Archive for February, 2008
Goodbye, Joystick—Hello, Joy…Head
February 20th, 2008
Well, the good ol’ Singularity is creepin’ closer with every day. Today, Direct Neural Interfacing–the Holy Grail of every cyberpunk geek since the day Gibson’s Neuromancer hit the world like a Terminator sent back in time by SKY_NET to ensure it’s creation–drew another step closer with Emotiv Systems Inc.’s announcement that later this year their EPOC neuroheadset (seen at left) will be available for $299.
Now, don’t get too excited yet. But definitely get excited because this a major step toward direct brain/computer interfacing. According to the company, “the headset can detect emotions such as anger, excitement and tension, as well as facial expressions and cognitive actions like pushing and pulling objects.”
It’s purpose? No, not porn. Video games.
The EPOC, you see, is being touted as the next-generation game controller. The EPOC
will be sold with a game developed by Emotiv, but it can also be made to work with existing PC games, the company said. Users will also be able to access an online portal to play more games, chat or upload their own content such as music or photos.
That’s pretty fresh–but here’s where things really get neat:
Emotiv plans to work with IBM Corp. to explore applications beyond video gaming. The “brain computer interface” technology could transform not only gaming, but how humans and computers interact, said Paul Ledak, vice president of IBM’s Digital Convergence business. [Emphasis added.]
I’ve been a transhumanist since I first started reading science-fiction and began to ponder bioengineering and the destiny of the Human Species, and I’ve been Singularitarian ever since I read Ray Kurzweil’s The Age of Spiritual Machines back in 2000. However, I’m not one of those Singularitarians who believe that the Rapture of the Nerds is something implicit in the nature of technological evolution, anymore than I believe that Tipler’s/deChardin’s Omega Point Entity is implicit in physics. Technological evolution may be advancing exponentially toward a Singularity-like point in the near future (that is, anytime between 20 and 100 years from today), but something must be actively driving that evolution. Something must be inspiring people to dream the dreams and design the next-gen technologies that keep the Curve rising ever more sharply.
Of course, that “something” is a composite of a wide variety of societal factors–but the most important factor is, has been, and, I believe, always shall be economics. The Allmighty Dollar. Why design a more powerful computer every 12 to 18 months? Why, to beat your competitor and make a buck from a public whose appetite for technological gadgetry to make life easier or more fun grows every year? The obvious feedback loop that dynamic between manufacturers/inventors and the public keeps the Curve accelerating.
And what is one of the prime technological outlets for consumers? Video games.
The world of video games has already given us rudimentary AI, virtual worlds, and now Direct Neural Interface.
Rather sobering to think that, ultimately, Pac-Man may be someday recognized as the godfather of the Singularity, isn’t it?
Technorati Tags: epoc,neuroheadset,video games,gaming,technology,neurology,dni,direct neural interface,singularity
Jams of the Week Now Up At TSGGTGM! Plus DJ Heauxmeaux
February 19th, 2008
Just a quick heads-up to all my music homepersons: I’ve just posted a new “Jams of the Week” article over the my refunct music blog, The Spacing Guild Guide to Good Music, spotlighting Kenna, The Kills, Adam Green, and Olga Kouklaki. Pretty diverse explosion of music happening over there, so I daresay you should click this specific link and learn ye something new about how sounds are put together in order to make the human heart rev up!
Also, while I’ve got you ear concerning music, I’ve got a confession to make: I love gay-bar house music. The gayer it is, the better I like it. I am thoroughly heterosexual, but the sheer discotronic exuberance of funky house, vocal house, disco house, and just about every other form of *house has fueled many a marathon dance and/or writing session here at HPL Laboratories of Pennsylvania (a.k.a. my house). A year or two ago, a buddy of mine challenged me to write an actual house song—and so I did. I’m sure he was expecting something droning, groaning, and evil, like a house remix of a Skinny Puppy song…and yet, what he got was a stonecold ultra-catchy, dance-floor-igniting number entitled (with tongue firmly in cheek) “The Gay! (It’s Catching)”.
Well, I had to release the song under some name, so I chose (again, with tongue literally protruding through cheek by this point) the name DJ Heauxmeaux.
Few have heard this track over the years, but now, since I’ve been in the mood to write a lot more house music lately to counter the winter blahs I’ve been feeling, I’ve created a MySpace page for DJ Heauxmeaux featuring, at present only “The Gay! (It’s Catching)” and a picture of a sexy guy in a Santa hat.
However, I’m currently putting the touches on two new DJ Heauxmeaux songs: “Trouser Rouser” and “A Spy in Da Hizzouse of Luv”, both of which shall be uploaded within at most a week or so. Keep your ears peeled, as I’ll probably cross-post them all here as well, just to make sure that I smack as many people as possible upside the head with my fauxmosexuality.
Technorati Tags: music,kenna,the kills,adam greem,old kouklaki,spacing guild guide to good music,pegritz,dj heauxmeaux,house music,the gay
Pouring gasoline on a fire
February 15th, 2008
This is just a stupid, badly-drawn, and—honestly—trite political cartoon. Yet there are people Out There in the so-called Real World who are literally gunning to murder the guy who drew this cartoon as well as the staff of the Danish newspaper which originally published it. A student at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, in fact, stated that “we [he and his 200 followers] are even ready to sacrifice our life for our beloved prophet.”
You, sir, are going to sacrifice your life for a doodle published in a newspaper in a country thousands of miles away from where you live?
If Muslims feel the need to be offended by the above depiction of Muhammud, they’ve every right to do so—just as Christians have the right to be offended by a statue of Jesus with an erect penis. When someone makes fun of your religious iconography and leadership, it is only natural that you will be angered, and will want to speak out against it.
So by all means, protest. Let the editorship of that Danish newspaper know you were offended. Boycott Danish products if you honestly think that will make a difference (it won’t). Speak out. Make your voices heard.
But remember this: a stupid doodle from a Norse country half a continent away is not a threat against your faith. If you are willing to murder or to die for some guy’s napkin-doodle, you are not a True Believer. You are not a martyr. You are a fucking idiot. Islam does not have a very good image in the West because of these kinds of patently ridiculous, Medieval over-reactions to the most miniscule snubs.
Instead of going on the warpath over a goofy cartoon, why not turn your ire toward how your various societies’ leaderships have become little more than pawns in Western powers’ oil wars. Saudi oil princes live lives that would make ancient Egyptian pharaohs piss themselves in envy, flouting Shari’a and Islam and living lives of decadence that rival the greatest Western playboys, all the while condemning average people to death due to adultery or, good lord, “witchcraft.” If anyone needs stoning—if anyone needs protesting—it is the double-faced lords of war and oil who have perverted your religion into little more than a means of making you into living weapons.
Technorati Tags: islam,muhammud cartoon,denmark,middle east,violence,stupidity
Good Writin’: Boccaccio on Love (1350 C.E.)
February 15th, 2008
Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron is truly a classic of late-Medieval/early-Renaissance literature—and for good reason: it was a book that broke many different forms of ground. It’s a novel and a collection of short stories at the same time. So too is it both a somewhat-historical account of The Plague in Italy and a portrait of Italian life in the 1300s. The inevitable question then posits: If not for historical or educational value, why read this book today?
Because it’s just terribly fun to read! Boccaccio’s ten stories told on ten days is a grab-bag of tales that features literally something for everything. We have love stories, war stories, mysteries, farces, folktales, adventures, tales for moral instruction and tales of delicious debauchery. Unlike many Medieval (and, for that matter, Renaissance) authors, Boccaccio’s vision of humanity—and of women in particular—is neither despairing nor damning; he is not obsessed with saints, sins, or salvation. He does not look upon material love (you know…gettin’ it on) with disgust and does not romanticize Love as a Platonic ideal. This latter regard is what makes Boccaccio’s writing so engaging: he is definitely a Romantic writer, a kindred spirit to Byron, Shelley, Keats, and even Blake, but he neither deifies Love’s triumphs nor spends undue time weeping over its castigations. He sees Love for what it is: beautiful, deadly, consoling, killing.
And what’s more, he views it with a certain wry humor that would later become characteristic of all the great Renaissance humanist writers. So, in honor of St. Valentine’s Day (a date which, honestly, I abhor), I present you this clip from Boccaccio’s “Proem” to The Decameron in which he presents a sly, winking glance at gender roles—and the Love that comes between them (oftimes physically)—in the waning days of European feudalism:
Who will deny, that it [love] should be given, for all that it may be worth, to gentle ladies much rather than to men? Within their soft bosoms, betwixt fear and shame, they harbour secret fires of love, and how much of strength concealment adds to those fires, they know who have proved it. Moreover, restrained by the will, the caprice, the commandment of fathers, mothers, brothers, and husbands, confined most part of their time within the narrow compass of their chambers, they live, so to say, a life of vacant ease, and, yearning and renouncing in the same moment, meditate divers matters which cannot all be cheerful. If thereby a melancholy bred of amorous desire make entrance into their minds, it is like to tarry there to their sore distress, unless it be dispelled by a change of ideas. Besides which they have much less power to support such a weight than men. For, when men are enamoured, their case is very different, as we may readily perceive. They, if they are afflicted by a melancholy and heaviness of mood, have many ways of relief and diversion; they may go where they will, may hear and see many things, may hawk, hunt, fish, ride, play or traffic. By which means all are able to compose their minds, either in whole or in part, and repair the ravage wrought by the dumpish mood, at least for some space of time; and shortly after, by one way or another, either solace ensues, or the dumps become less grievous.
So, the lesson is clear: ladies, when feeling down, pick up a book and read if thou canst not…y’know, sew or be of any goddamned use. And men? Should ye feel the sting of Love’s dart, go forth and kill something!
More seriously, Boccaccio shows in but one single paragraph the troubles facing the sexes individually in his age. In a world as sharply divided, with each sex’s role in life almost written in stone, with women practically jailed and men expected to be eternally “pricking on the plain“, what the hell is Love to do?!
You want to know? Read the Decameron.
Gender Wars 2: The Patriarchy Strikes Back
February 14th, 2008
Erica Jong is a complete idiot.
I’m not even going to waste words or blogspace commenting on the sheer, blindered stupidity of this statement:
Ever since I wrote an article in the Washington Post ten days ago, I’ve been getting love letters from women and super-smart men and brickbats from the Hillary-Haters. Unfortunately the Hillary-Haters are in charge. They monopolize the networks, the newspapers, the talk shows — both radio and TV. They are crossing their legs for fear of castration. They are wearing the body armor our troops never got. Or got too late to matter. They are determined that a woman will not prove herself competent as Commander in Chief.
OK, I’m going to waste some words here. I have often stated that the farther Left someone goes, the farther Right they appear to be. The spectrum of Right (conservativism) verses Left (liberalism) is not a line—it’s a circle.
Consider this: the Left is often associated with Big Government, while the Right supports limited government and states’ rights. But have a gander at the U.S. Government under George W. Bush, the Right’s idiot prince: is not the Department of Homeland Security a blatantly perfect example of Big Government in that fact that it is a gigantic organization sucking up vast amounts of taxpayers’ money yet not showing any verifiably positive result?
In the above statement, Jong has proven this again by retreating so far Left she has begun to spout the exact same statements that the Right are accustomed to making. The so-called Hillary-Haters “monopolize the networks, the newspapers, the talk shows — both radio and TV.” Hmmm. How often have Republican pundits over the past however-many years stood on their radio soapboxes declaring that the “Liberal Media” was stifling their opinions and preventing Candidate X from having a fair say?
Jong, you’re acting like a Republican in disguise. Just like Hillary Clinton herself. This is not a feminist issue. No one is fearing…what, political or literal “castration”? Could you possibly have used a more ridiculous, stereotypical phrase? No one likes Hillary Clinton because despite running as a Democrat, she is a pro-war, pro-status-quo oligarchist. If you really want an -archy to rail against, try the Beltway oligarchy who has been running this nation for the past twentyfive years specifically to fill their pockets and those of their friends? You would have a very pertinent topic then. Leave the outdated, bra-burning “feminist” rhetoric (and I use that term very loosely, as “feminism” is so much more than your squinty anti-male view with its eternal catchwords “patriarchy” and “castration”) behind and focus your righteous ire on a legitimate topic.
Oh, and if you wonder what Obama specifically stands for, have a look at his campaign website, or, more pertinently, his Senate webpage. Take some time to read his speeches given on various issues and take a look at his voting record. And remember: people make mistakes, like voting for a war that seemed justified at the time. However, smart people—that is, people unlike Hillary Clinton—learn from their mistakes.
Technorati Tags: erica jong,hillary clinton,barack obama,politics,feminism,patriarchy,idiocy
RIAA, Apple, Others Call for Reduced Artists’ Royalties
February 5th, 2008
What a surprise. But it’s true.
At issue is the so-called “mechanical royalty” — payments made for copies of sound recordings, including those made by digital means, to songwriters and publishers.
In a twist for royalty fights, such new-media players as Yahoo, Apple and Napster and major record labels agree with one another and want the royalty they pay to the publishers and songwriters to be lowered.
In effect, this would lower the amount of royalties an artist earns from the sale of a downloaded track to around…ohh, SIX CENTS. For every dollar spent on their music, artists would earn six pennies.
If you’re Justin Timberlake and you sell millions of downloads, those six pennies can add up. But what if you’re a struggling artist fighting to Make It Big? Those six pennies won’t even buy you a candybar.
More than ever, it’s patently stupid to sign with a Major Label. And there’s simply no reason to do so. As my friend Jeremy, the guitarist for the suitably awesome ThouShaltNot, has noted: “The [recording] industry is as healthy as ever. In fact, more healthy than ever. People everywhere are recording music and they love doing it. What’s dying is the businessmen trying to leech some profits out of the recording industry. But the people who are actually being industrious are having a blast.”
ThouShaltNot are currently signed to Dancing Ferret Discs, an independent label operating out of Philadelphia whose support for their artists is 100% top-notch. They provide everything a band could need: distribution for their music, live support, and an equitable royalty rate that actually makes it worth while for their artists to release music through the label. And Dancing Ferret is just one of literally thousands of smaller, conscientious labels releasing music in the United States and the EU.
As the Information Society classic goes, “Think about it.” Seriously. Think about it.
Technorati Tags: music,riaa,royalties,artists
