Laser fusion, headline writing, Nietzsche documentary, Cascio on Microsoft’s ‘Surface’ interface, the failure of democratic participation in SL, neurons imitating silicon, silicon imitating neurons…

• 1 – Laser fusion – the safe, clean way to produce nuclear energy

  “The scientists admit that a commercial reactor is a long way off, but they believe the laser approach to producing fusion shows great promise.” Got to be a better move than swapping oil dependence for uranium dependence.

  (tags: environment generation project fusion laser physics experiment research power nuclear UK)

• 2 – The Sexy Art of Writing Headlines that Kill

  “As a former newspaper editor, I’ve had some experience writing headlines — and doing it for a print publication isn’t so different from doing it for a blog.”

  (tags: advice tips writing headlines copywriting articles)

• 3 – Human, All Too Human

  BBC documentary on the life of Friedrich Nietzsche on Google Video.

  (tags: Nietzsche philosophy history documentary)

• 4 – The Surface of the Metaverse

  “The appeal of Surface (etc.) for computing tasks, however, will be limited in many commonplace arenas … the real market for multi-touch is in the world of the Metaverse, especially in the Augmented Reality and Mirror Worlds versions.”

  (tags: technology worlds mirror reality augmented applications metaverse interface gesture touch Surface Microsoft)

• 5 – THE UNWISDOM OF CROWDS?

  “Here is the ultimate Second Life paradox: while Residents as a whole love their freedom, for the most part they have never shown any collective love for democracy’s more strenuous duties.”

  (tags: dissatisfaction dissent voting participation self-governance democracy Life Second metaverse)

• 6 – Russia bans human tissue export in bioweapon alert

  “Kommersant attributed the ban to fears in the secret service that Russian genetic material could be used abroad to make biochemical weapons targeting Russians.” Oh, come on.

  (tags: fear panic weapons biological keyed DNA ban export tissue human Russia)

• 7 – Move to create less clumsy robots

  “The work at the University of Granada is concentrating on the design of microchips that incorporate a full neuronal system, emulating the way the cerebellum interacts with the human nervous system.”

  (tags: robotics singularity convergence imitation movement mammalian brain cerebellum neuroscience electronics technology)

• 8 – Learning, Memory, And Progress Toward A Living Chip

  “The ability to record information in a manmade network of neurons is a step toward a cyborg-like integration of living material into memory chips.”

  (tags: singularity convergence storage memory neurons culture artificial neuroscience electronics technology)

• 9 – Google wants to know everything about you

  “What Google – and a thousand scruffy hackers who want to be the next Google – are up to can be seen not as evil or even bad but an effort to build a public feed of data. Transparent Society Version 2.0.” YES.

  (tags: society transparent access public internet privacy surveillance harvesting data government Google)