Musings – Page 2 – Scott Penman

Digital Grain

At the heart of it all, I just want to throw digital information like paint. Jackson Pollock-style. Punch it, mold it, cast it, craft it. Turn it round, flip it over. Build it up, tear it down, all the while exploring it as information and not as material. Or, at least, as a material thatContinue reading “Digital Grain”

An update on my current schedule —

Truth be told, my hopes for this blog were that its presence (and potential, especially as a networking device) would spur me to update frequently. Alas, I confess, I have spent more time tinkering with the layout (which is still woefully lacking) than actually committing to updated blog posts. But, in the spirit of re-invigoration,Continue reading “An update on my current schedule —”

Irresponsible Indecision

Is the printer the source of our problems? When we create things digitally, they remain eternally editable. They become the “sought-after, mythic unstable object[s]” we have searched for in recent decades (Wes Jones, ‘Big Forking Dilemma’). Printing them out kills that. It crystallizes them, strips them of the strength they achieve through anonymity. It forcesContinue reading “Irresponsible Indecision”

“For one can well conceive that a machine may be so made as to emit words, and even that it may emit some in relation to bodily actions which cause a change in its organs, as, for example, if one were to touch it in a particular place, it may ask what one wishes toContinue reading

Andrew McAfee: Are droids taking our jobs?

“Robots and algorithms are getting good at jobs like building cars, writing articles, translating — jobs that once required a human. So what will we humans do for work? Andrew McAfee walks through recent labor data to say: We ain’t seen nothing yet. But then he steps back to look at big history, and comesContinue reading “Andrew McAfee: Are droids taking our jobs?”

Humans and Machines: Competing Arguments

Ray Kurzweil, main proponent of the Singularity theory, writes about the “Man-Machine Merger,” while Andrea Kuszewski, behavioral therapist and “robopsychologist”, poses an alternate viewpoint. Kurzweil: http://spark.qualcomm.com/salon/ray-kurzweil-man-machine-merger “Writing novels, painting pictures – these are the ultimate in human intelligence. AI will be able to do these things by 2045.” Kuszewski: http://spark.qualcomm.com/salon/technology-making-us-less-human “…error makes us human. AndContinue reading “Humans and Machines: Competing Arguments”