Beim menschlichen Gehirn sind es Synapsen, die Nervenzellen miteinander vernetzen und im Web haben wir die sogenannten „Tags".

Tags sind Schlagworte, die einem Bild, Text usw. zugewiesen werden können um bei einer Suche auf relevante Texte, Bilder, Seiten etc. zu stossen. Durch die vielen Überlappungen kann etwa exakt das gleiche Bild durch unterschiedliche Suchwörter gefunden werden wie „Ball“ und „WM“.

Das ganze Konzept wird als Folksonomy bezeichnet und wird beispielsweise von Flickr oder del.icio.us forciert. Gewissermassen ist Folksonomy die kollaborative Kategorisierung bei der jeder User die Schlagwörter frei wählen kann.

Um diese Schlagwörter zu visualisieren werden Tagclouds verwendent, die wiederum aus verschiedensten Schlagwörtern bestehen und je öfter ein Schlagwort benutzt wurde, desto deutlicher erscheint es in der Wolke. So werden oft angewandte Tags klar ersichtlich und die weniger gebrauchten, bleiben eher im Hintergrund oder gar unbemerkt.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6962604448570511609&q=tvshow%3ACharlie_Rose&pl=true

The Nerve Impulse

Chemical Synapse

Transmission Across a Synapse

Sodium-Potassium Exchange

Cell Proliferation Signaling Pathway

Function of the Neuromuscular Junction

Action Potentials and Muscle Contraction

Voltage Gated Channels and the Action Potential

Action Potential Propagation in an Unmyelinated Axon

Membrane-Bound Receptors, G Proteins, and Ca2+ Channels

]]> http://designedforsynapse.wordpress.com/?p=25 Sat, 06 Sep 2008 01:56:23 +0000 Sanky http://designedforsynapse.pt-br.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/lucruri/ Exista lucruri si lucruri, si persoane, lucruri pe care le urasti, persoane pe care le iubesti, lucruri la care visezi, lucruri imposibile, lucruri pe care nu le vei mai face, lucruri pe care afirmi ca nu le vei face, dar te minti ca de obicei, lucruri care te trezesc, lucruri care dor, persoane care mor, persoane pe care vrei sa le uiti si persoane care le vrei doar pentru tine, lucruri inutile si lucruri care nu sunt pentru tine.

Omul, prin definitie este rau, credinta il urca, dar felul lui de a fi il tot coboara. Avand in vedere ca esti om, tot timpul vrei sa impresionezi, fiecare cuvant in plus, fiecare lucru contrazis te face sa urci in ochii altora, te face mai orgolios, pur si simplu impresionezi, acesta este un alt lucru, un lucru pe care nu-l mai poti intoarce, il poti regreta, poate si uita.

Sunt si lucruri pe care le faci. De obicei, faci mult rau, esti alimentat de propriul tau creier cu atat rau suficient pentru a distruge orice, incerci sa-l controlezi, dar te controleaza el pe tine, afirmi ca faci bine, dar faci rau, te minti singur si atunci cand afirmi ca te minti. Traiesti filmul tau, sau filmul altuia, dar tot timpul nu e filmul tau preferat si asta pentru ca esti tot om...si ti-ai da tot ce ai mai bun pentru o alta viata, crezi ca orice alta suferinta ti s-ar potrivi mai bine, dar circumstantele schimba totul.

La orice lucru ai o concluzie, in orice directie ai merge, gasesti o concluzie, fiecare concluzie are o alta concluzie si mai bun. Acest lucru creste exponential cu fiecare secunda, si este direct proportional cu raul ce creste in tine, dar fiecare concluzie te apropie de scopurile tale, si cu cat te complici mai mult cu atat suferi mai mult.

Deci, cred ca am ales calea mai dificila.

Esti o fiinta prost de ciudata!

Tot ce aveai, nu mai ai, si atunci...asta nu era nici macar o varianta. No hope, only rage.

Love... multe de spus despre, multe tipuri de a iubi, de a fi iubit. O putem defini prin la fel de multe moduri. E oare cea mai puternica si importanta traire?...Posibil. Sa zicem ca da, de aceea ajungem atat de usor de la love ("a iubi/ dragoste") la death ("moarte")... atatea sacrificii, atatea pacate, atatea lacrimi, doar pentru cateva momente in care sa te simpti coplesit, in care nu simti nimic, esti total confuz si eclipsat de fenomen si uiti repede, foarte repede. Pentru mine life is like poker and poker is life`s mother or grandmother, si...pentru a castiga in poker trebuie sa-ti folosesti capul si ratiunea, sa fii constant, insensibil, controland totul.

Trebuie sa recunoastem ca femeia este slabiciunea cea mai mare a barbatului si cu toate ca toti o consideram slaba, nu e chiar asa, unde nu pot continua barbatii, pot ele. Femeia? rolul ei care ar fi? Sa satisfaca fizic sau sexual un barbat?...neah, alea nu sunt femei, acelea sunt alte fiinte cu toate ca femeia prin definite e curva...trecem scurt peste. Rolul femeii ar fi oricare altul inafara de acesta. Exista si barbati pentru asa ceva:). Si...barbatul ce e pentru femei? Protectorul? Cel ce are bani? Sa recunoastem ca nu barbatii sunt fiinta perfecta si ca "in spatele fiecarui barbat puternic este o femeie desteapta".

Dar toatea acestea merita? Avand in vedere ca fiecare moment ne influenteaza felul de a fi si de a gandi, totul sta in a te controla...si sa nu uitam, cocosul e si el o pasare, putin mai mare, dar tot gaina ramane.

...but we must not forget that our purpose is a fine and silent death, so...love must be our way.

Rebecca Sanders kicked off the presentations by providing an insight into an alternative career in science, with a role in a government funding body, the Foundation of Research, Science and Technology. Like most of the speakers, Rebecca experienced a pivotal changing point in her career where she deviated in her traditional science path. With no previous experience in the field, Rebecca took up an opportunity in London with JPMorgan as a banker. It was this experience that lead her to her current role involving a fusion of both her science and finance backgrounds.

Unfortunately Dr. David Saul , ZyGEM's principle and founding scientist was unable to make it. However Duncan Kay, ZyGEMs recently appointed Business Manager, was thankfully able to step in at such late notice. With a bioscience background Duncan too deviated from the scientist path and has since established a strong background in marketing and sales. He highlighted some of the realities (high and lows) of NZ's biotech/ pharma job industry while also advocating the field of biotools as an 'untapped' area that could hold some value if NZ was to branch out into it. This is backed up by his extensive experience in the field. He even refers to Invitrogen as the L'Oreal of biotech. ZyGEM utilises its propriety library of extremophilic microorganisms to isolate novel enzymes with commercial applications.

Next up, Dr Andrew Kelly ( BioPacific Ventures) reviewed his career path by reliving it from positive and negative views. From the 'pressured' decision to pursue veterinary science and working with AgResearch to creating New Zealands first biotech (life science) specific VC fund. BPV specialises in the areas of health & wellbeing and nutrition with investments in range of Australian and NZ companies such as CMP Therapeutics/ Anzamune, Vital Foods, Keratec, Encoate and Novotech. BPV was set up in 2005 and manages a $100mil fund. Andrew closed with a memorable quote " Luck is where opportunity meets preparation".

Michelle Lockhart ( Project manager - Antipodean Pharmaceuticals) who has a solid background in pharma regulatory systems (particularly in the UK), highlighted how small biotechs/ pharma can use contacting to outsource alot of development including clinical trials. For example antipodean use Douglas Pharmacetuicals and IRL for upscaling product volume and tablet formulation. Michelle proved to be a great inspiration for many pharmacy students in the audience, who previously had little knowledge of careers outside the typical student to pharmacist path. Antipodean is commercializing MitoQ, a mitochondrial antioxidant for inflammatory disorders of the liver caused by oxidative stress.

The presentations were concluded with a Q&A panel. My question to the panel was what fields of science do the speakers predict to be hot for the future. The unsurprising popular answer was clean/green technology - an area that has received large scale investment not only internationally but also within NZ ( e.g. Lanzatechs NZ$12million from FRST this year). Michelle broadened this to mention that any innovative science has a place. Duncan provided a supporting example in the UK - a spray that removes chewing gum from sidewalks http://www.getridofgum.com/. In a following question the speakers highlighted the importance of networking, maintaining networks and power of making a phone call (both which I persistently advocate to my colleagues).

Some good closing words for how to succeed in your career - Luck, Prepare, Create Opportunities.

Click here [543Kb] to download the content from the Career Display that I compiled for the night. The idea behind this display was to provide a series of examples of potential career paths for students with different backgrounds by highlighting currently available national and international job positions in biotech/pharma companies and the required skills/ qualities and qualifications needed.

Deadening terror will creep up my spine, no matter what town I’m in, no matter how surrounded I am by ornate buildings or cardboard cut-out homes. The sulking humidity, chilly wind. It passes along my face in a cloud of white. Like fog but solid, almost astringent. It clings to my clothing and skin, practically leaving a second layer of gelatinous coating. It sticks to me.

I notice the trees aren’t blowing in the wind anymore, a wretched sight of cobwebs sliming over the landscape. The trees were caught like prey. Catching more and more of the thick wind. I also noticed little black beads scratching the ground, they blew through the wind. Some of the objects were caught in tight linings of the now thicker wind. I stuck out my hand, standing still. The breeze was picking up; the web was building over my outstretched arms. Pin-prick terror building, rising up violently in my gut. My very core shattered. Broken. Shaking. I couldn’t bare this awful hallucination. The web stretched wide between my fingers and across my chest and legs. I used my other arm to shield my face, bending my elbow triangularly to protect most of my hair and head. The web still caught to my ear. I could feel the organic skin weighing over me. It was too large, building too fast. The little black beads were all over me. Under much closer inspection I could see the black beads weren’t nearly as small as I had firstly imagined, or perhaps they were growing. They were also living.

They looked foreign; otherworldly, the creatures – as I soon noticed they were- had black skin and long, exquisitely designed wings. Their creator, however dubious as he may be, had invented this abominable fathom of celestial proportions to inspire fear within the hearts of men as it had in me. I recite this terror without disclosing my location, but I feel the unfortunate soul who should happen to find this log already knows that they are in hell. Geographically, however, I am existing for the moment within the confines of Alabaster, Arizona. Cactus and sand blanket the land outside of the town, I was merely passing through on vacation. Having stopped for the evening to get some much needed rest, my plague of insomnia which has afflicted my ability of keeping normal hours was acting up and the spurred notion of a moonlit walk hastened my weary thoughts. I left the motel room after 3:30 in the morning; I saw the people scurrying into their homes but didn’t piece together their brand of warning for what it was. Maybe the walk would help to bring physical fatigue, I regret this notion.

I hardly find the expressive words to detail the hideous reality facing me now. The web quickly formed a cocoon, or rather a network of sticky arcades stretching over the street. The moon barely luminous through the fibrous skin containing the area. I strongly wish to die; this feeling of bondage and suppression of oxygen is filling my bowels with an insurgence of fear. A riot dwells within. To tear apart my mind by means of self-mutilation. I would rather rip out my eyes, claw out my heart and bleed to pitiful ends than to face the grim exhibition of fright that waits further down this pathway to mortal contention.

I know the insect creatures are waiting for me, even as I crouch behind a fibrous pillar. The wind blows their scent, ammonia and ether, I can smell them. I am quite sure they can smell me.

Small infants swarm the ground, squirming on by me. I step on them, as many as I can but it will do no good. I know how this will end. I also understand why those awful people hide in their residences, cowering for necessary reasons. I don’t blame the poor souls; I do question their motives for lodging in this despicable town. What harboring fear of leaving would keep them here?

Crackling sounds. They move over each other, fighting to get somewhere- they’re mounting up over my feet. They hiss and snarl. Stomping them, hearing that squishing annoyance. Oh, God… I have no future; no soul of mine shall remain beyond this evening.

I think there’s a storm overhead. I can hear thunder, loud cracks of indistinguishable sound carrying the volume of electric current. Lightning shooting overhead illuminating the ebony bugs. They shine like lethal gems; those damned aliens. I recognize them now, cicadas; I know this because of how they shed their exoskeletons and leave them littered around my feet. A native roach-like bugger dwelling upon trees and structures during the summer months. I assume this phenomenon of web wind is of their occurrence here, but how is this possible.

Rain drips down through the roof. It stings from the web, acidic as it burns. It leaves chemically formed abrasions on my skin and seers through my clothing. Every bead of the rain through the web stings like outsourced venom. I move around the pillar, the hallways now emitting gaseous fumes. Inhalation of the direct chemical reactions brings about near euphoric feelings accompanied by overwhelming cough and the urge to vomit. Everything smells of bile; my body feels radioactive.

Chattering. I can hear tendril clicking, the sound of formulated conversation. I am not familiar with the dialect yet find it menacing enough to duck into another pillar. Here they come, the monsters! The cicada beasts, marching through the pale corridors. Seven feet tall, emerald spittle drizzling out of their stinking faces. I cannot process this. Their gnarly impressions of grey skeletal appearance, their skin if you could imagine it as such looked of cracked human bones. Perhaps armor created for protection from the rain or abhorrent violence. Six legs, each grotesque and dripping vile sludge, moved about in stammering motions of pounding fists. Marching. The wings hanging on their backs like independent growths reached over their heads and scraped the ceiling. Marching on. The clicked their tendrils. Wildly moving. On and on. I passed out after nearly three hundred had passed.

I wouldn’t call it awakening, but rather coming to, but when it happened they were gone and the sun was rising. My neck stung with infectious pain, as if poisoned. I reached my hand to the back of my head and felt something ghastly. A sharp obtrusion jutting out of my brain, a jagged piece of metallic construction connected to a small wire extended three feet binding to my spine, fused to my skin. I felt along my back, I felt the clamps sewn meticulously into my skin. The metal chords intertwined through my skin. The pain immense, the fear great.

The sun was rising higher. The corridor was melting and I foresaw no way out. I was surrounded, covered with burns, wired and contracted by a metallic device, and terrified. The ceiling melted down over me, collapsing on top of me. I was pinned to the floor. The walls came down as well, fusing the caramelized webbing into the asphalt. Trapped to the ground, my face protruding through the scorched earth, my body mangled.

I could hear the soft sound of birds chirping as daylight came, the sound of casual conversation amongst humanoids later, the small hordes to town folk huddling around me. The fusion of being in solid Earth, the wire tapping into my brain relaying my panic, pain and pleasure stimuli to the alien creatures who had implanted the device onto and inside of me. They were getting their pleasure while the people panicked and I suffered on through the pain. I do not fear them anymore; I negate their loathsome qualities and defy their will to punish the innocence of humanities ignorance.

Somehow, The Mail has concluded from this study that:

Breast-feeding DOES help mothers bond with babies - because it releases the 'love' hormone

Thanks, but we've known for decades that breast feeding releases oxytocin, or the love/cuddle/trust hormone at Daily Mail HQ. The article goes on to say that "[the study] has discovered that the action of a baby suckling actually changes how the mother's brain behaves." We already knew this - the study tries to explain how this happens using a computational model, but never mind.

From The Mail's oxytocin factfile:

"Voles given the hormone are more likely to pair up."

"Scientists have proposed spraying a fine mist of the chemical over violent mobs to calm them." They may also cuddle and pair up, I suppose.

For a more useful guide to the benefits of breastfeeding try this BMJ review.

Am afirmat atatea fara nicio concluzie, sunt ele mai multe. Respect acei care au un anumit control asupra unor stari afirmate mai sus, acei indivizi care vad totul la fel in fiecare moment, nefiind infuentati de stimulii interiori si exteriori si acelor indivizi care controleaza acei hormoni, yoghinii ar fi un exemplu foarte bun. Concluzia ar fi ca suntem sclavii acelor hormoni, fiecare in felul lui. Dependentele sunt la fel, nevoia neuronilor de stimul...

Esti cea mai reusita masinarie, cea mai expusa fiinta si cea mai lipsita de control!

Hello Scion Enthusiasts! Here are the show notes for a slightly late Episode 3 of Scion Underground! Packing to Move, finishing classes, and the two Blockbuster movies, Wall-E and  Wanted (Both GREAT BTW), left little time for me to get everything done by Sunday, so I apologize for the delay. You can download the podcast from  or from the RSS Feed

Last week was pretty exciting! With Dan Gardner, Craig Stanton, BGB Motorsports and the Jackson-Dawson tC making history, I decided to include the interview I did with Dan in this week's episode as opposed to episode 4. I think you'll enjoy it. Dan has lots of information, and he talks in depth about his car, and some of the modifications they made to make it race ready. 

Also, we have some new ways that you can help support the Scion Underground Podcast! If you plan on purchasing ANYTHING through Amazon.com, would you mind going through our link first? It doesn't cost you anything extra, and Amazon donates a small portion of your purchase to the Scion Underground Podcast! You can also buy the background music used in this episode by clicking the iTunes buttons on the right. You can also help us out by purchasing your products for your Scion from our sponsors. Last but not least, you can send us a donation using the paypal donate button at www.prestigeracing.net

Whichever way you decide to help out Scion Underground, you can rest assured that everything goes 100% back into the podcast to make it the best it can be! I have plans for contests, product reviews, new features, and some VIDEO podcasts, but I need your help to make them happen.

If you're enjoying the content of Scion Underground, why not leave us a review on iTunes! And don't forget to send me your thoughts on Street Racing for a new segment called Talk Back. If you're for street racing, against it, think it's not a big deal, or that people should keep it at the track, send me an email at ScionUnderground@gmail.com.

That having been said, here are the show notes for Episode 3 of the Scion Underground Podcast!

Podcast Contents

• Scion Underground Episode 3 Intro
• Announcements
• Scion News
  • Dan Gardner and the Jackson-Dawson tC 1st ever in a professional Road Race
  • Jackson-Dawson tC and Koni Challenge results
  • Scion 5th Anniversary
  • Scion xD Release Series 1.0 Ad Campaign
• Performance 101 - Gas
  • Octane
  • Additives
  • Tips to save money on gas
• Gadget Review - Jawbone Bluetooth Headset
  • Venjuvo.com
• Interview with Dan Gardner
• Episode 3 Wrap-up

Scion Underground Podcast Sponsors:

PrestigeRacing.net   The BEST Place for Scion Performance parts with the best customer service! 

Purpose, Style Respect…. PRESTIGE!

Links

• www.scionnews.net
• www.scionracing.com
• http://scionnews.net/2008/06/26/new-toyota-campaign-for-scion-is-a-labor-of-lava/
• http://scionnews.net/2008/06/25/scion-marks-fifth-anniversary-in-us/
• www.scion.com/rsxd
• http://science.howstuffworks.com/gasoline.htm
  
• Bluetooth Headsets
  
• www.venjuvo.com
• http://www.toyotaclub.org/
  
• http://www.jackson-dawson.com/
  
• http://www.aitracing.com/shop/
  
• http://www.pwr-performance.com/
  
• http://www.trdusa.com/
  
• http://www.technosquareinc.com/index.html
  
• http://aempower.com/
  
• www.kaminari.com
• http://www.nasaproracing.com/
  
• www.prestigeracing.net
• Synapse vs HKS BOV
• Scion Underground Amazon Link

Music (in order of play). Artist/ Album/ Song Title

• Jadakiss / Kiss Tha Game Goodbye / We Gonna Make It
• Oddisee / Instrumental Mixtape (Vol. 2) / Searchin
• DJ MITSU THE BEATS / Re-New Awakening Pt. 1 / Miwa Says... (Breakthrough Remix)
• DJ MITSU THE BEATS / Re-New Awakening Pt. 1 / Music Mate (Hip Hop Mix)
• DJ MITSU THE BEATS / Re-New Awakening Pt. 1 / Pursuits of Crarity (Kev Brown Mix)
• DJ MITSU THE BEATS / Re-New Awakening Pt. 1 / Tokyo (Tokyo Black Star Remix)

• Email:   ScionUnderground@gmail.com
• Myspace (Under Construction):   www.myspace.com/ScionUnderground
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• ClubSciontC:   ScionUnderground    

Apropo,  poti avea creier si fara sa fii fiinta inteligenta si cu ratiune si mai ales tu, poti fi unul dintre acei indivizi care se grabesc incet.

We're hyped on this one and make sure you get on the list, if you've been to One Night Only, you know we get busy.

RSVP: SUTRA@THETASTECREW.COM

Apache Synapse is a fast, versatile, high-performant, low-footprint Enterprise Service Bus product released under the Apache Software License v2.0. Some of the new features are,

• FIX (Financial Information eXchange) protocol support
• Hessian web service protocol support
• WS-Reliable Messaging through all new WSO2 Mercury
• More efficient database pooling
• GZip encoding support
• Cluster aware sticky load balancing
• Improved filter mediator
• Highly flexible XPath expressions relative to envelope or body
• Separate policies for incoming and outgoing messages
• New handler sequences for all incoming and outgoing messages
• Non-blocking streaming message handling is getting much faster and even better than before
• And much much more and lots of fixes and improvements

Read the Apache Synapse blog to learn what is new.

The first part is the “easy problem.” It is basically a question of cognition, or how we process information. Our attention span, language skills, learning abilities, memory capacity, perception qualities, and problem solving abilities have been well-documented and explain a great deal of mental activity. After that there is the second part, or the "hard problem," and it is in a totally different league. Why is there any experience at all if we are only physical machines and bodies of cells? More generally, what kind of automaton (e.g. the brain, a computer, a cell, and so forth) could generate consciousness? This is a harder scientific question than the easy problem for one simple reason: it could even be metaphysical.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy puts the questions of consciousness into three categories: descriptive, explanatory, and functional. Essentially this asks What? How? and Why? Describing consciousness is the easy problem, explaining it is the hard problem, and the question of its function is something not normally addressed with the first two. The question of its function comes down to how it is an adaptation in our evolutionary past. There are some ideas that say it is for free will, motivation, better flexibility (like learning), social coordination, and better cognition (like accessing cumulative information we gather). I'll say a little more about the first two in the rest of this article.

There are some simple features of consciousness that everyone is familiar with. I would mark qualia, phenomenology, subjectivity, and flow as the major ones that are most self-evident. Qualia are the raw feelings of sensory perception that you have. How the world sounds, looks, feels, tastes, and smells to us. Isaac Newton wrote "to determine by what modes or actions light produceth in our minds the phantasm of colour is not so easie." Behind the experience of qualia is phenomenology. Phenomenology refers to the organization that is intrinsic in consciousness. The "phenomena" are our thoughts and ideas we use to model the world. (SEP says "... the phenomenal structure of experience is richly intentional and involves not only sensory ideas and qualities but complex representations of time, space, cause, body, self, world and the organized structure of lived reality ...") Subjectivity is something of a casual term that we all know of. Subjective experience is dependent on point of view, and perhaps to some degree, it is uncommunicable to other people. For example, what is it like to be a cat? How would you know for sure? Finally, the dynamic flow of mental life is the storyline played out in your head. William James called it the "stream of consciousness."

There is an explanatory gap present in trying to account for how consciousness exists. In a physical, material universe, it is hard to make sense of how consciousness arises and emerges from it. In spite of this there are numerous attempts to respond to this problem. Some are pretty common such as dualism (from Rene Descartes), where the soul is independent of the physical universe, or a closely related concept, idealism (from George Berkeley), where some contents of consciousness are uninvolved with matter. Other explanations seem odd or just plain absurd, like direct realism (from Thomas Reid), which says that the contents of consciousness are the world itself, or panpsychism (from Gottfried Leibniz), the notion that all matter is conscious. Emergence theory and epiphenomenalism posit that consciousness is the result of the brain's immense complexity, and is therefore a physical construct. (For example, Hofstadter wrote a book I am a Strange Loop, saying consciousness is analogous to a sort of feed-back loop due to its self-reference, the "I.") A strange combo of this idea and quantum physics is supported by Roger Penrose and some other scientists, called OOR. Their theory says a special quantum computation goes on in the mind allowing it to supersede some of the capabilities of rigid programming that regular computers have. (He argues his case in his book Emperor's New Mind.)

Another very impressive question is whether or not consciousness is actually something that makes choices. It is conceivable that our consciousness is merely a byproduct of our deterministic brain so that it is only an endpoint and does not have any control over the brain's processing. Perhaps you're just along for the ride!

Some people (like Colin McGinn) say the hard problem is insoluble. Others (like Daniel Dennett) say it is an illusion; there is no hard problem. Still more (like David Chalmers) disagree with that, saying purely physical explanations are lacking. Take a look at the philosophical zombie, the Chinese room, the color expert Mary, and the Turing test for an idea of controversial issues with physicalism. A philosophical zombie is a theoretical human being that functions just as we do, exhibiting all of the ordinary behavior, but is not conscious. This begs the question, "What distinguishes conscious from non-conscious beings?" The Turing test is a situation played out between computers and humans where both a program and a real subject communicate with real interviewers, and if the interviewers cannot agree if the program is human, it is declared sentient. This raises the issue of whether or not it is even feasible to discern between conscious and non-conscious beings. (In AI research, this Turing test has been carried out in real life and is a part of an annual competition to see who can code the "most" human program. Also, for fun: An xkcd-twisted version of the Turing test.) The Chinese room is where a man sitting in a closed room, using instruction books, "translates" Chinese to English (or back), but does not truly "understand" Chinese. What makes up true comprehension? Lastly, the color expert Mary is a hypothetical scientist who learns all of the academic information about the color red possible, but then experiences seeing it for the first time afterwards. (Many people debate what her experience would be like.) What is the difference between qualia and information about qualia? These thought experiments flesh out some of the ambiguities we have in understanding consciousness, which prove problematic in reliably answering the hard problem.

And so the debate on the hard problem still persists, and one still wonders how and even if the problem can be solved. Can it even be properly understood? Is it in the realm of metaphysics or naturalistic science? How can we tell? Is there anything obvious being overlooked? Surely, the hard problem of consciousness ranks right up there with solving the millennium problems and understanding quantum theory. It is easily one of the hardest problems of the universe, yet it is what you live with every day.

Après de nombreuses manipulations technologiques, voilà mon premier vlog! C'est une version de qualité moyenne, je posterai bientôt une version améliorée (mieux compressée). Bon visionnement!

N'hésitez pas à laisser vos commentaires...

En plus, la compagnie semble se vanter que ce procédé-là FONCTIONNE sur les enfants. Imaginez, dans la prochaine décennie, que votre enfant vienne de perdre la compétition de sport pour laquelle il se pratique depuis des années. Vous seriez peut-être tenté de dépenser une centaine de dollars pour remplacer cette défaite par une victoire… et ainsi améliorer son estime de lui-même.

Leur publicité est présentement en ligne. Vous irez y jeter un coup d’œil.

Sur une note plus joyeuse, amusez-vous à aller visiter ma page Youtube. J’ai même une petite surprise qui sera dévoilée très bientôt!

Pour finir, un petit cadeau: un fond d'écran à installer partout afin de passer le message!

Aujourd’hui, j’ai visité Tokyo. Vous n’avez aucune idée de la vitesse des Shinkansen, ces TGV du Japon. Comment les gens d’un pays aussi réduit peuvent-ils avoir envie de voyager si vite? Peut-être à cause de l’étalement urbain : les gens préfèrent vivre loin de la grande ville, quitte à faire des heures de voyage par jour. Croyez-moi, tout le monde s’enferme dans sa bulle : des livres, mais surtout des gadgets électroniques. J’ai décidé de me la jouer « voyage traditionnel » : j’ai discuté avec mes compagnons de voyages.

Masuko m’a expliqué un autre procédé de Synapse, qui fait fureur dans sa région. ReAnim permet d’enregistrer vos souvenirs. ENREGISTRER! Imaginez! Ça veut dire que des étrangers vont visualiser votre mémoire (pour « vérifier » la qualité de l’enregistrement ») et probablement faire des copies de sauvegarde (pour des « raisons juridiques »! Les souvenirs, c’est privé… Même si j’imagine que dans certains cas, l’idée est bien pensée, j’ai entendu dire que le résultat est souvent minable : peu de détails, image granuleuse, fragments de scènes mal raboutées. Je comprends un peu plus ce procédé, mais les implications pour le respect de la vie privée sont un peu trop ambiguës.