[10:23 AM] Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in Chicle | philipd:\>

Steve Martin - How I joined Mensa

Steve Martin - How I Joined Mensa

I started with the phone book. Looking up "mensa" was not going to be easy, what with having to follow the strict alphabetizing rules that are so common nowadays. I prefer a softer, more fuzzy alphabetizing scheme, one that allows the mind to float free and "happen" upon the word. There is pride in that. The dictionary is a perfect example of over-alphabetization, with its harsh rules and every little words neatly in place. It almost makes me never want to eat again.

[08:30 AM] Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in Ideas | philipd:\>

Stumbleupon.com as XML

BTW, StumbleUpon is great... it's like my revolver blogroll above on steroids (i.e. personalized and larger). I may get addicted to Stumblin' soon, I recommend you check it out. I was suggesting they provide a way to integrate my selected stumbles into my blogrolls or straight into my blog.

[08:28 AM] Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in Ideas | philipd:\>

Amazon and TrackBacks

Amazon should accept trackback pings.

[08:26 AM] Comments (0) | More in Me Me Me | philipd:\>

myLAR Update in sight? short-cut knowledge syndrome?

Where are the new posts about the law of accelerating returns? I had promised a daily-series of hacks that showed how something as complex as the eye could come about from "simple" evolution. I've either lost steam, or I've been really tired these past few days.

It could be the steam thing though. A similar situation happened to me when I went through Consciousness Explained... before reading that book, I was really curious about how consciousness worked... and wanted to answer questions like, "yeah, where exactly is the red when I see a red dress?" Thing is, I read about a quarter of the book and got a gist of the illumination process... like he provided some key metaphors that made it clear to me that it could be proved or described... and once I knew it was possible, or felt the mental gestalt that occured when the unknown and mysterious seemed attainable through more iterations of examples, I lost interest. I'm going through the same feeling with Linked. Like I read the first few chapters and got that "woah" feeling. But then as I went through, I thought, well, let me guess, everything's connected in an amazingly ridiculous ways and that power laws hold. Same with Godel Escher Bach.... it's like, "oh, let me guess, there is some sort of thing or trick within mathematics like infinite recursion or incompleteness from which you can gesture that consciousness arises out of it... all the while relating it to escher paintings and bach's complex compositions." It's like all I care about is the general feel. I do care about content, to some degree, but incompleteness doesn't bother me. As long as I understand the basic concept, get a few good anecdotes, and experience the author's unique style, then I'm done.

Danger, danger, danger... I'm either a pseudo-intellectual or have a high bar for novel content. I read the first four of the five books in The Gay Science (the 5th book he wrote many years after the first four, so I had a good excuse)... but I read that form beginning to end, everything he said was novel and exciting... not the same hat repeated.

Of course it sounds bad to go through this kind of process of incomplete books, and of course that's not how you were raised to do things (well, actually in high school I felt that was THE way, the only way in order to get by crappy courses, by skimming through for a gist). But just as they say, having read one book really well is better than reading many books poorly... why couldn't that "one book" be shortened to "a portion of a book." Plus, for three-quarters of a book I don't finish, I get free time to check out three other books I could dabble in.

I dunno, I just felt like washing my laundry here this morning.

[08:08 AM] Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in Art | philipd:\>

gfx art: Phoenix Nebula

Phoenix Neblua. Wake up and smell the light!

[01:28 AM] Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in Singularity | philipd:\>

From the Mundane to the Glorious

When I doubt the speed about which the Singularity could be upon us, I look at the ways that miracle dream-scenarios emerge out of the mundane.

Here are three examples of things that would let us know we're close or in the Singularity:
(1) Holodecks (2) Everybody has all knowledge (3) Everybody is happy

Hell, I bet we're a third or a quarter of the way there on all three it's just not obvious...

(1) Holodecks - Lucid dreaming is becoming more popular. As we learn more about how the brain works, we will be able to eventually induce lucid dreams instantly, thus giving people those virtual freedom spaces to do whatever they want.

(2) Everybody knows everything - Google is an example of where it's there. You call me up and ask me a question, by the time the conversation is over, I'll already have the answer... eventually that time will come down to almost instaneous or at least as fast as normal human recall

(3) Everybody is happy - Positive Psychology is just now getting off the ground. What if the science of happiness becomes really specific and concise that we could create a formula or system to follow that would lead people to happiness with a high probability. Such a device would very easily spread due to the Internet, and thus we could achieve that. Religion is an inefficient pre-cursor, but it does show the inklings of a framework: do good things, be altruistic, be grateful, etc.., and look how quickly that had infected people. Plus there's hope about eden scenarios that have emerged from certain ancient civilaztions that wisely harnessed the power of psychotropic substances like mushrooms. So we could become enlightened ourselves in that matter... i.e. if scientists can properly synthesize a bliss drug that didn't destroy us, or wouldn't contradict our need for work (although machines are making work less and less of a necessity, and more of just an information recycling hamster-wheel thing).