John K. Davis, Independent Distributor, SendOutCards

EDGE

Edge 298: Stewart Brand on Ecopragmatism: We Are As Gods And Have To Get Good At It.

"...The shift that has happened in 40 years which mainly has to do with climate change. Forty years ago, I could say in the Whole Earth Catalog, 'we are as gods, we might as well get good at it'. Photographs of earth from space had that god-like perspective.

What I'm saying now is we are as gods and have to get good at it. Necessity comes from climate change, potentially disastrous for civilization. The planet will be okay, life will be okay. We will lose vast quantities of species, probably lose the rain forests if the climate keeps heating up. So it's a global issue, a global phenomenon. It doesn't happen in just one area. The planetary perspective now is not just aesthetic. It's not just perspective. It's actually a world-sized problem that will take world sized solutions that involves forms of governance we don't have yet. It involves technologies we are just glimpsing. It involves what ecologists call ecosystem engineering. Beavers do it, earthworms do it. They don't usually do it at a planetary scale. We have to do it at a planetary scale. A lot of sentiments and aesthetics of the environmental movement stand in the way of that..."

Influential Luddite advocates, even those who are environmentalists, can be anti-science, anti-intellectual and may sometimes put a "stop change" mindset over an objective and long-term view point. Stewart Brand discusses his Ecopragmatist Manifesto in the article published recently on EDGE.

Posted via web from jkd's posterous

Thank God for Evolution!

If this book doesn't end the science and religion war, it's certainly a MAJOR step in the right direction!

Better Eating Through Nanotech

Link: ExtremeNano.

Sure, some people call it FrankenFood, but you are probably eating it. Nanotechnology has invaded the food supply, improving the consistency of yogurt and cheese, and is even helping to make healthy foods tastier. ExtremeNano has an in-depth report on how nanotechnology is changing our food supply in subtle but real ways--direct from the international NanoFoods conference in The Netherlands. It's a fascinating look at how new technology is making what we eat today better. Or perhaps not.

Zombie Dogs

Here is an interesting news bite with profound implications for humanity:

Link: Accelerating-Intelligence News.

Scientists have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans.

Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with saline solution at a few degrees above zero Celsius.

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity. But three hours later, their blood is replaced and they are brought back to life with oxygen and defibrillation.

Plans to test the technique on humans should be realized within a year, according to the Safar Centre. The hope to be able to keep people in this state for just a few hours, enough to save lives such as battlefield casualties and victims of stabbings or gunshot wounds, who have suffered huge blood loss.

Can you say "immortality?"

Building a Brain

And so it begins in ernest...

Link: New Scientist Breaking News - Mission to build a simulated brain begins.

An effort to create the first computer simulation of the entire human brain, right down to the molecular level, was launched on Monday.

The “Blue Brain” project, a collaboration between IBM and a Swiss university team, will involve building a custom-made supercomputer based on IBM’s Blue Gene design.

The hope is that the virtual brain will help shed light on some aspects of human cognition, such as perception, memory and perhaps even consciousness.

It will be the first time humans will be able to observe the electrical code our brains use to represent the world, and to do so in real time, says Henry Markram, director of Brain and Mind Institute at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.

It may also help in understanding how certain malfunctions of the brain’s “microcircuits” could cause psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and depression, he says.

Until now this sort of undertaking would not be possible because the processing power and the scientific knowledge of how the brain is wired simply was not there, says Charles Peck, IBM’s lead researcher on the project.

“But there has been a convergence of the biological data and the computational resources,” he says. Efforts to map the brain’s circuits and the development of the Blue Gene supercomputer, which has a peak processing power of at least 22.8 teraflops, now make this possible.

To read the entire article, click on the link that begins this post.

Quantum Cryptography

From a recent article at Nature Dot Com:

Quantum cryptography has been sped up to the point that it can be used to secure video conferencing.

Scientists from Toshiba's Cambridge Research Laboratory unveiled their invention to business leaders and government officials at Britain's Department of Trade and Industry in London on 27 April.

Their system is capable of generating 100 quantum 'keys' every second. This is fast enough for every individual frame of video to be protected by its own encryption. "This makes the system highly secure," says Andrew Shields, who leads the Cambridge team. "It would take an enormous computational resource to crack this frame by frame."

Toshiba representatives say the technology could be commercially available in as little as two years' time. Although it could initially cost up to US $20,000, Michael Pepper, managing director of Toshiba Research Europe Limited, says the price will plummet as demand increases.

This news would have been unthinkable only a couple of years ago. Quantum computing technology is accelerating at a fantastic pace.

A Genius Explains

I heard from many who lurk here about the Savant For a Day post I published in June, 2003. There is something magical about savant capabilities and the possibility that we all possess this magic. If we only knew how to tap into it.

Here is another article that will capture your imagination:

Link: Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | A genius explains.

Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism.

What the Bleep?!

I saw a quirky movie recently that I highly recommend you see. It is three movies integrated into a coherent whole.

The core film is about a cranky photographer struggling with bad memories, life's frustrations and reality as she transcends self-degradation. As we witness her awakening, another film, a documentary, weaves interviews of an eclectic array of quantum physicists, neurologists, anesthesiologists, physicians, molecular biologists, spiritual leaders, mystics and scholars to present a well-informed cosmological view of reality. And interspersed throughout are wonderful cartoons, musical comedies and other short skits that entertain while emphasizing an idea or explanation.

“What the #$BLEEP*! Do We Know!?” is a movie, a wake-up call, a bold, funny, unique work that goes to the heart of the human dilemma and provides wisdom and insight along the way. See it. You will thank me.

Printing a New Heart

I have been interested in three diminsional printing for some time. Now comes news that the idea is being used to print living tissue; PCWorld.com - Inkjet Printers Offer Biology Breakthrough

In the name of science, researchers have developed a way to print sheets of solid animal tissue by filling Hewlett-Packard and Canon inkjet cartridges with animal cells, or "bio-ink." Using basic design software, often AutoCAD, scientists like Thomas Boland, an assistant professor of bioengineering, are designing and generating tissue that could someday save heart patients who need new cardiac tissue. "We've created cardiac tissue successfully," Boland says. "It actually beats in the petri dish."

Singularity Stories

Janet and I joined dear friends on Saturday for dinner and a movie. We saw I Robot. We all enjoyed the movie, but I complained about the lack of logic inherent in the film's premise. I crave Science Fiction that is Singularity aware, but there is not much out there.

A recent article in Popular Science | Is Science Fiction About to Go Blind? reflects my sensibilities. The introduction to the article includes excerpts from a soon-to-be-published novel, Accelerando, by British writer Charles Stross. Here is a portion of this Singularity aware story:

Donna the Journalist asks the crew members when they think the Singularity took place. “Four years ago,” Pierre suggests. Su Ang votes for 2016. But Boris, the jellyfish drinker, says the entire notion of a Singularity is silly. To him, there’s no such thing. Wait a minute, Su Ang responds. Here we are, traveling in a spaceship the size of a soda can. We’ve left our bodies behind to conserve space and energy so that the laser-sail-powered Field Circus can cruise faster. Our brains have been uploaded and are now running electronically within the tiny spaceship’s nanocomputers. The pub is “here,” along with other virtual environments, so that we don’t go into shock from sensory deprivation. “And you can tell me that the idea of a fundamental change in the human condition is nonsense?”

Only a small cadre of techno-prophets is attempting to extrapolate current trends and imagine what our world might look like in the next few decades. “We’re staring into a fogbank,” Stross says, “and we literally do not know where we’re going, only that we’re going there very fast.”