Month: July 2011

This is a 5-minute spoken introduction to the Singularity I wrote for a small conference. I had to talk fast, though, so this is probably more like a 6.5 minute intro. The rise of human intelligence in its modern form reshaped the Earth. Most of the objects you see around you, like these chairs, are…

ADVANCES IN BRAIN SCIENCE ARE CALLING INTO QUESTION THE VOLITION BEHIND MANY CRIMINAL ACTS. A LEADING NEUROSCIENTIST DESCRIBES HOW THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR CRIMINAL-JUSTICE SYSTEM ARE BEGINNING TO CRUMBLE, AND PROPOSES A NEW WAY FORWARD FOR LAW AND ORDER. By David Eagleman ON THE STEAMY first day of August 1966, Charles Whitman took an elevator…

Quoted Reality as a failed state So maybe what we have today are not problems, but meta-problems. It is very useful to confirm our understanding with others, to meet with fellow humans – preferably face-to-face – strength flows from this. However, disquiet remains – no pre-catastrophic change of course seems in any way likely. What…

Next week.

A scene from dollhouse episode 6 – a ‘cinematic scientist guy‘ (with black board with interesting sciencey terms and images behind him) asks a poignant question – once ‘certain’ technologies reach the high water mark and flood into the empty valley that is the yet unchallenged human ‘sacred‘ – this notion we have some kind…

They took the effort answering one of my most awkward questions on live TV. The program was “kijker aan Z” … Notice one commentator verifiably squirming and sweating. How should Europe prepare if the US crashes like the Hindenburg? Starts at 4:30. Jay! My 17 seconds of fame for today. My full question was a…

Saudi Arabia has a lot of its people being paid off, in all kinds off government hand-outs. This is very expensive. To fund this the Saudi must sell oil at a fairly high price. There is a lot of anger in Saudi Arabia and to save off revolt the Saudi promise more and more to…

Right here 🙂

…A rather significantly lower population by the end of this century… However – if technology comes up with new sources of energy, widespread and cheap robotics that outcompetes human labor or (laugh) affordable life extension or rejuvenation, we enter the most difficult of dilemma’s.

The man who did this was a far right wing radical. He consistently calls himself a conservative. I watched the video and this is mostly the message of Geert Wilders, word by word. Note that this man was a Christian Fundamentalist. The idea of religion suffers another fatal blow in credibility this week. A man…

Let’s play a money game by changing the rules. Other than changing the rules and abrogating corporations to be recognized private persons, the rules of the game when it comes to money will be this: 1. States recognize all people holding a citizenship as voters in a democratic process where one person has one vote….

… the day incompetent and uncaring retards might drag our western civilization into the gutter of global crisis.

Go insolvent and do not repay. Plain and simple. What are they going to do? Go to war? Alas oil may become a little more difficult to purchase afterwards. But hey, no more foreign-held debt. And you are going there anyway – at some point you will have a debt of 15 or 20 trillion…

Let’s look at what we know. Most of the commercial-scale turbines installed today are 2 MW in size and cost roughly $3.5 Million installed. Wind turbines have significant economies of scale. Smaller farm or residential scale turbines cost less overall, but are more expensive per kilowatt of energy producing capacity. Wind turbines under 100 kilowatts…

UPWING A political movement that defines itself by being contrary to established leftwing (liberal/social democratic) versus rightwing (conservative/freemarket) values. The idea was formulated in part by FM2030, and comprises technological solutions and verifiable science over ideological assumptions. I hasten to add that in my interpretation of UPWING2011 the emphasis to cut the various Gordian knots…