Eve, I call her. She awakes, wondering where she is and how she got there. She admires the beauty of the island. She cracks a coconut, drinks its juice and tastes its flesh. Her cognitive skills, her range of emotions, the richness of her sensory experiences, all rival my own. She thinks about where she … Continue reading Reinstalling Eden : Nature : Nature Publishing Group
Month: November 2013
xkcd: Oort Cloud
xkcd: Oort Cloud. Comet ISON survived its swing by the sun, at least somewhat.
Eat crow if you think I’m a bird-brain
From Science Daily: Scientists have long suspected that corvids -- the family of birds including ravens, crows and magpies -- are highly intelligent. Now, Tübingen neurobiologists Lena Veit und Professor Andreas Nieder have demonstrated how the brains of crows produce intelligent behavior when the birds have to make strategic decisions. Their results are published in … Continue reading Eat crow if you think I’m a bird-brain
Hard Evidence: Is Christianity Dying in Britain? | The Conversation UK
Hard Evidence: Is Christianity Dying in Britain? | The Conversation UK. An interesting piece at HuffPost UK, exploring what appears to be the collapse of religion in Britain. Although there continues to be belief in the supernatural, in other words 'No Religion' isn't the same as atheism, the article notes that those supernatural beliefs are … Continue reading Hard Evidence: Is Christianity Dying in Britain? | The Conversation UK
Born Wet, Human Babies Are 75 Percent Water. Then Comes Drying : Krulwich Wonders… : NPR
Born Wet, Human Babies Are 75 Percent Water. Then Comes Drying : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR. This particular pattern of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and other associated elements, found this article interesting. We are bags of water and carbon, going from being 75% water at birth, to around 50% in our elder years.
Happy Thanksgiving!
However you celebrate it, feasting, visiting family, or just hanging around the house watching sports or movies, I hope you have a great day. For those of you outside of the U.S., I hope you have a great day too!
BBC – Future – Technology – Is it OK to torture or murder a robot?
In the discussion on my post on computer consciousness from the other day, my friend amanimal just provided the following link: BBC - Future - Technology - Is it OK to torture or murder a robot?. I think this powerfully corroborates my thesis in that post, but it also illustrates that I might have been … Continue reading BBC – Future – Technology – Is it OK to torture or murder a robot?
SpaceX satellite launch is a potential game-changer
SpaceX appears to making serious progress. I saw an interview of their CEO, Elon Musk, Sunday by Fareed Zakaria, and was impressed by Musk’s candor, demeanor, and solid grasp of the opportunities and challenges in the space business.
Quote for the Day – Einstein’s Louse and the Limits of Scientific Understanding
Nature is showing us only the tail of the lion, but I have no doubt that the lion belongs to it even though, because of its large size, it cannot totally reveal itself all at once. We can see it only the way a louse that is sitting on it would.
~Albert Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, quoted in Clifford Pickover, Archimedes to Hawking
Comet ISON and our lack of fear
Lots of people are excited about comet ISON and the spectacular show it will hopefully provide. However, unlike most people throughout history, most of us do not regard it as an evil omen, an attack from an angry god, or fear it for any other reason. There's a reason this. Science! Aristotle thought that comets … Continue reading Comet ISON and our lack of fear
SelfAwarePatterns 