Monday, March 27, 2017

HOMO MACHINA




Ray Kurzweil says when we live in a cybernetic society we will have computers in our brains and machines will be smarter than human beings. 

He claims this is already happening with technology - especially with our addiction to our phones - and says the next step is to wire this technology into our brains.

Singularity is when carbon and silicon-based intelligence will merge to form a single global consciousness.

That leads to computers having human intelligence, our putting them inside our brains, connecting them to the cloud, expanding who we are.”   


Ray Kurzweil, Google's Director of Engineering

 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4319436/Singularity-create-super-humans-Google-expert-claims.html#ixzz4bWhQR2bT
 

Also:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4431314/Elon-Musk-mission-link-human-brains-computers-4-yrs-report.html






Expanding...


Who...

We are.


But who are we?

*

Forget about Charles Darwin, evolution, and Natural Selection.

Men are doing the selecting.
Men are determining evolution.

As Donald Trump likes to say, “It's going to be a beautiful thing.”

Or not.


*

The U.S. Congress needs to have computers in their brains.

They need to be put in the cloud.


So does Donald J. Trump.


ASAP.


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IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND BRAINS




*



CEREBRAL ORGANOIDS


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3825201/Brains-grown-OUTSIDE-human-body-Recipe-creating-working-organs-jar-revealed.html


The goal for many researchers is to develop a brain exactly like a human's.
But some researchers say this would be a step too far.
Dr Martin Coath, from the Cognition Institute at the University of Plymouth, questioned why anyone would ever want to create a 'real' human brain.
'A human brain that was 'fully working' would be conscious, have hopes, dreams, feel pain, and would ask questions about what we were doing to it,' he said.

'Something we have grown in the lab, but on a much simpler level than a human brain, might be hooked up to electronic eyes, ears, and hands and be taught to do something - maybe something that is as sophisticated as many simple living creatures.
'That doesn't seem so far off to me.'







Monday, March 13, 2017

CONFESSIONS






I confess that I do something that I'll call SLOW-MOTION MOUTH,
Or PAUSE THE MOUTH.

I pause my TV, and then move the image forward in slow-motion to see contortions on the mouths of persons speaking.
I know that it's an eccentric quirk.
I guess I should go get some therapy, or go to a rehab center.
In the meantime, I will continue to PAUSE THE MOUTH.

*

I like to make noise makers out of empty boxes.
Small boxes work best.
Like those small raisin boxes.
Celebrate!

*

I don't remember my last confession in a Catholic church.
On my next one I'll say, “Bless me father, I don't remember when I gave my last confession.”

*

As a young boy I searched trash barrels for peanut butter jars, then I ate what was left inside of them.
I know, gross.
I recently read that bacteria doesn't grow easily in peanut butter.
Lucky for me, or I might have died from food poisoning.

*

After I learned that Ernest Hemingway didn't wear underwear, I started doing the same.
I think it was only for a few months.
This occurred when I was living on a tropical island.
I also briefly stopped using commercial deodorants.
I know...
Ehhhh.

*

When I was living in my cottage at Chautauqua
Park, I took a cat down into the city, thinking it would be a better life for him.
I called him black spring.
(This was when I was reading a lot of Henry Miller.)
Anyway, he returned to my cottage after a week.
He had walked about two miles.
Black spring couldn't meow, but he sure had a good sense of smell, or at least a sense to find his way back to my back door.



IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND CONFESSIONS











Friday, March 03, 2017

THE HUMAN BRAIN SEAWEED AND ZIGZAGGING DINOSAUR VERTEBRA










Changing resources about 2.5-2 million years ago may have caused foraging behaviour to shift, leading early hominoids toward the coasts in search of food.



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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4268502/Sauropods-ZIGZAGGING-bones-support-long-necks.html




A side view of the 'zigzagging' sauropod vertebra from a species called Spinophorosaurus nigerensis. The zigzagging bones fit together like a puzzle piece to provide better grip to the bones so one part is not pulled off from the other.



Pictured is a 3D rendering of three Alamosaurus (sauropod's) moving as a herd alongside a tree line.




A 3-D rendering of a Diplodocus browsing a selection of trees with two Pteranodons flying overhead.


During one of my health-nut phases, I started to eat kelp.

This health-nut phase also included eating tons of baked potatoes, and drinking gallons of carrot juice.

I wasn't eating much meat or eggs.

I made a lot of cheese, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.
In fact, sandwiches were my mainstay.

Seaweed was added as an added ingredient to boost my health.
Or so I believed.
My seaweed diet didn't last that long.

It's news to me now that if humans had not eaten seaweed, we may not have become who (or what) we are.

And what have we become?

Technological Savages, of course.

Blame it on the seaweed.

*

I've always wondered how dinosaurs with very long necks could have walked and talked (well, not talked).

The mystery appears to have been solved:

Sauropod dinosaurs had long necks and reached up to 50 meters in length. 
  • They weighed as much as 77 tons - 14 times the weight of an African elephant
  • They had special 'zigzagging' bones that fit together like pieces of a puzzle
  • This distributed their body weight over a larger area reducing stress at one point
  • The special spinal structure allowed them to have long necks and heavy bodies

    They also had an escalator in their necks to help the food move down their long throats.
    Just kidding.
    IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES SEAWEED AND ZIGZAGGING  DINOSAUR VERTEBRA