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The Ryūgū-jō 竜宮城 is the palace of the dragon king Watatsumi 綿津見. It lies on the seabed and is home for marine animals. Legend has it that the palace was built or pure crystal.
“The Dragon King of the Four Seas” 1801-1850, located in the British Museum.
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The ‘X17’ particle: Scientists may have discovered the fifth force of nature
"In 2016, observations from Hungarian researchers suggested the existence of an unknown type of subatomic particle. Subsequent analyses suggested that this particle was a new type of boson, the existence of which could help explain dark matter and other phenomena in the universe. A new paper is currently awaiting peer review."
#Comment: The slow motion collapse of the cult of the standard model and materialism continues. The Fifth Force (no, not that bad scifi movie 'The 5th Element') or any other magical quick fix most likely won't change that. In infinity, there is always one more mysterious particle waiting to be discovered - a sisyphusian endeavor. In summary, "I got 99 problems but a X17 ain't one". #Science #Space
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Cognitive Bias Codex
Wikipedia: "A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own 'subjective social reality' from their perception of the input. An individual's construction of social reality, not the objective input, may dictate their behavior in the social world. Thus, cognitive biases may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what is broadly called irrationality."
#Comment: Why do scientists tend to describe cognitive bias as if they were a terrible pathological condition? Why do they casually dismiss their crucial role for serendipity, creativity and joy? One beings "perceptional distortion" or "illogical, subjective reality" is another's unique evolutionary path. Narrowly defining and enforcing normal is a job for dictators. Wisely negotiating the politics of experience requires simplicity, compassion and patience - not reason, norms, metrics, objectives and force.
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Deutsche Bank To Replace 18,000 Workers With Robots (via)
"The bank's head of operations said that using AI 'massively increased productivity in certain sectors'. Deutsche is pushing to 'automate large parts of its back-office' via a new strategy called 'Operations 4.0', as part of its $6.6 billion savings initiative."
#Comment: This is a shameless, peak bullshit way of announcing corporate collapse and bankruptcy. Long term mismanagement, corruption and criminal activities at a massive scale brought them here - and no fictitious "AI" will fix that.
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The Lies About World War II - by Paul Craig Roberts. << While i do not agree with many things in this post, it is still thought provoking & the following quote is spot-on:
"In the aftermath of a war, history cannot be written. The losing side has no one to speak for it. Historians on the winning side are constrained by years of war propaganda that demonized the enemy while obscuring the crimes of the righteous victors. People want to enjoy and feel good about their victory, not learn that their side was responsible for the war or that the war could have been avoided except for the hidden agendas of their own leaders. Historians are also constrained by the unavailability of information. To hide mistakes, corruption, and crimes, governments lock up documents for decades. Memoirs of participants are not yet written. Diaries are lost or withheld from fear of retribution. It is expensive and time consuming to locate witnesses, especially those on the losing side, and to convince them to answer questions. Any account that challenges the “happy account” requires a great deal of confirmation from official documents, interviews, letters, diaries, and memoirs, and even that won’t be enough. A historian on the track of the truth faces long years of strenuous investigation and development of the acumen to judge and assimilate the evidence he uncovers into a truthful picture of what transpired. The truth is always immensely different from the victor’s war propaganda.
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Follow up post: The Truth About World War II Is Beginning to Emerge 74 Years Later
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"The phrase 'may you live in interesting times' is the lowest in a trilogy of Chinese curses that continue 'may you come to the attention of those in authority' and finish with 'may the gods give you everything you ask for.' I have no idea about its authenticity." - Terry Pratchett - #China #Philosophy #Comedy #Politics #Magic
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New Tag on Samim.io: #Comment. Used to mark all things i commented on, in the ocean of links i post here. Inspired by the "firstperson" tag on jwz's blog.
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Ride-Hailing Apps Have Allowed More Binging and Increased Demand For Bartenders.
"A study published last week analyzed ridesharing's effects on binge drinking and found that it increased heavy drinking by around 20% and increased employment at bars and restaurants by an average of 2%."
#Comment: A nice illustration that every technological augmentation comes with a side of amputation, the topic of a recent talk i gave: "Augmentation, Amputation, Dehumanisation - Towards Life Centered Design". #Augmentation #Health
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Illustration by Réber László (1920-2001). #Art #Mindful
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Illustrations depicting the Zen master Zhaozhou Congshen (778–897).
by 李蕭錕 Li Xiaokun aka Quenten Lee / Lee Hsiao-kun (1949-) #Mindful #Art
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Poems from the collected songs of Cold Mountain, translated by Red Pine. #Mindful
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Ctrl-labs CEO: "We’ll have neural interfaces in less than 5 years."
#Comment: Ctrl-labs CEO Thomas Reardon is the poster child snake oil salesmen, hence a good fit for facebook which recently acquired his startup. He is always perversely overselling the basic #BCI capabilities they aim to eventually productize - stuff that has been around for 25+ years and is progressing only gradually. While "move a cursor with your mind" is a neat party trick, it isn't all that useful from a #HCI perspective (we evolved to use eyes/hands over millions of years, a highly fine-tuned modality). And using BCI for more complex tasks ("general thought to action") is still very much in basic scientific research territory (and an ethical nightmare). Certainly, BCI makes #VR (fb's other complex long-term bet) look like child's play.
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Recology adds robotics to produce cleaner plastics
"A West Coast operator installed four artificial intelligence units at its high-tech San Francisco MRF. A company manager explained how the machinery is working in conjunction with optical sorters to boost recovery and reduce contamination."
"I don’t get sick. I don’t need breaks, lunches or days off. I work harder, longer and better than anyone else. I’m more accurate and more efficient than anyone could be. Thanks to my intelligent neural network, I’m capable of learning on the job so I can adapt to changing conditions and variables. Lowering costs & improving productivity"
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Too Much Screen Time May Be Stunting Toddlers’ Brains - Study by Harvard Med
"A new study using brain scans showed that the white matter in the brains of children who spent hours in front of screens wasn’t developing as fast as it was in the brains of kids who didn’t. It’s in the white matter of the brain where language, other literacy skills, and the process of mental control and self-regulation develop, researchers say."
#Comment: Calling Captain Obvious: An entire generation of technologists, designers and business people, who are willingly driving kids into tech addiction to maximize profits, belong in a mental institution and/or jail. Kids hooked on tech is a ticking time-bomb, this is just the tip of a giant iceberg. #Health #Technology
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A Virtual Beings Summit Is Taking Place Today In Hollywood.
"The second Virtual Beings Summit is being held today at the United Talent Agency Theater in Beverly Hills, L.A. The one-day event features demos and presentations by a range of top professionals in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector." << The bullshit factor is very high! Investment banker & Marketing people screaming AI, argh..
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Incredibly well preserved 18,000 year old wolf/dog. The comments on Reddit are fun.
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Revolutionizing agriculture with synthetic biology (unpaywalled)
"Synthetic biology is here to stay and will transform agriculture if given the chance. The huge challenges facing food, fuel and chemical production make it vital to give synthetic biology that chance—notwithstanding the shifts in mindset, training and infrastructure investment this demands. Here, we assess opportunities for agricultural synthetic biology and ways to remove barriers."
