In my recent review of Coding Freedom by E. Gabriella Coleman, published on io9, I describe the tension between the open-source movement in software and the tightening of copyright law. Coleman examines in anthropological detail the conflict between the open-source … Continue reading
In November Ray Kurzweil published a book titled How to Create A Mind, and five weeks later he was hired by Google as chief engineer. The book lays out a pattern-recognition theory of mind, arguing that this idea is reflected in advances in artificial intelligence, and can be inferred from developments in neuroscience. If true, the field of AI may leap forward with Kurzweil as the guiding hand of Google’s laboratory. In any case, the theory deserves close study. Here is my short (ten-page) summary of his book, and a few comments. Continue reading
In this short book from 2009, Arthur, an economist and complexity theorist, gives a compelling and “organic” description of technology. He looks at the purpose of any created artifact from shoes to airplanes and tries to find what they have in common, where the whole is going, and why we should care. His conclusions are profound, although easy to understand, and they have important implications for the future. Continue reading
