"I gave a talk yesterday at the Web 2.0 Summit. It's a short talk, only 10 minutes long, so I decided to skip Web 3 - Web 9 and just speak about the upcoming Web 10.0 and what I think will happen in the next 6,500 days."

Kevin Kelly

Via BoingBoing

... and Earth!

I just read about the Flag of Earth and flew so far...
Via Conceptual Trends

The Flag of Earth was created by James Cadle inspired by the debate before the first astronauts landed on the Moon about the flag to be planted as a symbol of the accomplishment. The American flag, which doesn't represent all inhabitants of Earth but a nation that complete the mission, was planted, as we know.

That's OK. There are loads of opportunities to use the Flag of Earth!



"The Flag of Earth is intended to be used for ANY purpose that is representative of Humankind as a whole, and not connected to any country, organization, or individual. James made it his life's work to promote and distribute this flag everywhere."
...
"The Flag of Earth could be flown if you are conducting a project or event which benefits the Earth as a whole ... not just your community or country."
...
"The Flag of Earth symbolizes the Earth (the center blue disk), the Sun (the yellow disk on the left), and the Moon (the white disk on the right). The Earth and its most important celestial neighbors - the Sun and Moon - are overlaid on a backdrop of the darkness of space."
...
"As you read this, that job is underway. The Flag of Earth is now beginning to understand its purpose, its power, its goal and its place in this Universe."

Read more North American AstroPhysical Observatory | NAAPO

Maybe everybody subscribe The Technium by Kevin Kelly.
Anyway it's here if someone don't.
"Cloud Culture
While there is only One Machine, there are many cloud computers. Each is a collective of computers acting as one computer.
..."

New Omodaka video for "Asadoya Yunta"

(Which my translator said "cheap village home".)

沢瀉 (OMODAKA) is a collaberative project between Soichi Terada and various other artists (some of them visual artists, not musicians). This close work with visual artists is readily apparent when watching Omodaka’s music videos. Soichi Terada originally studied computer science at the University of Electro-Communications. During his stint there, he did some work as a session musician. He’s been composing, remixing, and arranging tracks for a variety of albums and projects since 1989. He started the music label FarEast Recording.

directed by Yoshiyuki Komatsu
Via Japanator

As I see Omodata as a collaborative project doing this "cheap village home" is totally into Polytopia concept. What do you think about?

Cynthia

Army developing ‘synthetic telepathy’
Similar technology marketed as a way to control video games by thought



By Eric Bland
...
Known as synthetic telepathy, the technology is based on reading electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalograph, or EEG. Similar technology is being marketed as a way to control video games by thought.

"I think that this will eventually become just another way of communicating," said Mike D'Zmura, from the University of California, Irvine and the lead scientist on the project.
...

Via Boing Boing
(comments recommended)

All Together Now: Developmental and ethical considerations for biologically uplifting nonhuman animals.

George Dvorsky

THE SUPERSTAR: Self-Sustaining City of the Future
by Evelyn Lee



"The city of tomorrow takes to the skies in an incredible new concept from Beijing-based MAD Architects. Although its spires may look menacing, the aptly named Superstar is a completely self-sustaining city that is capable of producing all of its own power and food while recycling all of its waste. Conceived as a future-forward update to the contemporary Chinatown, the Superstar will travel the globe, supplying its host cities with energy, commerce, and cultural activities."

Via inHabitat
and read more

I made this collage in 1994 (about). Still looks like today for me despite of yellowing.

Loads of bulletins and robots everywhere...

As I read on Robots Rules:
"Pleo is the exciting, adorable baby robot dinosaur, or artificial life form, that is taking the world by storm. Unlike other robot toys, Pleo has feeling and desires of his or her own. Pleo’s endearing lifelike movements and wonderfully realistic emotions will capture your imagination and steal your heart away. (Don’t want to wait? Click here to buy Pleo now.)"



But first I was reading on MAKE (one of my favourites feeds) that "GRIP has several detailed tutorials on adding a "spycam" to Pleo, to create a facial recognition system (via off-bot processing on a PC), and an XBee Module for RF communications to/from Pleo."

So... going with the flow...
GRIP Group for Interdisciplinary Psychology
is a multi-professional workgroup of Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg / Germany. Our team of psychologists, medical and computer scientist concentrates on clarifying psychological questions concerning science, education and economics.
One focus in this connection is on the different levels of human-machine-interaction.

And they are making studies with Pleo. For about 1 hour you get in contact to this baby dinosaur spied by this team of psychologists. You can appoint by email or telephone.
And I answer a short online questionaire about the future scenarios describing possible future social fields of application of robots.

Why I did it?
I don't feel excited about this b a b y d i n o s a u r.
The GRIP website has no appeal at all. It is so cold. Actually is ugly... And the idea of a dinosaur... ???

I think I would like to work in one of this robots projects. Or maybe not!
Maybe I am just tired this lovely rainy winter night.
ZZZzzz...

I think this is a significant step to the evolution of human-robot relationships.



Heart Robot
Created by scientists at the University of the West of England in Bristol

"The Concept

"How will people change when the machines around them seem to have emotions? Soon there will be robots around us that use the language of emotion - smiling, looking sad or worried - in order to communicate with us more easily. Even though these robots won't have real emotions, we might easily imagine they do!

"Will this change us? Maybe it will, maybe it won't... but these 'emotional machines' will be part of our lives soon!

"We decided to use a puppet to bring these questions to people outside of Science Fairs and in the streets. Puppeteers know how to make things 'come alive' so they seem to have emotions. With a puppet with robotic features perhaps we can show people a little glimpse of how they might react to robots soon.
...



"We wanted to make a puppet to which people might respond emotionally. We wanted the puppet to seem vulnerable, alien, and cartoony. Something new! Something handmade, not factory-built.
...

"The materials we chose had to be right to make people want to touch Heart. His body is made of a plastic called Polymorph which you can shape in your hands, and his suit is made from padding and silk. We used silicon rubber to make his beating heart and breathing belly. Heart's 'bones' are connected with kite-line and bungee cords which are strong and flexible, and which act a bit like sinews and tendons.
...



"We wanted to use rhythm and tension to make it look as though Heart has emotions. The rhythm of his breathing and heartbeat speeds up and he becomes more tense as he gets more 'worried'. He slows down and relaxes as he becomes 'happier'. His emotional state changes according to how you interact with him.
...

"Heart is a puppet as well as a simple robot. As the puppeteer moves Heart, Heart gets more excited!"

via Boing Boing