Future technological advances may allow us to instantiate high-resolution models of our mindbrains on machine substrate, or even create de novo persons. Critics point out, quite rightly, that machines are digital while mindbrains are analog. From this insight, they conclude that machines won’t be able to recreate the detailed processing of neural wetware.
However, the critics [...]
Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Approximating analog with digital
Posted in Science, Technology on 16 September 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Putting things in perspective
Posted in Culture, Environment, Science, Technology on 8 September 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“If climate change is a hoax, it’s the greatest hoax ever perpetrated, because everything we do to respond will make us more efficient, more productive, more entrepreneurial, more competitive, [and] more respected [in the world].”
– David Friedman, author of The World is Flat, and Hot, Flat and Crowded.
Aaronson on technology
Posted in Environment, Philosophy, Science, Technology on 7 September 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Robin Hanson on the Overcoming Bias blog links to Scott Aaronson’s review of The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil (which I’ve read, and whom I watched deliver a speech at the first Singularity Summit).
There’s a lot I could say about that review, and I will, but right now I just want to point out [...]
The Chinese gymnast age controversy
Posted in Current Events, Science, Technology on 21 August 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The interwebs are abuzz over a controversy regarding the ages of several Chinese women gymnasts. Critics point to several news reports, and even an official Chinese government web site, which listed Chinese gymnast He Kexin’s birthday as 1 January 1994 instead of the “official” date of 1 January 1992. That would make her 14 years [...]
TechCrunchIT to build web tablet
Posted in Internet, Technology on 22 July 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Like many people, I was excited when I first heard about netbooks. Most of my computing experience revolves around the Internet, so a low-cost machine for that purpose would be useful to me, and it would lower the barrier to entry for many people who still aren’t on the net. Then I found out how [...]
Cquestrate
Posted in Environment, Technology on 21 July 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Cquestrate is an “open source” inititiative to develop a system for the production of lime, which can be dumped into the ocean to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. The brains behind the project believe that atmospheric carbon dioxide can be reduced to pre-Industrial Revolution levels. That plan looks feasible in theory. I just wonder how much [...]
The benefits of piracy?
Posted in Technology on 20 July 2008 | 1 Comment »
Slashdot has an intersting post today:
The Economist has an article detailing how numerous companies are finding piracy’s silver lining: ‘Statistics about the traffic on file-sharing networks can be useful. They can reveal, for example, the countries where a new singer is most popular, even before his album has been released there. Having initially been reluctant [...]
I can finally buy an iPhone
Posted in Technology on 14 July 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve written before about my displeasure with the fact that the iPhone could only be activated by downloading the iTunes player and activating through that service. Ars Technica reports that the new iPhone 3G must be activated in the store — you know, like every other freaking cell phone in the world. Now that Apple [...]
Today poker, tomorrow the world
Posted in Technology on 14 July 2008 | 1 Comment »
Narrow-domain AI has successfully outperformed human players in tic-tac-toe, checkers, backgammon, and chess. Now an AI system developed by researchers at the University of Alberta can defeat poker players.
It’s an interesting development, because this is the first time a machine can defeat the best human players at a game that doesn’t have perfect information. It [...]
Assange on Wikileaks
Posted in Culture, Internet, Technology on 3 July 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“In every negotiation, in every planning meeting and in every workplace dispute, a perception is slowly forming that the public interest may have a silent advocate in the room.” — Julian Assange, co-founder of Wikileaks, as quoted in Wired.
