http://reason.tv/video/show/freedom-science-fiction-and-th
Monday, August 29, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Your Brain on Nanobots
Ray Kurzweil is a renown inventor and a sometimes controversial futurist. Ray invented reading machines, OCR technology, scanners, and many other technologies we take for granted. He is credited with predicting when a computer would defeat a chess master and the explosion of the Internet.
Perhaps his most controversial prediction in the coming singularity in 2045. One predicted outcome of the singularity is AI will not only surpass biological intelligence but it will absorb it. AI, in the form of nanobots, will roam freely throughout our bodies essentially creating a human/AI hybrid. Our brain will become more AI than DNA and will operate in actual and virtual reality simultaneously while continuously joined to cyberspace. Ultimately, nanobots will replace all organic bodily material and a new and immortal species will arise.
Kurzweil gets a lot of support and skepticism for this 2045 prediction from the scientific community. Most often the scientific debate around this prediction feasibility and accuracy is whether technologies are advancing incrementally or exponentially.
Reference: Kevin Shapiro. (2005, December). This Is Your Brain on Nanobots. Commentary, 120(5), 64-68. Retrieved August 27, 2011, from Research Library. (Document ID: 938710071).
Perhaps his most controversial prediction in the coming singularity in 2045. One predicted outcome of the singularity is AI will not only surpass biological intelligence but it will absorb it. AI, in the form of nanobots, will roam freely throughout our bodies essentially creating a human/AI hybrid. Our brain will become more AI than DNA and will operate in actual and virtual reality simultaneously while continuously joined to cyberspace. Ultimately, nanobots will replace all organic bodily material and a new and immortal species will arise.
Kurzweil gets a lot of support and skepticism for this 2045 prediction from the scientific community. Most often the scientific debate around this prediction feasibility and accuracy is whether technologies are advancing incrementally or exponentially.
Reference: Kevin Shapiro. (2005, December). This Is Your Brain on Nanobots. Commentary, 120(5), 64-68. Retrieved August 27, 2011, from Research Library. (Document ID: 938710071).
New Agora
After reading New Agora: New Geometry of Languaging And
New Technology of Democracy I discovered my views, as they have evolved from a young person to a mature one, semms to be the complete opposite of Madison's experience. The New Agora is democratic utopia at its finest and the SDP is a wonderful process for such an environment. As a young man I too believed technology had made representative government at least partially obsolete and direct democracy was possible. However, 24x7 mass marketing of every interest imaginable that creates popular culture and the resulting herd mentality has made skeptical that direct democracy could ever truly exist in any context.
Specific to the SDP I believe it night be effective if no relationships existed between the participants. The process is claimed it overcomes group influence types of bias but in corporate, government, and academic settings where power relationships (i.e. one with power over another) the claim appears thin.
Reference: http://www.harnessingcollectivewisdom.com/pdf/newagora.pdf
New Technology of Democracy I discovered my views, as they have evolved from a young person to a mature one, semms to be the complete opposite of Madison's experience. The New Agora is democratic utopia at its finest and the SDP is a wonderful process for such an environment. As a young man I too believed technology had made representative government at least partially obsolete and direct democracy was possible. However, 24x7 mass marketing of every interest imaginable that creates popular culture and the resulting herd mentality has made skeptical that direct democracy could ever truly exist in any context.
Specific to the SDP I believe it night be effective if no relationships existed between the participants. The process is claimed it overcomes group influence types of bias but in corporate, government, and academic settings where power relationships (i.e. one with power over another) the claim appears thin.
Reference: http://www.harnessingcollectivewisdom.com/pdf/newagora.pdf
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Web 2.0 tool for STP
A very cool web 2.0 tool I use several times a day is Cisco WebEx. It is a highly interactive virtual communications, meeting, collaboration, webinar, and training environment. It features VTC, white boarding, VoIP, IM, and desktop and file sharing.
Benefits of such virtual collaboration environments include greater productivity and efficiency, no physical meeting room needed, no travel expenses related to attending meetings, green meetings (greatly reduced carbon footprint), and diminished barriers to cultural and geographical diversity barriers.
Reference: www.webex.com
Benefits of such virtual collaboration environments include greater productivity and efficiency, no physical meeting room needed, no travel expenses related to attending meetings, green meetings (greatly reduced carbon footprint), and diminished barriers to cultural and geographical diversity barriers.
Reference: www.webex.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)