Archive for the 'Technology' Category
February 27th, 2012 by Wil
In the past I’ve contemplated whether bugs might be an affordable and perhaps even tasty form of food. According to Andrew Sullivan, Europe is spending three million Euros exploring the possibility of an insect food supply. (Quote from the text linked at Sullivan’s site.)
Insects are a natural food source: They are packed with protein and calcium, low in fat, and offer a cheaper option to farming livestock. Compared to most animals used for food, these cold-blooded creatures spend less energy and nutrients, reproduce faster and in higher quantities…
Disgusted? It turns out you’re already eating bugs.
Take “cochineal extract”” [PDF], also known as “carmine.” It’s a “natural” color additive extracted from crushed and dried cactus-dwelling female cochineal beetles and eggs which are then used to color red, pink, or purple candies, plus yogurts, ice creams, drugs, fruit beverages, baby products, and cosmetics by companies like Smashbox and Yves Saint Laurent
Of course, no one is asking about the real dangers of eating bugs. If humanity suddenly turned towards an insect diet, is it possible that insects would declare war on humans and millions of 8 legged creatures would storm into our cities, ripping the flesh from our faces in tiny bug-mouth sized bites? Is it possible that you might turn to your lover, an amorous look in your eye, only to suddenly see thousands of bugs pouring out of their mouth, nose, ears and anus?
Yes, it is possible.
February 18th, 2012 by Wil
I was just reading some interesting literature on a genetic mutation scientists can induce in fruit flies. By affecting the Antennapedia gene they can create flies that have legs in place of their antenna. You heard that right – mutant flies with legs coming out of their heads! And scientists are creating these with no concern for the consequences. Can you imagine the nightmare scenario if just one such fly got out? It could race across the countryside, eventually flying into a house belonging to you, Joe Average American. It would buzz through the hallways, it’s hideous leg appendages quivering with glee. You might have to say something to your wife like, “Sheesh, honey, did you leave the window open? There’s a fly in here.” And she’d say, “Why is it always me? I bet one of the kids did it.” And you’d say, “Well, I can’t stand this annoying buzzing while I’m trying to do my puzzles.” And she’d say, “Do you want me to get some bug spray?” And you’d say, “Oh, I don’t hear it anymore. I guess it’s gone… Let’s go to Sizzler for dinner!”
“Goddammit – there’s that fly again!”
Because of scientists, the aforementioned scene or horror may soon be taking place in homes across America. DAMN YOU SCIENTISTS!!!!
P.S. Here’s some beautiful macro photographs of flies.
February 10th, 2012 by Wil
Like most people who pay any attention to the web, I’ve had a general understanding of the Spotify music service. This is a service attainable either by viewing ads, or paying fairly cheap subscription fees, that gives you access to tons of music, including established musicians as well as unknown obscurities (for instance, my first album is available on Spotify. I have no idea how it got there.) Basically, it’s a legal Napster.
While I understood all this, I didn’t really “get” Spotify until my niece showed it to me this past weekend. I sat around browsing the available collection and discovered at least a dozen albums I’d been meaning to buy. I’ve, of course, since downloaded Spotify, so there’s no reason to purchase these albums.
To me, this is really the nail in the coffin of the career of an independent artist making original music. Music has become totally devalued.
Some idiots, and the Spotify company itself, object to that statement. They point out that every time someone streams your music, you (theoretically) get paid. The problem with this is that you’re getting paid nothing; 1 million streams is equal to about 1000 bucks or so. That just ain’t gonna happen for your average musician.
Instead, they argue you should use Spotify as a promotional tool to sell CDs of your songs or get people to come to your shows. Obviously, using free music to tempt people to buy CDs of the same music (which they’re getting for free) doesn’t even make any sense. As for getting people to come to your shows… that might kind of work, but most shows for original music pay next to nothing. Some people argue that giving away music for free will help populate shows when musicians go on a tour. The problem with this is that it’s impossible to hold down any kind of meaningful job and tour, so you basically have to commit to a life of poverty to be a touring musician (of original music.) On top of that, tours cost money for gas, lodging etc. so whatever revenue is being lost from CD sales has to be made up by increased attendance, and then some. I just don’t see that working for the vast majority of musicians I know.
The smartest thing for any musician to do at this point is to order hundreds of brain eating maggots off the Internet and then lure those maggots into your ear, nose and mouth holes and sit back as they devour your brain.
February 5th, 2012 by Wil
In the past, I’ve mentioned my sense that chronic pain has several elements: the pain itself, your attention to the pain, and your emotional reaction to the pain. (This is probably true with all types of pain but is more noticeable with chronic nagging pain.)
It turns out there’s a military cognitive psychologist who is treating the attention part of pain by using a virtual reality video game (called SpiderWorld) to distract people (specifically burn victims, often soldiers) from their pain.
One day in 1994, a colleague of Hoffman’s told him he’d been observing patients at a burn center using hypnosis to control pain. His colleague wasn’t exactly sure how the treatment worked, but he thought it had something to do with distraction.
“Distraction?” Hoffman said. “I’ll show you distraction,” and he showed his friend SpiderWorld.
Not long after, Hoffman went to meet the hypnotist himself, who agreed VR sounded like a pretty good idea. On the very first burn patient they tried, SpiderWorld worked. He simply forgot to think about his pain.
From there it sounds like they’ve had impressive results.
January 21st, 2012 by Wil
I had to take my Dad’s Mac in for repairs at the Apple Store. To do this, you have to take the computer to a section of the shop called the Genius Bar which is purportedly staffed by friendly Apple “geniuses” who know everything about computers. This is one of those situations where you are embarrassed for another person, in this case, the 20 something dork making 9.50$ an hour who has to refer to himself as a genius.
I’d love to go in there and yell, “So you’re some kind of genius? You want to tell me why my wife left me? 22 years of marriage down the shitter! Explain that Einstein!”
December 12th, 2011 by Wil
In the Steven Pinker book, “How the Mind Works,” he describes the following thought experiment (not his own): presume it is possible, in a person’s brain, to replace a single neuron with some kind of technological equivalent — a special wire that passes signals exactly the way a neuron would. Now replace not a single neuron, but 10 of them, then 100, then 1 billion, until you have replaced every neuron in a person’s brain with this replacement wire. At what point, if ever, does that person stop being “them”?
I’m reminded of that thought experiment while reading this review for a new book called “Connectome.” The book takes a skeptical but not dismissive look at one of the goals of the trans-humanism movement: to effectively and totally map the complex behaviors and connections of an individual brain’s neurons so that people could “upload” themselves to a computer.
The review breaks it down…
The central question for Seung—and the one that also keeps the transhumanists on tenterhooks—is whether you are your connectome. If you could deduce every connection point of every brain cell, the strength with which each neuron fires, and the way these firing patterns change as the cells interact with each other, would, in fact, you be left with a copy of you?
I’m dubious about this for two reasons. One, even if it were possible to totally map out an individual’s brain, you’re effectively only creating a clone of that person. I might be able to create a clone of myself, a technological marvel that could continue my philosophical and musical endeavors, as well as adding to my vast repertoire of sexual pleasuring techniques, but that would not be me. The real me, a biological entity, will eventually wither and die. Unless someone can explain how the consciousness in my body could somehow be passed to this clone, I fail to see how we could live forever. (And this isn’t even getting into the fact that we have a very vague, ethereal understanding of what consciousness is.)
Secondly, I’m largely of the opinion that our experience as individuals is not simply a matter of what’s in our brains, but in how our brain interacts with our body e.g. the sensations it gets from the body, the feelings generated by hormones coming from non-brain organs in the body etc. This software simile of me would have none of that, and likely very quickly evolve into an entity seeming very different from “myself.”
December 7th, 2011 by Wil
I’ve long touted the benefits of voice dictation software, and have specifically mentioned that I think it’s the ideal means of interaction with tablet computers such as the iPad (because the on-screen keyboard built into tablet computers suck balls.) That said, this device is pretty cool. It basically projects a keyboard onto a surface. You can type on this virtual keyboard to enter data into your tablet computer. From the site:
This tiny device laser-projects a keyboard on any flat surface… you can then type away accompanied by simulated key click sounds.
THE FUTURE IS HERE… and it ain’t going nowhere.
December 5th, 2011 by Wil
I’ve mentioned in the past my belief that the advent of digital piracy and its ability to suck profits from almost any creative endeavor — music, film, books — will result in an artless (and subsequently heartless) society which will descend into cannibalistic savagery. At this point in history, I see this argument as irrefutable.
Perhaps we’re beginning to see the dark at the end of the tunnel. The LA Times reports…
Film director Penelope Spheeris’ new comedy, “Balls to the Wall,” had barely premiered in Europe when bootleg copies started popping up on the Internet, throwing its U.S. release into jeopardy. A Spheeris assistant sent out as many as 30 cease-and-desist notices a day in a desperate, but failed, attempt to halt the piracy.
…
That helps explain why Spheeris and other filmmakers are backing tough new legislation making its way through Congress that would give the Justice Department broad powers to shut down websites that host pirated material and would open the door for movie studios, music companies and other copyright holders to seek court injunctions against Internet companies they believe are aiding in copyright theft, which amounts to $58 billion a year.
…
The fight is curiously nonpartisan, with conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats teamed on both sides of the issue. Some of the split is based on which industry is more dominant in a lawmaker’s region. Many Southern California representatives back Hollywood’s position, and most Northern California members side with the Internet companies. But political philosophy also plays a role, leading anti-big-government conservatives to join with liberal civil libertarians in opposition to giving Washington what they fear would be broad censorship power over websites.
The following quote, illustrates what I’ve always viewed to be the issue.
“It’s the No. 1 issue for us,” said Scott Harbinson, international representative for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which has 113,000 members in the U.S. and Canada. “If people aren’t investing in motion picture production because of piracy, our guys don’t work.”
And why invest in making movies if they’re just going to end up on the Internet for free? And thus you see the clear path towards cannibalistic savagery.
That said, this bill looks troubling to me. Particularly this part…
The pending bills in the House and Senate would give the Justice Department power to seek court orders requiring U.S. search engines and Internet sites to block access to foreign websites hawking pirated material. Private companies such as Paramount Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment would also be able to seek court orders preventing such sites from receiving ads and payments services from the U.S.
That grates against my libertarian tendencies by putting the onus of the crime not on the person who clicks a link to a pirate site, but on the person or company hosting the website or search engine which links to the pirate site.
By the way, Penelope Spheeris was profiled at acid logic here.
November 28th, 2011 by Wil
Biofeedback is an interesting therapeutic technique that’s been around for decades. As I understand it, electrodes or various monitoring tools are hooked up to a person’s skin, allowing patients to monitor specific facets of their body, such as whether a certain muscle is becoming tense or whether blood pressure is spiking etc. They can then practice specific relaxation techniques and get confirmation that those techniques are making a difference.
It strikes me that men have been employing a variation of this technique for centuries. Often a man will be having sex with a woman, and realize he is about to approach orgasm long before her. Since the dawn of time, men have utilized the practice of mentally reciting meaningless baseball statistics to “talk themselves down” from orgasm.
I’m wondering if the modern tools of biofeedback could be applied here. Let’s say you invite a lady friend over for dinner. After a succulent meal, you retire to the couch, each of you holding a glass of white wine. Candles flicker and light jazz plays on the stereo while your voices murmur quiet conversation. You lean forward to kiss her, her soft lips caressing yours. You reach into her blouse, past her bra, and rub warm, excited nipples. Her hand caresses your neck, her hot breath blows into your ear. Your red, pulsating member is engorged with life, pleasurably running against the inside of your pants. And then you hear it, a shrill robotic voice screeching…
“ALERT! ALERT! THE X 23400D MONITORING SYSTEM REPORTS IMMINENT ORGASM IN THREE MINUTES. SEXUAL EXCITEMENT MUST BE REDUCED! I REPEAT, SEXUAL EXCITEMENT MUST BE REDUCED!”
As a result, you are able to pace your sexual activities for both you and your partner. It’s a win-win.
November 9th, 2011 by Wil
I mentioned earlier my discovery of Amazon.com’s new “library.” Details at the time were a bit vague, but America’s leading investigative Journal — PC mag — has gotten the scoop.
There are currently 5,377 Kindle e-books available to Prime members. The top five books include For Time and Eternity (Sister Wife) by Allison Pittman, the Hunger Games trilogy from Suzanne Collins, and Fuse of Armageddon by Sigmund Brouwer and Hank Hanegraaff. There are also some classics like Dracula, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Treasure Island and Little Women, as well as more recent hits like Water for Elephants.
Looks like Amazon is focusing on the meaningless pablum sought after by most of brain-dead humanity. But there’s an interesting twist…
The selection of e-books, however, is causing some controversy. According to the Wall Street Journal, the six largest U.S. publishers are not participating due to concern over future sales, but the LA Times points out that some publishers who opted out were surprised to see their books on the lending list anyway. The Times said Amazon is getting around this because it bought the books at wholesale, meaning it can sell the titles for any price. Ideally, Amazon would sell it for the publisher’s set price, but it’s not restricted to those prices.
It remains to be seen how this will affect the marketplace for books. This question also pops into my head: what if Amazon starts lending out movies and video games?