- keeping the brain surviving outside of the body - experiments with animals
05:25 - total body transplant. Stephen Hawkings could possibly survive a total body transplant?
06:10 - consciousness can be transplanted. human soul? can be argued that this can be transplanted. they did experiments with monkeys - transplanted the head of one monkey onto another & it lived for 7 days before being rejected
01:10 - humanising the pig kidney/liver so it's not rejected by human body, then transplanting these into humans (pigs as donors)
01:35 metamouse - laboratory grown ear on back of a mouse. hasn't Stelarc been growing an ear on his arm? art project?
03:25 - artist - designing future human bodies. 'after all the body is an extension of fashion' -- I think the body was around before fashion...
10:00 - most people think you have to build a brain and a body will fall out of it. but when you look at nature, well over half the species on Earth have no brain to speak of at all yet manage to move around and survive very effectively.
00:00 - scientists have evolved very effective nervous systems. not brains
03:10 - history of humans is that they haven't treated other life that is similar to humans very well. even back to neanderthals when the homosapiens arrived - they didn't live in co-operation, even though they were very similar. even back to 500 years (or this year?) humans haven't treated other humans well (colonization)
won't be pleasant for the losers. -- joseph m rosen
08:30 - highlighted/coloured nerve cells - can see them working
04:45 - replacing part of the biological brain with microchip. inputs & outputs still work the same
06:45 - using these computer chip-brain replacements now for sound recognition - to recognise sounds of gunshots which make a camera zoom in on the sound - crime stopper cameras in high crime areas. member of the black community says that they are being watched whereas white community areas are not
01:30 fit onto a cd rom - 600Mb I bet that's all you need to copy a person
03:25 scientists can move a single atom from one place to another
05:50 they want to build nanobots (low number of atoms devices with computers more powerful than today) - inject them into the human body eg bloodstream to kill cancer cells, modify dna, etc
06:15 basic goal of nanotechnology is to build an assembler (auto-assembler) - a very basic device, that can build copies of itself
06:50 molecular nanotechnology is to physical reality what computer programming is to virtual reality. .. bit of an exaggeration, but gives the idea.. whereas computer programmers can program software to do what they want, molecular nanotechnology will allow us to change matter at the most fundamental level. it will allow us to build just about any kind of structure, to our exact specifications by moving individual atoms. ... this sounds like a world of magic(k) where all that we imagined becomes reality but the role of the good fairy is taken over by robots so miniscule that we cannot see them. (background images of Cinderella where pumpkin changes into a coach) and instead of saying the magic word, we program them to grant all our wishes.
>> myths, dreams & fairy tales - the human premonition of what we will one day create. or if not premonition, the imagination of what we want to create?
07:40 the other side of the fairy tale is what is called the "grey goo syndrome" - nanobots programmed for terrorist action or rapidly start reproducing themselves & a chain reaction causes planet to be reduced in 72hours into a grey goo of swarming nanobots
08:00 most scientists think that "grey goo syndrome" is very unlikely - we will have nanotechnology to control nanotechnology.
>> the "watchdog" - who's watching the watchdog??
00:00 this is not the end of history. becoming post-human creates new problems. still have same personality problems as before. you're just going to be "more" than you were before. you'll have more power. with more power comes more responsibility.
in the 1990's I used to make clocks from old broadcast tv equipment (tape heads, motors/rotors etc) and old computer hard drives (10", 5.25". 3.5", 2.5" etc) and the like. I used to give them to friends as presents. I found an old photo album with some of the photos of the finished clocks + some of the clock bits. it's a shame I wasn't a better photographer at the time! this was pre-digital camera days so I didn't know the lighting (& framing) until the film was developed. I found one box of clock bits, but not the box of clocks and other clock bits boxes - maybe I can make some more if I find the right boxes.
today (sunday) it was another rainy day. I went for a short ride to see where the track under the M4 went. I ended up at Auburn. I think the track goes all the way to Olympic Park, but I stopped and turned back as it was starting to get dark and I didn't think I'd make it there & back before dusk. for some reason I don't seem to have any gps data for this trip - I think it lost signal under the M4 then didn't tune properly afterwards. strange. I went to the hardware store and bought some cable ties and velcro to make a more permanent basket-cam solution. for the past couple of days I've been using plaited cotton ties to fasten the camera to the basket - I'd cut a hole in the basket for the camera lens. when I went over some bumps, the camera dislodged, and at one point lost focus - so some of the footage today has close ups of the basket wire framing the video. I like some of these shots actually!
I've split the videos up into ~2minute segments to make the files smaller
videos & gps tracks from the bike ride today to & around parramatta park. it was a rainy day. I was testing the video whilst riding - I don't like the fixed angle. this is basket-cam - I think helmet cam would be much better. but I modified the basket to mount the n95 phone camera - basically I cut a hole and braided some cotton yarn and tied the camera to the basket. it worked ok, the camera stayed in place, though I think I'll try find some cable-ties and velcro for future trips. I mustn't have been pressing record properly on the camera as it didn't record a lot of the trip - there's a lot missing! and it has recorded sections that I thought I'd switched off the camera. due to the rain I'd covered up most of the camera / viewfinder so it was hard to tell when I was recording or not. oh well - it's ok for an initial test. the clips below are each around 2mins duration. I recorded gps track too but the battery ran out on the way home. I wasn't having much luck with technology today!
I've made a quick pdf picture book of photos of some of the food & meals I've had during the past 5 years as a digital nomad. inspiration for food to prepare
For the past 5 years (2004-2009), I've been a
digital nomad of sorts - traveling for work in
countries such as UK, Australia, India, Turkey,
New Zealand, Israel and Malaysia. Living in
hotels and eating at hotels, cafes, and
restaurants. This is a picture book showing
some of the meals I've had during that time.
No wonder I've put on weight! -- kath http://www.AliaK.com
drinking tea, reading zines and listening to jon hassell's music - a lovely way to end the long weekend. and Happy Birthday QEII. the washing has been done, the clothes are in the dryer which is heating up the apartment (& saving me from putting on the heater this afternoon / tonight - as it's cold!)
listening : "Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street" Jon Hassell
zines : I pulled out the zines I've recently come across + some from a few years ago. I've been sending them little thank you emails as I read them - I'm never sure if zinesters like this or not or if you're meant to - they have their contact details and sometimes say to write so I guess it's ok, but it's always nice to receive a thank you message.
the trouble with reading zines - or rather, perhaps the good thing about reading zines, is that I start reading a couple then I get inspired to write something down in my own notebook - even if it is just little random thoughts or ideas. for me, they help get the creative juices flowing. the problem is, that sometimes I don't end up finishing reading the zine in one sitting. sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. also the DIY / grassroots feel about them makes me feel like I could make one too, though perhaps I'm too old for this these days, and if I write it should be about serious issues or in an academic manner (though I don't tend to write in this way anyway)
came across some more interesting projects so listing them here until I have a chance to make separate articles for them (in no particular order...)
MCA zine workshop - MCA are hosting a zine making workshop in August. it's over 3 days, and participants will learn the RISO print process. I'm not familiar with RISO printing so I asked on the aus-zines mail list and Keg de Souza was kind enough to send this reply:
hey kath
the riso is a stencil press
the rizzeria is a collectively run print press
and that's who will be running the workshop
there's some examples of what it can do and
more info on the rizzeria here: http://www.rizzeria.com/about
cheers,
keg
starting a list of knit for charity sites & links - I wrote up a short piece about knitting for charity for "Winter Zine" after reading their call for submissions, so adding to it here to keep track of the links
---
(zine submission - I still think I tend to write in 'promotional' style even though I don't mean to, so not sure if they'll use it..)
Knitting for Charity to keep yourself warm (... in person and in spirit)
The best thing about winter is that it's too cold and rainy to go out often at night, so I tend to stay in and catch up on my knitted UFOs - unfinished objects. I pull out yarn and patterns and needles and sit on the couch under a warm blanket, with the heater on, and watching TV or a movie or listening to music. So far this winter I've finished a knitted cushion cover which was started towards the end of summer, and have almost finished a knitted pillow toy for my cousin's son.
I went along to the Engage Media - Sydney screening in May 2009 and saw four Indonesian community-based films. It was amazing to hear of some of the collectives and community work going on there. Engage Media work tirelessly in documenting projects across Asia Pacific and have a large video library of films. Regular screenings are held to share the films with people in other communities. I asked Andy from Engage Media what the organisation was all about :
trying out ARToolKit. the software is installed OK and the initial post-installation tests worked. this is the the first example. it shows a plain blue virtual cube on the hiro marker.
it worked for me, but (when I ran the test last night) I had to tilt the camera (built-in isight) down as there was too much light from overhead. the test today, is done during the day with no light on in the room. it doesn't keep the cube there all the time. I think this could also be due to me using a paper printout - I haven't glued the marker to cardboard yet. and also my printer seems to be running low on black ink so the marker's black sections are a little streaky.
but it's good enough for a first test!
(documenting progress & tests as I go)
22-23/05/2009
movie filenames :
20090523_artoolkit-hiro-test01_low-light_23052009556.mov
20090523_artoolkit-hiro-test01_low-light_23052009556-exp.mov (upload version)
GE AR - augmented reality
I tried playing this AR video at home tonight and it worked! this is the first attempt so the video I took is a bit dodgy but it gives an idea. the cat was purring whilst I was recording and kept nudging my head. I tried blowing on the mic but couldn't get the windmill blades to spin. try it out! now I want to try make my own!!
thanks to @LukeSnarl for tweeting the link
GE page
- print out the marker
- u might need to upgrade your flash player to v10
- turn on your webcam (mac - do this with flash player not photobooth - read the help tips on the url for help)
- launch wind power or solar energy links
(if you just see the green oval spinning then it probably can't see your camera)
- hold the marker printout so it's facing your webcam.. then watch the 3d images appear!
this is amazing!
he's made a game using cubes - called Levelhead - it's won all sorts of awards (deservedly so!)
he explains it on his website @ http://julianoliver.com/levelhead (& has code for you to try too)
Julian is part of HIT Lab NZ - The Human Interface Technology Laboratory New Zealand - from their site it looks like they're doing some pretty cool stuff!!
10:00 PM May 15th from web : oh right, so I could scan a mobile code on a poster/flyer and it'll take me to the url. maybe I could make a video/flipbook-book of codes
helping with a new site - using drupal 6 to build it. it's for a music label. I haven't had a chance to talk to the guys much yet about what they want, so it's very early stages & I'm testing some of the new drupal 6 modules that I haven't used before + some old favourites
I want to try an online store to sell file downloads and physical cds etc
