On Deep History and the Brain - Daniel Lord Smail - Book Review - New York Times

On Deep History and the Brain - Daniel Lord Smail - Book Review - New York Times: "In “On Deep History and the Brain,” Daniel Lord Smail suggests that human history can be understood as a long, unbroken sequence of snorts and sighs and other self-modifications of our mental states. We want to alter our own moods and feelings, and the rise of man from hunter-gatherer and farmer to office worker and video-game adept is the story of the ever proliferating devices — from coffee and tobacco to religious rites and romance novels — we’ve acquired to do so. Humans, Smail writes, have invented “a dizzying array of practices that stimulate the production and circulation of our own chemical messengers,” and those devices have become more plentiful with time. We make our own history, albeit with neurotransmitters not of our choosing."

Why Language Is All Thumbs

Why Language Is All Thumbs: "This means that two astounding advances were unfolding during Homo habilis' brief stay on Earth. First, entirely new knowledge was being intentionally generated out of the brain of a single creature. Toolmaking marked the birth of invention. Second, knowledge could now be duplicated and relocated to other minds; it was no longer doomed to die with the brain that conceived it. Just as the evolution of DNA made it possible for a gene to be copied and shared from one generation to the next, mirror neurons, and the new behaviors they made possible, meant that an idea—a “meme,” as Richard Dawkins has put it—could be copied and passed along from one mind to the next. Conscious communication had emerged, even if only in an embryonic form, and in its wake everything from gossip to oratory, mathematics to the laws of Hammurabi, stand-up comedy to the computer code that sends probes to the moons of Saturn would follow. We were building the scaffolding for true human behavior, relationships, and, ultimately, that most monumental of all human inventions: culture."

Why Language Is All Thumbs

Why Language Is All Thumbs: "Both our toes and thumbs are linked to the third trait—our unusual throats and the uniquely shaped pharynx inside, which enables us to make more precise sounds than any animal. Standing up straightened and elongated our throats so that our voice box dropped. In time that made speech possible, but we also needed a brain that could generate the complex mental constructions that language and speech demand. Because toolmaking required a brain that could manipulate objects, it supplied the neural foundations for logic, syntax, and grammar so that eventually it could not only take objects and arrange them in an orderly manner, it also could conceive ideas for our pharynx to transform into the sound symbols we call words and organize them so they made sense as well."

Why Language Is All Thumbs

Why Language Is All Thumbs: "Scientists also keep nibbling away at the mysterious edges of paleoanthropology, psychology, physiology, sociology, and computer science, to mention only a handful, shedding light bit by bit on the special brand of behaviors we call human. In other words, we remain largely unknown to ourselves, but we are making impressive progress."

Why Language Is All Thumbs

Why Language Is All Thumbs: "The other field is brain research. Being a human being (as opposed to a wasp or a fruit fly), all of your behaviors and actions are not dictated by your genes alone. Your brain holds many of the secrets that make humans human. Genes may be outrageously complicated, but the human brain makes our genetic code look like the crayon drawings of a four-year-old. Though it weighs a mere three pounds, it consists of a hundred billion neurons, each of which is connected in a thousand different ways to the other neurons around it. This means that every waking moment your brain is linked along a hundred trillion separate paths, trafficking in thought and insight, processing great streams of sensory input, running the complex plumbing of your body, generating (but not always resolving) all of your colliding and conflicting emotions, conscious and unconscious. These connections, by one estimate, make your possible states of mind during the course of your life greater than all of the electrons and protons in the universe. Given the immensity of this number, you are never likely to think all of the thoughts you are actually capable of thinking, nor feel every possible feeling. Nevertheless, each shining day we give it a try."

Why Language Is All Thumbs

Why Language Is All Thumbs: "During the past decade enormous strides have been made in two broad scientific fields: genetics and neurobiology. Advances in genetics are helping us gain insights into the way all living things evolve and develop. Each of us has come to exist in the unique form we do because of the combinations of genes that our parents passed along. You are, to a large degree, the person you are because of the messages these genes sent, and continue to send, to the ten thousand trillion cells that have assembled just so to form you. Hardly a day goes by without some news about a remarkable discovery that further illuminates the molecular machinery of the DNA that makes life possible."

Why Language Is All Thumbs

Why Language Is All Thumbs: "Human beings are insatiably curious, especially when it comes to the subject of ourselves. This is not a new insight. Philosophers, poets, theologians, and scientists from Plato to Darwin, St. Augustine to Freud have already penned volumes about our humanness that bow endless rows of the sturdiest library shelves. You might ask, if these thinkers have fallen gasping to the mat trying to wrestle these questions into submission, why this book should have any better luck. The simple answer is that today we have far more solid information to work with."

Why Dont We Invent It Tomorrow? - Paper Cuts - Books - New York Times Blog

Why Dont We Invent It Tomorrow? - Paper Cuts - Books - New York Times Blog: "In his new book “Physics of the Impossible,” Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a cofounder of string field theory, delves deeply into cutting-edge science to tell us what breakthrough innovations we can expect in our own lifetimes — and which our grandchildren’s grandchildren will still be dreaming about."

Accelerating-Intelligence News: Single Article View

Accelerating-Intelligence News: Single Article View: "Andrew M. Odlyzko, a professor at the University of Minnesota, estimates that digital traffic on the global network is growing about 50 percent a year, fueled by the increasing visual richness of online communications and entertainment -- video clips and movies, social networks and multiplayer games"

Gmail - Volume 11, Number 04 - yves.conta@gmail.com

Iraq War Caused Slowdown in the US – (The Australian – February 28, 2008)http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23286149-2703,00.htmlThe Iraq war has cost the US 50-60 times more than the Bush administration predicted and was a central cause of the sub-prime banking crisis threatening the world economy, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. The former World Bank vice-president said the war had, so far, cost the US something like $US3trillion compared with the $US50-$US60-billion predicted in 2003. Professor Stiglitz and another Clinton administration economist, Linda Bilmes, have produced a book, The Three Trillion Dollar War, pulling together their research on the true cost of the war, which does not include the cost to Iraq. One of the greatest discrepancies is that the official figures do not include the long-term healthcare and social benefits for injured servicemen, who are surviving previously fatal attacks because of improved body armor. The ratio of injuries to fatalities in previous wars was 2:1. In this war they admitted to 7:1 but a true number is (something) like 15:1." Some 100,000 servicemen have been diagnosed with serious psychological problems and the soldiers doing the most tours of duty have not yet returned.

Gmail - Volume 11, Number 04 - yves.conta@gmail.com

Map Pinpoints Disease Hotspots – (BBC News – February 20, 2008)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7252923.stmA detailed map highlighting the world's hotspots for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) has been released. It uses data spanning 65 years and shows the majority of these new diseases come from wildlife. The researchers found that 60% of EID events were caused by "non-human animal" sources. They add that 71% of these outbreaks were "caused by pathogens with a wildlife source". "We are crowding wildlife into ever smaller areas, and human population is increasing," explained Dr Marc Levy. "Where those two things meet, that is the recipe for something crossing over."

Gmail - Volume 11, Number 04 - yves.conta@gmail.com

Running the Numbers – (Chris Jordan – 2008)

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php
This series of works by artist Chris Jordan looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 410,000 paper cups used every fifteen minutes. In an elegant fashion, this project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society. The underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

Gmail - Volume 11, Number 03 - yves.conta@gmail.com

Global Migration Patterns and Job Creation – (Gallup – October 11, 2007)http://gmj.gallup.com/content/101680/Global-Migration-Patterns-Job-Creation.aspx#1More and more often, global leaders are asking us the same simple, yet colossal, question: "Does anyone know for sure what the world is thinking?" Global leaders are right to wonder. To know what the whole world is thinking -- not just what people in their own countries are thinking -- on almost all issues all the time would certainly make their jobs a lot easier at the very least. To try to answer that question, Gallup has created a new body of behavioral economic data for world leaders that represents the opinion of all 6 billion inhabitants, reported by country and almost all demographics and sociographics imaginable. They call it the World Poll.

Gmail - Volume 11, Number 03 - yves.conta@gmail.com

Embryos Created with DNA from 3 People – (Associated Press – February 5, 2008)http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hdcbUgqqy77XnKFlLA4PsopRH0pwD8UKDBFO0 British scientists say they have created human embryos containing DNA from two women and a man in a procedure that researchers hope might be used one day to produce embryos free of inherited diseases. The process aims to create healthy embryos for couples to avoid passing on genes carrying diseases. The genes being replaced are the mitochondria, a cell's energy source, which are contained outside the nucleus in a normal female egg. Mistakes in the mitochondria's genetic code can result in serious diseases like muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, strokes and mental retardation.

Accelerating-Intelligence News: Single Article View

Accelerating-Intelligence News: Single Article View: "In a new book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, Nicholas Carr argues that we're moving from the era of the personal computer to an age of utility computing--by which he means the expansion of grid computing, the distribution of computing and storage over the Internet, until it accounts for the bulk of what the human race does digitally."

Center for Global Change and Governance - Recent Books and Articles

Center for Global Change and Governance - Recent Books and Articles: "The arena of global politics is a fast-changing and fascinating one, encompassing as it does the accelerating processes of globalisation, the ever-present threat of war, conflict and terrorism and the role of both key individuals and wider alliances of NGOs and protesters in influencing world events."

Division of Global Affairs - Center for Global Change and Governance

Division of Global Affairs - Center for Global Change and Governance: "The Center for Global Change and Governance (CGCG) defines its academic mission in terms of the complex interplay of global change and governance-the large-scale transformations of political, economic, and cultural relations that simultaneously structure, and are structured by, the changing roles of states and non-state actors involved in creating order and disorder. At the core of the CGCG's concerns is the relationship between globalization, the post-cold war realignment of great-power relations, and the growing role in the promotion and attenuation of conflict of international governmental and non-governmental organizations, transnational corporations, and social movements."

Immigration Watchdog » The New World Order Always Knew We Would Resist

Immigration Watchdog » The New World Order Always Knew We Would Resist: "“For some, the disarray of traditional relationships in international affairs indicates a dangerous deterioration of the international order and portends collapse of the system into chaos or anarchy. Others consider the turbulence of the 1990s as part of the process of evolution, an inevitable consequence of the transformation of the international system into a global system. In some respects, both are right. The international order has indeed deteriorated into ‘disorder’ in large measure, but there is growing evidence that a global system is emerging out of this ‘chaos.’”"

The Strategic Trends approach starts by identifying the major trends in each of these
dimensions and analyses ways in which these trends are likely to develop and interact
during the next 30 years, in order to establish a range of Probable Outcomes. Nothing in
the future is guaranteed, of course, and Strategic Trends varies the strength of its
assessments to highlight sets of Alternative Outcomes that, while less probable, are
nonetheless highly plausible, for example:
• By 2010, most people (above 50%) will be living in urban rather than rural
environments. Poor housing, weak infrastructure and social deprivation will
combine with low municipal capacity to create a range of new instability risks in
areas of rapid urbanization, especially in those urban settlements that contain a
high proportion of unplanned and shanty development.
http://www.skilluminati.com/docs/DCDC_Global_Trends_2007-2036.pdf

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future | Science | The Guardian

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future Science The Guardian: "The global population is likely to grow to 8.5bn in 2035, with less developed countries accounting for 98% of that. Some 87% of people under the age of 25 live in the developing world. Demographic trends, which will exacerbate economic and social tensions, have serious implications for the environment - including the provision of clean water and other resources - and for international relations. The population of sub-Saharan Africa will increase over the period by 81%, and that of Middle Eastern countries by 132%."

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future | Science | The Guardian

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future Science The Guardian: "'The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx,' says the report. The thesis is based on a growing gap between the middle classes and the super-rich on one hand and an urban under-class threatening social order: 'The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest'. Marxism could also be revived, it says, because of global inequality. An increased trend towards moral relativism and pragmatic values will encourage people to seek the 'sanctuary provided by more rigid belief systems, including religious orthodoxy and doctrinaire political ideologies, such as popularism and Marxism'."

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future | Science | The Guardian

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future Science The Guardian: "An electromagnetic pulse will probably become operational by 2035 able to destroy all communications systems in a selected area or be used against a 'world city' such as an international business service hub. The development of neutron weapons which destroy living organs but not buildings 'might make a weapon of choice for extreme ethnic cleansing in an increasingly populated world'. The use of unmanned weapons platforms would enable the 'application of lethal force without human intervention, raising consequential legal and ethical issues'. The 'explicit use' of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons and devices delivered by unmanned vehicles or missiles."

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future | Science | The Guardian

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future Science The Guardian: "Information chips implanted in the brain. Electromagnetic pulse weapons. The middle classes becoming revolutionary, taking on the role of Marx's proletariat. The population of countries in the Middle East increasing by 132%, while Europe's drops as fertility falls. 'Flashmobs' - groups rapidly mobilised by criminal gangs or terrorists groups.
This is the world in 30 years' time envisaged by a Ministry of Defence team responsible for painting a picture of the 'future strategic context' likely to face Britain's armed forces. It includes an 'analysis of the key risks and shocks'. Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the MoD's Development, Concepts & Doctrine Centre which drew up the report, describes the assessments as 'probability-based, rather than predictive'."