Posts Tagged ‘robotics’

The AI Revolution Is On

The AI Revolution Is On
Diapers.com warehouses are a bit of a jumble. Boxes of pacifiers sit above crates of onesies, which rest next to cartons of baby food. In a seeming abdication of logic, similar items are placed across the room from one another. A person trying to figure out how the products were shelved could well conclude...
January 31st, 2011 | Science & Technology | Read More

THE MACHINE STOPS

THE MACHINE STOPS
Anybody who uses the Internet should read E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops. It is a chilling, short story masterpiece about the role of technology in our lives. Written in 1909, it’s as relevant today as the day it was published. Forster has several prescient notions including instant messages...
March 22nd, 2010 | Arts | Read More

ADVENTURES IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION

ADVENTURES IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION
THE TIME MACHINE AND THE BIRTH OF CINEMA In October 1895, the twenty-nine year old H.G.Wells was in the first flush of his fame and success. The Time Machine, serialised the previous year, had appeared in book form over the summer, and was heading for the Christmas bestseller lists on the back of reviews...
February 11th, 2010 | Arts | Read More

The Predator War – What are the risks of using Drones?

The Predator War – What are the risks of using Drones?
What are the risks of the C.I.A.’s covert drone program? On August 5th, officials at the Central Intelligence Agency, in Langley, Virginia, watched a live video feed relaying closeup footage of one of the most wanted terrorists in Pakistan. Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in...
December 22nd, 2009 | Social Insight | Read More

Mechanisms of Fear: Man and Machine at the dawn of the 20th Century

Mechanisms of Fear: Man and Machine at the dawn of the 20th Century
F. T. Marinetti hailed the twentieth century as the one in which man would finally consummate the “dreamt-of metallization of the human body”.[1] For Marinetti, modernity carried with it the promise of a new, dynamic synthesis of man and machine – a synthesis that Gerald Heard would, in 1939,...
December 16th, 2009 | Social Insight | Read More

The Singularity is Near

The Singularity is Near
Gary Wolf‘s article (below) originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of  Wired Magazine. Ray Kurzweil is a fervent believer in the Singularity,  and a proponent of  various outlandish predictions, based on his own Law of Accelerating Returns, which states that the development of technology...
December 1st, 2009 | Big Ideas | Read More