Anand wins 2008 Chess World Championship

India's Viswanathan Anand has retained his FIDE World Chess Championship title by beating Russia's Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn, Germany. Anand defeated Kramnik 6.5:4.5 (11 games).

According to Garry Kasparov, "A great result for Anand and for chess. Vishy deserved the win in every way and I'm very happy for him. It will not be easy for the younger generation to push him aside."

More here and here.

Enter the robots

20 Killed in One of the Deadliest Drone Attacks Ever

Packs of Robots Will Hunt Down Uncooperative Humans

Marshal Brain Makes Splash With Structural Unemployment Message at Singularity Summit 08

Latest web fad: Robocop on Unicorn

SciAm: Jacking into the Brain--Is the Brain the Ultimate Computer Interface?

What, then, might realistically be achieved by interactions between brains and machines? Do the advances from the first EEG experiment to brain-controlled arms and cursors suggest an inevitable, deterministic progression, if not toward a Kurzweilian singularity, then perhaps toward the possibility of inputting at least some high-level cognitive information into the brain? Could we perhaps download War and Peace or, with a nod to The Matrix, a manual of how to fly a helicopter? How about inscribing the sentence “See Spot run” into the memory of someone who is unconscious of the transfer? How about just the word “see”?

Entire article.

Oliver Stone and the accidental president

When I first heard that Oliver Stone was making a film about George W. Bush I immediately assumed that it was going to be an unapologetically liberal roast-fest. I imagined W. to be a scathing and unrelenting portrayal of arguably the worst president the United States has ever seen.

With popular culture fueling my expectations, I imagined a surreal and glib rendition of the current administration along the lines of Saturday Night Live or the Colbert Report.

But after reading the reviews and hearing about Stone's supposedly 'fair' and 'balanced' portrayal of Bush, I started to pay more attention. Some commentators went so far as to say that the movie made them feel pity for the man.

Pity for Dubya?

What was Stone up to? This is the last director, I thought, who would let the Bush administration off easily.

And Bush is the last president, I thought, who deserves anyone's pity -- a man who has done more to terrorize people at home and abroad than the terrorists he's worked so hard to combat; a man who started an illegal war in the Middle East that has caused the deaths of nearly 100,000 civilians; a man who ignored one of the worst natural disasters to strike the US in modern memory; a man who has created unparalleled divisiveness amongst his own people. I could go on.

And even for me -- a Buddhist who strives to practice universal compassion -- this man has put my patience to the test.

Given all this I was very motivated to see and judge this movie for myself.

Powerful cinematic realism

And indeed, it was no late-night television caricature. Rather, W. is a typical Hollywood foray into super-realist cinema. But it is a realism that is far more upsetting and revealing than any pithy character attack.

By painting a fairly objective and first-person portryal of Bush, and by dramatising the twisted machinations and personalities of his administration, Oliver Stone has created a disturbing film that undoubtedly offers more impact than any other approach. The realness of it -- being right there amongst the major players and watching the events unfold -- cast an eerie light on not just this administration, but on the United States itself and how politics is done in that country.

W. subtly reveals the perils of populist politics by chronicling the unexpected and advantageous chain of events that brings the most unlikeliest of men to the White House. During one scene, for example, the campaigning Bush touts his ability to connect with ordinary citizens on account of his experience running the Texas Rangers baseball club. It's impossible to watch this scene and not think of Sarah Palin as she uses her experience as a hockey mom to appeal to populist sensibilities. This is an America that is consistently asking for trouble by grossly over-estimating the abilities of certain politicians. 

The deluded decider

Stone presents a George W. Bush who is ignorant, arrogant and shockingly unreflective -- a man who is driven by sheer ego and an unchecked desire to prove himself. At no time does this man ever question his own qualifications; in fact, the movie portrays Bush as a man who actively deludes himself into thinking that the ideas of his advisors are his very own.

He is the 'decider' after all. But he comes across as the puppet president who doesn't realize how utterly dependent he is on others and how they pull his strings. And when things don't go according to plan, he retreats like a sulking teenager to his room to watch sports highlights.

Yes, Oliver Stone created a fair portrayal of Bush and it is within this fairness that we find truth and insight. But just because we get to see a humanized George W. Bush in context doesn't diminish the horrors of this administration. If anything, it reveals a far more frightening snap-shot of Bush's first term than could have been expected.

This is the story of the accidental president who, motivated by ego and a deluded sense of religious mission, utterly failed to acknowledge that his weaknesses and deficiencies as a person made him a poor candidate for the executive office. The end result was, as proclaimed by the imaginary figure of his father, a complete fiasco.

So, is this a man who deserves our pity? Well, insofar as he is a man blinded by ego and delusion, yes he does. This man has lacked the courage and humility to admit his weaknesses, and as a result, took advantage of a country that celebrates the notion that anybody can grow up to become president. 

Indeed, any American can become president of the US -- of that we are now certain. But that doesn't mean that everybody should.

The Contrarian on Buddhism and transhumanism

"Transhumanists are sometimes ridiculed as narcissistic and deeply unsatisfied geeks, but the best of their lot are obsessed with improving the conditions for all life. They call it "uplifting," but is it really so different from the bodhissattvic mission of liberation for all sentient beings?" -- Casey Rae-Hunter

What I've been reading 2008.10.22

• Can There Be 'Quantum Darwinism?' (Scientific Blogging)
  Did you know there was such a thing as 'Quantum Darwinism'? Indeed there is, and it postulates the theory that quantum mechanical states are selected and reproduced.
• The METI Dilemma: Will Detection by Extraterrestrial Life a Threat to Earth? (Daily Galaxy)
  There has been some outrage recently over attempts to contact intelligent aliens, where instead of hiding in the corner and listening real hard some astronomers beamed intense directional messages up up and away.
• American Dream a Biological Impossibility, Neuroscientist Says (Wired)
  What if people are biologically unsuited for the American dream? The man posing that troubling question isn't just another lefty activist. It's Peter Whybrow, head of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior at UCLA.

Aging

Dan Quayle revisited

Sarah Palin is by no means the first buffoon to run for vice-president. In fact, the United States has had the misfortune of of actually having a buffoon for vice-president. I'm speaking, of course, of Dan Quayle.

Now seems like a good time to re-post a SentDev article from June of last year, "Dan Quayle quotes."

Apropos of completely nothing (aside from my wanting to spark a discussion of the anti-intellectualism that runs rampant through the Republican Party), I discovered a page of Dan Quayle quotes that I had to share.

Each of these quotes are gems in their own right. Some are very (unintentionally) zen-like and read like mind-cleansing Buddhist koans.

Here are several examples (although I encourage you to follow the link and read them all):

"When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in L.A., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame."

"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."

"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change."

"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."

What I've been reading: 2008.10.15

• Second 'Virgin Birth' Documented in Shark (Discovery News)
  Sharks are no fun -- they don't even need to have sex to reproduce.
• Caplan Asks Whether Genetic Tests Are Worth The Price (blog.bioethics.net)
  Art Caplan asks whether breast cancer genetic tests are worth the price or whether biotech companies are cashing in on women's cancer fears.
• Medical Paternalism and Genetic Testing (Ronald Bailey, Reason Online) 
  Should women be allowed access to a genetic test for breast cancer risk?
  

What I've been reading 2008.10.13

• Putting out fires (Andart)
  Anders Sandberg responds to Bill McGuire's review of Global Catastrophic Risks.
• The Human Priority (Promoting the Progress)
  The message of transhumanism - the hope that inheres in the enhancement of human capability seems overrated to me.
• Will Genetic Engineering Ruin Sports? (Women's Bioethics Blog)
  Where will the idea of sports go with the introduction (and advancement) of genetic engineering? Will such technology, which has high hopes in enhancing ourselves to be better humans, ruin the very idea of sports?
• The God That Failed: The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult (Chris Floyd)
  Perhaps the most striking fact revealed by the global financial crash -- or rather, by the reaction to it -- is the staggering, astonishing, gargantuan amount of money that the governments of the world have at their command.
  
• Brain surgery with a banjo (Neurophilosophy)
  The BBC has some film footage of the legendary Bluegrass musician Eddie Adcock playing the banjo whilst having his brain operated on.
• The Science of Meditation (The Buddhist Blog)
  Scientists are using cutting-edge scanning technology to watch the meditating mind at work.

Jeff Patterson conquers the solar system

My friend and blogger Jeff Patterson recently visited the Maine Solar System Model and did a photo-essay about it.

Patterson writes:

For years I had wanted to go see the Maine Solar System Model.

Built with diligent skill on a tight budget by the Northern Maine Museum of Science, the whole thing runs for 40 miles along US Route 1 between Houlton and the University of Maine at Presque Isle where the Museum is located.

The model is roughly 8 hours away from me by car, placing it squarely in the category of things-not-worth-driving-to-see- unless-I'm-in-the-area. But this year my lady Jennifer and I took a road trip to Nova Scotia and knew we would have to see the model on the way back. We had taken our telescope up to Cape Breton in hopes of doing some stargazing in that dark northern territory, but a relentless veil of cloud cover dashed those hopes. We needed some consolation to fill the void, as it were.

Check out the entire photo essay.

Discover: Rise of the Cyborgs

Discover magazine has a very forward-looking article in their October edition. Titled Rise of the Cyborgs, it features the seminal work of scientist and physicist Philip Kennedy:

By any name, the devices created by Kennedy and a handful of others can decode the conscious intentions conveyed by neural signals. For those who are missing a leg or who have a broken spine, the signals can control computers, wheelchairs, and prosthetic limbs. For those suffering from “locked-in syndrome,” their bodies so immobilized by catastrophic disorders like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or brain stem stroke that they are unable to speak or communicate their needs, the devices can translate neural signals to spell out words on a computer screen. Spoken language through a voice synthesizer is coming soon.

Although his current work is aimed at the severely disabled and locked-in, Kennedy believes neural prosthetics will have applications for the well-bodied, too. In fact, he awaits a new, technologically driven stage of evolution that will qualify cyborgs for a branch on the human family tree.

“By connecting intimately with computers, we will take the human brain to a new level,” he says. “If we can provide the brain with speedy access to unlimited memory, unlimited calculation ability, and instant wireless communication ability, we will produce a human with unsurpassable intelligence. We fully expect to demonstrate this kind of link between brain and machine.”

What I've been reading 2008.10.11

• Testing the Many-Worlds Interpretation (The Speculist)
  Tipler says its doable.
• Do researchers suffer from winner's curse? (Marginal Revolution)
  In economic theory the winner's curse refers to the idea that someone who places the winning bid in an auction may have paid too much...The same thing may be happening in scientific publishing, according to a new analysis.
• mind, presence, and terra incognita (Mind Station Taurus)
  cognitive freedom means to think what you want and to say what you want -- always exercising personal responsibility at the same time -- without fear of the other; we can agree; we can disagree; we need to do these things, and do them with respect for the other, and for personal dignity; above all, we need to agree to disagree

What I've been reading 2008.10.10

• Echoes of a Dismal Past (New York Times Video)
  How does the current financial crisis compare to the Great Depression, and has the government learned the lessons of the 1930s?
• The Future Ruins of the Nuclear Age (Wired)
  Have you ever wondered what a proton beam traveling through a supercollider would do if it slammed into your head?

• Unconventional Fossil-Based Fuels: Economic and Environmental Trade-Offs (RAND)
  Alternative sources of fossil fuels such as oil sands and coal-to-liquids have significant economic promise, but the environmental consequences must also be considered.
• Are you a Bully? (Women's Bioethics Blog)
  Now it is time to end the silence: There is a hidden culture of girls' aggression in which bullying is epidemic, distinctive and destructive.

Testing LSD on British troops

Footage of British troops unwittingly testing LSD during the 1950s. The experiments were intended to determine the drug’s value as a "non-lethal incapacitating weapon."

The Fibonacci in Tool's Lateralus

Another reason to love this song and this band.

The notion that 'Western man has stopped evolving' is wrong

Steve Jones, head of the department of genetics, evolution and environment at the University College London, says the forces driving evolution, such as natural selection and genetic mutation, "no longer play an important role in our lives."

Consequently, says Jones, the people living one million years from now -- assuming humans will still be around -- will resemble modern-day humans; he thinks that humans have stopped evolving.

He basically argues that the mechanisms that drive ongoing variation are now absent in modern life, a factor that he believes has halted evolution.

I think Jones is a bit off the mark, here. Evolution and genetics are more than just adaptation to changing environments and stressors. His analysis fails to take a number of factors into account, including:

Genetic drift

Also known as genetic randomness, this genetic process involves the accumulation of random events that slightly change the makeup of a gene pool, but are compounded and re-enforced over time. Genetic drift arises from the statistical effect of sampling errors during reproduction across the overall population. 

Jones dismisses this possibility on account of the large and interlinked global population -- a consequence that prevents small populations of people from evolving in isolation. It's conceivable, though, that genetic drift (in conjunction with other genetic mechanisms) will slightly alter human morphology given long enough time frames. Moreover, as the number of people increases, so too do the number of mutations generated by random chance.

Vestigiality

All morphological and psychological characteristics must have their genetic integrity re-enforced over time through the process of natural selection; environmental pressures continually justify a trait's presence and integrity within the genome. A physical trait that is no longer important to a species' survival will start to lose its informational integrity over time, leading to diminished function and eventual disappearance.

Given Jones's suggestion that selectional pressures have stopped for humans, it's likely that many of our unnecessary characteristics will slowly fade away. What Jones doesn't account for, however, is that this will result in morphological alterations. 

Sexual selection

Not all evolutionary changes are brought about by seemingly rational environmental pressures. Sexual selection and competition for mates has led to some bizarre and often nonsensical changes to species (think of the male peacock's tail feathers, for example).

Humans are still very much in the business of competing for and selecting mates. Again, given long enough time frames, and given inevitable changes in perceptions of human beauty and fitness, this could lead to changes within human morphology and psychology.

Gene expression

The human genome is not a stand-alone document -- it needs environmental stimulai to inform it as to how it should express itself. Because humans live in a diverse set of environments, and because we are all raised in unique settings, our minds and bodies are moulded accordingly (this is why identical twins separated at birth are not 100% identical and why clones will be even less identical).

Given the potential for even greater environmental diversity in the future (i.e. barren desert wastelands brought about by global warming...I'm only half-joking), it's not unrealistic to think that our genes -- even if they collectively remain somewhat static -- will express the human species with some variation.

Look at the difference, for example, in height over the past few generations. And imagine the kinds of bodies that our genes would express in a different gravitational environments like Mars or space itself. 

...and last but certainly not least:

Self-guided evolution

Darwinian natural selection is giving way to self-guided evolution. The human species will soon have a host of transformative technologies in its possession that will allow us to modify our bodies as we see fit. 

Some of the key technologies in this area will include genomics (and other biotechnologies like regenerative medicine), molecular nanotechnology, information technologies (like the integration of AI), and advances in cognitive science. This will lead to the so-called posthuman, which could be anything from cyborgs and genetically enhanced humans through to uploaded consciousness streams. 

And if anything, humans are evolving faster than ever -- even without the aid of technology.

What I've been reading

• Robert Fisk: For the Muslim World, It Will Make No Difference Who Wins the Election (AlterNet)
  "We use phrases like 'victory.' We should be using phrases like 'justice for the people of the Middle East.'"
• A Cure for Progeria, the Disease that Makes Children Die of Old Age (io9)
  It looks like a group of geneticists at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Maryland may have found a drug that can reverse the effects of heart disease caused by premature aging.

What I've been reading

• Undead Babies (William Saletan - Slate Magazine)
  The retreating boundaries of organ harvesting.
• MIT-led Team Asks: How Would Extraterrestrial Astronomers View Earth? (The Daily Galaxy)
  As astronomers become more adept at hunting for, and finding, exoplanets orbiting stars beyond the Solar System, an international team of astronomers has figured out just what alien eyes might see using the increasingly sophisticated technologies being developed on Earth.

What I've been reading 2008.10.03

• Long-Run vs. Long-Lag (Jamais Cascio)
  All distant problems are not created equally.
• What the West makes of Chinese science (John Keay TLS)
  Until fifty years ago, it was widely assumed that China had no tradition of scientific thought and innovation. Meticulous observation and reasoned deduction were taken to be European traits, as was the application of scientific principles to industrial production.
• 7 Actions That Can Help Your Wallet in a Troubled Economy (Lifehacker)
  While the economic sky is falling, it's still possible to make sure that your financial status is steady. In the past couple of weeks, I've been even more focused on the steps I'm taking to improve my personal finances. I've found a few actions that probably won't make you a millionaire — but they will ensure that a rocky economy doesn't have too much of an effect on your wallet.
• U.S.-India Nuclear Deal Passes Congress (MoJo)
  In the midst of debating a bailout package for Wall Street, the Senate took a break last night to vote on a measure that, although buried in the current news cycle, carries real consequence for the future of the world's already troubled nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
• When, exactly, are you dead? | O death, when is thy sting? (The Economist)
  Some bioethicists reckon that the definition of death is starting to embrace the living. Indeed, some reckon that it should
• Todd Diamond On The Bailout
  Video. Very funny.
  

What I've been reading

• The Rational Environmentalist (Ronald Bailey)
  Bjorn Lomborg on the priorities that should come before global warming.
• My views on the crisis -- a summary statement (Tyler Cowen/Marginal Revolution)
  "A few inattentive malcontents are complaining that I haven't stated my views. I have, but if you want them, or some of them, in one neat place, devoid of subtlety or explanation, here they are."
• The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning (Michael Moore)
  Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this.
• Totalitarianism in late modernity (John Skorupski)
  How much did ideas and attitudes developed from the French Revolution and German romanticism contribute to it? This is the question that I want to discuss.

What I've been reading

• With an almighty boom, neo-liberalism goes bust (Ian Williams)
  The group of conspirators who caused the major implosion in Wall Street damaged the economy more than Osama bin Laden and al Qaida did when they caused an explosion in the same district
• One Man Mecha Helicopter (ESPVisuals)
  This has to be one of the coolest flying machines that has been invented so far.