Regular readers (and, indeed, anyone with the remotest knowledge of how electronic technology actually works, if only in the abstract) will doubtless have spotted more fundamental problem, but just in case, I’ll remind you that Everything Can And Will Be Hacked. Hell, there’s already a proof-of-concept for electronic billboard exploits. So the no-mercy breed of road-warrior may want to avoid cutting in front of more geeky communters should these things go into production…
How To Defeat Your Own Clone (and Other Tips For Surviving the Biotech Revolution by Kyle Kurpinski and Terry D Johnson
Bantam Books, February 2010; 180pp; US$14.00 RRP – ISBN13: 978-0533385786
If there’s one good thing that’s come out of the cultural opposition to science in the West, it’s a wave of new popular science media. The guiding principle seems to be “make it fun, give it a hook, deliver as much hard material as you can without provoking the gag reflex”, which goes some way to explain the popularity of science blogs – small chunks of science wrapped up in tasty and palatable context is a great format for lay readers with an interest in the topic, but without the specialist knowledge to follow the journal scene. Kurpinski and Johnson’s How To Defeat Your Own Clone is full of bloggy zing, and neatly skewers numerous pop-culture skiffy clichés – the scientifically-impossible clones of cinema and television – in order to entice the reader into a topic that promises to become increasingly controversial and pertinent in the coming years. Continue reading BOOK REVIEW: How To Defeat Your Own Clone by Kyle Kurpinski and Terry D Johnson→
… he draws his rhythms onto paper, which is mounted on a turntable and then read by a needle. […] Graphite conducts electricity, so changes in the conductivity of the graphite will generate different sounds — bloops, blips and whistles.
As a result, Skoglund can draw lines that a rotating arm passes over, controlling the BPM of the music by changing the speed at which the arm rotates. When he performs live, he uses three heads, but the motion of each head over the graphite wears it away after a while, resulting in a performance that changes over time. No word on what happens he’s not paying attention and the needle collides with the pencil.
… what happens when he goes to the movies? Or, what if he goes to a sporting event with an exclusive broadcast right?
Quite. Obviously it’s not far beyond being a purely hypothetical issue at the moment, but wind forward a decade to a point where AR spex and similar hardware are as ubiquitous as smartphones are now, and you’ve got a real legal minefield around infringement techniques which will be difficult to police… just like we have right now, in other words, only more so.
At least we know the lawyers won’t be going hungry.
How To Defeat Your Own Clone (and Other Tips For Surviving the Biotech Revolution by Kyle Kurpinski and Terry D Johnson
