Organic farming is not just the way forward for wealthy suburbanites. A new study of studies estimates that if all world agriculture shifted to organic farming techniques the world would produce at the low end 2,641 calories per person per day, and at the high end 4,381. The current world agricultural output, including synthetic factory farming techniques, is estimated at 2,786 calories. Even more interesting is the fact that in developing countries small-scale, organic techniques may produce food more efficiently than synthetic alternatives. [kurzweil ai] [photo by Frankie Roberto]
Category Archives: Blog
Roll Your Own Augmented Reality
If you’ve ever read William Gibson’s novel “Virtual Light” you know what augmented reality is. (If you haven’t read it, you should stop looking at this and go buy it right now.) Layering virtual objects on top of the real world is the name of the game, and now you can play it at home with the help of ARTag.net. Try not to be discouraged by the Bob the Builder aesthetic. [mefi]
Optimal Copyright Term
What is the optimum length of copyright (from a social benefit perspective)? Rufus Pollock calculates it to be 14 years in this paper (pdf). He’s a Ph.D. candidate at Cambridge University, and reached his conclusion based on a few assumptions (which he backs up with data): (a) that as copyright length increases, it encourages the creation of new works, (b) up to a certain point, after which it can inhibit the creation of new works, and (c) that the optimal length of copyright is in part a function of the cost of production, so that as the cost of production falls so to does the optimal copyright length. [slashdot]
Real Time Flight Tracking
O’Reilly Radar reminds me of FlightAware, a resource that combines great pragmatic utility and pure geeky fun. FlightAware shows you exactly where just about any commercial flight is at this moment. With airport Wi-Fi and a laptop, you can know more about when your delayed flight will arrive than the gate crew.
The end of science fiction?
David Louis Edelman asks a big question over at the author group-blog Deep Genre – when will science fiction end? In his own words: “I’m not asking this from a commercial standpoint so much as from an epistemological standpoint. Will there always be new science fiction? Or will the genre just wither up at some point and go away?” What do you think? Are we so immunised to the exponential curve of technological change that fiction based in extrapolated futures will cease to have any effect on us other than, perhaps, nostalgia?