Archive for February, 2009
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
Kurzweil/Horgan Slugfest Online!
“The Singularity” is the imminent transformation of, well, everything that will result from exponential advances in artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and nanotechnology within the next 20 years or so. Supposedly. The guru of this sci-tech cult is the engineer Ray Kurzweil, whom I debated last October at the “Singularity Summit,” a revival meeting for the [...]
6 Comments » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by John Horgan
Friday, February 20th, 2009
Common Wealth: Economics For A Crowded Planet.
A Talk By Jeffrey D. Sachs, Winner 2009 Green Book Award.
Monday, April 20, 2009, Babbio Center, Room 122, 4:30-5:30 pm.
5 Comments » - Posted in Events by admin
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Pondering Darwin’s Legacy
As you all know by now, this year we’re celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth (February 12) and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his magnum opus, On the Origin of Species. Who better to talk about Darwin’s legacy than the best biology writer in the business, Carl Zimmer? On a Bloggingheads.tv [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by John Horgan
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
Rise of the Killer Robots
Over the past few centuries, some very smart people have expressed the paradoxical hope that new military technologies, by killing more efficiently, would reduce war’s carnage. In 1621 the British poet John Donne claimed that cannons bring wars “to quicker ends than heretofore, and the great expense of blood is avoided; for the numbers slain [...]