Living the life uploaded (or not), ‘Readius’ ebook launhced, penal colonies in space, lost Egan novel reviewed…

• 1 – The perils of a digital life

  “…I believe I’ve come up with another possible problem for those wishing to live a purely digital life. It may very well turn out that, as a medium, digital substrate is far too insecure and algorithmically unconstrained.”

  (tags: transhumanism copybot problems hazards upload consciousness digital metaverse Life Second)

• 2 – Cats

  “This is a collection of pictures of cats found on random places on the internet.” Yeah, I know, I need to get out more.

  (tags: pictures memes macros kittah images gallery cats)

• 3 – Magsails on the Solar Wind?

  “…the possibilities of magnetic sails using a different kind of propulsion. Rather than being pushed by photons, a magsail interacts with the plasma of the solar wind.”

  (tags: plasma magsail propulsion probe exploration wind system solar space)

• 4 – The Readius: Disappointingly Cool

  “When someone says “rollable”, I want rollable. This is an unfolding, flexible display. Still cool, but they’ve made it less cool and disappointed me by raising expectation and not delivering on the promise.”

  (tags: disappointment hype display flexible device digital reader epaper ebook Readiue Vision Polymer)

• 5 – Prosper P2P Finance Update

  “One year into the P2P lending business is too early to conclusively determine that P2P lending is lower risk than traditional unsecured lending but the initial signs are good.”

  (tags: economics investment business rate default finance loans peer p2p)

• 6 – Neurotechnology and Society (2010-2060)

  “By viewing recent history as a series of techno-economic waves ushered in by a new low-cost input, it is possible to see that neurotechnology will lead to substantial economic, political, and social change.” Interesting.

  (tags: lifespan economics health mental biotech society technology neurotechnology foresight futurism)

• 7 – New World Notes: A SEXUAL CENSUS OF SECOND LIFE

  “Seen this way, maybe 10% of this location depicts commercial content that is unambiguously sexual. (And this in a white hot center of avatar-based sensuality.) If it’s just 10% here, how much smaller is it across the wide swathe of the grid?”

  (tags: content commerce sexuality sex rumour marketing assumptions meatspace metaverse Life Second)

• 8 – Penal Solar Colonies, Anyone?

  “Located less than 60 million kilometers (or 36 million miles) from the Sun’s surface, Mercury makes an excellent spot for a penal colony.”

  (tags: civilisation society punishment crime planets prison colony penal colonisation space)

• 9 – The Ecstasy of Influence – Jonathan Letham

  “Taken from this angle, what exactly is postmodernism, except modernism without the anxiety?” Read this essay. Seriously. This is important.

  (tags: theft reuse literature commons creative collage piracy ideas stories IP property intellectual copyright copying cribbing borrowing plagiarism creation writing art)

• 10 – Amazon Patents Showing You Your Own Books

  “Thanks to a patent the USPTO granted to Amazon [on] Tuesday [...] showing you images of pages from a book you’ve purchased may someday trigger a patent infringement lawsuit.” Crafty.

  (tags: infringement rights IP purchase version access ebook online patent Upgrade Amazon)

• 11 – Concerns raised over U.K. ePassport warranties

  “…only a two-year warranty on the microchips that make ‘em tick, despite the fact that passports are intended to be used for a full ten years.” UK=SNAFU. Just microwave the damn things.

  (tags: surveillance security identity warranty chip arphid RFID passport UK)

• 12 – Lost Books, Part I: Distress, by Greg Egan

  “Many writers have written reviews of non-existent books. This irregular feature will be a slight variation on that: I’ll be reviewing books that did exist, but are out of print…” This early Egan sounds like a winner.

  (tags: Distress Egan Greg novel sf scifi fiction science print out OOP review book)

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