consciousness
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‘Altered Carbon,’ Netflix’s answer to ‘Blade Runner,’ debuts in February
Looking for something to sate your Blade Runner appetite until this year's 2049 hits Blu-ray? Then take a look at the first trailer for Netflix's upcoming sci-fi serial Altered Carbon. The quick look has it all: grimy retro-futuristic flying cars, lots of rain, at least one trench coat and a neon-drenched market scene. As far as actual story goes, the series is based on Richard K. Morgan's books of the same name and follows protagonist Takeshi Kovacs as he investigates a murder. The twist? Human consciousness has been digitized and Kovacs was dead for a few centuries prior to being resurrected to take the case. Yeah.
'MindGamers' clip shows off the dangers of wireless neural networks
The upcoming science fiction film MindGamers has an intriguing hook: 1,000 audience members are going to wear cognitive headbands to monitor their brain activity during a screening. And when it's over, researchers will go over the results of the "mass mind state" they gathered. It's apparently the first time such a large-scale collection of mind activity has been attempted, and it could potentially lead to new insights around human cognition. If you're in Los Angeles or New York City on March 28th, you can sign up to wear a headband on the film's site. You can also grab a ticket to watch the experience live in other locations via Fathom Events.
Scientists think this is where your consciousness lives
You're reading this right now. Yes, sure, your eyes are converting incoming photons into electrical impulses which travel up the optic nerve into your visual cortex, which in turn processes that information into coherent thought. But you -- the active consciousness that constitutes your personality-- are reading this. And now a team of Harvard scientists think they've figured out how that works.
We don't understand AI because we don't understand intelligence
Artificial intelligence prophets including Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Raymond Kurzweil predict that by the year 2030 machines will develop consciousness through the application of human intelligence. This will lead to a variety of benign, neutral and terrifying outcomes. For example, Musk, Hawking and dozens of other researchers signed a petition in January 2015 that claimed AI-driven machines could lead to "the eradication of disease and poverty" in the near future. This is, clearly, a benign outcome. And then there's the neutral result: Kurzweil, who popularized the idea of the technological singularity, believes that by the 2030s people will be able to upload their minds, melding man with machine. On the terrifying side of things, Musk envisions a future where humans will essentially be house cats to our software-based overlords, while Kurzweil takes it a step further, suggesting that humans will essentially be eradicated in favor of intelligent machines.
'Ex Machina' director embraces the rise of superintelligent AI
Alex Garland is no stranger to science fiction. As the writer of 28 Days Later and Sunshine, he's given us his own unique spin on the zombie apocalypse and a last-ditch effort to save the Earth (by nuking the sun!). Now, with his directorial debut, Ex Machina, Garland is taking on artificial intelligence -- and in the process, he shows the limits of the Turing test, the most common method for determining if something is truly sentient. The film centers on a young programmer who's sent to his genius CEO's isolated compound to test his latest invention: an artificially intelligent robot. Things, as you can imagine, don't go as planned.
Public diplomacy through jazz in Second Life
In the days of Second Life Insider, before becoming Massviely, we had already reported on USC microcontinent and Annenberg Island, home of the USC Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School in Second Life. We had also reported on the arrival of the MacArthur Foundation and their desire to understand virtual worlds and support activities that support their main aims that happen to operate within this environment.Eureka Dejavu, also known as Rita J. King, is one of those exploring Second Life for the MacArthur Foundation, and as part of her work she attended Black Watch, a play and discussion about morality and violence, and the Virtual Jazz Festival hosted by the US State Department on Annenberg Island. Obviously rather different in style as well as location, but both fostering the ideals of peaceful cultural exchange rather than an exchange of bullets. Her piece makes for a good read of itself, and her blog is well worth a look as it presents a view on Second Life as a tool for developing consciousness and morality.
Japanese hardware sales, 30 October - 5 November: Stream-of-consciousness edition
Without further ado, I present the inner workings of my iron-clad genius:well yet another week of hardware sales, I wonder if my post will beat ludwig's, I dunno, we were talking about it earlier and his idea was good as hell, but of course i'd never admit it, damn south africans. when do they even get the wii? i guess probably not for awhile, sucks to be him, but he DID order phoenix wright 2, i wonder if he got it yet, i wanna wait for the american version because of all the typos in the game, why do those bother me so much, oh well, ive plenty of play, guitar hero 2 hasn't even left my tv screen in like days, my roommates are out there right now playing tonight i'm gonna rock you tonight, i really like that song, but man freebird is just too cool, i need to practice it...oh, and not to mention final fantasy 12, or okami which i still havent beaten, or tales of the abyss which I havent even OPENED, or final fantasy V advance, and FFIII in a few days, and yoshi's island 2 and oh yeah those four more games i'm picking up for the wii (twilight princess is 70+ hours?) DAMN YOU VIDEO GAMES my grades are spiraling out of control...well, not really, i got a 97 on my digital design test, take THAT schwartz, wait no one wants to hear about my academic life, well whatever. hell YES battlestar tonight, though i have to set the torrent for it since i'm going to an mc chris concert, which means i better finish this damn post and get on with it. peace out.- DS Lite: 113,09745,584 (28.73%) - PSP: 23,725 2,183 (8.43%) - PS2: 21,832 850 (3.89%) - Xbox 360: 6,580 5,015 (320.45%) - GBA SP: 1,443415 (22.34%) - Game Boy Micro: 1,299 52 (3.85%) - Gamecube: 6473 (0.47%) - DS Phat: 373259 (227.19%) - GBA: 205 (33.3%) - Xbox: 07 (100.00%)[Source: Media Create]
