The Kurzweil Gospel

Ray Kurzweil, inventor and futurist has two new movies coming out about him and or by him.

The first played at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and is called Transcendent Man:
Here's the trailer:

The second is called "The Singularity is Near - The Movie"  featuring Tony Robbins, Alan Dershowitz and Marvin Minsky, amongst others.  Maybe these films will be the next "What the Bleeps"?! hopefully without all of the secret ploys to get us to join some weird religion.

395 Babies were just born in India.

Dig this video about the exponential growth of everything:

And then you can watch this...  Ray Kurzweil, inventor and futurist, breaks down some of his crazy and not so crazy ideas.. My favorite part is when he references Bono!

Evolution by Intelligent Design

Evolution by Intelligent Design



So I guess we're very close to altering our own genetic makeup now. Thanks to the work of scientist like Mario Capecchi of the University of Utah, Sir Martin Evans of Cardiff University in Wales, and Oliver Smithies of the University of North Carolina.

They proved in 2007 with their Nobel Prize–winning work on mice, that it's possible to alter the genetic makeup of newborn mice, by turning on and off genes through selectively adding or deleting stretches of DNA in the (artificially) fertilized cell. Scientists could knock out genes for a disease like diabetes or insert genes coding for extra height or intelligence.

We are getting into Kurzweil / Gattaga / Brave New World Territory now. I wonder if in our lifetimes, say the next 50 years, we will have to face questions about whether or not to give our children intelligence enhancing chromosomes.

Kierkegaard and Nietzsche

Here's a a thought provoking article on some of the similarities between Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and their views on the individual and his perpetual becoming. Through passion, man perpetually yearns for something more than himself.. In Kierkegaard it is something religious.. in Nietzsche, it is to become the superman through the will to power.

Great Philosophy Resource

Found a great resource to help get an overview on philosophy: http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/

It's a great resource for other topics of study too.

Warp Drive

Wow, the idea of traveling faster than light has been portrayed in many a sci-fi movie and tv show... Now, the chance of that becoming a reality just got a little closer.

Evolutionary Algorithms surpass human math

The next step in math involves evolutionary algorithms that use brute force to solve problems. This idea is similar to Stephen Wolfram's "New Kind of Science" http://www.wolframscience.com/...whereby a simple rule can breed a complex system. What this sometimes breeds is a proof that has been proven by a computer but unexplainable by humans. ie: the four color theorem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_color_theorem

Hyperdrive!

Cool article about hyperdrive.. check it out.. star treck is not far away!

Atheism vs. the world

Atheists under attack on Paula Zahn prompted one atheist to strike back in defense: check it out here:

Another atheist defends his beliefs here:http://atheistwager.blogspot.com/2007/04/first-post.html in a blog post entitled The Atheists Wager.  He or She sites a list of times in history when religion has fueled atrocities by separating humanity into tribes and blames religion for these atrocities.  I would argue that due to humanity's tribal nature, it is not the religions that are too blame but humanity itself.  Unfortunately it is much easier to stand behind manifest destiny than to own up to your own actions.  Many people have claimed lives in the name of religion, but many people have also done many great things in its name as well.  How about something called the: Renaissance .  

Another point in the blog posting which is one that is common amongs atheists is that the nonbelief in an afterlife is used as the rejection point for religion.  Is it not possible to be religious as a way of improving the world around us now? Is all of religion designed to improve ones afterlife? I would hope not.

Einstein and Faith

Einstein and Faith in Time Magazine is a fascinating piece that explores Albert Einstein's relation to religion. In the article they quote Einstein at 50 saying:



"Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious."


Another great quote:
"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws."