dg's New Writeups

pidgin brain (thing)

2005-03-29T17:05:24Z

<-- Physical Eschatology | Transhumanist Terminology | Posthuman -->

Imagine, for a moment, that our biotechnological knowledge has exploded; that we routinely make changes to our selves and to the organisms that surround us that can only be described as Godlike. Uplifting chimpanzees to near human levels of intelligence; controlling the growth of trees at such a fine grain that it is possible to simply grow a living house; releasing swarms of engineered bacteria to cleanse the world of the billions of tons of toxins poured into landfills, rives, oceans, and the air above us. That sort of thing.

Also imagine that we have achived similar levels of skill with computer software and hardware. Uploading of entire human minds to advanced computer networks is possible; digital organisms have become endemic and ineradicable, spreading…

universal immortalism (idea)

2005-03-23T06:34:08Z

<-- Universal Constructor | Transhumanist Terminology | Universal Turing Machine -->

Could death be solved?

What would it even mean to solve death? Would that mean that nobody else dies from here on out? Would that mean that anybody who did die could be brought back? Could it mean that everybody who has ever lived can be brought back?¹

Some transhumanist thinkers, notably Frank Tipler, author of The Physics of Immortality, believe that the answer to all three of those questions is a resounding yes. This belief--that every person, no matter when they lived or where they lived, can be brought back to life--is called universal immortalism.

The argument underlying the notion is that our descendents will possess sufficient computational resources to be able to run high-resolution simulations of past…

Most pernicious misconception about evolution (idea)

2005-03-18T08:16:37Z

The best summation I've ever heard of the most pernicious of all misconceptions concerning what evolution is and how it works is provided by eminent punk rockers NOFX:

Tell me why in hell are all the stupid people breeding?
Watson, it's really elementary....
The industrial revolution
Has flipped a bitch on evolution
The benevolent and wise being thwarted, ostracized
What a bummer
The world keeps getting dumber
...
Darwin's rolling over in his coffin
The fittest are surviving much less often
Now everything seems to be reversing
And it's worsening
The Idiots Are Taking Over

This notion that somehow evolution has been subverted by the progress of technology, and that now persons who are somehow "unfit" are managing to reproduce, is completely wrong. It fails on moral grounds, it fails on logical grounds, and it…

Karl Rove (person)

2003-02-10T19:32:00Z

Karl Rove has been called the second most powerful man in the world. He is the senior political advisor to President George W. Bush and, depending upon whom you believe, either the architect of a new breed of American conservatism or a conscience-free political animal who sees nothing in the world except elections and plans every event of the world surrounding him to further the political survival of his master. Both views, of course, have something to them.

He was born on Christmas Day in 1950 in Denver, Colorado. As a child, his family moved around a fair bit to support his father's career as a geologist; he grew up in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. As a young adult, he enrolled and briefly attended classes at the University of Utah, George Mason University, and the University of Texas at Austin, although he never earned a degree. This hasn't stopped him from teaching at the LBJ School of Public Affairs…

Master of Puppets (thing)

2003-02-04T20:52:10Z

Album Title: Master of Puppets
Artist: Metallica
Genre: speed metal
Label: Elektra
Release Date: February 21, 1986

I still remember it clearly. It was a warm March day, the kind that tricks plants in Denver into starting to bud even though several more feet of snow will fall before it is safe for them to do so. I was 12 years old, a punk skater kid with bleach-blonde bangs to my chin and no other hair anywhere on my head. I had no worries in the world other than impressing little Laura Montague by landing my first 360° trick on the halfpipe we had built in my friend Tyler's backyard.

We skated a lot back then. 4 or 5 hours a day on school days, 10 hours a day on weekends or breaks. I suppose it was my first obsession, the first hobby that could consume me, that could offer me endless new challenges even as I conquered them one after another. The music was a big part of that, a constant thrum of…

1986 (thing)

2003-02-04T08:51:11Z

1985 << 1986 >> 1987

At a glance

Thatcher and Reagan's program of continuously escalating economic and military pressure on the Soviet Union begins to show results as Mikhail Gorbachev ushers in the era of perestroika and glasnost. South Africa comes under intensifying international pressure to end its racist policy of apartheid. Halley's comet swings through on its regularly scheduled visit, Out of Africa is Best Picture, and Japanese company Nintendo debuts its first electronic game console to stellar sales.

January

American deep space probe Voyager 2 beams astonishing images of Uranus back to earth on January 24.
The American space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after takeoff on January 28.

February…