by cameron | Jul 31, 2007 | Podcast, singularity, transhumanism
Today I had the fortune to chat with another living legend – Vernor Vinge (pronounced “vin-jee” as in, he explained off air, “stingy”). While VV may not have the public profile of a William Gibson or Neal Stephenson, in geek circles no SF author carries more respect. Why is it so?
In 1981 Vernor wrote a novella called TRUE NAMES which was the one of the earliest stories to present a fully realized concept of cyberspace which he called the “Other Plane” and which people accessed by attaching electrodes to their scalp. Inside the Other Plane, people hid their “true names” from the Government by creating avatars with pseudonyms – sound familiar? This was several years before NEUROMANCER (William Gibson, 1984) or SNOW CRASH (Neal Stephenson, 1992) and is therefore a seminal work in cyberpunk fiction.
Vinge’s novels A FIRE UPON THE DEEP (1992) and A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY (1999) both won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. In 1993 he wrote an essay called “The Coming Technological Singularity” which popularized that term.
His latest novel, RAINBOWS END, is a masterpiece of near-future Sci-Fi which explores the world circa 2025. Marc Andreessen called it “the clearest and most plausible extrapolation of modern technology trends forward to the year 2025 that you can imagine.” It has been nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
You can learn more about the huge potential ramifications of the Singularity by attending the Singularity Summit 2007.
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by cameron | Jul 14, 2007 | Podcast, science vs religion
My guest today is Chris Summerfield. Chris works for Drug Arm WA, writes an intelligent blog called “A Churchless Faith” and recently took me up on my challenge to Christians to answer the question “What would it take for you to become an atheist?”. We talk a little about the striking similarities between the key points in the Jesus myth and the mythologies of other saviour gods such as Horus (3000 BCE), Mithra, etc. We also examine the troubling lack of first-hand eye-witness reports of Jesus (surely someone walking around raising people from the dead would have caused some interest from contemporary scholars) and the fact that the Jesus Seminar concluded that only 18% of the supposed saying of Jesus in the New Testament have any chance of being authentic or original.
The Zeitgeist Movie
Parallels between Jesus and Horus
Jesus and the other God-men are personifications of the Sun
Other saviour gods that pre-date Jesus, such as Mithra, Dionysus and Orpheus
The Jesus Seminar
The Historicity of Jesus
Why Are The Ancient Historians Silent About Jesus?
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by cameron | Jul 13, 2007 | science, Uncategorized
Did anyone register TPN in the Anthill Cool Company awards? Did you get hit with the $59 entry fee? James and Paul sent me an email this morning saying they decided to charge an entry fee after all. I’m wondering if you guys got hit. What do you think about having to pay an entry fee to register a company in some awards program? Legitimate? As James said, it costs them money to run the awards. But then again, they MAKE money from selling the magazine, isn’t this just the cost of coming up with content? What do you think? Should I fork up my hard-earned $59?
******
For the Christians out there who like to tell me “there is no evidence to support the theory of evolution” – we have more!
Scientists say they have seen one of the fastest evolutionary changes ever observed in a species of butterfly. The tropical Blue Moon butterfly has developed a way of fighting back against parasitic bacteria.
Six years ago, males accounted for just 1% of the Blue Moon population on two islands in the South Pacific.
But by last year, the butterflies had developed a gene to keep the bacteria in check and male numbers were up to about 40% of the population.
(source)
What kind of bizarre logical backflip are you going to produce to talk your way around this one? I can’t wait to see it….
by cameron | Jul 8, 2007 | science, technology
Thank Science! I finally found out how to stop Vista opening links in IE instead of Firefox! This has been bugging the hell out of me since I started using Vista months ago. I found the answers on this site. The secret formula is:
Start button > Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs > Set program access and computer defaults
by cameron | Jul 7, 2007 | Podcast, science, singularity, technology
Wendell Wallach is a lecturer and consultant at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics where he chairs the working research group on Technology and Ethics, leads a seminar for bioethics interns, and functions as a senior coordinator for other working groups and projects. He has lectured worldwide, published many articles, and is presently writing two books. Cybersoul explores the ways in which cognitive science and the Information Age are altering our understanding of human decision-making and ethics. Machine Morality: From Aristotle to Asimov and Beyond, which Wendell is co-authoring and which will be published by MIT Press, explores the prospects for designing computer systems capable of making moral decisions. Wendell is recognized as one of the leaders in the new field of Machine Ethics, and designed the first course anywhere on this subject, which he has taught twice at Yale.
Wendell is one of the speakers at the upcoming Singularity Summit.
Become part of the G’Day World conversation.
If you’re a member of Facebook, you can ADD ME AS A FRIEND and then ADD YOURSELF TO THE G’DAY WORLD GROUP.
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Get the TPN version of Particls?
Don’t forget to make use of my new comments line – +613 9016 9699.
You can now buy transcripts of this podcast from Pods In Print.
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The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
by cameron | Jul 4, 2007 | science vs religion
Nick Hodge (aka Uncle Nick from episode ##) sent me this link (edit 2014: link removed due to malware on the linked site) to a story about a couple of rapscallions who infiltrated Ken Ham’s “intellectually depravity: The Creation Museum.”
Ken Ham, for those of you who don’t know, grew up in my home state of Queensland (there’s something I don’t often admit) and who is one of the main forces behind the creationist movement in the USA. In May 2007 he opened his $27 million “museum” which depicts humans living alongside dinosaurs. It’s a theme park for fundamentalists to further warp the minds of their children.
The question I am left with though is whether or not this guy is the real deal or a fabulous charlatan? I have to admit that quite a few times over the years I’ve thought about how easy it would be to fleece the gullible. Whenever I see a Benny Hinn or a Ken Ham I have to wonder… are they deliberately preying on the weak-minded and the gullible? Ever see that Steve Martin film “Leap Of Faith“? Something like that. It would be so easy to do. Much easier than trying to convince the world to prefer rational thinking over mythology.
