cybernetics

The gentleman in the first photograph is the renowned linguist Roman Jakobson, one of the principal (if not the principal) founders of structuralism in linguistics. Taking Saussure’s theories as his …

genetic / cybernetic: a white wedding

“The genetic code is the set of rules by which information stored in the genetic material of living cells (DNA or RNA sequences) is translated into proteins (amino acid sequences).” …

Artificial racism

On the 23rd of last March, Microsoft launched an ambitious experiment on machines’ ability to learn and evolve mentally in real time. The goal of the experiment was to show …

short history of computers

Every modern computer is, in essence, supposed to be a physical implementation of an ideal machine, the universal Turing machine that can compute any computable function. Extremely simple in conception, …

familiarity count

A recent survey of 1,002 adults in England, on topics related to the (and technological) future, yielded answers that are quite interesting. – Although 60% to 72% (depending on the …

social cats

The site iknowwhereyourcatlives.com is an online page – a project by a professor at the University of Florida. It displays a world map with little cats at the spot where …

eterna

Some extol the “intellectual” capabilities of machines, others make sure to harvest the crowd-intellectual capabilities. Or, more accurately, collective human intelligence; they can call it that (for now) without risk. …

scientific mysticism history: tao and physics

Are modern techno-sciences, the technoscientific tools of the bio-informational (capitalist) model, magic? The question, as such, could be considered provocative. In the age of bytes and genes, what could be …

scientific truths

Could radioactivity be less harmful than we think? Wildlife has “returned” next to the concrete shell of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, which 30 years ago became a nightmare …

housekeeper

This elegant, understated, pastel-colored, vase-like object on the right side of the photograph belongs to the category of things that will soon become commonplace. Not around here, at first—but what …