Eclipse Phase

Five for the Future 05-22-09

Submitted by RobBoyle on Fri, 2009-05-22 15:08
How biotech will drive our evolution ...

... and how enhancement will destroy the real you

Humanity Plus (formerly the World Transhumanist association) launches its new website

Hovercraft + ATV = Hoverpod

A possible path to femtotechnology

These and other links can be found at http://delicious.com/infomorph
End of the Week, End of the World 05-22-09

Submitted by RobBoyle on Fri, 2009-05-22 15:07

Humanity Plus magazine asks several sci-writers, AI researchers, and other tech-thinkers if a Terminator-style scenario is possible. The results range from interesting to humorous.

Well, if someone built a global computer security system and intentionally made it highly intelligent, autonomous and creative... so as to allow it to better combat complex security threats (and ever-more-intelligent computer worms and viruses) ... well, perhaps so. It's not beyond the pale. A narrow-AI computer security system wouldn't spontaneously develop general intelligence, initiative and so forth.... but an AGI computer security system might... and the boundary between narrow AI and AGI may grow blurry in the next decades...
That's from Ben Goertzel's response, and he essentially nails the idea we had with the TITANs in Eclipse Phase.

In a similar vein, take a look at this site: Preventing Skynet.
Wolfram Alpha

Submitted by RobBoyle on Mon, 2009-05-18 00:57

Wolfram Alpha launched this past weekend. Though it has its quirks, it is notable as a new type of "computational knowledge" search engine. For RPG players who like to crunch numbers and science, especially with a game like Eclipse Phase, it has some interesting potential.

For example, let's say you've set your personal Eclipse Phase game in the year 2100, and you need to know what day of the week May 17th falls on. Enter "May 17, 2100" and Wolfram Alpha tells you it's Monday, among other details.

Let's say your character wants to egocast (transmit their uploaded mind) between Mars and Europa on this date. Well, how far do these two happen to be apart on that date? Enter "distance between mars and europa may 17, 2100" and Wolfram Alpha tells you they are about 5.075 AU, or 42.21 light minutes apart. So that egocast is going to take ~42 minutes.

That's just getting started. Here are some other interesting uses:
EP on Twitter

Submitted by RobBoyle on Sun, 2009-05-17 23:57

For those of you who indulge in twitter, we now have a separate account for Eclipse Phase. This is, of course, in addition to the twitter feeds for Catalyst Game Labs and the various folks who have contributed to EP, such as Rob Boyle, Brian Cross, Jack Graham, and Adam Jury.
Five for the Future 5-15-09

Submitted by RobBoyle on Fri, 2009-05-15 22:48
Using metamaterials to create illusions

Where to find alien life

Would Advanced civilizations huddle around black holes?

Creating a cone of silence

Stross on the future of gaming

These and other links can be found at http://delicious.com/infomorph

Blogs

Five for the Future 05-22-09

End of the Week, End of the World 05-22-09

Wolfram Alpha

EP on Twitter

Five for the Future 5-15-09

Pages