chicken chicken chicken

n this particular moment in AI, one does not need to show why the object of interest justifies researcher attention because the social world is now built to make its significance appear self-evident. Important authorial work–both justification and historicization–gets cut short as a result. This short-cutting also means we have already lost the first site of struggle: we are limited in how much we can question why it matters at all. We are not in a position to conclude that it matters, when and if that is the case.

Moving out from the muddled middle, and exploring both edges, can help clarify why or whether a particular object is worthy of its researcher. When it is not, it might still be worth our time as vocal adversaries. When we ask, “does this need my analysis or my advocacy?” we avoid unwittingly channelling others' agendas. We honor our own expertise when we question what constitutes a deserving matter of STS attention. While few of us can avoid the traps of funding requirements, some researchers do have the capacity to cultivate stronger technodiversity, and to sit with curiosities that feel somehow peripheral or irrelevant or otherwise not in keeping with one’s professional self-narrative. Scholars who live in democracies–not just as individuals but as collectivities and associations–could also use the approaching burst of the AI bubble as a frame to draw policymakers and grant makers towards what is worth knowing more about, and not just what is worth resisting.

"Yoshida determined that by 2531, only 7.96% would be named Sato under the selective separate surname system, but the Sato surname would still take over by the year 3310.

At the same time, if Japan's population decline continues at the current speed, there will be only 22 people left in 3310."

the scale of things

If you have a serious new claim to make, it should go through scientific publication and peer review before you present it to the media

William Gibson interview

HISTORICAL (2)

HISTORICAL

this is awesome <3

"Tatiana and Krista are not just conjoined, but they are craniopagus, sharing a skull and also a bridge between each girl’s thalamus, a part of the brain that processes and relays sensory information to other parts of the brain."

"FIRST SELF-REPLICATING SYNTHETIC BACTERIAL CELL"

"Murayama dissects flowers and with meticulous measurements and creates a virtual reproduction, which he then renders in various manners"

a history of cybernetic animals and early robots

You can listen to the underwater sound of the Antarctic Ocean with a delay of a few seconds here.

Hi-Res science pics, perrrfect wallpapers material, eyecandy for the geeks

"Spy Numbers echoes GAKONA, the previous exhibit inspired by the work of Nikola Tesla, in its exploration of the electromagnetic spectrum and its margins. Extending beyond the phenomenon of number stations, the exhibition explores the themes of intrigue and conspiracy."

"A spacecraft capable of saving the world from a catastrophic asteroid collision has been designed"

oh dear... I'm not sure I like this :p

'"Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another."

"Hiroshi Sugimoto thinks that a good photographer always has to be part scientist. He gives us an exclusive preview of his latest experimental work."