Links for 27-10-2006
Protopanpsychism, Arnie prods Bush, unmanned Japanese hotels, librarian avoids jail for book thefts…
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“Despite grandiose and cocksure proclamations to the contrary, consciousness is still a hard problem in science.” Excellent article, full of interesting theories and laden with links. A must-read for singularity fans.
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“The Republican governor wrote that the state’s request for a federal waiver to set vehicle emissions standards has been “ignored with no explanation” despite an earlier letter from the governor to Bush.” Don’t make him angry,
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“Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has called for better use of the ’space resource’ to battle Earth’s climate crisis, enlisting entrepreneurial muscle to help solve global issues that threaten the planet’s habitability.” You tell ‘em, Al.
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“Comet Swan, as it is called, is in the western sky after sunset from the Northern Hemisphere. It remains faint, likely not easy to find under bright city lights but pretty simple to spot from the countryside.”
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“…a network of hotels that rely on an online reservation and payment system, RFID-enabled Orico credit cards that serve as keys, and RFID-enabled door entry locks.” Oh, so hackable. Another William Gibson trope made real.
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“There has been very little commercial exploitation of applying steam power to two-wheeled vehicles, so most “steamcycles” that come to light are one-of-a-kind prototypes [...] The steamcycle restored here is no exception.”
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“Imagine a massively multiplayer music studio, connected worldwide over the Internet. [...] Everyone’s looking at essentially the same screen, and can add beats, trip out effects, slide the bpm up and down, and reprogram synths – all at once.”
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“…file sharing activity is in steady decline in Canada. The survey, conducted in June 2006, finds that just 14 percent of Canadians have downloaded music in the last 12 months, down from [...] 21 percent in 2002.” Well, whaddayaknow?
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“Australia will build the world’s biggest solar power plant amid warnings of blackouts within five years unless it can increase electricity generation to meet growing demand for air conditioners.” They have the sunlight to spare, after all.
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“The most detailed panoramic view ever obtained on Mars has been returned by NASA’s Spirit rover in time to mark its 1000th Martian day, or sol, on the Red Planet.” Great images for prog-rock album covers.
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“Both browsers are loaded with modern productivity features, but while Microsoft is just introducing these features to its browser, Firefox has already had them long enough to refine them, enhance them and make them even easier to use.”
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“The Ministry of Defence reportedly stockpiled bought thousands of [Modafinil] pills ahead of the Iraq war but they have never been given to combat personnel.” Sounds a bit low-key compared to the old Porton Down acid test.
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“A LOVE-SICK librarian who stole ancient and rare books worth £175,000 walked free from court yesterday.” With that kind of attitude to books, he’ll probably end up in a government thinktank on libraries. Via GOBM.
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“Imagine mouthing a phrase in English, only for the words to come out in Spanish. That is the promise of a device that will make anyone appear bilingual, by translating unvoiced words into synthetic speech in another language.”
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“Crozier says the idea is still in its initial stages and he has no idea how much it would cost to cover the books.” That he’s even suggesting the idea makes that quite apparent.
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October 28th, 2006 at 2:36 am
[...] Sentient Developments: Protopanpsychism and the consciousness conundrum, or why we shouldn’t assume uploads Consciousness an inherent component of reality? “All bets are off once a conscious superintelligence starts to engage in selective decoherence” — a god is born? Thanks, Armchair Anarchist Leave a Comment [...]