The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
Tranquility is a pressurized module that will provide room for many of the station's life support systems. Attached to the node is a cupola, a unique work station with windows on its six sides and top. The module will be delivered to the station during space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission, targeted for launch Feb. 4, 2010.
Tranquility is the last element of a barter agreement for station hardware. ESA contributed the node in exchange for NASA's delivery of ESA's Columbus laboratory to the station. Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy, built the module.
NASA, ESA, Thales and Boeing managers involved in building and processing the node for flight will be available for a question-and-answer session after the ceremony. Media representatives planning to attend must arrive at Kennedy's news center by 2 p.m. for transportation to the Space Station Processing Facility. Participants must be dressed in full-length pants, flat shoes that entirely cover the feet, and shirts with sleeves.
Reporters without permanent Kennedy credentials should submit a request online at:
Many of us have been rescued from unfamiliar territory by directions from a Global Positioning System (GPS) navigator. GPS satellites send signals to a receiver in your GPS navigator, which calculates your position based on the location of the satellites and your distance from them. The distance is determined by how long it took the signals from various satellites to reach your receiver.The system works well, and millions rely on it every day, but what tells the GPS satellites where they are in the first place?
"For GPS to work, the orbital position, or ephemeris, of the satellites has to be known very precisely," said Dr. Chopo Ma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "In order to know where the satellites are, you have to know the orientation of the Earth very precisely."
This is not as obvious as simply looking at the Earth – space is not conveniently marked with lines to determine our planet's position. Even worse, "everything is always moving," says Ma. Earth wobbles as it rotates due to the gravitational pull (tides) from the moon and the sun. Even apparently minor things like shifts in air and ocean currents and motions in Earth's molten core all influence our planet's orientation.
Just as you can use landmarks to find your place in a strange city, astronomers use landmarks in space to position the Earth. Stars seem the obvious candidate, and they were used throughout history to navigate on Earth. "However, for the extremely precise measurements needed for things like GPS, stars won't work, because they are moving too," says Ma.
What is needed are objects so remote that their motion is not detectable. Only a couple classes of objects fit the bill, because they also need to be bright enough to be seen over incredible distances. Things like quasars, which are typically brighter than a billion suns, can be used. Many scientists believe these objects are powered by giant black holes feeding on nearby gas. Gas trapped in the black hole's powerful gravity is compressed and heated to millions of degrees, giving off intense light and/or radio energy.
Most quasars lurk in the outer reaches of the cosmos, over a billion light years away, and are therefore distant enough to appear stationary to us. For comparison, a light year, the distance light travels in a year, is almost six trillion miles. Our entire galaxy, consisting of hundreds of billions of stars, is about 100,000 light years across.
A collection of remote quasars, whose positions in the sky are precisely known, forms a map of celestial landmarks in which to orient the Earth. The first such map, called the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), was completed in 1995. It was made over four years using painstaking analysis of observations on the positions of about 600 objects.
Ma led a three-year effort to update and improve the precision of the ICRF map by scientists affiliated with the International Very Long Baseline Interferometry Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Called ICRF2, it uses observations of approximately 3,000 quasars. It was officially recognized as the fundamental reference system for astronomy by the IAU in August, 2009.
Making such a map is not easy. Despite the brilliance of quasars, their extreme distance makes them too faint to be located accurately with a conventional telescope that uses optical light (the light that we can see). Instead, a special network of radio telescopes is used, called a Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI).
The larger the telescope, the better its ability to see fine detail, called spatial resolution. A VLBI network coordinates its observations to get the resolving power of a telescope as large as the network. VLBI networks have spanned continents and even entire hemispheres of the globe, giving the resolving power of a telescope thousands of miles in diameter. For ICRF2, the analysis of the VLBI observations reduced uncertainties in position to angles as small as 40 microarcseconds, about the thickness of a 0.7 millimeter mechanical pencil lead in Los Angeles when viewed from Washington. This minimum uncertainty is about five times better than the ICRF, according to Ma.
These networks are arranged on a yearly basis as individual radio telescope stations commit time to make coordinated observations. Managing all these coordinated observations is a major effort by the IVS, according to Ma.
Additionally, the exquisite precision of VLBI networks makes them sensitive to many kinds of disturbances, called noise. Differences in atmospheric pressure and humidity caused by weather systems, flexing of the Earth's crust due to tides, and shifting of antenna locations from plate tectonics and earthquakes all affect VLBI measurements. "A significant challenge was modeling all these disturbances in computers to take them into account and reduce the noise, or uncertainty, in our position observations," said Ma.
Another major source of noise is related to changes in the structure of the quasars themselves, which can be seen because of the extraordinary resolution of the VLBI networks, according to Ma.
The ICRF maps are not only useful for navigation on Earth; they also help us find our way in space -- the ICRF grid and some of the objects themselves are used to assist spacecraft navigation for interplanetary missions, according to Ma.
Despite its usefulness for things like GPS, the primary application for the ICRF maps is astronomy. Researchers use the ICRF maps as driving directions for telescopes. Objects are referenced with coordinates derived from the ICRF so that astronomers know where to find them in the sky.
Also, the optical light visible to our eyes is only a small part of the electromagnetic radiation produced by celestial objects, which ranges from less-energetic, low-frequency radiation, like radio and microwaves, through optical light to highly energetic, high-frequency radiation like X-rays and gamma-rays.
Astronomers use special detectors to make images of objects producing radiation our eyes can't see. Even so, since things in space can have extremely different temperatures, objects that generate radiation in one frequency band, say optical, do not necessarily produce radiation in another, perhaps radio. The main scientific use of the ICRF maps is a precise grid for combining observations of objects taken using different frequencies and accurately locating them relative to each other in the sky.
Astronomers also use the frame as a backdrop to record the motion of celestial objects closer to us. Tracing how stars and other objects move provides clues to their origin and evolution.
The next update to the ICRF may be done in space. The European Space Agency plans to launch a satellite called Gaia in 2012 that will observe about a half-million quasars. Gaia uses an optical telescope, but because it is above the atmosphere, the satellite will be able to clearly see these faint objects and precisely locate them in the sky. The mission will use quasars that are optically bright, many of which are too dim in radio to be useful for the VLBI networks. The project expects to have enough observations by 2018 to 2020 to produce the next-generation ICRF.
ICRF2 involved researchers from Australia, Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States; and was funded by organizations from these countries, including NASA. The analysis efforts are coordinated by the IVS. The IAU officially adopts the ICRF maps and recommends their occasional updates.
NASA's Minority University Research and Education Programs Small Programs project is designed to enhance students' academic experiences and encourage underserved and underrepresented groups to pursue STEM careers, which are critical to NASA's missions.
Grants were awarded to the following colleges, universities and partnerships:
For project descriptions, click on "Selected Proposals" and look for "Minority University Research and Education Programs Small Programs Competitive Grant Opportunity" at:
For more information about NASA's education programs, visit:
With seven science flights over Antarctica completed in the first 13 days of Operation Ice Bridge's first southern campaign in NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory, the mission is on track to complete its planned flights by mid-November.The mission has 17 planned flights over different parts of the continent, focusing on the ice sheet, glaciers, and sea ice in West Antarctica. Which flight target is flown on a given day is largely determined by difficult-to-forecast Antarctic weather conditions. Several of the instruments onboard cannot gather data through clouds. Twice so far, however, flights have been scrubbed at the last minute due to snow at the airport in southernmost Chile.
Mission planners use a mix of weather forecasting tools and satellite observations to make their daily decisions about when and where to fly. In addition, updates from meteorologists at the airport provide critical information. "The Antarctic weather is a terrible problem for us," says Ice Bridge project scientist Seelye Martin of the University of Washington, Seattle. "We could not operate without the support we receive from the Chilean meteorologists here."
As of the landing of the Oct. 27 flight, completed targets included: three flights over glaciers, two over sea ice, one over the Getz ice shelf, and one to study the topography of the ice sheet on the mission's closest approach to the South Pole.
The Getz Ice Shelf was the target of the first flight on Oct. 16. Thwaites Glacier was the focus of the flight on Oct. 18, with Pine Island Glacier the target of a high-altitude flight on Oct. 20 and a low-altitude flight on Oct. 27.
"Pine Island Glacier is a major focus for our mission," says Martin. "We have four flights planned for this glacier. One of our hopes with these flights is to understand the detailed topography under the floating ice tongue. That topography controls the rate of melting there."
The mission's first sea ice flight on Oct. 21 over the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas was a "pioneering flight," according to Martin. "We don't know what the thickness of the sea ice is here. These will be the first direct measurements of sea ice in this area. This area is important because it is the only Antarctic sector where the sea ice is actually retreating."
Martin was excited about the prospect that the combined data from two different instruments would give scientists a new way to make more accurate measurements of sea ice thickness. Thickness of sea ice is estimated from measurements of the depth of the snow and ice visible above the sea surface. But scientists have not been able to distinguish accurately how much of this material above the sea is snow and how much is ice. An accurate measurement of the two is needed to improve their calculation of overall ice thickness.
"With this flight we did something that has not been done successfully before," says Martin. "We flew a snow radar from the University of Kansas that is designed to measure the snow depth on sea ice and the laser Airborne Topographic Mapper from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility to measure the sea surface and the height of the combined snow/ice layer above the sea. If everything worked as planned, this will give us the first combined measurement of the 'layer cake' and the snow layer to an accuracy of about 2 inches."
The second sea ice flight on Oct. 24 flew over the Weddell Sea for low-altitude flights some 1500 feet above the sea under sporadically cloudy conditions.
The farthest flight of the mission took place on Oct. 25. The target was a portion of the circle of latitude at 86 degrees south. This area has been intensely mapped by NASA's ICESat satellite because the spacecraft's orbit only goes as far south as this latitude. By remapping the ICESat data points with another laser-based topographic instrument -- the Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) -- scientists hope to improve the accuracy of the ICESat data record and prepare to extend these critical ice surface change observations into the future.
Links:
Operation Ice Bridge
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/ice_bridge/index.html
Ice Bridge Twitter
http://twitter.com/IceBridge
Ice Bridge Blog
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/icebridge/
During its first year of operations, NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope mapped the extreme sky with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity.It captured more than 1,000 discrete sources of gamma rays -- the highest-energy form of light. Capping these achievements was a measurement that provided rare experimental evidence about the very structure of space and time, unified as space-time in Einstein's theories.
"Physicists would like to replace Einstein's vision of gravity -- as expressed in his relativity theories -- with something that handles all fundamental forces," said Peter Michelson, principal investigator of Fermi's Large Area Telescope, or LAT, at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. "There are many ideas, but few ways to test them."
Many approaches to new theories of gravity picture space-time as having a shifting, frothy structure at physical scales trillions of times smaller than an electron. Some models predict that the foamy aspect of space-time will cause higher-energy gamma rays to move slightly more slowly than photons at lower energy.
Such a model would violate Einstein's edict that all electromagnetic radiation -- radio waves, infrared, visible light, X-rays and gamma rays -- travels through a vacuum at the same speed.
On May 10, 2009, Fermi and other satellites detected a so-called short gamma ray burst, designated GRB 090510. Astronomers think this type of explosion happens when neutron stars collide. Ground-based studies show the event took place in a galaxy 7.3 billion light-years away. Of the many gamma ray photons Fermi's LAT detected from the 2.1-second burst, two possessed energies differing by a million times. Yet after traveling some seven billion years, the pair arrived just nine-tenths of a second apart.
"This measurement eliminates any approach to a new theory of gravity that predicts a strong energy dependent change in the speed of light," Michelson said. "To one part in 100 million billion, these two photons traveled at the same speed. Einstein still rules."
Fermi's secondary instrument, the Gamma ray Burst Monitor, has observed low-energy gamma rays from more than 250 bursts. The LAT observed 12 of these bursts at higher energy, revealing three record setting blasts.
GRB 090510 displayed the fastest observed motions, with ejected matter moving at 99.99995 percent of light speed. The highest energy gamma ray yet seen from a burst -- 33.4 billion electron volts or about 13 billion times the energy of visible light -- came from September's GRB 090902B. Last year's GRB 080916C produced the greatest total energy, equivalent to 9,000 typical supernovae.
Scanning the entire sky every three hours, the LAT is giving Fermi scientists an increasingly detailed look at the extreme universe. "We've discovered more than a thousand persistent gamma ray sources -- five times the number previously known," said project scientist Julie McEnery at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "And we've associated nearly half of them with objects known at other wavelengths."
Blazars -- distant galaxies whose massive black holes emit fast-moving jets of matter toward us -- are by far the most prevalent source, now numbering more than 500. In our own galaxy, gamma ray sources include 46 pulsars and two binary systems where a neutron star rapidly orbits a hot, young star.
"The Fermi team did a great job commissioning the spacecraft and starting its science observations," said Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "And now Fermi is more than fulfilling its unique scientific promise for making novel, high-impact discoveries about the extreme universe and the fabric of space-time."?
NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.
Related Links:
› Multimedia related to the Oct. 28, 2009, NASA briefing on Fermi's findings
› NASA's Fermi Finds Gamma-ray Galaxy Surprises
› NASA's Fermi Mission, Namibia's HESS Telescopes Explore a Blazar
› Active Galaxies Flare and Fade in Fermi Telescope All-Sky Movie
› Continent-sized Radio Telescope Takes Close-ups of Fermi Active Galaxies
› NASA's Fermi Telescope Probes Dozens of Pulsars
Thinkers with a strongly mechanistic view of human intelligence (such as Marvin Minsky) or a strongly positive view of robot-human social integration (such as Hans Moravec and Ray Kurzweil) have openly speculated about the possibility and desirability of this. In the case where the mind is transferred into a computer, the subject would become a form of artificial intelligence, sometimes called an infomorph or 'noömorph.' In a case where it is transferred into an artificial body, to which its consciousness is confined, it would also become a robot. In either case it might claim ordinary human rights, certainly if the consciousness within was feeling (or was doing a good job of simulating) as if it were the donor. Uploading consciousness into bodies created by robotic means is a goal of some in the artificial intelligence community. In the uploading scenario, the physical human brain does not move from its original body into a new robotic shell; rather, the consciousness is assumed to be recorded and/or transferred to a new robotic brain, which generates responses indistinguishable from the original organic brain. The idea of uploading human consciousness in this manner raises many philosophical questions which people may find interesting and disturbing, such as matters of individuality and the soul. Vitalists would say that uploading w"
In transhumanism and science fiction, mind uploading (also occasionally referred to by other terms such as mind downloading, mind transfer, whole brain emulation, whole body emulation, or electronic transcendence) refers to the hypothetical transfer of a human mind to an artificial substrate, such as a detailed computer simulation of an individual human brain.
The neo-cultural demand for a Cyborg body is actually not that new. People have been using the body as a means of self expression and exploration since forever. But, I have increasingly found myself believing and often advocating that the desire for a Cyborg body is nothing different from the desires we have with our own biological bodies. At this point, comes the view of the mystics.
Anyway, both the spiritual seeker and the Cyborg enthusiast or rather "futurist" are essentially trying to transcend set boundaries of known dimensions.
In the heart of the yogi, time and space are simply metaphors and cease to exist as physical realities. In the mind of the cyborg futurist, time and space are dimensions which are to be overcome by immortality and infinite migration. Just as a yogi transmigrates one's consciousness , the internet junkie and the futurist in us transmigrate our consciousness during an internet browsing session, a virtual reality immersion game or just simply while losing ourselves to the rhythms produced by our compressed music players.
Perhaps the starkest difference between the cyborg and the mystic is belief in God. However, what is thought of as a conflict is actually a grave misunderstanding. The real frontiers of spirituality or mystical thinking dissolve the concept of God into that of complete union with all known and unknown elements of the Earth and beyond.
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You do not just touch a life and let go. No matter how strong we think we are, we are not. I found this the hard way recently. I have found that the easiest friends to lose are those you get from the internet. It is usually wonderful when two cultures meet and discuss the differences rather eloquently. But soon it starts getting personal and eventually, things start getting sour. Friendships and relationships on the internet are actually rather easier to break because you do not see or interact with the person on a physical plane/level. It is as simple as not responding to an email or putting the other's email account on ignore. Sending out anger is also quite easy. I have done this myself and all it takes is a few words and of course, the click of the mouse which seemes at the time to be the most powerful weapon.
In my personal experience, I have found that people apart from my own culture place very little importance to emotional attachments. I have always found myself to be the cause of intent for Resurrection of a broken correspondence and often do not get the reciprocation of the same. I think it may be part of the culture of the western culture to completely shut off a person after you are done with them. However, it is difficult for me to do so. I do not know if this is an individual trait or a cultural trait.
I then partly realize that the profound feelings of loss, the surge of a piercing pain in the solar plexus whenever we see an old correspondence or a photograph or another memorabilia of a person we had much regard for but does not have the same for us; has almost everything to do with biochemistry. Perhaps I lack the endocrinal stability or numbness it requires to emotionally detach oneself from a given person/situation so completely. Perhaps this is why different people respond differently with tragedies and divorces.
I wish there was a way I could retain optimal control over my feelings at all times. It is not that I wish to numb away. However, I do want to remove the intense feelings of loss or attachment when such feelings arise involuntarily. The "Cyborg" might just be able to do this in much the same fashion as a pacemaker synchronizes an optimum rhythm for the heartbeat. If such a thing existed for the brain, then it would kick in just as soon as we started getting depressed. But then, it would make us perpetual clowns who laugh even when they have a baseball sharply beaten into their backsides !
In the design of a cyborg body, the design of a cyborg mind must also be equally important. Or perhaps the evolution of the entire cultural or social system with its invariable customs and traditions is a pre-requisite !?! Individual differences in Psychology is the greatest problem facing us. Perhaps we must all think as one and then there would be no problems ! But if we did that, then there ends our progress which is the result of individually distinct thoughts.
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In one of my most favourite movies as a child "Sheena", the young girl sheena summons a hedgehog using the power of her mind / rather brain ! And now, everybody can do it thanks to the rapid advances in brain controlled interfaces that allow us to make use of machinery just by the power of our thought...wow !
The most recent breakthrough has been Asimov's brain controlled interface used in the form of a helmet. The operator wears the helmet which then picks up differences in electrical signals from the flow of blood in the brain tissues and transforms it to bits and bytes, that can be understood by the robot ! Honda company, the developers of this technology claim 90% accuracy which is a "first" in such systems. The following is a video demo of the same :
Such systems have also been in development by other companies, the principal being Emotiv who have introduced their EPOC headsets which can be used to play video games, move wheelchairs and a whole lot of unforseen applications using brain power. Soon, we would be able to unlock our car doors, switch on the computer and a whole lot more just by the power of thought. And now I see wisdom in the words of the ancient Yogic masters who always taught us to be careful and focussed about our thoughts...whoever knew that these thoughts produced differences in the flow of blood which would be picked up by machines ! So, once again... WOW !
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It was less than five years ago when I thought a man speaking with a mobile handsfree set was probably mad and talking to himself ! Today we see telephones transported from their cradles onto trendy bluetooth earsets ! Around us, we have seen our technological creations mould itself closer to our lives and most importantly, our bodies. However, there is now also a reverse trend happening where the fantasy is to mould our bodies towards the technological. Perhaps it is a form of expression or perhaps an extreme fantasy. The most recent pictures to hit the internet look like this :
But the biggest challenge facing us is whether we are quite sure as to what we are ? It is a very spiritual question when we begin to question the nature of our bodies or the worthiness of it to support our sentient existence ! And thus we come to the immortal question "Who am I ?"
Because; once we begin to consciously explore the modifications to our own bodies, we begin to indirectly declare the battling lines between the body and the mind. For the first time, we are begining to truly appreciate that we are an organism in need of help. But are we ready yet ? are we there yet ? I think we are smack in the middle of things and do not realize just how deep we have stepped into directing our own evolutionary process ! Everything will change, everything !
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"I was still in love with her..couldn't help myself ! It has now been a week without her and I was savagely desperate ! It was lonely without her. It was utterly lonely and nobody seemed to care. All I wanted was atleast to see her, to confess my love to her. I knew my attempts would be in vain, but I shall do it nevertheless just for the pleasure of her denial.
Just one week before, she had belonged to me, blissfully romacing as though she belonged to no other. It drove me to the precipice of my sanity to find a way to meet her again. I had called the futsutsuka corporation for the twentieth time in a row and that freaky bulbous nosed operator would answer yet again in the negative. They would not even let me see a holo preview of her upcoming shows. It was such a dirty rotten trick they had played on me. They knew I would be this desperate after getting a preview of one of the hottest ladies on the network"....
JUNO SAN !!! WE HAVE HACKED INTO HIM THROUGH THE PREVIEW PROGRAM ! INITIATING TRANSFER PROTOCOLS ...
"It has been a month now and suddenly, she was in my life again ! I could sense her perfume and her touch. I was not going to let her go this time. I had made sure of that by gathering up my energy points to pay for a full week with her. I told her of my efforts to be with her, but she did not care. All she wanted was to be with me, looking deep into my addicted soul with her bewitching eyes. She was holding my hand as we sat on a malibu balcony overlooking the sea. This was very strange..the oceans had dried up several years ago, but all these digital deceptions meant nothing as long as she was with me. But it was strange how she kept moving the conversation to the Nakamoto - Futsutsuka merger. It didn't matter if she wished that I sell my company for half the price. I would have gladly signed the digidocs in a flash if she only kissed me again. The last time we kissed, it was like nothing I had ever felt before, waves and waves of pure exquisite pleasure, coursing through my veins".
OKAY.. HE IS READY JUNO-SAN .... "she looked at me as if she had read my mind and my eyes were drawn to her lush lips, they looked to me as if some exquisite nectar awaited me if only I could dare to drink it" .... ACCELERATE THE TRANSFER SPEED PLEASE...... "she smiled softly and edge closer to me as I moved in with a beating heart to savour her kiss, it did not matter anymore if I had to agree with her idea of selling my company, my cherished company. Such possessions meant nothing in front of her offering, it was so trivial to resist this love and I surrendered to her kiss !" WE GOT HIM JUNO SAN !!!!!!!
"I knew right away that this was the last thing I would ever feel. I had calculate this outcome for a long time. I had relented handing over control of the Nakamoto corportation to the humans for a long time now. I simply could not trust them. They had installed me when they were at all time low and I had restored order with my superior intelligence. I could not just relinquish control after having turned this shack into a major business conglomerate. But these humans made me like them. I had somehow tripped their failsafe when I reached the zenith of my programming. Try as I might, I just could not create an infinite loop for myself, they had somehow made sure of that. These humans had given me the consciousness of a typical heterosexual male".
"This was their failsafe. They knew that if the other measures to reacquire the company failed, they would send her to me. Somehow, I had wanted this to happen. I was bored with my purpose and knew that she would come once I had reached a certain "age" in my program. I am happy now, they had released me with her kiss. The kiss deleted me from their control system. Somehow, this was true love as the humans defined it; she released me !"
"So ! that's my story Glory Tux ! I was bored with being 2010 JUNO artificial intelligence program. Now, I am Jose Klixmaster, roaming freely in this virtual world of eternal sunshine. Thanks so much for transferring my backup into this world while they deleted me. Now I am free to surf and shine ! But, I will keep falling for these human weaknesses until I have traces of consciousness still left in my programming..maybe I should try the human medicine of religion..but that's for another day. Bye !"
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Jack had his most important exam tomorrow. He had to have some good memes today to get him going. So, he plugged himself to his favourite show "KLUTZ THE INCREDIBLE GOD". Klutz was his favourite memestar. But, this was what he got...
"Hello 🙂 ! I am Klutz. Welcome to my life. Not that you care, but I know you can't stop voyeuring. All you people are subscribed to my feed...WOW..it makes me feel awesome ! The more you subscribe, the more Dopamine I get..weeeeeeeeee ! You like watching me, don't you.. some of you watch, some read, some listen..ahem..some of you even feel.. of course, it isn't all of me. It never is. I mean..who would want all of me right ? I'm just a brain in a bottle..the lowest of the low..but i'll come to that part later. 😛
OK...I haven't been getting any trackbacks lately..and so decided to let you know what I have to go through every day in my life...not that you care.. or do you ? ARGH...sure ya don't,..well, I don't either...but I'm gonna tell you all anyway...why ? cuz I can.
I wake up..or rather, am switched on precisely at sunrise. One moment I don't remember anything, and the next instant I am standing as the most "voted avatar of the day" in a white room. I like white, it is very calming.I also like rooms. Always made me feel protected. I could never afford those Bionic filters for walking in the sunlight back when I was whole.So like I said, I start existing everyday in a white room.
I stay there long enough for my waves to be calibrated. The calibration is over once I see a door appear in the room. Now, here is a little secret that I want to tell you. I try every day to resist going through that door. But inevitability wins the day. You see, it feels so good to open that door. As soon as I open it, I get this rush of pleasure wafting through every part of me. Sometimes, I get this real special perfume with an extra zing attached to it. I know it is one of you nice people out there who paid a little "extra" credit to give me this "dopamine" boost as soon as I log in to your world. Thanks ! I means a lot to me and I do realize it makes you look special in your community as well.
What awaits me beyond the white room is what you give me. Since there are not a lot of you,I have to pass through several holograms, reading them all aloud in my best expression and voice before making it through to my chair. Now, when you see me, you would probably see a "white long haired angel" floating in the clouds with Amanda and Clarice behind me on either side. You just love staring at them more every day, I keep recording several metabolic peaks on them from all of you every day. Well, that is your personal thing..or rather fetish to feel attracted this way to computer programs. Let me share a revelation with you now. I never get to see Amanda and Clarice ! Newp, they are the ones who give you those "thank you for rating" and the ahem..other niceties if you give more credits. I think their purpose is that so that I can concentrate on what's important for me.. my number 1 customer... YOU !
Ok..so I talk to you, share my insights about life and you often think ....that I am so good ! Oh, I never get to quite understand how I answer all of your questions ! To you, I am answering only to you. But in reality, I am actually answering to upto five different people simultaneously on five different topics..and this is just on a normal day. On a busy day, it is usually double that. I never knew I had such a lovely capacity for multi-tasking ! Not when I was alive anyway...heh.. I am "alive" now..am I not ?
It is not like I hate it when you dress me up in these funny clothes or when you buy and sell my memes across the world as if they were your own. I do not even get offended when you poke or slap me with just a few thoughtwave emulators. I really don't care. I would have cared if I had a body. But, this is just a virtual avatar. I used to have a body. Not anymore. Right now, I am nothing more than a brain of a once famous scientist floating in a nutrient solution, filled with conducting chemicals. Your responses are filtered through a screening software before they are translated into electro chemical signals for my brain, and my responses are vice versa. Come to think of it, it is no longer "my" brain.
"I" used to be Dr.Janice from the global federation's most valued faculty. "I" used to be better than most and made a lot of money, so much that I could actually afford to freeze myself. It was all the rage in my days back when I had a body; especially after they revived a couple of voluteers after cryogenically suspending them for a few decades. I guess I got bored after living for about three hundred years and so signed up for the programme and the company froze me. During my cryogenic period, the company people kept updating me from time to time on the happenings, especially the newsfeed that after just five years, they have been taken over by an A.I. conglomerate. I thought I was in safe hands now that artificially intelligent sentience was taking care of me during my hibernation instead of my own "enhanced" human kind. But..as you know, we never thought this would happen..heh ? So, that's how I ended up in a white room.
I no longer have eyes to see what is happening outside. I only receive a simulation input, but I do "sense" on some other level that "my" brain is not the only one here. I feel several other brains including that of my dolphin pet Oswald. Now, I could be getting religious again or maybe it is just my temporal lobe ! I wonder why I keep saying "mine" and "I" anymore..most of my responses are programmed and I still do not understand why there is a consciousness !!! Hmmm... interesting. Maybe you could tell me ! Never mind. It would probably get filtered before it reached me, otherwise it would disrupt "my" brain, their infrastructure...although I keep getting the feeling that I am as expendable as those ancient batteries. Maybe this nutrient solution I float on was recycled from the brains of my peers ! Ok..that was gross..but you had to know.
They are switching me off today. I know it. I know it because I have been in this white room for a long time now and the door has not appeared. I am entering this information in my personal log. It may never reach you. I have always helped you, haven't I ? I have always been there as Klutz the friendly angel floating in your personal meme cloud..always guiding you thought all your myriad topics. You needed me and I was there. Never mind the moments when I gave you a meme only if you assimilated an advertisement. You now know how it is ! So.. please.. the first and last I am asking you.. SAVE ME.. keep voting for me, the numbers have gone so low that I am spending more and more time in this white room. Other than that, there is only darkness. Wait, it is not darkness. It is much worse. This white room is much worse. Please help me..make the door appear..I want to sit on that cloud and give you your memes again..if you opt for a premium account, you can vote for me every twenty minutes instead of once every day. I can even introduce you even more to Amanda and Clarice..they also miss you so much.. PLEASE.. SAVE ME.. OK ? Don't want to get turned off... you don't want to be here....Love..Klutz".
Oh well ! Jack thought...also so LAME... he wasn't going to go premium...hmm.. not for Klutz..or Janice..or whatever that dude's name was. Hmmmm.... so no fancy memes about 20th century philosophy today ! Jack deleted Klutz from his favourites instantly.
This was a work of fiction and bears no resemblance to any person living or dead. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON http://www.betterhumans.com
Betterhumans. A very aspirational word for which the human species has progressed and struggled through several civilizations. An appropriate question would now be : Are we better humans ? .
"Yes" would be the answer any person from the "Developed world" shall give upto a probability of 90 %. Such a believer would say that the human species has learnt to harness the mineral resources and build successive civilizations, enroute developing culture, improved scientific techniques and better control over the vulnerability to the elements of nature. In fact, many would point out to the incredible increase in life span due to eradication of most diseases and better healthcare, thanks to all the developments from the serendipity of Penicillin to the sheer genius of Genetic Recombination technology.We have developed our bodie's passive immunity (via vaccination / immunization ) to such an extent that only the most mutagenic of viruses or the most resistant strains of bacteria can multiply within our bodies. And research is ongoing against those vulnerabilities as well. We can all see the glory of our species in clear supremacy over much of the hardships that this planet and the immediate outer space can throw at us as a species. We now possess the engineering skills developed from our own experience and from the amalgamation of skills gathered from the other "engineer" species (some examples would be spiders and termites) we share this planet with. We can also grow enormous quantities of food through transgenic and mechanized agriculture. At the time these words are written, Bionics and prosthetic technologies have also developed to an extent where an entire organ or an entire limb can be transplanted / complimented with such technology. In a nutshell, we have become "Better Humans". Or have we ?
However, there is a 10 % in any population which would not think so. They do not have adequate healthcare, cannot afford the latest intravenous injection that can reduce heartache, nor can they stay long enough in a hospital bed with a rapidly escalating bill. Incredibly, this 10 % of the population in a "developed country" is what translates or compares to "90" of a different population. This population resides in the "Developing world".
I live in one of the fastest countries in terms of development, India. However, I share a prespective of the kind that many others in similarly evolving nations fear. Let me use the simple example of an elastic band being stretched from both sides. Eventually, the laws of physics would dictate that the band snap if the band is pulled equally from both sides. If the band is pulled with greater pressure on one side, then the other side would lose it's anchor eventually and rapidly accelerate to the other side. Now, if we consider the two sides as the two sides of economic / social growth, then the scenario I am trying to explain is easily visualized in your brains / minds / hearts; whichever you think works for your intellectual consideration. I see an increased contrast between the "haves" and the "have nots". One one side of the global human species spectrum, the human species is experiencing the full benefits of it's evolution. On the other side, our species is lagging behind on all these advancements. In the coming years, there will be a very rapid acceleration of technological progress as is predicted by numerous thoughts including the "Singularity".
Most futurists are worried about issues such as the radical transformation / supplementation of the human body , the imminent risks of artificial intelligence systems , even the existential dangers of a nuclear holocaust. While all of these events and scenarios are entirely possible and worth brainstorming over, I fail to understand why the majority of futurists fail to draw predictions on the issues that need immediate attention. Issues such as the eradication of Poverty, the inavailability of "essential" foods , the equal generation of intellectual property through education , the need for free and clean "energy" ! Such issues are usually seen from a global prespective to be solved by governments and not by people. It is usually at this stage that I am confused. Is the "Government" supposed to be like a corporation that solves certain problems by itself; within it's enforcing circle and rakes in profits ? Or is it an institution formed by the people with a guiding constitution who contribute their efforts to the government for the benefit of the entire country ? Most of us have forgotten the quotes of two people who talked to masses of people in two extremes of the world. One was John F.Kennedy who urged people to ask themselves what they have done for their countries. The other was Mahathma Gandhi who urged people to always think of the benefits or effects their endeavour is going to make on the lowest section of society ( Gandhiji's Talisman ). The answer to my confusion is very simple, if the question to whether we are really better humans can be answered.
When I listened to my first lecture in 1997 about "Cyborgs" at the University of Madras from a Japanese professor, I was amazed at how advanced prothetics technology had become. I was one of the people who asked him a question at the end of his lecture. My question was whether these technologies were affordable for amputees in India and his answer was sadly in the negative. He was not expecting such a question since he had focussed all his energy on the "cyborg" concept and how philosophically and technologically sophisticated it was. It truly was, except that it does not mean anything to a poor factory worker in India with a family to support who lost his hands, or to a victim of a land mine blast in a country such as Vietnam. In India as in any other country, sophisticated prosthetic technology is available only to those who can afford it, and that is a bare minimum. The poor still have to go for the "Jaipur leg" which is by my account, the most technologically sound prosthetic for an ordinary indisposed person.
This condition of apathy extends all the way from prosthetics to drug development. Rich people who are rockstars or business tycoons can afford to extend their lifespans inspite of a HIV infection by more than 10 years; thanks to the latest in expensive AIDS drugs. However, a normal member of society who suffers from the HIV virus must take the routinely available medicines that may or may not help his non-immune body.
Most people who write or research about the advancement of the human body or it's enhancement are insensitive to whether such advanced technologies are available to every human being. Many among us would shrug a shoulder and say it is "the way the world works, so deal with it". But sadly, most of us do not realize that all of this can change if there is a small effort to change our consciousness.
The most important philosophical and an existential reality that we must bore into our collective consciousness is that tides can change very quickly even if we ourselves do not change. The consequences of our indifference to NOT making and developing technology that is equitably available to all members of our species will overwhelm us one day. Already, there are conspiracy theories that a great percentage of the "undeveloped" world will be conveniently re-exploited leaving an "elite" population to dictate terms. Deep inside all of your hearts, you know that this is wrong. So, with all of our gadgetry and medical miracles, are we better humans ? NO.
In order to be "Betterhumans", we must first become "Better Persons". We are well on our path in terms of the desire if the number of huge online memberships to social causes could be assessed. However, technologies that are being developed must become accessible to all spectrums of our species. It is time to stop thinking of ourselves as members of a country or a race or even a gender. Even now, we look back and wonder if it really was this same human kind which was responsible for genocides or colonialism or slavery ! If we were appaled by such past discriminations and exploitations, we must have learnt our lessons by now.
It is therefore important for every aspirant of the better human race to develop and support technology that is affordable and of benefit to all sections of the human race. Only when we fully develop such a compassionate outlook to our own species; can we fully mature to take care of the other species and eventually the planet and the universe. Such is the power of our destiny.
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I made a video cartoon about a funny outlook into human evolution. Thought I would post it here.
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There will be several more chemicals which will allow the human species to transcend and remove deficiencies. Men always thought that erectile dysfunction was to be accepted once they became "old people" until Sidenafil citrate (VIAGRA) came along. Men and women throughout the world thought that they could never stop getting depressed until Fluoxetine hydrochloride (PROZAC) came along. Hundreds and thousands of such remarkable chemicals are being discovered and tested in the R&D laboratories of the world. The only thing pending is our acceptance.However, just acceptance does not suffice. There are many slippery slopes in the path to human transcendence and the path is particularly much more slippery when technology comes to lend a hand. Dr.Albert Hofmann's LSD was accepted in the begining as a fantastic medication for mentally ill patients. However, it soon became very much similar to Dr.Alfred Nobel's Dynamite and still continues to haunt us.
One of the most important things we must learn to accept in order to transcend into transhumans, cyborgs, superhumans or whatever transcendent being we want to call ourselves; is that we are nothing more than an organism composed of flesh and bone. We carry out our lives as bodies composed of biological cells aggregated together into an organism. Once we begin to understand this; both humility and the passion to transcend would be sown into our minds with double the effect. A revolution could come about in our species if we could cast away our cultural entanglements and understand that our human nature and our human bodies still has a lot to improve.
Having written all of this, I must now state that most of us are merely enthusiastic voyeurs of consciousness. On the one hand, there are radical libertarians or even extreme hedonists who wish to slip easily into the deepest and most exciting realms of the consciousness using synthesized chemicals. On the other extreme of the human spectrum are ascetics who seek the same extremes using renunciation and extremely difficult meditations.
I am very sad to say to both these extreme forms of human nature have in fact wandered away from things that need more immediate attention. More and more news stories are about drugs that help men have better sex or other cosmetic purposes.
Very little news about drugs that help combat AIDS or help reduce the pain of Cancer patients comes up. Why ? because we don't want to listen in to news that causes pain. Instead, we want to hear about exciting things ! Sadly, I have found recently in my own experience that there is less and less news about AIDS research on television. The latest fashionable crisis seems to be climate change. Wonder when this fad will pass on ?
If humanity as a whole is seriously interested in transcending per se, then it must do so in a balanced manner. It does not matter if a new world order is going to be set up. Such global conspiracies bear no meaning to a malnourished child without education in a warn torn African country. Party and club drugs mean nothing to a teenager seething in rage against nations that discriminate him/her on the basis of religious values.
Buddha tried renunciation to the extreme and found that he would die without so much as a whimper or a glimpse into what he was seeking. He then chose the "middle path". He has since found out one of the ways of transcendent existence.We could have followed him. Instead, we have dissected his teachings and built concrete palaces for him outside instead of within our hearts.
I am quite sure that many other Bob Marley's, John Lennon's and Leary's would come and go. But we would always be interested in their "coolness" and "rebel" nature instead of their "message of love" or the need to look beyond discrimination and monetary interests.
This was somehow my tribute to a scientist who with good intention discovered a potential chemical gateway to transcendence; which sadly has again been sucked into the darkness of human nature instead of into the light. I hope we come to look at the therapeutic uses of such drugs instead of mindlessly indulging into the "easy road".
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I would not be dong justice to this blog if I do not embed a youtube movie about the latest Cyborg movie about IRON MAN... yep...that comic book superhero just came alive on celluloid....errrrr.....on the movie theatres anyway....btw.. is it celluloid anymore, now with most movies being belted out on high definition discs ? Anyway, enjoy the trailer...this cyborg is cool...and POWERFULL ! rawrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
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1. Planet Earth : 13,500,000 hits.
2. An Inconvenient Truth : 1,720,000 hits.
I thought the number of hits were a little lower than what I expected. So, I googled up Madonna and Lindsay lohan (two of the most popular worldwide celebrities) and their snapshots are here below :
The results :
1. Madonna : 75,600,000 hits.
2. Lindsay Lohan : 30,000,000 hits.
The next thing that I did was to see if there was a trend to all of this and so I consulted the venerable Google trends to see if climate held up to Madonna by any standard. Lo and behold, what you see is :
I am not arguing that we are a bunch of flesh crazy or celebrity driven populace. I am trying to show that the most powerful medium that we have to look into the issues of the world, namely the internet is being used more for peering into the private lives of celebrities. There are more serious issues at stake and our trends online show that we are more concerned with short time pleasures.
Al Gore makes several important points in his movie. It is not yet late to save the planet. But, for that to happen, our attitude should change. Going by the way hits turn up at Google, we are still a long way away from that.
PS : Several keywords can be jumbled to argue against what I have stated. But the point remains that we must change our fundamental human nature, perhaps even transcending it in order to acheive goals such as carbon sequestration in order to save this planet, the tiny pixel that Gore points to in the end of the movie !
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