Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Advancements in Argmageddon Speculation

Nick Bostrom, a British Academy Research Fellow at Oxford, has turned speculation about Armageddon into a modern blend of philosophy and science-fiction. First, Armageddon is no longer the proper word, and is replaced by "Existential Risks." Specifically, existential risks involve threats that affect the entire existence of humanity, such as nuclear winters or extermination by aliens. Other lesser risks excluded from this definition are endurable global risks, such as a plague that only wipes out half the human population.

Existential risks can be categorized into three categories:

Bangs - Rapid extinctions of the human race. ex: nuclear holocaust.

Freezes - The permanent stunting of humanity's growth. ex: the Taliban takes over the world and installs a permanent regime of backwards living; or a super-intelligent A.I. gains controls over all humans and the world's resources and stops its growth.

Whimper - A gradual withering of the human race. ex: our genetic evolution turns out to be regressive, and we become a less capable race.

Bostrom discusses the implications, potential policy suggestions, and arguments for taking this seriously. Click here for the full article on Existential Risks.

Nick Bostrom has also been developing a stir in science-fiction and philosophy communities by his prolific writings in transhumanism and research into the implications of the anthropic principle. A good example of a Bostrom paper that raises eyebrows is Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?
posted by Philip 1/18/2005 03:17:55 PM

Thursday, January 13, 2005

What various neurotransmitters do

Acetylcholine - first neurotransmitter discovered. Mediates muscle contraction, sweating and numerous other synapse actions.
Adrenaline - fight or flight hormone, gets the body revved up to go.
Dopamine - multi system regulation (heart, kidneys, brain, etc)
Endorphin - opiod like chemical produced in brain...makes you feel good.
Serotonin - modulates mood, sleep and emotion. Target for antidepressant meds.
Oxytocin - causes milk "drop down" in breast feeding and mediates the labor process
Histamine - causes the itching from an allergic reaction
Insulin - controls uptake of sugar from the blood. No insulin = diabetes.

Full Link
posted by Philip 1/13/2005 11:48:31 AM

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

History of Punctuation

We take for granted the benefits of punctuation. For more than a millenia, writing was in scriptio continua with NOCAPITALIZATIONNOSPACESNOCOMMASNOTHING. Only later, in medieval times, did innovations such as the space and the comma, get introduced. The History of Punctuation summarizes these and other factoids. For example, the exclamation point (!) is a capital I over an "o" from the Latin word io meaning "joy." The site goes on to explain punctuation nuances of foreign countries. For example, in France the cedilla (ç) indicates pronunciation like an "s," and in Japan and China, periods are marked with a small cirle.
posted by Philip 1/11/2005 11:27:03 AM

Friday, August 13, 2004

Be a torch-bearer

An inspiring read about productivity, successerata, entrepreneurship by Seth Godin.
posted by Philip 8/13/2004 01:59:31 AM

Learn Languages

This article makes me want to learn languages
posted by Philip 8/13/2004 01:36:23 AM

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

the wisdom of picking edwards

More clearly than any Democratic presidential nominee in 20 years, Kerry was chosen not to represent himself but to represent his party. And what Democrats wanted, as polls and crowds made clear, was Edwards—because they like him, and because they want to win.

That's the most important thing Kerry revealed today: He understands that the election is about more than what he wants. Sometimes the biggest thing you can do is to accept what's bigger than you.

READ MORE
posted by Philip 7/6/2004 06:09:38 PM

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Fahrenheit 9/11, Fair or unFair?

Newsweek has a few good qualms about facts in F9/11

Really guys, to be honest, F9/11 was emotionally appealing, but does not substitute for a face-to-face, solid, rational debate and discussions about issue. You shouldn't vote for Bush, and I'm glad this movie is out there to sway people to the correct position. But I'd be lying if I said that F9/11 was a rational argument.
posted by Philip 7/1/2004 11:10:23 PM

Thursday, June 03, 2004

Jon Stewart's touching post 9/11 monologue

Jon Stewart's "Are you all right?" monologue after the 9/11 attacks is a touching piece that has some important emotional soundbites re democracy v. chaos. (requires RealVideo)
posted by Philip 6/3/2004 08:40:54 AM

June is THE month

A lot of political pundits are saying that the months around June are the period when people form their final opinions about the candidates. This is going to be interesting because Bush's ratings are already low. What's next is the release of Farenheit 9/11 and the release of Clinton's 900+ page bio. There is of course, the handover of power to the Iraqi's, but I'm not sure how that will help the administration if it precipitates more violence. I'm also graduating from college. booyah.
posted by Philip 6/3/2004 08:34:37 AM

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Feral Children - isolated, confined wild and wolf children

Feral children, also known as wild children or wolf children, are children who've grown up with minimal human contact, or even none at all. They may have been raised by animals (often wolves) or somehow survived on their own. In some cases, children are confined and denied normal social interaction with other people.

Visit FeralChildren.com
posted by Philip 6/2/2004 10:23:56 PM

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