Collective Intelligence | Conversation | Edge

Collective Intelligence | Conversation | Edge
"It's also possible for groups of people to work together in ways that seem pretty stupid, and I think collective stupidity is just as possible as collective intelligence. Part of what I want to understand and part of what the people I'm working with want to understand is what are the conditions that lead to collective intelligence rather than collective stupidity. But in whatever form, either intelligence or stupidity, this collective behavior has existed for a long time. "

BBC - Future - Technology - Will the internet become conscious?

BBC - Future - Technology - Will the internet become conscious?

Time's quantum arrow has a preferred direction: BaBar experiment confirms time asymmetry

Time's quantum arrow has a preferred direction: BaBar experiment confirms time asymmetry

a violation of time reversal symmetry and confirmation that some subatomic processes have a preferred direction of time.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-11-quantum-arrow-babar-asymmetry.html#jCp

Human brain, internet, and cosmology: Similar laws at work?

Human brain, internet, and cosmology: Similar laws at work?: "Having the ability to predict – let alone trying to control – the dynamics of complex networks remains a central challenge throughout network science. Structural and dynamical similarities among different real networks suggest that some universal laws might be in action, although the nature and common origin of such laws remain elusive."

'via Blog this'

Safely Switching Consciousness Off and On Again: Scientific American

Safely Switching Consciousness Off and On Again: Scientific American: When consciousness was lost after anesthesia was initiated—that is, when the patients no longer opened their eyes following the command—the cortical EEG changed dramatically, switching from low amplitude and irregular activity into readings dominated by large and slow brain waves that occur about once every second. Such so-called delta band activity is characteristic of deep sleep. Furthermore, the complexity of the cortical EEG signal decreased significantly when patients stopped responding. None of these changes occurs in the thalamic electrode at the time that consciousness is lost.

‘Bi-Fi’ — the biological Internet | KurzweilAI

‘Bi-Fi’ — the biological Internet | KurzweilAI: Cells engineered with M13 can be programmed to communicate in much more complex, powerful ways than ever before. The possible messages are limited only by what can be encoded in DNA and thus can include any sort of genetic instruction: start growing, stop growing, come closer, swim away, produce insulin and so forth.

How Culture Drove Human Evolution | Conversation | Edge

How Culture Drove Human Evolution | Conversation | Edge: The emergence of high-moralizing gods is an important example of this. In small-scale hunter-gatherer religions, the gods are typically whimsical. They're amoral. They're not concerned with your sexual behavior or your social behavior. Often you'll make bargains with them, but as we begin to move to the religions in more complex societies, we find that the gods are increasingly moralizing. They're concerned about exactly the kinds of things that are going to be a problem for running a large-scale society, like how you treat other members of your religious group or your ethnic group.