http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/id.14345%2Cy.0%2Cno.%2Ccontent.true%2Cpage.1%2Ccss.print/issue.aspx/rereading-darwin-american-scientist The Dangers of Extrapolation (“Much light will be thrown on the origin of man.”) http://t.co/51DRe7oS #Darwin ]]> Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:06:23 -0700 http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/id.14345%2Cy.0%2Cno.%2Ccontent.true%2Cpage.1%2Ccss.print/issue.aspx/rereading-darwin-american-scientist http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/fall2011/innovation-starvation SF has changed over the span of time I am talking about—from the 1950s (the era of the development of nuclear power, jet airplanes, the space race, and the computer) to now. Speaking broadly, the techno-optimism of the Golden Age of SF has given way to fiction written in a generally darker, more skeptical and ambiguous tone. I myself have tended to write a lot about hackers—trickster archetypes who exploit the arcane capabilities of complex systems devised by faceless others. ]]> Sun, 02 Oct 2011 04:47:54 -0700 http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/fall2011/innovation-starvation http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-ButFir-t1-g1-t1-g1-t4-body.html The views of machinery which we are thus feebly indicating will suggest the solution of one of the greatest and most mysterious questions of the day. We refer to the question: What sort of creature man’s next successor in the supremacy of the earth is likely to be. We have often heard this debated; but it appears to us that we are ourselves creating our own successors; we are daily adding to the beauty and delicacy of their physical organisation; we are daily giving them greater power and supplying by all sorts of ingenious contrivances that self-regulating, self-acting power which… ]]> Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:55:38 -0700 http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-ButFir-t1-g1-t1-g1-t4-body.html http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/02/human-beings-science-ball We human beings persist in thinking of ourselves as a unique species, endowed with special insight into a universe that we can manipulate. In fact, this notion is based on unexamined myth.

Humanity doesn't exist

At one time ranked among Britain's most influential scientists, the crystallographer J D Bernal (1901-71) recognised no limits to the power of science. A lifelong Marxist and recipient of a Stalin Peace Prize, Bernal believed that a scientifically planned society was being created in Soviet Russia; but his ambitions for science went far beyond revolutionising human institutions. He was… ]]> Mon, 21 Feb 2011 02:23:56 -0700 http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/02/human-beings-science-ball http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_9w8JougLQ&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Sun, 26 Sep 2010 04:34:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_9w8JougLQ&feature=youtube_gdata http://benfry.com/traces/ We often think of scientific ideas, such as Darwin's theory of evolution, as fixed notions that are accepted as finished. In fact, Darwin's On the Origin of Species evolved over the course of several editions he wrote, edited, and updated during his lifetime. The first English edition was approximately 150,000 words and the sixth is a much larger 190,000 words. In the changes are refinements and shifts in ideas — whether increasing the weight of a statement, adding details, or even a change in the idea itself. The second edition, for instance, adds a notable “by the Creator” to the… ]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:56:00 -0700 http://benfry.com/traces/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rJ206ApObI&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:27:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rJ206ApObI&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mooney11-2009aug11,0,6581208.story This fall, evolutionary biologist and bestselling author Richard Dawkins -- most recently famous for his public exhortation to atheism, "The God Delusion" -- returns to writing about science. Dawkins' new book, "The Greatest Show on Earth," will inform and regale us with the stunning "evidence for evolution," as the subtitle says. It will surely be an impressive display, as Dawkins excels at making the case for evolution. But it's also fair to ask: Who in the United States will read Dawkins' new book (or ones like it) and have any sort of epiphany, or change his or her mind? Surely… ]]> Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:32:00 -0700 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mooney11-2009aug11,0,6581208.story http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article6739960.ece One of the epigraphs that punctuate Invented Knowledge is from Pascal: "It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false". Whether it is natural or not, it would seem that the false – the extravagant, the fantastical, the grandiose – can at times be so seductive that we suspend our critical faculties in its consideration. Ronald Fritze, a historian and dean at Athens State University in Alabama, is concerned about, and clearly fascinated by, the pseudo-histories and pseudo-sciences – the stories of… ]]> Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:20:00 -0700 http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article6739960.ece http://seedmagazine.com/content/print/exhibit_links_darwin_to_degas/ It’s hard to exaggerate just how widely Darwin’s ideas on natural selection and the evolution of human kind traveled in the cultural milieu of his day, even in the age of stagecoaches and month-long journeys across the Atlantic. Artists of all shades reacted to his revolutionary theories, and this exhibit attempts to capture their range of responses in all sorts of mediums, including paintings, photographs, sketches, and sculptures. Sprinkled amidst 200 works of art are historical collections of natural wonders like beetles, fossils, gems, stuffed birds, and plated flowers. These items give visitors a distinctly visual sense of what artists—and… ]]> Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:49:00 -0700 http://seedmagazine.com/content/print/exhibit_links_darwin_to_degas/ http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/05/24/how_storytelling_and_cooking_helped_humans_evolve/ A few years ago Tufts philosopher Daniel Dennett opined that the idea of natural selection - proposed 150 years ago in Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" - was "the best idea anybody ever had." The flood of books published this year to celebrate the sesquicentennial would seem to prove Dennett right. The "idea of natural selection" is that changes in any organism's makeup or behavior will persist or not according to whether they make it more or less likely for that organism and its descendants to survive. What kind of changes, and where do they come from? Any… ]]> Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:01:00 -0700 http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/05/24/how_storytelling_and_cooking_helped_humans_evolve/