Archive for Mind Amplification
March 17, 2010 at 8:04 pm
· Filed under Augmented Reality, Mind Amplification, Music, Second Life, Social Networks
Exhorting the world to “start taking the internet seriously“, David Gelernter says:
No moment in technology history has ever been more exciting or dangerous than now. The Internet is like a new computer running a flashy, exciting demo. We have been entranced by this demo for fifteen years. But now it is time to get to work, and make the Internet do what we want it to.
…
Pushing the multi-mega-ton jumbo jet of human thought-style backwards a few inches, back in the direction of dream logic, might be the Internet’s greatest accomplishment. The best is yet to be.
Changing thought patterns can be hard but fortunately there’s help. One source is the solution to the riddle of experience vs memory as shown by David Kahneman and the Short Course In Thinking About Thinking looks very worthwhile as well. Alternatively, one can go into Second Life and as Dusan Writer describes very well
Consider a few of Gelernter’s calls to action and ideas, and then go read it yourself, and extrapolate your view of the Web’s future with what you’ve learned in a virtual world:
The Web, Drifting Into View
George Clinton would say “think, it ain’t illegal yet!” but George was about more than talking:
“Flash Light” is one of the all-time great dance songs, but that only begins to describe its brilliance. It starts with the solid but unobtrusive drumming of Bootsy, allowing the other instruments to stand out. It’s anchored by the shining guitar riff of Catfish Collins, one of the greatest examples of rhythm guitar ever. And it stars Bernie Worrell, who propels the song with an addictive bass-keyboard line while keeping us engaged on the high end with tasty synth explorations. The song on the surface sounds like a simple chant song, but one can hear the battle being raged between life and death here…can Starchild make Sir Nose dance? As depicted on the album cover, he shoots the Bop Gun at him, and Sir Nose must yield. `There’s nothing that the proper attitude won’t render funkable`, and so it happens. Openness overcomes fear, as `everyone’s got a little light under the sun.` And the `ha-da-da-dee-da da-da hava da da`, (based on a Jewish Bar Mitvah chant) is one of their most engaging chants.
This album seriously challenges Mothership Connection as P.Funk’s best overall album, taking previously established ideas to new and exciting levels. It proves that it is possible to create something popular that is still challenging, exciting and revelatory, both on the lyrical and musical levels. Try and find it on vinyl, because it included a comic book detailing Starchild’s battle with Sir Nose done by Overton Lloyd, as well as a huge poster.
http://www.duke.edu/~tmc/motherpage/albums_parliament/alb-funken.html
With a new web-enabled Second Life viewer, Avatar, Alice In Wonderland and the continuing wave of 3D movies, perhaps 2010 will be the year we make contact with our virtual selves.
Permalink
October 20, 2007 at 2:44 pm
· Filed under Augmented Reality, Mind Amplification, People, Robots, Technology
The Vocal Joystick doesn’t rely primarily on speech recognition i.e. “move left” but rather continuous sounds to interact with computerized systems
The goal of this project is to develop a novel system that we call the Vocal Joystick (VJ). This device will enable individuals with motor impairments to use vocal parameters to control objects on a computer screen (buttons, sliders, etc.) and ultimately electro-mechanical instruments (e.g., robotic arms, wireless home automation devices).
The Vocal Joystick Homepage
There are some compelling videos on the site. I found it via a 60 Second Science podcast series produced by Scientific American. This series is an excellent and efficient way to expand one’s awareness of science regardless of your background – highly recommended.
Permalink
August 24, 2007 at 10:33 pm
· Filed under Augmented Reality, Metaverse, Mind Amplification, News, Services
In a fascinating video, researchers
use virtual reality to give volunteers an out of body experience.
Video – Breaking News Videos from CNN.com
However, I think there’s much more to this than discussed. One research describes an out of body experience she’d had where she was flying over the city. It’s one thing for the brain to do the geometric translation needed to create scene of a room from another perspective/camera, quite another to accurately render an aerial view of a city.
Permalink
August 16, 2007 at 1:18 am
· Filed under Augmented Reality, Metaverse, Mind Amplification, People, TVIR
Although not a new topic(more below), it’s timely given the emergence of the meshverse, that people are exploring scientific basis for our living inside a computer simulation. Via Futurismic, I came across a NY Times report that Dr. Bostrom, the director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford
assumes that technological advances could produce a computer with more processing power than all the brains in the world, and that advanced humans, or “posthumans,” could run “ancestor simulations” of their evolutionary history by creating virtual worlds inhabited by virtual people with fully developed virtual nervous systems. …
There would be no way for any of these ancestors to know for sure whether they were virtual or real, because the sights and feelings they’d experience would be indistinguishable. But since there would be so many more virtual ancestors, any individual could figure that the odds made it nearly certain that he or she was living in a virtual world.
NY Times: Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch
Also: How To Simulate The Universe
If we are living in a simulation, the ancient Egyptian text Coming Forth By Day sure reads like a how-to-exit manual written by someone who created ancestor simulations. There are two non-technical books by noted physicists that cover this topic of simulating the universe – The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead and The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes and Its Implications. The latter I highly recommend.
Permalink
July 31, 2007 at 1:14 am
· Filed under Mind Amplification, People, Science
Permalink
July 24, 2007 at 12:57 pm
· Filed under A Quick Link, Augmented Reality, Bionics, Mind Amplification
iLimb is an $18K prosthetic hand with realistic appearance and capabilities. Touch Bionics, the firm producing the iLimb says the i-LIMB Hand and patient interact in a symbiotic way. This is an example of how as other entries in the Meshverse Journal on Prosthetics have noted, a population of humans who aren’t strictly biological will emerge. Naturally, there are videos and bloggers commenting
“They tell you to try and think as if you have two hands,” McKillop told the Telegraph newspaper.
“It is a real learning curve, and every day it gets easier. I was amazed how much I could do within the first hour of trying it.”
National Geographic
“I can pick up a Styrofoam cup without crushing it,” said Sgt. Arredondo. “With my other myoelectric hand, I would really have to concentrate on how much pressure I was putting on the cup. The i-LIMB hand does things naturally. I can just grab the cup like a regular person.”
Gizmodo(lots of good pictures here)
The iLimb also boasts a range of different grips and configurations, and can rotate about the wrist axis. This allows a user to turn a key in a lock, pick up or manipulate objects between thumb and index or middle finger, or type (though only with the index finger). The extended index finger option is also useful for pointing, seemingly, and an “OK” sign is also achievable. There was no mention of any option to extend the middle finger alone or first two fingers simultaneously – which would seem an obvious necessity.
Touch also offers realistic skin coverings, making the iLimb appear much like a normal hand. They note, however, that this option isn’t universally popular. “Some patients, mainly military personnel, particularly love the robotic nature of the uncovered iLimb Hand and prefer not to wear it with a cosmesis glove,” says the company. This isn’t recommended, however, for practical reasons: but Touch has done its best for those wishing to show off their cyborg chic: “Because of the need to provide a grip surface and to protect the hand from dust and water, Touch Bionics has developed the iLimb Skin. This is a thin layer of semi-transparent material.”
Odd Culture(emphasis mine)
See also Man’s bionic limb moves by thought control
Permalink
July 16, 2007 at 4:49 pm
· Filed under Augmented Reality, Mind Amplification, People, TVIR, Things
Oscar Pistorius is a sprinter seeking to qualify for the 2008 Olympics. If he does he’ll be the first amputee to do so, but The International Association of Athletic Federations(IAAF) is trying to decide if his prosthetics provide an unfair advantage. Some folks feel that this is inherently discriminatory but I believe there is a real issue to explore although we may learn more from studying his mind than the prosthetics. An IAAF representative said
“We need to separate emotion from the science,” Davies said. “We all wish him well. The point here is what’s going to happen in 10 years? What happens if it continues to evolve?”
SI.com – More Sports – IAAF: Pistorius’ prosthetics may be advantage
Separation isn’t really the answer in my view, but we do need to understand it better. Previously, here in the MJ it was said that
People involved in the Open Prosthetics community see the convergence of biological and non-biological life as a necessity born of disabling disease or war, Transhumanists, see it as destiny, the natural evolution of intelligence, while various religious groups see it as a sign of the end times. Regardless of one’s perspective, an awareness of the issues involved in meshing with things will help the difficult dialog ahead. It’s much closer than most people think – are you ready move beyond a strictly biological physical existence?
Strictly Biological
The idea here that what the mind perceives as real is parallel to the Animatrix short story World Record. Oh yeah, TVIR time again 
Related Links
Wired March 2007 – Blade Runner(there’s a nice short video here)
The Sole of Africa
Permalink
June 29, 2007 at 10:51 am
· Filed under Augmented Reality, Mind Amplification, Nano, People
Potential Reality in Virtual Prosthetics reminded me that Supplier Source and iShop point in the direction of one of the breakthrough ideas predicted for this year by Harvard Business Review they called Personal Manufacturing Units(PMU). reBangs post also reminds us of the essential human elements(enlightened self interest at a minimum) we need to face regardless of whether someone is strictly biological
Imagine all the brilliant minds locked up in bodies that can’t express themselves. We shouldn’t be doing this for altruistic reasons, but because people who might need this sort of interface to effectively communicate with the world can potentially contribute so much to it.
When another Stephen Hawking is discovered using such technologies, hopefully the world will take some notice. So far we’re not doing a very good job noticing the one’s that don’t really require any technology; just tolerance, some compassion and an opportunity.
Permalink
Older Posts »
