6/25/2006
Massive Attack-Teardrop
How To Disappear Completely by Radiohead
Hawking: Space key to human survival
HONG KONG, China (AP) -- The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy Earth, world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking said.Humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years, the British scientist told a news conference.
"We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," added Hawking, who came to Hong Kong to a rock star's welcome Monday. Tickets for his lecture Thursday were sold out.
Hawking said that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.
"It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Hawking said. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."
The 64-year-old scientist -- author of the global best-seller "A Brief History of Time" -- uses a wheelchair and communicates with the help of a computer because he suffers from a neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
One of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation, Hawking has done groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe, proposing that space and time have no beginning and no end.
However, Alan Guth, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Hawking's latest observations were something of a departure from his usual research and more applicable to survival over the long-term.
"It is a new area for him to look at," Guth said. "If he's talking about the next 100 years and beyond, it does make sense to think about space as the ultimate lifeboat."
But, he added, "I don't see the likely possibility within the next 50 years of science technology making it easier to survive on Mars and on the moon than it would be to survive on earth."
"I would still think that an underground base, for example in Antarctica, would be easier to build than building on the moon," Guth said.
Joshua Winn, an astrophysicist at MIT, agreed. "The prospect of colonizing other planets is very far off, you must realize," he said.
Hawking's "work has been highly theoretical physics, not in astrophysics or global politics or anything like that," Winn added. "He is certainly stepping outside his research domain."
Hawking's comments Tuesday were reminiscent of the work of American astrophysicist Carl Sagan, who was a believer in the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.
Sagan, a Cornell University professor and NASA-decorated scientist who died in 1996, noted that organic molecules, the kind that life on Earth is dependent on, appear to be almost everywhere in the solar system.
Sagan played a leading role in the U.S. space program, helping design robotic missions and contributing to the Mariner, Viking, Voyager and Galileo expeditions.
But his work also focused on the search for habitable worlds and intelligent life beyond the solar system, as well as theories about life's origins, ideas popularized in his best-selling 1985 novel, "Contact," which was made into a film starring Jodie Foster.
At Tuesday's news conference, Hawking said he too was venturing into the world of fiction. He plans to team up with his daughter, 35-year-old journalist and novelist Lucy Hawking, to write a children's book about the universe aimed at the same age group as the Harry Potter books.
"It is a story for children, which explains the wonders of the universe," said Lucy Hawking. They did not provide further details.
"We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," added Hawking, who came to Hong Kong to a rock star's welcome Monday. Tickets for his lecture Thursday were sold out.
Hawking said that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.
"It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Hawking said. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."
The 64-year-old scientist -- author of the global best-seller "A Brief History of Time" -- uses a wheelchair and communicates with the help of a computer because he suffers from a neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
One of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation, Hawking has done groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe, proposing that space and time have no beginning and no end.
However, Alan Guth, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Hawking's latest observations were something of a departure from his usual research and more applicable to survival over the long-term.
"It is a new area for him to look at," Guth said. "If he's talking about the next 100 years and beyond, it does make sense to think about space as the ultimate lifeboat."
But, he added, "I don't see the likely possibility within the next 50 years of science technology making it easier to survive on Mars and on the moon than it would be to survive on earth."
"I would still think that an underground base, for example in Antarctica, would be easier to build than building on the moon," Guth said.
Joshua Winn, an astrophysicist at MIT, agreed. "The prospect of colonizing other planets is very far off, you must realize," he said.
Hawking's "work has been highly theoretical physics, not in astrophysics or global politics or anything like that," Winn added. "He is certainly stepping outside his research domain."
Hawking's comments Tuesday were reminiscent of the work of American astrophysicist Carl Sagan, who was a believer in the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.
Sagan, a Cornell University professor and NASA-decorated scientist who died in 1996, noted that organic molecules, the kind that life on Earth is dependent on, appear to be almost everywhere in the solar system.
Sagan played a leading role in the U.S. space program, helping design robotic missions and contributing to the Mariner, Viking, Voyager and Galileo expeditions.
But his work also focused on the search for habitable worlds and intelligent life beyond the solar system, as well as theories about life's origins, ideas popularized in his best-selling 1985 novel, "Contact," which was made into a film starring Jodie Foster.
At Tuesday's news conference, Hawking said he too was venturing into the world of fiction. He plans to team up with his daughter, 35-year-old journalist and novelist Lucy Hawking, to write a children's book about the universe aimed at the same age group as the Harry Potter books.
"It is a story for children, which explains the wonders of the universe," said Lucy Hawking. They did not provide further details.
6/18/2006
La singularidad
La Singularidad ─una noción que se ha infiltrado en multitud de ambientes, y cuyo portavoz más conocido dentro del género es Vernor Vinge─ describe el agujero negro que se creará en la historia en el momento en que la inteligencia humana pueda ser digitalizada. Cuando la velocidad y el alcance de nuestra cognición se nivele con la curva de precios de los microprocesadores, nuestro «progreso» se multiplicará por dos cada dieciocho meses, y luego cada doce meses, y luego cada diez, y finalmente cada cinco segundos.
Las Singularidades son, literalmente, agujeros en el espacio de los cuales no puede emerger ninguna información, y así los escritores de ciencia ficción murmuran ocasionalmente acerca de lo difícil que es contar una historia planteada tras el advenimiento de la Singularidad. Todo será diferente. Lo cual significa que el ser humano será tan diferente que lo que significa estar en peligro, o ser feliz, o sentirse triste, o cualquiera de los otros elementos que hacen que la tensión estrujar-y-soltar de un buen relato sea irreconocible para nosotros, los pre-Singularizados.
Aunque en ocasiones olvidar puede resultar frustrante, es totalmente necesario. Hay recuerdos que se tienen que ir.
De lo contrario nuestra actividad se vería impedida por un aluvión de recuerdos triviales y correríamos la misma suerte que Shereshevski. Nos molestarían continuamente una cantidad de detalles triviales que atraparían nuestra atención, no podríamos darle sentido a lo que experimentamos.Resulta paradójico que una de las funciones principales de la memoria sea la de impedir que se codifique información nueva, esta inhibición es una parte del aprendizaje, ya que impide que las trivialidades distraigan la atención de la información más importante.
Es decir, para aprender también hay que saber olvidar.
Es decir, para aprender también hay que saber olvidar.
Robert Graves, "Yo, Claudio" (fragmento)
"Y quizá sobreviví porque las enfermedades no pudieron ponerse de acuerdo acerca de cual de ellas tendría el honor de rematarme. Para empezar nací prematuramente, a los siete meses de gestación, y luego la leche de mi nodriza no me sentó bien, de modo que me estalló un terrible salpullido en toda la piel, y después tuve malaria, y sarampión, que me dejó levemente sordo de un oído, y erisipela, y colitis, y finalmente parálisis infantil, que me acortó de tal modo la pierna izquierda, que me vi condenado a una permanente cojera. (...) Pero yo vivía en el corazón de la manzana, por decirlo así, y se me perdonará si escribo más acerca de la putrefacción central que acerca de la parte exterior, todavía intacta y fragante. -Una vez que te abandonas a una metáfora, Claudio, cosa que sucede muy rara vez, la sigues demasiado lejos. Sin duda recordarás las instrucciones de Atenodoro contra esas cosas. Bueno, llama gusano a Seyano y termina con eso. Y vuelve a tu estilo habitualmente sencillo."