Dark Planetoid

Science, Art, Technology and Culture

Thursday, June 30, 2005

The Edge of Biocomputation

Scientific pioneers Ray Kurzweil, J. Craig Venter and Rodney Brooks discuss the future of biocomputation at the Edge Reality Club.

"We are entering a new era. Some of us call it the Singularity. It's a merger between human intelligence and machine intelligence which is going to create something bigger than itself. It's the cutting edge of evolution on our planet. One can make a strong case that it's actually the cutting edge of the evolution of intelligence in general, because there's no indication that it has occurred anywhere else. To me that is what human civilization is all about. It is part of our destiny, and part of the destiny of evolution, to continue to progress ever faster and to grow the power of intelligence exponentially."
-- Ray Kurzweil

Friday, June 24, 2005

Extracting Video from Cat Brains

Read the full story at kuro5hin and at mindpixel's blog.

I wonder if they could record the cat's dreams too.

'The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games,' said the voice-over, 'in early graphics programs and military experimentation with cranial jacks.'
-- William Gibson, Neuromancer - 1984

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Reality Mining

The Reality Mining experiment uses machine learning and mobile phones to model social networks.
Our research agenda takes advantage of the increasingly widespread use of mobile phones to provide insight into the dynamics of both individual and group behavior. By leveraging recent advances in machine learning we are building generative models that can be used to predict what a single user will do next, as well as model behavior of large organizations. . .

How do incoming students' social networks evolve over time?
How entropic (predictable) are most people's lives?
Can the topology of a social network be inferred from only proximity data?
How can we change a group's interactions to promote better functioning?

If you have a Symbian Series 60 Phone (such as the Nokia 6600) with a data plan, you can participate. Download the application here.

Evolving Computational Creatures

Levitated is a great site of recreational computation, generative art, mathematics, and open source Flash projects.

Evolving Computational Creatures

"Even matter called inorganic, believed to be dead, responds to irritants and gives unmistakable evidence of a living principle within. Everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside."
-- Nikola Tesla

Friday, June 17, 2005

How to Bend Spacetime

John Walker, founder of Autodesk, shows how to bend spacetime and speculates, what if Archimedes had discovered universal gravitation before Newton.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Lifelike Robots Repliee Q1 and Q2

Lifelike female robots Repliee Q1 and Q2 probably won't be able to fool the Voight-Kampff empathy test machine from Blade Runner or the Turing test, but they do have lifelike soft silicone skin, and they are able to mimic human movements and gestures realistically.

See a video of Repilee Robots at Android Science

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

The Future of Mind and Body Enhancement

Jamais Cascio at WorldChanging interviews Dr. James Hughes, Ramez Naam and Joel Garreau about the future of mind and body enhancement technology.

Dr. James Hughes: Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future
Ramez Naam: More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement
Joel Garreau: Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- And What It Means To Be Human

Monday, June 13, 2005

Zombie Philosophy

The philosophy of mind has been invaded by zombies.
Read about the undead in philosophy at Zombies Invade Philosophy!.

What is a zombie?

Zombie: A soulless body who has been revived from death and can be made to work as a slave. (Voodoo Information Pages: Glossary)

Zombie: A being that behaves like us and may share our functional organization and even, perhaps, our neurophysiological makeup without conscious experiences or qualia. (Dictionary of the Philosophy of Mind)

qualia: The 'what it's like' character of mental states. The way it feels to have mental states such as pain, seeing red, smelling a rose, etc. (Dictionary of the Philosophy of Mind)

George A. Romero also has a new zombie movie coming out this Summer "Land of the Living Dead".

"Zombie Eat Brains" is a funny blog by Zombie Tom.
Also see his non-undead pop culture blog "Tom the Dog".

Sony Patents Brain Device

The patent is really just a theory, using pulses of ultrasound to transmit data into the brain.

Could it also be used to transmit memories and behaviors like the plug-in personality modules "moddys" in George Alec Effinger's book "When Gravity Fails"?
"My name is Bond," said the guy. 'James Bond.' As if there could be any doubt."

"He's wearing a James Bond module. Thinks he's James Bond. He'll be pulling that trick all night, until someone raps him down and pops the moddy out of his head."

From When Gravity Fails, by George Alec Effinger.

Full Story on Patent

What is the ultimate mastermind diet?

NewScientist.com has an article with 11 steps to improve your brain power. Eating a proper diet, exercise and getting plenty of sleep are common sense but there are some other interesting ideas for cognitive enhancement in the article.

"Working memory training could be the key to unlocking brain power"

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Kryptos Puzzle

There was an interesting story on NPR this morning about the unsolved fourth passage of the kryptos puzzle on a bronze sculpture at CIA headquarters.

The Encrypted Fourth Passage:

?OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFL
RVQQPRNGKSSOTWTQSJQSSEK
ZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYPVTTM
ZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEK
CAR

Frequently Asked Questions About Kryptos

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Self Replicating Machines

The RepRap project's goal is to create "a direct writing or rapid prototyping machine that can make a copy of itself, and make other products". These machines would be inexpensive and evolve as they reproduce.

Philosophical Games

There are some cool interactive philosophical games at The Philosophers' Magazine. Are you living in a Matrix? How would you know? Find out by playing "Strange New World" based on ideas in the film The Matrix.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Electroluminescence Design

Artist and designer Rachel Wingfield showcases some innovative uses for electroluminescence display technology at her website loop.pH.

'Digital Dawn', blinds that change luminosity in response to changes in ambient light.

'Temporal Light', tiles that that light up as you walk by.

Electroluminescence is an electrical phenomenon where a material emits light when an electric current is passed through it.

Supercomputer Brain Model

In a project known as 'Blue Brain' scientists at IBM and EPFL will be using IBM's supercomputer 'Blue Gene' to model the wetware of the human brain.

From SciScoop story

Monday, June 06, 2005

Cheap Artificial Intelligence

Radica Games makes a cool handheld version of 20Q.net "Twenty Questions, the neural-net on the Internet". The online version has been accumulating knowledge for 17 years by playing twenty questions with people.

When I played the online version, I thought of actress Angelina Jolie, and it guessed that I was thinking of "my soulmate".

West Indian Girl

"West Indian Girl" was a type of designer LSD developed by Owsley in the 60's.
It's also the name of a great psychedelic pop band from California.
The song "What Are You Afraid Of" is being used in a television ad for Samsung cell phones.

West Indian Girl web site.

Rudy Rucker's new book

A preview of Rudy Rucker's new book "The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul", "What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning Of Life, and How To Be Happy".

Quote from "The Little Prince"

"Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can
see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye."
-- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry