20070630

Structure::Web


20070629

Doomsday


Venter is going on his way to patent life, trying to build bacteria to, e.g., clean up toxic waste.

Time to remind of
'Mutant 59 - The Plastic Eaters' (1971) by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler (mutated bacteria eat away all plastic, grinding civilisation to a halt :).

20070626

Learning


With the assumptions that ...

1. mirror neurons are a means of perception
2. there is a variety for different channels of perception
3. they are subject to neuroplasticty
4. the brain adapts to needs as well as intentions

... one can derive that reality is made up and can be built on demand.

Now add the idea of feeding this into the genome.

20070625

Knowledge


quoted from Nathan Sivin, On the Word "Taoist" as a Source of Perplexity. With Special Reference to the Relations of Science and Religion in Traditional China

>My point is a modest one, inspired by a saying of Confucius himself that can hardly be improved upon as a guide to critical research: "When you know something, to know that you know it; when you don't know it, to know that you don't know it: that's knowledge."

(Analects 2.17. Chih refers to understanding and recognition of significance as aspects of knowledge, not to objective factual knowledge isolated from the act of understanding and evaluating.)<

Science::Religion


Having begun to dive into the matter (without emotions regarding the issue, much more so, however, with respect to proponents of - for short - either side) I propose that one may reduce as follows in order to have a basis for the discussion of positions.

Three groups, those who ...

1. ... have faith that they can explain everything by the 'scientific method'
2. ... have faith in some god(s) (no capitalization here)
3. ... do try hard not to occupy a position imposed by an idiology

20070624

Religion::Science


Having almost literally stumbled across the 'medieval' discussion regarding above topic that is currently taking place in the US (which, by the way, is worth millions of dollars if you build your marketing strategy properly), I think that it is worth to collect some evidence that the self elected proponents of atheism are about to create 'A Church of Science' (probably one could also find some facts that they have a plan to create personal wealth by this effort).

Clarification: I am an agnostic.

20070622

Privacy


Reminder: Take ethics of current (leading?) scientists/intellectuals (??) as exemplified by comments regarding Edge questions as a basis for what can be expected in a 'networked' (read Brin) society.

I do not buy that it will not be a subversion of 1984.

Mirror Neurons


The next question to research is whether one could identify neurons that fire if a person encounters physical objects without actually perceiving them by what commonly is referred to as 'normal senses'.

Seems that much of what is tagged 'supernatural' suddenly shifts domain.

20070621

Mirror Neurons::Reality


With the assumptions that ...

1. mirror neurons are a means of perception
2. there is a variety for different channels of perception
3. they are subject to neuroplasticty
4. the brain adapts to needs as well as intentions

... one can derive that reality is made up and can be built on demand.

Now add the idea of feeding this into the genome.

20070619

Maluma vs. Takete




Choose one if appropriate!


Takete



This is the drawing that is identified as 'takete'.

Maluma



In almost, if not all, languages this or a similar drawing is identified as 'maluma' if contrasted to 'takete'.

Now browse through your mental images of common symbols and see which fit either.

20070615

Farsight


The man who sees further than others begins with infinity.

found at talking squid

Truth


Reality - the picture that you look at.
Truth - the illusion that there is only one picture.

20070612

Russian ATM runs on unactivated copy of Windows


Unbelievable how many retards/believers are around.



read more

Happiness


Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. Hemingway
This may be due to a tendency to be directed towards a specific worldview by the overwhelming majority.

20070611

Second Thought


Propose a draft of an answer the question which evolutionary advantage 'intelligence' could have.

This could be based on a comparison of naturally occuring 'distributions' and those attained when applying control to structures of interrelated processes (call it complex systems, though the term is rather fuzzy due to difficulties defining 'complexity' - not to say that 'intelligence' is well defined).

20070607

Select One


Build a tensegrity model of human posture. (tensegrity)

Differentiate the web-language among popular 'schools of publications'. (webthought)

Demonstrate how 'classical' medicine thoroughly fails. (alternative-health)

Show how the current structure of the internet (as a reflection of values held up by whom) leads to a 'virtualization of humanity'. (media)