As I suspected, there's consternation about Cosmos's highlighting of Giordano Bruno, and not all of it is coming from religious apologists. In Cosmos, Tyson does carefully say that Bruno was not a scientist, and instead describes that picture of infinite worlds as a “guess.” But Bruno was not guessing. He was advancing his own, heretical … Continue reading Did “Cosmos” Pick the Wrong Hero?
How Scientists Are Learning to Read Our Minds
An interesting, if at points disturbing, article which is an excerpt from Michio Kaku's book, 'The Future of the Mind'. Kaku never fails to deliver wonder. Houdini believed that true telepathy was impossible. But science is proving Houdini wrong. Telepathy is now the subject of intense research at universities around the world where scientists have … Continue reading How Scientists Are Learning to Read Our Minds
The Unexpected Way Philosophy Majors Are Changing The World Of Business
Dr. Damon Horowitz quit his technology job and got a Ph.D. in philosophy -- and he thinks you should too. "If you are at all disposed to question what's around you, you'll start to see that there appear to be cracks in the bubble," Horowitz said in a 2011 talk at Stanford. "So about a … Continue reading The Unexpected Way Philosophy Majors Are Changing The World Of Business
Cosmos is a winner
I have to say I enjoyed it. There's some grousing online about all the glitz, but it should be remembered what the target audience is here, people who aren't necessarily science literate yet. You also have to remember that the original Cosmos had its share of glitz. It might not look like it by today's … Continue reading Cosmos is a winner
NASA planning a robotic mission to Europa
Related to my last post on Europa Report, a movie I discovered when I read these articles earlier today, and also in the category of things I somehow missed, NASA is planning a robotic mission to Europa. This is exciting since, as I noted in the movie review, Europa's underground ocean makes it currently the … Continue reading NASA planning a robotic mission to Europa
Europa Report, a review
Somehow I completely missed the release of this movie. It seems to represent the beginning of something I've hoped to see for a while: small independent productions that make use of the lowering cost of CG technology to make narrow genre films. Most film science fiction is, unfortunately, garbage scientifically. The cost and risk of … Continue reading Europa Report, a review
The web is 25 years old!
The Guardian has a nice article up about the web, its creation, and its creator Tim Berners-Lee, who I think it's definitely accurate now to call Johannes Gutenberg's heir. It sprang from the brain of one man, Tim Berners-Lee, and is the fastest-growing communication medium of all time. A quarter-century on, we examine how the … Continue reading The web is 25 years old!
Americans, Crimea is not about us
Watching the Sunday morning news shows, there is lot of stupid silly ridiculous commentary, mostly from conservatives out to score political points, that the Crimean crisis is somehow Barack Obama's fault, that maybe if he had been a stronger, more decisive, more manly leader, Putin wouldn't have sent troops in.I'm not going to pretend to … Continue reading Americans, Crimea is not about us
Credible and baseless concerns about AI
I caught James Barrat on CSPAN BookTV Saturday evening, talking about his book, 'Our Final Invention', the main theme of which appears to be that we're in danger of designing intelligent machines, won't be able to control them, and that will be the end of us. One of my earliest posts on this blog was on … Continue reading Credible and baseless concerns about AI
SMBC: Sperm cosmology
All kinds of ways to interpret this one. (Click through to see full sized version.) via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
SelfAwarePatterns 