From the four corners of the web:
- The Next Hacking Frontier: Your Brain? | Wired Science
Hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that someday, they'll try to take over your brain. - What's your place in the brave new future? - Times Online
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, it was easy enough to track down Paul Saffo, Silicon Valley's favourite futurologist. He suggested a restaurant in leafy Burlingame, a plush little town south of San Francisco. - Coming up next: The super-rich cyborg overclass - Salon.com
Is the next stage in human evolution a great leap forward for the wealthy? Maybe so, if we don't fix healthcare - Possible Link Between Autism And Oxytocin Gene Via Non-DNA Sequence Mutation
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have uncovered a new genetic signature that correlates strongly with autism and which doesn't involve changes to the DNA sequence itself. Rather, the changes are in the way the genes are turned on and off. The finding may suggest new approaches to diagnosis and treatment of autism. - A Catalogue of Extinct Experience: Renewing Our Disappearing Connections to Nature | Worldchanging
Our experiences shape our consciousness: who we are, who we become, the choices we make about how we spend our lives. But our range of experiences — from drinking from a clean, clear Sierra stream to beholding a star-filled night sky — is diminishing. With the disappearance of unmediated experiences in nature, the opportunity to know what it means to be human in the world is compromised and our awareness of the fundamental truth of the interdependent and interconnnected nature of our existence becomes more and more attenuated. This obscured perception has personal, social and global consequences. - Gwynne Dyer's Climate Wars: Now a Radio Series
The security dimensions of climate change provide the backdrop for Dyer's Climate Wars, an unflinching look at potential geopolitical consequences of rising seas and falling water and food supplies. The core text is interspersed with scenarios from the future about tensions evolving into conflicts. Reads near-apocalyptically in places, but gets realpolitik-oriented readers to take the climate issue seriously. - Do fish feel pain? | Slate Magazine
Here we go again. There is a new study out that contends fish feel pain. - 7 Secrets to Raising a Happy Child | Zen Habits
Nature and nurture are in a never ending battle to claim the disposition of our children. While it's true that the apple rarely tumbles too far from the tree, it is also true that there are a multitude of things we as parents can do to safeguard the childhoods of our children, limit their exposure to the more damaging elements the world will see fit to introduce in time, and do our best to raise a healthy and happy child. - The search for ET just got easier
Astronomers using the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) William Herschel Telescope (WHT) on La Palma have confirmed an effective way to search the atmospheres of planets for signs of life, vastly improving our chances of finding alien life outside our solar system. - The Technium: Infinite In Some Directions
Where are we headed? Where does technology want to go? We frequently evaluate a questionable practice by extrapolating it into the future. If a phenomenon continues as it has been, then where does it lead? Where does the daily use of antibiotics on farms get you in 100 years? Where does hourly use of cell phones for everyone get a society in 500 years? If the technium continues another thousand years as is, is it a world we want or not? Indeed can it even continue another 1000 years as is? - Want to Avoid Traffic Jams? Study Ants.
Solving the nation's transportation woes will take some big ideas, but it doesn't hurt to think "small" in this case. GOOD magazine picked the brain of Audrey Dussutour, whose countless hours of ant-studying (and even sabotaging) taught her that the tiny travelers are über-skilled when it comes to avoiding traffic jams. - Andart: Is the biosphere unsustainable?
Peter Ward's The Medea Hypotehsis is interesting, disturbing and a bit annoying. Most of all, it is an antidote to naive Gaianism. Ward argues that the Earth's biosphere is not a self-regulating, self-improving or self-preserving Gaia but something more sinister: a system prone to crashes, declines and a lifespan shortened by its own activity. - The unromantic truth about why we kiss - to spread germs | Mail Online
It is an international symbol of love and romance. But the kiss may have evolved for reasons that are far more practical - and less alluring. British scientists believe it developed to spread germs. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1224249/The-unromantic-truth-kiss--spread-germs. - NASA to Start Irradiating Monkeys | Discovery News
NASA is stepping up its space radiation studies with a round of experiments that for the first time in decades will use monkeys as subjects.
- Neurodiversity vs. Cognitive Liberty [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Link dump: 2009.10.13 [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Limits to the biolibertarian impulse [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Link dump: 2009.10.15 [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Neurodiversity vs. Cognitive Liberty, Round II [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Link dump: 2009.10.17 [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Cognitive liberty and right to one's mind [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- TED Talks: Henry Markram builds a brain in a supercomputer [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- And Now, for Something Completely Different: Doomsday! [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Link dump: 2009.10.19 [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Oklahoma and abortion - some fittingly harsh reflections [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Pigliucci on science and the scope of skeptical inquiry [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Remembering Mac Tonnies [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Link dump: 2009.10.24 [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Link dump: 2009.10.26 [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- The Bright Side of Nuclear Armament [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Grieving chimps [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Elephant prosthetic [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Mass produced artificial skin to replace animal testing [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Dog gets osseointegrated prosthetic [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Shuttle-derived Sidemount Heavy Launch Vehicle Concept [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Link dump for 2009.11.04 [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Link dump for 2009.11.05 [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- IEET's Biopolitics of Popular Culture Seminar [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Einstein and Millikan should have done a Kurzweil [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Affective Death Spirals [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Cure aging or give a small number of disabled people jobs as janitors? [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Would unary notation prevent scope insensitivity? [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Cure aging or give a small number of disabled people jobs as janitors - unary version. [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- At SENS4, Cambridge, UK [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- SENS4 overview and review - how evolution complicates SENS, and why we must try harder [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- SENS4 top 10 photos [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- My AI research for this year [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- My AI research: Formal Logic [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- My AI research: Category theory and institution theory [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- My AI research: The Semantic Web [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- My AI research: Features and Flaws of Logical representation [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- My AI research: Graphical models and probabilistic logics [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Hughes and More engage Italian Catholicism: Image caption competition [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Surprisingly good solutions, falling in love and life in a materialistic universe [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- What do you get when you cross slightly evolved, status seeking monkeys with the scientific method? [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Seeking the optimal philanthropic strategy: Global Warming or AI risk? [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Machine Learning - harbinger of the future of AI? [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- At the Singularity Summit in NYC [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Katja Grace: world-dominating superintelligence is "unlikely" [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Normal Human Heroes on "Nightmare futures" [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Anissimov on Intelligence Enhancement [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Yudkowsky on "Value is fragile" [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Response to Pearce [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Creative thinking lets you believe whatever you want [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Let’s get metaphysical: How our ongoing existence could appear increasingly absurd [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Linda MacDonald Glenn guest blogging in November and December [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Link dump for 2009.11.15 [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Call 1-800-New-Organ, by 2020? [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- IBM's claim to have simulated a cat's brain grossly overstated [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- John Hodgman pulls off Fermi Paradox schtick [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Deus Sex Machina [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- How Americans spent themselves into ruin... but saved the world [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- I am my own grandpa (or grandma)? [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Link dump for 2009.11.29 [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- The art of Tomas Saraceno [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Link dump: 2009.12.05 [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- The Harmonic Convergence of Science, Sight, & Sound [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Working on my website [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Transhumanism, personal immortality and the prospect of technologically enabled utopia [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- RokoMijic.com is up [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Why the Fuss About Intelligence? [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Initiation ceremony [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Birthing Gods [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- 11 core rationalist skills - from LessWrong [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- The best of the guests [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- The best of Sentient Developments: 2009 [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Link dump: 2009.12.15 [Last Updated On: December 15th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 15th, 2009]
- The Utopia Force [Last Updated On: December 22nd, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 22nd, 2009]
- Avatar: The good, the bad and ugly [Last Updated On: December 23rd, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 23rd, 2009]
- Singularity Institute launches "2010 Singularity Research Challenge" [Last Updated On: December 24th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 24th, 2009]
- Transhumanism as a "nonissue" [Last Updated On: December 24th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 24th, 2009]
- Hanson on "Meh, Transhumanism" [Last Updated On: December 25th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 25th, 2009]
- Merry Newtonmas from Transhuman Goodness [Last Updated On: December 25th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 25th, 2009]
- After proud knowledge [Last Updated On: December 26th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 26th, 2009]