Humanist Blackout : Part 1
Posted 8:45 AM

My experiences during the World Future Society's annual conference are so broad and complex, that it's going to take time for me to finish posting my commentary on it.

Here's Part I:

Due to a severe resurgence of laziness and mudding, which had been in remission, I was considering ditching the conference, even though I had bought tickets.

Then, there was the explosion and total blackout south of 14th street. People were trapped in subways, traffic lights were out. 63,000 customers were reported as having an outage, but the news forgot to report mention that Lower Manhattan is the businest business district in the country, with a daytime population 7 to 10 times the residential population. Most phones and cell phones were out. I'd estimate 400,000 people were downtown at the time*. What's worse is that the cause of the explosion is still under a hushed investigation, with national guardsman patrolling the east side. I guess we're just sick of upsetting people? Anyway, rather than stick around and be a victim of chaos, I walked 30 blocks to Penn Station (no cabs, no car service, nada!), and took a train to 30th Street Station.

I cheked in at the Mariott, and wandered over to the Lowes (which was full), just before the opening ceremony. The titles were mostly self-helpy things like Coping with change, which put me off. Only a few there I'd read. Age of Spiritual Machines by Kurzwiel and Welcome to the Nanoworld. I resolved to buy at least one book for review, and it was hard to find one. Was tempted to read a book on humanist philosophy, but I've been avoiding that because I think it's important to avoid premature influences. I chose Reality Isn't What It Used to Be because the sensationalist title clashed with the tasteful writing style, and I liked the contrast.

More to come...

* Estimate based on these reports: http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/reports/stop_frisk/ch5_part1.html, http://www.therousecompany.com/operation/specialty/southstreetseaport.html

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Posted 7:29 AM

Somehow, the picture at this "tasteful" CNN article doesn't seem graphic/freaky, until you read the 4th paragraph from the bottom.
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Iceland Metasearch
Posted 5:58 PM

Just had a talk with www.ilectric.com's developer. It's actually a way better search engine than it looks at first glance. It metasearches all the major engines, and uses weighted cross-ranking them for superior relevancy, taking the strengths of each (breadth, depth, relevancy) ... and combining them into one search. There's a lot of metasearches, but this one's actually got some logic behind it, and he's working on making it better. You have to scroll past amazon results first (annoying) - but he's working on it (or at least he told me he'd work on it). If he ever does work on it, i might even use it. He told me about his hidden Evil Search, not really an easter egg, but cute.

Yay, I'm going to Iceland in mid-August! Renting a jeep, gonna see lava fields, ice sheets, and will probably fall in a crevasse, or get killed in a snowmobile accident. Packing a brand-spanking-new 5 megapixel Minolta DiMAGE 7i for the trip with a couple 1 GB IBM Microdrives... so you can see whether that camera sucks by visiting this site in September. But... my god.... what's fashionable to wear on a glacier?!?

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Mutant Smartbombs
Posted 7:15 AM

Avigen's successfully modifying the genetic structure of adults on a regular basis now. Their modifications are minor, surgical gene vectors for curing specific diseases, but I've signed up for the "shoot lasers from my eyes" - mutant clinical trial.

The World Future Society is having a conference next week. I'm going to look for transhumanist socialists, but all I'll probably find is a bunch of flaky, liberal neo-utopianists. Whatever.

Spamcop has saved me from having to slog through spam all day. So now I have more time to get my remorted dual-class Monk/Cleric up to third-tier at Devil's Lament. But, I'll probably get sick of it before then.

I keep buying stock as it goes down. I think we finally hit bottom. I bought Lucent again at $2.10, and Worldcom at 0.10. I mean, we all still need phone lines and Internet connections, right? Even though it's clear that our warmonger administration will be pumping billions into the defense industry, I can't, in good faith, help prop up the purchase of these high-tech toys that clearly present us with no military advantage in a war on terrorism.

Speaking of the war on terrorism, I think it's clear that anyone who is steeped in absolute poverty and starvation will swiftly learn to hate the idle wealthy Americans. Every terrorist act has been committed by poor people. It's not just radical religious groups. It's basically anyone who works hard all week long and is still so poor that they can't afford to eat properly, or has to live in a box or something. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to find people willing to tie bombs to their bellies - in a world without extreme poverty. Check out the movie War Photographer for some perspective on exactly why people around this world will continue to hate us, regardless of how many smartbombs we drop on them.

Labels: science

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Genetic Cucumber
Posted 1:00 PM

From weather.com: "excessive heat warnings are posted from New York City southward for the Fourth; it's going to feel like the Okefenokee Swamp."

My god, it's so damn hot today, I actually bought cold soup from the soup lady on Prince (Spring maybe?). I nearly bought Gazpacho, but ... that's like drinking salsa.

Man, the job market must be tough! We got 500 resumes in 3 days for a new tech job opening on monster.com. Way too many to read. Some people were even willing to relocate to New York from faraway places like New Jersey. My advice: When emailing a resume don't use an attachment. The reader can search through them for skills (like perl, c++ , etc.), rather than clicking on each one. Also, don't use fancy fonts. And spell stuff rite.

Did you know that we (the human race, not me personally) can modify the genetic structure of a fully grown human using virual vectors? Avigen has conducted several successful trials on people. So don't worry, you won't be completely left out of the genetic revolution. Of course, your kids will benefit more. Microsort will guarantee your child will be free of certain defects, and if you slip them an extra $5K (on the sly), they'll guarantee musical talent, sports prowess and intelligence.

I'm the first one's gonna sign up for the "make me smarter" gene mod trial. I keep forgettin stuff, and my writing is crap.

Labels: science

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Viva la Revolucion
Posted 7:36 AM

Thought about creating an info virus to spawn technocratic meritocracy - who hasn't? But this one, currently making the rounds, doesn't seem to be it.

fakes.txt

Search term pairs don't show any correlated sites. You try writing a noncomputer virus. Must appeal to sex/religion no? What do they have in common? Death (or fear of it!) This one doesn't - so I'm assuming it's a trojan/virus prop, rather than info prop.

"We do not promise to free you from death through propagation or power or imaginary visions of utopia. We only can deliver immortality the long, slow hard way - through personal and popular investment."

"Our current vision is of immortality through humility and sacrifice. The power of 6 billion souls united can do more than just split atoms! We can reconstruct our collective vision of humanity in order to progress towards a common goal of personal excellence and maximum achievement."

"Faith is a dirty word. It means you aren't using your mind. Prop that? Not bloody likely in the current climate of dogmatic leadership and blind belief.

Perhaps technocratic separatism and war is the only final solution.

Against who? All who try to stop us.
Who are we? Everyone who does not belive.
Am I one of you? If you don't know the answer, then the answer is yes.
What weapon do we use? Their own against them. (We're not warriors!)

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