- An article from Reuters on the predictive power of brain scans contains this unintentional gem of a quote: “We are trying to figure out whether there is hidden wisdom that the brain contains.”
- Some sobering news for proponents of the view that parents should have the right to engineer their children as they please: The Hastings Center reports that some doctors have begun giving pregnant women steroids that will prevent “abnormalities” in female fetuses — specifically, lesbianism and excessive interest in men’s occupations and games.
- Continuing their recent raft of Singularity-related material, The New York Times is publishing a series of articles on artificial intelligence and robotics.
- Wired notes a recent press release on a “thought-controlled in-flight entertainment system” that is unintentionally hilarious in about eight different ways besides just the subject.
- Singularity Hub reports on the premiere in New York of Ray Kurzweil’s long-awaited and much-delayed movie, The Singularity is Near: A True Story About the Future. Shocking revelations: “certain elements created the feel of a cheesy straight-to-DVD movie.”
- Echoing a different version of a point I alluded to in my recent Tea Party post, Twitter user jcmmannuel says, “Transhumanism (enhancement of humans through technology) is the delusion of those who gave up on love as the true engine of transformation.”
- Update: One more: Slate‘s Emily Yoffe (aka Dear Prudence) has an informative review of Jonathan Weiner’s Long for the World: The Strange Science of Immortality and David Stipp’s The Youth Pill: Scientists at the Brink of an Anti-Aging Revolution.
(h/t: Caitrin Nicol, Elana Clift-Reaves)
Futurisms
July 30, 2010