I sincerely hope this turns out to be unnecessary concern, but Colony Worlds suggests that Liftport, one of the leading space elevator companies, may be forced to shut down after losing their office space. The official Liftport staff blog indicates that times are tough, but therer’s no definite word either way as of yet. I’m not ashamed to say that I’d be gutted to see Liftport fold – in a world where so many are busy staring at their feet, those guys have the guts to look up at the stars. Best wishes, Liftport.
Monthly Archives: April 2007
Japanese robot touts for sex club
Despite its made-for-tabloid vibe, that’s a real news headline. After changes to the law in Osaka that forbids human beings to walk the streets as touts for sex industry venues, one enterprising outfit has decided to circumvent the pan by dispatching a robot to do the work instead. Bill Gibson was right – the street does find its own use for things, especially when the law blocks an old method.
UK internet tubes too thin, warn experts
While the government of the US continues to gnaw at he net neutrality knucklebone, UK experts are starting to panic – saying that if it doesn’t seriously upgrade its internet infrastructure, Britain risks falling behind in the information economy. I guess someone should let the BBC know, as they are planning to make over a million hours of public service broadcasting available in a free archive. In the meantime, those of you who still hanker for the good old frontier days of the information superhighway can bathe in the discordant nostalgia of the 56k modem emulator, courtesy of Bruce Sterling.
THE TOWERS OF ST. MICHAEL’S by David Walton
April’s story, “The Towers of St. Michael’s” from Futurismic alumnus David Walton is a pensive piece about the sensory world and the barriers between two people separated by sight. Check out David’s earlier “Diamond Dust” afterwards, if you haven’t already read it.
The Towers Of St. Michael’s
by David Walton
Paul watched Bartalan Varga slash egg-yellow paint across his canvas, adding a sparkle of reflected sunlight to a traffic scene from his native Budapest. On Paul’s fMRI screen, Bartalan’s visual cortex lit up, just as if he were seeing the colorful buildings and buses and pedestrians in his painting. But even a cursory glance at the stunted buds where his eyes should have been contradicted this. Bartalan Varga was totally blind. Continue reading THE TOWERS OF ST. MICHAEL’S by David Walton
Simulating brains, spray-on computers
One of the (many and conflicting) theories about AI is that we need to make computers that work more like an organic brain if we want to build machines that really think. Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm Computing, has written an article about Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM), which is “a platform for simulating neocortical activity” that he’s releasing freely for research purposes. Meanwhile, Warren Ellis draws our attention to a different deployment of technology called ‘speckled computing’ – spraying tiny match-head sized processors all over patients for medical diagnosis. Insert your own punchline here.