background preloader

The Venus Project

The Venus Project

The Best Flash Mobs Ever Featured, Pop Culture — By BB Admin on January 24, 2011 2:05 pm A flash mob is (aside from being the coolest thing ever, probably) when a group of people show up in a public place and do something coordinated for a bit, and then disperse. Instead of trying to explain more, let’s just show you some of the best ones ever achieved. Frozen Grand Central Stockholm Michael Jackson Dance London Piccadilly Circus – Single Ladies Belgian Commercial Do Re Mi Black Eyed Peas Oprah Flash Mob Seattle GLEE Flash Mob Pinball Wizard Flash Mob San Francisco Weeds Flash Mob Christmas Flash Mob Enormous Mexican Thriller Flash Mob Madrid Plea for Lady Gaga Planet Hollywood Flash Mob the Foresight Institute » More on the AI takeover There are at least 4 stages of intelligence levels that AI will have to get through to get to the take-over-the-world level. In Beyond AI I refered to them as hypohuman, diahuman, epihuman, and hyperhuman; but just for fun let’s use fake species names: Robo insectis: rote, mechanical gadgets (or thinkers) with hand-coded skills, such as Roomba or industrial robots or automated call-center systems or dictation programs.Robo habilis: Rosie the housemaid robot level intelligence, able to handle service level jobs in the real world but not a rocket scientist.Robo sapiens: up to and including rocket scientists, AI researchers, corporate executives, any human capability.Robo googolis: a collection of top R. sapiens wired together in a box running at accelerated speed, equivalent to, say, Google (the company and the search engine together). First point: One R. googolis can’t take over the world, any more than Google could. I don’t think that the “plateau” is really flat, though.

Immagini » Spazio grey lining | every silver cloud has a grey lining : freegan.info 3 | Create UIs Out of Anything, With This Kit From MIT Mainstream computer interfaces are tough to get right, because they have to be everything to everyone--which is impossible. Even something as "no duh" as a touch screen is going to make someone, somewhere, gripe that it’s not quite right for them. Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum of the MIT Media Lab have come up with a solution to this problem that’s so weird it just might be perfect: MaKey MaKey, a kit that lets you turn any object--food, toys, clothes, whatever--into an ultra-personalized UI. MaKey MaKey works with "any material that can conduct at least a tiny bit of electricity." For some reason, many of the suggested uses of MaKey MaKey on its website involve food: Use an apple as a computer mouse! But that’s the point of this kit: A banana piano or apple-mouse may make no sense to everyone else on Earth, but it might be perfect for me. "Our number one goal is to open up possibility space in people’s minds and guts," Silver says. [MaKey MaKey is available for pre-order here.]

About | Compass Compass means a lot of things to a lot of different people. Check out this great video to hear what just some of our members have to say about us! Who we are Compass is a home for those who want to build and be a part of a Good Society; one where equality, sustainability and democracy are not mere aspirations, but a living reality. How we make a good society a reality To join Compass click here The Inspiration Tree: I Believe... that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different. I believe… that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don’t even know you. that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help. that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being. that the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon. that sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry but that doesn’t give me the right to be cruel. that just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have. that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you’ve had and what you’ve learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you’ve celebrated. that it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. that no matter how bad your heart is broken that the world doesn’t stop for your grief. What do you believe?

Free and Open Data as a Worldwide Economic Engine | The Great Debate UK –Cameron Neylon is Advocacy Director at PLOS. Previously, he was a Senior Scientist at the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council and a faculty member at the University of Southampton. The opinions expressed are those of PLOS. California’s governor, referring as much to the state’s financial issues as its lead in technology, has signed into law a new fund to create 50 open-source undergraduate textbooks, as well as a digital library to host them. This small-scale experiment is part of a large and fast growing effort to extend these Creative Commons’ principles to all publicly funded research (and the publishing and educational systems linking research to application and education), but this implementation of open access offers as much to business as it does to academic researchers and students. Asking for and granting permission on a case by case basis simply doesn’t scale.

KKK Member Walks up to Black Musician in Bar-but It’s Not a Joke, and What Happens Next Will Astound You Daryl Davis is no ordinary musician. He’s played with President Clinton and tours the country playing “burnin’ boogie woogie piano” and sharing musical stylings inspired by greats like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. He’s a highly respected and electrifying performer who is currently an integral member of The Legendary Blues Band (formerly known as the Muddy Waters Band,) and he rocks the stage all over the nation. Davis’ travels, of course, have always afforded him the opportunity to meet a huge range of diverse people, but perhaps nothing could have prepared him for the moment that would change his life. It was 1983 and Davis was playing country western music in an (informally) all-white lounge. Daryl Davis poses with his friend Jerry Lee Lewis. Most people in this day and age probably would have turned and ran right out of that good ol’ boy’s bar, but not Davis. That friendship would lead Davis on a path almost unimaginable to most folks. By: Rebecca Savastio Sources:

Related: