Jaron Lanier Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, and visual artist. He is the author of You Are Not A Gadget: A Manifesto; and Who Owns The Future? His scientific interests include biomimetic information architectures, user interfaces, heterogeneous scientific simulations, advanced information systems for medicine, and computational approaches to the fundamentals of physics. He collaborates with a wide range of scientists in fields related to these interests. Lanier's name is also often associated with Virtual Reality research. He either coined or popularized the term 'Virtual Reality' and in the early 1980s founded VPL Research, the first company to sell VR products. From 1997 to 2001, Lanier was the Chief Scientist of Advanced Network and Services, which contained the Engineering Office of Internet2, and served as the Lead Scientist of the National Tele-immersion Initiative, a coalition of research universities studying advanced applications for Internet2.
Software Research Center MongoDB 2.6 - NoSQL all grown up NoSQL databases have been bursting into the market for a few years now. However, many DBAs still winked and smiled when discussing NoSQL, the way an older cousin looks down on a younger relative. Cute and sassy, but really if you want to play with toys, go ahead. With the latest release of MongoDB, that is just not the case anymore. MongoDB 2.6 is NoSQL all grown up. Yes, we know how much money some of the leading NoSQLs have raised. With this release, MongoDB has really raised the bar. Recent Software posts | Software Posts Archive Exponential growth The graph illustrates how exponential growth (green) surpasses both linear (red) and cubic (blue) growth. Exponential growth Linear growth Cubic growth The formula for exponential growth of a variable x at the (positive or negative) growth rate r, as time t goes on in discrete intervals (that is, at integer times 0, 1, 2, 3, ...), is where x0 is the value of x at time 0. Examples[edit] Bacteria exhibit exponential growth under optimal conditions. Basic formula[edit] A quantity x depends exponentially on time t if where the constant a is the initial value of x, the constant b is a positive growth factor, and τ is the time constant—the time required for x to increase by one factor of b: If τ > 0 and b > 1, then x has exponential growth. Example: If a species of bacteria doubles every ten minutes, starting out with only one bacterium, how many bacteria would be present after one hour? After one hour, or six ten-minute intervals, there would be sixty-four bacteria. Differential equation[edit] so that
SPECULATIONS ON THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE (KEVIN KELLY:) Science will continue to surprise us with what it discovers and creates; then it will astound us by devising new methods to surprises us. At the core of science's self-modification is technology. New tools enable new structures of knowledge and new ways of discovery. The achievement of science is to know new things; the evolution of science is to know them in new ways. What evolves is less the body of what we know and more the nature of our knowing. Technology is, in its essence, new ways of thinking. New informational organizations are layered upon the old without displacement, just as in biological evolution. I'm willing to bet the scientific method 400 years from now will differ from today's understanding of science more than today's science method differs from the proto-science used 400 years ago. Compiled Negative Results — Negative results are saved, shared, compiled and analyzed, instead of being dumped.
Technology Review: The Authority on the Future of Technology Law of Accelerating Returns by Lifeboat Foundation Scientific Advisory Board member Ray Kurzweil.An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense “intuitive linear” view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate). The “returns”, such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. Overview You will get $40 trillion just by reading this essay and understanding what it says. The Intuitive Linear View versus the Historical Exponential View Most long range forecasts of technical feasibility in future time periods dramatically underestimate the power of future technology because they are based on what I call the “intuitive linear” view of technological progress rather than the “historical exponential view”. The Law of Accelerating Returns The Singularity Is Near Wherefrom Moore’s Law
D. Kahneman: presentation to tech titans: Thinking about thinking A SHORT COURSE IN THINKING ABOUT THINKING Edge Master Class 07DANIEL KAHNEMAN Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford, CA, July 20-22, 2007AN EDGE SPECIAL PROJECT (click for slideshow) ATTENDEES: Jeff Bezos, Founder, Amazon.com; Stewart Brand, Cofounder, Long Now Foundation, Author, How Buildings Learn; Sergey Brin, Founder, Google; John Brockman, Edge Foundation, Inc.; Max Brockman, Brockman, Inc.; Peter Diamandis, Space Entrepreneur, Founder, X Prize Foundation; George Dyson, Science Historian; Author, Darwin Among the Machines; W. INTRODUCTIONBy John Brockman Recently, I spent several months working closely with Danny Kahneman, the psychologist who is the co-creator of behavioral economics (with his late collaborator Amos Tversky), for which he won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002. While Kahneman has a wide following among people who study risk, decision-making, and other aspects of human judgment, he is not exactly a household name. The event was an unqualified success.
File:ParadigmShiftsFrr15Events.svg ✓ The source code of this SVG is valid. Summary[edit] Fifteen views of evolution: When plotted on a logarithmic graph, 15 separate lists of key events in history and prehistory are claimed by Ray Kurzweil to show an exponential trend. Lists[edit] The first 14 lists are included in the following source: T.Modis, Forecasting the Growth of Complexity and Change, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 69, No 4, 2002 John R. Reference[edit] Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near : When Humans Transcend Biology, Viking Adult, 2005, ISBN 0670033847. Citations[edit] Jump up ↑ Modis, Theodore. Licensing:[edit] Note: moved from en-Wikipedia, where it was first uploaded by me around July 5, 2005. Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
9 Mind-Bending Epiphanies That Turned My World Upside-Down Over the years I’ve learned dozens of little tricks and insights for making life more fulfilling. They’ve added up to a significant improvement in the ease and quality of my day-to-day life. But the major breakthroughs have come from a handful of insights that completely rocked my world and redefined reality forever. The world now seems to be a completely different one than the one I lived in about ten years ago, when I started looking into the mechanics of quality of life. It wasn’t the world (and its people) that changed really, it was how I thought of it. Maybe you’ve had some of the same insights. 1. The first time I heard somebody say that — in the opening chapter of The Power of Now — I didn’t like the sound of it one bit. I see quite clearly now that life is nothing but passing experiences, and my thoughts are just one more category of things I experience. If you can observe your thoughts just like you can observe other objects, who’s doing the observing? 2. Of course! 3. 4. 5.
Moore's law Moore's law is the observation that, over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the trend in his 1965 paper.[1][2][3] His prediction has proven to be accurate, in part because the law is now used in the semiconductor industry to guide long-term planning and to set targets for research and development.[4] The capabilities of many digital electronic devices are strongly linked to Moore's law: processing speed, memory capacity, sensors and even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras.[5] All of these are improving at roughly exponential rates as well. This exponential improvement has dramatically enhanced the impact of digital electronics in nearly every segment of the world economy.[6] Moore's law describes a driving force of technological and social change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.[7][8] History[edit]
Portrait of an INFP As an INFP, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value system. Your secondary mode is external, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. INFPs, more than other iNtuitive Feeling types, are focused on making the world a better place for people. INFPs are highly intuitive about people. Generally thoughtful and considerate, INFPs are good listeners and put people at ease. INFPs do not like conflict, and go to great lengths to avoid it. INFPs are flexible and laid-back, until one of their values is violated. When it comes to the mundane details of life maintenance, INFPs are typically completely unaware of such things. INFPs do not like to deal with hard facts and logic. INFPs have very high standards and are perfectionists. INFPs are usually talented writers. Check us out on Facebook Careers for INFP INFP Relationships Personal Growth Contact us
The Ghosts We Leave Behind — Better Humans One of my good friends, Dannel Jurado, recently did an excellent piece in Tiny Cartridge about Pokemon X / Y’s ability to store Pokemon in a cloud service rooted somewhere on the Internet. Additionally, through some circuitous methods, you’ll be able to transfer Pokemon in from 3 generations ago into the most recent release. Jurado goes on to muse about how this indicates that we, as a society, are beginning to form attachments to data in the same way we form attachments to old photographs or worn books — we’ll be able to play a brand-new Pokemon game with hand-raised creatures that will be older than some of the children playing the games to begin with. However, the difference between forming an attachment to a first-edition print of Old Man and the Sea and your 10-year-old Roselia is that the book was printed in a moment in time and, when changing hands, continues to be the same book. So, for those raised by the Internet and described by data, there are thousands of you.
Altruism Giving alms to the poor is often considered an altruistic action. Altruism or selflessness is the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core aspect of various religious traditions and secular worldviews, though the concept of "others" toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions. Altruism or selflessness is the opposite of selfishness. Altruism can be distinguished from feelings of loyalty. Pure altruism consists of sacrificing something for someone other than the self (e.g. sacrificing time, energy or possessions) with no expectation of any compensation or benefits, either direct, or indirect (e.g., receiving recognition for the act of giving). Much debate exists as to whether "true" altruism is possible. The notion of altruism[edit] The concept has a long history in philosophical and ethical thought. Individual variations[edit] A 1986 study estimated that altruism was half-inherited.
This may sound like a weird question, but if our only premiss was for a person to stay conscious, what parts of the human body could be taken away for the person to still stay alive and conscious? : askscience