmic time scale, arrived at the point where we are able to use radio
communication. Within at most another few decades, another microsecond, we'll
be able to spread throughout the entire galaxy. We happen to be poised just on
that knife edge between the two. That gives us a strange and, I think, a very
distorted view of what's practical and possible." |
Accepting the fact that we are, indeed, here, Burt Wilson addresses The need for a Future Consciousness in which he includes the spiritual as the potentiality of science.
| "Science also must share the guilt beginning with Charles Darwin's failure to include spiritual evolution along with the physical in his precedent-setting study of the evolution of the species." | Stanley B. Prusiner investigates The Prion Diseases, of which BSE (mad moo malady) may be one.
| "Prions, once dismissed as an impossibility, have now gained wide recognition as
extraordinary agents that cause a number of infectious, genetic and spontaneous disorders." | The Artful Science of Medicine, by John A. Weeks, M.D., points to the potential of a truly ethical practise. This short book is a great read!
"Physician, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well."
Ambrose Bierce | I don't think I want to get in the way of the Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority. Uncaged, against vivisection aims to save pigs, and perhaps a lot of humans too.
| "Newly-emerging viruses pose one of the greatest threats to human wellbeing.
Xenotransplantation provides a unique direct route of entry for animal viruses into the human population." | Are you an engineer or a scientist by disposition? When I'm looking for information I tend to scan whole works where possible, though I do like being able to pinpoint things with author or title info. In this commentary from The Scientist, Eugene Garfield asks Why Is the Engineer So Different from the Scientist?
| "Back in 1958, I proposed a "Unified Index to Science" that would encompass the total coverage of the world's leading abstracting and indexing services. We are quickly reaching its equivalent." | George Monbiot's Amnesty Lecture is a powerful statement for putting the ethics of science in it's proper place, leading the cart.
| "It's time that we started to concentrate on asking and trying to answer the big questions, however
painful it might be. The world is best apprehended with the naked eye, not the gene sequencing
machine." | Frequently Encountered Criticisms in
Evolution vs. Creationism: Revised and
Expanded brings the light of reason to every aspect of this ridiculously anti-Platonic discourse.
| "Note that, as far as some creationists are concerned,
"evolution" includes much more than just evolutionary biology - creationist criticisms can extend to
much of geology, paleontology, physics, cosmology, astronomy, and numerous other areas of
scientific inquiry. This list is not nearly as complete or rigorous as it could be, but I hope it will help
as a useful initiation for beginners, and perhaps a reference for more experienced participants." | Reaching for the cognitive stars, Ideonomy finds beauty in the study of study. I'm trying to find the common ground with meme theory and all I keep visualizing is that snake swallowing it's tail.
| "The short but most exact definition of ideonomy is the science of ideas. By a longer
definition, it is the pure and applied science of ideas and their laws, and of the use of
same to describe, generate, investigate, or otherwise treat all possible ideas related to any
subject, problem, thing, or other idea." |
Our friendly neighborhood Carbon Chauvinist wonders and voices concerns about the Departure of the Body Snatchers.
| "I fear that in their desire to fly up to the
high frontier they may very well take Earth down with them. They are
among us already, I fear, urging our excarnation, seeking to convince us
that we should not be "trapped in old concepts" like the need for bodies
and planetary homes. I have seen them." | An essay of tragic beauty, Faith and Fraud shows us as we are, with wonderful fallible humanness and transhuman potential.
"Seeing
with humility, curiosity and fresh eyes was once the main
point of science. But today it is often a different story. As
the scientific enterprise has been bent toward exploitation,
institutionalization, hyperspecialization and new orthodoxy,
it has increasingly preoccupied itself with disconnected
facts in a spiritual, psychological, social and ecological
vacuum."
Daniel Drasin | We could analogously view the complex of human cultural multifariousness as that of a pangenetic explication of a universal need to explore the implications. So say I. Steve Jones asks Why Is There So Much Genetic Diversity?
| "I've spent a long time working on snails. This
seems an odd thing to do, but they remind us of one
question that remains unanswered, and is effectively
forgotten by many biologists: Why is there so much
diversity?" | Everything Forever, Learning To See and Model the Infinite Universe
| "This website describes the land of forever. It journeys beyond our present place in time to study the shape of the motionless timeless world that existed before our time began and will be after our time ends. It discovers the world of moments from which we borrow each moment of now." | Stanley B. Prusiner, "proteinaceous infectious particles", The Prion Diseases, ...bacteria, and viruses, and prions, oh no!
| "The known prion diseases, all fatal, are sometimes
referred to as spongiform encephalopathies. They are so
named because they frequently cause the brain to
become riddled with holes." |
Is SETI justified? A look at whether aliens might exist. is a well done examination of the Drake Equation.
Ted Lumley has archived a potpourri of his essays, including the interestingly if somewhat perplexingly titled Intermogular Space-Time Travel.
| "Our sensory experience informs us of this harmonic relationship between purpose, 'thought' and material structure even as our euclidian rationalist self-indoctrination would have us continue to deny it. Being part of nature, homo sapiens are equally animated by the need for harmonically satisfying the interplay between purpose, thought and material structure, yet we have been in a 2500 year state of denial." |
Graham Oppy takes Frank Tipler and his Physics of Immortality very seriously in this critical analysis. By uncovering the pseudo-scientific streams of consciousness that Tipler pours into his book he reveals Physics for the largely speculative fiction it is. This is the kind of layman's refutation that could come as an attachment to the original; lest we take the Omega Point Theory, and Tipler, too seriously.
In the shorter term we are coming in for a landing and must choose whether it will be a hard or soft one. What Chris King, of the Mathematics Department, University of Auckland, is talking about is Avoiding Genetic Holocaust.
| "Science has great value as a detailed description of reality founded on the sceptical
principle, but science has nil net ethical content. It is the description of how, not why, or what
humanity should do. For every enlightened ecologist there is an unscrupulous genetic engineer
working for a multinational corporation, so all the work many enlightened scientists are trying to do is
simultaneously being offset by other scientists, by exploitive corporate practices, government
expediency and complacency and by poverty-stricken migrant populations." | Putting 'Errors' In Perspective takes an historical view and points out that mistakes can be a valuable tool. I think Gregor Mendel erred in his choice of spectacles.
| "Errors of observation and
interpretation inevitably creep in, and
corrections must be made. But it's
difficult to overcome well-established
maps of science drawn by
well-established scientists." | Whether you have heard of David Foster or not, you are probably aware of his argument that the development of life on earth is so improbable that it must have been divinely ordained. Richard Carrier writes a comprehensive review of Foster's work; Bad Science, Worse Philosophy.
| "Although there are a few scientific mistakes that are appalling, even more disappointing is the logic of Foster's arguments, and how his persistent logic-chopping refutes itself. What you read here may in fact be useful not just for addressing those who cite Foster, by name or anonymously, but by all those who attempt to make similar arguments. It may also be educational in itself, as Foster's fallacies make excellent textbook examples that would be quite useful in any logic or philosophy class." | In a well scripted primer on sociobiology, Maia Szalavitz examines women's prominent role in this science.
| "...opponents of evolutionary psychology
have continued to caricature the field as describing
all men as rapacious and marriage-phobic while
women remain coy and virginal. But once again,
the plot thickens. First, marriage offers at least as
much to men as it does to women." |
In the first chapter of her book Co-Creative Science, Machaelle Small Wright brings us out of the grey of scientific orthodoxy and into the neuro-crystaline light of Changing How We Perceive Nature.
Beyond Discovery: The Path from Research to Human Benefit is a perhaps self-justifying yet well presented series of articles from the National Academy of Sciences.
| "Each case study reveals the crucial role played by basic science,
the applications of which could not have been anticipated at the time the
original research was conducted." |
Jerry Rosen thinks that the perfect joint project for nanotechnology and space sciences would be a space elevator, or orbital tower. Was this the ultimate phallic dream for Otis?
You're in a real pickle. You have to get a leech to bite or your blood will thicken and your heart will suck mud. Studies such as the Effect of ale, garlic, and soured cream on the appetite of
leeches restore your faith that science can indeed answer all.
Of immediate concern is that we are rising above the genetic matrix without the appropriate perceptual container. The Bioethics Forum, of Princeton University, is a good place to start understanding what will be the issue of this century; if not all of cosmanity's future.
Digital Matter Control as performed by Fractal Robots could make current manufacturing techniques obsolete. These are the people that have developed a prototype of the liquid robot in Terminator 2.
| "As the robot is fractal, the individual cubes can be shrunk to the
size of grains of sand. By the time they are a millimeter in size,
individual cubes are difficult to pick out and when they move, they
will appear to flow like liquid metal. The resulting machine has
fantastic shape shifting properties." | Beyond Discovery: The Path from Research to Human Benefit is a perhaps self-justifying yet well presented series of articles from the National Academy of Sciences.
| "Each case study reveals the crucial role played by basic science,
the applications of which could not have been anticipated at the time the
original research was conducted." |
Jerry Rosen thinks that the perfect joint project for nanotechnology and space sciences would be a space elevator, or orbital tower. Was this the ultimate phallic dream for Otis?
Grinning Idiot Press brings us Why I have been studying Vampires since 1972. When I was done reading this short essay I was grinning like an idiot; but then it hit me, my ex is a robot.
So you want to build a nanotech device that will build nanotech devices that will serve your every whim? Well, did you think the lawyers wouldn't get involved?? Tiny Torts: A Liability Primer
| "Because personal responsibility is the most fundamental
foundation stone of tort law, the development of real, autonomous AI entities will likely result in a
relative rarity in the common law; a discontinuity. It seems that a definite break-point will occur,
beyond which the law will recognize a "synthetic person" whose acts are not ascribable to its creator." | David Suzuki works tirelessly to bring the light of reason to the often nyctalopial view of specialists; those of science, business or government. In this edition of his weekly essay,Scientists Must Balance Values, Research and Responsibilities, he addresses those who say that science must be objective.
| "But this argument fails because "pure" science is a fallacy
to begin with. By the very act of choosing to investigate
particular issues and ask certain questions, scientists
impose values on their work. Findings are also open to
interpretation, depending on the framework from which
they are viewed." | A teacher and his class determined to put Nicola Tesla in his proper historical place, and we all can wonder why he has been Erased at the Smithsonian.
| "Tesla died January 7, 1943, alone, and all but forgotten, in a New York hotel
room, paid for by a meager stipend provided by a foreign government." |
Who is The Greatest Hacker of All Time? My vote goes to me, but I shouldn't smoke.
| "So, let me introduce
you to him, and his greatest hack. I'll warn you right up front that it's mind
numbing. By the way, everything I'm going to tell you is true and
verifiable down at your local library. Don't worry -- we're not heading off
into a Shirley MacLaine UFO-land story. Just some classy electrical
engineering..." | Using the words of Darwin himself:
"I am convinced that
natural selection has been the
main but not the exclusive
means of modification.", Steven Jay Gould examines the strict constructionism of Darwinian fundamentalism.
| "Darwin's system should be
viewed as morally liberating, not cosmically
depressing. The answers to moral
questions cannot be found in nature's
factuality in any case, so why not take the
"cold bath" of recognizing nature as
nonmoral, and not constructed to match
our hopes?" | As Rachael Carson did a whole Model of Reality ago, David Pimentel and friends provide a dire warning; this time of impending biocaust. Ecology of Increasing Disease
Population growth and environmental degradation
| "In this article, we assess the relationship between high population density and
increasing environmental degradation. We also examine the effects of both factors
(separately and in combination) on present and future disease incidence throughout
the world." | Jesse Hirsh makes a passionate case for the hacker as bulwark of freedom during an age of increasing centralization of control, in Thoughts on Hacktivism.
| "Hacking Reality is the means by which we can reclaim our
communities and struggle towards an equitable and democratic
society. Within this technological system that surrounds us, the
Hacker struggles to become human." | "All the junk that's fit to debunk" is the motto of Junkscience.com, who do an admirable job of calling to task those who would research to decieve. All us coffee drinkers may be able to slurpilly enjoy today's debunking:
| "The link between elevated levels of homocysteine and heart disease risk has
been called into question by a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine." | Dr Lynn Margulis:
Microbiological Collaboration of the Gaia Hypothesis
| "Effectively, Lynn Margulis contended that symbiosis, not chance mutation, was the driving force
behind evolution and that the cooperation between organisms and the environment are the chief
agents of natural selection -- not competition among individuals." | Application of Ultraviolet
Blood Irradiation for
Treatment of Certain
Diseases and Other
Bloodborne Viruses
| "This paper describes an innovative method of inactivating bloodborne
viruses using ultraviolet blood irradiation called UBI therapy. This process
has shown impressive clinical results in treating hepatitis, HIV, and other
currently untreatable viruses." | Darryl R. J. Macer, Ph.D. shows that it isn't rocket science to bring ethics to bioscience, with this on-line book titled Bioethics is Love of Life:
An Alternative texbook.
| "In this book I am going to argue that "love of life" is the simplest and most all encompassing definition
of bioethics, and it is universal among all peoples of the world." | Robert A. Herrmann, of the venerable Math. Dept., U. S. Naval Academy what are they really privy to?, offers Solutions to the "General Grand Unification Problem," and the Questions "How Did Our Universe Come Into Being?" and "Of What is Empty Space Composed?"
| "In general, the model predicts that when these
Universe creating processes are viewed globally they are similar to how an infinitely
powerful mind would behave." | While immersed in the pool of transhuman potential it is nice to have a clear window onto our Ancestral Lines. Wander the time-line on the cover page and add ourSelf, Homo Sapiens Noeticus.....can you feel it?
| "Linked from this page are
documents summarizing the
hominid fossil record and
hypothesized lines of
human evolution from 5
million years ago to the
present." | The Golem Project - Automatic Design and Manufacture of
Robotic Lifeforms
cutting-edge stuff - and a free screensaver to grow your own, too
| "Like biological lifeforms whose
structure and function exploit the behaviors afforded by their
own chemical and mechanical medium, our evolved creatures
take advantage of the nature of their own medium -
thermoplastic, motors, and artificial neurons. We thus achieve
autonomy of design and construction using evolution in a limited universe physical simulation, coupled
to off-the-shelf rapid manufacturing technology." | I am in awe of the simple insights and gracious farsight of Venus Revealed. A wonderful blend of science and poetry, and beautifully rendered prose, brings an understanding of our planetary microcosmos that goes beyond...
| "The new truth was "the grim truth", and Venus, as if she had betrayed us by not living up to our expectations, was judged harshly. "Venus is Hell" became a common expression, and words like "harsh", "hostile", "inhospitable", "errant twin", "poisonous", "catastrophe", "noxious" and "tortured" filled the pages of books and articles describing our closest sibling. Nearly every book, chapter or article written about Venus since the 1960's contains some version of the statement: The planet named for the Goddess of Love turned out to have a closer resemblance to Dante's Hell." | One of the best introductions to Space-Time: The Final Frontier is this, by Sten Odenwald.
| "There is much that's spooky about the physical vacuum. This spookiness may be rooted more in the
way our brains work than in some objective aspect of nature. Einstein stressed, "Space and time are
not conditions in which we live, but modes in which we think." | Who is The Greatest Hacker of All Time? My vote goes to me, but I shouldn't smoke.
| "So, let me introduce
you to him, and his greatest hack. I'll warn you right up front that it's mind
numbing. By the way, everything I'm going to tell you is true and
verifiable down at your local library. Don't worry -- we're not heading off
into a Shirley MacLaine UFO-land story. Just some classy electrical
engineering..." | Is common sense common, or even sensible? In this dense paper written for the International
Journal of
Human-Computer
Studies, Barry Smith investigates Formal Ontology, Common Sense
and Cognitive Science.
| "Much recent work in cognitive science has taken common sense - in the form of naive physics, folk
psychology, or real-world models for natural language processing - as a serious object of scientific
inquiry. This paper seeks to clarify the philosophical background to such work." | Bioinvasion, bioengineering, and monoculture are dire threats to biodiversity. Resistance to genetically modified organics has been growing and just perhaps if the pressure is kept up, ethical scientists can sway the tide. Portrait Of An Industry In Trouble by Brian Halweil documents recent developments.
| "After four years of stupendous growth, farmers are expected to reduce their planting of genetically
engineered seeds by as much as 25 percent in 2000, as spreading public resistance staggers the once
high-flying biotech industry." | Howard Rheingold speaks Mind to Mind with Sherry Turkle, author of Life on the Screen. Actually he e-mailed her three questions and she returned her eloquent yet concise answers.
| "I'll never look at those cute little icons on my electronic desktop in the same way again. And I'm
looking with fresh eyes about the ways the computer is teaching me how to act and think." |
The Constructability of Artificial Intelligence (as defined
by the Turing Test) points out that the accumulation of random processes during development (evolution?) may invalidate the term "artificial".
| "This is some distance from the usual conception of intelligence that prevails in the field of Artificial
Intelligence, which seems overly influenced by the analogy of the machine (particularly the Turing
Machine). This is a much abstracted version of the original social concept and, I would claim, a
much impoverished one. Recent work has started to indicate that the social situation might be as
important to the exhibition of intelligent behaviour as the physical situation." | Gregory Stock takes inventory on The Prospects for Human Germline
Engineering and finds that while our technology may enable us to interfere in life's flow, we are ethically unprepared.
| "Though germline intervention may not be clinically feasible for
several decades, there is little doubt its potential is immense. One
day it may protect children from cancer, AIDS and other
diseases, enhance their intelligence and even extend their life
spans. But the technology also embodies a fundamental challenge:
how far are willing to go in reshaping the human form and psyche?" | Is the 'impact factor' as a way of judging the affect of a published paper analogous to those desperate arbiters of figure skating, who end up giving their own countries athletes the best scores despite using supposedly objective criteria? Craig McGarty explores this tender issue.
| "The measure punishes
journals which publish the work of authors who do not have membership of these invisible colleges
and is virtually incapable of detecting genuine impact. It is not just a bad measure it is an invitation to
do bad science." | Probably for highly chaotic reasons Global Simplicity and Local Complexity is not available at source, which is a shame because I'd like to see more. This is apparently chapter twelve, and is a stand-alone must-read. If the Google link does not work, I've mirrored it here.
| "According to one mode of expression, the question What are laws of nature? may
be stated thus: What are the fewest and simplest assumptions, which being
granted, the whole existing order of nature would result?" | "When a finger points at the moon,
only an idiot looks at the finger." Chinese aphorism quoted in Contemplating The Finger:
Visuality and the Semiotics of Chemistry, which aims to show that imagination plays as much of a role as fact.
| "Chemistry's symbolic language is shown to mimic many features of natural languages, including
the ability to construct fictional worlds. I argue that these 'scientific fictions' are as cognitively
valuable in chemistry as they are in ordinary life, and that chemists creatively mix 'true' and
'fictional' representations of molecules and substances." | Just when I think I've got a pretty good grasp on things, a preteen asks an apparently simple question: "What is 'sub-space'?" Well, darned if I know! Go ask a space scientist, like Dr. Sten Odenwald.
| "It is a subset of a larger space in which all the same arithmetic operations are possible, but
in which the results of these operations are always still elements within the sub-space." | Fridge magnet poetry is great, better than playing with the overdue bills stuck up there. This University of Wisconsin - Madison site dedicated to magnetism is strongly attractive and conducive to new ideas. "The common flexible sheet refrigerator magnet has a complex, ingenious magnetic structure."
The Vancouver Aquarium has set up hydrophones at the entrance to Johnstone Straight, which runs between Vancouver Island and the coast of B.C. You can listen for whales 'live' or hear prerecorded audio, as well as learn about orca behavior.
| "ORCA FM is part of a larger project called "WhaleLink", which provides
opportunities for scientists and the interested public to remotely monitor the
underwater communication of wild killer whales." | Relativistic Intercourse led my brain to think; and it'll never be the same again.
| "Over the years much valuable work has been done researching the relative
merits of various penetration speeds during sexual intercourse, but to my
knowledge none of the researchers has ever pursued this line of reasoning
to its logical conclusion--" |
It's always good to refresh one's understanding of the basics, perhaps to gain new perspectives or to strengthen the perceptual foundation. Auburn's good people bring us the foundations of fusion.
Although a little long in loading, Clouds from Space is a fascinating collection of images from various shuttle missions.
John G. Cramer of Analog SF & Science Fact gives a good general grok at gravity waves.
| "Gravity is the weakest force in the universe. Because of this weakness gravity waves, the traveling waves made by disturbances in gravity,
are below the present threshold of detectability and have never been directly observed. But in the
year 2000 this should change." | A well presented, neatly packaged just slightly ahead of it's time overview of the velocity/time relationship is C-ship: The Dilation of Time.
Huge Harry gave the closing address at the "Come To Your Senses" conference in Amsterdam. The thing is, Huge Harry is a machine.
| "And here are some interesting symmetry-transformations that
you probably have not seen [biyf'aor].
[_<1500>] You see? We just saw the ultimate post-modern
[tr'aens-rowm`aentihk iym'owshaxnaxl] state\, where ["aol]
the different [iym'owshaxnz] that the human mind is capable
of\, merge into one\, [q"aol-ehnk`aampaxsihnx]\,
[khxey'aotihk] oscillation." | We may presuppose that a preponderance of our action is predictable, predetermined, perhaps even preordained. Here's a look at the Theory of Presponse.
| "Henry Stapp has told us that pre-sponses cannot be accomodated within
orthodox physics. A problem with this stance is that elementary
relativistic considerations indicate that backward causation must be the
other side of the coin of non-locality." [Chris Nunn] |
Henry P. Stapp also gives us Attention, Intention, and Will in Quantum Physics, in which he enquires into the relationship between mind and matter.
| "The quantum treatment discloses that these puzzles arise from the conflation
in the classical limit of two very different but interlocked causal processes,
one micro-causal, bound by the past, and blind to the future,
the other macro-causal, probing the present, and projecting to the future." | The use and abuse of subjectivity in scientific enquiry is explored in Facts versus Factions.
| "This disingenuousness is shown to be not only unconvincing but also unnecessary, as the axioms of
probability reveal subjectivity to be a mathematically ineluctable feature of the quest for knowledge." | Meet Thalia and Sophia, and find out how their ticklish natures may help in Saving the Phenomenal.
Promising New Technologies takes us to the far reaches of the ocean of current scientific understanding, and then walks the plank.
Everything you wanted to know about the aether, from Aether Tectonics to ZPF & Stochastic Electrodynamics, can be had at Modern Scientific Theories of the Ancient Aether.
"Space and time are
not conditions in which we live, but modes in which we think."
Einstein incisively stated what needs to be intuitively grokked. Sten Odenwald puts raisins in the porridge of IT, with Space-Time: The Final Frontier.
Here's an example of pseudoscience that is sure to be put to use by new-age therapists. The trouble is that if these therapies do in fact help, adopting bad studies to support them only goes to weakening their real value.
| "The empirical claim is made in this paper that various kinds of "energy therapies" such as therapeutic
touch, Polarity therapy, Reiki, and others can be empirically shown to reduce the amount of gamma
radiation from a human body. This is purported to represent a clue as to how these therapies may
work, by "redirecting" energy flows." | The vast diversity of life on our earthship is in steep decline due to human activity. As an added insult to the injury of extinctions, humans are actively pursuing cloning and genetic modification, further reducing genetic variety. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre provides an overview of biodiversity
As the Friendly Giant (hey, this is Canada, eh?) said: "look down, waaaay down...". The obvious attraction of seeing ourselves as stardust should not blind us to life that does not require external input. Thomas Gold's The Deep, Hot Biosphere investigates.
| "There are strong indications that microbial life is widespread at depth in the crust of the Earth, just as
such life has been identified in numerous ocean vents. This life is not dependent on solar energy and
photosynthesis for its primary energy supply, and it is essentially independent of the surface
circumstances." | For another view, here is a SciAm article from '96 which offers a slightly poetic vision.
Nanotubes are what you play with once you've mastered buckyball, and here at The Nanotube Site one can find others to play with.
If science has an attitude problem it can get somatic therapy from Twenty Science Attitudes, which along with the empirical and skeptical also acknowledges science's ethical quality.
Any attempt to colonize or even get to planets around other stars will require either hibernation for the travellers or faster than light travel (FTL). Jason W. Hinson takes a comprehensive look at Faster Than Light Travel--Concepts and Their
"Problems". (Star Trek shows up again in a scholarly work. Does Gene Rodenberry know something we don't?)
Future history is usually best left to SF writers but An Illustrated Speculative Timeline of
Technology and Social Change for the Next
One Thousand Years is a well researched and insightful two part book, available in its entirety online.
The two documents linked to above are serious work, painstakingly thought out and presented. Alan Sokal produced an article to test the hypothesis that "a leading North American journal of cultural studies . . . would publish an article
liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors'
ideological preconceptions." To read the article and review, A Painful Sting Within the Academic Hive, is to recognize frightening implications.
The science of rhythm based communication and the study of whales come together at Ceta-Reasearch in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. "Rhythm Based Communication" and General
Experimental Technique is the subject of this essay, listed as a postscript to the "Lanzarote" Paper.
World Views: from fragmentation to integration invites us all to join in fundamental dialogue. A dense read, this coalition of European scientists and philosophers very clearly show the path that must be taken out of our present ethical wilderness.
| "Within the scientific
world, large-scale movements tending towards unification seem powerless confronted with the
information explosion of research and historicism in the philosophy of science. Outside of science,
we notice also that both religious and secular ideologies claiming to energize mass movements have
collapsed. Far be it from us to promote new, sophisticated versions of what is lost. We believe
however that, within the scientific community, isolated problem solvers are looking for more
fundamental contexts for research, and that many can offer insight into more fundamental questions." |
Author Joe Michael titled this essay Fractal Shape Changing Robots. Emergent behaviour in a
system is the system's ability to become intelligent over and above the programming that has
been coded into it. This is potentially very scary stuff considering our current inhumane demeanor.
| "More dangerous forms of these kinds of emergent behaviours will probably be found in
machines that are taught to optimise their weapons for waging war. These machines may be too tiny, too numerous or too well armed for anyone to mount a
defence in time to stave off extinction." | Human/Machine Anomalies are one aspect of the PEAR (Princeton Engineering Anomolies Research) program, and show that there are strange statistically significant interactions going on. My car and I already knew this.
All things are connected.
Chris Lucas thus begins a description of complexity theory. This is a very clearly written outline of how recognition of integral connexion, and its explication and tendency toward order, can lead us toward a Theory of Everything.
Here the very same Chris Lucas explores proto-cosmic spirituality in Spirit of Complexity.
| "In our supposedly material world, the cultivation of spiritual excellence is often regarded as at best
irrelevant or at worst a psychotic delusion. Complexity Science however can throw a very different
light on this subject, revealing spiritual development to be not only advantageous, but perhaps the
most valuable asset currently available to the human race." | The good folks at the University of Utah are proposing a new way to look for extraterrestrial life. Rather than looking for signals from an intelligence they are seeking something much more basic; the
processes that organisms use to obtain energy.
Countless questions well asked and anwered kept me at The Straight Dope much longer than intended; and I thought I knew everything! One intrigueing inquiry is "What is the purpose of the hymen?"; and I'm not telling.
The SASER Project (Solar Amplification by Stimulated Emission Radiation) aims to aim at the sun and not blow us up with the amplified rebound.
| The primal concept is to take advantage of the gigawatt/hertz continuum of
the solar system (dominated by the sun) which we will presume has the
natural physics to mix and amplify a low power microwave signal and then
re-radiate the combined signal in the megawatt domain. | William MacIntosh thinks that he is the target of focused sound, or a sound laser and is understandably distressed. As this CNN article shows, the technology of Resonant Macrosonic Synthesis is viable and may have great promise(?); perhaps destroying biological and chemical warfare agents, or remotely disrupting foreign agents.
When the words organic and computing are joined what do you get (orgomp, orgacom, computanic)? Thin Film Transistors
| All circuitry necessary for controlling the memory can be built
entirely from organic TFTs (Thin Film Transistors). True organic
computing is realized in an all-organic device when such circuitry
is combined with the organic memory films and the device
structure is built on a flexible plastic substrate. No silicon chips or
other support hardware are then required to perform
write/read/erase and logic operations. | Okay, I can be properly amazed by the engine and drive train of motile E.coli bacteria, but to think that I have millions, nay billions of these swimming about in my gut it becomes obvious that I'm throwing one great bacteriobash. And I don't even have to clean up the mess when we're done!
When we are done and it's time for the ravens to get their share, who will decide when I'm done, and how?
| "Death is an inherently complicated topic. Its metaphysics are one thing ("What makes it true that a
formerly living person has become dead?"); its epistemology is another ("By what criteria can we
know that a person has died?"); and bedside tests to diagnose it are yet another ("Is auscultation of
the chest and holding a mirror close to the nostrils sufficient to reach a diagnosis?")." | This is a clear, transparent, well presented, neatly tabled and I must say succinct comparison between the Socratic and scientific methods.
What is the future of cosmology? Lee Smolin recognizes the fundamental relationships that conjure our understanding.
| The first is the key idea behind general relativity, the second the idea behind modern biology. What joins them is that in the end both sets of ideas make sense as descriptions of systems, like the universe or life on earth, that must structure themselves from the inside, without being made or observed from the outside. | An Exodus Into Infinity yahoooooooo....
As John Walker says, "Never invest in something
that violates a conservation law." The idea of being propelled, literally, through the quantum vacuum really appeals to my sense of symmetry. |
