http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron text@machinemachine.net http://chronicle.com/article/The-Philosophy-of-Insomnia/127029 Philosophy is no friend of sleep. In his Laws (circa 350 BC), Plato platonized, "When a man is asleep, he is no better than if he were dead; and he who loves life and wisdom will take no more sleep than is necessary for health." Clement of Alexandria echoed, "There is no use of a sleeping man, as there is not of a dead man. ... But whoever of us is most solicitous for living the true life, and for entertaining noble sentiments, will keep awake for as long time as possible."
"The need of sleep is not in… ]]> Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:44:52 -0700 http://chronicle.com/article/The-Philosophy-of-Insomnia/127029 http://adactio.com/journal/1680/ The structure of the film is that of a heist movie, but if the film were to be slotted into a genre, that genre would have to be science fiction. Personally, I would say it’s cyberpunk. But it’s a strange kind of cyberpunk where the emphasis is less on technology and more on the film-noir mood and transcendental possibilities of the genre.

In fact, technology in Inception is notable by its absence. There is a piece of hardware to enable the central premise of the film, but it’s of no more importance than the hardware used in… ]]> Sun, 18 Jul 2010 06:07:00 -0700 http://adactio.com/journal/1680/ http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/ My mild-mannered English husband Adam lives quite a colorful existence in his dreams. Having benefited from hours of delight at his dead of night musings, I thought it was only fair to share them with the world. ]]> Sat, 09 Jan 2010 07:24:00 -0700 http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=evolutionary-enigma-dream Boston University neuroscientist Patrick McNamara has an interesting evolutionary theory of dreaming. McNamara’s theory draws from the well-known “handicapping principle” in evolutionary biology, where some organisms have been observed to display behavioral traits or physical characteristics that seem ostensibly to disadvantage them but in fact simply reflect their genetic value. The classic example of this is “stotting” behavior in healthy young gazelles, where these animals jump up and down in front of a predatory leopard rather than—what would seem to be a smarter move—immediately running away. Stotting is a “costly signal,” but it works, because the leopards take this stotting… ]]> Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:32:00 -0700 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=evolutionary-enigma-dream