Holeee frack.

Any Singularitarian out there knows that brain simulations are a big indicator of major steps towards the Big Discontinuity; once human beings are running on silicon, at 100X bio-speed, something weird and wonderful should result post-haste.

So brain simulations are always interesting, and some IBM researchers have taken a functional model of half a mouse brain (8,000,000 neurons, 6,300 synapses per neuron), and run it on a BlueGene/L supercomputer. 1 second of in-model time took 10 seconds of computer time to crunch…performance, of course, will only improve.

Jamais Cascio has some interesting thoughts on the matter…for example, what happens when a mouse brain can be simulated at FASTER than real-time? 1000X faster? Does something emerge? Fascinating to consider.

FORA.tv is pretty interesting…they are focusing on recording and distributing the audio and video of discussion in forums like C-SPAN, the EFF, the Hoover Instituion, and the Cato Institute (just to name a few). Included are tools to build RSS feeds based on your interests, discussion boards, etc. If I can get a good podcasting feed set up, I might become an avid user; I’m kind of a wonk when it comes to these things.

UPDATE: URLs are a bit of a pain to share; they should make it easier. A couple of example videos: Neil Gaiman at Cody’s Books, Oct 2 2006, and Kevin Phillips discusses American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century at the Commonwealth Club of California on April 18, 2007.

I had NO idea DIY rapid prototypers had gotten this far: RepRap — RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is a practical self-copying 3D printer…The RepRap build cost will be less than $400 US for the bought-in materials, all of which have been selected to be as widely available everywhere in the world as possible. We hope to announce self-replication in 2008.

Yowza. We are close. This I have to try.

I’ve long been a fan of the Skepticality podcast, and I cheered when they became the official podcast of Skeptic magazine. They just keep getting better; episode 49 is a must listen.

Dr. Shermer talks to author and Stanford emeritus Professor Philip Zimbardo on the release of his new book, The Lucifer Effect which ponders the question, what causes some people to commit acts of evil while others become unexpected heroes.

Anyone with an interest in humanism, the nature of evil, and how good people are convinced to do bad things should definitely grab this episode. Dr. Zimbardo (conductor of the infamous Stanford prison experiment) provides scientific theories that affirm and reinforce intuitions I have about human nature; I’ve put The Lucifer Effect on my booklist!

Here is the blip.tv page, and direct MP3 download link for the March 30th episode.

I talk about the first chapter of Yochai Benkler’s Wealth of Networks. Summarizing the arguments out loud should help me to better integrate the points into my worldview, and might give you a decent overview of Benkler’s work. (Though I don’t do it justice…do yourself a wonderful service and read it yourself!)

I haven’t re-tracked down the vlog survey link yet…I’ll add it when I find it!

Due to popular demand (ok, Lee asked), I’ve created an RSS feed for my reading list. The webpage (which has existed forever, but in case you haven’t noticed) is here, and the RSS feed is here (ie, that’s the link to subscribe to in RSS reader). Note: it’s possible I’ll be playing with the format of the items in the feed over the next few days, but the data should stay fundamentally the same. Have at it!

That was easy. I so dig Django! New urlspace should be popping up in my /library/ area over the next few days as well; more info on books and movies, reviews, etc. Fun stuff.

Surprise, surprise…the owner of HD.net sees big things for TVs in the future…In 3 years the mainstream TV will be 70″ and cost less than $1500. In 5 years, it could be 100″ for $2500 dollars . Yes, you will make room for it. You will redesign the family room or your bedroom to make room.. Hmm…

Don’t get me wrong…I very much enjoy reading Mark Cuban’s blog. He’s got a great vision. But I dunno about that What’s Next…Watch TV deal. A good point is made in the comments section; Mark talks about the PC and the Internet being old news now…but TV is even older, and more boring! Definitely worth reading, though.

Note: I don’t have an XBox 360 (or and XBox Live acct). But I do enjoy a nice game of multiplayer Halo/Halo 2, with my buddies, on the XBox. So this is pretty sweet: Halo 3 Multiplayer to Be Released May 16. Nice highlights/interview video included. (And I’ll never have Vista on this machine, so no Games for Windows Live; but Team Fortress Classic rocks!

I’m still working through a fascinating Washington Post article from this past Sunday. Back in January, the Post tried a test…they took a world-renowned violinist, had him enter the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station posing as a street performer, toss some coins into his (Stradivarius) case, and play some of the world’s finest music for about 45 minutes. And secretly videotaped the passers-by. Who mostly ignored him. A really well-thought out piece of journalism, discussing beauty and it’s context, perception, and expectation.

thanks to Susan Crawford for the link!

Found two great posts on this already, so I don’t even really have to talk about Tim O’Reilly’s Draft Bloggers Code of Conduct. Matt from 37 Signals nails it with Living In The City, and Dave Slusher agrees and expounds in Code of Conduct.
So…I’ll stick with these guys, and take a pass. Thanks anyway, Tim. Good books, though!

UPDATE: props to Tim on the lessons learned so far. He’s trying to get to a good place, I think. I’m not sure I agree with all of it, but I hear what he’s saying.