http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://debategraph.org/Stream.aspx?nid=100641&iv=09&mac=100641- The debate about the nature of time and its passage is a long and venerable one. The issues addressed by pre-Socratic philosophers such as Heraclitus and Parmenides about whether time 'flows' or not prefigure present day philosophical arguments. In his talk to the Blackheath Philosophy Forum Huw Price chose as his starting point the views of cosmologist Sir Arthur Eddington - a prominent figure in the first half of the 20th century, but little known today. What made Eddington's view of time interesting is that he was prepared to part company with most physicists - who conceive time as it… ]]> Fri, 11 May 2012 08:12:52 -0700 http://debategraph.org/Stream.aspx?nid=100641&iv=09&mac=100641- http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2011/11/25/computer-that-thinks-like-universe/g1FKng74ydOH2B802BPY3N/story.html For years, excitement about quantum computing has been growing among scientists and tech visionaries. Quantum computers, if they succeed, promise to make a whole new range of problems accessible to computers, from breaking difficult codes to unlocking complicated biological processes now out of reach for even the fastest machines. ]]> Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:10:21 -0700 http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2011/11/25/computer-that-thinks-like-universe/g1FKng74ydOH2B802BPY3N/story.html http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/TuringArticle.html I propose to consider the question, "Can machines think?" This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms "machine" and "think." The definitions might be framed so as to reflect so far as possible the normal use of the words, but this attitude is dangerous, If the meaning of the words "machine" and "think" are to be found by examining how they are commonly used it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the meaning and the answer to the question, "Can machines think?" is to be sought in a statistical survey such as a Gallup poll. But… ]]> Mon, 31 Oct 2011 06:53:59 -0700 http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/TuringArticle.html http://032c.com/2011/the-neolithic-age-is-over/ Michel Serres: We are in the middle of an extraordinary human and environmental transformation, without really being aware of it, one that can only perhaps be compared with the Renaissance, the fifth century BC, and even the Neolithic age. For example, if there are no more peasants today, when did peasantry ­begin? In the Neolithic age. We can now say that in the year 2000, the Neolithic age is over. But who announced this in the news­papers? We didn’t read in any paper that “the Neolithic age is over”!

And we are equipped in our thinking for this… ]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:36:11 -0700 http://032c.com/2011/the-neolithic-age-is-over/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcvN1dt0yJo&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:11:38 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcvN1dt0yJo&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/is-it-time-to-welcome-our-new-computer-overlords/71388/ "Watson is a computer that uncovers meaning in our language, and pinpoints the right answer, instantly. It uses deep analytics to answer questions computers never could before, even the ones on Jeopardy!" Then a Jeopardy! clue is displayed: "Groucho quipped, 'One morning I shot' this 'in my pajamas.'"
Now, that's a provocative set of claims. Watson's performance in the tournament (despite a few howlers along the way) clearly demonstrates that it is very skilled in particular types of question-answering, and I have no doubt it could handle that Groucho clue with aplomb. But does that mean that Watson "understands"… ]]> Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:38:15 -0700 http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/is-it-time-to-welcome-our-new-computer-overlords/71388/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrKgyY5aDvA&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:05:17 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrKgyY5aDvA&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFjOE02kwrQ&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:46:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFjOE02kwrQ&feature=youtube_gdata http://canopycanopycanopy.com/8/inside_the_mundaneum Otlet was the first to imagine all the world’s knowledge as one vast “web,” connected by “links” and accessed remotely through desktop screens, and because of this he can be seen as the kooky grandfather of the Internet. From the beginning of his career as a lawyer and bibliographer, Otlet wrote prolifically and prophetically about how information could be organized and transmitted. He developed the Universal Decimal Classification system (UDC), an expanded form of the Dewey Decimal Classification system that assigned individual numerical subject codes to documents, allowing them to be searched and cross-referenced in a standardized manner. His later… ]]> Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:39:00 -0700 http://canopycanopycanopy.com/8/inside_the_mundaneum http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/triumph-of-the-cyborg-composer-8507/ Along with his work on synthesis, or using machines to create sounds, Cope had dabbled in the use of software to compose music. Inspired by the field of artificial intelligence, he thought there might be a way to create a virtual David Cope software to create new pieces in his style.

The effort fit into a long tradition of what would come to be called algorithmic composition. Algorithmic composers use a list of instructions — as opposed to sheer inspiration — to create their works. During the 18th century, Joseph Haydn and others created scores for a… ]]> Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:09:00 -0700 http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/triumph-of-the-cyborg-composer-8507/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:20:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgjlJ5hEbw&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:45:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgjlJ5hEbw&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.stfj.net/art/2009/loselose/ Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted. Although touching aliens will cause the player to lose the game, and killing aliens awards points, the aliens will never actually fire at the player. This calls into question the player's mission, which is never explicitly stated, only hinted at through classic game mechanics. Is the player supposed to be an… ]]> Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:30:00 -0700 http://www.stfj.net/art/2009/loselose/ http://www.signandsight.com/features/1872.html In the shadows of the global financial crisis of the early 21st century, another revolution is gathering pace, whose repercussions reach far beyond the current correctable economic buckling. It impact on the world will compare with Gutenberg's. And with it, the era of the printed book will come to a close. Dissolved digitally like sound and image beforehand, limitlessly copyable, globally downloadable by the million with the click of a mouse, the book is entering the world of multimedia like its disembodied cousins from film, photography and music. This is the disintegration of the oldest serially produced data carrier in… ]]> Sun, 17 May 2009 03:24:00 -0700 http://www.signandsight.com/features/1872.html