Tuesday, June 04, 2013

CYBERNETIC IMMORTALITY





 


“…scientists are taking tiny, incremental steps toward melding humans and machine all the time. Ray Kurzweil, the futurist and now Google’s director of engineering, argued in “The Singularity Is Near,” a 2005 book, that technology is advancing exponentially and that ‘human life will be irreversibly transformed’  to the point that there will be no difference between ‘human and machine or between physical and virtual reality.’”



A little taste of this is happening right now before our eyes, and perhaps soon, inside of our minds.

3-D is not something new, but it is becoming more and more sophisticated, and like TV and RADIO, 3D will also become mainstream and commonplace.

Google glasses are only a first step in a tall staircase of wonders (or blunders?) to come.

Electronic Miniaturization is happening at lightning speed.

The trash heaps and recycle factories can’t keep up with it all.

*



“At the Swarm Lab, Peter Ledochowitsch, a researcher with a thick red beard, described a minimally invasive brain implant designed to read intentions from the surface of the brain. So far, the device has been implanted in an anesthetized rat; a prototype for alert animals is in the works. But eventually, he said, it would allow paralyzed people to communicate, or to control a robotic arm or a wheelchair. It could also allow you to start your car if you think, ‘Start my car.’”


I think, therefore I am?

No, I think, and it happens!

This reminds me of the alleged reports where one of the tribes of aliens can read our minds.

Yeah, sure.

*

“‘Look at this,’ he (Dmitry Itskov)  said, opening his laptop on the table and starting a slide show with one heartbreaking statistic after another: Almost one billion people are now starving. Forty-nine countries are currently involved in military conflict. Ten percent of people are disabled. And so on.”

“‘That is the picture of this world that we created, with the minds we have today, with our set of values, with our egotism, our selfishness, our aggression,’ he went on. ‘Most of the world is suffering. What we’re doing here does not look like the behavior of grown-ups. We’re killing the planet and killing ourselves.’”



Sounds like another Utopia chaser.

How long have philosophers moaned about how terrible we are as humans (monsters?)?

But has this moaning ever changed anything?

Prophets are always shot or hung.

El Diablo seems to have the upper hand.

*

“TO change that picture, he reasons, we must change our minds, or give them a chance to evolve,’ to use one of his favorite words. Before our minds can evolve, though, we need a new paradigm of what it means to be human. That requires a transition to a world where most people aren’t consumed by the basic questions of survival.”



But untold by Mr. Itskov are the processes and methods that will be used to change our minds, and the current La condition humaine and its destiny.

Is this “evolution” to be done through genetic and mechanical manipulation?

I need to bring up those creepy aliens once again, because there are some humans who claim that aliens (the good or bad ones?), have been tinkering with and manipulating humans for some time.

Who knows?
Maybe Dmitry Itskov is an example.
It's not just a movie anymore.

 

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, May 31, 2013

ASTEROID QE2


Nuking Dangerous Asteroids Might Be the Best Protection, Expert Says

Date: 29 May 2013 Time: 07:00 AM ET




*
 
White House, NASA want help hunting asteroids
 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/white-house-nasa-want-help-hunting-asteroids/2013/06/17/8de0fdcc-d765-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html?hpid=z3


http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/artscience/2013/07/the-end-of-the-world-might-just-look-like-this/




 Vredefort Crater, Free State Africa, world's largest impact structure, 118 miles radius: 2 billion years ago!

 
Chicxulub Crater, Yucatan Peninsula, 65 million years ago (The Dinosaur killer).
 



 






The earth is 3.6 million miles away from an asteroid that is about the size of the one that snuffed out Mr. and Mrs. Dinosaur and their little dinos.

And speaking about babies, asteroid 1998 QE2 has a little baby circling its own celestial body as it zips through space:

The giant asteroid set to pass by Earth this week has a companion moon, according to NASA. The huge rock, which is 1.7 (2.7 kilometers) miles wide, will be closest to Earth on Friday at 4:59 p.m. EDT, but still far too distant to pose any danger to the planet, according to space agency officials.

NASA scientists discovered the moon orbiting asteroid 1998 QE2 yesterday evening (May 29) while obtaining a series of radar images with the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California.

http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/nasa-asteroid-set-to-barely-miss-earth-has-its-own-moon/#ixzz2UsbuVddL
 
*

Sophisticated lasers and nuclear-tipped drones might someday have to disable an asteroid that is a lot closer to terra firma than 1998QE2.

The asteroid flyby is the latest for Earth. Already a number of massive asteroids have passed Earth, missing us by millions of miles. At least one of them, the asteroid that exploded over the Russian town of Chelyabinsk, was undetected until it entered Earth’s atmosphere. Since then, scientists around the world have called for increased funding for asteroid detection programs.

 
http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/nasa-asteroid-set-to-barely-miss-earth-has-its-own-moon/#ixzz2UtAUNLxh.

*

Earth is like a large, watery asteroid zipping through space with its own companion moon, just not a threat to other planets (yet), but certainly a menace to itself!

Happy trails!

 

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

 
 
 

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

IN THE NEWS







 


Soon to be eighty, Larry King is like the Energizer Bunny with suspenders.

He has a new talk show called 'Politics with Larry King', and this is in addition to 'Larry King Now' on ora.TV and Hulu.

‘Politics with Larry King’ is on RT, or Russia Today, that was started in 2005, and it will be the exclusive U.S. television broadcaster for both programs.
*
Justin Bieber might need to be quarantined and tranquilized.

At about 8 p.m. Monday, Bieber allegedly drove his white Ferrari at freeway speeds in what is a 25 mph zone, Los Angeles Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

[Justin Bieber investigated for reckless driving


By Tami Abdollah, Associated Press
 
*

But at least Mr. Bieber wasn’t having sex while he was speeding.

But 25-year-old Luis Briones was:


Drunken driver 'was having SEX while speeding and caused a crash that sent his naked lover flying out of the SUV' .

After being placed inside a police cruiser, officers say the 25-year-old refused to keep his pants on.


Morgan Freeman wasn’t falling asleep after all: 

'Regarding my recent interview, I wasn't actually sleeping.

'I'm a beta tester for Google Eyelids and I was merely taking the opportunity to update my Facebook page.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2331788/Morgan-Freeman-laugh-mocks-dozing-Jimmy-Fallons-audience.html#ixzz2UhpaFcYS


*

Here I am, blogging and blogging, but what I write may someday lose its Constitutional protection:

In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, senior Illinois Senator, Democrat Dick Durbin, expressed doubt as to whether bloggers deserve constitutional protection for their work online.
http://investmentwatchblog.com/senator-not-sure-if-bloggers-protected-by-first-amendment/#JlfGD3OalUm7Ul9s.99


Mr. Durbin certainly resembles his first name.


*

I have stood at the edge of the Earth's deepest ocean, and peered into its darksome depths, wondering what wonders existed down below.

Now, James Cameron, director of the movie Titanic, has gone there to take a look for himself.

Where is there?

The Mariana Trench:

Seven miles beneath the surface of the western Pacific, the Mariana Trench is deeper than Mount Everest is high.

Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330848/James-Cameron-relives-heart-stopping-descent-deepest-ocean-submersible-just-43-inches-wide.html#ixzz2Ui09u4Mh

Cameron’s experience will be published in the June issue of National Geographic magazine.

*

 

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

 

 

 




 

 

 






 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

BREASTFEEDING AND NEANDERTHALS


 

“I bet when neanderthal kids would make a snowman, someone would always end up saying, 'Don't forget the thick, heavy brows.' Then they would get all embarrassed because they remembered they had the big husky brows too, and they'd get mad and eat the snowman."

Jack Handy

 

Once more Neanderthals are in the news.

There should be a cable station called “Neanderthal News” or “Neanderthal Central”.

When my granddaughter saw me reading something titled “A Modern Stone Age Family? A Neanderthal’s Molar Suggests Early Weaning”, she said, “Ooh…weenies”.

I’m certain that she meant hot dogs, and not something else.

Nonetheless, I quickly explained what weaning meant, and that also produced a wailing ooh sound.

*

Do we really need to know how long Neanderthals breast-fed their babies?

Yes, we do.

And what did Neanderthals use for baby formula once breastfeeding stopped?

If we don’t find out everything there is to know about Neanderthals, then how will we ever know who we are?

We must know what they read, what they ate, where they went on vacation.

Alright, maybe not those things.

But we do need to know everything else there is to know about Neanderthals.

At least until time travel is invented, and we can visit them…

Then we will know for sure what they were like.

 

 

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

 


 

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

Sunday, May 19, 2013

ON KISSING


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Just the word kissing smacks of sweetness (or of something I can’t quite describe).

*

We all have done some kissing.

Some kissing was better than other kissing.

Sometimes the taste was good, sometimes bad, and sometimes terrible.

Sometimes when we kissed it felt awkward.

*

We have to learn to kiss.

Babies don’t automatically start kissing.

Of course, we don’t learn how to kiss in school.

We learn in the school of life.

*

Sometimes we speak to dogs as though they can kiss.

We say: “Come here rover, give me a kiss.”

But all we get is rover’s slobbery lick.

*

Eskimos use their noses to kiss.

Do they get fewer colds?

*

My memories of kissing are quite good.

I remember when I first kissed Kathy Marker.

We were in second grade.

We were inside a little dog house when we kissed.

It felt scary, wonderful, mysterious…and forbidden.

*

When I was in third grade I remember when large Mrs. Blackman picked me up and gave me a big, slobbery kiss. 

It was gross.

She was wearing some very dark lipstick.

The taste was the grossest part.

I still remember that taste.

*

My mom wasn’t a big kisser, and I’m grateful for that.

But my aunt Marilyn, boy, did she like to kiss.

 

*

 

Martha Doris and I kissed on a train all the way through the tunnel at Denver’s Lakeside Amusement park.

I think Martha wanted to go one more time, but I said that I was out of breath.

*

I kissed Mary Ann Meyers one time on Prom night.

The theme for the prom was noli me tangere:

 Touch me not.

Boy was I a puritan back then, and a Catholic to boot.

*

I wasn’t afraid of germs when I kissed.

The germs would just have to take a back seat, so to speak.

The kissing is what counted.

*

I kissed my first cousin Linda when we sat in the back seat behind her mom and mine at the outdoor drive-in theater.

The movie took a back seat to our kissing.

I think both moms knew, but they didn’t say anything to us.

*

Well, I’ll just kiss and say goodbye.

 

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!