There is new media available from our monthly series, the Seminars About Long-term Thinking. Stewart Brand’s summaries and audio downloads or podcasts of the talks are free to the public; Long Now members can view HD video of the Seminars and comment on them. Read the summary of Sander van der Leeuw’s “The Archaeology of Innovation”
Future
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The Long Now Blog
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Long Now Media Update
19 Nov 2009 | 1:50 pm -
Bristlecone Pines Feeling Rushed
17 Nov 2009 | 4:57 pmGlobal warming seems to be speeding up the growth of the longest living organisms we know of. Bristlecone pines can live for almost 5,000 years and the information stored in the growth of their rings is a treasure trove of climate data. Because their growth is a function of the weather, analyzing the size of the rings they develop each year can tell us what that period’s climate was like. At an elevation of 12,000 feet, where almost no rain falls, temperature is the driving influence on tree growth, while lower down, rainfall is the strongest factor in tree growth, Salzer said in an… -
Rosetta’s Final Flyby
15 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pmThe European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe made its final flyby of the Earth on Friday in order to fling itself off towards its target: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Launched in 02004, Rosetta has made several planetary flybys in order to gain the velocity necessary to approach and eventually orbit the comet so that a small landing craft can touchdown upon and sample some of the comet’s material. Scientists hope that a better understanding of the make-up of a comet will be like a key that will unlock many secrets about the formation of the planets and the development of our… -
Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina at Stanford Next Month
12 Nov 2009 | 4:19 pmOfficially inaugurated in 02002, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is an attempt by Egypt and the city of Alexandria to recreate, in spirit if not content, the original Library of Alexandria. The Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt created what was at the time, the worlds largest library in the third century BC in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Though historical accounts disagree as to how, why and when, this massive repository of centuries of scholastic work was burned down and lost to the ages. Long Now Board Member Michael Keller sent in notice of his event coming up at Stanford University on… -
10,000 genome library proposed
10 Nov 2009 | 1:38 pmThe Genome 10k Project is currently just getting started, but if 65 scientists get their way, the University of California Santa Cruz could eventually house an extensive database of vertebrate genetic evolution. The plan is to build an archive of the entire genomes of 10,000 vertebrates. A library of this sort would assist in answering many questions within evolutionary biology and would allow for the construction of a highly detailed natural history of vertebrate evolution. Genome sequencing is still a costly process, but is quickly becoming more affordable as computing power grows. …
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Accelerating Future
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Molecular Rotor in Motion
20 Nov 2009 | 10:12 pmThis is an animation of a rotor from Drexler and Merkle’s neon pump, animated using Blender. From Machine Phase, a molecular modeling blog. -
Steven Pinker Would Like a Beer With You
20 Nov 2009 | 10:07 pmI doubt my fixation on Pinker will end anytime soon, because his book How the Mind Works was the single most illuminating work of cognitive science I’ve read, even though it was a popular work. -
You Just Lost the Game
20 Nov 2009 | 9:33 pmHere are the origins of the game. Here are the rules. -
ProFORMA (Probabilistic Feature-based On-line Rapid Model Acquisition) Video
20 Nov 2009 | 5:39 pmH/t Futurismic. -
“The Rationalizer” Video Advertisement
20 Nov 2009 | 5:34 pm
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KURZWEILAI.NET ACCELERATING INTELLIGENCE
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Medibots: The world's smallest surgeons
19 Nov 2009 | 10:50 pmAdvances in robotics could revolutionize healthcare, pushing the limits of what surgeons can achieve, from worm-inspired capsules to crawl through your gut, and systems swallowed in pieces that assemble themselves inside the body, to surgical robots that will soon be ready to embark on a fantastic voyage through our bodies, homing in on the part that's ailing and fixing it from the inside. Swimming camera capsule (The Royal College of Surgeons / Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna) (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427351.100-medibots-the-worlds-smallest-surgeons.html) -
IBM scientists create rapid disease diagnostic chip
19 Nov 2009 | 10:26 pmIBM scientists have created a fast, one-step point-of-care-diagnostic test, based on a silicon chip that uses capillary forces to analyze tiny samples of blood serum for the presence of disease markers. It requires less sample volume, is significantly faster, portable, easy to use, and can test for many diseases, including cardiovascular disease -- a small sample of a patient's serum could be tested immediately following a heart attack to enable the doctor to quickly take a course of action to help the patient survive. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news177880059.html) -
The Emerging Field of Biophotonic Communication
19 Nov 2009 | 10:15 pmSergei Mayburov at the Lebedev Institute of Physics in Moscow suggests that optical communication is a natural process in many cells of body, closely related to photosynthesis. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24425/?a=f) -
On Your Last Nerve: Researchers Advance Understanding of Stem Cells
19 Nov 2009 | 9:55 pmNorth Carolina State University researchers have identified a gene, FoxJ1, that tells embryonic stem cells in the brain when to stop producing neurons. The research could lead to new treatments to replace damaged or diseased brain tissue. (Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091117102034.htm) -
A Central Nervous System for Earth: HP's Ambitious Sensor Network
19 Nov 2009 | 9:32 pmHP Labs has announced a project that aims to be a "Central Nervous System for the Earth" (CeNSE): a R&D program to build a planetwide sensing network, using billions of tiny accelerometers that detect motion and vibrations, and later, ones for light, temperature, barometric pressure, airflow and humidity. The nodes could be stuck to bridges and buildings to warn of structural strains or weather conditions and along roadsides to monitor traffic, weather and road conditions. Other uses include in everyday electronics, tracking hospital equipment, sniffing out pesticides and pathogens in food,…
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The Singularity Institute Blog
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Singularity 101 at Good.is
16 Nov 2009 | 2:27 pmSIAI was invited to contribute a series of articles to Good.is, the website of GOOD magazine, which focuses on philanthropy and activism. The first article, “What is the Singularity?” is now live, and new articles will appear every Monday through January 26th. Myself and SIAI volunteer Roko Mijic will be alternating posts. For an idea of how well-exposed GOOD is, see that their Twitter account has almost 170,000 followers. -
Hungry Optimizers with Low-Complexity Values
10 Nov 2009 | 12:25 pmCheck out my blog post, “Hungry Optimizers with Low-Complexity Values” at Accelerating Future. -
Was Our Oldest Ancestor a Proton-Powered Rock?
5 Nov 2009 | 12:36 amFor an interesting example of the power of lateral thinking solving scientific problems, check out the article “Was our oldest ancestor a proton-powered rock?” at New Scientist. -
Singularity Summit 2009 Videos Now Available
2 Nov 2009 | 10:32 amThe videos for Singularity Summit 2009 are now available at Vimeo. The few that are missing are either still awaiting confirmation of permission or the speaker asked for video not to be posted of their talk. -
Singularity Summit 2009 - the Best Summit Yet!
5 Oct 2009 | 5:28 amThanks to all 813 people who attended the Singularity Summit! The event was a huge success. If you want to buy a T-shirt to commemorate the event, you can do so here.
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Open the Future
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New Fast Company: The Meowtrix
19 Nov 2009 | 6:48 pmMy new Fast Company essay is now up, looking at the news that IBM researchers have produced a cortical computing system with the connection complexity of a cat's brain. (My original title is shown here on the illustration; the replacement title is a bit inaccurate and I've suggested a replacement, so let's just move along.) It's a follow-up to the research from a couple of years ago on a mouse-scale brain simulation; we're still on-target for a human-level brain connection simulation by 2020. All of the stories about this, including my own, have emphasized the cat brain aspect, but in reality… -
Radio Silence
18 Nov 2009 | 3:05 amSorry for going quiet for the last few days -- I've been in Vienna, Austria, giving a talk at the "Future Space" event. That bit is done, but now I'm off to another project. The trip included the surreal experience of being interviewed by Die Presse, Austria's newspaper-of-record -- an interview which, of course, included photographs. And the photographer got a bit... artsy. (That's five stories up, btw.) Posting will pick up again next week. -
Blasphemy
15 Nov 2009 | 12:15 amSuperfreakonomics author Steven Levitt has been fighting against the myriad critics going after him for the many, many mistakes in (at least) the global warming section of the book. Interestingly, a phrase that keeps coming up in his rebuttals is "I'm not sure why that is blasphemy." Blasphemy. Hmm. What strikes me as interesting about the use of this term is that it (along with the use of "belief" and explicit references to "global warming religion") changes the frame of the discussion of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) to something for which faith overrides analysis. By claiming that AGW… -
The Singularity, In Five Slides
11 Nov 2009 | 3:36 pmThe Singularity, in Five Slides from Jamais Cascio on Vimeo. Three minute excerpt from the New York talk. (Warning -- about halfway through, somebody bumps the camera, making a loud noise.) -
Biopolitics of Pop Culture -- Updated
11 Nov 2009 | 9:57 am
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Next Big Future
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Intel Predicts Brain waves will replace keyboard and mouse, dial phones and change TV channels by 2020
20 Nov 2009 | 11:36 pmBy the year 2020, you won't need a keyboard and mouse to control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers. Instead, users will open documents and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves. (H/T Sander Olson)Scientists at Intel's research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways to read and harness human brain waves so they can be used to operate computers, television sets and cell phones. The brain waves would be harnessed with Intel-developed sensors implanted in people's brains.To get to that point Pomerleau and his research teammates from Intel, Carnegie Mellon University… -
Uranium to 2020 Update
20 Nov 2009 | 11:02 pmworld uranium production by country up to 2008The Ux Consulting Company (UxC) has the Uranium Suppliers Annual. This is a report that nuclear industry businesses pay money to get. They are projecting Kazakhstan increasing their uranium production to about 40,000 tons/year. Kazakhstan will continue its growth until 2015-2017. Kazakhstan is producing about 12,500-13,000 tons in 2009. In 2008, Kazakhstan produced 8521 tons.UxC is projecting large gains in new mines in Africa, Canada, Russia and Australia. Canada has had some delays because of some water flooding problems at the Cigar Lake mine. -
Presbyopia Surgery
20 Nov 2009 | 1:34 pmPresbyLASIK is a surgical technique for presbyopic visual correction using Excimer LASER ablation.Singapore and India offer the treatment now and Canada and the USA have advanced clinical trials, which are showing promising results.PresbyLASIK treatment uses the principles of LASIK surgery to create a multifocal corneal surface aimed at reducing near vision spectacle dependence in presbyopic patients. Among the presbyLASIK techniques, the Excimer LASER ablation creates a central area, which is hyperpositive for near vision leaving the midperipheral cornea for far visionPresbyopia describes… -
Myostatin Inhibiting Gene Therapy Success in Monkeys
20 Nov 2009 | 1:12 pmOne person in a million has natural myostatin inhibition genesWork was done on Macaque monkeys. Commonly scientific work is on rhesus macaques.Researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital have shown that a gene delivery strategy that produces follistatin -- a naturally occurring protein that inhibits myostatin, a growth factor expressed specifically in skeletal muscle -- directly to the quadriceps of non-human primates results in long-term gene expression with muscle enhancing effects, including larger muscles with greater strength. The muscles were 15% bigger, 78% stronger and the effect… -
Future Colliders
20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amThe New Scientist looks at the future of particle colliders beyond the Large Hadron Collider Regardless of what is found particle wise (Higgs or no Higgs Boson) there will be new physics to investigate or models of the universe to refine (standard model or something else, supersymmetry or string theory).Super Large Hadron Collider (sLHC)The sLHC would be a massively upgraded LHC. If all goes to plan, it will come online in around a decade (2018, about 1 billion euro) after upgrades. The beams would be 10 times as bright, which would involve increasing the number of protons in each beam by a…
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NANODOT NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Reynolds advocates faster nano/AI R&D for safety reasons
19 Nov 2009 | 11:32 amIn Popular Mechanics, longtime Foresight friend Prof. Glenn Reynolds looks at the future of nanotech and artificial intelligence, among other things looking at safety issues, including one call that potentially dangerous technologies be relinquished. He takes a counterintuitive stance, which we’ve discussed here at Foresight over the years: But I wonder if that’s such a good idea. Destructive technologies generally seem to come along sooner than constructive ones—we got war rockets before missile interceptors, and biological warfare before antibiotics. This suggests that there… -
Nano PVs: cheaper or better?
17 Nov 2009 | 5:26 amOver at Nanoclast, Dexter Johnson writes: It seems when nanotech is applied to photovoltaics it can either boost their efficiency to new heights or it can cheapen their manufacturing process. But it never seems to provide a solution to both of these. It’s always a tradeoff: increased efficiency but difficult manufacturing processes or a cheaper production process but less efficiency. The solution to this, of course, is that the efforts in nanotech research should be going toward developing atomically-precise machinery that can do the manufacturing. Like any form of research and capital… -
Gallery – A joyride through the nanoscale – Image 1 – New Scientist
16 Nov 2009 | 6:54 amGallery – A joyride through the nanoscale – Image 1 – New Scientist. This New Scientist article has some nice images from Whitesides recent book, sort of a retake on the “Secret House” idea. -
Technology Review: Self-Cleaning, Super-Absorbant Solar Cells
14 Nov 2009 | 4:54 amTechnology Review: Self-Cleaning, Super-Absorbant Solar Cells. Amorphous-silicon solar cells patterned with nanoscale domes absorb more light–and shed water and dust. -
Moore’s Law Marches On
12 Nov 2009 | 11:24 amAccording to the loose length-scale based definition, nanotechnology has long since conquered the world: feature sizes in microprocessors have been below the 100 nanometer mark for some time, qualifying them, if anyone wanted to, to be called nanoprocessors. The latest reports and plans are mentioning 22-nanometer parts just 2 years from now: DailyTech – AMD Desktop Roadmap Features Bulldozer Architecture, New Chipsets. Next Big Future: AMD has an Ambitous Roadmap for 2010 and 2011
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Soft Machines
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Easing the transition to a new solar economy
8 Nov 2009 | 2:39 amIn the run up to the Copenhagen conference, a UK broadcaster has been soliciting opinions from scientists in response to the question “Which idea, policy or technology do you think holds the greatest promise or could deliver the greatest benefit for addressing climate change?”. Here’s the answer given by myself and my colleague Tony Ryan.” We think the single most important idea about climate change is the optimistic one, that, given global will and a lot of effort to develop the truly sustainable technologies we need, we could emerge from some difficult years to a much… -
A crisis of trust?
30 Sep 2009 | 6:41 amOne sometimes hears it said that there’s a “crisis of trust in science” in the UK, though this seems to be based on impressions rather than evidence. So it’s interesting to see the latest in an annual series of opinion polls comparing the degree of public trust in various professional groups. The polls, carried out by Ipsos Mori, are commissioned by the Royal College of Physicians, who naturally welcome the news that, yet again, doctors are the most trusted profession, with 92% of those polled saying they would trust doctors to tell the truth. But, for all the talk of… -
Moral hazard and geo-engineering
6 Sep 2009 | 1:50 pmOver the last year of financial instability, we’ve heard a lot about moral hazard. This term originally arose in the insurance industry; there it refers to the suggestion that if people are insured against some negative outcome, they may be more liable to behave in ways that increase the risk of that negative outcome arising. So, if your car is insured for all kinds of accident damage, you might be tempted to drive that bit more recklessly, knowing that you won’t have to pay for all the consequences of an accident. In the last year, it’s been all too apparent that the… -
Mode 2 and its discontents
21 Aug 2009 | 9:06 amThis essay was first published in the August 2008 issue of Nature Nanotechnology – Nature Nanotechnology 3 448 (2008) (subscription required for full online text). A water-tight definition of nanotechnology still remains elusive, at least if we try and look at the problem from a scientific or technical basis. Perhaps this means we are looking in the wrong place, and we should instead seek a definition that’s essentially sociological. Here’s one candidate: “Nanotechnology is the application of mode 2 values to the physical sciences” . The jargon here is a reference to the… -
Five years on from the Royal Society report
31 Jul 2009 | 9:23 amFive years ago this summer, the UK’s Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering issued a report on Nanoscience and nanotechnologies: opportunities and uncertainties. The report had been commissioned by the Government, and has been widely praised and widely cited. Five years on, it’s worth asking the question what difference has it made, and what is left to be done. The Responsible Nanoforum has collected a fascinating collection of answers to these questions – A beacon or just a landmark?. Reactions come from scientists, people in industry, representatives of NGOs,…
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Responsible Nanotechnology
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Are We Fascists?
17 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pmWe recently received an email referring to a page on CRN's website, and asking the question: "So you're going to monopolize this technology and keep as many people out of the loop as possible? What are you, capitalists? fascists?" (On reviewing our online content, I think maybe this page would be a better target for the question.)CRN was founded on the belief that nanotechnology will lead to general-purpose manufacturing of high-performance products, some of which could destabilize whole societies (and others of which could solve many of the world's… -
Seeing Smaller Than Light
16 Nov 2009 | 3:34 pmSeeing nanostructures with light is like trying to read Braille by throwing beanbags at the dots and seeing how they bounce off.A few years ago, it was assumed that light simply could not be used to see things smaller than half its wavelength - which means a large fraction of a micron, not much smaller than a bacterium. But in the past decade, technique after technique has been developed that lets light be used to see nanoscale objects.A new technique has been announced recently - a very clever way of using "near-field" effects - very roughly equivalent to holding the beanbag… -
DNA-Templated Buckytube Transistor
13 Nov 2009 | 10:42 pmDNA Origami technology has been used to assemble buckytubes in a crossed structure that can act like a transistor.This is important for several reasons. First, it may eventually provide a new way to build computer chips. There's a massive amount of money in semiconductors, and this achievement all but guarantees that DNA origami and nanotube circuitry will get funding.Second, it provides a bridge between "hard" style nanotech - molecules that aren't very flexible, such as buckytubes - and "soft" style nanotech - relatively squishy molecules, like DNA, that can…
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Ethical Technology
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Mike Treder Deciding Whose Death Matters Most
20 Nov 2009 | 1:23 pmAsking the question is comparatively easy. Finding the answer is hard. Would you run into a burning building to try to save a baby you knew was trapped inside? Would it make a difference if that baby was your own? Would you run into a burning building to try to save an 80 year-old woman you knew was dying of cancer? What if she was your mother? Imagine working in a triage unit during wartime or following a natural disaster. Given limited medical supplies and severe constraints on available personnel, how would you decide who gets treated first? Does it matter more that 17,000… -
Ben Scarlato Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
20 Nov 2009 | 11:36 am[Contains spoilers] Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is a movie released straight to Blu-ray and digital download, which retells the miniseries and the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica from the perspective of the Cylons. Although it doesn’t answer all the questions one may have had after the series finale, such as the nature of Starbuck or the Cylon god, it does closely follow the events of the series, providing answers to questions such as how Shelly Godfrey disappeared and why Boomer didn’t kill Adama when she attempted to assassinate him. It was exciting that this… -
Heather Bradshaw Morphological Freedom
20 Nov 2009 | 8:03 amIn 2003, the idea that one might have a freedom to change one’s body and brain as one liked was being discussed in relation to the Transhumanist FAQ. This idea receives much less attention in the current FAQ, where it is largely replaced by a lesser freedom to enhance. This is interesting, because morphological freedom has significant implications. In a 2007 interview for Enhancing Me, Todd Huffman spoke about the importance of social enhancements and the social value of enhancements. Email, he pointed out, is only any use if possessed by at least two people. Similarly, it’s all… -
Jamais Cascio I Can Has Singularity?
20 Nov 2009 | 6:16 amIBM’s new cat brain simulation is both more—and less—than it seems. IBM Moves Closer to Creating Computer Based on Insights from the Brain Scientists perform cat-scale cortical simulations and map the human brain in effort to build advanced chip technology A real-time computer-simulated cat brain? Could IBM have come up with a project more likely to trigger Internet excitement? For the handful of you who missed the news, IBM’s Almaden Research Center announced this week that it had produced a “cortical simulation” of the scale and complexity of a cat brain. -
A Perfect (Robotic) Woman
19 Nov 2009 | 9:03 amAlthough the results are not yet entirely convincing, it seems clear that a leading commercial application for personal robots will be as “companions” and/or sex toys.
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Existence is Wonderful
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Enter The Cat Weirdo
5 Nov 2009 | 4:41 pmWell my brain still seems to be in "write about cats" mode, so readers uninterested in cats will just have to bear through another entry about them.But to those of you who might consider yourselves fellow catgeeks out there, I pose the following: how many cats is "a lot"? I will offer my take on this below, but would be interested in others' thoughts.Seeing as I finally managed to trap and adopt Shadow (shown above, brother and littermate to supertabbies Coraline and Brodie) on Monday, October 26, I now live with three fabulous felines. And come the end of December, I'll be adopting one of my… -
October 16 is National Feral Cat Day - Help Your Local Felines!
16 Oct 2009 | 10:52 amIntroductionHomo Sapiens and Felis Catus have lived alongside one another for thousands of years. It is unknown exactly how or why these two species established contact -- most likely it something to do with human communities storing food, which attracted rodents, which in turn attracted any nearby felines. But however it happened, humankind and felinekind ended up embarking on a course that has led to a very interesting relationship. Unlike domesticated dogs, cats seem capable of coexisting with humans in two very different ways -- that is, as housecats (who are "socialized" to humans and… -
Kittens! Need I say more?
5 Oct 2009 | 10:24 pmWell, I guess there is a bit more to say, but first, a picture:These little ones are feral rescue kittens, approximately 6 - 7 weeks old, and currently roaming around my bedroom. They were very scared at first (who wouldn't be?) but now it has been three days and they are settling in nicely. The one on the left is a girl (who has been named Coraline -- yes, like the Neil Gaiman character, as she's very brave and very clever!), and the one on the right is a boy (who has been named Brodie, just because it seems to suit him). They moved in with me this past Friday (I'd been intending to trap… -
Work, Lack Thereof, and Opportunity
10 Sep 2009 | 9:10 pmWell, seeing as my employer recently announced plans to shut down the facility where I work in San Jose, California, I thought I might take this opportunity to actually discuss some of what my job as an electrical engineer specializing in electromagnetic interference and compatibility has tended to consist of. In other words, expect some posts on such exciting things as grounding, bonding, and shielding (oh my!) in this space, because that stuff is actually pretty interesting, and I think it would be neat to help propagate some knowledge about it.Of course I will not reveal any proprietary… -
On Longevity, Reality, and Critical Thinking
1 Sep 2009 | 1:05 pmEvery now and then, I receive a random e-mail from a random person along the lines of, "Hi! I found your blog. Can you tell me how I can live forever?"Generally I just ignore these letters, as, really, I figure either their authors are credulous beyond all get-out or engaging in some sort of bizarre joke. But seeing as I've received a spate of these comments privately recently, I just wanted to state for the record that if you are looking to random bloggers to "tell you the path to living forever", um, well, you might want to work on those critical thinking skills.Seriously. Critical thinking…
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Sentient Developments
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Deus Sex Machina
19 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pm[Linda MacDonald Glenn is guest blogging this month] (cross-posted on the Women's Bioethics Blog)(Roughly translated from Latin as Sex God in the machine) We all know that technology can improve our lives (sometimes....well, at least when it's working properly), but who'd have thunk that nanotechnology could improve your sex life?In yet one more 'tool' in the arsenal against dreaded erectile dysfunction, nanotechnology to the rescue! Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed a foam with nanoparticles encapsulating nitric oxide for the topical… -
John Hodgman pulls off Fermi Paradox schtick
19 Nov 2009 | 3:07 pmI totally love geek humor -- and this TED Talk by John Hodgman has plenty of it, including a bit about the Fermi Paradox and the ultimate question, "Where is everybody?" -
IBM's claim to have simulated a cat's brain grossly overstated
19 Nov 2009 | 1:18 pmThis is not a brain. I'm a big fan of IBM's Brain and Mind Institute (BMI) and the Blue Brain project. Initiated in May 2005, the Blue Brain project is an attempt to to model the mammalian cerebral cortex with computers. The intention is not to re-create the actual physical structure of the brain, but to simulate it using arrays of supercomputers. Ultimately, the developers are hoping to create biologically realistic models of neurons. In fact, the results of the simulation will be experimentally tested against biological columns.But I take exception to the recent claim that IBM has created a… -
Call 1-800-New-Organ, by 2020?
16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am[Linda MacDonald Glenn is guest blogging this month]Growing a set of new teeth, or new kidneys, or new eyes, or whatever it is you need, is something we could do as soon as 2020, according to a report that was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services a few years ago. In a follow-up to George's previous post, I'll be following and reporting on issues in regenerative medicine, with a focus on nano-scale materials and technology. The NIH uses the term 'regenerative medicine' interchangeably with 'tissue engineering' and defines it as "a rapidly growing multidisciplinary field… -
Link dump for 2009.11.15
15 Nov 2009 | 4:36 pmFrom the four corners of the web:Ranking scientists | Physics An analysis of the citation network leads to an alternative way to quantitatively assess the impact of a scientist's work.Your Next Body Is Growing In a Lab Right Now | Gizmodo At TEDMED, I witnessed video clips showing science I never knew was so advanced. Dr. Anthony Atala has been growing human tissue and organs, in a lab, for nearly two decades. He's even printed kidneys from a cell-stuffed inkjet printer. Google Flu Shot Finder Goes Live | MedgadgetGoogle has released a new tool to help Americans find local pharmacies and…
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Broader Perspective
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MMP inhibitor to kill senescent cells
15 Nov 2009 | 5:52 pmImportant work in the understanding and remedy of aging at the Buck Institute’s Systems Biology Symposium of Aging held November 10-13, 2009 was presented by Judith Campisi in a keynote talk, “The Four Horsemen – Damage, Inflammation, Cancer and Aging: Integrating Aging and Age-Related Research.”SummaryCampisi has found a common biological explanation for the related phenomena of aging, degenerative disease and cancer: the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Senescent cells produce the SASP, essentially inflammation, which can then trigger degenerative disease (aging)… -
Ubiquitous information technology fields
8 Nov 2009 | 10:36 amThe broadest thematic point in futurist Ray Kurzweil’s opening keynote at Singularity University on November 6, 2009 was that once any area becomes an information technology, it starts conforming to the exponential curves of Moore’s Law progress that have defined the computing and communications industries since 1900 or earlier.Health is well on its way to becoming an information science with genomic sequencing and synthesizing, bioinformatics and continuous automated biomarker capture. Energy is starting to be an information science with the smart grid, essentially an electron routing… -
Synthetic biology enables green petroleum
1 Nov 2009 | 6:25 amThe good news about the number of worldwide vehicles, approximately 1 billion at present and expected to double in the next few decades, is the number of fossil fuel alternatives feverishly underway, many of which have established pilot projects and are expected to launch in selected commercial markets in 2011.Synbio enables green petroleumThe current killer app of synthetic biology, the programming and engineering of biology, is green petroleum. Several companies are developing improved versions of fossil fuels which can be easily substituted into the existing worldwide fuel infrastructure… -
Role of B.S. in Advanced Society
25 Oct 2009 | 7:14 amB.S. is a deeper philosophical topic than it might seem at first glance. Two interesting books contemplate the matter: B.S. and Philosophy (2006) and On B.S. (2005).What is the role of B.S. in advanced society? Since it exists, it must have some role, possibly related to conflict reduction and social lubrication. A second reason for B.S. could be the complex values hierarchies in which individuals and societies operate. Social pressure and belongingness may trump truth as values. When someone is asked a question, the presupposition is that he or she may be able to answer and the inclination… -
Affinity Capital
18 Oct 2009 | 9:03 amA key concept in the 2.0 Economy is affinity capital. Deeper levels of information about every economic transaction are starting to be available such that individuals, businesses and communities can be very specific in directing and democratizing their capital. In many cases, products can be chosen that are organic, recyclable, fair trade, made from sustainable materials and made by companies with fair labor practices or whatever affinities or attributes the buyer cares about.Affinity-directed capital can influence both cash inflows and outflows. Affinity inflows are the money earned. Earners…
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Andart
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Giving what we can
19 Nov 2009 | 11:44 amAccelerating Future » Toby Ord on BBC for Giving What We Can - a post on my saintly colleague Toby's very worthy project Giving What We Can. Michael writes: "Toby is participating in what I glibly call “utility war” —... -
Power of chess
19 Nov 2009 | 8:47 amSergei Maslov writes a viewpoint Power laws in chess about the paper Zipf’s Law in the Popularity Distribution of Chess Openings (Bernd Blasius and Ralf Tönjes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 218701 (2009)). Blasius and Tönjes have observed that chess opening... -
A freemium on privacy?
13 Nov 2009 | 6:20 amI gave some input to a report written by the Future Laboratory for Oracle about "Capitalizing on the digital age". Not very futuristic by my standards, but still full of interesting small ideas that make sense of things. For example,... -
Blut und Boden
9 Nov 2009 | 2:03 amMy soil is filled with organisms named in Greek and Latin. My blood contains chemicals invented in America. I feel moved when I see the statue of Hierta, but only smile when I see the parade of kings. I feel... -
What is the ELO rating of Frankenstein?
7 Nov 2009 | 6:48 amI love well-executed crossovers between genres, arts, species, whatever. Finding fruitful or bizarre analogies and synergies in disparate domains is so fun! Here is one of the most amusing crossovers I have seen so far: chess-playing novels. The authors encode...
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the Foresight Institute
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Reynolds advocates faster nano/AI R&D for safety reasons
In Popular Mechanics, longtime Foresight friend Prof. Glenn Reynolds looks at the future of nanotech and artificial intelligence, among other things looking at safety issues, including one call that potentially dangerous technologies be relinquished. He takes a counterintuitive stance, which we’ve discussed here at Foresight over the years: But I wonder if that’s such a good [...] -
Nano PVs: cheaper or better?
Over at Nanoclast, Dexter Johnson writes: It seems when nanotech is applied to photovoltaics it can either boost their efficiency to new heights or it can cheapen their manufacturing process. But it never seems to provide a solution to both of these. It’s always a tradeoff: increased efficiency but difficult manufacturing processes or a cheaper production [...] -
Gallery – A joyride through the nanoscale – Image 1 – New Scientist
Gallery – A joyride through the nanoscale – Image 1 – New Scientist. This New Scientist article has some nice images from Whitesides recent book, sort of a retake on the “Secret House” idea. -
Technology Review: Self-Cleaning, Super-Absorbant Solar Cells
Technology Review: Self-Cleaning, Super-Absorbant Solar Cells. Amorphous-silicon solar cells patterned with nanoscale domes absorb more light–and shed water and dust. -
Moore’s Law Marches On
According to the loose length-scale based definition, nanotechnology has long since conquered the world: feature sizes in microprocessors have been below the 100 nanometer mark for some time, qualifying them, if anyone wanted to, to be called nanoprocessors. The latest reports and plans are mentioning 22-nanometer parts just 2 years from now: DailyTech – AMD Desktop [...]
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Futurismic
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Publishing economics round-up
20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amOK, here’s another link-collection post, but there’s more of a theme to this one: I noticed I had a whole bunch of pieces about the economics of publishing, so why not shove ‘em together and see what juxtapositions we get? We’ll start with this article discovered at TechDirt, an impassioned rant from a librarian that responds initially to the American Booksellers Association and their anger at big-box stores for deep-discounting books: In order to draw customer into their stores, Target and Wal-Mart are making ten bestselling author’s books available for under… -
3D object scanning using an ordinary webcam
20 Nov 2009 | 4:20 amJust in case you thought Tom Maly’s speculations about fabrication tech eradicating Fed Ex were a stretch too far, and that the technologies required are no where near ready… well, you might have a point. But even so, 3D technologies are developing rapidly and cheaply, as demonstrated by some people from Cambridge University who’ve written software that allows a common or garden webcam to scan three dimensional objects in realtime as you turn them in your hand: ProFORMA uses a fixed video camera to allow on-line reconstruction of objects held in a user’s hand. Partial… -
Tomorrow’s world: the demise of Fed-Ex
19 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amThose of you in the States may not be aware (or even care) that the staff of Royal Mail were recently engaged in wildcat strikes as a protest against the machinations of their management. Much as a lot of us have sympathies with their plight, it’s hard not to see them supplying the nails for the business’s coffin lid in the process; for example, in my guise as a music reviewer, the last two months have seen a sudden massed move by music PR outfits from mailing CDs to using file transfer services. It’s a sad story, really, the sort of thing I dare say someone will make a… -
IBM brain simulations reach cat equivalency
19 Nov 2009 | 3:46 amYou can’t so much as turn sideways without stumbling over this story, especially in the transhumanist and Singularitarian neighbourhoods of the web, and with good reason. So let’s just cut straight to the meat of it: Scientists, at IBM Research – Almaden, in collaboration with colleagues from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, have performed the first near real-time cortical simulation of the brain that exceeds the scale of a cat cortex and contains 1 billion spiking neurons and 10 trillion individual learning synapses. [via KurzweilAI] (And I’ll tell you, much as I love… -
The Surprising Range of Robots
18 Nov 2009 | 6:30 amI’ve been invited to join a panel on robotics at the upcoming Orycon Science Fiction Convention, so I decided to write about them here, too. I also have a story coming out soon in Analog, called “The Robots’ Girl,” which started when I read an article complaining about robots being developed to help with childcare in Japan. We were promised undersea cities and jet packs and household robots. The robots are here, and the next decade is pretty clearly a breakout time for them. (more…) Project Wonderful - Your ad here, right now, for as low as $0.00 The Surprising Range of…
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Overcoming Bias
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Praise Results
20 Nov 2009 | 7:30 amI am deeply honored by Tyler Cowen’s blog post “In praise of Robin Hanson.” My first instinct is to respond in kind, but doing so now would seem forced; better to wait until no one expects it. Instead let me use this opportunity to make a point about signaling: the world would be better if we praised folks more for what they did than who they are. Most eulogies, introductions, reviews, etc., whether in praise or criticism, tend to discuss what a person has done mainly as clues to what sort of person they are. For example, music reviews talk about what a new album says… -
Movies As Detached Detail
20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amPrecious and An Education were the last two movies I saw on a big screen, and both seemed to me to support the idea that movies are basically believable detail intended to be processed in near mode, combined with an overall story arc intended to be processed in far mode. Both movies get high marks for believable environment and actor micro-expression detail, and a lot of relatively realistic setting and character features. But the overall story arcs are rather predictable and not especially believable – they affirm standard morals and myths of modern viewers. While in real life… -
Are You Pro Slavery?
19 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pm“Quick, what is your position on life vs. death? For life and against death, right? So you would never ever allow anyone to take any action that would lead to a higher chance of death, right? Like say driving on the freeway instead of staying in bed? What, you would let someone drive instead of staying in bed?! You prefer them to die rather than live? Away you horrible daemon!” Silly, right? Yes of course life is usually much better than death, but it is not arbitrarily more important than any other consideration; it does not win in every possible circumstance. But… -
Execution Dignity
19 Nov 2009 | 7:20 amA state-sponsored execution is filled with ritual, from the agonizing countdown to the grim hour to the prisoner’s last meal. That final repast is such a curious display of compassion under the circumstances. Don’t let the man die hungry, as if that would be an indication of a truly uncivilized electorate. Or is the last meal a grudging willingness to let the convicted man have the tiniest bit of control over how he will exit this world? … But the prisoner is allowed no control over what he will be wearing. He cannot add any final footnote — no matter how… -
Evolving Diverse Fragility
18 Nov 2009 | 11:00 amOver the last 50,000 years humans have evolved many fragile features – features that in the wrong situations fail badly, but in the right situations gain greatly. Apparently, in previous environments the cost of failure was too high to tolerate such fragile features, but our larger denser societies somehow magnify the gains while minimizing the losses, enough to make such features useful. I’m not entirely clear how this works, but it does suggest even more diverse fragility in our future, and the importance of supporting such diversity. Some details: Most of us have genes that…
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The Speculist
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Bad Science in Star Trek...
20 Nov 2009 | 11:10 am...does not mean it can't be inspirational: [E]ven movies with bad science can still inspire the science-minded. Aside from James Kirk, the main characters in Star Trek are a science officer, a linguist, a mathematical wiz kid, a doctor, an engineer and a starship pilot who's good at fencing. Which is to say they're all geeks. If you think real world geeks don't look at that, say I want to live there, and then work to make it happen, you've not been paying attention to all the technical progress of the last few decades.- Sci-Fi Author John Scalzi Also, Jim Kirk comes off smarter in this new… -
Friday Video -- A Step Closer to the Dr. McCoy's Tricorder
20 Nov 2009 | 4:40 am -
FastForward Radio -- From Sub-Human to Post-Human in Three Easy Steps!
17 Nov 2009 | 5:02 amPhil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss the future of human and machine evolution: 1. What are the challenges faced in trying to develop a human-level artificial intelligence? 2. When do humans stop being human? 3. What will be the relationship between humanity and post-human artificial intelligence? Daunting questions with some potentially surprising answers! Archived recording available here: -
Cleaning up Space
16 Nov 2009 | 4:12 amBob Cringely proposes launching a space garbage scow to clean up the 18,000 pieces of space junk that have collected in Earth orbit. Cringely thinks that a single garbage scow could clean up all of it - provided no more junk is added - in four decades. Because time to completion is important (and we will continue to add junk), two or three of these robo-collectors would be a good idea. I'm afraid that, like adding gates at a dangerous rail crossing or a control light at an intersection, this might be the sort of project that gets launched only after a disaster. That would be a shame. Orbital… -
Friday Video -- a Poetry Reading
13 Nov 2009 | 4:37 amChristopher Walken reads Lady Gaga: (via InstaPundit)
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PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories
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Parent training complements medication for treating behavioral problems in children with PDD
20 Nov 2009 | 3:10 pmTreatment that includes medication plus a structured training program for parents reduces serious behavioral problems in children with autism and related conditions, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The study, which was part of the NIMH Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) Autism Network, was published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. -
Ultrasound enhances noninvasive Down syndrome tests
20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmThe addition of a "genetic sonogram" maximizes the accuracy of non-invasive testing for Down syndrome, said a Baylor College of Medicine researcher who was lead author of a landmark study in the current issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology. -
High blood pressure easy to miss in children with kidney disease
20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pmSpot blood pressure readings in children with chronic kidney disease often fail to detect hypertension - even during doctor's office visits - increasing a child's risk for serious heart problems, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children's Center and other institutions. A report of the findings appears online in the Journal of American Society of Nephrology. -
Funeral industry workers exposed to formaldehyde face higher risk of leukemia
20 Nov 2009 | 2:10 pmLong durations of exposure to formaldehyde used for embalming in the funeral industry were associated with an increased risk of death from myeloid leukemia, according to a new study published online November 20 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. -
Reasonable alternative to invasive biopsy of palpable breast lesions with benign imaging features identified
20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pmShort-term follow-up is a reasonable alternative to invasive biopsy of palpable (capable of being touched or felt) breast lesions with benign imaging features, particularly in younger women with probable fibroadenoma (non-cancerous tumors that often occur in women during their reproductive years), according to a study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
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Pink Tentacle
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Mechani-Kong and Dr. Who’s secret pyramid base
20 Nov 2009 | 2:02 amIn 1967, Shōnen Magazine published a set of illustrations detailing the secret weapons of Dr. Who, an evil scientist bent on capturing King Kong who regularly appeared in “The King Kong Show,” a popular animated series on Japanese and US television at the time (not related to the British “Doctor Who”). [View full image] “Death Battle with Robot Kong,” an illustration by Takashi Minamimura, features a cutaway diagram of Robot Kong, also known as “Mechani-Kong” in the US version of the cartoon and in the 1967 spin-off film “King Kong… -
Top 60 Japanese words/phrases of 2009
16 Nov 2009 | 12:07 amPublisher Jiyu Kokuminsha has released its annual list of the 60 most popular Japanese expressions of the year. The words and phrases (listed below in no particular order) reflect some of the major trends, events, and people that captured the attention of the Japanese mass media in 2009. Included are plenty of references to Japan’s recent political shake-up, the ailing economy, and the blurring of traditional gender roles. From this list, a panel of judges will select the 10 trendiest Japanese expressions of 2009 and announce the results in early December. 1. Regime change [seiken… -
Bra doubles as golf putting mat
10 Nov 2009 | 9:55 pmLingerie maker Triumph International Japan has unveiled a new concept bra designed to appeal to the hardcore female golfing enthusiast. Called the “Nice Cup In Bra,” the lingerie consists of a grass-green top that, when removed, conveniently unfurls into a 1.5-meter-long putting mat. When the user sinks a putt into one of the cups, a built-in speaker pumps out a cry of “Nice shot.” (Watch a short video.) In addition to functioning as a practice mat, the bra incorporates features that can come in handy on the course, such as pockets for storing extra balls and tees, as… -
Sci-fi illustrations by Shusei Nagaoka
10 Nov 2009 | 2:26 amIn the 1970s and 1980s, the sci-fi art of Japanese illustrator Shusei Nagaoka graced numerous album covers and appeared in a variety of advertisements, magazines, and movie posters. Here is a small sample of his fantastic work. (Click the “+” under each image to enlarge.) Munich Machine (album cover), 1977 [+] Midnight Star: “The Beginning” (album cover) 1980 [+] ELO: “Out of the Blue” (album cover), 1977 [+] The Humanoid (movie poster), 1979 [+] Close Encounter of the Fifth Kind [+] Star Trek [+] Conceive [+] Airplanes are not as safe as you might think… -
Velvet kaiju paintings
6 Nov 2009 | 7:40 amThe fierce beauty of classic Japanese movie monsters is dramatically captured in these black velvet paintings by artist Bruce White. Gamera Mechagodzilla Godzilla Ultraman Hedorah Mothra [Via: @bonniegrrl]
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vetta project
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1973 Lighthill debate
9 Nov 2009 | 10:09 amSome of you might know about the Lighthill report from 1973 which was deeply critical of progress in AI. This report was the main factor behind cutting the funding of AI research in the UK, and seems to have contributed to the more global cuts around this time known as the “AI winter”. Via Yee Whye Teh I recently came across a BBC debate between James Lighthill and three supporters of AI research: Richard Gregory, John McCarthy and Donald Michie. You can download the televised debate from here, though be warned that it’s 160MB. Now, 36 years later, it’s interesting to… -
Arel’s neuroscience inspired AGI
3 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pmThe Singularity Summit ‘09 videos are now up and I’ve been asked about the relationship between Itamar Arel’s talk and the neuroscience part of my Halloween talk (1 minute into Part 9, through Part 10, Part 11 and Part 12). The short answer is: yes, our perspectives are indeed very similar. Essentially, brain-like deep belief networks + brain-like reinforcement learning + powerful computers = AGI quite soon. This similarity isn’t all that surprising: I know a number of people who are thinking along these lines. I actually met Itamar briefly before the conference and… -
Halloween lecture online
1 Nov 2009 | 6:09 amMy Halloween lecture has been uploaded to youtube. The basic outline is: * what is intelligence? * Solomonoff induction * Hutter’s AIXI * Monte Carlo AIXI (here’s the missing video of it playing pac-man) * universal intelligence measure * what neuroscience can teach us about AGI design * early 2020’s: the Halloween scenario You can get the slides here. I talked for 2 hours, so it’s broken up into many parts on youtube: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Thanks to David Wood at ExtroBritannian for organising this, and… -
I’m speaking at Extrobritannia
14 Oct 2009 | 7:37 amOn Saturday the 31st of October, I’m going to be the speaker at Extrobritannia here in London. I went along to their last meeting and it was totally packed out, nearly a hundred people I believe. Having both Dr. Aubrey de Grey and Dr. Anders Sandberg speaking explains why! I’ll be covering topics from my PhD thesis, such as the definition of intelligence, Solomonoff’s model of Induction, Hutter’s AIXI and more recent work such as the Monte Carlo approximation of AIXI by Veness et. al. I’ll also include a few thoughts on how recent discoveries in theoretical… -
Post-singularity summit
7 Oct 2009 | 8:29 amWith the summit still fresh in my mind I thought I’d put a bit of a summary together — or perhaps more a collection of random thoughts and observations. For a less personal overview, read the Reason magazine article. What I will remember most clearly about this summit was Peter Thiel. Firstly, the pre-summit party at his penthouse apartment. That was a treat: a tiny peak into the world of the ultra-rich. His mix of intelligence, focus and energy was quite something to behold and he left a real impression on me. His talk was also among the most engaging in my opinion. No slides, no…
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Everyone's Blog Posts - Transhumanist Network
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FreeMarket's Colony Program is Go for Launch!
After two years in development, FreeMarket has launched its colony program. Users can register at projectdonut.com and download a beta version of FreeMarket’s system documents, ephemera and other material necessary to engage in the experience. Colonists will also have priority status for pre-ordering the final release of FreeMarket: a limited edition set signed and numbered by designers Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen, and a reproduction of the original CHOIRS mission patch. As space on the outgoing lifeboat transports is limited, FreeMarket can only accept the first 1,000 registrations. Luke… -
Ancient Thoughts
It would be perfectly reasonable to assume that extropian and transhumanist concerns are very recent manifestations in the timeline of philosophical thought. It would be reasonable to conclude that such concerns can only have been born out of the collision between 20th/21st century technological developments, post-industrial infrastructure and the captivating imaginations of science fiction writers who saw this stuff from miles off (and didn't need to give any rationale to their hypotheses). Read more here -
The All-Seeing Ai
It is now Transparent that what is about to Transpire on this planet is nothing short of the Transcontinental Transformation of humanity. A global Transition to Transhumanity is the truth behind the mystery of TransAlchemy (working Documentary tile) Homosapiens have used the power of their own minds to shape and mold the elements of this earth, to create and use tools that have enabled them to literally touch the sky. The creative power of the human mind itself has made it the greatest tool we have ever had. Today, men of science are creating a new tool which may expand beyond the power of… -
The All-Seeing Ai
11/13/2009 -
Condorcet Esquisse d un tableau historique de l esprit humain (1793-1794) ...Enfin, l’espèce humaine…
Condorcet Esquisse d un tableau historique de l esprit humain (1793-1794) ...Enfin, l’espèce humaine doit-elle s’améliorer, soit par de nouvelles découvertes dans les sciences et dans les arts, et, par une conséquence nécessaire, dans les moyens de bien-être particulier et de prospérité commune ; soit par des progrès dans les principes de conduite et dans la morale pratique ; soit enfin par le perfectionnement réel des facultés intellectuelles, morales et physiques, qui peut être également la suite, ou de celui des instruments qui augmentent l’intensité et dirigent…
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Institute For The Future
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IFTF announces new FutureCast series...starting November 20
16 Nov 2009 | 11:14 amteaser: IFTF is happy to announce that we will be introducing a new FutureCast podcast series, starting Friday, November 20, at 11 am Pacific Time. Our first podcast will be hosted by Jerry Michalski, and our guest expert will be Arthur Brock of The Metacurrency Project. Promote to what's new on front page: Promote to what's new on front page IFTF is happy to announce that we will be introducing a new FutureCast podcast series, starting Friday, November 20, at 11 am Pacific Time. Our first podcast will be hosted by Jerry Michalski, and our guest expert will be Arthur Brock of… -
IFTF announces new FutureCast series...starting November 20
16 Nov 2009 | 7:43 amIFTF is happy to announce that we will be introducing a new FutureCast podcast series, starting Friday, November 20, at 11 am Pacific Time. Our first podcast will be hosted by Jerry Michalski, and our guest expert will be Arthur Brock of The Metacurrency Project. IFTF Staff Posts read more -
kibera
6 Nov 2009 | 11:41 am -
skipstairs
28 Oct 2009 | 5:16 pm -
McDonald's QR code reader
28 Oct 2009 | 4:45 pm
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MediaFuturist
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Free mobile version of my Music 2.0 book for iPhone, Android and Blackberry
19 Nov 2009 | 8:15 amMany of you may have already downloaded my free Music 2.0 book as a PDF, or read it on the iPhone using Instapaper via my very basic mobile page, or even purchased the dead-tree version (note that Amazon is sold out now, all future orders should be done only via Lulu.com) Today, I am delighted to announce that a much better mobile-optimized version of the book is finally available here - and yes, it's still free. However, I really don't mind if you make a payment for the free PDF via Lulu.com;) As you can see, below, this includes all of the chapters in an easy-to-read, mobile-native… -
Sharing my twitter favorites
19 Nov 2009 | 7:10 amGotta love those widgets -
Some of my 'bottom lines' on the Future of Content
19 Nov 2009 | 5:24 amwww.flickr.com gleonhard's Bottom lines photoset Related articles by ZemantaThe Future of Content in 140 Characters: Music=404, Ctrl=MiA, TeleMedia>6Y and GWHTLC ! (mediafuturist.com) Seven Weeks Into the Future (futurist.com) Content: the past, and the future - we must challenge our assumptions (mediafuturist.com) -
Indicatr hunch: Instapaper iPhone (read webpages on your iPhone, offline)
18 Nov 2009 | 4:28 amFurther to Monday's announcement on my new venture, Indicatr, here is a new video about the amazing, 'green' and addictive Instapaper iPhone app. I blogged about this last year but it just keeps getting better - no more printing for me; I just bookmark all those cool webpages and read them offline on my iPhone or Kindle. More Indicatr hunches are here.Related articles by ZemantaFormat War Clouds E-Book Horizon [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com) Bookmark Away: Instapaper Comes Up With A New Way To Work With The Kindle (techcrunch.com) New mobile lifestreaming page now… -
The Future of Content in 140 Characters: Music=404, Ctrl=MiA, TeleMedia>6Y and GWHTLC !
17 Nov 2009 | 5:22 pmToday, Jeff Pulver's 140 Character conference in London presented a whole new challenge to me: make a presentation on "The Future of Content" with less than 140 characters i.e. in true twitter style (at least as far as the headlines and bullets are concerned), and deliver it in 10 minutes. At least, that is the challenge I prescribed to myself - and those are usually the hardest. Talk about a tall mission: here are those 140 characters - see if you can make any sense of it. My own, personal favorite: the music is 404 (page not found). And GWHTLC (glad we had this little…
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Diary Of A Madman
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Letter from America - Finance
6 Nov 2009 | 6:48 amWell I’ve been here (the good ol’ US of A) for over two weeks now, my how the time has flown! And what are the major differences on this side of the pond vs UK? Is what I intend to write about here and when I can I’ll update on some of the work that I’m doing with the team out here. First off I guess, everything is just bigger! I know it’s an old cliché, but it’s true, and to be honest I love it! Bigger is better and with that I noticed that the car I’m currently driving (a Chevy Suburban) you could almost fit two of my previous cars into this one… Another… -
Retail & eCommerce: Why is it not going to plan?
8 Jul 2009 | 6:31 amI was prompted to write this blog in a sort of pseudo response to an article in the FT article http://tinyurl.com/RetailFT around the predictions of ecommerce and why there is not the glutton of mass adoption of this medium. Well firstly it is doing very well just now, thank you very much, across Europe online retail sales grew from €98bn in 2007 to €116bn with year on year growth at around 10.8% – so before the economic landslide of the last few months things were, going well, and to plan… However the reason why I included €uros and €urope rather than UK is that one of the… -
Time to Reboot or Replatform Britain?
7 Jul 2009 | 4:04 am…or even decide that seeing as the UK Government has hidden the reboot switch – perhaps its now time that old "’Blighty’ switched the whole thing off, brought in some new hardware, OS, software and tools (metaphorically speaking of course this means remove the current Government – and replace with what……..?) Now I’m not going to deliver this as a distinct political blog – but with Digital Britain (Lord Carter – cut & run) and yesterday Reboot Britain, there just seems to be this constant knee jerk reaction that in this current economic climate, the “easy” money is… -
Social Media Networks & Communication Services: When do you engage and How?
3 Jul 2009 | 4:29 amAt what point do retailers embrace the social shopping sphere? From reviews, comments, payments, marketing and brand voice, where and how do they begin? There are so many social networks and sites here today gone tomorrow that retailers and brands are concerned that there either too late, too early or will waste their money on something that could potentially damage their brand and reputation! Equally they feel that they are missing out on this new ‘Social Shopping’ (Look at Dell who have attributed $2million in sales thanks to Twitter) and would like to get their brand and company… -
Losing your Individualism and Personal Expression – or just Learn, Play & Perform?
15 Apr 2009 | 3:46 amAfter listening to a member of London Symphony Orchestra on BBC Radio 3 last week about the stress and pressure that the musicians were under as part of the LSO, it got me thinking about how as a musician, and specifically either a session musician or member of an orchestra (which in essence is a glorified session musician - however being part of the LSO or SFSO is always seen as a more prestige gig rather than being session musician for George Michael, Roger Waters or Rob Thomas) would feel the pressure and strain of what is in fact reciting and replaying someone else's music? As well as the…
