MachineMachine /stream - tagged with future http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron text@machinemachine.net The Pirate Bay - Physibles http://thepiratebay.org/blog/203/the-pirate-bay-the-galaxys-most-resilient-bittorrent-site The Pirate Bay announces a new #Digital evolutionary era: The Era of Physibles http://t.co/ZMkw9szV #piracy #futurology #UtopianThinking? ]]> Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:11:09 -0700 http://thepiratebay.org/blog/203/the-pirate-bay-the-galaxys-most-resilient-bittorrent-site Kids, unlike adults, think technology is fundamentally human http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/01/18/study-shows-that-kids-unlike-adults-think-technology-is-fundamentally-human/ With children so easy to embrace robotics, it’s clear that there’s a ton of potential for integrating intelligent technologies into learning environments. Besides, the idea of “exploring and creating” sounds a heck of a lot better than answering true/false questions out of a booklet. Clearly there are tons of new and interesting ways to learn, and technology is, in many ways, responsible for this. Taking a deeper look at the stories the children created, the survey found that unlike many adults who see technology as separate from humanness, it seems that “kids tend to think of technology as fundamentally human:… ]]> Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:13:06 -0700 http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/01/18/study-shows-that-kids-unlike-adults-think-technology-is-fundamentally-human/ Human Brain Is Limiting Global Data Growth http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27379 Evidence has emerged that the brain's capacity to absorb information is limiting the amount of data humanity can produce ]]> Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:35:04 -0700 http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27379 Out of Imagination Came a New Online World http://www.nytimes.com//the-new-york-times-breaking-news-world-news-amp-multimedia Out of Imagination Came a New Online World: http://t.co/n5mJpqB6 / '#NealStephenson doesn’t like talking about how he predicted the future.' ]]> Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:06:07 -0700 http://www.nytimes.com//the-new-york-times-breaking-news-world-news-amp-multimedia What Is the Future of Knowledge in the Internet Age? http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=big-data-future-knowledge-internet-age/what-is-the-future-of-knowledge-in-the-internet-age-scientific-american What Is the Future of Knowledge in the Internet Age? http://t.co/sRP1qCUf ]]> Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:37:06 -0700 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=big-data-future-knowledge-internet-age/what-is-the-future-of-knowledge-in-the-internet-age-scientific-american Tom McCarthy: My desktop http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/24/tom-mccarthy-desktop?mobile-redirect=false I must belong to the only generation of writers who've written with all three of inkpen, typewriter and computer. It definitely matters: the technology colours not only the rhythm but the whole logic of what you write. Think of Kafka's obsession with writing machines: the harrow that inscribes the law onto the skin in In the Penal Colony or the mysterious writing desk in Amerika: writing technologies themselves are imbued with terrifying and sacred dimensions, and become the subject, not just the medium, of the story. I used to have a beautiful old German typewriter, that you had to throw… ]]> Sun, 27 Nov 2011 10:34:28 -0700 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/24/tom-mccarthy-desktop?mobile-redirect=false The Great Tech War Of 2012 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/tech-wars-2012-amazon-apple-google-facebook And as every sci-fi nerd knows, you totally need a tricked-out battleship if you're about to engage in serious battle. To state this as clearly as possible: The four American companies that have come to define 21st-century information technology and entertainment are on the verge of war. Over the next two years, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google will increasingly collide in the markets for mobile phones and tablets, mobile apps, social networking, and more. This competition will be intense. ]]> Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:25:13 -0700 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/tech-wars-2012-amazon-apple-google-facebook Innovation Starvation 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 “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 Novelists Predict Future With Eerie Accuracy http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/sunday-review/novelists-predict-future-with-eerie-accuracy.html/novelists-predict-future-with-eerie-accuracy-nytimescom "The dirty little secret of speculative fiction is that it’s hard to go wrong predicting things will get worse" : http://t.co/Qxb6kZh #x ]]> Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:12:49 -0700 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/sunday-review/novelists-predict-future-with-eerie-accuracy.html/novelists-predict-future-with-eerie-accuracy-nytimescom 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 Traces of humanity http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/08/07/traces_of_humanity/ What aliens could learn from the stuff we’ve left in space

Even in space, where none of us live, some of what we’ve left is space junk: stuff orbiting the earth that nobody particularly intended to leave anywhere. But much of what we’ve left in space is intentional. Some of it is symbolic artifacts intended for an audience of people here on Earth - the fallen astronaut, the American flag on the moon, a CD containing a list of over half a million people who wanted to send their names to a comet, courtesy of a NASA… ]]> Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:32:57 -0700 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/08/07/traces_of_humanity/ Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risks_to_civilization,_humans_and_planet_Earth Risks to civilization, humans, and planet Earth are existential risks that could threaten humankind as a whole, have adverse consequences for the course of human civilization, or even cause the end of planet Earth.[1] The concept is expressed in various phrases such as "End of the World", "Doomsday", "Ragnarök", "Judgment Day", "Armageddon", "the Apocalypse", "Yawm al-Qiyāmah" and others.
[edit]Types of risks

Various risks exist for humanity, but not all are equal. Risks can be roughly categorized into six types based on the scope (personal, regional, global) and the intensity (endurable or terminal). The following chart provides… ]]> Sun, 26 Jun 2011 11:00:14 -0700 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risks_to_civilization,_humans_and_planet_Earth Perfection Is Not A Useful Concept http://theeuropean-magazine.com/282-bostrom-nick/283-perfection-is-not-a-useful-concept Interview with Nick Bostrom

Our long track record of survival–humans have been around for about 100,000 years–gives us some assurance that the natural risks have been rather small.

If they have not ended human history until now, they are unlikely to have that effect in the near future. So the risks we should really worry about come from new developments. They introduce new factors with a lot of statistical uncertainty, and we cannot be confident that their risks are manageable. The potential of human action to do good and evil is larger than it… ]]> Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:21:17 -0700 http://theeuropean-magazine.com/282-bostrom-nick/283-perfection-is-not-a-useful-concept Post-Artifact Books and Publishing http://craigmod.com/journal/post_artifact/ We will always debate:
the quality of the paper, the pixel density of the display;
the cloth used on covers, the interface for highlighting;
location by page, location by paragraph.

But really, who cares? 3

Hunting surface analogs between the printed and the digital book is a dangerous honeypot. There is a compulsion to believe the magic of a book lies in its surface.

In reality, the book worth considering consists only of relationships. Relationships between ideas and recipients. Between writer and reader. Between readers and other readers… ]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:50:47 -0700 http://craigmod.com/journal/post_artifact/ Wonderful: Robots Develop Own Language http://www.geekologie.com/2011/05/wonderful-robots-develop-own-language.php Researchers at The University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology have taught robots how to develop their own language. That way, when they're about to deal the finishing blow to an injured human, they can ask if you want the laser beam in your beep boop or grabble grabble. Options, wonderful. The robot language was developed by a group of 'Lingodroids' wandering around an office making up words for places. God, it's called 'by the water cooler' you f***ing idiots! ]]> Thu, 19 May 2011 02:11:00 -0700 http://www.geekologie.com/2011/05/wonderful-robots-develop-own-language.php Digital legacy: Archaeology of the future http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20395-digital-legacy-archaeology-of-the-future.html The historians of 2061 will want to study the birth of the world wide web. How on earth will they know where to start?

Today, historians have to piece together the details of their subjects' lives from tiny scraps of evidence. Their successors are more likely to be overwhelmed: the problem will be making sense of our vast digital legacies. What techniques will they use to make sense of this deluge?

Many of us now generate more data than we can manage – think of all those holiday pictures you'll never get round to… ]]> Tue, 03 May 2011 03:12:21 -0700 http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20395-digital-legacy-archaeology-of-the-future.html We are as gods and have to get good at it http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/brand09/brand09_index.html The shift that has happened in 40 years which mainly has to do with climate change. Forty years ago, I could say in the Whole Earth Catalog, "we are as gods, we might as well get good at it". Photographs of earth from space had that god-like perspective.

What I'm saying now is we are as gods and have to get good at it. Necessity comes from climate change, potentially disastrous for civilization. The planet will be okay, life will be okay. We will lose vast quantities of species, probably lose the rain forests if the climate… ]]> Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:27:00 -0700 http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/brand09/brand09_index.html Capitalism's Dismal Future http://chronicle.com/article/Capitalisms-Dismal-Future/126659/ A remarkable feature of the commentary on today's economic troubles is that, despite constant reference to the Great Depression of the 1930s, as well as to the many downturns since World War II, there has been little mention of the fact that business depressions have been a recurrent feature of the capitalist economy since the Industrial Revolution. But even the briefest attention to history makes recent events appear far from unusual. From the early 1800s to the late 1930s, in fact, capitalism spent between a third and a half of its history in depressions (depending on how they are dated… ]]> Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:30:54 -0700 http://chronicle.com/article/Capitalisms-Dismal-Future/126659/ Humans, Version 3.0 http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/humans_version_3.0 This view of the future of humankind is grounded in an appreciation of the biologically innate powers bestowed upon us by hundreds of millions of years of evolution. This deep respect for our powers is sometimes lacking in the sciences, where many are taught to believe that our brains and bodies are taped-together, far-from-optimal kluges. In this view, natural selection is so riddled by accidents and saddled with developmental constraints that the resultant biological hardware and software should be described as a “just good enough” solution rather than as a “fine-tuned machine.” So it is no wonder that, when many… ]]> Sat, 05 Mar 2011 05:01:30 -0700 http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/humans_version_3.0