http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/05/procrastination-al-kennedy When I began writing, distractions were all low-tech. I had to worry about typewriter ribbons and correction fluid, for God's sake. There was no possibility of spending an apparently productive day making backup files, defragmenting already tidy hard drives, emailing, watching grainy online movies of cats falling over, or playing virtual patience. (I once tried a more sophisticated computer game and, after many months, managed to advance my character by one level and put him into a loop of crouching, rocking and saying, "Oh, no.") Nevertheless, I could still burn away whole pre-Amstrad weekends in keeping busy, rather than writing.… ]]> Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:52:34 -0700 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/05/procrastination-al-kennedy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:35:42 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/chimpanzee-grief/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wiredscience+%28Blog+-+Wired+Science%29 Two reports of chimpanzees tending their dead provide poignant examples of how humanity’s closest relatives grieve for the dead, a behavior once thought unique to humans. In one report, two mothers in a chimpanzee colony in Guinea carried the dead bodies of their infants for weeks. In the other, chimps at a safari park in Britain cared for an elderly female in her final days. “We propose that chimpanzees’ response to death has been underestimated,” wrote researchers led by University of Stirling psychologist James Anderson in a paper published April 26 in Current Biology.

A 50-year-old chimp… ]]> Tue, 27 Apr 2010 06:58:00 -0700 http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/chimpanzee-grief/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wiredscience+%28Blog+-+Wired+Science%29 http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/uncanny_valley/ Disturbing experiences that feel both familiar and strange are instances of the “uncanny,” an intuitive concept, yet one that has defied simple explanation for more than a century. Interest in the particular occurrences of the uncanny, in which humans are bothered by interaction with human-like models, began as a psychological curiosity. But as our ability to design artificial life has increased—along with our dependence on it—getting to the heart of why people respond negatively to realistic models of themselves has taken on a new importance. Attempts to understand the origins of this reaction, known since the 1970s as the “uncanny… ]]> Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:08:00 -0700 http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/uncanny_valley/