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 …
the bleeding materiality of “immaterial” capitalism
The belief that in this glossy era of technology and innovation, production has changed form and become immaterial, is dominant in the minds of first-world citizens. Equally dominant is the …
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 …
The Matrix: digital messiahs and the metaphysics of the bioinformatics paradigm
Morpheus: Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, …
knowledge accelerator
It could be the plot of a futuristic movie. Yet it is an idea for the organized devaluation of (also) intellectual labor. Not “sector by sector,” but as a general …
nanotechnologies: some known unknowns…
The results of the research published online on May 6 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C could constitute a major issue for broader disclosure: the characterization as a “public …