• Seven ways to control the Galaxy with self-replicating probes
• Back in late 1940’s the brilliant mathematician John Von Neumann wondered if it might be possible to design a non-biological system that could replicate itself. Von Neumann wasn’t thinking about space exploration at the time, but other thinkers like Freeman Dyson, Eric Drexler, Ralph Merkle and Robert Freitas later took his idea and applied it to exactly that.
• exponential growth
• 7 basic spacecraft functions:
  

  1. Exploration
  2. Communication
  3. Working
  4. Colonization
  5. Uplifting
  6. Berserking
  7. Policing
• Dubbed Bracewell probes (named after Ronald N. Bracewell who thought of the idea back in 1960), these devices would work as an alternative to interstellar radio communication between widely separated civilizations.
• Christopher Rose, an electrical engineer at Rutger’s University, has suggested that we should actually look for these probes in our own Solar System. He argues we should be checking the mail instead of waiting for a phone call.

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• If you aren’t familiar with the work of award-winning writer Jeff VanderMeer, now is your chance to see what the fuss is about.  GeekDad is happy to be able to offer Wired readers a PDF copy of VanderMeer’s upcoming book The Situation, courtesy of PS Publishing (cover artwork by Scott Eagle). 

    

  Download Situation-Wired-Final.pdf

• Baen is well known for giving away the first novel or couple novels of a series (bet you can’t read just one), you can check out their free library.
• Neil Gaiman and HarperTorch of course are putting up American Gods for free,
• Night Shade Books is offering Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey as a free download
• Karl Schroeder: released Ventus
• Kelly Link: has Stranger Things Happen as a free download
• Mike Brotherton: released his first novel, Spider Star STAR DRAGON,
• Nick Mamatas: Move Under Ground is available
• Peter Watts: has put his entire backlist up as creative commons eBooks, free to read.
• Vernor Vinge: lets you read Hugo winning novel Rainbows End online.
• Chris Roberson: released his novel Set the Seas on Fire, a prequel to Paragea,

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• The Pros and Cons of a Google Brain Implant
• What exactly would be the plusses and minuses of being able to google information instantaneously in your head

• PRO:

    

  Ability to "remember" many details about a person or issue in the middle of a conversation, so that you can marshal facts quickly and check the accuracy of what other people are saying.

    

  CON:

    

  The person you're talking to could much more easily pretend to be somebody they are not by googling information and feigning expertise.

• PRO:

    

  You will never get lost
• You'll also get the latest news headlines

• CON:

    

  You'll spend so much time in your head reading google news and watching YouTube that you'll zone out during conversations

  • scifi theme : zoning out

• PRO:

    

  Instant access to infinite data storage allows you to quickly store your every interesting thought, and search through them instantly.

• CON:

    

  Over reliance on "offloaded" memory means people make less of an effort to remember
• CON: Google ads are constantly running in your head, perhaps designed to respond to thought patterns.

  • scifi theme: spyware & adware influence on human psychology and society
    (+ the zoning out theme)

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• Who is winning the global nanorace?

  Angela Hullmann¹
• impact in many areas of the global economy
• social and economic potential of nanotechnology
• researchers in the United States publish many more papers on nanoscience and nanotechnology than researchers from any other country
• when nations are ranked by 'impact factor', two small European countries are in the lead: Switzerland is first, followed by the Netherlands and then the US. Canada moves up to fourth place, followed by Belgium, Ireland, the UK, Denmark, France and Japan. Germany comes a surprising eleventh place in this ranking.

  • Ranking by 'impact factor':
    
    1. Switzerland
    2. Netherlands
    3. US
    4. Canada
    5. Belgium
    6. Ireland
    7. UK
    8. Denmark
    9. France
    10. Japan
    11. Germany
  Add Sticky Note
• By analysing data from patent offices around the world, it is therefore possible to identify those areas of nanotechnology that are most likely to have a economic or commercial impact, and those individuals, organizations and nations that are going to benefit most.
• When the data is analysed by nation, rather than region, the US comes out top overall, and also in each of the six subfields
• Within nanobiotechnology, Germany, France and Canada are the strongest after the US, while the Netherlands and Sweden do well in nanoelectronics. Elsewhere, Belgium and Taiwan rank high in nanomaterials, Switzerland is strong in nanodevices, and the UK performs well in nano-optics

  • subfield strenghts:
    nanobiotechnology: US, Germany, France, Canada
    nanoelectronics: Netherlands, Sweden
    nanomaterials: Belgium, Taiwan
    nanodevices: Switzerland
    nano-optics: UK
  Add Sticky Note
• As with patents and publications, the US leads the way in public spending on nanotechnology
• And when spending by the EC and the EU member states are added together, the total exceeds that of the federal and state governments in the US.
• However, when funding by industry is added, the picture is different. In the US the figure for the total spending on nanotechnology research rises to almost 3 billion when industry sources are included, followed by 2.3 billion for Japan and less than 2 billion for Europe
• The relatively high level of public funding for nanotechnology in Europe does, however, have an advantage in that it gives the public — in the form of consumers, pressure groups, regulatory agencies, and both European and national funding agencies — some influence in setting priorities for nanotechnology research.
• research into environmental, health and safety issues will not be overlooked
• Europe's position in the 'global nanorace' is promising, but much will depend on its ability to provide an adequate framework for the social and economic exploitation of the potential that nanotechnology offers

  • consequences for future:
    a social nanogovernance vs capitalistic: Europe vs US
    
    (scifi theme)

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• A Self-Reproducing Interstellar Probe

      

  Robert A. Freitas Jr.

     

  100 Buckingham Drive, No. 253, Santa Clara, California 95051, USA.
    Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Vol. 33, pp.   251-264 1980.

•      

   

  Kinematic   Self-Replicating Machines

   

   

  ©   2004 Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle. All Rights Reserved.
• Chapter 1.    The Concept of Self-Replicating Machines   ..... Local Copy (HTML)

• DAEDALUS

   
  or 
  Science and the Future

   

  A paper read to the Heretics, Cambridge, on February 4th, 1923

   

  by 
  J. B. S. Haldane

• Well, I will tell you what interests me, what I consider important. I can't claim to be an authority on anything, but I can honestly say that certain matters absolutely fascinate me, and that I write about them all the time.
• Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful.
• The problem is simply this: What does a science fiction writer know about? On what topic is he an authority?
• The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. George Orwell made this clear in his novel 1984. But another way to control the minds of people is to control their perceptions. If you can get them to see the world as you do, they will think as you do. Comprehension follows perception. How do you get them to see the reality you see?
• At one time I would have been burned. But some of their ideas intrigue me. One time, when I was researching Gnosticism in the Britannica, I came across mention of a Gnostic codex called The Unreal God and the Aspects of His Nonexistent Universe, an idea which reduced me, to helpless laughter. What kind of person would write about something that he knows doesn't exist, and how can something that doesn't exist have aspects? But then I realized that I'd been writing about these matters for over twenty-five years.
• My two topics are really one topic; they unite at this point. Fake realities will create fake humans. Or, fake humans will generate fake realities and then sell them to other humans, turning them, eventually, into forgeries of themselves.
• I will reveal a secret to you: I like to build universes which do fall apart
• Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away
• Maybe each human being lives in a unique world, a private world, a world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans. And that led me wonder, If reality differs from person to person, can we speak of reality singular, or shouldn't we really be talking about plural realities?
• "What is reality?" and "What constitutes the authentic human being?"

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• The Future of Humanity: a Lecture by Isaac Asimov
• 1974
• Well, when I read all of these references I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance...and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance...to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth. Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money...as a result of the change. Although they never advanced this as their reason for resisting it. It was always the good of humanity that rested upon their hearts.
• syllogism
• throughout history, mankind has lived in a world of youth. You know, we talk about the youth-centeredness of our culture. There's nothing else it can be. Throughout history, the life expectancy has been somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five, depending upon the time and the place. Very few people have lived into middle-age and beyond.
• I think a great many of the fears of witches really represented the fears of the strange appearance of old women...which of course nowadays we don't have because old women look young.
• our youth-centered culture is youth-centered particularly in one important way: education. For years, and centuries, and millennia, it has always been assumed that education is the prerogative of the very young. That there's such a thing as finishing your education.
• We teach kids that to be grown up is to be able to be stupid for the rest of your life.
• In the 21st century, we're going to have to think of education not as a task to be completed, but as a process to be continued.
• The one thing that really separates the human species from all other species of plants or animals, is that we can learn with far greater facility than any other species can. Now, whatever it is that a species can do well, it enjoys doing!
• Whatever it is you do that makes you happy, and adds to the joyousness of the world, is justified. And there will be room for everything. And in an extended life span, if say when you are forty, you decide to start all over again and study Greek, and become a big expert in Greek literature, who's to stop you? I foresee a 21st century in which the educational process will be organized so that every human being has a right to institutional help for education in any field he wishes, in any direction he wishes, at any age he wishes. Education and learning will be the name of the game.
• when it comes to human beings, when we're going to change ourselves, we have to ask what pleases us! And we don't really know.

•   I was asked a few days ago...really was, I'm not making this up...whether I didn't think an intellectual elite ought to run the world. And I said, by an intellectual elite, you mean people like me? Because I didn't know what he meant by an intellectual elite. I thought maybe it might mean people like him, in which case no!

    [group laughs]

    And he said: "Yes, people like you". And I said no, that would be no good because I'm only smart in certain ways, and very stupid in other ways. And if everybody was like me, and we were running the world, we'd all be smart in the same way, and all be stupid in the same way, and it's the stupidness that's going to kill us.
• Well, in the 21st century we'll have to find a new horizon that's right there; out there. We'll go back to the Moon, only not this time to just get on it and come back. We're going to establish a colony there
• I hope you see a world in which mankind has decided to be sane. But I must say in all honesty that I figure that the chances are against it.

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• THE SIMULATED UNIVERSE

   

  By BRENT SILBY
• because the Universe is a rule following system that   operates according to a finite set of physical laws that   we can understand, it follows that it can be simulated   by a computer.
• proponents of the Simulated   Universe argument suppose that if it is possible   for us to build such a simulation, then we will probably   do so at some time in the future, assuming that our human   desires and sensibilities remain much the same as they   are now
• They then reason that any   species that evolves within the simulation will probably   build their own Simulated Universe. We know that it is   possible for them to do so, because they exist, and they   are inside a simulated universe. It is possible to continue   this nesting of universes indefinitely, each universe   spawning intelligent species that build their own simulations.   Now, given the near infinite number of child universes,   it is more likely that we exist in one of the billions   of simulations rather than the one parent universe.
• For the inhabitants   of the simulated universe everything is solid and tangible.   But just like the real universe, it is all reducible   to numbers and rules.
• erhaps the entire universe, including local phenomena,   is compressed in some way. The simulation could be "interpreted"   by its inhabitants as being made from individual atoms   and subatomic particles, while in reality it is completely   different. If we look at modern physics, we see that   this is a reasonable possibility. Consider the indeterminacy   principle in quantum physics. An observer cannot measure   the position and momentum of a particle simultaneously.   Furthermore, it seems that subatomic particles have no   definite position or momentum until an observation is   made. This is because subatomic particles do not exist   in the sense we are used to experiencing on the macro   level.
• If a simulated universe provides a perfect   replication of the real universe, then how could we ever   know that we exist in a simulation. One way to find out   would be to appeal to statistical probability. As stated   earlier, if we accept the possibility that advanced beings   can create a simulated universe, then it is highly likely   that we actually exist in a simulation. The reason for   this is that there will be billions of simulations but   just one original universe. So it statistically there   is a higher chance that we exist in a simulation than   the original universe.
• I will then suggest that   the Simulated Universe argument should be rejected because   it unnecessarily clutters our ontology.
• Its possible that a future   species would choose not to create a simulated   universe because doing so would increase pain   and suffering in the world.

• But here they run into difficulty. As soon   as they allow that at least one thing can be   either uncaused, self-caused, or existed forever then   they open the possibility that the universe could be   uncaused, self-caused, or existed forever. And since   we favor economy in our ontology, it is more rational   to conclude that there is no reason to invoke the existence   of God to explain the universe.

   

  The Simulated Universe argument seems to   suffer from the same problem.

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• Superhuman Imagination

  Vernor Vinge on science fiction, the Singularity, and the state

• Sci-Fi Author Kim Stanley Robinson Discusses Our Planet's Future

• Intuitor Strikes a Blow for Decency in Movie Physics!

   

   

  Technonerds go to movies strictly for entertainment, and of course, the most entertaining part comes after the movie when they can dissect, criticize, and argue the merits of every detail. However, when supposedly serious scenes totally disregard the laws of physics in blatantly obvious ways it's enough to make us retch.

• “It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn. It is possible to believe that all the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening”—24 January 1902, lecture given at the Royal Institute, London. “The Discovery of the Future”.

• VERTEX: Nearly every sf writer has some little fable about how he got hooked on the stuff. What's yours?

    

  DICK: I went into a drug store looking for "Popular Science." They were out of it and I saw something called "Stirring Science Fiction." I thought, Well, shit, the title is similar. It's closer than "Nurse Romance Stories." And I took it home and read it.

    

  VERTEX: What was it about the magazine that appealed to you?

    

  DICK: Well, it was such awful writing that viewed from now you can't take it seriously. You know what term they used then? Pseudo-science! It meant stories of science but not real science. Which of course was meaningless
• Science fiction involves a suspension of disbelief which is different than that involved with fantasy. In fantasy, you never go back to believing that there are trolls, unicorns, witches, and so on. But in science fiction, you read it, and it's not true now, but there are things which are not true now which are going to be someday. Everybody knows that! And this creates a very strange feeling in a certain kind of person -- a feeling that he is reading about reality, but he is disjointed from it only in temporal terms. It's like all science fiction occurs in alternate future universes, so it could actually happen someday.
• Van Vogt influenced me so much because he made me appreciate a mysterious chaotic quality in the universe which is not to be feared.
• if I read a science fiction book by a new writer which is a lot better than what I do, instead of going on a bummer right away and saying, "Oh Christ, I'm obsolete, I'm outdated, I've lost it." I have this tremendous sense of joy. I don't have to write all the great goddamn science fiction in the world. Somebody else is going to carry this torch. It's such a relief to sit with my feet up on the wall and to know that if I never wrote another book science fiction is going ahead.
• I write because there are not enough people in the world who can give me enough companionship
• I think the main thing in my writing was that I was trying to show my characters taking things for granted, and then realizing that things were quite different, you see. And the clue there is that they had taken it for granted; they had accepted it without testing it out.

• VERTEX: You've stated privately that your Vancouver speech is the most important thing you've ever written. Would you care to elaborate on that statement?

    

  DICK: I worked on it for three months and I was very low in those days. I had thought that I would never write again. I had actually gone for two and a half years without writing anything. I decided that I should take all the ideas I had in my head that were worth anything and put them in the speech
• The title of this speech was "The Human and the Android," subtitled "The Authentic Person Vs. the Reflex Machine."

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• Most fiction has become, in short, an instrument of propaganda for the established religion of our time, which differs from other religions only in the particular content of the faith and the vocabulary used to describe it.
• Since religion is a part of human nature, and the communities that are most successful in transmitting their culture from one generation to the next are those that use the instruments of religion (along with others) to transmit it, it is hard to imagine a circumstance, in a story of any length, in which a writer should not show some awareness of how the religion functions in the society being depicted.
• a writer should consider religion when building a world or a culture precisely so that does not end up turning all his stories into confessions of his faith.
• Human beings have a constant desire to move things from the category of "I believe this but I'm aware that others do not" to the much safer and surer category of "this is true and everybody knows it," which quickly becomes unconscious certainty in their minds. That is why people are almost always so very quick to try to stamp out heresy. It frightens them because it moves more ideas out of the realm of certainty and makes the world a more fluid place where they have to keep making decisions instead of acting on decisions long made.
• in designing made-up religions, one vital thing to find is the story the religion tells to explain why God doesn't fix things up better.

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• There are different ways of thinking, being, and doing things. Both science fiction and fantasy offer more options. They let you think through an alternative without actually having to do it. Which, I think, is really one of the functions of all fiction - to let you live other lives and see what they're like. It widens the soul.
• No, I have lots of good intentions, but no control over my writing. When I got started on the telling, I thought it would be a novella, but it wanted to be a novel. It wouldn't go right until I got Sutty right. I didn't know who she was for a long time. When Sutty suddenly came to me and found her voice, then I could tell the story. I had to see it through her eyes.