Visions of the Future: The Biotech Revolution

Part 2 of this BBC doc. This is a look at how just in recent years, man has finally really started to see the big picture of genetics and how our bodies function. Huge strides towards almost unimaginable medical treatments are becoming a reality.

Visions of the Future: The Intellgence Revolution

Here's a sweet documentary about some of the things we are heading towards. This section discusses our mastery over computing and coming to terms with our abilities to mimic reality. From virtual worlds to Robotics...here it is.

Robotic Warfare: A Fucking Conundrum.

Modernity has presented humanity with a plethora of innovations that have provided fruitful economic drivers along side increasingly more frequent paradigm shifts in the human knowledge-base.  It's been observed frequently that when the military complex adopts a new technology, it’s a matter of time before these innovation trickle down to the masses.  We’ve seen this with microwave technology and computer networking just to cite relatable examples. In this year of 2010  we are now well on the way into the new robotic age. Companies like iRobot and their ever popular Roomba, being a shining example.

Prior to this era, robotics were implemented to replace the menial grunt work of the common assembly worker. These machines were designed to perform a single function repeatedly.  This new age that we have entered into, for good or for ill has seen the sophistication and finessing of robotics within the all facets of their utility.  In an effort to gain a strategic advantage in the current theatres of war, unmanned drones are becoming an increasingly attractive option, particular within the American forces.It keeps boots off the ground and enables a free and remote range of motion.Currently America employs approximately 5000 robots in Afghanistan, 1200 of which are unmanned air vehicles or UAVs like the predator drone.

This new brand of warfare presents huge moral grey area and list of very serious problems.   First lets explore the conundrum of the “Cubicle Warrior”.  The American predator drone is a remotely controlled unmanned air vehicle. It’s capable of prolonged surveillance and also equipped with two hellfire missiles.  This machine is operated remotely by a specially trained solder in a safe faraway location.  The problem presented with this model of combat is the total depersonalization of combatants. The UAV operator need not fear injury or death, while being fully capable of imparting those very things.  When damage is inflicted the operator does witness the carnage with their own eyes, but through a digital representation.  The operator also may pass off control of their UAV unit to another operator, then go get a coffee and take a cigarette break. The operator can end their shift, drive back their homes and spend an evening in the comfort of their family and their home.  The combatants on the other side of the coin are faced with an enemy that does not sleep, feel pain or know fear.  This very fact in its self could act as a rallying call to escalate their cause, to rally against what they would perceive as their technologically endowed but cowardly enemy.    

Another major issue with this problem is the fact that eventually once the technology has become less expensive and available, private interests and individual persons could use this technology for their own aims abroad or within their own state.   When a machine is used to commit a warcrime,  who does the hammer of justice fall down upon?  The machine without will of its own or an unknown operator who is secluded in another country outside of  the jurisdiction of their accuser? Does the operator suffer the consequence, or their superior sitting in an office issuing orders?  What happens when  the technology  becomes sophisticated enough to achieve autonomy and acts seemingly on its own accord? These questions currently do not have answers, and this scenario is not 10 years away, this is happening now in 2010. 

We have international laws to dictate rules of engagement, but these rules currently do not have any way to define these problems.  These laws, such as the Geneva convention are still reflecting a cold war age, before Moore's law acceleration has surpassed our common sense.

Video Game Haikus

Haikus are weird man.  Try to guess which game each Haiku is from. (It's pretty fucking easy)


1.
Goomba Approaches
Dude moves only in straight lines.
Bitch is gonna get stomped.

2. 
Level 9, Hight 5
Only for the strong hearted
Z blocks are the worst

3.
Mad Ape pearched attop.
Throwing barrels like a champ
The kong must fall

4. 
Eight bosses to kill
Weak white pellets fire away
Go Blue Bomber go!

5.
Mini-games are dumb
red and blue dots cover the board
I will steal your stars.

Back in black

I've been all working my butt off and on magical journeys. I will be updating this for reals again and maybe even elaborate.

I know. I'm a monster.

Toronto is Grafitti town (the good kind)

I'm not going to pretend to have any real insight into Toronto's grafitti culture, but I sure as hell can enjoy what I see.There some pretty incredible stuff in this city, Queen St west, the High Park area (along the TTC tracks) and the Adult Learning Centre at Castle Frank is covered in some great stuff! Even during the last Nuite Blanche festival the art show really encouraged our local grafitti artists.  Personally I think grafitti can really make a city beauitiful as long it's not just some trashy gang tags.

This is my current fav. I keep seeing these cute little birds everywhere and they cheer me up on the weary shuffle to the office every day!

If you have any grafitti you love and want me to post it, send a message to me at 

http://www.facebook.com/kev.bot.awesome and I'll arrange something!

WOOT!

Talkin' bout da future -or- Technological Singluarity for Dummies

For whatever reason over the last couple months I find myself obsessed the future.  Both short term and long term and not necessarily my own future.  I catch my thoughts drifting off thinking about the physical and biological limits of human beings and our seemingly uncanny ability to shatter those limits.


Here are of few of those limits
No claws? Psssft whatevs I'll make spear and it's going to be awesome.
No Wings?  No worries, ma homeboys O-Dub and Wil-Slice Wright gots some flying contraption up in there.
That moon thing? Been there, I'm pretty over it.
Communicating to everyone anytime? Yeah I twitter on the iphone when I poop.

Besides the limitations of our biology the human brain is this amazing product of nature, which seems to be driven towards constant self-improvement.  Every year new incredible world records are broken and we seem to push the bar further. Every year the quarks and stars make more sense to us.  What allot of people don't understand is that these things aren’t just happening gradually overtime, but in some cases, these changes that are happening exponentially. Quicker and more frequent.

Soooo blah blah fucking blah, I've been reading up on stuff like this allot recently. Anyway I've stumbled upon the work of Ray Kurzweil. (Which makes perfect sense.) This dude is an inventor and a futurist who is very much involved in the study of progress.  You maybe remember him from such inventions as "text to speech" and "speech recognition". He's also Google and Microsoft's goto guy for opinions on whether or not their products are good for mankind.  Anyways his work is making allot of waves and one of his most interesting concepts is something which could affect my generation within our lifetime.  Technological Singularity.

"So what the fuck is techmo-gumbeldy goo or what ever the fuck u just said?"

Technological Singularity is more or less the sum total of progress as we know it.  We need to start with the some of the first inventions/discoveries like fire, simple stone tools,  cooking and farming.  These innovations were hundreds to thousands of years apart from each other.  With each successful innovation, the next innovation is discovered much closer than the previous.  These changes in thought are called paradigm shifts, this is shit like finding out we orbit the sun, that the earth is round and matter is made of quarks and atoms.
We are coming to a point in our near future where technology will advance to a point where these changes in common sense will happen on a daily basis and beyond. 

WTF?? Yeah that’s allot to process. It seems pretty far fetched, but there are some pretty simple trends and numbers behind it.  Moore's Law is a good jump off point.  Gordon Moore is one of the father of Intel circa 1968 and surmised that every two years the amount of transistors on an integrated circuit would double.

Hence a doubling in computer power every 2 years. So bro has kicked ass and it's been true so far.  Computers get exponentially more powerful. Current computers will max out their capacity by 2020, but with developments of quantum computers and DNA computers, there really is no true limit. Even now I can jump on my blackberry, send a pic of my drunk self at bar to my cousin in Texas within seconds.  During the 2010 Gold medal hockey game Canadians were all connected by web, phone and television within .5 seconds of each goal or drunk text. 

This is just the beginning as we speak; energy companies trying to harness fusion, nano- machines which we will combine to our biology are being produced, new kinds of computers are being designed and low-earth orbit solar energy plants are being discussed. I'm really going to cut this all here as I could ramble on about this shit much longer, but take it or leave it, the future is going render our world so connected and different.  It's going to be a Brave New World please make sure you are wearing pants when it arrives.

Adverb pre-fixed video game reviews.

You'll see what I mean,
*I am fully aware that some of these may not be actual words*

Left 4 Dead 2

Zombiely Vindicated, brains asplode with friends online!
- 4 out of 7 Goddamns


Assassins Creed
Stabily delicious but gets boring quick.
- Π out of 7 Goddamns

New Super Mario Brothers Wii
Frustratingly Awesome, turn parties into screamin
- 5out of 7 Goddamns

Bayonetta
Sexily carpal tunnel inducing, main story not meant for human comprehension.
- 6 out of 7 Goddams.

Raisins are stupid.

The purported food item know simply as "The Raisin" is both evil and stupid, making foods that could have been delicious terrible since antiquity.

There are many many reason why I have concluded raisins to be craptacular.

Here’s why!

10. They’re all shrivelled and wrinkled like.
9. They used to be once delicious grapes and some jerk left them sitting out in the sun by accident and decided "Yeah I guess it's still food."
8. They clearly were not awesome enough grapes to be turned into wine.
7. The texture is nasty
6. They do not have brains and are therefore stupid.
5. They crap-up whatever food they are hiding in.
4. THEY HIDE and wait for you to bite them and ruin your food you previously thought to be delicious.
3. They are the devil's candy. Satan, Bill O’ Reilly and Professor Doom all teamed up in the 1800’s with a plan to kill humanity. This plan was know as “PROJECT DOOM RAISIN”
2. "Raisins range from about 67% to 72% sugars by weight(1)", which means they are trying to kill me with their freaking fructose.
1. They watch you sleep, they watch and they wait...



(1.) Albert Julius Winkler. General viticulture, University of California Press, 1962, p. 645. ISBN 9780520025912

The black pools at the back of your mind

I could stare there for a million years,

I'd never really comprehend the neurons there.

You could love, laugh, snicker, giggle and fade, but at the back your face I see these pools of black.
You smile and cry, you laugh and suffer. Regardless of where you find yourself I find myself in the deep end your black pools.

I struggle how to understand how you even comprehend me let alone yourself. Yet we always find ourselves still swimming in the same end.

You swim in the same end, we’ll play pretty and play house, we’ll play nice and play mad. We’ll play cute and sad.

All the colours of the world paint our canvas, but our brush stops short at the back of your mind. There is no colour to describe where we met half-way or where we met our maker. These words are stupid and pretty and maybe don’t compute.

Maybe we could smoke some cigarettes and listen to the Smiths in your car or just stare at each other for awhile.

We'll never get each other completely but for god sakes you drive me crazy. I'll over analyze everything to death, but I want you to analyze me to death, let’s make out and sleep in tomorrow.  

Just tomorrow promise me I can look into the black pools and hope to see something that makes sense to us both.


We’ll get up late and pay too much for breakfast, but it will be great.