-
“This list of unthinkable futures — probabilities we tend to dismiss without thinking — was published 15 years ago in the Summer, 1993 issue of Whole Earth Review. Our intent was less to correctly predict the future (thus the silliness) and more to pr
-
“More than 20 years ago a generation of schoolchildren sat down to complete a questionnaire they were told would predict their future… Their answers were fed into the Jiig-Cal computer, which filled an entire building at Edinburgh University and promise
-
“We would be better off having fewer academics and using the savings to fund more grants, because then more research could be done for the same national expenditure. Such action has to be taken by governments, as universities currently have the freedom to
-
“The goal of scientific excellence should trump nationalistic considerations.”
The Nature editorial of June 2008 praises the launch of the European Research Council (ERC) as an independent research council with a Europe-wide reach to distribute conside
Archive for June, 2008
links for 2008-06-21
Saturday, June 21st, 2008links for 2008-06-20
Friday, June 20th, 2008-
“What kind of society are we likely to get if it turns out that yes, we’re hitting peak oil round about now, but that it’s possible to process random junk biomass into crude oil for $100 a barrel, and $1000 will buy you a machine that you plug into your l
-
Stross interviewed by the Guardian: “I think that if there’s one key insight science can bring to fiction,” he says, “it’s that fiction - the study of the human condition - needs to broaden its definition of the human condition. Because the human conditio
-
“For as long as I’ve known the term, ubiquitous computing has been largely ignored, written off as a scifi pipedream from the people who promised you AI and cars that would run on water. That’s beginning to change, as hardware such as the Arduino and prog
-
Coverage of Prof. Jonathan Zitrain’s (MIT) anxiety over the future of the internet, on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme (17/06/08).
links for 2008-06-19
Thursday, June 19th, 2008-
“the Pentagon has started an ambitious and unusual program to recruit social scientists and direct the nation’s brainpower to combating security threats like the Chinese military, Iraq, terrorism and religious fundamentalism.”
links for 2008-06-18
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008-
“Would you trade Alzheimer’s for breast augmentation or a luxury cruise? With an ageing population and an overextended NHS, you may find yourself alone, geriatric and diseased in your home, discovering new forms of “Care in the Community”, ordering your
-
“there is a hierarchy in architectures of participation, with the most powerful literally building a system in which participation is automatic, and driven by the design of the system itself rather than any explicit request for user contribution… ubiqui
-
“The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland, and you can be part of it.”
