World’s Oldest Art Identified in Half-Million-Year-Old Zigzag

I've noted before that I think capabilities like human language didn't pop into being 50-75 thousand years ago, but developed over hundreds of thousands of years (if not millions).  Well, it looks like another piece of behavioral modernity may predate anatomically modern humans: World's Oldest Art Identified in Half-Million-Year-Old Zigzag. A zigzag engraving on a … Continue reading World’s Oldest Art Identified in Half-Million-Year-Old Zigzag →

Every Ship That Has Carried Humans Into Space, In One Chart

This is pretty cool.  A Reddit user put together a chart showing all the human occupied spacecraft that have been used so far.  Click through to see the full sized version. via Every Ship That Has Carried Humans Into Space, In One Chart. One thing that stands out for me is how huge the Saturn V was, … Continue reading Every Ship That Has Carried Humans Into Space, In One Chart →

X-Men: Days of Future Past, and multiple instances of a mind

This weekend, I watched X-Men: Days of Future Past, which I enjoyed.  This post discusses some aspects of that movie, most notably the ending, so if you haven't seen it yet and don't want to be spoiled, you might consider skipping it until later. In the movie, mankind is in a devastating war with the mutants, … Continue reading X-Men: Days of Future Past, and multiple instances of a mind →

Enthusiasts and Skeptics Debate Artificial Intelligence

Kurt Anderson has an interesting article at Vanity Fair that looks at the debate among technologists about the singularity: Enthusiasts and Skeptics Debate Artificial Intelligence | Vanity Fair. Machines performing unimaginably complicated calculations unimaginably fast—that’s what computers have always done. Computers were called “electronic brains” from the beginning. But the great open question is whether a … Continue reading Enthusiasts and Skeptics Debate Artificial Intelligence →

Straw Vulcans, Logic and Game Theory

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Introduction

One of Star Trek’s most popular aliens are the Vulcans — a “purely logical” species that eschewed emotion. While Vulcans were an interesting species, they were unfortunately often used as  straw men used to attack the logic vs. emotion dichotomy.  In fact, this attack has become so cliched, that it earned a name: Straw Vulcan, and there’s even a video on the subject here.

Star Trek’s treatment of Vulcans is so simplistic, it fails in its very premise — the false dichotomy between logic and emotion.  See, rather than being opposing forces, logic SERVES emotion by charting an efficient course to emotional satisfaction. AS such, agents are logical to the extent that they efficiently satisfy their emotional goals — whatever they may be.  In fact, without emotion, there would be no goal for logic; no reason for anyone to explore, play 3D chess or even get…

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