5 Intriguing Things
1. Brain-to-brain communication.
"The recent development of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) has provided an important element for the creation of brain-to-brain communication systems, and precise brain stimulation techniques are now available for the realization of non-invasive computer-brain interfaces (CBI). These technologies, BCI and CBI, can be combined to realize the vision of non-invasive, computer-mediated brain-to-brain (B2B) communication between subjects (hyperinteraction). Here we demonstrate the conscious transmission of information between human brains through the intact scalp and without intervention of motor or peripheral sensory systems." (plosone.org)
2. The Reagan-era legacy that's the legal basis for mass surveillance.
"The document, known in government circles as 'twelve triple three,' gives incredible leeway to intelligence agencies sweeping up vast quantities of Americans' data. That data ranges from e-mail content to Facebook messages, from Skype chats to practically anything that passes over the Internet on an incidental basis. In other words, EO 12333 protects the tangential collection of Americans' data even when Americans aren't specifically targeted—otherwise it would be forbidden under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978." (arstechnica.com)
3. The bear case on Google's self-driving cars.
"Mistakes on maps could be dangerous, because there are some objects, like traffic signals and intersection stop signs, that the car needs the maps to handle, even though it also has several on-board sensors. If it encountered an unmapped traffic light, and there were no cars or pedestrians around, the car could run a red light simply because it wouldn’t know the light is there. Alberto Broggi, a professor studying autonomous driving at Italy’s Università di Parma, says he worries about how a map-dependent system like Google’s will respond if a route has seen changes like the addition of a new stop sign at an intersection." (technologyreview.com)
4. Looking back at 1999's Cluetrain Manifesto from the summer of 2000 and today.
"Despite its antiquity, Cluetrain's popularity persists. The book continues to sell, in many languages. The word 'cluetrain,' which didn't exist before 1999, now appears in more than 11,000 other books (a number that increases at a rate of more than one per day). It also gets tweeted a lot. Look up markets are conversations — Cluetrain's most quoted line — and you'll get millions of results. What was once a revolutionary yell by markets at marketing is now marketing canon. Not exactly what we had in mind, but there it is." (linuxjournal.com)
+ The Cluetrain Manifesto itself.
5. A gorgeously crafted story about the way scientific discoveries penetrate our lives.
"At a remote military base in the Pacific Northwest, Navy sonar technicians hear a confounding sound. It is the voice of a whale, but one that sings at a frequency—52 hertz—never before heard by scientists, and inaudible to other members of its species. The whale seems to be alone in the Pacific Ocean, unable to communicate with its kind. Three thousand miles away, in an apartment in Harlem, a sudden illness plunges a 48-year-old woman named Leonora into a coma. She wakes up in a hospital room, barely able to speak, adrift in the world. Wandering the Internet late one night she discovers the saga of the whale—and finds her life transformed by the power of its story." (atavist.com, $)
Book 4. Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen, by Phillip Ball. "As the history of invisibility shows, myth is no blueprint for the engineer. It is more important than that." Recommended by Adrian Demleitner.
Today's 1957 American English Language Tip
cleanse. In US used chiefly in fig. & transf. senses, as opposed to clean, the less elevated, literal word. Cleanse your heart with tears.
Clean your heart with tears.
All apologies for missing an edition yesterday. I was working on a feature that comes out this afternoon that will more than make up for it, I hope/promise. Also, I need more book recommendations! Just hit reply and send one my way. If you have time, include a sentence I can use to describe it to your fellow subscribers.
The Conscious Transmission of Information Between Human Brains