Greenflame
Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand
Category: Science & Technology
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Attitudes towards technology include techno-optimism (the good features outweigh the bad), techno-pessimism (the bad features always outweigh the good), and instrumentalism (where technology might be value-neutral). Here’s an interesting mini-essay that picks up on the first of these attitudes – techno-optimism. See: The Technium: Technophilia
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Excellent. I’m all for different ways of getting people to think about things and this looks interesting: How Comics Can Save Us From Scientific Ignorance Related links: Greenflame · Action Philosophers!
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Article this week on ‘reborn babies’ – very lifelike dolls – sold to people primarily for collecting but also purchased by people like grieving parents. See ‘Reborn babies’ niche for collectors, grieving parents – Stuff.co.nz. I’m wondering if the revulsion some people feel towards them is part of the ‘uncanny valley’ response to human simulcra…
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When I can get a moment on the PC at home I’ll download and have a play with WorldWide Telescope. Looks interesting, but I need the PC to run it – no Mac version. And I’ll get around to looking at Google Sky too.
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When I was at high school I used to make regular trips into Wellington’s Carter Observatory to attend astronomical society meetings, so I was sad to see this article today noting the loss of jobs and national status there. Many good memories of heading up the cable car to the observatory and planetarium at the…
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A couple of books on the go at the moment that I borrowed from the library after seeing them on a couple of blogs. Firstly, A Case Of Conscience by James Blish, which is centred around a Jesuit biologists struggle with finding the perfect, moral alien society that doesn’t have any understanding of God. In…
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A couple of links came to my attention this week. Firstly, the Singularity Institute have started a blog to promote ideas about the technological singularity (Greenflame » Pondering the Singularity (Again)), and at the same time I came across the bioethics podcasts from The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity. Both have interesting material on…
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Interview with Rodney Brooks, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab on where he thinks robotics will go in the future. See Sizing up the coming robotics revolution | Newsmakers | CNET News.com.
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In another of those areas where traditional boundaries become contested, scientists are working on developing a synthetic blood substitute for medical emergencies. (BBC NEWS | UK | England | North Yorkshire | Scientists create ‘plastic’ blood) I wonder how this ‘blood’ will be considered by those communities that attach a special significance to human blood.
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Technology Review: The World’s First Powered Ankle has an article on a new prosthetic ankle that functions in such a way as to add energy to walking, helping to reduce the effort required to use the prosthesis. See also: MIT’s Robo Sapiens page and Greenflame » Robot avatars and other such things.