MachineMachine /stream - tagged with computers http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com Peter Krapp: Noise Channels: Glitch and Error in Digital Culture (2011) http://monoskop.org/log/?p=4169 To err is human; to err in digital culture is design. In the glitches, inefficiencies, and errors that ergonomics and usability engineering strive to surmount, Peter Krapp identifies creative reservoirs of computer-mediated interaction. Throughout new media cultures, he traces a resistance to the heritage of motion studies, ergonomics, and efficiency, showing how creativity is stirred within the networks of digital culture. ]]> Wed, 23 May 2012 09:46:17 -0700 http://monoskop.org/log/?p=4169 "Videogames are the experience of being ruled" http://killscreendaily.com/articles/essays/will-work-fun/ Revolutions are often thought of in terms of conflict and disorder, but they just as often come on waves of peaceful obsolescence. The old way of doing things is allowed to linger as long as it likes while everyone else gets on with the future. In the last few years the "free-to-play" model— where games are given away on mobile phones or online while the developer makes money through advertisements or the sale of in-game items—has encircled the videogame industry. At first it seemed like a curiosity, a unique idea that made sense in China and Korea, where loot-hoarding games… ]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 03:32:16 -0700 http://killscreendaily.com/articles/essays/will-work-fun/ Emergence of the Human 'SuperBrain' 75,000 Years Ago --"AI Could Blur Differences between Humans and Computers in Coming Centuries" http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/04/-emergence-of-the-human-superbrain-75000-years-ago-differences-between-humans-and-computers-could-bl.html "Humans obviously evolved a much wider range of communication tools to express their thoughts, the most important being language," said Hoffecker, a fellow at CU's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. "Individual human brains within social groups became integrated into a neurologic Internet of sorts, giving birth to the mind." ]]> Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:15:46 -0700 http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/04/-emergence-of-the-human-superbrain-75000-years-ago-differences-between-humans-and-computers-could-bl.html The New Aesthetic Needs to Get Weirder http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-new-aesthetic-needs-to-get-weirder/255838/ A really new aesthetics might work differently: instead of concerning itself with the way we humans see our world differently when we begin to see it through and with computer media that themselves "see" the world in various ways, what if we asked how computers and bonobos and toaster pastries and Boeing 787 Dreamliners develop their own aesthetics. The perception and experience of other beings remains outside our grasp, yet available to speculation thanks to evidence that emanates from their withdrawn cores like radiation around the event horizon of a black hole. The aesthetics of other beings remain likewise inaccessible… ]]> Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:33:37 -0700 http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-new-aesthetic-needs-to-get-weirder/255838/ Artificial Intelligence Could Be on Brink of Passing Turing Test http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/turing-test-revisited/artificial-intelligence-could-be-on-brink-of-passing-turing-test-wired-science-wiredcom Artificial Intelligence could be on brink of passing The Turing Test : http://t.co/oLsEJN33 ]]> Sat, 14 Apr 2012 08:37:53 -0700 http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/turing-test-revisited/artificial-intelligence-could-be-on-brink-of-passing-turing-test-wired-science-wiredcom What is the Folk Web? http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/212132 I'm looking for 'Folk' Web Cultures. I am thinking of the recent take-down of Geocities, which seemed to refresh people's love of the naff, kitsch aesthetic it was famous for, as a prime example. What are some other folk cultures still lingering in the dark corners of the web? I use the term 'Folk' in the sense it is used to denote 'common people' cultures, including art, music, dance, songs and stories. The artists Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane collated a Folk Archive for the British Council a few years ago, it really gets to the… ]]> Wed, 04 Apr 2012 06:41:30 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/212132 "As you can probably imagine, this took some effort to make." http://www.metafilter.com/114058/As-you-can-probably-imagine-this-took-some-effort-to-make "The calculator itself is just over 250x200x100 blocks. It contains 2 6-digit BCD number selectors, 2 BCD-to-binary decoders, 3 binary-to-BCD decoders, 6 BCD adders and subtractors, a 20 bit (output) multiplier, 10 bit divider, a memory bank and additional circuitry for the graphing function." Yes, someone built a working scientific calculator, in Minecraft. ]]> Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:44:41 -0700 http://www.metafilter.com/114058/As-you-can-probably-imagine-this-took-some-effort-to-make Minecraft Scientific/Graphing calculator - Sin Cos Tan Log Square root http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgJfVRhotlQ&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:51:21 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgJfVRhotlQ&feature=youtube_gdata Billion Dollar Brain in a box http://www.nature.com/news/computer-modelling-brain-in-a-box-1.10066 Officially, the Swiss Academy of Sciences meeting in Bern on 20 January was an overview of large-scale computer modelling in neuroscience. Unofficially, it was neuroscientists' first real chance to get answers about Markram's controversial proposal for the Human Brain Project (HBP) — an effort to build a supercomputer simulation that integrates everything known about the human brain, from the structures of ion channels in neural cell membranes up to mechanisms behind conscious decision-making. ]]> Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:33:55 -0700 http://www.nature.com/news/computer-modelling-brain-in-a-box-1.10066 “The Shannon and Weaver Model” http://www.thelateageofprint.org/2012/02/20/the-shannon-and-weaver-model//the-shannon-and-weaver-model-the-late-age-of-print “The Shannon and Weaver Model” by Ted Striphas: http://t.co/e8WireZf ]]> Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:51:16 -0700 http://www.thelateageofprint.org/2012/02/20/the-shannon-and-weaver-model//the-shannon-and-weaver-model-the-late-age-of-print File Sharing Is Now an Official Religion In Sweden http://gizmodo.com/5873001/file-sharing-is-now-an-official-religion-in-sweden/file-sharing-is-now-an-official-religion-in-sweden File Sharing Is now an official Religion In Sweden: The Missionary Church of Kopimism http://t.co/Fq8kKFKr #CtrlC #CtrlV #copying #Piracy ]]> Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:52:39 -0700 http://gizmodo.com/5873001/file-sharing-is-now-an-official-religion-in-sweden/file-sharing-is-now-an-official-religion-in-sweden A computer that thinks like the universe 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 Computing Machinery and Intelligence (by Alan Turing) 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 Electrical Model illustrating a Mind having a Will but capable... http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/12159601444

Electrical Model illustrating a Mind having a Will but capable of only Two Ideas

Lewis F. Richardson

]]> Mon, 31 Oct 2011 06:42:00 -0700 http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/12159601444 “Seriality for All”: The Role of Protocols and Standards in Critical Theory http://nedrossiter.org/?p=286 For many years, philosophers have been casting doubt on the common identification with meaning and signification as the primary human response mechanisms to the world. If we wish to understand anything about how our complex technical society is made up, we must pay attention to the underlying structures that surround us, from industry norms to building regulations, software icons and internet protocols. Yet our ordinary understanding of the world resists this very idea. If we call for another society, with more equality and style, it is not enough to think differently; the very framework of that thinking must be negated… ]]> Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:36:53 -0700 http://nedrossiter.org/?p=286 The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/sept2011/berry_parikka.php Berry’s book is less one specific philosophical argument of what software is and what code does, but consists of chapters that illuminate different ways one can approach software and software culture philosophically. It gives a broad way of looking at the way in which code mediates and media is nowadays coded. As such, it indeed is good in tapping into various fields of philosophy: ontology (what is code as mode of abstraction from voltage differences to assembly languages), aesthetics and phenomenology (algorithmic art and how do we experience code), epistemology (how do we understand, make sense of code and how… ]]> Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:15:28 -0700 http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/sept2011/berry_parikka.php Our Emergent Digital Future http://www.digitaltonto.com/2011/our-emergent-digital-future/ What will the digital world look like in ten years?  The trends are already clear.

Capacities in bandwidth and storage will continue on their exponential path.  The explosion in the volume of information and number of devices will persist.  Our data will be linked and most likely be processed in qubits rather than bits.

However, trends tell us very little.  It’s discontinuities that drive history.  Everything seems fine and then boom!  E-commerce comes along, then search engines, social media, smart phones and on and on.  Much like the flood that set Noah on his… ]]> Sun, 14 Aug 2011 04:32:30 -0700 http://www.digitaltonto.com/2011/our-emergent-digital-future/ How Computational Complexity Will Revolutionise Philosophy http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/8731851297

Since the 1930s, the theory of computation has profoundly influenced philosophical thinking about topics such as the theory of the mind, the nature of mathematical knowledge and the prospect of machine intelligence. In fact, it’s hard to think of an idea that has had a bigger impact on philosophy.

And yet there is an even bigger philosophical revolution waiting in the wings. The theory of computing is a philosophical minnow compared to the potential of another theory that is currently dominating thinking about computation.

@ Technology Review

]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:31:23 -0700 http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/8731851297 Brute force or intelligence? The slow rise of computer chess http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/force-versus-heuristics-the-contentious-rise-of-computer-chess.ars When you visit the History of Computer Chess exhibit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, the first machine you see is "The Turk."

In 1770, a Hungarian engineer and diplomat named Wolfgang von Kempelen presented a remarkable invention to the court of Maria Theresa, ruler of Hungary and Austria. It consisted of a mechanical figure dressed in (what Europeans saw as) Oriental garb, presiding over a cabinet upon which a chess board sat. Full of gears ostentatiously placed in a front side drawer, The Turk was cranked up by hand, after which an opponent… ]]> Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:39:13 -0700 http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/force-versus-heuristics-the-contentious-rise-of-computer-chess.ars On Discovering Life http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/on_discovering_life/ There is an aspect of life sciences that has been largely absent: the confrontation of fundamental questions of biology much as particle accelerators grapple with fundamental questions of physics. The roll call of early pioneers and prospectors is notable, but short. Fortunately, increasing numbers of researchers are now re-entering this fertile frontier.

The open secret of this emerging frontier is that we do not have a fundamental definition or understanding of life. Similarly, we do not understand life’s origins, how life emerges from chemistry. We do know that the chemistry of life on Earth, or “Terran” biochemistry… ]]> Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:05:30 -0700 http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/on_discovering_life/