Technology
Opinions regarding gizmos and gadgets.
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Buran
The little pirates climb the metal scaffolds and bust open windows with sledgehammers they carry canvas satchels and metric screwdrivers they attack anything that looks like a computer or a digital display and twist and turn and pull until power cords hang like dripping intestines pulled from a slaughtered pig. Circuit boards broken apart for…
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The UAP Report
It was after 9:00 pm, almost 15 years ago. I was walking my dog Chloe along a narrow two lane road near Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains. There were no street lights, and it was a very clear moonless night. I would stare up into the sky while she did her business and…
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Welcome to the Machine
It was a red-letter day in the history of science. They had come to the Artificial Intelligence laboratory by the dozens; each of them one of the greatest minds from nearly every field of human intellectual endeavor. Here they congregated to participate in the penultimate Turing test of the Google Omni-Device™, the world’s most advanced…
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Mother of All Demos
Doug Englebart single-handedly invented (along with his amazing development team) the modern world of computers as we understand them, geared for use to non experts and useful for more than just calculating. In 1968 he demonstrated in front of a live audience his vision of a networked office environment, with hyperlinks, a mouse oriented GUI,…
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Vivens Machina
I have a deep affection for robots. All sizes and shapes. I long for the day when artificial intelligence that is indistinguishable from a human’s comes into existence. Imagine the conversations with a sentient robot, what insights we will gain about ourselves from having a third party to contemplate them with. I also fear the…
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What do you see?
Philo T. Farnsworth was the American inventor of electronic (as opposed to mechanical) television. He single-handedly designed and built the first complete system, from cameras to receivers. The first person ever broadcast on his system and the first woman on television, was his wife Pem. He credited her equally responsible for the development of the…
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High on Hydrogen
There was a time when the skies of Earth held leviathans. Quicksilver flashing overhead, the roar of diesel engines, shadows that would cover whole city blocks, ocean liners in the air. Across the Atlantic the airships would go, cruising at nearly 90 miles an hour, waiters serving beverages and hot meals in the dining rooms.…
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On 35 Years of Voyaging…
It is the 35th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1. I felt that it’s a good time to trot out a poem I have written for this occasion (though it does mention BOTH Voyagers). Enjoy. Taking our first steps away from home seeing just how far we could roam men in ships to our nearest neighbor walking…
The Numinous Cosmos 