IT Trends :: Thursday, October 26, 2006
Opinion
Trying to See Past “The Singularity”: Accelerando and Glasshouse
By Terry Calhoun
“How do you cope with a universe in which human scale thoughts are about as significant to the real course of events as the barking of dogs is to air traffic control?”
As I write this, I am putting down the book I just finished at the downtown Washington, DC, airport: Glasshouse by Charles Stross. I recommend it, as well as a previous book by Strosser, Accelerando. I finished the last 100 pages or so of Glasshouse while sitting up against the glass in the terminal on a very gray day, hogging the single working electrical outlet on a two-outlet panel, listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (with headphones).
“It’s hard to say who you are these days, but you ride on anyways . . . don’t you, baby?” was an appropriate phrase to hear as I finished this book, and the uncertainty created by human-designed modifications to bodies, brains, memories, and personalities certainly makes it hard for the characters to know who each other is. Here are some comments by Strosser regarding the singularity an Accelerando...
Read Complete Article | Back to top
IT News
What Is the Worth of Words? Will It Matter If People Can’t Read in the Future?
“Reading itself is an inherently artificial human activity…”...
Read More | Back to top
The iPod Revolution
It’s official now...
Read More | Back to top
Faculty Voice Discontent to Trustees at Ohio University
This article has little to do with information technology...
Read More | Back to top
An 'Open Book' Future Is On the Way
Now the author of a paper or book can act more as a...
Read More | Back to top
Deals, Contracts, Awards
More Batteries Recalled – Few Consumers Bother
The latest recall brings the number up over...
Read More | Back to top
UB Provides Community with Assistance, Expertise in Wake of Storm
The University of Buffalo has reached out with…
Read More | Back to top
New Technology
Microsoft Eyes Future of Teleconferencing with RoundTable
Microsoft’s new product...
Click here for details
Our Cyborg Selves
Are we already “bioborgs?”...
Click here for details
The Information Factories: Welcome to the Internet Cloud
Google is leading the way to...
Click here for details
Spamming Worm Gets into Cal Poly Computers
No one is sure how it got in yet...
Click here for details
