I just finished reading Our Posthuman Future by Francis Fukuyama. Overall it was a rather satisfying read, albeit with some absurd arguments and slippery slopes, but what else should one expect in such a field as biotechnology and politics. It is great to think that my only difficulty the summer is deciding which book to read next. the next book on my plate will most likely be Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, which seems to be a dark foray into existentialsm. next weekend I’m heading to Buffalo, New York and when I am there I will most likely pick up The Singularity is Near, by Raymond Kurzweil, another book that I plan on reading for my a summer research in trans-humanism, robotics, and post-humanism.
Now on to bigger things! I have just found out that their world be another season of Prison Break starting this fall. The cliffhanger ending left most viewers uncertain as to whether Prison Break would have another season or not. Having my dreams fulfilled, Sarah Tanreadi will be returning in season four. I knew that wasn’t her head! More on this in the future.
I recently to started a new job with Sprint and Nextel customer care. The company I work for is contracted by Sprint to provide various solutions to customer problems. In the beginning the thought of sitting in a tiny cubicle all day listening to people complain about their bills seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. I actually really enjoy the job so far. I’m still in training and won’t be on the floor taking calls for at least another week, but the information I am learning about the cell phone market and the products that Sprint offers in awesome. I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about what is available in the technological market, but in my smalltown in Ontario, Canada I had no idea that such wireless Internet products were available on cell phones. Sprint offers a wireless USB and other mobile cards to put in laptops or other mobile electronics so that you can access their cell phone network using it as wireless Internet. Sprint recently urged with a European company called clearwire to create a faster wireless network called Wimax. This network will allow broadband speeds that right now are virtually unheard of. Another exciting arrival to Sprint services that will be released later this quarter a new cell phone by the name of Instinct will be released. The Instinct’s planned to be a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone. Made by Samsung this new phone along with Sprint’s 3G networking will provide blazing fast speeds at a lower cost than Apple can offer. While all of this is exciting that’s all it will be for now to me. In Canada I still have to deal with super high prices, unavailability, and lack of coverage… Woopie!
Iron Man…how did I forget about Iron Man! After I wrote my post on Troy Hurtubise I started thinking more about how I was going to write my undergraduate thesis for next year.My topic varies from trans-humanism, robotics, prosthetic electronic aids, and all other tools which elevate human being and what these advances mean philosophically.
A well needed break from Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time guided me to this month’s Popular Science magazine. On the cover is an amazing full armored suit much like the Iron Man of the big-screen looking a little less like Hurtubise’s Trojan armour, but a suit developed for human use nonetheless. Apparently DARPA began for funding the exoskeleton in 2000 with the hope of making a stronger and faster soldier.The suit enables a its wearer to have extraordinary strength and endurance, not protection against IEDs like Hurtubise’s suit.The suit is often noted in the article as being an exoskeleton, but is better understood as he bionic prosthesis.An exoskeleton would be a better descriptor of Hurtubise’s suit, not the Raytheon Sarcos XOS which this article describes.Although Raytheon’s suit is inaccurately defined this does not take away from its incredible ingenuity and possible outcomes that it will provide it military and nonmilitary use.What Raytheon suit has now his strength not protection, yet what Hurtubise’s suit has his protection, not strength.A logical outcome would be to merge both technologies.Obviously this is easier said than done.
DARPA with its over $75 million programs for exoskeleton development seems a world apart from Hurtubise’s garage antics.One can only imagine how expensive a fully merged suit consisting both of Raytheon’s aunt Hurtubise’s technology would cost.Later on in the article a merging of several exoskeleton technologies shows the possibility for an integrated suit combining basically all of the abilities Master Chief from video game Halo has (or RoboCop for those readers of yesteryear) and looking much the same. Exoskeleton and bionics are an incredible tool being developed in this 21st century.Being able to wear these suits will have profound impacts in the field of war as well as other areas where fairness is an issue.My expectations are that bionics will be judged much like performance enhancers of the 20th century used in sports competitions and the like.Following Moore’s Law, bionics will most likely become smaller and less expensive making them available for most consumers.The benefits, however, will be that many people confined to wheelchairs or lacking the physical capacity of a fully functional body will benefit from such bionic structures as discussed in this article.It is easy to become skeptical of such mechanical advances yet the benefits that exoskeletons will give cannot be denied.
For my thesis plan I on focusing on the philosophical connection between the human itself, or human being, and the desire to extend that self electronic or mechanical tools.My topic initially focused purely on robotics, but I found that after more research a wider topic emerged.What I have realized is that a robot is a form of prosthesis. Robots can be understood philosophically as a prosthetic other.This understanding was reached thanks to the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Much research still needs to be completed but it is my hope that after I have read more philosophy along with current trends in robotics and prosthetic electronics that a deeper understanding into the human desire to know itself through itself will be uncovered.
It’s amazing what computers can do. This post will be the first of many that are written not by my fingers on the keypad but my voice through a microphone and through my computer. I recently received Dragon naturally speaking for my computer and thought that it would be interesting to attempt to dictate things which I would normally write. It’s surprisingly quite accurate. When there is an error it is not the program but is most likely myself. This is but another extension of my research into robotics and trans-human ideas. my previous thoughts were that speech recognition programs were rather cumbersome and required an incredible amount of artificial training. Like most things which follow Moore’s Law speech recognition has also improved. I became interested in speech recognition again after reading Raymond Kurzweil’s book Age of Spiritual Machines. This book outlined some pretty incredible arguments concerning the rapid increase of technological capacity as well as a landing the ramifications these technologies will have on human life in the future. while I separate from Kurzweil on several ideas his focus on Moore’s Law will be an incredible asset to my further research into trans-humanism. And that’s where I am now… speaking aloud in an empty room, feeling quite odd at the echoing reverberations of my voice, speaking at my computer. So far I am pleased that the computer has not spoken back.
I am not quite sure about him. On one hand I think that his passion will save lives and that his quest to protect others through his inventions is truly philanthropic. On the other hand he is plagued with hubris, overly forceful, an will most likely kill himself or someone else in the practice of his plan. I would call him RoboCop but that is not quite right, his name is Troy Hurtubise and he is my somewhat hero. Hurtubise is somewhat of a North Bay, Ontario legend, which says quite a lot. I think he is actually more interesting than the things he creates. Troy Hurtubise is known for inventing protective armor (Ursus Mark, Trojan, etc.) and is featured in the documentary film Project Grizzly quoted as being “Fantastic” by Quentin Tarentino.
I first saw Hurtubise on the Canadian show “Daily Planet” Discovery Channel Show, explaining a protective shield he has invented which is called “1313 Paste” (Wikipedia). This would have been laughable, but the thing is it freaking works! It stood up against high powered rifles and is apparently cost effective. He is an amazing inventor yet his name so much as mentioned either brings a laugh or a sly smirk. The laugh I find are from those who wish to detract from his glory, the smirk, much like my own is from those who admire Hurtubis. What other inventor do you know, or have heard of, would back up his inventions as portrayed in these clips below:
Clips from Project Grizzly
Where I depart with Hurtubise, as put at the beginning of my introduction, is with his aims. I was originally unsure as to whether he was creating for his own ego, his megalomania, or for the benefit of mankind. I was wrong about Hurtubise. In his bear suit days perhaps he was trying to make a name for himself and have some much due glory, but as his career has progressed it seems he really just wants to save lives. He is a genuine philanthropist and after watching the movie Project Grizzly it seems like his creations are an effort to protect his heart and others the way he best knows how. Watch this clip of Hurtubise describing his newest suit, a Halo-esque super protector, dubbed “The Trojan.”
Now that you have seen the passion that went into making it, and the drive to make it function for the men and women of the armed forces, watch Hurtubise raffle his prized possession again to have the ability to help more people.
In a way Troy Hurtubise breaks my heart. I see him as a person who is so passionate and has just not caught a break with his research. His downfalls remind me a lot of Astronomer and Historian Immanuel Velikovsky, who in his independently funded research made many scientific breakthroughs. Velikovsky, however, was and still is criticized today in academia for his method and findings as being unfounded and illogical. Yet those who refute Velikovsky, much like Hurtubise, mostly refute the man and not what he stood for or is trying to solve. I beleive this is the same pressure that Hurtubise faces, being ostracized as too eccentric , unorthodox, and misguided in his work and passion. I hope that trough some strange fluke that Hurtuise reads this article and is able to realize that his invention and his passion are needed more than ever. It is my opinion that those who seek for invulnerability become vulnerable in the process. In this occurence others then become the protection for those who, like Hurtubise, provide security for us. We need to support such people who are trying to secure us instead of tearing them down because we are not more like them.
I have no idea why, but I am obsessed with YouTube lately. It is almost to the point that when I cannot find anything on TV I would rather stumble YouTube. Its not as if I stay in front of the computer for an incredible amount of time, but it is definatly increasing. I have been using the StumbleUpon function in Firefox and I came across a viedo by the comedy duo “Flight of the Conchords.” Its fucking brilliant. They are from New Zealand and remind me a lot of a less stoned Tenacious D. They have a television show, which I haven’t seen, on HBO. The following is a song called “The Humans are Dead” and is basically the funniest song I have heard in a while.
An unlikely pairing of two of the most profound philosophers of the 19th century, Frederich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. Starring myself, Casey Sutherland, as Frederich Nietzsche and Stefan Phillips as Arthur Schopenhauer.
This movie was an amazing adventure into the lives of these two incredible philosophers. It was written by the both of us for our History of Modern Philosophy class at Nipissing University in the spring of 2008. I hope you enjoy and comment appropriately.
The film is split into three parts:
Part One:
Part Two:
Part Three:
If you’re a YouTube user, please leave a comment and a rating!
Stefan and I would like to thank everyone who helped out with the shoot, especially Trevor Hrenko (who directed, and brought beer) and Lettie Gariba for her acting, along with Wayne Borody for his musical contributions and mind.
“Schopenhauer Song” Click here to listen to the full song from the end of the film, written by Stefan Phillips, performed by Casey Sutherland and Stefan Phillips.
My music taste goes through phases. I love the blues. I grew up in a Canadian town which borders the United States. I was about an hour from Detroit Michigan. While the city itself moderately frightens me there was one thing that always felt to be more comfortable than things of my own town, and that was the music. The Detroit music scene is and was a hotbed for various talent. I remember staying up dialing on the radio, various AM blues and motown stations until my eyes couldn’t hold themselves open anymore.
I had been stumbling online recently and came across some music by Robert Johnson. If you aren’t familiar with his music or his legend, check him out on Wikipedia:
He is a blues legend. Story goes “According to Blues folklore, Robert Johnson was a young black man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi. Branded with a burning desire to become a great blues musician, he was instructed to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery’s plantation at midnight. There he was met by a large black man (the Devil) who took the guitar from Johnson, tuned the guitar so that he could play anything that he wanted, and handed it back to him in return for his soul. Within less than a year’s time, in exchange for his everlasting soul, Robert Johnson became the king of the Delta blues singers, able to play, sing, and create the greatest blues anyone had ever heard.”
Now the truth of this story isn’t important. The music, the amazing music, is surreal. Check him out if you have the chance.
I stumbled upon what has to be the most interesting idea. Its called the “Uncanny Valley” and I will quote here from Wikipedia:
“The uncanny valley is a hypothesis that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost, but not entirely, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The “valley” in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot’s lifelikeness. It was introduced by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970….
Mori’s hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.[2]
This area of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a “barely-human” and “fully human” entity is called the uncanny valley. The name captures the idea that a robot which is “almost human” will seem overly “strange” to a human being and thus will fail to evoke the empathetic response required for productive human-robot interaction.[2]“
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley
I know; awesome. I was stunned at the explanations that this theory provides. I couldn’t find much more on Masahiro Mori aside from the article. He had wrote a book called Buddha In The Robot, and I will have to check that out. On YouTube there is an in depth analysis of the “Uncanny Valley” by Karl F. MacDorman from the 2007 NMC Summer Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Check out the 6 part lecture here:
This is a piece I wrote for my Classics class in University. It is a mild rant which is trying to find its solidity. I am only partially worried about the class actually. Selfishly I have taken it so it is gone already to me. What is important in the writing is an idea I am exploring in Critical Theory. The ideas are from Max Horkheimer and Theodore Adorno in their Dialectic of Enlightenment. I am concerned with the idea of thinking and what occurs when it becomes thought. This is especially so when others put forward the thoughts of others as their own thinking. Wayne Borody calls this person a Philodoxer instead of a Philosopher (The love of opinion instead as the love of wisdom). Here is the piece I wrote:
I am disheartened that this class will not be offered again next year. The more I thought about it and possibly how it may relate to myth itself a greater theme of much interest to me. I am concerned with the correlation concerning value, commodity, and myth. I see the removal of this class from the University’s offering as being systematically linked to the use of the education system as a tool of a specific agenda. The agenda is capital. Capital has become more important that education itself. Capital is the arbiter of necessity in deciding much about the educational system. Look at Education Department at our university to see the disparity. Our educational system and culture in general selects what types of knowledge should be kept in the system. This decision is based mainly those disciplines that attract the most students, which in turn brings more money to the establishment, which fills more pockets with money overall. This skews the aims of education in its ends and means. It positions the University towards an end which bases the types of knowledge to be selected as choice which is selected as the best means towards the ends of capital. Knowledge becomes a calculation. Bear with me, how this relates to myth is coming. Calculation provides more opportunity in the work force, and therefore the opportunity of that dream life, the life of comfort. This good life, which is a myth unto itself, is a calculation in utility. This removes thinking as something which is good for its own sake for thought. Thought, which can hardly be called thinking is neatly packaged into tangible knowledge which can become commodified. It sells quite highly in the campus book store. Aside from my philosophical digression, what does this choice of knowledge/power say about thinking and myth itself? What have we done when we coerce myth from vast ideas for contemplation into a commodity, a thing, which has a defined and absolute meaning? It has been said by such thinkers as Joseph Campbell that we have much myth around us. In a way he is right, but this is not the type of myth I long for. For instance a look at Nike, Midas, Amazon, Ajaxlogos. Myth, which is of infinite interpretations, by infinite ones to interpret, remains a multifaceted thing to be experienced. The logos in the system is always second unless it is ones own. gives the images of shoes, mufflers, books, and cleaning supplies before the figures of which they are based on. The myths have likewise become coerced into a tool of capital. Myth’s today are not those story’s told wholly for the means of expression and catharsis, they are directed at the ends of capitalism. This is exactly what I see as happening at Nipissing and the educational systems abound who aim at the reduction of thinking as a tool as a means towards the ends of capital. The ones who subscribe to this belief, make choices based on this, or are apathetic about the arts and humanities are making a grave error. What is actually occurring is a homogenization of actual thinking into the replication of thinking as thinking which has been thought. You may have not even reached this point in my journal because in a sense it is really raw, it is like a wound. I only wish to describe, not proscribe. What could be the remedy for a thing which doesn’t believe its illness? This replication and consumption of thinking can hardly be accepted as one’s own thinking. Myth by definition is divided by this mind of measure, the mind of pure
If myth becomes a film, a product, a thing, it is then able to be consumed. This consumption momentarily satisfies the appetitive mind. This appetite grows hungry for more stimulation since the myth which was once aporetic is no longer infinite but is absolute. Only the consumer can change the more times they approach the myth. Eventually when the consumer does not change when apprehending the myth, the myth will become purposeless and forgotten. It has no duty. Is this the atrocity which education will commit by becoming stagnated and obsolete? If it is plausible now that the departments Philosophy, Classics, and Art could be downsized for lack of enrollment due to utility, then it is likely that they could be abolished altogether. If we reduce education to one dimensional utilitization we run the risk of being one-dimensionally utilized ourselves. We will be towards a goal which we may not want to be towards. In essence we become a tool. Myth has the ability of reeling in irrational reason masquerading as the purpose of education. Myth bleeds the light of tragedy which is often eclipsed by a system which barbarically wants to be comfortable. Do we want to become simpler? If we give up on the aporia of myth I believe we run the risk of becoming finished ourselves, the apodictic and complete. Thinking is incomplete as long as it is occurring, and is infinite because of this. Commodifying thinking as thought moulds ideas into plastic pieces of simplicity. By becoming concrete as capital, education itself is apt to become a piece an edifice which because of its lopsidedness teeters towards collapse. I hope that this is not the future of mythology and the humanities at Nipissing and abroad.
