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Explaining the magic of consciousness with one word

Dennett argues that the 'hard problem' is a red herring - the whole question of how conscious first person experience arises from the biological function of the brain assumes that consciousness is a single thing that needs explaining. He suggests that there isn't a single thing that is consciousness, just a collection of mental components, but the fact we've named it as a single thing fools us. In his article Explaining the "Magic" of Consciousness, he gives a great analogy of how the use of the word 'the' was used in a card trick to make it seem completely mysterious even to fellow professional magicians. Article continues here. via Mind Hackers

Filed under  //   asides   consciousness   word  
Posted July 30, 2008
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Google and the power of words

The dominance of Google is radically changing written language on the internet - through their search engine and advertising programmes such as AdSense they are homogenising the meanings of words. This provides a strong impetus for newspapers to ignore whatever editorial ethics they had left in their desperate rush towards the money from online advertising. Article continues here. via (s)word | The LoveHowlMuse Blog

Filed under  //   asides   business   technology   word  
Posted July 30, 2008
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A new type of artist arises

"A new type of artist arises: someone whose task is to gather together existing but overlooked pieces of amateur art, and, by directing attention onto them, to make them important. (This is part of a much larger theory of mine about the new role of curatorship, the big job of the next century.)" - Brian Eno via Kevin Kelly

Filed under  //   art   asides   inverted commas  
Posted July 6, 2008
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Unthinkable Futures by Kevin Kelly and Brian Eno

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 predict how unpredictable the actual future would be.  (via Kevin Kelly | Brian Eno)

Filed under  //   art   asides   music  
Posted July 6, 2008
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The Future of Making

The IFTF recently released an interesting “future map” called “Future of Making Map: “Two future forces, one mostly social, one mostly technological, are intersecting to transform how goods, services, and experiences—the “stuff” of our world—will be designed, manufactured, and distributed over the next decade. An emerging do-it-yourself culture of “makers” is boldly voiding warranties to tweak, hack, and customize the products they buy. And what they can’t purchase, they build from scratch. Meanwhile, flexible manufacturing technologies on the horizon will change fabrication from massive and centralized to lightweight and ad hoc. These trends sit atop a platform of grassroots economics—new market structures developing online that embody a shift from stores and sales to communities and connections.“ via Liftlab View a pdf of the map here.

Filed under  //   asides   business   technology  
Posted July 6, 2008
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Through the Looking Glass Chess Set

In ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’ by Lewis Carroll, Alice falls through a mirror and on the other side of the mirror, she becomes a piece in a game of chess. Inspired by this, the chess pieces have an opaque mirror finish, when they touch the surface of the board they magically turn transparent and reveal the identity of the piece contained inside them. When removed from the board they revert to being opaque, hiding the identity of the piece. This is a comment on how a chess piece has no value unless it is in play on the board. If removed from the board, a pawn and a queen are equal, in that neither have any value.
A Chess Set inspired by the novel 'Alice through the Looking Glass' where the pieces magically turn transparent when they touch the board.
The theme of 'Alice through the Looking Glass' is the difference between the real world and the world behind the mirror. In keeping with this theme there is a contrast between the unlit mirrored piece and the clear glass piece. Each unlit mirrored piece is a smooth and modern shape. Each lit piece is clear glass, with the negative shape of a traditional, delicate Staunton chess piece enclosed within it. In the book the White Knight talks about how he thinks better when he is upside down. In a reference, the White Knights in the set only work when they are placed upside down. This joke is hidden to all but those who know the background of the chess set The Chessboard is made out of LightPoints a material manufactured by Schott, which is glass that has LED's embedded in it; the pieces are coated with Mirona, a Material that turns transparent when light shines through it. When the piece is placed on the board it completes the circuit and lights up the LED under it turning it transparent, like magic. This product was designed by Yasmin Sethi in response to a brief set by Schott UK Ltd. for Final year students of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. via Yasmin Sethi Design

Filed under  //   asides   games   literature  
Posted July 2, 2008
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The Telectroscope

Yesterday a giant drill bit broke through the surface in London near the Tower Bridge and a similar one appeared in Dumbo, Brooklyn near The Brooklyn Bridge. This was a sign that Paul St George is very close to completing work on an amazing project started by his great-grandfather Alexander Stanhope St George, The Telectroscope, which will be installed at both ends of a transatlantic viewing tunnel between London and New York, allowing people to see each other in the two cities. Visit The Telectroscope website for more info and their blog for the latest updates. via Laughing Squid

Filed under  //   asides  
Posted May 21, 2008
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Ah, Freedom

In all of these cases, U.S. multinationals have offered the same defense: Cooperating with draconian demands to turn in customers and censor material is, unfortunately, the price of doing business in China. Some, like Google, have argued that despite having to limit access to the Internet, they are contributing to an overall increase of freedom in China. It's a story that glosses over the much larger scandal of what is actually taking place: Western investors stampeding into the country, possibly in violation of the law, with the sole purpose of helping the Communist Party spend billions of dollars building Police State 2.0. This isn't an unfortunate cost of doing business in China: It's the goal of doing business in China. "Come help us spy!" the Chinese government has said to the world. And the world's leading technology companies are eagerly answering the call. via Rolling Stone

Filed under  //   asides   politics  
Posted May 20, 2008
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My cranium is open source

Our mental privacy and cognitive liberty depend first and foremost on the difference of interconnectivity. Moreover, the very concept of the individual, as currently understood, depends on the difference in interconnectivity. Once this difference changes, i.e. internal states of the nervous system are becoming increasingly accessible, our very notion of privacy, privileged access, cognitive liberty and individuality should be reassessed. Bottom line is that in the future the very definition of individuality will probably be derived not from the arbitrary conditions of one’s biological makeup, but rather how one is connected and to what. via Spaceweaver | Space Collective

Filed under  //   asides   science   technology  
Posted May 16, 2008
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Shakespeare meets Tarantino

Pulp Fiction was a seminal film. Will Shakespeare was a seminal poet. Obviously it follows that the two should be mixed together, which is exactly what has been done at Pulp Bard. Forsooth, various anonymous contributors have translated Tarantino into iambic pentameter. via Times Online

Filed under  //   asides   film   poetry  
Posted May 15, 2008
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