http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/04/13/large-study-shows-little-difference-between-human-and-robot-essay-graders/large-study-shows-little-difference-between-human-and-robot-essay-graders-inside-higher-ed Large study shows little difference between human and robot essay graders: http://t.co/W7pku7mG #x ]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:30:19 -0700 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/04/13/large-study-shows-little-difference-between-human-and-robot-essay-graders/large-study-shows-little-difference-between-human-and-robot-essay-graders-inside-higher-ed http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/186002 I'm writing a paper on (animated) GIFs and am trying to track down some of the most (in)famous. I suppose I am talking memes, but I'm more interested in the GIF as an archaeological reference point. I frequent sites like dump.fm, tumblr etc. so am quite tuned in to the glitchy/kitschy side of GIF culture. How theoretical have people got on these wonders of the web? How does one trace the history of an animated GIF? I have a personal take on this (my paper is only short), but would love to find some well recognised, well lauded… ]]> Mon, 16 May 2011 08:17:15 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/186002 http://www.v2.nl/publishing/the-art-of-the-accident Failure and malfunction are inherent in all technological products. In The Art of the Accident, the concept of “accident” contains not just the idea that each machine brings with it its own form of disaster but also the suggestion that in a world of network technologies the old distinction between timeless form and time-dependent processes is becoming increasingly unclear.

Ars accidentalis recognizes the creative potential of the accident, the fall, and the instability of digital media. The book maps the transformation of space, time bodies, machines and architectures through the conceptual and noninstrumental use of the computer. ]]> Sun, 15 May 2011 06:04:52 -0700 http://www.v2.nl/publishing/the-art-of-the-accident http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opinion/09lanier.html THE news of the day often includes an item about some development in artificial intelligence: a machine that smiles, a program that can predict human tastes in mates or music, a robot that teaches foreign languages to children. This constant stream of stories suggests that machines are becoming smart and autonomous, a new form of life, and that we should think of them as fellow creatures instead of as tools. But such conclusions aren’t just changing how we think about computers — they are reshaping the basic assumptions of our lives in misguided and ultimately damaging ways.

… ]]> Sat, 28 Aug 2010 06:43:00 -0700 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opinion/09lanier.html http://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/0081387 Consider this tale: a cultivated man of middle age looks back on the story of an amour fou, one beginning when, traveling abroad, he takes a room as a lodger. The moment he sees the daughter of the house, he is lost. She is a preteen, whose charms instantly enslave him. Heedless of her age, he becomes intimate with her. In the end she dies, and the narrator—marked by her forever—remains alone. The name of the girl supplies the title of the story: Lolita.

The author of the story I've described, Heinz von Lichberg, published his tale… ]]> Sat, 29 May 2010 02:00:00 -0700 http://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/0081387 http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar Critics have called alien epic Avatar a version of Dances With Wolves because it's about a white guy going native and becoming a great leader. But Avatar is just the latest scifi rehash of an old white guilt fantasy. Spoilers... Whether Avatar is racist is a matter for debate. Regardless of where you come down on that question, it's undeniable that the film - like alien apartheid flick District 9, released earlier this year - is emphatically a fantasy about race. Specifically, it's a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people. Avatar and scifi films… ]]> Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:24:00 -0700 http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/2009%20-%20Fall/full-McWhorter-Fall-2009.html In depicting the emergence of the world’s languages as a curse of gibberish, the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel makes us moderns smile. Yet, considering the headache that 6,000 languages can induce in real life, the story makes a certain sense. Not long ago, 33 of the FBI’s 12,000 employees spoke Arabic, as did 6 of the 1,000 employees at the American Embassy in Iraq. How can we significantly improve that situation is a good question. It’s hard to learn Arabic, and not only because it’s hard to pick up any new language. Iraqi Arabic is actually one… ]]> Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:32:00 -0700 http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/2009%20-%20Fall/full-McWhorter-Fall-2009.html http://www.artpool.hu/Fluxus/Higgins/intermedia2.html Art is one of the ways that people communicate. It is difficult for me to imagine a serious person attacking any means of communication per se. Our real enemies are the ones who send us to die in pointless wars or to live lives which are reduced to drudgery, not the people who use other means of communication from those which we find most appropriate to the present situation. When these are attacked, a diversion has been established which only serves the interests of our real enemies. ]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:03:00 -0700 http://www.artpool.hu/Fluxus/Higgins/intermedia2.html