Selfish Memes

usersillusions: “The book reader of the future,” envisioned in...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:58:09 +0100

“The book reader of the future,” envisioned in a 1935 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics – a delightful addition to these vintage visions for the future of technology.

via explore-blog

"The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration...."

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:32:51 +0100

“The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.”

- Facebook S1 filing

"Some of the problem solving in the iPad is really quite remarkable, there is this danger you want to..."

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:48:35 +0100

“Some of the problem solving in the iPad is really quite remarkable, there is this danger you want to communicate this to people. I think that is a fantastic irony, how oblivious people are to the acrobatics we’ve performed to solve a problem - but that’s our job, and I think people know there is tremendous care behind the finished product.”

- Sir Jonathan Ive: The iMan cometh - London Life - Life & Style - Evening Standard

"When you are solving a difficult problem re-ask the problem so that your solution helps you learn..."

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:32:05 +0100

“When you are solving a difficult problem re-ask the problem so that your solution helps you learn faster. Find a faster way to fail, recover, and try again. If the problem you are trying to solve involves creating a magnum opus, you are solving the wrong problem.”

- You Are Solving The Wrong Problem « Aza on Design

"* AI - There are many varieties of artificial intelligence, and no formal definition for any of..."

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:32:12 +0100

“

* AI - There are many varieties of artificial intelligence, and no formal definition for any of them. By whatever measure, a civilization capable of producing synthetic minds similar to its own, or superior in some facets, has reached an important threshold, not the least which is a great compounding acceleration of its progress.

* A-life — Likewise there are many types of artificial life possible, from derivatives of natural biological life, to a-life running on an alternative chemical base-pairs, to self-reproducing dry life more akin to nano-bots. Sustainable self-reproducing, self-evolving creations enable huge innovations and bring huge problems. It is a major transition.

* Methuselarity - Health care and science keep extending the average longevity of humans, and increasing the rate at which it is improving. Right now science is extending the expected lifespan of humans in the developing world a few days per year. If this rate keeps accelerating, at some point scientific progress will increase expected longevity from one day per year, to one year per year. When longevity increases at one year per year, that effectively creates immortality, or Methuselarity, for anyone who reaches that threshold. They become like the biblical Methuselah and live for a thousand years, on average.

* GlobeNet — Over time we keep adding sensors and monitors every few kilometers on land and on the sea until we form a dense grid of sensors covering the globe. There will be thermometers, wind speed jigs, rainfall meters, sunlight sensors, air pollution particle detectors, radiation meters, earthquake probes, climatic gas sensors, animal motion detectors, sea level and wave detectors, traffic sensors, DNA sensors, and little things that measure anything we can think of place on a regular basis on the surface (and deeper) of the planet. All of these form a blanket of sensitivity providing the planetary mind (us and machines) a real-time awareness. For the first time we’ll have a quantifiable globe.

* Global Superorganism — The stage at which several billion sentient beings spread over a planet and several quadrillion smart machines merge into a unified system that is always on. This global system of interacting smart agents exhibits emergent behavior and degrees of autonomy that is not present in its constituent parts. On some planets the global superorganism will reach artificial intelligence before a stand-alone AI does. It’s not clear which way Earth is headed.

* Memorex — Every bit of writing, music, photography, painting in civilization is digitized and recorded in a machine-readable way. All knowledge, in all languages, from all ages, in all media is stored in a way that is universally accessible to all people and machines. In other words, the universal library becomes real, but not just books, but everything created, past and present, and it is available anytime. This threshold of civilization-scale knowledge becomes both a global memory and a global awareness.

* Borg — Another threshold is crossed when any individual can import the global Memorex onto their own minds. Civilization-scale memory available to, or within, all individuals.

* Mirror World — A one-to-one mapping of both the natural and built worlds onto a full-scale simulation of those worlds. This huge global model runs in parallel to the observed worlds. At first the functions of large organizations are mirrored in a simulation, then entire cities will be reflected in a real-time city simulation. Eventually every major node, sensor-net, agent, or variable on Earth is simulated in real time in this global model. Sort of like Google Earth but with every process, and every ecosystem, as well as every building. The mirror world is used both as an experimental test bed for science and predictions, and as an entertainment medium, as in a second life.

* Class I Energy — The Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed three major levels of energy production for galactic civilizations, which he called Class I, II, and III. Class I was the maximization of energy from the entire planet, Class II was maximizing the available energy from its star, and Class III was exploiting energy from its galaxy. Humans have not yet reached Class I, so that threshold is still in front of us.

* Universal Family Tree — Eventually we will sequence the full genomes of everyone living, and as many of the recent dead as we have access to. Together with genealogical records, this huge trove of data will give us our first universal family tree. Everyone living will have a place on it in relation to everyone else. We will clearly see exactly how I am related to you. We’ll also see how everyone is related at some point to everyone else no matter where they were born. The big surprise will be the short hops between us. This common tree of descent will aid health care, medicine, and science, but will also aid peace. Greeks and Turks, Jews and Arabs, Koreans and Japanese will see they are far more related than not.

* Knowledge of All Species — At some point a civilization wakes up and takes a comprehensive and systematic inventory of all the other living species on its planet. This step is similar to mapping all the elements of matter. It realizes that in order to model and manage its ecosystems it must know all the ingredients and all the interacting parts, just as it takes knowing all the elements in order to do chemistry. This threshold of the knowledge of all species includes sequencing the DNA of every species as well — a huge asset that also enables it to recover and resurrect known extinct species.

* TransHumanity — When beings gain control of their biological evolution they begin to mess with it. But not everyone will be eager to do so. At the point that humans begin to engineer their own genomes, there will be a significant number of individuals, families and groups who will refuse to do so. For every person who says “Over my dead body will I or my child be engineered,” there will be someone else who says, “Bring on the mutants!” Thus there will inevitably be a forking of the gene line. The threshold is not engineering genes since we have been doing that slowly and ignorantly all along, but a clear splitting off of a subgroup. Whether or not each becomes a non-breeding separate species doesn’t matter. Transhumanity means at least one fork of the species is deliberately self-engineered.

* Singularity — As commonly defined, a singularity means an infinite pace of change. We don’t know what that looks like because, as commonly defined, it is inherently unknowable. For this reason I don’t find this transition useful in prospect, only in retrospect. We have been through one singularity so far — the invention of language. A few of the above might be also initiate singularity but we’ll only know after the fact.

”

- The Technium: The Next Transitions in the Technium

altnytterfarlig: Ken Robinson on genius, divergent thinking and...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:01:56 +0100

altnytterfarlig:

Ken Robinson on genius, divergent thinking and creativity. And how we all have the capacity to be remarkable at it (98%). (via @neilperkin)

"Normally when people think of ‘creating’ or ‘innovation’ they think of a naked hippie standing in..."

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:24:22 +0100

“Normally when people think of ‘creating’ or ‘innovation’ they think of a naked hippie standing in the woods painting a tree, an alcoholic writer slaving away at a sad tale of a small town, or some tech geek coming up with some new way to annoy everyone by sharing every detail of their pointless life.”

- http://blog.davidtate.org/2011/12/the-dangerous-effects-of-reading/

usersillusions: Xerox Star User Interface

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:06:53 +0100

usersillusions:

Xerox Star User Interface

Photo

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:54:12 +0100

The New Aesthetic: Waving at the Machines

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:43:40 +0100

The New Aesthetic: Waving at the Machines

altnytterfarlig: Humankind 2012 - the transformation of...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:44:57 +0100

altnytterfarlig:

Humankind 2012 - the transformation of aspiration. By Leo Burnett. (via adwire)

These future vision films are getting more and more impressive, professional and different. Leo Burnett narrates a story and then the stats just sneaks up on you. Well played.

"the future of computing is here and just needs someone, or several someones, to package it up so..."

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:21:30 +0100

“the future of computing is here and just needs someone, or several someones, to package it up so people will adopt it”

- Mark Rolston, creative officer at frog, speaking at the GigaOM RoadMap conference in San Francisco

"Amazon slogan: “Work hard, have fun, make history."

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:28:10 +0100

“Amazon slogan: “Work hard, have fun, make history.””

"“We must constantly look at things in a different way. Just when you think you know something, you..."

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:05 +0100

“

“We must constantly look at things in a different way. Just when you think you know something, you must look at it in a different way. Even though it may seem silly or wrong, you must try. Dare to strike out and find new ground.”

“Despite what anyone might tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. Poetry, beauty, love, romance. These are what we stay alive for. The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”

”

Photo

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:27:12 +0100

"In the old days once you bought something that was what you got for the lifetime of that object...."

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:43:15 +0100

“In the old days once you bought something that was what you got for the lifetime of that object. Today, things connect to the Internet and the digital / connected layer updates and alters / grows its abilities. The product you bought might end up as something completely different from what it was when you got it…”

"We’re moving toward a world where our identities will be meticulously, almost frighteningly..."

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:48:32 +0200

“We’re moving toward a world where our identities will be meticulously, almost frighteningly digital. If we’re going to thrive in that world, we need to create conditions that make it possible for people to feel comfortable being open and transparent.”

- Hide from the Digital World—At Your Own Risk | Institute For The Future

"1. Small is beautiful. 2. Make each program do one thing well. 3. Build a prototype as soon as..."

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:07:42 +0200

“1. Small is beautiful.
2. Make each program do one thing well.
3. Build a prototype as soon as possible.
4. Choose portability over efficiency.
5. Store data in flat text files.
6. Use software leverage to your advantage.
7. Use shell scripts to increase leverage and portability.
8. Avoid captive user interfaces.
9. Make every program a filter.”

- Unix philosophy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"I asked Steve why he thought it was good, and he told me his theory for a name was to start from the..."

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:26:35 +0200

“I asked Steve why he thought it was good, and he told me his theory for a name was to start from the generic term for something, then romanticize it. His favorite example at the time was Sony’s Trinitron.”

- Stephen Wolfram Blog : Steve Jobs: A Few Memories

"Steve said, “Isaac Newton didn’t have back-cover quotes; why do you want them?"

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:25:50 +0200

“Steve said, “Isaac Newton didn’t have back-cover quotes; why do you want them?””

- Stephen Wolfram Blog : Steve Jobs: A Few Memories