Life - Science - Future

Multicellular

2009-12-30T22:13:00.000-08:00

Normally when we think about the components of the human body, we think of it as the parts that we can interact with like organs or systems. Looking at ourselves this way does little to shed light on our origins, but one level finer does. Each of those organs and systems are made up of smaller independent functioning units we cannot see. It is amazing to think that our body is built from

Subscription Revolution

2009-11-13T20:47:00.000-08:00

The way people discover and consume media is in the process of a grand revolution. Ironically magazines; which I have never been too fond of, are ahead of the game in a way. They may be full of advertisements and generally short on valuable content, but they are very specific. You don't buy a 5 pound, 3,000 page magazine with an eclectic mix of fitness, fashion, technology, sports, and low

Experience Relay Protocol

2009-10-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

I was recently reminded of the illusory effect of online games when reading about why SWGEmu is possible. We get this rich experience in an online game, but under the covers only a minimal amount of messaging is going on. That image of your friends avatar you see is not really constantly being transmitted from your friends computer, through the game server and on to you. A simple message is

The Free Ride

2009-09-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

(Image Credit: Cornell University Library)There is a common pervading plague of the mind loose in the world today. It is the general idea that you can contribute something valuable to society once, get rich off of it, and rake in the riches forever. The institutions of copyright and patent have become the vehicle that makes this dream possible. As is argued well here, these legalized

Simple Complexity

2009-09-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

One of our minds' greatest strengths has an unfortunate side effect. That strength is the ability to generalize and represent a complex idea with a simplified word or phrase. The association of this word with several other simpler things in our mind gives it meaning. This has great benefits, such as allowing us to discuss complex things more easily. Problems arise however, when simplified

The Virtual Body Project

2009-08-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/karl_eschenbach/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0One of the challenges of medical advancement is finding ways to experiment with new things and determine what the results will be. Today, various methods are employed such as doing the experimentation on animals or people in some cases. These methods obviously pose moral issues for people, and the limited extent to

Balance: Instinct and Logic

2009-08-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Our lives are full of choices that put us somewhere between satisfying all of our emotional urges and physical temptations; and always doing what we know makes the most logical sense. You eat a candy bar that you know your body doesn't need. You let your hormones decide who you marry. You re-direct your anger at someone who has no lesson to learn from the punishment. I'm not projecting here,

The Stagnant Phenotype

2009-07-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

I recently volunteered to have my DNA studied for the Personal Genome Project. I did this because I see human genetic engineering to be an important part of our future, and we have much to learn in order to take advantage of it. I may or may not be selected to participate, but either way, it has caused me to pause and think about where studying the human genome may lead. The first benefit that

Meaning of Life

2009-06-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

As with a lump of clayThe question of lifeIs not its purposeBut the eternal pursuitOf its potentialPhoto credit: jasohillInspiration: Richard Dawkins - The Purpose of Purpose

Printing A Bridge

2009-06-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

Not a physical bridge, although these guys might be close, I'm talking about a conceptual bridge. A bridge to logevity. The latest news about Organovo indicates they've made some remarkable discoveries regarding the potential of engineering human organ tissue.My car is getting old. It has a crack in the windshield, it shakes a little at high speeds, and the transmission just doesn't shift like

Telepathy

2009-05-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

One day the progression of communication technologies will advance to a point where we achieve telepathy. What is today on par with super power status, is approaching the ability to be laid out as a sequence of foreseeable steps in our future. One of the greatest benefits of telepathy is that it is a communication of thoughts in no specific language. Language is beautiful and diverse, but it

Competing For Existence

2009-05-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

I recently listened to an old short story by Kurt Vonnegut called "2 B R 0 2 B". It takes place in a future time where the population of Earth is limited to 40 million people. This population control is maintained by requiring expecting parents to find a voluteer for suicide in order to be allowed their childs birth. It's an unlikely scenario that makes for a good story, but we cannot help but

Immaterial

2009-05-12T22:14:00.000-07:00

People exchange their wealth for a great variety of things. Sustenance, tools, entertainment, and labor to name a few – some tangible, some not. Likely nobody would think it odd to pay for any of these things. But when we consider virtual property, it seems inherently worthless. At first thought it might seem to be because of it's impermanence. After all, what if the virtual world shut down

The Evolving Mind

2009-04-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

So much good springs from our ability to hold long term memories not only in our mind, but even longer with language and writing. It seems to me that the root of our morality and virtuousness comes from a combination of this and an ability to imagine the perspective of others; or to put yourself in someone else's shoes as the saying goes. There are things granted us by evolutionary biology that

Creative Nihilism

2009-04-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

The other day I read an interesting post on Ben Goertzel's blog that eventually talks about nihilism and how it's been misunderstood. Apparently nihilism has more sensible tenets than it would appear on the surface. I'll admit the only example of a nihilist in my mind until recently was the wannabe kidnappers from the movie The Big Lebowski. To quote one of them - “We believe in nothing,

Maybe I'll Write This In 25 Years

2009-04-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

I suppose the first step was the double-network hydro gel put into my left knee when it started bothering me after hikes. That was quite a while ago and seems rather trivial. But it was the first of many trivial things that have added up to something more. Something that has made me feel as though I am not

Love, Lust, Lost

2009-03-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

There is a seemingly magical phenomena you experience for a while when you first become romantically involved with someone. Your senses are heightened, you feel intoxicated, and you either view the other person through a filter of perfection or they too are so adrenaline pumped that they temporarily seem a more amazing person than is humanly possible. Why do our bodies do this and why do they

Life Online

2009-03-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

One of the more complex challenges in creating a massively multi-player on-line (MMO) game is crafting an environment where players have both fairness and depth. When you add depth and richness to the game, you simultaneously create immersion and complicate fairness. Players like immersion, it's what keeps them playing, so it's good for the game maker as well. Players hate inequity, it is the